at a great council which Theobald attended. In Lent 1154 he received the king and the duke at Canterbury. He secured the election of Roger of Pont l'Evêque, archdeacon of Canterbury, to the see of York, and in consecrating him on 10 Oct. acted as legate, so that Roger was not required to make a profession of obedience (Diceto, i. 298; Will. Newb. i. c. 32). He appointed Thomas of London to succeed Roger as archdeacon and as provost of Beverley. On the death of Stephen on the 25th, Theobald, in conjunction with the other magnates of the realm, sent to Henry, who was then in Normandy, to call him back to England, and during the six weeks that elapsed before his return maintained peace and order in the kingdom, in spite of the large number of Flemish mercenaries that were in the country (Gervase, i. 159).
On Sunday, 19 Dec., Theobald crowned Henry and his queen at Westminster. The coronation seemed the sign of the fulfilment of his long-cherished hopes. The policy of the Roman see with respect to the crown that he had so faithfully and fearlessly carried out had been brought to a successful issue. Nevertheless he evidently felt no small anxiety as to the future. During the reign of Stephen the church had become far more powerful at home than it had been since the Conquest, and at the same time had been more strongly bound to the Roman see by ties of dependence; Theobald was anxious that it should maintain its position, and knew that it was likely to be endangered by the accession of a king of Henry's disposition and hereditary anti-clerical feelings. He hoped to insure the maintenance of his ecclesiastical policy by securing power for men whom he trusted, and shortly after Henry's accession recommended the Archdeacon Thomas to the king as chancellor (Auct. Anon. i. iv. 11, 12; John of Salisbury, ii. 304 ap. Becket Materials; Gervase, i. 160; Radford, Thomas of London, pp. 58–62). As chancellor, Thomas disappointed his hopes.
The closing years of Theobald's life were full of administrative activity exercised through John of Salisbury, for after Thomas had left him for the king's service John became his chief adviser and official (Stubbs, Lectures, p. 346). He appears to have disliked the tax levied under the name of scutage in 1156 on the lands of prelates holding in chief of the crown (John of Salisbury, Ep. 128). Nor was he at one with the crown in the case of Battle Abbey [see under Hilary, d. 1169)]. He attended the hearing of the case before the king at Colchester in May 1157, and vainly tried to persuade the king to allow him to deal with it according to ecclesiastical law (Chronicon Monasterii de Bello, pp. 72–104). In July he attended the council at Northampton, when the long dispute between him and the abbot of St. Augustine's was terminated in his favour, and, in pursuance of the decision of Hadrian IV, abbot Silvester made profession to him (Gervase, i. 76–7, 163–5). A disputed election having been made to the papacy in 1159, he wrote to the king requesting his direction as to which of the two rivals should be acknowledged by the church of England (John of Salisbury, Ep. 44). Having received from Arnulf, bishop of Lisieux, a statement of the claim of Alexander III, he wrote again to Henry recommending him to acknowledge Alexander. This Henry did, and accordingly he was at the archbishop's bidding acknowledged by a council of bishops and clergy of the whole kingdom that Theobald called to meet in London (ib. Epp. 48, 59, 64, 65; Foliot, Ep. 148).
Theobald was then very ill, and his death was expected. He wrote to the chancellor, then absent with the king in Normandy, that he had determined to reform certain abuses in his diocese, and specially to abolish a payment called ‘second aids’ made to the archdeacon, and instituted by his brother Walter, and he spoke of his sorrow at not being able to see the chancellor, who still retained the archdeaconry (John of Salisbury, Ep. 48). In 1161 he was present at the consecration of Richard Peche [q. v.] to the see of Lichfield, but could not officiate himself (Gervase, i. 168). During his illness he wrote several letters to the king, commending his clerks, and, specially John of Salisbury, to his favour, begging him to uphold the authority and welfare of the church, and praying that Henry might return to England so that he might behold his son, the Lord's anointed, before he died (John of Salisbury, Epp. 54, 63, 64 ter). Very earnestly, too, but in vain, he begged that the king would spare Thomas, his archdeacon, to visit him (ib. Ep. 70, 71, 78). Theobald hoped that the chancellor would succeed him at Canterbury (ib. v. 280). Theobald made a will leaving his goods to the poor (ib. Ep. 57), and took an affectionate farewell of John of Salisbury, who was with him to the end (Ep. 256). He died on 18 April 1161, and was buried in his cathedral church. Eighteen years afterwards, during the repairs of the church after the fire of 1174, his marble tomb was opened, and his body was found entire; it was exhibited to the convent, and, the news being spread, many people spoke of him as ‘Saint Theobald.’ The body was translated
