Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/112

ENGLAND. 90 ENGLAND. He remodeled the Church, replacing the English ,-ith Normans, and asserting his own su- premacy- He checked the power of the nobility by tli. Oath, in 1"SC. when every free ty directly to the King: by the abolition of! which had existed under Edward: by bestowing many small and stead of large contiguous tracts of lands on his chief tenants: and by maintaining the old local moots, which were independent of the baronial courts. He conciliated the people by his and bj confirmation of the laws of Edward the Confessor. William ..him, I a sun iade of all the lands in England, of which were embodied in the Domes- day Bi in 10S6. His son, William Rufus ilits: 1100), ruled tyrannically, and pro- i olts both among the chief barons and ergy after his death. Henry I. (1100-35), his brother, usurped the throne and won general i. 11,' granted the Charter of Liberties . by which the evil customs of the prei i d abolished. He married an Eng- lish wife, and showed especial favor to his Eng- lish subjects, who, in return, supported him against his brother Robert, Hoke of Normandy. He made peace with the Church by recalling the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been exiled by his brother, and by arranging a compromise concerning the subject of investitures iq.v.) on as the Concordat of Worms. i See CONCORDAT.) Unfortunately, Henry's son and heir was drowned in the White Ship, in 1120, and this led to a civil war, for lbnry persuaded the Great Council to swear allegiance to his daughter Matilda: but after hi- death the Council, no! wishing to be ruled by a woman, chose his nephew Stephen, The war between the adherents of Stephen and Ma- tilda d i from 1136 to 1153. During this time the nobles becai owerful, building many 'adulterine' (i.e. unauthorized) castles, ami tin: clergy became independent of royal con- trol. In 1 1 :ts King David of Scotland, wh supporting Matilda, was defeated in tin' 'Battle of lh. I.' From 1 139 -Matilda herself waged waT in England. Stephen was generally essful, ami in 1153 he was obliged to con- clude the I'eaee .if Wallingford, by which Henry, -on i.t Matilda and of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, was accepted as Stephen's sue cessor. With the accession of Henry II. (1154-89), the ih-t Plantagenet king, England entered upon a new phase of its history. Hi- po < -ions in Franci i a extensive than England. he inherited Anjou, Main. from his mothi r, Normandy and a claim in the overlordship of Brittany. Bj his marriage « ith Eleam i dh orced w ife of V 1 1 of Prance I kquitaine. time there lang c that England would l.ee. niic merely a province dependent upon 1 I ' l i I was also a ■ ility thai Hem w rest from ■ re it id by the I [enry's, t he over |. of all Prance. Henry spent mo t ol his ntinent, ruling mi he foil th'.ril md He main: l ... d ord for the i judges, who to thi grand juries to examine into criminal eases, enrolled all the freeholders, and compelled them to bear arms in his service by the Assize of Arms. In attempting to reform the Church and restrict its authority, by the Constitutions of Clarendon (1104), he came into conflict with Thomas Becket. ( See Becket, Thomas ; Clarendon, Constitu- tions of.) The murder of Becket compelled Henry to abandon for a time a part of his claims to control the Church; but on the whole he was able to assert his authority effectively later in his reign. He also became overlord of Scotland and Wales, whose rulers submitted to him. In 1171 he invaded Ireland, and was recognized as ruler by most cf the Irish kings. The real conquest of Ireland (q.v.), however, did not take place for some centuries. Henry's autocratic administra- tion made many rebels. Chief among these were his own sons, who successively rose in insurrec- tion and were aided by the French kings. Two of his sons — Henry, the heir to the throne, and Geoffrey — died during their father's lifetime. Finally, the coalition of Philip Augustus of France and Richard the Lion-Hearted, Henry's third son, who were joined soon after by John Lackland, the King's youngest son, defeated Henry, in 1 1S9. His death followed almost im- mediately. Richard (1180-99) spent less than a year in all in England. The first half of his reign was spent on his crusade; the second in an indecisive war with France. At his acces- sion a great massacre of Jews took place at York, greatly to Richard's anger. The excessive taxation necessitated by Richard's foreign expedi- tions aroused great discontent. His brother John (1199-1216) was extremely tyrannical and cruel. His evil rule caused a general revolt, which resulted to the great advantage of the whole nation. Philip Augustus stripped him. in 1202-05, of a great part of his French possessions, under a decree of confiscation, because John refused to go to the court of his overlord. Philip, to answer crimes charged against him and to do homage for his fiefs. A dispute about the election of an archbishop of Canterbury caused a quarrel be- tween Pope Innocent III. and John, who refused to receive Stephen Langton (q.v.), the nominee of the Pope. In 1208 Innocent placed England under an interdict, and the following year ex- • I nunicated John. The latter attempted re- sistance, but when he was deposed by the Pope in 1213, and realized that he could expect no aid from his disaffected subjects, he submitted and became the vassal of the Pope, accepting Eng- land as a Papal fief and agreeing to pay 1000 marks each year in recognition of his vassalage, lie had fell obliged to surrender to the Pope be- cause he was threatened with a revolt of his own ubjeets, and hoped to break their resistance by the Pope's aid. When, however, his attempt to re quer his French territories was defeated by the victory of Philip Augustus over Otho IV. of Germany, the ally of John at Bouvines (1214), his subjects determined to revolt. The barons met in January. 1215, and demanded the redress of their grievances. As John procrastinated, they marched in arms against him and compelled him, in June, to sign the Magna Charla. This con- tained no new principles, but it was a written acknowledgment of the rights of the subjeet . It established firmly two great English princi- ples—thai no one should suffer arbitrary im- minent, and that no la should be imposed