decision Henry ceded his rights to Thierry. In the words of a Belgian historian, Flanders was treated as "a fief completely dependent on the crown of England."

Stephen of Boulogne was compelled to do homage to the new count; but he showed his ill-will by harbouring William of Ypres, one of the rival claimants. Under Thierry the burghers gained many political rights. Their weaving cities were growing rapidly and becoming more powerful. As their power increased they became more independent of their lords. The Flemish, whose industrial development preceded that of the Normans, French, and English, were naturally the first to acquire free institutions. Their example inspired their neighbours with a longing for freedom; and feudalism began to decay. The last years of Henry's life were years of peace. In 1133, two years before the king's death, his daughter Matilda gave him a grandson and future heir.

Much of Henry's success was due to his diplomacy in dealing with Rome. After the death of William Rufus, Anselm was recalled to England; and, in his charter, Henry promised that the Church should be free. Anselm interpreted this promise literally, but Henry found that this liberty was incompatible with his royal power. In 1103 Anselm again left England. He returned in 1106, when the dispute was settled by a compromise which formed a precedent for the Concordat of Worms, agreed to by Pope and Emperor in 1122. This compromise allowed the Pope to instal bishops in their spiritual offices, while the King granted them their worldly possessions. Anselm died in 1109,

fighting to the very last for the rights of the Pope and the Church of England. While supporting a body which afforded some protection to the conquered English, Anselm enforced celibacy on all clergy and weakened the bond between the Church and the people of England. During the rest of Henry's reign the see of Canterbury was filled in succession by two foreigners who succeeded in serving Pope and King.

While Henry appeared to be making the power of Norman royalty irresistible, two other forces were growing in England with even greater rapidity. The Cluniac reformation had not spent its force. New monasteries were being founded; and, with each foundation, the power of the Church and her hold over the production of wool was strengthened. The towns, too, were growing. London was becoming a residential city for magnates as well as a great centre of commerce. The charters, which gave towns and merchant gilds the right of protecting their commerce, were producing their natural effect. When Henry died in 1135 his nephew, Stephen of Boulogne, put himself forward as a candidate for the throne. Stephen went at once to London and secured the support of the citizens. His two uncles had made the securing of Winchester and the royal treasury their first concern. Stephen's brother, Henry, who had been a monk in the Abbey of Cluny, was appointed to the see of Winchester in 1130. Stephen may, therefore, have thought that his interests were safe in his brother's hands. After some hesitation the clerical magnates were induced to violate their oath to Matilda; and Stephen was crowned at Westminster three weeks after Henry's death.

F

At first both in England and in Normandy there was less opposition to Stephen than there had been to his uncles William Rufus and Henry I. After some hesitation the barons of Normandy accepted Stephen and repulsed Geoffrey and Matilda when they came to claim the duchy. Baronial revolts in Devon and Norfolk were easily suppressed, though the Welsh threw off the Norman yoke and King David of Scotland declared for Matilda. One writer describes an attempted insurrection of the English, but nothing came of this. The subjugation of the peasants was so complete that, in that part of Yorkshire which had been ravaged by the Conqueror, Saxon archers helped Normans and Flemings to defeat the Saxons of Scotland in 1138 at the battle of the Standard. The civil wars in England were not complicated by servile insurrections, and there were no more invasions from the north. The civil wars were fought by mercenary soldiers, such as the men from the Low Countries, who, with their leader, William of Ypres, were imported by Stephen. Parts of England, which were not the actual scenes of battle, appear to have been little affected. King Stephen tried to conciliate interests which were incompatible with his sovereignty. In a second charter he granted complete independence to the Church. The see of Canterbury fell vacant in 1136. Stephen opposed the election of his brother, Henry of Winchester, and, in 1139, Theobald, a foreign monk, was consecrated Archbishop, while Henry was appointed papal legate. Then followed a quarrel between Church and King, general anarchy in England, and the landing of Matilda. In 1141, Matilda won a

decisive victory at Lincoln, and for a few days London accepted her as sovereign; but when she declined to guarantee to the citizens the laws of Edward, and asked for a subsidy, London drove her out, and again declared for Stephen. It was not until 1154 that the civil war was ended by a compromise which granted the kingdom of England to Stephen for life with reversion to Matilda's son Henry. In 1155 Stephen died and Henry II. succeeded to the throne.

The reign of Stephen is generally regarded as nineteen years of anarchy, vividly pictured by the monkish historian, who has left a terrible record of the condition of the country districts of England in Stephen's reign. "When the traitors perceived that he was a mild man, and soft, and good, and did no justice, then did they all wonder. They had done homage to him, and sworn oaths, but held no faith; they were all forsworn and forfeited their troth; for every powerful man made his castles and held them against him; and they filled the land full of castles. They cruelly oppressed the wretched men of the land with castle works. When the castles were made they filled them with devils and evil men. Then took they those men that they imagined had any property, both by night and by day, peasant men and women, and put them in prison for their gold and silver and tortured them with unutterable tortures; for never were martyrs so tortured as they were .. The bishops and clergy constantly cursed them, but nothing came of it; for they were all accursed, and forsworn, and lost. However a man tilled, the earth bare no corn, for the land was all fordone by such

deeds; and they said openly that Christ and His saints slept. Such and more than we can say we endured nineteen winters for our sins."

Here is a picture of what the magnates could do when the royal power was weak and the Church unable to protect the peasant from his lord. Froude has described the imperfections of the ecclesiastical courts; he has laid stress on the mildness of their punishments, which often allowed the guilty to escape, and has shown that civil law was much more consonant with modern ideas. But the Chronicler gives the other side of the picture. The condition of England in the twelfth century bears little or no resemblance to the present condition of England. The parish priest might be, and usually was, the son of a serf. Once in holy orders he was free of his lord, and could excommunicate the oppressor of his peasant kinsfolk. The peasant had no defender but the Church. She was to him his one sure refuge. Rome was far away and her claim to overlordship was not felt. Peter's Pence was a small price to pay for protection against a feudal lord. The magnate was very near, and he had little sympathy with the race his father had conquered.

In striking contrast to the picture drawn by the Chronicler is one left by FitzStephen, a citizen of London, of that great city in the reign of Henry II. To the north were cornfields, pastures, and meadows producing luxuriant crops, and beyond these was a great forest filled with game, stags, bucks, boars and wild bulls. The citizens were distinguished for their manners, their dress, and their good fare. From the most distant lands ships came bringing luxuries of