CHAPTER VII

THE STRIFE WITH THE CHURCH

The Assize of Clarendon was drawn up in February 1166, and in March Henry sailed for France.  Trouble awaited him there on every hand, and during the next two years he had to meet no less than thirteen revolts or wars.  Aquitaine declared against the imperial system; loud complaints were raised of Henry’s contempt of old franchises and liberties, and of the “officers of a strange race” who violated the customs of the country by orders drawn up in a foreign tongue—­the langue d’oil, the speech of Norman and Angevin.  Maine, Touraine, and Britanny were in chronic revolt.  The Welsh rose and conquered Flint.  The King of Scotland was in treaty with France.  Warring parties in Ireland claimed Henry’s interference.  England was uneasy and discontented.  Louis of France was allied with all Henry’s enemies —­Gascons, Bretons, Welsh and Scotch; he aided the Count of Flanders and the Count of Boulogne in preparing a fleet of six hundred ships to attack the southern coast of England.  The Pope’s attitude was cautious and uncertain.  When Barbarossa’s armies were triumphant in Italy, when Henry’s Italian alliances were strong and his bribes were big, Alexander leaned to the king; when success again returned to Rome he looked with more effectual favour on the demands of the archbishop.  The rising tide of disaffection tried the king sorely.  It was in vain that he sought to win over the leaders of the ecclesiastical party, the canon lawyers, such as John of Salisbury, or Master Herbert of Bosham, with whom he argued the point at his Easter Court at Angers.  John of Salisbury flatly rejected the Constitutions, declaring that his first obedience was due to the Pope and the archbishop.  Herbert was yet more defiant.  “Look how this proud fellow comes!” said Henry, as the stately Herbert entered in his splendid dress of green cloth of Auxerre, with a richly trimmed cloak hanging after the German fashion to his heels.  He was no true servant to the king, declared Herbert when he had seated himself, who would allow him to go astray.  As for the customs, there were bad enough customs in other countries against the Church of God, but at least they were not written down either in the lands of the King of France or of the King of the Germans.  “Why do you diminish his dignity?” hastily demanded the king, “by not calling him the Emperor of the Germans?” “The King of the Germans he is,” retorted Herbert, “though when he writes, he signs Imperator Romanorum semper Augustus_.’” “Shame!” cried the king, “here is an outrage!  Why should this son of a priest disturb my kingdom and disquiet my peace?” “Nay,” said Herbert, “I am not the son of a priest, for it was after my birth my father became a priest; neither is he the son of a king save one whom his father begat being king.”  “Whosesoever son he may be,” cried a baron who sat by, “I would give the half of my land that he were mine!” Henry heard the words bitterly, and held his peace; and in a few moments ordered the intractable Herbert to depart.