178.  Summary.

Henry II left his work only half done; yet that half was permanent, and its beneficent mark may be seen on the English law and the English constitution at the present time.

When he ascended the throne he found a people who had long been suffering the miseries of a protracted civil war.  He established a stable government.  He redressed the wrongs of his people.  He punished the mutinous barons.

He compelled the Church, at least in some degree, to acknowledge the supremacy of the State.  He reformed the administration of law; established methods of judicial inquiry which gradually developed into our modern Trial by Jury; and he made all men feel that a king sat on the throne who believed in a uniform system of justice and who endeavered to make it respected.

Richard I (Coeur de Lion)[1]—­1189-1199

179.  Accession and Character of Richard I.

Henry II was succeeded by his second son, Richard, his first having died during the civil war (1183) in which he and his brother Geoffrey had fought against Prince Richard and their father (S171).  Richard was born at Oxford, but he spent his youth in France.

[1] Richard Coeur de Lion:  Richard the Lion-Hearted.  An old chronicler says that the King got the name from his adventure with a lion.  The beast attacked him, and as the King had no weapons, he thrust his hand down his throat and “tore out his heart.”  This story is not without value, since it illustrates how marvelous legends grow up around the lives of remarkable men.

The only English sentence that he was ever known to speak was when he was in a raging passion.  He then vented his wrath against an impertinent Frnchman, in some broken but decidedly strong expressions of his native tongue.  Richard has been called “a spendid savage,” having most of the faults and most of the virtues of such a savage.

The King’s bravery in battle and his daring exploits gained for him the flattering surname of Coeur de Lion.  He had a right to it, for he certainly possessed the heart of a lion, and he never failed to get the lion’s share.  He might, however, have been called, in equal truth, Richard the Absentee, since out of a nominal reign of ten years he spent but a few months in England, the remaining time being consumed in wars abroad.

180.  Condition of Society.

Perhaps no better general picture of society in England during this period can be found than that presented by Sir Walter Scott’s novel, “Ivanhoe.”  There every class appears.  One sees the Saxon serf and swineherd wearing the brazen collar of his master Cedric; the pilgrim wandering from shrine to shrine, with the palm branch in his cap to show that he has visited the Holy Land; the outlaw, Robin Hood, lying in wait to strip rich churchmen and other travelers who were on their way through Sherwood Forest.  He sees, too, the Norman baron in his castle torturing the aged Jew to extort his hidden gold; and the steel-clad knights, with Ivanhoe at their head, splintering lances in the tournament, presided over by Richard’s brother, the traitorous Prince John (S177).