RICH- but the convent of Canterbury had satisfaction given them at Gualleran's consecration. ARD, Abp. Cant. This year, pope Alexander sent the clergy of Berkshire a discharge from furnishing their archdeacon with hawks and See collec- dogs. The bull likewise retrenches the expenses of the archidiaconal visitation in some other circumstances. tion of Records, num. 28. A. D. 1183. King Henry, notwithstanding his successes in Scotland and Ireland, and the great extent of his dominions in France, was very unfortunate in his children. His sons were frequently clashing with each other, and sometimes in arms against himself. Neither the ties of nature, the solemnities of treaties, nor the securities of homage, could restrain them from flying out. They distressed their father in his dominions, seized his castles, and marched at the head of an Hoveden, army of banditti, and managed the war with all the falsehood and barbarity imaginable. fol. 352-3. The prelates thought themselves obliged to concentrate the strength of their character, and oppose the censures of the Church against these disorders. To this purpose, Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, Gualleran, bishop of Rochester, and several bishops of Normandy, met at Caen, and solemnly excommunicated all those that should obstruct a good understanding between the king and his sons, excepting no Hoveden, person from the censure but the young king. And this expedient not making a sufficient impression upon that prince, the archbishop of Canterbury took the freedom to remonstrate against his conduct in a letter. Annal. fol. 352-3. 393. The archbishop of strance to the young king. Pet. Ble 47. In the beginning of this address, he entreats the young Canterbu- king not to take it ill if he met with any unacceptable exry's remon- pressions; that nothing but anguish and the necessity of the case could have forced him upon such a liberty; and that it was part of his office to make it his endeavour to "turn the sensis, Ep. hearts of the children to their fathers." Besides, he desired his highness to consider that excessive grief was a very free expostulating passion; that he was extremely afflicted to see him draw his sword against his father, and harass his dominions, which in honour he ought to defend at the utmost hazards. "Whence comes it to pass," says he, "that you should be so unfortunate as to head those wretched Brabantines, men of desperate fortunes and consciences, and who lie under the censures of the Church? What has your II. father done to forfeit your affection, to make you forget HENRY your duty, and destroy your friends? Is it not much more K. of Eng. advisable for you to hearken to overtures of peace, and resign yourself to your father's conduct, than to be swayed by flattery, to push things to extremity, and make the world unhappy?" The archbishop proceeds to tell the young prince, that in case he would disengage from his evil counsellors, discharge that excommunicated clan, be employed in his service, and return to a correspondence with his father, he would do his utmost to serve his interest, and restore his affairs; neither did he question but that better terms might be procured by submission and amicable methods, than it was possible for him to extort by fire and sword; but in case he refused to consent to the measures proposed by the archbishop and his suffragans, (for it seems they joined with their metropolitan in the remonstrance,) he acquaints him, he had an order from the pope to put him and his party under an excommunication; that his highness would be precluded the benefit of an appeal, and that he could give him but a fortnight's time to consider of it. bantines As for the Brabantines the archbishop blames the young The Braking for heading, they are ranged in the late council of what. Lateran amongst other hereticks; they are described as apostates, and stand for all persons under censure and infamy. That they received monks and nuns who revolted from discipline and deserted their cloister; that as they marched along the country, they treated those who refused to submit with all the barbarity imaginable, plundering churches and monasteries, and sparing neither age nor sex. Chronic. col. 1522. To return the young prince received another expostu- 1461. Conlating letter from Rothrod, archbishop of Rouen, upon the cil. tom. 10. same subject, in which, amongst other things, he tells him, he counts it a great affliction to have his life prolonged to The archsuch unhappy times; that it was a most deplorable sight to Rouen's rebishop of see the son in arms against his father, and enough to make monstrance an honest man wish himself out of being. That nothing king. could be more remote from reason and conscience than such a contest; and that he looked upon it as a sally of youth, over-heated into fever and distraction. Notwithstanding these remonstrances, the young king held sens. epist. VOL. II. B b to the young Pet. Ble 33. RICH ARD, corporis et on in his disobedience; and when he found his exchequer Abp. Cant. low, supplied himself by sacrilege, and plundered churches to carry on the war. Some little time after, finding his affairs embarrassed, and that he wanted force to distress his father, the rage of the disappointment threw him into a fever, which was afterwards attended with a violent dysentery. When he perceived the approaches of death, he sent for the king, his father, to Martel, near Limoges, where he lay sick. But the old king declined making him a visit, for fear of treachery and surprise. Afterwards, the young king, sending for the bishops and clergy of the neighbourhood, lamented his undutifulness, and made a publick confession of his misbehavior. Upon which the bishops gave him absolution. And now, being thoroughly touched with remorse, he habited himself in sackcloth, and tying a rope about his neck, desired their prayers that our Saviour, who received the penitent thief upon the cross, would have mercy on him. Upon this, he desired them to draw him by the rope from his bed to another strewed with Sacrosancti ashes, which he had prepared for that purpose. The sanguinis bishops satisfied his desire, and gave him the holy eucharist; Domini via and thus he expired with all the signs of a penitent and Christian disposition. When news was brought to the old king, he lamented his death in a very passionate manner. And now, all the revolters returned to their duty, the rebellion expired with the young prince, and all people seemed glad of the accident, excepting his father. And here the historian breaks out into a transport of joy for the deliverance, and addressing the king by way of fiction, asks him, why he mis-employed his passion, and threw away his grief upon a wrong object? "You mistake the relation, sir," says he; "he that had nothing of duty or nature in him, could be none of your son; but providence at last has appeared for you, and revenged the unnatural rebellion. The untimely death of this young prince will fortify the authority of parents, and make children afraid of flying in their father's face. Indeed, when wickedness goes to such a flaming excess, it is no wonder to find it remarkably checked; and those who will venture upon parricide ought to suffer under Hoveden, exemplary punishment." Thus far Hoveden. The rest of the king's sons who took up arms against their father were tico munitus. Hoveden, fol. 354. Pet. Blesensis, Epist. 2. The young king dies very peni tent for his undutifulness and rebellion. 394. fol. 352. II. unhappy in the issue. Geoffrey, earl of Bretagne, died soon HENRY after his brother Henry. Richard, earl of Poictou, and K. of Eng. afterwards king of England, was cut off in his youth by a violent death; and king John, the other brother, made an unfortunate figure, lost almost all the hereditary provinces in France, surrendered his crown to the pope, and died dispossessed of the greatest part of his dominions in England. : This year, cardinal Vivian, the pope's legate, travelled from Scotland into the neighbouring province of Ulster, in Ireland, where he was honourably received at Down, by the king and bishops. While the legate was in this city, John de Courcey, an English nobleman, marched his troops into Ulster, and appeared before Down. The Irish, surprised at the approach of the enemy, applied to the legate for his advice: he told them, their way was to fight for their country, and gave them his blessing to encourage them. The Irish, thus fortified, drew out their forces, and gave the onset with great resolution. But the English being better armed and disciplined, the Irish were quickly broken, and forced to retreat. Upon this defeat, the city of Down surrendered and now the legate was somewhat put to his shifts, and forced to take sanctuary in the cathedral. However, being a man of politicks, he was provided with a reserve to disengage himself. He had taken care to furnish himself with king Henry's letters to the English generals and governors in Ireland. Upon the producing this protection, he was well received by the English in that kingdom; and now he made his progress to Dublin, and held a national council. Here he endeavoured to bring the Irish Church to a full conformity with the Roman; but being discountenanced by the king of England's ministers, and not getting so much Irish gold as he expected, he left the country, and returned to Scotland. Nubrigensis reports an odd custom of the Irish in Ulster, with relation to the solemnity of Easter. The story was told him by a venerable bishop of their own. They thought they paid their devotion to God in a very acceptable manner, provided they had laid up a good stock of plunder against Easter; and he that could furnish the best entertainment, and had been most fortunate in thievery and rapine, was looked upon as keeping the festival Nubrigen. in the best manner. This barbarous fancy made them very 1. 3. c. 9. RICHARD, Abp. Cant. ambitious not to come short of their neigbours in their preparation. This year a civil war broke out between the pope and the burghers of Rome: the dispute was concerning some privileges granted by his predecessors, which Lucius swore should be continued no longer. The Romans, enraged at this revocation, harassed the pope's territories, and obliged him to retreat to places of strength. But finding himself too weak to deal with the insurrection, he sent his legates to the western princes and prelates to solicit their assistance. These agents came to king Henry's court, and desired a supply of money from his highness and the English clergy. The king, consulting the bishops upon this affair, they desired him to supply the pope with what sum he thought fit, for himself and them: and that they would return him what proportion he should command. They thought it was more advisable for the king to make a present to the legates, than to suffer them to collect Baron. An- the money themselves: for this liberty, they conceived, nal. ad An. might prove a prejudicial precedent to the kingdom. The den, Annal. king approved the motion, and furnished the pope from his 1183. Hove fol. 354. Id. fol. 355. exchequer. The death In the beginning of the next year, Richard, archbishop of the arch of Canterbury, departed this life. Nubrigensis gives him bishop of Canterbury. the character of an inoffensive prelate, and that he had a moderate share of learning. Others represent him as a person of too passive a temper; that his management was languid and over-cautious; that he connived at the vacancies of bishopricks and abbeys with too much indifference. Petrus Blesensis, prebendary of Bath, and an intimate friend of the archbishop's, took the freedom to represent his misconduct to him in a letter. Petrus Ble He acquaints him, his government was deeply censured: sensis's re- that people taxed him with inactivity, and sleeping over his monstrating letter to that charge: that all the misfortunes of the Church were imprelate. puted to his want of zeal and resolution; that the ark of God was taken by the Philistines; the Church harassed and depressed by harpies and libertines; the sword of St. Peter eaten up with rust; the honour of God blasphemed; the sacraments grown contemptible, and all through the negligence of his administration. "They say," says he, "it is |