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NOTE: The chapters in the text of Hume's History of England are not subdivided into Sections, as my posts will be. The Sections will broadly (not always exactly) correspond with the subdivisions of the LibraVox recording of the book to which I am listening.
"Were we to relate all the military events transmitted to us by contemporary and authentic historians [about the war resulting from an insurrection in favor of Matilda, daughter of Henry I], it would be easy to swell our accounts of this reign [of Stephen] into a large volume: but those incidents, so little memorable in themselves, and so confused both in time and place, could afford neither instruction nor entertainment to the reader. It suffices to say, that the war was spread into every quarter, and that those turbulent barons, who had already shaken off, in a great measure, the restraint of government, having now obtained the pretence of a public cause, carried on their devastations with redoubled fury, exercised implacable vengeance on each other, and set no bounds to their oppressions over the people. The castles of the nobility were become receptacles of licensed robbers; who, sallying forth day and night, committed spoil on the open country, on the villages, and even on the cities, put the captives to torture, in order to make them reveal their treasures; sold their persons to slavery; and set fire to their houses, after they had pillaged them of every thing valuable. The fierceness of their disposition, leading them to commit wanton destruction, frustrated their rapacity of its purpose; and the property and persons even of the ecclesiastics, generally so much revered, were at last, from necessity, exposed to the same outrage which had laid waste the rest of the kingdom. The land was left untilled; the instruments of husbandry were destroyed or abandoned; and a grievous famine, the natural result of those disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers as well as the defenceless people to the most extreme want and indigence."
David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.7, Section 2, 1762
"[...] The princess [Matilda], however, amidst all her prosperity [including capturing Stephen, her rival to the throne of England], knew that she was not secure of success unless she could gain the confidence of the clergy; and as the conduct of the legate [that is, Henry Bishop of Winchester and brother of Stephen] had been of late very ambiguous, and shown his intentions to have rather aimed at humbling his brother than totally ruining him, she employed every endeavour to fix him in her interests. [...]"
David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.7, Section 2, 1762
"London, notwithstanding its great power, and its attachment to Stephen, was at length obliged to submit to Matilda; and her authority, by the prudent conduct of Earl Robert [her brother], seemed to be established over the whole kingdom: but affairs remained not long in this situation. That princess, besides the disadvantages of her sex, which weakened her influence over a turbulent and martial people, was of a passionate, imperious spirit, and knew not how to temper with affability the harshness of a refusal. Stephen's queen [also Matilda, but of Boulogne in France], seconded by many of the nobility, petitioned for the liberty of her husband; and offered that, on this condition, he should renounce the crown and retire into a convent. The legate [Henry Bishop of Winchester and brother of Stephen] desired that Prince Eustace, his nephew [and Stephen's son], might inherit Boulogne and the other patrimonial estates of his father: the Londoners applied for the establishment of King Edward [the Confessor]'s laws, instead of those of King [Henry I], which, they said, were grievous and oppressive. All these petitions were rejected in the most haughty and peremptory manner [by Queen Matilda].
The legate, who had probably never been sincere in his compliance with Matilda's government, availed himself of the ill-humour excited by this imperious conduct, and secretly instigated the Londoners to a revolt. A conspiracy was entered into to seize the person of the empress; and she saved herself from the danger by a precipitate retreat. She fled to Oxford: soon after she went to Winchester; whither the legate, desirous to save appearances, and watching the opportunity to ruin her cause, had retired. But having assembled all his retainers, he openly joined his force to that of the Londoners, and to Stephen's mercenary troops, who had not yet evacuated the kingdom; and he besieged Matilda in Winchester. The princess, being hard pressed by famine, made her escape; but in the flight, Earl Robert, her brother, fell into the hands of the enemy. This nobleman, though a subject, was as much the life and soul of his own party, as Stephen was of the other; and the empress, sensible of [Earl Robert's] merit and importance, consented to exchange the prisoners on equal terms. The civil war was again kindled with greater fury than ever."
David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.7, Section 2, 1762
"[...] Stephen took Oxford after a long siege [MN 1143.]: he was defeated by Earl Robert at Wilton: and the empress [Matilda], though of a masculine spirit, yet being harassed with a variety of good and bad fortune, and alarmed with continual dangers to her person and family, at last retired into Normandy, whither she had sent her son some time before. [MN 1146. Continuation of the civil wars.] The death of her brother, which happened nearly about the same time, would have proved fatal to her interests, had not some incidents occurred which checked the course of Stephen's prosperity. This prince [Stephen], finding that the castles built by the noblemen of his own party encouraged the spirit of independence, and were little less dangerous than those which remained in the hands of the enemy, endeavoured to extort from them a surrender of those fortresses; and he alienated the affections of many of them by this equitable demand. The artillery also of the church, which his brother had brought over to his side, had, after some interval, joined the other party. Eugenius III. had mounted the papal throne; the Bishop of Winchester was deprived of the legatine commission, which was conferred on Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, the enemy and rival of the former legate. That pontiff also, having summoned a general council at Rheims, in Champaigne, instead of allowing the church of England, as had been usual, to elect its own deputies, nominated five English bishops to represent that church, and required their attendance in the council. Stephen, who, notwithstanding his present difficulties, was jealous of the rights of his crown, refused them permission to attend; and the pope, sensible of his advantage in contending with a prince who reigned by a disputed title, took revenge by laying all Stephen's party under an interdict. [MN 1147.] The discontents of the royalists, at being thrown into this situation, were augmented by a comparison with Matilda's party, who enjoyed all the benefits of the sacred ordinances; and Stephen was at last obliged, by making proper submissions to the see of Rome, to remove the reproach from his party.
[MN 1148.] The weakness of both sides, rather than any decrease of mutual animosity, having produced a tacit cessation of arms in England, many of the nobility, Roger de Moubray, William de Warenne, and others, finding no opportunity to exert their military ardour at home, enlisted themselves in a new crusade, which, with surprising success, after former disappointments and misfortunes, was now preached by St. Bernard. [...]"
David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.7, Section 2, 1762 (italics added)
"England suffered great miseries during the reign of this prince: but his personal character, allowing for the temerity and injustice of his usurpation, appears not liable to any great exception; and he seems to have been well qualified, had he succeeded by a just title, to have promoted the happiness and prosperity of his subjects. He was possessed of industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree; though not endowed with a sound judgment, he was not deficient in abilities; he had the talent of gaining men's affections; and notwithstanding his precarious situation, he never indulged himself in the exercise of any cruelty or revenge. His advancement to the throne procured him neither tranquillity nor happiness; and though the situation of England prevented the neighbouring states from taking any durable advantage of her confusions, her intestine disorders were to the last degree ruinous and destructive. The court of Rome was also permitted, during those civil wars, to make farther advances in her usurpations; and appeals to the pope, which had always been strictly prohibited by the English laws, became now common in every ecclesiastical controversy."
David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.7, Section 2, 1762
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