pride. As a sign that he looked for martyrdom, he came in carrying his cross himself, in spite of the other bishops, who tried to wrest it from him, before the king and all the bishops and barons sitting in council.

He forbade the bishops to sit in judgment on their primate, and said that he appealed to the judgment of the Pope. My person and my Church,' he said, ‘I put under the protection of the Pope.'

He blamed the barons too for daring to sit in judgment on their spiritual father, saying, 'I am to be judged only under God by the Pope.'

Then he rose, and amid the murmurs of the crowd walked slowly down the hall. Some took up straws and threw them at him. One muttered 'Traitor.' 'Were it not for my order,' said Becket, fiercely, 'you should rue that word.' Outside the people greeted him with loud cheers, for they loved him for his charities.

9. So great was the anger of the king and the barons that Becket feared for his safety and even for his life. Becket's He fled in disguise that night, and after a flight. journey full of hardships arrived in France. There he could make himself known, and was well received. The King of France, Lewis VII., hated Henry II., and was glad to be able to show honour to his enemy. The Pope was very much puzzled what to do; his own position was not very sure, and he owed much to the support of Henry II. He did not dare to go against so powerful a king.

For six years the quarrel went on, and Becket stayed in exile. Henry at last got into difficulties with his enemies in France. The Pope, too, had grown stronger, and threatened to excommunicate Henry—that is, to put him outside the communion of the Church—and this would have given the king's enemies new courage. So Henry was led to make a hasty peace with Becket, who

went back to England. The people greeted him with joy. But Becket's pride had not grown less in exile, and he could not come back to forgive and forget. His first thought was to punish the bishops who had opposed him by excommunicating them.

Becket's

death, 1170. He was in

IO. Henry was very angry when he heard what Becket had done. In one of his wild bursts of passion he cried out, 'Is there none of my thankless and cowardly courtiers who will free me from the insults of one lowborn and unruly priest?' France at the time, and four knights on hearing his words. hastened at once to Canterbury. At first they went to the archbishop in his chamber and spoke to him angry and violent words. But he defied them, and they rushed away shouting for their arms.

Becket's friends persuaded him to seek safety in the cathedral. There he stood before the altar in the dim. twilight. The din of armed men was heard outside, and soon the four knights rushed into the church shouting, 'Where is the traitor?' 'Behold me,' answered Becket through the gloom, as he turned to meet them; 'no traitor, but a priest of God.' They tried to drag him from the church, for they feared to do violence in the holy place, but Becket clung to a pillar. In the struggle he even dashed one of them to the ground. But they quickly got the better of him. Kneeling on the altar-step Becket cried, 'Lord receive my spirit.' Blow after blow fell upon him, and not till they were sure their work was done, did the murderers leave the place.

The news of this terrible outrage filled all Christendom with horror. Henry II. trembled at the storm that was raised, and he himself was filled with anger and horror at the deed which his passionate words had caused. Becket was hailed as a martyr and was made a saint, under the name of St. Thomas of Canterbury. He

soon became the most popular saint in England, for the common people had always loved him, and many miracles were said to be done at his tomb.

By his influence with the Pope and his readiness to humble himself in every way, Henry succeeded in getting the Pope's pardon. When next in England he made a solemn pilgrimage to the martyr's tomb, walking three miles with bare feet along the stony road. As he knelt at the tomb, he was scourged by the monks on his naked back as a sign of his penitence.

Results of

II. But it was not only sorrow for Becket's death that made the king humble himself so much. He wanted the help of the English against his enemies; Becket's and though the English liked their king, neither the clergy nor the people would help him heartily till he had repented of the murder he had caused.

death.

Henry's enemies all chose the moment after Becket's murder to rise against him. His sons had long been discontented with him, because he did not give them enough power. It is true he had had his eldest son Henry crowned King of England. But he had soon shown him that he did not mean him to have any real power. Young Henry was so angry that he fled to Lewis VII., King of France, who was very glad to receive him.

12. And at this time, when he thought Henry would be very weak, Lewis invaded Normandy. Henry's younger Henry II.'s sons, Richard and Geoffrey, took up arms danger. against their father in Aquitaine. Meanwhile the King of Scotland entered the north of England with an army. The great barons rose in revolt in different parts of England. At the same moment all the different forces against which Henry II. had to struggle all his life rose against him.

These were (1) his rebellious sons, helped by the King

of France; (2) the King of the Scots; (3) the rebellious barons.

Henry's great energy saved him in this danger. The English people and his ministers were true to him. Hardly had he risen from his knees before the tomb of St. Thomas at Canterbury, when news came that his Justiciar, Ranulf de Glanvil, had surprised William the Lion, King of Scotland, in a mist, and had taken him prisoner at Alnwick. This seemed to the people a sign that the king's repentance had been accepted. His foes had no common cause, and were beaten one by one with wonderful speed. Henry was always moderate in his use of victory. But though he spared his enemies he never let them out of his hands till he had so weakened them that they could do nothing against him. After this revolt the barons lost still more of their power, and Henry was more powerful than he had been even at the beginning of his reign.

CHAPTER IV.

HENRY'S GOVERNMENT.

1. HENRY II. was a true lover of peace and never went to war if he could help it; though when he had to do so he showed himself an excellent soldier. But it was by his wise measures more than anything else that he got a firm hold over all his possessions, and made himself the most powerful ruler in Europe.

When he had crushed his enemies Henry went back at once to his work of reforming the law. Never in all his busy reign did he forget

this.

Henry's reforms in the

2. Like his grandfather, Henry I., he sent his Justices through the country; they were called itinerant from a

Latin word which means journeying from place to place.
Itinerant Henry II. divided the country into districts
Justices.
or circuits, places through which the judges
should journey; and several judges were sent to go
through each. They did not now go only to collect taxes,
but they judged cases and heard pleas in the county
courts. As the justices were members of the Curia Regis,
their circuits brought the county courts into close con-
nexion with the Curia Regis.

3. The greater importance of the itinerant justices naturally took away from the power of the sheriffs. Henry found that the sheriffs used their

Sheriffs.

office to gain power and wealth for themselves. At one and the same time the king removed all the sheriffs from their offices, and then had an inquest or inquiry made into the way in which they had done their duties. The sheriffs do not seem to have met with great blame, but they did not get their places back again. Henry chose his new sheriffs from the officers of his Exchequer, men whom he knew and trusted. In this way the Curia Regis and the shires were brought still more closely together; and the barons, as they were now no longer sheriffs, lost much of their power in the shires.

These reforms all tended to make the country more and more one, for they made all the government centre round the Curia Regis, and let no independent powers grow up in the shires.

4. It is to Henry II.'s reforms that we owe the first clear beginnings of the English custom of trial by jury. Origin of Henry's law reforms were all put together juries. into short codes, lists of rules, and orders, which he called Assizes, and which were given out at the councils which he held so often.

In one of these assizes he ordered that the sheriff should name four knights, who were to choose twelve