Medieval Sourcebook:
Roger of Hoveden:
The Last Days and Death of Henry II, 1189, from The Chronicle
Roger of Hoveden was a royal clerk who compiled a History of England in the early
years of the thirteenth century. As a royal clerk he was well-placed to gather
information from members of the royal court, and he also included many documents,
especially letters, into his history. This is the bulk of the entry for 1189 up to
the coronation of Richard I.
1189
In the year of grace 1189, being the thirty-fifth and last year of the reign of king
Henry, son of the empress Matilda, the said Henry was at Saumur, in Anjou, on the day of
the Nativity of our Lord, which fell on the Lord’s day, and there he kept that
festival; although many of his earls and barons, deserting him, had gone over to the king
of France and earl Richard against him. After the feast of Saint Hilary, the truce being
broken, which existed between the before-named kings, the king of France, and earl Richard
and the Bretons, (with whom the said king of France and earl Richard had entered into
covenants, and had given sureties that if they should make peace with the king of England,
they would not omit to include them in that peace) made a hostile incursion into the
territories of the king of England, and ravaged them in every direction.
On this, the cardinal John of Anagni came to the before named kings in behalf of our lord
the pope, and sometimes with kind words, sometimes with threats, exhorted them to make
peace. Moved by his urgent entreaties, the said kings, by the inspiration of the Divine
grace, gave security that they would abide by the decision of himself, and of the
archbishops of Rheims, Bourges, Rouen, and Canterbury, and named as the day for a
conference to be held near La Ferte Bernard, the octave of Pentecost; on which the
before-named cardinal, and the four archbishops above-mentioned, pronounced sentence of
excommunication against all, both clergy and laity, who should stand in the way of peace
being made between the said kings, the persons of the kings alone excepted.
On the day of the conference, the king of France, and the king of England, earl Richard,
the cardinal John of Anagni, and the four archbishops before-mentioned, who had been
chosen for the purpose, and the earls and barons of the two kingdoms, met for a conference
near La Ferte Bernard. At this conference, the king of France demanded of the king of
England, his sister Alice to be given in marriage to Richard, earl of Poitou, and that
fealty for his dominions should be sworn to the said Richard, and that his brother John,
assuming the Gross, should set out for Jerusalem. To this the king of England made answer
that he would never consent to such a proposal, and offered the king of France, if he
should think fit to assent thereto, to give the said Alice in marriage to his son John,
with all the matters previously mentioned more at large, more fully and more completely
than the king demanded. The king of France would not agree to this; on which, putting an
end to the conference, they separated, mutually displeased. However, the cardinal John of
Anagni declared that if the king of France did not come to a complete arrangement with the
king of England, he would place the whole of his territory under interdict; to which the
king of France made answer, that he should not dread his sentence and that he cared
nothing for it, as it was supported upon no grounds of justice. For he said, it was not
the duty of the Church of Rome to punish the kingdom of France by its sentence or in any
other manner, if the king of France should think fit to punish any vassals of his who had
strewn themselves undeserving, and rebellious against his sway, for the purpose of
avenging the insult to his crown; he also added, that the before-named cardinal had
already smelt the sterling coin of the king of England. Then closing the interview, the
king of France departed thence, and took La Ferte Bernard, and then Montfort, and next
Malestroit, Beaumont, and Balim.
After this he came to Le Mans, on the Lord’s day, pretending that he was going to set
out for Tours on the ensuing Monday; but when the king of England and his people seemed to
have made themselves at ease as to the further progress of the king of France, he drew out
his forces in battle array, for the purpose of making an assault upon the city. This being
perceived by Stephen de Tours, the seneschal of Anjou, he set fire to the suburbs. The
fire, however, rapidly gaining strength and volume, running along the walls, communicated
with the city; seeing which, the Franks approached a bridge of stone, where Geoffrey de
Burillun and many with him of the party of the king of England met them with the intention
of pulling down the bridge; on which, a desperate conflict took place, and a great part of
the armies were slain on both sides, and in the conflict, the before named Geoffrey was
taken prisoner, and wounded in the thigh; many others also of the king of England’s
army were taken, while the rest immediately tool to flight, with the intention of betaking
themselves to the city, but the Franks entered it with them.
The king of England seeing this, and being in a state of desperation, contrary to his
promise when he came, took to flight with seven hundred of his knights. For he had
promised the inhabitants of that city that he would not forsake them, giving it as his
reason, that his father rested there, as also, the circumstance that he himself was born
there, and loved that city more than all others. The king of France pursued him for three
miles; and if the stream which the Franks forded had not been very wide and deep, they
would hare pursued them as they feed with such swiftness, that they would have been all
taken prisoners. In this flight, many of the Welch were slain. The king of England,
however, with a few of his men, got to Chinon and there took refuge within the fort. The
rest of the household of the king of England who were surviving, took refuge within the
tower of Le Mans; immediately on which, the king of France laid siege to the town, and,
partly through his miners, partly the assaults of his engines, the tower was surrendered
to him within three days, together with thirty knights and sixty men at arms.
Marching thence, he took Mont Double by surrender of the castle and its lord. For the
viscount of this castle had been the means, indeed, the especial cause, of this
catastrophe; for, lying in ambush, he had, armed, fallen upon Geoffrey, the earl of
Vendôme, who was unarmed, and had wounded him so seriously, that at first his life was
despaired of, though by the grace of God he afterwards entirely recovered from the effects
thereof. The king of France was the more vexed at his acting thus, because the
before-named viscount had strictly bound himself to the king of France, by a promise that
he would injure none of his people either in going or returning, or annoy him while
engaged in the siege of Le Mans. The king departing thence, the castle of Trou was
surrendered to him, together with Roche l’Eveque, Montoire, Chateau Carcere, Chateau
Loire, Chateau Chaumont, Chateau d’Amboise, and Chateau de Roche Charbon.
At length, on the sixth day of the week after the festival of the Nativity of Saint John,
on the day after the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul the Apostles, the king of France
came to Tours. On the Lord’s day next after this, Philip, earl of Flanders, William,
archbishop of Rheims, and Hugh, duke of Burgundy, came to the king of England, who was
then at Saumur, for the purpose of making peace between him and the king of France. The
king of France had, however, sent him word before they set out, that from Chateau Saint
Martin, whither he had betaken himself by fording the Loire, he should make an attack upon
the city. Accordingly, on the ensuing Monday, at about the third hour, applying their
scaling ladders to the walls on the side of the Loire, which on account of the small
quantity of the water, was much contracted and reduced, the city was taken by storm, and
in it eighty knights and a hundred men at arms.
To their great disgrace, on the one side, the Poitevins were planning treachery against
their liege lord the king of England, and on the other the Bretons, who had joined the
king of France, and had obtained from him letters patent, to the effect that he would
never make peace with the king of England unless the Bretons were included in the treaty.
Accordingly, the king of England, being reduced to straits, made peace with Philip, king
of France, on the following terms:
Conditions of peace made between Henry, king of England and Philip, king of France.
"Upon this, the before-named king of France and king of England, and Richard, earl
of Poitou, with their archbishops, bishops, earls, and barons, about the time of the feast
of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, held a conference between Tours and Arasie,
where the king of England wholly placed himself under the control and at the will of the
king of France. The king of England then did homage to the king of France, although at the
beginning of the war he had renounced the lordship of the king of France, and the king of
France had quitted all claim of his homage. It was then provided by the king of France
that Alice, his sister, whom the king of England had in his charge, should be given up and
placed in the charge of one of five persons, of whom earl Richard should make choice. It
was next provided by the king of France that security should be given by the oath of
certain men of that land that his said sister should be delivered up to earl Richard on
his return from Jerusalem, and that earl Richard should receive the oath of fealty from
his father’s subjects on both sides the sea, and that none of the barons or knights
who had in that war withdrawn from the king of England and come aver to earl Richard
should again return to the king of England, except in the last month before his setting
out for Jerusalem; the time of which setting out was to be Mid-Lent, at which period the
said kings and earl Richard were to be at Vezelay, That all the burgesses of the vills,
demesne of the king of England, should be unmolested throughout all the lands of the king
of France, and should enjoy their own customary laws and not be impleaded in any matter,
unless they should be guilty of felony. The king of England was to pay to the king of
France twenty thousand marks of silver; and all the barons of the king of England were to
make oath that if the king of England should refuse to observe the said covenants, they
would hold with the king of France and earl Richard, and would aid them to the best of
their ability against tile king of England. The king of France and earl Richard were to
hold in their hands the city of Le Mans, the city of Tours, Chateau Loire, and the castle
of Trou; or else, if the king of England should prefer it, the king of France and earl
Richard would hold the castle of Gisors, the castle of Pasci, and the castle of Novacourt,
until such time as all the matters should be completed as arranged above by the king of
France.
While the before-named kings were conferring in person hereon, the Lord thundered over
them, and a thunderbolt fell between the two, but did them no injury; they were, however,
greatly alarmed, and separated accordingly, while all who were with them were astonished
that the thunder had been heard so suddenly, seeing that no lowering clouds had preceded
it. After a short time the kings again met together for a conference, on which a second
time thunder was heard, still louder and d more terrible than before, the sky retaining
its original sereneness; in consequence of which, the king of England, being greatly
alarmed, would have fallen to the ground from the horse on which he was mounted, if he had
not been supported by the hands of those who were standing around him. From that time he
entirely placed himself at the will of the king of France, and concluded peace on the
terms above written, requesting that the names of all those who, deserting him, had gone
over to the king of France and earl Richard, should be committed to writing and given to
him. This being accordingly done, he found the name of his son John written at the
beginning of the list.
Surprised at this beyond measure, he came to Chinon, and, touched with grief at heart,
cursed the day on which he was born, and pronounced upon his sons the curse of God and of
himself, which he would never withdraw, although bishops and other religious men
frequently admonished him so to do. Being sick even unto death, he ordered himself to be
carried into the church, before the altar, and there devoutly received the communion of
the body and blood of Christ; and after confessing his sins, and being absolved by the
bishop and clergy, he departed this life in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, on the
octave of the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, being the fifth day of the week; after
a reign of thirty-four years, seven months, and four days.
After his death, having plundered him of all his riches, all forsook him, so true it is
that just as flies seek honey, wolves the carcass, and ants corn, this crew followed not
the man, but his spoils. At last however, his servants returned, and buried him with royal
pomp. On the day after his death, when he was being carried out for burial in the Church
of the Nuns at Fontevraud, earl Richard, his son and heir, came to meet him, and, smitten
with compunction, wept bitterly; immediately on which the blood flowed in streams from the
nostrils of the body at the approach of his son. His son, however, proceeded with the body
of his father to the abbey of Fontevraud, and there buried him in the choir of the Nuns,
and thus it was that he was "among the veiled women as one wearing the veil."
Source.
Roger wrote originally in Latin. This translation was made by Henry T. Riley and
was published as The Annals of Roger de Hoveden. 2 vols. London: Bohn,
1853. I believe this translation is now in the public domain. The electronic
form of this presentation is ©1998 by Scott McLetchie and may not be reproduced for any
commercial purposes whatsoever. It may be reproduced for non-profit educational
purposes.
Etext file created for a class by Scott Mcletchie [letchie@loyno.edu],
and used by permission here.
This text is part of the Internet
Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
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© Paul Halsall, October 1998
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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