Less content must the people have been with the system of taxation. The numerous wars required much money. Of the endeavours after order in the management of accounts we possess no mean example in the book yet extant of receipts and disbursements by the royal exchequer. The existing traces also of renewals and completions of the Domesday-book are a proof of such endeavours. Moreover, if we consider the collection bearing the title of the Laws of Henry I.2, we may, perhaps, recognize that England, even at that early period, availed itself of its insular position and the peculiar relation of the conqueror to the conquered, for the obtaining of a more regular administration and regard of justice than had been possessed by any people since the migration of nations.

That Henry not only frequently bestowed rich donations on many monasteries and churches, but also founded several, is the worthier of notice, as this tendency in him proceeded from no slavish subjection to the clergy, but from a wellfounded sense of their relation to the state, and of respect for higher spiritual interests. The noble abbey of St. Mary at Reading, was founded by him for monks of the order of Cluny; for regular canons of the Augustine order he founded a monastery and a church dedicated to St. John, at Cirencester, and a monastery at Dunstable; he also founded an abbey at Wellaw near Grimsby, and one at Anglesey in Cambridgeshire; also a religious house at Creke in Norfolk; to

The Magnus Rotulus Scaccarii sive Pipæ, edited by the Rev. Jos. Hunter for the late Record Commission, 1833.

2 The best edition of this collection is that in the "Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," published by authority of the late Record Com

mission.

3 The dotation is dated 1121. Monast. Anglic. iv. p. 28.

4 W. Gemmet. lib. viii. c. 32. The deed of foundation of Reading abbey see in Monast. vi. p. 175. Joh. Hagust. col. 258. R. Hagust. col. 310. R. de Diceto. col. 505. Knyghton, col. 2384. Chron. de Dunstap. col. 677. [All the chronicles agree in the reading of Cirecestra (Cirēcestra?). Anglesey abbey is in the hundred of Stane.-T.]

A a

the monks of Bec he gave an alien priory at Steventon near Abingdon; to the abbey of St. Valery one at Takely in Essex. He also appears as a joint founder of the priories of Augustine canons at Carlisle, and at Merton in Surrey; and, finally, as the founder of many large hospitals'. The founding of the majority of these appears to have taken place in the last fifteen years of his reign, after the loss of his son. That Normandy, in this respect, was not neglected by him needs hardly be mentioned. We will here notice only the beautiful church at Evreux as his foundation. Towards foreign churches and hospitals he was frequently not less munificent; the church at Cluny he almost entirely built, and bestowed on it large possessions in England, also the church of St. Martin aux Champs at Paris. The rich possessions of the monks of the abbey of St. Remy at Rheims he not only religiously protected, but also augmented. The hospital for the sick at Chartres, at that time distinguished both for its extent and as a work of art, was completed through his liberality. His numerous donations to the cloisters that lay on the road of pilgrims to Rome, facilitated the way over the Alps and Appenine to the metropolis of Christendom.

One who so munificently favoured monasteries operated also indirectly on the promotion of knowledge and civilization; but on the part of Henry Beauclerc a more direct influence may be traced. If his consort Matilda rewarded minstrels and melodious songsters, he gave proofs of his munificence to men like the Benedictine Æthelhard of Bath3, a distinguished philosopher and investigator of nature, who translated the Elements of Euclid from the Arabic version

1 Monast vi. passim.

2 Monast. vi. p. 1099. Domesday. Rot. magn. pipæ, p. 74. W. Gemmet. lib. VIII. c. 32. For other donations by the first Norman kings to the abbey of Cluny, see C. G. Hoffmann, Nova Scriptorum Monumentorum Collectio. i. pp. 340 sq.

3 Rot. magn. pipæ. p. 22. His "Quæstiones naturales perdifficiles" are in the Cottonian Library, Galba E. IV.

into Latin.

Medieval Latinity, both prose and verse, as well as familiarity with the Roman classics, reached in his time a height from which, in England, they shortly afterwards fell. During his reign flourished and wrote Eadmer, Ingulf, Jeffrey of Monmouth, William of Malmesbury, William of Jumièges, Florence of Worcester, Simeon of Durham. Henry of Huntingdon's earlier days fall also within this period. Of the epigrams of the excellent Godfrey, prior of St. Swithin's at Winchester', a native of Cambray, many are preserved. The poems of Radulfus Tortarius and of Serlo bishop of Séez, which are known to us, excite the wish to possess those still hidden from us. The earliest traces of dramatic representations in northern Europe are met with, under the reign of Henry, in the monastic school of Dunstable, where he sometimes held his court1. Geoffrey, the master of the school there, was the director of these spiritual plays or miracles, the model of which he borrowed from his former residence, Paris, but which were known in Germany some centuries earlier in the Latin poems of the nun Hroswithe.

Henry took great delight in wild beasts from distant regions, as lions, leopards, lynxes, camels, etc., among which particular mention is made of a porcupine. These were kept in the park which he had enclosed at Woodstock, one of his favourite places of abode. He had also a similar establishment at Caen, in which were placed beasts from all the known parts of the world.

At this period the Anglo-Saxon tongue began rapidly to decline, being expelled from the halls of the noble and power

1 He died in 1107. See W. Malm. p. 678. Camden's Remains, p. 421, edit. 1674. Warton, H. E. P. p. cxi. edit. 1840. Camden has preserved several of his epigrams.

2 Histoire de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxi. pp. 511 sq.

3 Matt. Paris, Hist. Abbat. p. 56. Warton ut sup. p. cxii.

4 Sax. Chron. a. 1122.

5. Wodestoc, regis Henrici familiarem privati secreti recessum. Gesta Stephani," p. 87.

6 W. Malm. p. 638. Radulf Tortarius. A vivarium regis at Brichestoc is mentioned in the Rotul. magn. pipæ, p. 88. probably at Bristol.

ful, and corrupted among the people by an influx of NormanFrench. This latter was the language of the law and of the court, and was also cultivated by the poets; of whom we will here make mention, on account of their particular relation to England, only of Philip of Thaun1 and Geoffrey Gaimar2.

Of educational establishments there was no lack, either in England or Normandy. The abbatial school of Bec was attended by students from all parts of Europe. The schools of Canterbury, York, Oxford, Abingdon, where king Henry is said to have been educated, Winchester, Peterborough, and others enjoyed a high reputation. But many English also visited the learned foundations of other lands, and we find them not only at Paris, Pavia, and Salerno, but also in the lecture halls of the Arabians at Cordova and Salamanca, imbibing, at the same time, copious draughts from the wells of knowledge and of the errors of scholastic logic. The system of the foreigner also found admission into the academic institutions of England. Thus Joffrid, abbot of Crowland, formerly prior of St. Evroult in Normandy, invited teachers from Orléans, where he had been educated, and established them at Cotenham, a manor belonging to his abbey, by whose aid a school arose in the neighbouring town of Cambridge, from which the university of that place may probably date its origin. Priscian's grammar with the commentary of Remigius, Aristotle's logic, the rhetorical works of Cicero and Quinctilian, together with theology, engrossed the attention of scholars both then and many centuries later3.

1 There are several manuscripts extant of this writer, the most ancient of which Mr. Wright states to be that in the Cotton Library (Nero A.V.). See Popular Treatises on Science, by T. Wright. London 1841, pref. pp. ix. seq.-T.

2 See England under the A. S. Kings i. Liter. Introd. p. lvi. and the epilogue to his Estorie des Engles, where he speaks of Robert, earl of Gloucester, Walter Espec, and other contemporaries. Cf. (F. Wolf) Wiener Jahrbücher, 1836.

3 Petrus Blesens. Contin. p. 114. The mention of Averroes (ob. 1206) shows, however, that this passage is not free from interpolation.

THE death of Henry was productive of great disorder in his states. It was the opinion of almost every one, that the oaths which the late king had caused to be taken, with the object of securing the throne to his daughter Matilda, were not binding. Royalty was still too near its origin in Europe, to admit of its being forgotten that its most prominent attribute was the supreme command in war, which could not be held by a woman. Neither among the Anglo-Saxons, with one very unfavourable exception, had queens, nor among the Normans countesses or duchesses, ever ruled the land. By the violation too of the assurance given by the king, that his daughter should marry no Frenchman, the obligation was cancelled also on his part. Count Geoffrey was, moreover, held in great aversion by the Normans, which his incessant contentions with his father-in-law did not tend to mitigate. It is, indeed, far from improbable, that Henry himself in his anger may have harboured the thought of excluding his