ENGLAND UNDER MATILDA AND STEPHEN
THE King was no sooner dead than all the plans and schemes he had laboured at so long, and lied so much for, crumbled1 away like a hollow heap of sand. STEPHEN, whom he had never mistrusted or suspected, started up to claim the throne.
Stephen was the son of ADELA, the Conqueror's daughter, married to the Count of Blois. To Stephen, and to his brother HENRY, the late King had been liberal; making Henry Bishop2 of Winchester, and finding a good marriage for Stephen, and much enriching him. This did not prevent Stephen from hastily producing a false witness, a servant of the late King, to swear that the King had named him for his heir upon his death-bed. On this evidence the Archbishop of Canterbury crowned him. The new King, so suddenly made, lost not a moment in seizing the Royal treasure, and hiring foreign soldiers with some of it to protect his throne.
If the dead King had even done as the false witness said, he would have had small right to will away the English people, like so many sheep or oxen, without their consent. But he had, in fact, bequeathed all his territory to Matilda; who, supported by ROBERT, Earl of Gloucester, soon began to dispute the crown. Some of the powerful barons4 and priests took her side; some took Stephen's; all fortified5 their castles; and again the miserable6 English people were involved in war, from which they could never derive7 advantage whosoever was victorious8, and in which all parties plundered9, tortured, starved, and ruined them.
Five years had passed since the death of Henry the First - and during those five years there had been two terrible invasions by the people of Scotland under their King, David, who was at last defeated with all his army - when Matilda, attended by her brother Robert and a large force, appeared in England to maintain her claim. A battle was fought between her troops and King Stephen's at Lincoln; in which the King himself was taken prisoner, after bravely fighting until his battle-axe and sword were broken, and was carried into strict confinement10 at Gloucester. Matilda then submitted herself to the Priests, and the Priests crowned her Queen of England.
She did not long enjoy this dignity. The people of London had a great affection for Stephen; many of the Barons considered it degrading to be ruled by a woman; and the Queen's temper was so haughty11 that she made innumerable enemies. The people of London revolted; and, in alliance with the troops of Stephen, besieged12 her at Winchester, where they took her brother Robert prisoner, whom, as her best soldier and chief general, she was glad to exchange for Stephen himself, who thus regained13 his liberty. Then, the long war went on afresh. Once, she was pressed so hard in the Castle of Oxford14, in the winter weather when the snow lay thick upon the ground, that her only chance of escape was to dress herself all in white, and, accompanied by no more than three faithful Knights15, dressed in like manner that their figures might not be seen from Stephen's camp as they passed over the snow, to steal away on foot, cross the frozen Thames, walk a long distance, and at last gallop16 away on horseback. All this she did, but to no great purpose then; for her brother dying while the struggle was yet going on, she at last withdrew to Normandy.
In two or three years after her withdrawal17 her cause appeared in England, afresh, in the person of her son Henry, young Plantagenet, who, at only eighteen years of age, was very powerful: not only on account of his mother having resigned all Normandy to him, but also from his having married ELEANOR, the divorced wife of the French King, a bad woman, who had great possessions in France. Louis, the French King, not relishing18 this arrangement, helped EUSTACE, King Stephen's son, to invade Normandy: but Henry drove their united forces out of that country, and then returned here, to assist his partisans19, whom the King was then besieging20 at Wallingford upon the Thames. Here, for two days, divided only by the river, the two armies lay encamped opposite to one another - on the eve, as it seemed to all men, of another desperate fight, when the EARL OF ARUNDEL took heart and said 'that it was not reasonable to prolong the unspeakable miseries21 of two kingdoms to minister to the ambition of two princes.'
Many other noblemen repeating and supporting this when it was once uttered, Stephen and young Plantagenet went down, each to his own bank of the river, and held a conversation across it, in which they arranged a truce22; very much to the dissatisfaction of Eustace, who swaggered away with some followers23, and laid violent hands on the Abbey of St. Edmund's-Bury, where he presently died mad. The truce led to a solemn council at Winchester, in which it was agreed that Stephen should retain the crown, on condition of his declaring Henry his successor; that WILLIAM, another son of the King's, should inherit his father's rightful possessions; and that all the Crown lands which Stephen had given away should be recalled, and all the Castles he had permitted to be built demolished24. Thus terminated the bitter war, which had now lasted fifteen years, and had again laid England waste. In the next year STEPHEN died, after a troubled reign3 of nineteen years.
Although King Stephen was, for the time in which he lived, a humane25 and moderate man, with many excellent qualities; and although nothing worse is known of him than his usurpation26 of the Crown, which he probably excused to himself by the consideration that King Henry the First was a usurper27 too - which was no excuse at all; the people of England suffered more in these dread28 nineteen years, than at any former period even of their suffering history. In the division of the nobility between the two rival claimants of the Crown, and in the growth of what is called the Feudal29 System (which made the peasants the born vassals30 and mere31 slaves of the Barons), every Noble had his strong Castle, where he reigned32 the cruel king of all the neighbouring people. Accordingly, he perpetrated whatever cruelties he chose. And never were worse cruelties committed upon earth than in wretched England in those nineteen years.
The writers who were living then describe them fearfully. They say that the castles were filled with devils rather than with men; that the peasants, men and women, were put into dungeons33 for their gold and silver, were tortured with fire and smoke, were hung up by the thumbs, were hung up by the heels with great weights to their heads, were torn with jagged irons, killed with hunger, broken to death in narrow chests filled with sharp-pointed stones, murdered in countless34 fiendish ways. In England there was no corn, no meat, no cheese, no butter, there were no tilled lands, no harvests. Ashes of burnt towns, and dreary35 wastes, were all that the traveller, fearful of the robbers who prowled abroad at all hours, would see in a long day's journey; and from sunrise until night, he would not come upon a home.
The clergy36 sometimes suffered, and heavily too, from pillage37, but many of them had castles of their own, and fought in helmet and armour38 like the barons, and drew lots with other fighting men for their share of booty. The Pope (or Bishop of Rome), on King Stephen's resisting his ambition, laid England under an Interdict39 at one period of this reign; which means that he allowed no service to be performed in the churches, no couples to be married, no bells to be rung, no dead bodies to be buried. Any man having the power to refuse these things, no matter whether he were called a Pope or a Poulterer, would, of course, have the power of afflicting40 numbers of innocent people. That nothing might be wanting to the miseries of King Stephen's time, the Pope threw in this contribution to the public store - not very like the widow's contribution, as I think, when Our Saviour41 sat in Jerusalem over-against the Treasury42, 'and she threw in two mites43, which make a farthing.'
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1
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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barons
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| 男爵( baron的名词复数 )； 巨头； 大王； 大亨 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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relishing
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| v.欣赏( relish的现在分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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partisans
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| 游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙 | |
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besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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usurpation
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| n.篡位；霸占 | |
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usurper
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| n. 篡夺者, 僭取者 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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32
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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33
dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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37
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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38
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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39
interdict
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| v.限制；禁止；n.正式禁止；禁令 | |
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40
afflicting
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| 痛苦的 | |
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41
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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42
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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43
mites
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| n.（尤指令人怜悯的）小孩( mite的名词复数 )；一点点；一文钱；螨 | |
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