Transcriber's Note:
Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has beenrationalised. Inconsistent spelling (including accents and capitals) hasbeen retained.
The sidenotes to the Empress' Charter in Chapter 4 have been transferredto "pop ups" that accompany underlined words. These may not displayproperly in all applications.Footnote references in the genealogical tables are not hyper-linkedto the corresponding footnotes. Small capitals in the tables have beenreplaced by full capitals. Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Thetables in Appendices K and U have been split into two in order to reducetheir width.
Some references to years are encased in square brackets, as for example[1136]. To avoid confusion with the numbered footnotes, these referenceshave instead been encased in rounded brackets.
GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE
FACSIMILE OF CHARTER CREATING GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE EARL OF ESSEX (see p. 51).
GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE
A STUDY OF THE ANARCHY
BY
J. H. ROUND, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "THE EARLY LIFE OF ANNE BOLEYN: A CRITICAL ESSAY"
"Anno incarnationisDominicæ millesimo centesimo quadragesimo primo inextricabilemlabyrinthum rerum et negotiorum quæ acciderunt in Anglia aggrediorevolvere."—William of Malmesbury
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16ᵗʰ STREET
1892
All rights reserved
PREFACE
"The reign of Stephen," in the words of our greatestliving historian, "is one of the most important in ourwhole history, as exemplifying the working of causes andprinciples which had no other opportunity of exhibitingtheir real tendencies." To illustrate in detail the workingof those principles to which the Bishop of Oxford thusrefers, is the chief object I have set before myself in thesepages. For this purpose I have chosen, to form the basisof my narrative, the career of Geoffrey de Mandeville, asthe most perfect and typical presentment of the feudaland anarchic spirit that stamps the reign of Stephen. Byfixing our glance upon one man, and by tracing his policyand its fruits, it is possible to gain a clearer perception ofthe true tendencies at work, and to obtain a firmer graspof the essential principles involved. But, while availingmyself of Geoffrey's career to give unity to my theme,I have not scrupled to introduce, from all available sources,any materials bearing on the period known as the Anarchy,or illustrating the points raised by the charters with whichI deal.
The headings of my chapters express a fact upon whichI cannot too strongly insist, namely, that the chartersgranted to Geoffrey are the very backbone of my work.By those charters it must stand or fall: for on their{vi}relation and their evidence the whole narrative is built.If the evidence of these documents is accepted, and therelation I have assigned to them established, it will, I trust,encourage the study of charters and their evidence, "asenabling the student both to amplify and to check suchscanty knowledge as we now possess of the times to whichthey relate."...