General Notes

REFN: 4798AN
REFN: P4799
Chapter 11: Of the impious life and correspondent death of Geoffre y de
Mandeville <to index>
[1] At this time king Stephen, attending more to what was expedient than
what was strictly honorable, seized Geoffrey De ManDe ville, in his court
at St. Albans, not quite fairly, indeed, and consistently with the law of
nations, but according to his deserts and his own fear. For he was a most
desperate character, and possessed of equal power and artifice. He was
master of the celebrated Tower of London, together with two other
c onsiderable fortresses, and he aimed at great things by his consummate
craft.
[2] As, therefore, from these circumstances, he was an object of terror
to the king, Stephen cautiously dissembled the injury he had received
from him, and eagerly watched a seasonable opportunity for revenge. The
injury this aba ndoned man had done to the king was this: Stephen some
years before, as I hav e before said, had seized on the treasures of the
bishop of Salisbury, and tr ansmitted a vast sum of the money to Louis,
king of France, to whose sister, Constantia, he had affianced his son
Eustace; purposing, by an affinity with so great a prince, to strengthen
his succession against the count of Anjou an d his sons. Constantia was at
that time in London with the queen her mother-i n-law, but when the queen
was desirous of removing with her daughter-in-law t o another place,
Geoffrey De Mandeville, who at that time commanded the Tower , opposed
her, and took the daughter from the protection of the mother; and t hough
she resisted with all her might, yet he detained her, and suffered the
queen to depart with ignominy. Afterwards, indeed, he reluctantly yielded
u p his noble prisoner to the king her father-in-law, who claimed her; and
Step hen dissembled for a while his just indignation.
[3] This outrage had appeared to have long since been consigned to
oblivion; but, behold, on a meeting of the nobility being summoned by the
king's command at St. Albans, this freeboo ter made his appearance amongst
the rest, and the king, seizing this opportun ity for exercising his just
indignation, threw him into confinement, and depr ived him of the Tower of
London, with the two other fortresses he possessed. Despoiled of his
strongholds, but set at liberty, this restless man -- vast i n design, and
subtle beyond comparison, as well as wise beyond measure, for t he
perpetration of evil -- collecting a band of desperadoes, seized the
mon astery of Ramsey, and, without the least compunction at having
expelled the m onks, and made so celebrated and holy a place a den of
thieves, and converted the sanctuary of God into the habitation of the
devil, he infested the neigh borhood with perpetual attacks and
incursions. Then, gaining confidence from his success, he proceeded
further, and harassed and alarmed king Stephen with the most daring
aggressions; and, while he was thus continuing his mad caree r, God seemed
to sleep, and to be regardless both of the affairs of men and H is own;
that is to say, of ecclesiastical affairs; then did the suffering
r ighteous exclaim, "Up, Lord, why sleepest thou?" [Ps. 44:23] but, as the
apos tle remarks, after God had "endured, with much long-suffering, the
vessels of wrath fitted for destruction," [Romans 9:23] then, as the
prophet observes, "the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and smote his
enemies in the hinder par ts " [Ps. 78:67] -- that is, at the conclusion
of the business, although the former part had been successful.
[4] At length, just before the death of this wicked man, as it is
asserted by the credible relation of many persons, the w alls of the
church which he had seized and of the adjoining cloister exuded r eal
blood, by which, as it afterwards appeared, was signified, as well the
heinousness of his crime as its impending punishment. Thus, whilst his
abando ned partisans -- given up to a reprobate mind --Geoffrey F