King Stephen by Edmund King

Author:Edmund King
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-300-1122308
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2016-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

This is a story that had become attached to the arrest. William of Newburgh had good links with the Augustinian priory of Holy Trinity, London, and he may have the story from a London source.104 But a good story is what it is and it would be wrong to take it as an explanation. What else was charged against Geoffrey?

The author of the Gesta Stephani, who makes the best case that he can, says that “in the extent of his wealth and the splendour of his position Geoffrey surpassed all the chief men of the kingdom.” He was less a baron than a viceroy: “everywhere in the kingdom he took the king's place and in all transactions was listened to more eagerly than the king and received more obedience when he gave orders.”105 The position he had gained from the crown is set out very fully in the charter issued for him at the Christmas court of 1141.106 He had been given in inheritance the shrievalties of London and Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire, along with the justiciar-ships of these three shires, and the custody of the Tower of London. The import of this was that “he had monopolized every link between London, and the counties near her, and the crown.”107 He was certainly very conscious of his dignity as an earl. A charter that he issued in favour of the see of London has the address: “Geoffrey by the grace of God earl of Essex and justiciar of London to Robert by the same grace bishop of London and to the archdeacon and to all his barons and men, and to his tenants and friends of London and Essex, both clerks and laymen, greeting.”108 The earl, like the bishop, enjoyed his power by the grace of God. Yet Geoffrey remained an assiduous royal agent. He was regularly at court in 1142 and 1143, just as he was at the time of his arrest.109 It was he and “his sidekick, earl Gilbert,” who early in 1142 “was despatched by King Stephen to Ely with a troop of soldiers” to expel the supporters of Bishop Nigel; they routed the soldiers and rounded up the knights, delivering them to Ely in humiliation, their legs tied under their horses.110 He received orders to protect the monks of Colchester and on another occasion was asked to ensure that no excrement was thrown on to the streets of London.111 His own orders as a royal official show an exact concern for legal process.112 He had at least a working relationship with his clerical equivalent as justiciar, William de Belmeis, the archdeacon of London.113 The worst charge that can be proved against him, on the basis of the London charters at least, is that he encroached on lands of Holy Trinity Priory to plant a vineyard in the suburb of East Smithfield.114

If the appropriation of the royal prerogatives is not a charge that can be sustained, what of “the common report” that “he had determined to bestow

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