Stability under Richard I

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Political - Stabilised

  • England was stable without Richard, there was no baronial revolt and government and administration were expanded under the able hands of Hubert Walter; so much so the period is known as one of ‘administrative kingship’
  • 1194-1199: England during this period was much more stable due primarily to the role of Hubert Walter as justiciar and the fact that John had been curtailed following his failed rebellion
  • Richard’s choice of Hubert Walter as justiciar was key to maintaining stability after 1194 even when he was demanding more taxes from the English barons
  • Appleby states that between 1189 and 1194 the itinerant justices conducted eyres and exchequer accounts were not disrupted by despite the wholesale change of sheriffs in 1189
  • Furthermore he acted decisively against Fitz Osbert and the rioters in London in 1196, where Fitz Osbert and the rioters were hanged and according the Cheney ‘the city elders could sleep again quietly in their beds’.
  • ‘If Henry II had really designed royal administration in England to function without a monarch’s presence, then Richard’s reign was his most successful legacy’ – Barber
  • ‘Richard’s captivity had not weakened his government in England. On the contrary, the effort needed to raise his ransom had strengthened the administration
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Political - Stabilised

  • ‘Given an absence of over 4 years from England, Richard’s arrangements had stood up reasonably well. In England, despite Chroniclers complaints that Longchamp ‘made up for his shortness of stature by his arrogance’ and that John and Geoffrey of York shared a quality of ‘innate perversity’, the routine of government had apparently continued’ – Barber
  • John took the opportunity of Richard’s capture and imprisonment to raise a rebellion against his brother in 1193/4. However by Richard’s return in March 1994 John’s rebellion had all been suppressed, illustrating the loyalty and stability of England in the king’s absence
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Political - Destabilised

  • However not all of Hubert Walter’s reforms were met with compliance. In 1197 both bishop Hugh of Lincoln and the bishop of Salisbury objected to Hubert Walter’s demand for 300 knights to serve for one year proclaiming they did not owe military obligation outside of England.
  • England was harmed by Richard’s irresponsible haste to go one the crusade. The measures he put in place o ensure the security and stability of the kingdom were ill considered
  • 1190-1194: a period of political instability in England, arguably not caused by the
  • Crusade, but by his capture and imprisonment on the way back from the crusade
  • John forced Longchamp out of office in 1191 and joined forces with Philip of France to rebel against Richard 1193 – Norman barons took the opportunity during John’s rebellion to pursue their own independence
  • Richard’s appointment of Longchamp as justiciar was the key cause of instability in England in 1191.
  • William Newburgh commented that Richard had elevated Longchamp, a foreigner of low birth, ‘without counsel and consent of the great men’
  • Richard bears responsibility for the instability in England in 1193 due to his irresponsibility which led to his capture and captivity in Germany.
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Political - Destabilised

  • Richard ultimately bears responsibility for Longchamp’s fall in 1191 and Turner stresses his appointment was a ‘grievous error’. Longchamp was the wrong man for the job, something Richard should have forseen
  • Not given control of castles, had to leave England for 3 years (as did Geoffrey), Eleanor as a check on her youngest son.
  • But John still rebelled, Gillingham stresses this was due to Richard’s imprisonment which ‘transformed John’s prospects overnight’.
  • Barratt disagrees with Gillingham and argues Richard did not grant John enough power – could make comparisons' here with Henry II and causes of the Great Rebellion...
  • The great barons resented the extent to which their authority was undermined by Richard, through the appointment of foreigners and Hubert Walter’s administrative reforms which promoted the influence of the lesser nobility. This however was a long term resentment which had simmered under Henry II.
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Economic - Stabilised

  • The reign of John illustrates how Richard had not bankrupted England, John continued to exact large sums, which in some years reached record levels
  • Due to the king’s image as a great warrior and crusading knight and Richard’s clever use of patronage, the majority of barons remained loyal and refused to join John’s rebellion in England
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Economic - Destabilised

  • England’s finances were stretched, firstly by the Saladin Tithe and secondly by the ransom demand for Richard
  • Richard’s rule financially strained England to the verge of bankruptcy due to the Saladin Tithe to prepare for the Crusade, increased taxation to pay for his ransom and financial exactions to pay for the war with Philip Augustus
  • Richard’s absence did cause instability in the kingdom between 1190 and 1994 and his great financial exactions can be seen as a long term cause of the baronial rebellion of 1215 under John
  • The years after 1194 have been seen as marking a new stage in the financial exploitations of England, which eventually led to Magna Carta
  • Ralph Coggeshall writing in 1201, affirmed that no king had exacted more from his kingdom than had Richard between 1194 and 1199.
  • In order to prepare for the Crusade Richard sold English land and offices to the highest bidders; whilst this solution quickly gained him revenue in the short term to go Crusade, in the long term the scale of land lost him rents and revenues to the crown.
  • Richard demanded large sums from his barons to have ‘justice’ in law cases. He also inflicted huge penalties for offences, £800 for example from Robert de Ros for allowing a prisoner to escape
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Economic - Destabilised

  • Richard exploited sensitive sources of revenue. In 1198 many widows of tenants-in-chief were made to offer money to stay single or marry whom they wished
  • By the end of his reign Richard had given away royal lands worth some £2000 in striking contrast with Henry II who jealously guarded such assets
  • Richard provided handsomely for John in terms of land and revenue – Count of Mortain, granted the richest counties on England through his marriage to Isabella of Gloucester (stopping him from attempting to marry Alice, Philip Augustus’ sister), allowed to keep his own exchequer (raised £25,000 in 1194, compared to the crown’s £11,000)
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Religious - Stabilised

  • Sprey argues that Richard, in contrast to his father was remarkably successful in combining secular and religious powers in one faithful servant, thereby ‘harnessing legatine authority to the royal cause’
  • Hubert Walter as Chief Justiciar, archbishop of Canterbury and papal legate (from 1195) ensured England had a cordial and trouble free relationship with the papacy, particularly in comparison to Henry II and John
  • Richard as a crusading king had secured Christian access to Jerusalem  and successfully fulfilled his oath to the Pope and God
  • Even though Richard was in need of finance, he preferred to fill ecclesiastical vacancies quickly rather than let them serve as cash cows for the government. Bishops were placed in Durham, London, Worcester and Coventry; and monastic houses received new abbots including Chertsey, Eyenshem, Glastonbury and St Mary’s York.
  • Richard was lucky with his smooth relationship with the papacy. Providentially, Hubert Walter faced no royal-papal conflicts during his justiciarship or archiepiscopacy that might have forced him to choose between king and pope.
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Religious - Stabilised

  • Carpenter argues that the church benefited from Hubert Walter’s combined roles as Chief Justiciar and Archbishop of Canterbury. Walter was accessible (allowing monks to sleep around his bed) and sympathetic, smoothing out Bishop Hugh of Lincoln’s quarrels with Richard. Walter also restrained some of Richard’s more arbitrary acts regarding the church
  • Hubert Walter has been accused of neglecting his ecclesiastical duties. This is misleading as he demonstrated a breadth of concern for the church. He settled two old arguments relating to monastic cathedral chapters and their prelate-abbots, who preferred secular cannons at Coventry and Canterbury in 1198 and 1199 respectively.
  • Richard Solved the quarrel between the Cistercian archbishop of Canterbury , Baldwin of Ford and the Benedictine monks of Canterbury cathedral. Baldwin wanted to  create a Church dedicated to Becket and staff the Cathedral with canons not monks.  Richard appointed Walter de Coutances (Archbishop of Rouen) to head a commission to solve the conflict without papal intervention.  It was successful, Baldwin put aside his idea of a new monastic foundation at Canterbury and the monks agreed to submit to the archbishop’s authority. 
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Religious - Destabilised

  • Richard ordered the canons of York to elect his half brother Geoffrey to be archbishop of York – positive tempered his sibling’s claims to the throne.  But Geoffrey refused to co-operate with Richard and the canons of York, rejected Richard’s nominations of dean (Henry Marshal) and treasurer (Burchard du Puiset, brother of the bishop of Durham).
  • Turner and Heiser speculate that Richard's strategy in making these appointments was to keep Geoffrey distracted by problems within his diocese, and thus unable to challenge for the English throne. They also suggest that Richard may have been making an example of Geoffrey, in a demonstration that he could be harsh even with his own relatives
  • Conflict between the Bishop of Durham and Geoffrey continued for many years.  York had stood empty for many years and the Bishop of Durham was used to autonomy.  December 1191, Geoffrey excommunicated the Bishop of Durham, forcing Eleanor and Hubert Walter to intervene and resolve the conflict in 1192.  But Puiset and Geoffrey were able to set aside their dispute in 1193 to work together to act against John’s uprising. Geoffrey strengthened Doncaster's defences and went to the aid of Puiset, who was besieging Tickhill Castle
  • From 1194 Geoffrey quarrelled with Hubert Walter (then archbishop of Canterbury) for the primacy of England
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Religious - Destabilised

  • Longchamp filled ecclesiastical and monastic vacancies quickly, but often with his own family. At Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire, he appointed his brother Henry.  1191 he appointed another brother Robert as Abbot of Westminster – but ousted by the monks, encouraged by John. Longchamp sought to be appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1191 – forced John to act.  In May 1191 John wrote to the monks of Canterbury to persuade them not to elect Longchamp.
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