Henry the Second | Page 9

half of the present
France. His long line of ill-defended frontier brought him in contact
with the lands of the Count of Flanders, one of the chief military
powers of the day; with the kingdom of France, which, after two
hundred years of insignificance, was beginning to assert its sway over
the great feudal vassals, and preparing to build up a powerful monarchy;
and with the Spanish kingdoms which were emerging from the first
successful effort of the Christian states to throw back the power of the
Moors. Normandy and Auvergne were separated only by a narrow belt
of country from the Empire, which, under the greatest ruler and warrior
of the age, Frederick Barbarossa, was extending its power over
Burgundy, Provence, and Italy. His claims to the over-lordship of
Toulouse gave Henry an interest in the affairs of the great
Mediterranean power--the kingdom of Sicily; and his later attempts on
the territories of the Count of Maurienne brought him into close
connection with Italian politics. No ruler of his time was forced more
directly than Henry into the range of such international politics as were
possible in the then dim and inchoate state of European affairs. England,
which in the mind of the Norman kings had taken the first place, fell
into the second rank of interests with her Angevin rulers. Henry's
thoughts and hopes and ambitions centred in his continental domains.
Lord of Rouen, of Angers, of Bordeaux, master of the sea-coast from
Flanders to the Pyrenees, he seemed to hold in his hand the feeble King
of Paris and of Orleans, who was still without a son to inherit his
dignities and lands. The balance of power, as of ability and military

skill, lay on his side; and, long as the House of Anjou had been the
bulwark of the French throne, it even seemed as if the time might come
peaceably to mount it themselves. Looking from our own island at the
work which Henry did, and seeing more clearly by the light of later
events, we may almost forget the European ruler in the English king.
But this was far from being the view of his own day. In the thirty-five
years of his reign little more than thirteen years were spent in England
and over twenty-one in France. Thrice only did he remain in the
kingdom as much as two years at a time; for the most part his visits
were but for a few months torn from the incessant tumult and toil of
government abroad; and it was only after long years of battling against
invincible forces that he at last recognized England as the main factor
of his policy, and in great crises chose rather to act as an English king
than as the creator of an empire.
The first year after Henry's coronation as King of England was spent in
securing his newly-won possession. On Christmas Day, 1154, he called
together the solemn assembly of prelates, barons, and wise men which
had not met for fifteen years. The royal state of the court was restored;
the great officers of the household returned to their posts. The Primate
was again set in the place he held from early English times as the chief
adviser of the crown. The nephew of Roger of Salisbury, Nigel, Bishop
of Ely, was restored to the post of treasurer from which Stephen had
driven him fifteen years before. Richard de Lucy and the Earl of
Leicester were made justiciars. One new man was appointed among
these older officers. Thomas, the son of Gilbert Becket, was born in
Cheapside in 1117. His father, a Norman merchant who had settled by
the Thames, had prospered in the world; he had been portreeve of
London, the predecessor of the modern mayor, and visitors of all kinds
gathered at his house,--London merchants and Norman nobles and
learned clerks of Italy and Gaul His son was first taught by the
Augustinian canons of Merton Priory, afterwards he attended schools in
London, and at twenty was sent to Paris for a year's study. After his
return he served in a London office, and as clerk to the sheriffs he was
directly concerned during the time of the civil war with the government
of the city. It was during these years that the Archbishop of Canterbury
began to form his household into the most famous school of learning in

England, and some of his chaplains in their visits to Cheapside had
been struck by the brilliant talents of the young clerk. At Theobald's
request Thomas, then twenty-four years old, entered the Primate's
household, somewhat reluctantly it would seem, for he had as yet
shown little zeal either for religion or for study. He was at once brought
into the most brilliant circle of that day. The