Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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If all efforts made to defeat Henry’s succession failed, the succession of his daughter Matilda was disputed triumphantly. Stephen, taking advantage of his cousin’s absence and of her personal unpopularity, made a rapid descent on England with the spasmodic energy which characterized him, and successfully snatched the Crown. Trained in English ways on English soil, he was quickly on the spot and very popular. These features in his favour, however, did not render his position entirely secure as against the daughter and heiress of so strong a King as Henry I., to whom, indeed, Stephen himself, with all the magnates of England, had already thrice sworn allegiance. He was only one of two competitors for the Crown, with chances nearly equal. From the moment of the old King’s death, “the Norman barons treated the succession as an open question.” In these words of Bishop Stubbs,^[171] Mr. J. H. Round finds^[172] the keynote of the reign. Stephen was never secure on his throne, and had to make indiscriminate promises first to obtain, and afterwards to retain, his position. He was thus prepared to bid much higher for support than Henry had felt compelled to do. Adherents had to be gained painfully, one by one, by the grant of special favours to every individual whose support was worth the buying.