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Royal Rage and the Construction of Anglo-Norman Authority, c. 1000-1250 pp 173–202Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Role of Counsel in Directing Royal Rage

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions ((PSHE))

Abstract

One of the clearest marks of a good and just king was that he willingly listened to the advice of sage counselors on various matters, including the need to repress his anger. Ecclesiastical authors describe in favorable terms those kings who acknowledged that their anger was not always justified and might need to be reined in by their counselors. This chapter examines the role of both ecclesiastical and lay counselors in directing the king’s anger. It also examines the dangers posed by evil counsel in inappropriate displays of royal anger.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hudson, “Henry I and Counsel,” 125.

  2. 2.

    Bartlett, England under the Norman, 145–146.

  3. 3.

    For a comparison with earlier periods, see Chris Wickham, “Public Court Practice: The Eighth and Twelfth Centuries Compared,” in Rechtsverständnis und Konfliktbewältigung: Gerichtliche und aussergerichtliche Strategien im Mittelalter, ed. Stefan Esders (Cologne: Böhlau, 2007), 17–30.

  4. 4.

    For the rituals surrounding such gatherings see Gerd Althoff, Family, Friends, and Followers: Social Bonds in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 10–14.

  5. 5.

    Richard Barton, “Giving and Receiving Counsel: Forging Political Culture in Western French and Anglo-Norman Assemblies,” History 102 (2017): 790.

  6. 6.

    Hudson, “Henry I and Counsel,” 121.

  7. 7.

    EH, II, 307.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., II, 306–307.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., II, 309–311.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., II, 310–311.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., II, 310–311.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., II, 310–311.

  13. 13.

    For settlement of disputes with compromise see Cheyette, 287–299; Steven D. White, “Pactum … Legem Vincit et Amor Judicium,” 281–308; idem, “From Peace to Power,” 203–218; Patrick Geary, ‘Living with Conflicts in Stateless France: A Typology of Conflict Management Mechanisms, 1050–1200,” in Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), 125–162; and E. King, “Dispute Resolution in Anglo-Norman England,” Anglo-Norman Studies 14 (1991): 115–130.

  14. 14.

    HN, 46.

  15. 15.

    Susan Reynolds, “Secular Power and Authority in the Middle Ages,” in Power and Identity in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Rees Davies, eds. H. Pryce and J. Watts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 12–13.

  16. 16.

    Janet Nelson, “Kingship and Royal Government,” in New Cambridge Medieval History, ed. Rosamund McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), II, 400.

  17. 17.

    Janet Nelson, “Kingship and Empire,” in The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c.350–c.1450, ed. J. Burns (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 211–251.

  18. 18.

    EH, V, 201–202.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., V, 201–202.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., V, 204–205.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., V, 299. John Hudson discusses who were his counselors and what sort of counsel did he get. Idem, “Henry I and Counsel,” 109–126.

  22. 22.

    EH, VI, 87–89. This episode is also discussed in Strickland, War and Chivalry, 13–14.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., VI, 87–89.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., VI, 87–89.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., VI, 89. Italics in original.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., VI, 89.

  27. 27.

    William of Newburgh, 39.

  28. 28.

    Joseph Stevenson, The Church Historians of England (London: Beeleys, 1856), vol. 4, pt. 2, 402; cf. Richard Howlett, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen , Henry II and Richard I (London: Longman, 1884), vol. 1, 20–21.

  29. 29.

    EH, III, 263.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., III, 265.

  31. 31.

    William of Malmesbury, Deeds of the Bishops, 19.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 19.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 19.

  34. 34.

    Ryan Kemp, “Advising the King: Kingship, Bishops and Saints in the Works of William of Malmesbury,” in Vengeance in the Middle Ages, 66.

  35. 35.

    William of Malmesbury, Deeds of the Bishops, 69.

  36. 36.

    GG, 33. See also Judith Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), esp. 254–326.

  37. 37.

    EH, IV, 79.

  38. 38.

    J.R. Maddicott, The Origins of the English Parliament, 924–1327 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 76. For an obligation of lordship see Yves Sassier, “Richer et le consilium,” Revue historique du droit français et étranger 63 (1985): 33–35.

  39. 39.

    Caroline Barron argues that this continued to be important even up to the reign of King Richard II. She writes, “Medieval kings were expected to take counsel with the magnates of the realm, and such counsel was likely to involve both advice and criticism. Richard’s inability to listen to advise seriously undermined the authority he sought to establish.” Idem, “The Reign of Richard II,” The New Cambridge Medieval History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), VI, 311. Richard Barton likewise found the importance of kings consulting with their magnates emphasized in the contemporaneous De iniusta vexacione Willelmi episcopi primi. Barton, “Giving and Receiving,” 796. In this text, Barton also notes the King William Rufus grew angry [iratus ] with Bishop William for claiming that he was receiving biased counsel. Ibid., 801.

  40. 40.

    Cited in Bartlett, England under the Norman, 145–146.

  41. 41.

    Gerd Althoff, “The Rule of Conflict,” 115–123.

  42. 42.

    Firnhaber-Baker, 4.

  43. 43.

    Reynolds, “Secular Power,” 13.

  44. 44.

    van Houts, The Normans in Europe, 31.

  45. 45.

    HNov, 11.

  46. 46.

    HN, 131.

  47. 47.

    GG, 100–101.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., 100–101.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., 118–121.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 118–121.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 148–149.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 148–149.

  53. 53.

    GND, II, 14–17.

  54. 54.

    GND, II, 16–17.

  55. 55.

    Hudson, “Henry I and Counsel,” 122.

  56. 56.

    EH, IV, 41.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., IV, 43.

  58. 58.

    Barton, “Zealous Anger,” 163.

  59. 59.

    Gesta Stephani , 15.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., 15.

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 15.

  62. 62.

    Althoff, “Ira Regis,” 60.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., 60.

  64. 64.

    Gesta Stephani , 49.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 50.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 50.

  67. 67.

    Hudson does make the point, however, that blaming a king’s poor decisions on bad counsel could have also been a deflecting strategy for kings and their supporters. Idem, “Henry I and Counsel,” 122–123.

  68. 68.

    Barton, “Giving and Receiving Counsel,” 798.

  69. 69.

    EH, II, 170–173. See the discussion of this episode in White, “La colère de Guillaume d’Orange,” 257.

  70. 70.

    GG, 123–125.

  71. 71.

    EH, VI, 511.

  72. 72.

    EH, VI, 511.

  73. 73.

    GRA, I, 559. On his anger see Barlow, William Rufus , 99–100.

  74. 74.

    Ibid., I, 561.

  75. 75.

    HA, 719.

  76. 76.

    HNov, 26. Moreover, William maintains that Stephen did not ill-treat the bishops, and he did not even place Bishop Roger in chains. Ibid., 28. Orderic likewise implies that Stephen’s actions are justified. He claims that Bishop Roger had set fire to Devizes. He writes, “On hearing of this the king, in a rage, advanced his army against the place.” When Stephen captures his son, Roger le Poer, Orderic writes, “While the haughty nephew and his retainers obstinately persisted in their rebellion, and the angry king commanded that Roger le Poer should be hanged on a gallows immediately, the distressed mother, learning of the wretched plight of her son, leapt up exclaiming in her concern for him.” She then surrenders the castle to Stephen, whose anger is appeased. EH, VI, 533.

  77. 77.

    HA, 723.

  78. 78.

    Ibid., 723.

  79. 79.

    GND, II, 10–11.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., II, 10–11.

  81. 81.

    Ibid., II, 10–11.

  82. 82.

    EH, VI, 313.

  83. 83.

    EH, II, 315.

  84. 84.

    EH, II, 315.

  85. 85.

    HN, 139.

  86. 86.

    Ibid., 139.

  87. 87.

    Strickland, War and Chivalry, 106–107; and Georges Duby, “Youth in Aristocratic Society,” 115–116.

  88. 88.

    EH, III, 97.

  89. 89.

    Ibid., III, 96–97.

  90. 90.

    Ibid., III, 96–97.

  91. 91.

    Ibid., III, 99.

  92. 92.

    Ibid., III, 99.

  93. 93.

    Ibid., III, 99.

  94. 94.

    Ibid., III, 99.

  95. 95.

    Most of the sources agree that Robert Curthose was ill equipped for rule. William of Newburgh notes, “Robert, who by the natural order of things should certainly have succeeded to the kingship, had a spirit less haughty and aggressive [than William Rufus]; but in his lesser administration of the duchy of Normandy it became clear that he was never suited to the task of organizing a very large kingdom. William of Newburgh, 43.

  96. 96.

    GND, II, 203.

  97. 97.

    Ibid., II, 203.

  98. 98.

    GND, II, 204–205.

  99. 99.

    GND, II, 220–221.

  100. 100.

    EH, VI, 445.

  101. 101.

    Ibid., VI, 445.

  102. 102.

    William Aird, “Frustrated Masculinity: The Relationship Between William the Conqueror and His Eldest Son,” in Masculinity in Medieval Europe, ed. D.M. Hadley (London: Longman, 1999), 39–55.

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    Kate McGrath

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McGrath, K. (2019). Role of Counsel in Directing Royal Rage. In: Royal Rage and the Construction of Anglo-Norman Authority, c. 1000-1250. Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11223-3_5

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