Book I. city of London continued doubtful which fovereign they should own, but much more inclined to the king than to Matilda, for near two months; at the end of which time, that princess having advanced as far as St. Albans, a body of the chief citizens waited on her there, and, after fome treaty with her, confented to receive her within their walls. A few days before Midsummer she entered into that city, with a great train of fpiritual and temporal lords, and with her uncle, the King of Scotland, who came to affift, as a feudatory, at her coronation. She then took up her refidence at the palace of Westminster, built by William Rufus, and remained there fome time, to order and compose the state of the kingdom. The earl of Glocefter ferved her well in this neceffary work. He negociated with the barons of the opposite faction, allured the haughty by careffes and the mercenary by promifes, was full of humanity, moderation, and courtesy, in all his deportment. Nor did he merely employ fair appearances, or fmooth words, to reconcile the inclinations of the people to that change which had efpoufed his fifter's cause, or fubmitted to her power, he tried to reform the administration of justice, and reftore the good ancient laws; being thoroughly fenfible, that more stability would be given to government, by thefe acts of beneficence, than by force and fear, to which, he knew, the fpirit of the people could not

long

long be fubjected. Had he been guided by Book I. his wisdom, the whole kingdom would foon. have acknowledged her fovereignty, without further oppofition: but all his endeavours were defeated by the perverfeness of her conduct. The pride and haughtiness of her temper were fo fwelled by this fudden gale of prosperity, that they bore her far from the course which his prudence defired to make her fteer. From the day, in which the king was delivered to her a prisoner, her looks, her mien, her language, were abfolutely changed. She affumed an air fo imperious, that one would have thought her another Semiramis, giving laws to a nation long accustomed to fervitude, rather than a princess of England, making her way, through many obstacles, to the limited government of a free people, not fufficiently convinced of her right to their fealty. Her Grandfather, William the Conqueror, was hardly more Vid. auctores defpotick at the end of his reign, than fhe at citat, ut fuprà. the beginning of a yet unaffured and unsettled authority, even before the crown, fo lately worn by her valiant antagonist, was placed on her head. Some of the party of Stephen, who came to offer their allegiance and fervices to her, she received with great coldness, others fhe drove from her prefence with upbraidings and threats. All the grants made by that prince, even thofe to the church, fhe precipitately revoked, to give them to her favorites. From those who had fubmitted to

Book. I. her the often took a part of their lands and

and poffeffions, as fines for their past conduct;

and thus left them, at the best, but half reconciled to her, or rather fecret enemies, who naturally felt more refentment for what they had loft, than gratitude for what they retained. But all the barons who, from a sense of honor or fidelity, delayed to abandon their late master, she wholly deprived of their honors and estates, and conferred them on others; thus rendering them implacable, and keeping up a head of oppofition against her, which no time could remove. The citizens of London, whom he ought to have particularly courted, were treated with great feverity: for the not only denied them the indulgence they asked, of being governed by the laws of King Edward the Confeffor, but oppreffed them by arbitrary and grievous exactions. They reprefented to her how much they had loft of that opulence they formerly had enjoyed, by the decay of their trade and other public calamities attending the war, befides the high demands, which the the late government had often made upon them, and which they durft not refuse. They more especially pleaded the extraordinary expences they had lately fuftained, in making provifion for the relief of their poor, against an imminent danger of famine, which, they apprehended, was not yet entirely removed. And therefore they humbly implored her, in the most pathetic terms, to moderate her de

mand,

mand, or, at least, to grant them, out of compaffion to their prefent great distress, a longer time for the payment; promifing her, that, when peace should be perfectly established, as their riches would encrease, fo should also their zeal for the fupport of her government. But, before they had ended their remonftrance, with rage in her eyes, frowns on her brow, and fuch a disorder of paffion, as equally deftroyed the majesty of the queen and the foftnefs of the woman, she told them, that they had frequently and lavishly granted their money to Stephen, for his support, and to her detriment, having been long combined with her enemies, as the had felt to her coft; and therefore they must not expect that she would fhew any lenity to them, or remit the least part of the fum she had demanded. So ill did she understand the art of converting fubdued enemies into friends, which, fo far as it can be done without alienating those by whofe affiftance they were fubdued, is of all arts the most ne ceffary in revolutions of government!

Nor was her behaviour more gracious to her friends themselves When the bishop of Winchester and the earl of Glocefter were fuitors to her for any of the king's party, fhe frequently rejected their interceffions with great rudeness, fuffering them to kneel to her, without rifing up: a pride, which, contrafted with the familiar and obliging behaviour of Stephen, appeared the more offenfive

B 3

Book. I.

Book I.

five and infupportable to a free people. In vain did her brother, to whom the owed her A. D. 1141. fuccefs, fuggeft to her right measures, and

a conduct more agreeable to that state she was in, and to the temper of the nation. Neither his counfels, nor those of the king of Scotland, her uncle, could prevail against the dictates of her impetuous paffions, to which the now gave fo abfolute a sway, that fhe made little ufe even of her own underftanding, which, in the former transactions of her life, had appeared to be much stronger and fitter for government, than could be imagined from her prefent behaviour. She was indeed quite intoxicated with her good fortune, and confidered England as a conquered country, upon which the might trample at pleafure; forgetting that most of those by whom the had conquered had fought for freedom, and that even the vanquished party was not fo difpirited, or reduced to fuch weakness, as that a galling and defperate refentment might not yet render them dangerous to her, efpecially if they were ftrengthened by a coalition with those whom intereft alone had made her friends. But while fhe was lulled in all the fecurity of infolent folly, and incitat, ut fuprà. tent upon nothing but her approaching coronation, for the ceremonies of which the now prepared, with all the impatience and pleasure of a woman who loved the pomp of royalty no less than the substance, there arofe a fudden ftorm, which burft upon

Vid. ap&tores

her head