DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0144
112 HISTORY OF
been seized and ravaged by the Earl of Gloucester in the time of his predecessor.
He had also acquired the favourable regard of Pope Alexander III. as appears
from the letter which he addressed to the sovereign pontiff in behalf of Gilbert
Foliot, Bishop of London*.
He was more successful, as he certainly deserved to be, than Gervase de Blois,
in his application to the papal court for the canonization of Edward the Con-
fessor. It seems, indeed, to have been granted to him with a very complying
acquiescence-f.
There is still extant, and in print, a history of the life and miracles of that
prince, written by Ealdred, Abbot of Rievaux, in the county of York, composed,
by the direction of Laurence, as may be presumed, to satisfy the conscience of
the pope. This work was dedicated to Henry II. and presented to the king
when the Confessor's body was removed and enshrined in the year 1163.
It may appear rather extraordinary, that a prince, who had no claim to supe-
rior understanding, who was neither a kind husband to his excellent queen, nor
a respectful son to his mother, should be honoured, not only with a most willing
concurrence, but an ardent zeal, among all orders of the people, to procure his
enrolment in the calendar of saints. The surprise, however, will cease, when it is
considered, that his memory was very dear to his subjects, as being the last
sovereign of the old Saxon race; that he was eminent for his devotion, and the
rigid observance of every religious rite; that the Norman kings, as they pre-
tended to ground their claim to the crown on his donation, were anxious to do
every thing that might add a lustre to his name: while the monastery was not
without its views in the aggrandizement of its founder, which would be univer-
sally considered as so honourable to its character, and prove, at the same time,
* EpistolcB Thomce Becket, Brussellis, 1682, p. 548.
+ Appendix, No. 3.
been seized and ravaged by the Earl of Gloucester in the time of his predecessor.
He had also acquired the favourable regard of Pope Alexander III. as appears
from the letter which he addressed to the sovereign pontiff in behalf of Gilbert
Foliot, Bishop of London*.
He was more successful, as he certainly deserved to be, than Gervase de Blois,
in his application to the papal court for the canonization of Edward the Con-
fessor. It seems, indeed, to have been granted to him with a very complying
acquiescence-f.
There is still extant, and in print, a history of the life and miracles of that
prince, written by Ealdred, Abbot of Rievaux, in the county of York, composed,
by the direction of Laurence, as may be presumed, to satisfy the conscience of
the pope. This work was dedicated to Henry II. and presented to the king
when the Confessor's body was removed and enshrined in the year 1163.
It may appear rather extraordinary, that a prince, who had no claim to supe-
rior understanding, who was neither a kind husband to his excellent queen, nor
a respectful son to his mother, should be honoured, not only with a most willing
concurrence, but an ardent zeal, among all orders of the people, to procure his
enrolment in the calendar of saints. The surprise, however, will cease, when it is
considered, that his memory was very dear to his subjects, as being the last
sovereign of the old Saxon race; that he was eminent for his devotion, and the
rigid observance of every religious rite; that the Norman kings, as they pre-
tended to ground their claim to the crown on his donation, were anxious to do
every thing that might add a lustre to his name: while the monastery was not
without its views in the aggrandizement of its founder, which would be univer-
sally considered as so honourable to its character, and prove, at the same time,
* EpistolcB Thomce Becket, Brussellis, 1682, p. 548.
+ Appendix, No. 3.