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The Monarchy vs. The Church in Medieval Europe

The history of the English Crown and the Catholic Church up to the Union of the
Crowns and the Church Reformation is long, embroiled and eventful. To put it simply, there
was always a battle over which institution had more power, thus resulting in numerous
conflicts throughout the Middle Ages in England.
The Middle Ages is a period of time in European history dating back from the 5th
century up until the 15th century. This age follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in
476 and it is also known as Dark Ages because of its complexity and lack of documents of
that period.
After Rome stopped governing the country in the fifth century, various Germanic
tribal groups, such as the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes, started invading Britain by either
subduing or displacing the Celtic inhabitants of the region. Gradually, Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms emerge over almost the whole of England, namely Kent and Sussex, that are
already in existence before the end of the fifth century, East Angles, Mercia, Northumbria
and Wessex, further west, that becomes an identifiable kingdom not much later. The
exception is Cornwall, which like Wales remains a Celtic stronghold. After the established
Anglo-Saxon supremacy, here began the Christianization of all English people, who was
undertaken by Sf. Augustine in 597, a monk in Rome chosen by Pope Gregory I during his

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pontificate (590-604), to lead a mission to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons, as evidenced by

Bede:
In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man renowned
for learning and behaviour, was promoted to the
apostolical see of Rome, and presided over it thirteen
years, six months and ten days. He, being moved by
Divine inspiration, in the fourteenth year of the same
emperor, and about the one hundred and fiftieth after the
coming of the English into Britain, sent the servant of
God, Augustine, and with him several other monks, who
feared the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English
nation.1

Subsequently, Sf. Augustine became the archbishop of Canterbury, the Kentish

capital, and within 90 years of his arrival all Saxon kingdoms of England had accepted
Christianity. A generation later, in 625, a Kentish princess travels to York to marry a pagan
king of Northumbria. Paulinus, another missionary from Rome, accompanies her. He
becomes the first archbishop of York.
In the eighth century, Offa (757-796), the ruler of Mercia acquires almost the status of
a king of England. He makes a trade treaty with Charlemagne, negotiates directly with the
pope, and builds the great embankment known by his name which protects central England
from the Welsh. But these unifying developments are soon under threat - from the Vikings.
At this moment in time, the English church experienced periods of advancement and
of decline. During the 8th century, English scholarship was highly regarded, and several
English churchmen worked in Europe as scholars, reformers, and missionaries. Subsequently,
Danish invasions destroyed monasteries and weakened scholarship. Political unity in England
1 Bede: "A History of the English Church and People" <aka "The
Ecclesiastical History">, translated by Leo Sherley-Price
(Penguin Classics, London, 1955, 1968).

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was established under the Wessex kings in the 10th century, such as Alfred the Great (871899). However, reforms of the church took place.
In 1042, the witenagemot made Edward the Confessor, an Anglo-Saxon prince, king
of England. Edward gave money to the poor and sponsored the building in London of
Westminster Abbey, the church in which later kings and queens were crowned. He spent so
much time in religious work, however, that he failed to carry out his royal duties. As a result,
the nobles increased their hold on the country. The most powerful noble was Harold
Godwinson. When Edward died in 1066 without an heir, Harold became the new king.
Harold, earl of Wessex, did not remain king for long. More predictably William, duke
of Normandy, made plans to press his claim to the English throne. As a cousin of Edward the
Confessor (whose mother, Emma, was a Norman), William had closer links with the English
crown than Harold. And the pope supported his claim. King Harold II of England is defeated
by the Norman forces of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, fought on Senlac
Hill, seven miles north of Hastings, England. At the end of the bloody, all-day battle, Harold
was killed shot in the eye with an arrow, according to legend and his forces were
destroyed. He was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. The events leading up to the
Norman conquest of England, concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of
Essex, later King of England, culminating with the Battle of Hastings, are best depicted in
the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the supreme achievements of the Norman Romanesque. One
memorable scene is the one depicting Odo, the Bischop of Bayeux and William's half-brother,
holding a large club in his hands (Figure 1). In the eleventh century it was customary for the
bischops tp join in, though they were forbidden to shed blood. Odo was carrying a huge club;
that way he could break a few arms or heads without any blood shed.

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In the 11th century, the Norman conquest of England(1066) united England more
closely with the culture of Latin Europe. The English church was reformed according to
Roman ideas: local synods were revived, celibacy of the clergy was required, and the canon
law of western Europe was introduced in England.
In light of the events presented above, The Normans came to govern England over a
period of great change and developpement for the country (1066-1154). Four Norman kings
presided - William I the Conqueror, William II, Henry I and - along with Empress Matilda. In
this time, The Domesday Book, also known to its contemporaries as 'description of England',
a great record of English land-holding, was published; the forests were extended; the
Exchequer was founded; and a start was made on the Tower of London. In religious affairs,
the Gregorian reform movement gathered pace and forced concessions, while the machinery
of government developed to support the country while Henry was fighting abroad.
The Investiture Controversy was one of the most significant conflicts between the
state and Catholic Church in medieval Europe, during the 11th and 12th century. It was a
conflict between popes and different monarchs over who had more power to appoint church
officials, such as bishops of cities and abbots of monasteries. In the Roman Council of 1074
presided over by Pope Gregory VII, he declared: "Those who have been advanced to any
grade of holy orders, or to any office, through simony, that is the payment of money, shall
hereafter have no right to officiate in the holy church."2 This statement, as well as several
others made throughout the Dictatus Papae enraged monarch across the Western Europe,
especially Henry IV the Holy roman Emperor (1056-1106), who previous to Pope Gregory
2
Brian Tierney, ed., The Middle Ages: Sources of Medieval History vol. 1. (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1970 , 121

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VII's pontificate had appointed church officials at their pleasure.The conflict ended in 1122,
when Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II agreed on the Concordat of Worms. It
differentiated between the royal and spiritual powers and gave the emperors a limited role in
selecting bishops.
The question of succession has haunted the remainder of this period. After Henry's
death, Matilda's right to the throne was denied by her cousin, Henry's nephew, Stephen. The
clonflict turned into a Civil War. Matilda married Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, who took
control of Normandy A compromise was eventually reached whereby the son of Matilda and
Geoffrey would be heir to the English crown, while Stephen's son would inherit his baronial
lands. It meant that in 1154 Henry II would ascend to the throne as the first undisputed king
in over one hundred years, in a long line of fourteen Plantagenet kings - evidence of the
dynastic uncertainty of the Norman period.
King Henry II presided over the assemblies of most of the higher English clergy at
Clarendon Palace on 30 January 1164. In sixteen constitutions, he sought less clerical
independence and a weaker connection with Rome. He employed all his skills to induce their
consent and was apparently successful with all but Thomas Becket - the king's chancellor and
archbishop of Canterbury. Finally, even Becket expressed his willingness to agree to the
substance of the Constions of Clarendon, but he still refused to formally sign the documents.
Henry summoned Becket to appear before a great council at Northampton Castl on 8 October
1164, to answer allegations of contempt of royal authority and malfeasance in the
Chancellor's office. Convicted on the charges, Becket stormed out of the trial and fled to the
Continent.

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The last of the Angevin kings was John, whom history has judged harshly. By 1205,
six years into his reign, only a fragment of the vast Angevin empire acquired by Henry II
remained. John quarrelled with the Pope over the appointment of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, eventually surrendering. He was also forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215,
which restated the rights of the church, the barons and all in the land. John died in ignominy,
having broken the contract, leading the nobles to summon aid from France and creating a
precarious position for his Plantagenet heir, Henry III.
Magna Carta, the great charter of liberties that placed the English king under the law.
This charter, agreed by John in 1215 at Runnymede meadow and confirmed in definitive
form by Henry III in 1225, is a crucial document for Englands history, likely the best known
of all documents surviving from medieval England. Its attempt to impose the laws
limitations on a ruler is summarised in Chapter 39: No free man shall be taken or imprisoned,
or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go or send against
him except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.3
Wars of the Roses, (14551485), in English history, the series of dynastic civil wars
whose violence and civil strife preceded the strong government of the Tudors. Fought
between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, the wars were named many
years afterward from the supposed badges of the contending parties: the white rose of York
and the red of Lancaster.
The Church Reformation or The Protestant Reformation, even simply called The
Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectal and cultural upheaval that
3
Turner, V. Ralph, The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215 (History Today, Volume 53,
Issue 9, September 2003).

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separated Catholic Europe. The Reformation started with a Martin Luther's questioning of
Catholic dogma, as well as other reformers like Jean Calvin and Henry VIII, who challengd
the papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church's ability to define Christian practice.
In England, the break with the Roman papacy and the establishment of an independent
Church of England came during the reign of Henry VIII(15091547), which had far reaching
consequences in Tudor England. When Pope Clement VII refused to approve the annulment
of Henrys marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the English Parliament, at Henrys insistence,
passed a series of acts that separated the English church from the Roman hierarchy and in
1534 made the English monarch the head of the English Church (Act of Supremacy). The
monasteries were suppressed, but few other changes were immediately made, since Henry
intended that the English church would remain Catholic, though separated from Rome.
After Henrys death, Protestant reforms of the church were introduced during the sixyear reign of Edward VI. In 1553, however, when Edwards half-sister, Mary, a Roman
Catholic, succeeded to the throne, her repression and persecution of Protestants aroused
sympathy for their cause. When Elizabeth I became queen in 1558, the independent Church
of England was reestablished, but later began to persecute Catholics and by the end of her
reign England was a Protestant country. James I was tolerant towards the Catholics, but
introduced strict anti-Catholic laws after the Gunpowder Plot. Charles I tried to introduce
Arminian changes. Arminianism is a form of Protestantism that has a lot in common with
Catholicism. Charles ended up fighting a civil war against Oliver Cromwell who was a
Puritan. Charles II and James II were Catholics. They tried to relax the laws against
Catholics. William III was a Calvinist Protestant from Holland. He took England to war to
stop the Catholic French King Louis XIV from increasing his power.

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The Union of the Crowns was the last important event in Medieval England and was
indispensable to the continuance of the monarchy, since Queen Elisabeth's death in 1603 left
the English throne unoccupied. England and Scotland were two entirely independent
kingdoms, but because the Queen had died unmarried and childless, the English crown
passed to the next available heir, her cousin James VI, King of Scotland. England and
Scotland now shared the same monarch under what was known as a union of the crowns.
However, the perfect union that King James hoped for was still far away. Scotland and
England kept their own parliaments, their own laws and minted their own coins.
It can be seen that, as the powers of the Church grew, the conflicts with the state
increased. The Church enjoyed all the privileges brought by power and authority. Medieval
Popes were responsible for the foreign policies between church and the state and each of the
state had its own regulations and rules. Eventually dominancy of Church could not be
handled by State. State wanted more power and authority to itself. The hierarchical King
wanted the jurisdiction over his own state which he did not have due to Popes interference in
every decision. Many events such as the ones described above state the fact that the State no
longer relied on the authority of the Church. Thus, gradually Churchs status declined and the
power it once enjoyed also diminished.

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Figure 1. A segment of the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, rallying Duke William's troops
during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

Bibliography:

Blumenthal, Uta-Renate. "The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from

the Ninth to the Twelfth Century" (Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Press,

1988)
"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", (Everyman Press edition, London, 1912, translated by
Rev. James Imgram)

Turner, V. Ralph, "The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215" (History Today, Volume
53, Issue 9, September 2003).

Drew, Catherine Fisher, "Magna Carta" (Greenwood press, 2004)

Bede: "A History of the English Church and People" <aka "The Ecclesiastical
History">, translated by Leo Sherley-Price (Penguin Classics, London, 1955, 1968).

Brian Tierney, ed., The Middle Ages: Sources of Medieval History vol. 1. (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1970 , 121

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