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Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England (1878)
Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England - 1878 Author:John Campbell Campbell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. CHANCELLORS FROM THE RESIGNATION OF THOMAS A BECKET TO THE DEATH OF HENRY II. THE history of the Great Seal during the reign of Henry II. is le... more »ft in a state of much uncertainty from the time when it was resigned in 1162 by Thomas a Becket till it was delivered in 1181 to Geoffrey Plantagenet, the King's natural son. In this interval there were very powerful chief justiciars由ichard de Luci, and Robert Earl of Leicester; and they probably rendered the office of Chancellor for the time of little consequence. However, we find the names of several who are said to have held it. First. "JOANNES Cancellarius"1 occurs; but of this John we know not the surname, nor what other dignity he ever attained. Next comes RODOLPHUS de Warna- villa, of whom we only know that when he was appointed he was archdeacon of Rohan." The third is WALTER de Constantiis, who was made Bishop of Ely. Although the last is supposed to have been at one time Chancellor to the King, it would appear that in the year 1175 he only held the Great Seal as a deputy, if we may judge from the account given us by Hoveden of an embassy to the Earl of Flanders, in which he was joined with the famous Ranul- phus de Glanvil, afterwards Chief Justiciar, and the earliest writer on the Law of England. On this occasion he is described as " Vice-Cancellarius." ' What share any of these Chancellors had in the stirring events of the time, 葉he framing of the Constitutions of Clarendon,葉he deadly controversy with Becket,葉he conquest of Ireland, 葉he war with Scotland,-葉he feudal subjection of that country on the capture of William the Scottish King, and the continued disputes and wars between Henry and his sons, we shall never learn. It is the fashion of historians down to a much later era, to ascribe all the ac...« less