00:05
Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 504 at Anselm's Beck and Call.
00:13
This show is ad-free due to member support. And as a way of thanking members for keeping the show independent, I offer members-only content, including extra episodes and rough transcripts. And you can get instant access to all the members' extras by signing up for membership at thebritishhistorypodcast.com for about the price of a latte per month. And thank you very much to Tarina, Faye, and Charlotte for signing up already.
00:35
It was July 21st of 1105, and Henry was in Legley, just like he was in the late 1070s.
00:45
And just like in the late 1070s, he was in conflict with his older brother.
00:51
only this time he wasn't in town to do something fun like peon robert from a balcony no this time it definitely wasn't for something fun instead king henry was in legley because he needed to talk with archbishop anselm and this entire situation must have been quite a surprise for him because henry was usually a very good judge of character and he had an uncanny sense of how far he could push someone to get what he wanted.
01:23
That's how he went from being the baby of the family to the King of England.
01:28
But somewhere along the line, he had misread Anselm, because even in the face of all of the bullying and all of the manipulation, I don't think it ever occurred to Henry that the old man would decide to disregard the Pope's authority and just haul off and excommunicate Henry himself. But that was exactly what the Archbishop was planning on doing. And so, against all odds, Henry was back in Legley.
01:59
And this time, basically all of Christendom was up on that balcony getting ready to let loose on him. So it was time for a charm offensive.
02:11
Maybe, probably, but you know, who really knows? Because we aren't given much detail on this meeting. Anselm and Edmer are strangely quiet about the whole thing. We do know that they negotiated a settlement, but as for how it all played out, we're left to guess. And keep in mind, Anselm was writing to the Pope about this. So it's not like we're lacking in documents. We have documents. What we lack are details.
02:42
And that might be because Anselm realized that the details could get him in trouble.
02:49
After all, the sole reason that Henry had agreed to come to Legley for this meeting was because Anselm was threatening to excommunicate him. And that, well, that was actually in violation of canon law. So how could Anselm actually describe the negotiation process without admitting that he went over the Pope's head? He couldn't, right? Well, So he did the next best thing and he just forgot to include it in the record.
03:19
And just in case the Pope was wondering why Anselm was in the area at all, he wrote that actually he was in the neighborhood just because he wanted to publicize the papal excommunication of Robert of Mulan, you know, like any good archbishop would do. So absolutely nothing shady going on here, Your Holiness, just pure godly obedience.
03:43
And this self-editing, while understandable, is frustrating because it means that we don't have a record of the fireworks that almost certainly went off when Anselm and Henry met. And actually, the awkward silence around this event is so strong that when Anselm wrote to the Pope, he didn't even mention the terms of the settlement. And neither did Edmer in his writing. which leaves us digging through other documents to try and piece together what this agreement even entailed.
04:14
And apparently, Henry agreed to back down on the issue of investiture and end Anselm's exile from England. And Anselm agreed, uh...
04:26
Well, he agreed to not do that thing that he was threatening to do, but that we're definitely not talking about. He also lifted the excommunication of Robert of Mulan, which, like his threat, seems like it was a bit of an overreach since it was actually the Pope who excommunicated Mulan, not Anselm. So did he even have the authority to do that?
04:49
And then he said that Henry would be allowed to still receive the homage from the prelates.
04:54
Then, with the negotiations completed, Anselm returned to his home abbey of Beck, and King Henry returned to England.
05:04
Now, granted, Anselm could have returned to England with Henry and retaken his position in Canterbury right away, which is something that Henry definitely would have wanted. But Anselm didn't.
05:17
And I think it's because he knew exactly what kind of man Henry was.
05:23
You see, Henry, like his father, didn't like to give up anything unless he had absolutely no other choice. And he was giving up a lot in this agreement. He was basically abandoning the entire fight over investiture. And that's a huge loss for the crown. Well, it's a huge loss if that agreement is ratified and made official.
05:48
which currently it wasn't.
05:51
Right now, it was just a discussion between Anselm and the king, and it was one that both parties were, at best, vague booking about.
06:01
And if you remember back to previous episodes, Henry had been using every trick in the book to avoid any sort of official resolution on the investiture controversy in England.
06:13
And for good reason. If he could just finish his conquest of Normandy and secure his position as both the ruler of England and Normandy, then he would be in a much stronger position to negotiate with the Pope.
06:27
And that's why Henry, rather than sending envoys to Rome to communicate the terms of the agreement, instead just went back to England and was all, Anselm, come on, man, why don't you come with me?
06:43
Because if Anselm was in England, it would communicate to everyone that the conflict had been resolved. And then Henry could get back to his conquest of Normandy. This is also why in response, Anselm was all, oh, you know, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to return until the Pope ratifies our agreement. So you better send those envoys quickly, Hank. To which Henry was all, oh, come on, let's not let a minor issue of correspondence timing prevent you from safeguarding the souls of your flock.
07:19
And round and round they went.
07:22
But King Henry was also pretty good at multitasking and he had a lot of responsibilities. So he wasn't just writing letters to Anselm. He was also raising taxes.
07:35
If the church wanted to play hardball, then so would he.
07:39
So Henry imposed new taxes upon the priests, specifically the ones who were still on the market.
07:48
So any priest that had a wife or a concubine would now have to pay taxes to the crown in support of the war effort. Now, as you might recall, the church was pushing pretty hard for celibacy among the priesthood. And so these priests were in variance with the papacy and as a result, also in variance with a certain hardline Archbishop of Canterbury.
08:12
As such, I'm guessing that Henry's assumption was that this would be an automatic win.
08:18
Not only could he raise some funds for the conquest of Normandy, he could also demonstrate to Anselm and the church that he was a good guy and totally willing to punish anyone who failed to bow to papal desires.
08:32
So win-win, right?
08:34
Wrong.
08:36
Because Anselm immediately pitched a fit over these new taxes.
08:41
How the priests spent their evenings and whether or not they were in line with Rome was a papal matter, not a royal one. And besides, none of that changed the fact that they were priests and therefore they should not be taxed. Which means that rather than making a friend of Anselm, Henry had found himself in further conflict with the guy. Not only that, but he had just angered the members of the English clergy who were most likely to support him breaking with the Pope.
09:14
And, some crazy how, he made Anselm look like their savior at the same time.
09:21
God damn it!
09:24
Even worse, these handsy priests weren't exactly rolling in dough. They were too busy rolling in the hay, which meant that these taxes had barely made a dent in his fundraising goals. And I guess Henry felt like if he was gonna be in trouble for taxing priests, then there's no reason to be coy about it because he quickly adjusted his tax policy to target all priests, regardless of their relationship status.
09:52
Pay up, father. And Anselm was naturally quite annoyed by this. And he wrote to Henry another letter telling him off. Henry responded by, once again, inviting Anselm to return to England, whereupon he promised to provide, quote, an explanation that will be so satisfactory to you that you will not, I am certain, blame me for what I have done, end quote.
10:19
That's a real quote, and I did a double take when I read it. I half expected Henry to add that his taxes were perfect and also a hoax.
10:29
But Anselm remained steadfast. He would stay in Beck until the Pope ratified the agreement. Hurry up and send those envoys, your highness.
10:40
But Henry didn't want to send the envoys. Instead, he kept taxing the priests.
10:47
A sort of the taxes will continue until morale improves kind of approach. And Anselm continued writing letters complaining about this state of affairs. And he flatly refused to leave Beck, which really put Henry in a tight spot.
11:04
Because it's pretty clear that he didn't feel like he could effectively continue his conquest while this conflict with Anselm continued. And he was probably right.
11:15
Henry had Robert on the run, but once Anselm pitched a fit, suddenly Henry's army evaporated and he had to return to England. That must have really shook the king, which is almost certainly why he was trying to get Anselm to return to England and reconcile. It's also probably why during this same period, Henry was traveling around Northern England.
11:41
Now, longtime listeners know that Northern England had a long history of rebellion. This is an area that has a well-earned reputation for never seeing a figure in authority that they didn't want to stab. In fact, I think you can make a pretty good argument that Hastings went the way it did because the North refused to back up Harold Godwinson. And Harold Godwinson had just saved their bacon at Stamford Bridge. And even then, the North was basically like, f*** off.
12:13
The North is a whole thing. So right out of the gate, Henry had plenty of reasons to be worried about the North, even before you factored in all of his new taxes and his unpopular war.
12:27
But it gets worse.
12:28
Because Robert of Belem held properties in the north. And so did his brothers, Arnulf and Roger. And so did William of Mortain.
12:40
And every one of those guys were King Henry's enemies and were supporters of Duke Robert of Normandy.
12:49
Not good.
12:51
So, while Henry was writing letters to Anselm trying to get him to return to England, he was also riding around York and Pontefract and elsewhere, trying to ensure that the North would stay loyal to him.
13:06
The king's problems were piling up faster than he could handle, and it was becoming increasingly clear that at the center of it was Anselm.
13:16
If he didn't resolve that crisis, none of the others were going to go away.
13:22
So finally, in December of 1105, about half a year after that meeting at Legley, Henry relented and he sent his chief diplomat, William Warlwast, to Rome.
13:36
And he wasn't going alone.
13:38
Anselm's supporter, Baldwin of Tornay, was also going with him, probably as a bit of a minder.
13:46
However, the political crisis didn't end there.
13:50
Henry's efforts at bullying his way out of this problem with taxes had made a lot of people angry. And it wasn't just the church that was getting devastated by the king's policies. Everyone was. These taxes were widespread. It's just that Anselm's letters were only concerned with the taxes upon the church. But Henry was taxing everyone. And it's not like people had cash to spare in 1105.
14:16
In fact, according to the Chronicle, England was dealing with a famine that year. So everyone was suffering and just trying to figure out how they were going to be able to afford to eat. All the while the king was gleefully launching new expensive foreign wars.
14:35
Yeah.
14:37
Anyway, the point is things were bad. So bad, in fact, that Robert of Mulan ended up being the voice of reason. Yeah, Robert of effing Mulan, the Beaumont brother who had sent his alleged friend on a doomed crusade and then swindled the guy's kids out of their own inheritance. That Robert of Mulan. Well, even he saw all of this and was all, Hank, bro, you are going a bit too far here.
15:10
And Henry must have realized that if Robert was getting nervous, he was getting close to a revolt. And so the king reduced the taxes.
15:20
Merry Christmas. I'll only take half of your Christmas pudding this year.
15:25
You're welcome. But speaking of Christmas, while most everyone was, I assume, trying to figure out how to turn fried rat into a festive Christmas dinner, the king was at Westminster holding his yearly Christmas celebration.
15:41
Now, naturally, this was a lavish event with a bunch of the most wealthy and powerful figures of the realm in attendance. And I'm not sure if he was invited or if he just decided to take advantage of the nativity and crash the party.
15:59
But joining everyone was Robert of Belem.
16:04
Yeah, I'm as shocked as you are. I mean, Henry and Bolem were bitter enemies, and this king in particular loved to hold onto a grudge. In fact, Malmesbury, when speaking about Henry's temperament, tells us that Henry had boundless wrath for those he felt were opposed to him, and he didn't restrain it in the least.
16:28
When faced with a rivalry, Henry's preferred method of emotional processing was to completely ruin said rival.
16:37
And yet here was Belem decking the halls.
16:41
His halls.
16:43
What the hell?
16:47
Now, it's not clear precisely why Bolem was there. The scribes of the Chronicle don't tell us. And instead, they spend their time writing at length about a strange new star they saw. They describe it in detail, how bright it was, what direction it was pointing, you name it. They spend a lot of time talking about this thing.
17:11
It was a comet.
17:12
They saw a comet. And I guess it blew their damn minds because it completely upstaged Bolem crashing Henry's Christmas party and causing a scene. Because, yeah, in classic Christmas fashion, the messiest person Henry knew arrived at his party, got into some sort of altercation, and then, according to the scribes, stormed out, quote, in hostile fashion, end quote, and returned to Normandy.
17:40
Glad to know some things never change.
17:43
Then, a little over a month later, Duke Robert Courthouse arrived in England.
17:49
And this time, we know a little more about why.
17:53
Apparently, Anselm had talked Robert into making the journey, urging the Duke to request that Henry return the lands that he had seized during the 1105 campaign.
18:05
which raises the possibility that that earlier Christmas visit by Bolem might have been for that exact same purpose. I mean, knowing that Henry had recently dispatched envoys to Rome, Anselm and the Duke's people would have known that their window of opportunity was closing rapidly. Henry was weak right now, but if this conflict with Anselm was resolved, he might be able to get the band back together and relaunch his campaign. So if they wanted to regain their lost Norman lands and put an end to this conflict, it was now or never.
18:43
And if Anselm was urging the Duke to make the journey to request his lands back, it makes perfect sense that, given Henry's treatment of his brother, it would be far better to just send one of the Duke's trusted commanders to England instead. You know, someone like Bolem.
19:01
The only trouble being that Henry hated Bolem with a passion, and he was also the kind of guy to let loose from a balcony when he saw fit. So if Henry treated Bolem not as a fellow statesman, but as an enemy and unleashed his rage upon him, as Malmesbury said he tended to do, well, I can imagine that Bolem probably would have blown up and left for Normandy in, quote, hostile fashion, end quote. it's a completely plausible explanation for that Christmas drama.
19:33
Though, because it's Belem, it is also possible that he didn't care all that much about the Duke's cause and was instead looking to broker a deal where he would betray Kurthose in exchange for the return of his English lands.
19:48
In fact, Hollister suggests this exact possibility.
19:53
It really is impossible to know for sure because our sources don't provide us with specifics.
19:59
But Belem was a man who was capable of pretty much anything. So at the end of the day, it's all conjecture.
20:07
What we can be sure of though, is that Duke Robert was now in England under Anselm's advice for the express purpose of regaining his Norman properties.
20:19
And since the King and his court were in Northampton, the Duke rode there to meet with his brother and resolve this issue.
20:27
And once they met, Henry told Robert exactly where he could shove his requests.
20:34
You are never getting those lands back, Rob.
20:38
Never.
20:39
And so Robert returned to Normandy. And like Bolem, he was livid.
20:46
But really, they should have expected this.
20:50
Henry had buckled to Anselm not because he was a broken man, but because he decided that he would rather have Normandy than investiture. And as he had recently sent Warlwast and Baldwin to the Pope specifically for the purpose of giving up investiture, in what world would he be willing to also give up Normandy?
21:13
Anselman the Duke had drastically misread the situation. And their position went from bad to worse when William Worlwast and Baldwin of Tornay returned to court. Because they were bearing a letter from the Pope, dated March 23rd.
21:30
And in it, the Pope accepted the compromise set down at Legley.
21:36
The investiture controversy was over. Or at least it was for King Henry.
21:42
Investing the prelates would now be the rite of the church, not the crown. Anselm would also be restored to his sea, and he would get all the stuff back that the king had nicked from the sea in a tizzy.
21:54
And in return, Henry got...
21:58
You know, that thing no one's really talking about here. But what they were willing to talk about was that he got an end to his conflict with Anselm. Which meant no more religious mean mugging from all of Anselm's allies. And hopefully no more knights doing disappearing acts right in the middle of a campaign.
22:18
And most importantly, no more impending excommunication.
22:24
And we're told that Henry was, quote, greatly pleased, end quote, that his conflict with Anselm was over. And he quickly sent Warlewas to Beck, carrying a royal invitation for Anselm to return to England at once.
22:38
This was great. He'd have a quick reunion with the archbishop. He'd get the old man installed back into his sea, which would soothe everyone's nerves. And then Henry would finally be able to get back to trying to kill his brother. And of course, everyone who even supported his brother. And as a bonus, It was still early in the year, so there is plenty of campaigning season left. So, as the king waited for Anselm, he also prepared his army to cross the channel.
23:09
The date was set. They begin their invasion on the 3rd of May.
23:14
It's gonna be May.
23:17
A short while later, the King's message arrived at Beck and Anselm promptly gathered his things and began his journey to England.
23:26
But soon, he began to feel a little peaked.
23:32
Edmer doesn't tell us the nature of this ailment, but apparently by the time that he reached Jumiage, he simply could not travel any further.
23:43
Now, for scale, you can walk this route in a day at an easy pace. It's about 28 kilometers and fairly flat. So basically, Anselm took a day hike, reached an Allied abbey, and said he couldn't walk any further.
23:59
Now, to be fair, this guy was getting up there in years, but no biggie, right? Because Jumiege is right on the Seine. So all he needed to do now was board a boat, float down the river to the port of Le Havre, and then he'd be able to board a ship to England with time to spare.
24:17
Except he wasn't going to do that.
24:20
Instead, Anselm decided he would rest at Jumièges and recover, all while King Henry was in England, with all of his forces wondering where exactly Anselm was.
24:33
And considering that Henry's sister, Adela, had delayed Anselm's efforts to excommunicate the king with a sudden illness less than a year earlier, well, Anselm's sudden illness that just happened to delay the launch of Henry's war does raise an eyebrow.
24:52
But finally, Anselm recovered.
24:57
And as the river was less than a kilometer away, and from there, all he'd need to do is sit and let the sailors take care of everything for him. Well, now it was time to go to England, right?
25:09
Wrong. Why walk less than a kilometer to a boat and then journey to England by water when you can instead walk the 28 kilometers back to Beck Abbey?
25:22
So that's why he did. And according to his Vida, he was waiting for the king to join him there rather than going through the trouble of traveling to England.
25:32
Now, obviously, this was not the original plan. He was supposed to go to England, and it seems like some people in his orbit had reminded him that he needed to board a ship to England, because Edward says that while he was at Beck, the prospect of Anselm's return to England was expected, and it had, quote, filled all men with an extraordinary joy, end quote. which feels like he's laying it on a little thick. I mean, almost nobody inspires extraordinary joy in all men, and especially not a man like Anselm.
26:06
But fine, a good chunk of the folks at Beck were excited about Anselm going to England, especially since he was feeling better. And then right as they were at the height of their rejoicing, the archbishop suddenly got sick again.
26:22
Yeah, terrible timing, guys, I know.
26:26
But I'm just way too sick to go to England. And you know what? Actually, I would be better off just being in bed. So you guys enjoy all this revelry and chanting or whatever.
26:40
I'm going to be in my chambers.
26:42
Now, I'm not sure how Anselm's health and status were communicated to the king. I don't know, for example, if someone said that they had a 20-minute conversation with him and actually he's doing great, but no, you can't talk to him and no, he also can't come back to work. Also, stop asking.
27:01
Unfortunately, Edmer doesn't give us that kind of detail. But while Senator Anselm was resting in beck and refusing to come back to work, May came and went.
27:12
And June did the same.
27:14
And Henry was beginning to realize that Anselm, stupid, grouchy, troublesome Anselm, wasn't going to come to England before the campaigning season had ended.
27:28
And that's assuming that he was even going to come to England at all, which is a pretty big assumption. So... F*** it. We're going to Normandy with or without Anselm. So everyone, come on, get on board. We've waited long enough. We're going to Normandy.
27:45
Meanwhile, at Beck, Anselm was now reportedly refusing to eat, and everyone was getting really worried about him. I mean, you can only live so long without food, so that's a bad sign. And as a consequence, more and more high-ranked churchmen were coming to Beck, including Abbot Ralph. Now, Abbot Ralph would later become the Bishop of Rochester and then the Archbishop of Canterbury. So Ralph was an up-and-comer. And even he was there being all, Anselm, you gotta eat, dude.
28:20
You're gonna die.
28:22
But no dice. Anselm would not eat.
28:27
Though he did at one point turn to the attendees and say, perhaps I might eat some partridge if I had some.
28:38
And that's a direct quote from Edmer. Yeah, apparently Anselm was so ill he couldn't eat anything, but he also had a hankering for some hard to acquire game meat.
28:51
And as Anselm had a craving, well, everyone better get to it. So the whole abbey mobilized. And a whole day was lost as everyone spread out through the fields and woods in search of a partridge. And no one gave a damn as to whether it was in a pear tree or not.
29:09
But they couldn't find anything.
29:13
Meanwhile, one of Anselm's servants was actually out of town. He was handling some business for the abbey in another town. And he was actually on his way home when he saw Martin walking down the roads towards him with something in his mouth. And the servant was all, boo! And the Martin was all, ah! And it dropped what it was carrying in his mouth and ran off.
29:35
It was a partridge. Now, again, this servant didn't know that a partridge was needed, but naturally the servant grabbed the roadkill and thought this would be perfect for Anselm, which implies that this servant was either a cat or RFK Jr. Either way, Archbishop Anselm ate the partially chewed and slobbery partridge, and I'm guessing it was cooked first.
30:01
I hope it was cooked first.
30:03
Well, either way, he soon got better. But not everyone was convinced that Anselm was actually sick, nor were they convinced of the healing properties of partridges fresh from a Martin's mouth.
30:17
And in particular, one of Abbot Ralph's companions, who Edmer fails to name, was just not having it.
30:26
He thought Anselm was just a big faker and that he didn't deserve any sympathy, saying, quote, especially since he could have easily recovered his health with food and drink if he had wanted to and if he had swallowed his pride, end quote.
30:43
And, you know, preach. But Abbot Ralph was far more sympathetic to Anselm than I am. And so he told his companion to shut his damn yap. But the companion refused and doubled down. But this time, Edmer doesn't give us a quote. Instead, just saying that he got pretty damn rude about Anselm. And Ralph was all, watch it, dude. God will punish you for this. To which the companion was all, that's ridiculous. He sucks. Well, he was apparently also trying to break a branch off from a leafy oak tree.
31:18
Edmer isn't sure why he was trying to do this. He said it was either to make shade from the sun or to swat flies away. But whatever reason, he was working on this oak tree while he was making fun of the whole situation and the branch snapped and his horse bolted with him on it.
31:34
The companion fell backwards, but his foot got stuck in the stirrup and he was dragged away upside down as his horse galloped off.
31:44
And everyone took this to mean that Anselm's illness was genuine.
31:50
I take it to mean that horses are jumpy and should be avoided.
31:55
Now, again, this entire tale is given to us by Edmer. And if it's the first time you've heard any of it, same.
32:03
None of the scholars I read included the partridge and the bucking horse fiasco. even though Edmer devoted far more page space to this stuff than he did to Anselm and Henry resolving their conflict.
32:16
This is like a major part of the mythos. And I swear, one of the craziest things that I've learned from reading primary sources is just how much editing takes place to turn these messy gossip columns into elegant accounts of glory. And while I can totally understand the instinct to scrub these side quests from the record, especially since the events that they describe range from silly to downright unlikely, these stories are part of the record.
32:47
And there are still some things we can learn from them, even if to our modern eye, they seem laughable. And one thing that we should keep in mind when looking at these stories is that we are not the intended audience.
33:01
And I'm not just talking about podcast listeners.
33:04
Modern scholars aren't the intended audience either. In fact, medieval common folk aren't even the intended audience.
33:12
Edmer was writing for other 12th century churchmen.
33:17
And as you might imagine, this story had a very different connotation for those particular readers.
33:24
So let's set aside the brain worm suffering, toilet coke snorting, roadkill loving modern connotations and put ourselves in Edmer's shoes.
33:35
What was he saying here?
33:38
Well, the first thing to know is that at this time, partridge was believed to be a health food. So when Anselm asked for partridge, he wasn't being gluttonous. He was basically doing the same thing Gwyneth Paltrow does when she has a bone broth lunch or a goat milk cleanse.
33:56
However, getting the partridge is tricky. Because remember, Edmer is writing this as a pitch piece for the sanctification of Anselm.
34:06
So even if Anselm really needs his medieval wheatgrass smoothie, it needs to be acquired in a godly way, especially since Anselm was known for having sympathy for animals. He was actually anti-hunting. So if he suddenly reversed on that and he had his boys go blasting birds out of the bushes because he had a sour tummy, well, that wouldn't be very saintly, would it?
34:33
And that's why while he asked for a partridge, he never asked his people to go hunting.
34:39
Not only that, but Edmer was very clear that they had failed to find any partridge despite spending all day looking for one. And that is where the roadkill part becomes very relevant. Because not only was the servant not looking for a partridge, he didn't even know that it was needed. And thus, Anselm was completely blameless here.
35:03
Instead, the partridge was delivered to him by a spooked Martin on the road. And this is meaningful because in the medieval religious mind, there wasn't any such thing as coincidence.
35:16
It's all connected. It's all part of the plan, specifically God's plan.
35:23
So this Martin didn't drop his meal because he was scared. That Martin was sent by God to deliver the partridge to Anselm's unwitting servant. On top of that, a marten is a predator. And so here you have a bloodthirsty carnivore subverting its own nature to deliver a nourishing meal to a non-violent holy man.
35:46
So suddenly this isn't a weird guy eating roadkill. This is divine intervention.
35:52
and that would have resonated with 12th century religious readers. Because this wasn't the first time that the Almighty had moonlighted as a door dasher. In fact, it's highly likely that Edmer's intended audience would have immediately recognized how similar this event was to the biblical story of when the prophet Elijah was starving, and God sent some ravens to hook him up with some bread and meat. Quoth the raven, enjoy this Sammy.
36:21
So Anselm's meal and subsequent recovery was delivered to him by God in a way that was highly reminiscent of the prophets of the Old Testament. And remember, thanks to the first crusade, people believed that they were living in a new biblical era. So this would have carried even more weight than usual with a lot of people. Now, of course, as we have learned, not all people, but Edmer has an answer for them as well.
36:50
It's practically a pre-bottle and it's dripping with symbolism that the audience would understand.
36:57
Anselm's critic was holding an oak branch, which is strong and unbending, not like the supple reeds that we are supposed to be. And then when his horse takes off and the critic falls, his foot gets stuck in his own stirrup. So he's undone by his own tools as nature, the power of creation, exacts divine retribution upon him by dragging him ignominiously down the road until he repents.
37:27
And this, like the partridge, is a direct reference to a biblical story. This time, it's about the arrogant and rebellious Absalom, who is riding in opposition to his godly father, King David. But then he got his hair caught in an oak tree while his steed continued on.
37:47
And he was just stuck, hanging there, humiliated and defenseless.
37:53
The Old Testament is wild, you guys. You should read it at some point. But Edmer knew that his intended audience would have been aware of Absalom. And he was pretty clearly saying, if you talk about Anselm's illness, you're basically writing against King David. And we all know how that goes.
38:12
So there you have it, the story of the partridge. And I know, right? It feels a bit like the calling in sick version of the Odyssey, where Odysseus comes home to Penelope after living with Calypso for years and is all, baby, I know this looks bad, but I swear it's not my fault. See, there was the Cyclops.
38:34
And it's an impression that's reinforced by the fact that Anselm had his second miraculous recovery right after King Henry returned to Normandy.
38:45
In fact, the king had landed on the 15th of July in 1106. So almost exactly one year after he met with Anselm at Laeglie. Which means that this entire episode, the awkward reversal on investiture, the delightfully messy English Christmas party, the roadkill medicine, all of that had taken a year. And King Henry would have been painfully aware of this timeline. His war against Robert had been on the verge of victory when Anselm made his move and stopped it in its tracks.
39:19
And in the year that followed, every time that Henry tried to resolve the issue, Anselm had an excuse or an illness or some other issue that caused another delay.
39:33
Even now, his campaign was still being delayed because even though he was in Normandy, Anselm was still over in Beck, allegedly on his deathbed, which meant that the king and his entire army now had to march to Beck to check on him and resolve this beef rather than marching upon Duke Robert to resolve that beef, which is something I'm sure Henry absolutely loved.
40:02
But in early August of 1106, the king and his army were just down the road from the abbey.
40:11
And he was looking a bit peeved.
40:14
But at least now he could see what deathly illness was causing all these problems for the kingdom. And he might have even been thinking about new candidates for the Archbishop of Canterbury.
40:25
when suddenly churchmen came out to meet him. And apparently we're all, your highness, I know this looks bad, but it's not his fault. You see, well, so there was this Martin And I know, I'm risking getting an oak tree related injury by saying this, but this all seems pretty fishy if you ask me. But regardless of whether it happened or whether it was an invention for political or religious purposes, I think it is well worth including in our account of Henry and Anselm.
41:00
Because if nothing else, there really was a delay in this campaign. And this excuse provides a fascinating cultural lens into how they viewed the world. And as for its accuracy, well, I'll leave it to you to decide whether Anselm was just dragging his feet and hoping Robert would get his shit together, or whether this truly was a story of repeated illnesses and recoveries, all thanks to the healing powers of the Partridge family.
41:31
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you can reach me at thebritishhistorypodcasts at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.
