St. James at Compostella, and did not arrive in England until after September 1152. The civil war was dying out, and he sincerely repented of the part which he had had in fomenting it. Accordingly he did all in his power to promote peace, and was active in forwarding the treaty made between Stephen and Duke Henry at Wallingford, and concluded in November 1153 at Winchester, where he received the duke with honour. At the following Easter he entertained his nephew, Archbishop William, at Winchester on his return from Rome before going to his province, for Henry Murdac was then dead.
Stephen died on 25 Oct., and on 19 Dec. Henry assisted at the coronation of Henry II. He is said to have recommended Thomas Becket to the king for the office of chancellor. In 1155 he left England without the king's permission, having sent on his treasure secretly before him. Henry seized on his castles, pulled down the tower of Wolvesey, and destroyed the castles at Merdon and Bishops Waltham. The king's intention of taking his castles from him was no doubt the cause of his leaving the kingdom. He stayed a welcome guest at Clugny, and proved himself, according to Peter the Venerable, the greatest benefactor that the house ever had; for, at the request of Pope Hadrian IV, he paid off the whole debt which was then pressing on the convent and supported the 460 monks for a year. He was urged to return by Archbishop Theobald, probably in 1157, and was back in England in the spring of 1159, but returned to Clugny, and was there in the early part of 1162. On 3 June he consecrated Thomas as archbishop of Canterbury, and before the ceremony began demanded and obtained from the king's representative a full release from all claims which might be made on Thomas in connection with the chancellorship. This is perhaps the origin of the story told by Giraldus that he set before Thomas the necessity of choosing whether he would serve an earthly or a heavenly king. He was present at the council of Clarendon in January 1164, and after the council must have had converse with the archbishop, who withdrew for a while to Winchester. At the council of Northampton in October he was reluctantly obliged to pronounce judgment against Thomas in the suit of John the Marshal, and when the king proceeded to demand a statement of Thomas's accounts as chancellor boldly opposed the demand. The next day he advised Thomas not to listen to those who were recommending him to make an absolute submission. Such a course would, he urged, put the church under the arbitrary control of the crown, and he further pointed out that Thomas had been released from all secular claims at his consecration. When, on a later day of the session, the bishops tried to persuade the archbishop to yield, Henry appears to have shown him some special mark of friendship; he afterwards declared that Thomas had a right to carry his cross when entering the king's hall, and when he heard that the archbishop had left the country wished him God's blessing. Soon after this he seems to have been under the king's displeasure, and Pope Alexander III wrote to Thomas that he heard that it was probable Henry would resign his bishopric on account of the injuries which he had received from the king. Thomas wrote to Henry a letter of sympathy in which he blamed him for having removed a cross. This was probably the Hyde cross which Henry restored in 1167. He did not approve of the line taken by the archbishop while in exile, joined in the bishops' defence of the king in 1166, and appealed against him before the legates in November 1167. Nevertheless he retained his loyalty towards him; he sent him assistance, steadfastly refused to hold communion with those whom he excommunicated, and was regarded by him as ‘a wall of the house of Israel.’ During these his later years he was humble and religious, and about 1168 gave away all his goods in charity, leaving himself and his household bare means of subsistence, and devoting himself to prayer and acts of penitence. Three stories are told of his diocesan government. One, which apparently belongs to about 1159, relates how, after he had vainly tried to make his clergy use silver instead of pewter chalices, he overcame their meanness by making them present their contributions to him in respect of an aid in silver chalices which he gave back to them; while at another time, when other bishops were levying money from their clergy, he gathered his together and, telling them that he did not care to increase his hoard, demanded only prayers and masses. The third story represents him as merciful towards the erring (Giraldus Cambrensis, vii. 47–9). When he heard of the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas, he grieved that he, though so much older, was still left on earth.
Bishop Henry was dying when the king returned to England on 6 Aug. 1171. The king at once visited him, and the bishop rebuked him severely for the archbishop's death. On the 8th he died, ‘full of days’ (Diceto, i. 347). There seems no reason to doubt that he was buried in front of the high altar of his cathedral church, where the remains of a bishop with a crozier and ring were discovered some years ago. During his lifetime
