the fixed purpose, of the Red King was to get rid of archbishops of Canterbury altogether.
The King's motives.
The estates of the see.
Further motives.
The motives of the King are plain. He sought something
more than merely to get possession of the rich
revenues of the archbishopric, though that was doubtless
not a small matter in the policy of either Rufus or Flambard.
The estates of the see of Canterbury furnished a
very perceptible addition to the royal income, and they
gave the King a convenient means of rewarding some of
his favourites, to whom he granted archiepiscopal lands
on military tenure.[1] Lanfranc himself had already done
something like this;[2] but the usual tendency of lands
so granted to pass away from the Church would be
greatly strengthened when it was not the Archbishop,
but the King, at whose hands they had been received,
and to whom the first homage had been paid. But all
this was doubtless very secondary. In the case of other
sees it was a mere reckoning of profit; Rufus had no
objection to fill them at once, if any one would make
it worth his while to do so. But it is plain that he had
a fixed determination to keep the archbishopric vacant,
if possible, for ever, at all events as long as the patience
of his kingdom would endure such a state of things. To
Rufus, whether as man or as king, the appointment of
an archbishop was the thing of all others which was
least to be wished. To fill the see of Canterbury would
be at once to set up a disagreeable monitor by his side,
and to put some check on the reign of unright and
unlaw, public and private. William doubtless remembered
how, as long as Lanfranc lived, he had had to play
an unwilling part, and to put a bridle on his worst and
most cherished instincts. An archbishop of his own
naming could not indeed have the personal authority of
his ancient guardian; but any archbishop would have
