A Historical and Diplomatic Introduction to the Charters of King Henry II, 1154-1189

我打算写一篇介绍，介绍现存的3000封亨利二世国王的信件和特许状。这里收集的材料有200万字，来自近400个档案和数万份手稿，这些手稿现在分散在英国、爱尔兰、法国、北方欧洲和美国。它包括一些中世纪英语，爱尔兰和法国历史上最重要的书面证据：例如，克拉伦登的宪法（由此引发了国王和他的大主教托马斯贝克特之间的大争论），或国王的巡回审判（在许多方面，第一部成文法是法律，英语世界的大部分普通法制度都是从它产生的，反过来，部分是出于反应，部分是出于模仿，促成了《大宪章》的诞生。如果没有这样一个版本的亨利二世的信件和特许状，可以毫不夸张地说，我们对国王的了解，他的法院，他的法律，他的“帝国”，他的教会，他的妻子和家庭，他的个人和政治交易，仍然是可悲的不完整。由于亨利二世的统治本身被认为是英法历史上宪政和政治发展的关键，这里的差距是非常重要的。其中近1000份文件以前从未出版过。1909年，几乎正好是一个世纪前，伟大的法国历史学家利奥波德·德莱尔为他现在收集的3000份宪章中的800份编写了一份500页的庞大的“导言”。Delisle的是，到那时为止，最详细和最具启发性的研究有史以来出版的一个机构的中世纪宪章。例如，它证明了一种特殊形式的单词“Dei gratia”（“上帝的恩典”）引入国王的头衔（因此，“英格兰国王亨利二世”变成了“蒙上帝恩典，英格兰国王亨利二世”），尽管表面上看起来只不过是文物学家的关注，但实际上是确定几百份亨利特许状日期的关键，否则不可能分配到任何明确的日期之间的1154年和1189年，外部限制他的统治。德莱尔的“导言”也是重建亨利二世宫廷的人事、运动以及历史和政治问题的基础。然而，一个世纪过去了，Delisle的“导言”急需更换。它只涵盖了现在收集的证据的一小部分（3000个宪章中的800个左右），并且可以在许多方面加以改进。它几乎没有注意到亨利二世权力的地理分布，也没有注意到法律和立法等主题，没有注意到大法官办公室（国王的信件和特许状都是在这个办公室里写的）的实际配置，也没有注意到国王的印章（或者更确切地说是“印章”，因为我们现在知道至少有三个印章，而德莱尔只知道一个）。此外，我们的新证据必须放在其他版本的盎格鲁-诺曼皇家特许状的背景下，包括盎格鲁-诺曼国王和12世纪主教的特许状（所谓的英国主教学报系列），这些特许状在德莱尔写作的时候根本无法获得。如果没有这样的介绍，出版亨利二世宪章的版本就像生产一台没有启动或维护说明的伟大机器一样。亨利二世的宪章版本，以及这里提出的导言，代表了对12世纪英格兰、法国和爱尔兰历史的重大贡献，所有这些王国都被普拉纳王朝的王权从根本上改变了。

I intend to write an introduction to the 3000 surviving letters and charters of King Henry II. The body of materials here assembled runs to two million words culled from nearly 400 archives and tens of thousands of manuscripts now scattered across the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, northern Europe and the USA. It includes some of the most significant written evidences for medieval English, Irish and French history: for example, the constitutions of Clarendon (from which sprang the great dispute between the King and his archbishop, Thomas Becket), or the King's assizes (in many respects the first statutes in law, from which springs most of the common law system of the English-speaking world, and from which in turn, in part in reaction, in part in imitation, sprang the making of Magna Carta). Without such an edition of Henry II's letters and charters, it is no exaggeration to state that our knowledge of the King, his court, his laws, his 'empire', his Church, his wife and family, his personal and political dealings, remains woefully incomplete. Since Henry II's reign is itself regarded as pivotal in the constitutional and political development of Anglo-French history, the gap here is a highly significant one. Nearly 1000 of the documents presented have never before been published. In 1909, almost exactly a century ago, the great French historian, Leopold Delisle produced a massive 500 page 'Introduction' to his edition of 800 of the 3000 charters now collected. Delisle's was, to that date, the most detailed and illuminating study ever published of a body of medieval charters. It demonstrated, for example, that a particular form of words 'Dei gratia' ('By God's grace') introduced into the King's title ( so that 'Henry II King of the English' became 'Henry II, by God's grace, King of the English'), although of apparently no more than antiquarian concern, was in fact the key to establishing the dates of several hundred of Henry's charters, otherwise impossible to assign to any definite date between 1154 and 1189, the outside limits of his reign. Delisle's 'Introduction' was also fundamental in reconstructing the personnel, the movements and the historical and political concerns of Henry II's court. A century later, however, and Delisle's 'Introduction' is badly in need of replacement. It covers only a small portion (800 or so of the 3000 charters) of the evidences now collected, and can be improved upon in numerous ways. It devotes hardly any attention to the geographical spread of Henry II's power, to such themes as law and lawmaking, the physical dispositions of the chancery (the office in which the king's letters and charters were physically written), the King's seal (or rather 'seals' since we now know of at least three seals, where Delisle knew only one). Furthermore, our new evidences have to be set in the context of other editions of Anglo-Norman royal charters, including those of the Anglo-Norman kings and of twelfth-century bishops (the so-called English Episcopal Acta series) which were simply unavailable at the time that Delisle wrote. Without such an introduction, to publish the edition of Henry II's charters will be rather like producing a great machine with no instructions as to start up or maintenance. The edition of Henry II's charters, and the introduction here proposed, represent a major contribution to the history of twelfth-century England, France and Ireland, all of which realms were altered fundamentally by the dyanamic force that was Plantagenet kingship.