KATHERINE M. YOHE AELRED OF RIEVAULX ON HOLY ROYALTY A Twelfth-Century View of Lay Spirituality ‘Who is like you among the kings of the earth, O good king! You have made yourself poor in gold, humble on a throne, mild in arms, pure in delights. You showed yourself modest to the people, just to the soldiers, lowly to the priests. You were made all things to all men that you might exhort them to virtue’.1 Thus the Cistercian abbot, Aelred of Rievaulx, praises the recently deceased King David of Scotland in a lament given to Duke Henry, soon to be King Henry II of England. Several of his later writings are dedicated to portraying models for Christian kings. Such texts are fertile ground for those interested in the history of lay spirituality, or more narrowly, twelfth-century English views of royal piety. They serve as a ‘mirror for kings’, by which Aelred hoped to offer royalty models for how they should conduct themselves as Christians in the world.2 This article will focus on Aelred’s works, asking of them some of the same questions Ann Astell asks in her recent collection Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern: A Search for Models: What distinguishes the sanctity of the laity from that of religious? Must it follow a monastic ideal? Can one be holy in the world? Do marriage, sex, property or politics impede sanctity?3 Aelred is considered one of the four major fathers of Cistercian spirituality and theology, though much less famous than his contemporary Bernard of Clairvaux.4 He was born in 1110, the son of a married priest who was respon- sible for a small church and shrine for Northumbrian saints at Hexham. Aelred was educated before he joined the monastery, possibly at the cathedral school at 1 Aelred of Rievaulx, Eulogium Davidis regis Scotorum, in: W.M. Metcalfe (Ed.), Pinkerton’s Lives of the Scottish Saints, Vol. 2, Paisley 1889, Sec. 2. The English translation is by Jane Freeland forthcoming in a collection of Aelred’s historical works by Cistercian Publications. 2 Aelred Squire calls the combined text that Aelred of Rievaulx gave to the future Henry II a ‘mirror for kings and perhaps the earliest twelfth-century example of a type of literature which had Carolingian forbears in treatises of men like Alcuin and Hincmar of Rheims’ (Aelred Squire, Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study, London 1969, 88). 3 Ann Astell (Ed.), Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern: A Search for Models, Notre Dame 2000, 2. 4 The other two fathers are Guerric of Igny, who came to Clairvaux in 1123 and William of Saint-Thierry, who joined in 1135. 170 KATHERINE M. YOHE Durham and had been captivated by Cicero’s De amicitia. At some time in his youth he also joined the court of King David of Scotland.5 According to Wal- ter Daniel, who wrote a twelfth-century biography of Aelred, Aelred first saw Rievaulx in 1134 when he was returning from a mission for King David to see Archbishop Thurstan of York.6 The visit was enough to convince him to become a Cistercian, then and there. Eight years after he joined he was made novice master, and then in 1143 was chosen as the first abbot of Reversby. Four years later he was back at Rievaulx to serve as their third abbot until his death in 1167. Aelred’s writings include spiritual and theological treatise, sermons, histories and hagiographies. His first work was Speculum caritatis, a treatise on the nature of love which includes a defense of the rigors of Cistercian life. It was written at the request of Bernard of Clairvaux. The work he is most well-known for today is De spirituali amicitia, a dialogue on spiritual friendship. Yet it is his his- tories and one of his vitae that will be the focus of this article: Genealogia regum anglorum (Genealogy of the Kings of England), which originally includes the already cited lament for the Scottish King David, De bello standardii (on the Battle of the Standard) and Vita Edwardi (Life of Edward the Confessor).7 Aelred wrote his genealogy of the kings to give to Duke Henry, before the latter became King Henry II of England in 1154. Aelred saw in Henry, who 5 James Raine, following information in a poem by Nicholas of Rievaulx, puts Aelred as a ‘member of the suite of prince David’, thus in the company of David before he became king (Priory of Hexham: Its Chronicles, Endowments and Annals, Sortees Society, Vol. 44, Edinburgh 1864, lxxiii). Squire believes Aelred would have been ‘at least’ twelve when he arrived at court to account for Aelred’s reference to affectionate friendships formed in school (Aelred: A Study, 12-13). Frederick Maurice Powicke refuses to guess at a precise year (Walter Daniel’s Life of Ailred of Rievaulx, Oxford 1950, xxxix). William Ducey believes Aelred spent a dozen years at court, thus entering around 1122 (‘St Aelred of Rievaulx and the Speculum Caritatis’, in: Catholic Historical Review 17 (1931), 310). Amédée Hallier is sure he was at court for less than twelve years (The Monastic Theology of Aelred of Rievaulx, trans. Columban Heaney, Spencer (Mass.) 1969, xxi). 6 The diplomatic mission most likely concerned Thurstan’s jurisdiction, as Archbishop of York, over Glasgow. Bishop John of Glasgow was refusing to accept the Archbishop’s authority, and continued to refuse, even with papal orders in 1135-36 demanding that he submit. See Robert Lindsay Graeme Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland, Edinburgh 1954, 253; Squire, Aelred: A Study, 19; and Powicke, Life of Ailred, xliv. 7 Genealogia regum anglorum is in: J.P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus […] series Latina (PL), no. 195, Paris 1855, cols. 716-738; De bello standardii is in PL 195, cols. 701-712. Translations for both of these used in this article are by Jane Freeman, forthcoming in the Cis- tercian Publications’ collection of Aelred’s historical works. Vita Edwardi is in PL 195, cols. 737-790 (trans. Jerome Bertram, The Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor, by Blessed Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx, Southampton 1997). AELRED OF RIEVAULX ON HOLY ROYALTY 171 through his father was the great-grandson of William the Conqueror and through his mother, a descendent of famous Saxon kings, a symbolic union of the diverse people on the land and thus a hope for peace. In a style reminiscent of Bede, Aelred used past kings (and a few queens) as edifying models of holi- ness and exhorted Henry to follow their example. The genealogy focuses on the Saxon line, through which Henry was related to St. Margaret, Edward the Con- fessor and Alfred the Great. Aelred also pauses to mention a few of the Scottish Kings who married into the Saxon line.8 Aelred includes, with the genealogy he sent to Duke Henry, a lament for David who had ruled Scotland from 1124 to 1153.9 Aelred’s lament for David has similarities to Bernard’s lament for his brother and fellow monk, Gerard, and Ambrose’s lament for his brother Satyrus. In 1155, seventeen years after the De bello standardii, Aelred wrote his own account. The battle was fought between forces fighting under David of Scot- land and those loyal to Stephen of Blois, the reigning King of England. David was fighting, in part, as matter of loyalty to his niece Matilda whom he consid- ered the rightful heir to the throne of England. Unlike Richard of Hexham’s and Henry of Huntingdon’s previous accounts of the battle, Aelred’s account emphasizes the nobility of the Scottish king David and his son Henry. He also gives a significant and honorable role to Walter Espec as the man who rallied, in the name of Christ, the victorious forces which gathered against David. This piece may have been written at the request of Walter who is thought to have spent the last two years of his life, 1153-55, at Rievaulx.10 8 Genealogia regum, col. 716. In terms of sources, Aelred mentions in his introduction that he was making use of ‘the most reliable and ancient records and chronicles’. Aelred Squire notes possible reliance on Simeon of Durham’s History of the Kings, Asser’s Life of Alfred, the Old English Chronicle, Henry of Huntingdon’s History of England, a Durham document on the miracles and translation of Cuthbert, Rufinus’ History of the Church, Osbern of Canterbury’s Life of Dunstan, in addition to a few stories personally narrated to him by King David of Scot- land (Aelred: A Study, 90-92). 9 Apparently, this king was widely-liked. ‘David had the gift of inspiring intense personal loyalty. Praise comes from quarters too many and too close to be insincere or ill informed’, according to Robert Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland, 215. See also Squire, Aelred: A Study, 86. 10 Squire, noting where Aelred departed from the versions of the battle composed by Henry of Huntington and Richard of Hexham, concludes that ‘the real hero of his [Aelred’s] piece is Walter Espec’, and suspects that Aelred may have written the piece at the request of Walter in order to honor Rievaulx’s founder (Aelred: A Study, 78). Aelred Glidden, however, believes Aelred’s intention was not to create a hero of Walter, but rather to clear King David’s name. Henry of Huntington blamed David for some of the atrocities committed by the army fight- ing under him. In contrast, Aelred portrayed David as a loving and kind king who almost can- celed the battle (‘Aelred the Historian: The Account of the Battle of the Standard’, in: John Sommerfeldt (Ed.), Erudition at God’s Service, Kalamazoo 1987, 175-184).