King Henry grants and gives
The crown of England
To his eldest son Henry
Later he was repentant and annoyed.
The prelate of York Roger
Wrongly undertook the crowning.
He [Thomas] holds himself in peace and patience
Doesn’t complain or try to scold.
One of his clerks says, “Good sire,
At the mountain where no martyr
Was treated out of understanding, *
May the truth be in accord,
For by martyrdom your life will end
Well I divine it for you.
By your death the holy Church
Will conquer peace and sincerity.”
The archbishop responds:
“May it please God who made the world.”
To assure his lands
And confirm his reign
His son and heir, at Westminster,
Henry the king wishes to crown.
Many say, all to grieve
To break custom and attack
The rightness and sincerity
Of the archbishop and his church.
Many people were gathered there
Of the clergy and knighthood.
Roger of York was there
The well-known archbishop;
The bishop of London was there
And the one of Rochester goes.
The bishop of Salisbury
Against the honor of Canterbury,
With the archbishop, these three
Were there to crown the king,
Henry the young; alas the hour!
Many misadventures are coming.
They make the feast
fully
Many people were there to eat
The father does the son great honor.
We hear neither in song nor in story
That any rich man was served
As was the young king Henry.
The father makes such great joy for him
That on that day he was his servant,
And, in the hearing of many, confessed
That the young Henry was the sole king,
Not the one who served, therefore;
Of which he much repented later.
He was much afflicted afterward,
For the love and peace didn’t last long.
After a short time he [the young Henry] was so afflicted
That he made war on his father.
That was at the beginning
The first poisoning
Of the sin of King Henry,
Who pursued holy Thomas so.
When the prelate
of Canterbury
Heard this [the coronation] recounted and said,
He held himself very wronged
And his honor sorely wounded,
The dignity of his church
Much divided and maltreated.
He had them chastised
And admonished by the pope