ANECDOTE OF PRINCE PHILIP OF FRANCE.

55

long hold out, and surrendered also on Ascension-day in the same year, 1178. Richard immediately levelled the walls of the fortress to the ground, and having spent another month in reducing various castles and towns in the vicinity, he saw the revolt crushed for the time by the submission of the Count of Angoulême.*

After closing the campaign with so much honour to himself, the warlike prince returned to join his father, Henry, in England; but notwithstanding all the engagements which the British monarch had entered into, no further steps were taken, either to solemnise Richard's marriage with Adelais, or to prepare for the proposed crusade. It is not improbable, indeed, that Henry looked forward to the prospect of being delivered, by the death of the King of France, from the urgent remonstrances of one who had a right to press for the execution of his engagements in both these respects, as the health of Louis had been materially impaired by many severe exertions, and he was in the seventieth year of his age,

The French monarch himself felt his strength daily declining, and, in 1179, determined to associate his son to the throne, for the purpose of ensuring that, in case either of his own departure for the Holy Land, or of his decease, no confusion of any kind might take place in the arrangements of the state. In conformity with this resolution, Louis summoned his court of peers, and with their consent made all the preparations for the coronation of the prince. In the month of July, however, in the same year, an accident occurred which had very nearly terminated fatally for the hopes of France, The heir-apparent of the crown and his father were at Compiegne, when Philip, having received permission to hunt in the neighbouring forest, was separated from his attendants, lost himself in the wood, and for many hours was wandering about in great terror. At length a charcoal-burner, returning from his work, found the royal child just as night was beginning to fall, and conveyed him to the palace. But hunger, fatigue, and terror, had so shaken the constitution of the prince, that he was seized with a malignant fever, and in a very few days his life was despaired of.

His father, Louis, was full of grief and anxiety; but instead

* Diceto. Hoveden.

56

LOUIS VISITS THE SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS.

of staying to watch the sick bed of his son, he determined to apply for miraculous assistance at the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, who was then, perhaps, the saint in most general repute throughout both France and England.* Several of his barons opposed his intention of venturing into the dominions of a powerful and inveterate enemy; but the king remained obstinate, and Henry justified the confidence which Louis placed in his honour and integrity. He hastened to meet and welcome the French monarch on his arrival in England, conducted him in person to the shrine of the martyr, and knelt with him before the tomb of that man who had been the cherished friend of the one and the malignant foe of the other.

The result of Louis's expedition was favourable to the fame of St. Thomas. It had been so happily timed, that the crisis of the young prince's disease occurred exactly at the moment when his father was praying in Canterbury cathedral. An immediate improvement took place in his health, and everybody attributed it to the king's influence with the canonised bishop.

The royal offering at the shrine of St. Thomas had been a magnificent cup of gold, and in gratitude for the alteration which had taken place, Louis added an annual donation of certain tuns of fine wine, which we may well suppose proved as agreeable to the monks as the chalice which he had at first given. The King of France returned without delay to his own territories, and on his arrival at Compiegne, found Philip so much better, that the coronation was fixed for All Saints'-day in the same year; but before that period the old monarch, who had long been threatened with palsy, suddenly lost the use of his right side, and was thus prevented from witnessing the ceremony himself. He insisted, however, that the coronation should take place, and it was accordingly celebrated at Rheims on the day appointed. The younger Henry

The three great altars in Canterbury cathedral, were those of Christ, of the Virgin, and of St. Thomas à Becket; and it is proved, by the returns of the offerings received at each, that the altar of Christ itself was nearly abandoned-some years receiving nothing, in others only a few shillings—while an immense revenue was collected at the altar of the saint. Even the shrine of the Virgin suffered considerably from the proximity of the murdered bishop, which for a Roman Catholic country is very extraordinary.

CORONATION OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS.

57

of England was present upon the occasion, and held the crown over the head of Philip Augustus. From the fact of his having done so, many conjectures have arisen, as to what part he did actually play in the coronation. Some writers assert that he appeared there merely as a guest, and that he raised the crown of the young king simply because Philip, greatly weakened by his late illness, was unable to support the fatigue of bearing the heavy bauble through a long ceremony. Others, on the contrary, declare that he appeared there to perform his feudal service as Count of Anjou, and seneschal; while some would fain extend the act that he performed to some recognition of fealty in the English crown to that of France;* but it seems very generally agreed by all men that it would have been much better, in every point of view, had the English prince been absent altogether.

On his return from his coronation, Philip found his father fallen into such a state of mental and corporeal decrepitude, that no hope existed of his ever again being able to sway the sceptre of France; and the whole concerns of a mighty nation fell into the hands of a boy of fifteen, surrounded by powerful, turbulent, and ambitious vassals. Some time before Louis the Seventh breathed his last, the struggle for power commenced with a violent contest for the direction of the young king. The great house of Champagne, on one side, had high claims upon authority, as from it sprung the brothers of the queen, the uncles of Philip. They also had the habit of rule in their favour, for by them had been governed the court of Louis the Seventh, during the whole

A gentleman of the name of Capefigue has lately published a history of Philip Augustus, which has been, what he calls, crowned by the Institute; and in which, he says, without entering into any absurd pretensions of the crown of France over the crown of England, that Henry the Second himself was present at the coronation of Philip Augustus, and held the crown over his head, an error of the most extraordinary kind, which a very slight portion of study would have prevented him from committing. The fact of the younger Henry being present at the coronation of his brother-in-law, evidently created alarm in the minds of the English people, lest it should be construed into any recognition of superiority on the part of France. The words in which Diceto mentions it are as follow:"Henricus rex, Henrici regis Angliæ, filius, et Philippi regis Francorum sororius, regiæ consecratoni Remis interfuit, solius affinitatis incitatus et invitatus intuitu. Dum enim Britannia pone nomen orbis alterius mereatur, dum divisos orbe Britannos frequenter audieris, restat ut et id audias, quod nullus Britanniæ vel Angliæ rex quempiam regem Francorum aliqua specie subjectionis, aliquo tempore superiorem agnoverit," etc.

58

QUARREL BETWEEN PHILIP AND HIS MOTHER.

of the latter part of his life. Their knowledge, their talents, and their power, gave them great claims, and the inferior vassals of the crown were in general willing and accustomed to obey them.

On the other hand, however, appeared the Count of Flanders, whose conduct in the wars of the Holy Land had, it is true, won him anything rather than renown. But he was artful, politic, secret, and had acquired a strong hold upon Philip's affection, which was far from the case with the princes of the house of Champagne. Even the mother of the young sovereign seems to have lost his regard; and we find that almost immediately after his coronation, he solemnly engaged himself to marry Isabella of Hainault, niece of the Count of Flanders.

The evident ascendancy of the latter prince over the mind of the young king, had already alarmed his uncles and his mother, and disputes ensued, in the course of which he drove forth from his court various noblemen of distinction; and the queen herself, with the Count of Champagne, and other gentlemen of her party, proceeded to Rouen, and held a conference with Henry the Second, beseeching him to aid them in expelling the Count of Flanders from the counsels of Philip. Henry did not hesitate to agree to their request, and not only promised the assistance of his troops in Nor mandy, but also offered to bring forces from England in case the confederates should need such support. At this time, it would appear, the agreement entered into between the young king and the Count of Flanders, had not been made public; but scarcely had the conference at Rouen taken place ere Philip proceeded to Bapeaume, and there united himself in marriage to the niece of the Count of Flanders.

This indissoluble bond between himself and that prince, at once changed the views of his mother and his uncle, nor could Henry desire to drive from the court of the French monarch a nobleman thus connected with him. The English king, therefore, had recourse to mediation between the two contending parties, and in a conference* which took place

* The whole of this matter is misstated by Monsieur Capefigue, who places the quarrel between Philip and his mother subsequent to the death of Louis the Seventh, whereas the meeting between Henry and the young King of France took place in June, 1180, and Louis himself did not die till September of that year.

CONFERENCE BETWEEN HENRY AND PHILIP.

59

at Gisors, between the monarch of England and the young sovereign of France, Philip agreed to afford his mother a proper dowry, and to receive his uncles, and all the other noblemen who had abandoned, or been driven from his court, into favour once more, while they bound themselves to leave the Count of Flanders unmolested. About the same time Henry concluded with Philip a treaty, by which the convention entered into between himself and Louis, in 1170, was confirmed. Each sovereign took the dominions of the other under his protection; and each agreed to leave all points in dispute to the decision of certain arbitrators.

The harmony thus established in France was not of very long duration, though the interruption of tranquillity was not owing to any new contest between the queen and her son, but rather to the ambitious grasping of the Count of Flanders, who put forth a claim to some territories not belonging to him, and encouraged a rebellious vavasour of the young Count of Clermont, one of Philip's dearest companions and friends, to throw off his lord's authority and claim of Flanders in chief.

While these events were in progress, however, and before Philip had taken part in the dispute, Henry, who had passed the spring at Chinon, returned to Normandy, and held a conference with the young king at St. Remi, on the frontiers of their dominions. This was in the end of April, in the year 1181; and by the death of his father, in September of the preceding year, Philip was now actually king of France. His mother and the Archbishop of Rheims had by this time gained the most complete ascendancy over him, and their gratitude towards Henry being unbounded, Philip was induced to make great concessions to the English sovereign,

That this meeting the same at which the agreement regarding the Queen of France was entered into is clear, from the testimony of Diceto, the very author cited by Monsieur Capefigue, who mentions the whole facts, gives the date of the meeting between the two kings-namely, on the vigil of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, otherwise the 28th of June, and also gives the treaty between the two kings, with the date, the fourth Calends of July, which, reduced to our own calculation, is also the 28th of June. Thus there can be no earthly doubt that the quarrel between the queen and her son took place before the death of Louis, and not after, as Monsieur Capefigue asserts. The matter is of importance, inasmuch as the whole transactions of that period have been placed in a false point of view, and arguments affecting the most important questions of policy have in our own day been raised upon this unsubstantial foundation.