generally than the young Duke of Aquitaine. Richard's first rebellion against his father was undoubtedly produced by the influence of his mother and the counsels of his elder brother; but he was the first to return to his duty, and he persevered in it with much steadiness under what he might well consider serious injuries. To him, in 1176, was assigned the hard and disagreeable task of reducing to subjection those turbulent nobles with whom he had been allied in rebellion; and after his brother Henry was dispatched to aid him, he bore with exemplary patience, for one so bold and vehement, the deceitful conduct of that brother, who caballed with those he was sent to reduce, and endeavoured to found a claim to Richard's territories upon the favour of those whose rebellion he was bound to chastise. When, afterwards, his father commanded him to do homage to that very brother, for territories which had been given to him as his own, he certainly at first refused with indignation, but there seems no reason to doubt that he afterwards yielded to the king's remonstrances. do not find the slightest hint, during the whole course of the terrible proceedings which succeeded, of his having embarrassed the negotiations of his father by any resistance, cabal, or intrigue; although the very war had commenced by an act on the part of that father which Richard evidently felt to be unkind and unjust towards himself.

We

That the people of Aquitaine might be inimical

to their young duke we can well understand, for while his brother Henry had been spending months and years in tilts and tournaments, lavishing time and treasure on pageantry and show, Richard had been contending on the battle field with the rebels, against whom his father had sent him; and had carried on the struggle against his adversaries with such success as to bring shame as well as defeat upon a vain and irascible race. It was natural that such men should hate him; it was natural that they should bring charges against him of cruelty and oppression ;* and it is very probable, also, that, vehement and passionate as Richard certainly was, he did, in a moment of victory, show the fierceness of the lion as well as the lion's courage. It is strange, however, that amongst all the host of enemies which rose up around him in Aquitaine, we do not find any definite instances of his cruelty recorded. In fact, he is generally proved to have spared his enemies taken in open rebellion, with arms in their hands; and though the manners of the younger Henry might be more amiable, his pursuits and amusements more popular, and his conver

*These charges were brought by the Barons of Poictou and Aquitaine, but we do not find that they were in any degree substantiated. A vague accusation was made at one time of his having violated some of the women of the country, and then turned them over to his soldiery; but we are not told where, when, or how, this act was committed, and the charge is avowedly that of an enemy who had felt the weight of his hand.

sation engaging and attractive, we cannot place his character in contrast with that of Richard without lamenting the instability, the deceitfulness, the treachery, the impiety, the ingratitude of the one, and admiring the frankness, the sincerity, and the stability of the other.*

The corpse of the younger Henry was carried, by his own order, into Normandy, although the inhabitants of Mans endeavoured to stop it by the way, not so much, perhaps, out of regard for his person, as because they looked upon him as more immediately one of their own princes. The people

* All the writers of that day, however, did not view the character of the younger Henry with the same partial eyes wherewith Gervase of Canterbury viewed it; and in comparing his account with that of William of Newbury, we find that the latter judged by actions rather than accomplishments; whereas the former went little below the surface. I subjoin the two accounts. William of Newbury says: "Anno à partu virginis 1183 qui fuit xxx. regis Anglorum Henrici Secundi, Henricus Tertius Anglorum Rex, junior immatura morte decessit. Plane immatura, si ætem respicias, sed multum sera, si actus attendas. Fodaverat enim adolescentiam suam nævo inexpiabili similitudine scelestissimi Absalonis, ut superius expositum est. Juventutem quoque ingressus, eandem adolescentiæ suæ noluit esse dissimilem, et prævaricator, non tantum naturæ (ut prius) verum etiam solemnium pactorum, rebellavit iterum contra patrem." The description of the younger Henry by Gervase is as follows:"Amabilis enim erat omnibus et pulcher aspectu, et præcipue gloriæ militaris insignis, udeo ut nulli videretur esse secundus; humilis, docilis erat, et affabilis, unde cum et prope positi et longe remoti affectuose diligebant."

of Rouen claimed the body; and on this curious subject of dissension a civil war would have broken out had it not been quieted by the decision of Henry II.

That monarch was deeply afflicted by the death of his eldest son, who had certainly been his favourite child. He fainted three times on the intelligence being communicated to him, and showed the most immoderate and excessive grief during many days. Richard, however, to whom his brother had sent no message on his death-bed, no sooner heard that the army of the rebels was dispersing, on the death of their royal leader, than he sprang into the saddle, and pursuing the various bands in all directions with a choice troop of men-at-arms, cut to pieces many small bodies, and prevented the rest from re-assembling. He then returned to his father. The rebellion at Aquitaine was at an end; and a new scene opened before the prince as heir-apparent to the crown of England.

BOOK X.

SOME of the transactions which ensued after the death of Henry the younger, must be passed over rapidly, as their effect on the reign and history of Richard was not important. Henry II., as soon as he had recovered from the stupor of grief, urged forward the siege of Limoges furiously, and speedily reduced the garrison to capitulate. He then, with the aid of his son Richard, besieged and took several other places in Poictou; some of which he retained in his own hand, some of which he levelled with the ground. Between himself and the young duke there seems not to have been the slightest opposition at this time. Richard, the heir of the whole monarchy, and certain, if he survived his father, of holding the duchy of Aquitaine as a fief from the crown of France, was perfectly willing to gratify Henry by doing homage to him for the territory, although he had once refused to perform that act