was attacked by the Welsh, and lost a very great number of his men; he himself, being forced to retreat, and narrowly escaping with his life. He contrived, however, to rally his men, and to retrieve in some degree the disasters of the day, which ever after proved a warning to the English King. He now laid out a plan of operations totally different, and, avoiding the mountains, took his way by the sea coast, his fleet following him, and insuring to him support in case of need. In vain Owen Gwyneth endeavoured to lead him into fresh ambuscades, or, encamping on the side of Snowden, like an eagle perched upon the rock, watched the progress of the enemy for the purpose of attacking him unprepared. Henry was neither to be again deceived, nor turned from his purpose; and, confining his operations to the more open country, he subdued a great part of it, making roads, and building and repairing castles, to render any future proceedings against the Welsh more easy and effectual.

The progress made by the English King could not escape the eyes of Owen Gwyneth; and, finding he had no power sufficient to resist the united forces of England, that Prince proposed to open negociations for peace, which Henry only granted on the condition of his doing homage, restoring all the lands which had been conquered during the reign of Stephen, and reinstating Cadwalladar in his territories. Two of the Welsh monarch's sons were given as hostages, and Henry returned to England,

leaving his principal officers to carry on the war against the inferior Princes of Wales, who, one by one, were brought to submission, and did homage for their lands.

The last that submitted was the famous Rees ap Gryffyth, who was welcomed and honourably treated by Henry, the attention of that Sovereign being now called to another quarter.

Such was the result of the English monarch's first expedition into Wales. The conquest of Ireland—which would appear to have been one of the great objects of Henry's ambition-we shall have to notice casually hereafter, and therefore I will not dwell upon it now; more especially as it does not in any important degree affect the history which is to follow.

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Various abuses still existed in England, which it was necessary for Henry to sweep away; and a part of the year 1157 and the commencement of the year 1158 were spent by that monarch in going from one part of the country to another, endeavouring as far as possible to remove the last remnants of all those evils which had been engendered by the civil wars. One of the most important transactions of those two years was the calling in of the old coinage, which had suffered, during the reign of Stephen, the most terrible debasement, and the reissuing it restored to the proper weight and standard. Another very important transaction that occurred in the year

1157 was the

admission of Malcolm, King of Scotland, to do homage to the English Sovereign, which act took place at Chester, whither that monarch came to perform it, according to the promise he had given immediately after Henry's accession to the throne. This homage was rendered generally for all the fiefs which he held of the crown of England, but was guarded by a clause saving the royal dignity of the young Scottish king.

These peaceful occupations, however, appeared likely to suffer an interruption from some transactions which took place on the continent. The Duchy of Britanny was at that period in point of feudal institutions, somewhat behind the rest of France, and it had also been for some time filled with confusion and civil contention, in consequence of the dying act of Conan the Fat, Duke of Britanny, by which he disowned Hoel, his reputed son, declaring positively and distinctly, that he was not, and could not, be his child. The Duchy was immediately divided into two factions. Eudes or Eudo, Viscount of Porhoet, having married the eldest daughter of Conan, widow of Alain le Noir, Count of Richmond-laid claim to the succession, and was recog

* This name is confounded by Lord Lyttleton, with that of Pontieure, or Penthievre. Eudes, however, was of a distinct Breton race, and was son of Geoffrey, Viscount of Josselin.

nised by the people of Rennes, and by a great part of upper and lower Britanny: but the important towns of Nantes and Quimper, with various territories attached to them, maintained the party of Hoel, and a civil war of an anarchical, but not very desolating character, took place. Little is known of these wars: but it seems that the greater part of Britanny never recognised Hoel; calling him merely Count of Nantes but never denying his right to that part of the territory.

In the mean time, a new claimant to the often contested Duchy of Britanny started up in the person of Conan, son of Bertha, Countess of Porhoet, by her first husband, Alain le Noir. If Hoel was illegitimate, the young Conan's right cannot be doubted as the representative of his mother, but she herself gave countenance to Hoel's claims by siding with him so far as the County of Nantes was concerned, and receiving from her brother, in 1153, a donation for her son Conan of the town of Villeneuve.* It is worthy of remark also, that, in the act of donation, she suffers Hoel to style himself Duke of Britanny, and, at the same time, or shortly afterwards, her hus

* Lord Lyttleton imagines that Conan the Less did not assert his title till after his mother's death, and that she died during the struggle between her husband and Hoel. Such, however, is not at all the case. Bertha did not die till the year 1162, and she is mentioned in the Charters of the Abbey of Redon, and other places, up to that period, as still living, and confirming the acts of her son.

band Eudes styles himself likewise Duke, and, with the consent and approbation of his son by Bertha, named Geoffrey, performs acts of sovereignty in the Duchy.

Thus, at the time of Henry's expedition into Wales, there were three candidates for the ducal coronet of Britanny. Conan the Less, however, who had been in England, it would appear, during the last year of Stephen's reign, had returned in 1156, supported by a large party in the duchy, and took arms at once against his stepfather. His first attempt was upon the town of Rennes, which he besieged and took; and, shortly after, Eudes himself was captured by a partisan of Conan, from which time the Duchy was generally recognised as his. Nantes and its territory still remained in possession of Hoel, and against the people of that city Conan next prepared to turn his arms.

The inhabitants of Nantes, however, having, in the course of Hoel's government, discovered his incapacity, expelled him with very little ceremony, and called to their aid Geoffrey Plantagenet, brother of Henry the Second of England, offering him the title of Count. Geoffrey, stripped by his brother of his inheritance, gladly availed himself of the opportunity of aggrandizement; and Henry willingly saw his brother placed in this honorable situation; which, beside other advantages to be derived from the establishment of a Prince of the house of Planta