explain which, it may be necessary to go back, for a few particulars, as far as the reign of Stephen.

It will be remembered that on the conclusion of the treaty between Stephen and Henry, which secured the succession of the crown to the latter, the only surviving son of Stephen, named William, was assured possession of the County of Boulogne, and all the other hereditary territories of his father Stephen, comprising the County of Mortagne in Normandy. Besides these, various estates in England, which had been given to him by his father, were also secured to him by Henry. I am not aware, whether there were or were not also some hereditary lands in England granted by William the Conqueror to Eustace, Count of Boulogne, and conveyed to Stephen by that Count's daughter, whom he married. Neither do I know whether the territories which Stephen had granted to his son were secured to him by Henry as hereditary possessions or not; nor upon what terms the manor of Pevensey, and some other estates which Henry spontaneously added, were conceded to William. However that may be, the son of Stephen not only enjoyed the whole of these territories during his life, but seemed perfectly contented with the treatment he received from Henry, attached himself much to that prince, and accompanied him during the campaign against the Count of Toulouse. In returning from that expedition, William of Blois died childless. The hand of his widow, together

with the large estates she had inherited from her father, Henry conferred upon his own natural brother Hamelin; and the County of Mortagne he gave to his own younger brother William. The English estates also were, I doubt not, bestowed by the King upon some of his faithful followers, being considered as escheats, in which point of view Henry indisputably regarded the County of Mortagne.

So far all was well, and no one could complain of the King's acts; for the legitimate posterity of Stephen was now extinct, with the exception of one daughter, Mary, who might be considered as dead in the eye of the law, having taken the veil in the Abbey of Romsey, in Hampshire. The County of Boulogne still remained to be disposed of; but that being a fief of the County of Flanders, Henry had now no power over it; and it might have become a subject of contention amongst the collateral relations of William of Blois, as the Count of Flanders could not bestow it except according to the feudal law, had not Henry consented, and probably suggested, a measure very gratifying to the Count, but which now ended in producing enmity between his son and Henry. As we have seen, a great friendship existed between the King of England and Thierry, Count of Flanders, whose son was for some time under the guardianship of the monarch; and towards the beginning of the year 1160, which was a few

months after the death of William of Blois, it was arranged between the two princes, that Matthew, a younger son of Thierry, should marry Mary, the nun of Romsey.

A papal dispensation could have been obtained easily, had not a schism existed in the church, which rendered it dangerous for Henry to apply to either of the rival Popes in a manner that might be considered as a recognition of his authority. To obviate this difficulty, Henry permitted Matthew to carry off Mary of Blois from the Abbey of Romsey; and the Princess gave her hand, very willingly it would seem, to her young deliverer in the month of May 1160. By her he obtained possession of the County of Boulogne; but I do not find that he asserted any claim, either to the County of Mortagne, or to William of Blois' estates in England, till after the death of Henry's brother, which took place in 1164.

The embarrassing situation in which Henry was now placed, certainly offered a favourable moment for making such a demand, though expediency, that great enemy of all that is noble and just in the dealings of states and princes, was opposed by both gratitude and generosity. It is probable, however, that Matthew was instigated to claim all the possessions of William of Blois by the cager counsels of the King of France, who was now paying great court to the Counts of Flanders, and had invited Philip, on whom his father

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Thierry had devolved the cares of government, to act as godfather to his son, in the year 1165. *

At all events we find, that in 1166 the applications of the Count of Boulogne to be put in possession of Mortagne, and of the English estates which he now claimed, became urgent; and upon Henry's refusal to accede to his demand he and his brother Philip collected an immense fleet and army, and prepared to invade England, while Henry was in the midst of contentions with the King of France.

Six hundred vessels are said to have been engaged; but luckily, the assembling of such forces could not take place upon the coast of Flanders, without being known both in Normandy and England. Every freeman in the land was, in those

* I have given a somewhat different account of these events from that afforded by Lord Lyttleton, who says, I cannot help thinking by mistake, that the County of Mortagne "was on the decease of that monarch (Stephen) considered as an escheat." Now there cannot be the slightest doubt, that William of Blois had possession of Mortagne till his death, which took place five years after the decease of his father. This is clearly established by the date of the gift of the County to William Plantagenet, which did not take place till after the death of Stephen's son in 1159. I have also ventured to state, that Philip of Flanders was invited to the baptism of Philip Augustus, in direct opposition to one of the commentators upon D'Oudegherst, who quotes Suger's History of Louis the Seventh, to show who were the sponsors of Philip Augustus, when it unfortunately happens, that Suger was dead fourteen years before Philip Augustus was born.

days, bred to the use of arms; and the Saxon obligation of realm-defence was, as I have shown in another place, in full force, notwithstanding the changes produced by the complete introduction of the feudal system.

Richard de Lucy, the High Justiciary, was entrusted by Henry, who was detained in France, with the protection of England; and drawing out the whole of the array of the maritime counties, he made such a formidable display of native strength, that the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne did not dare to land, and turned their arms to another quarter. In the meanwhile, however, Henry had entered into negociations with those Princes, concerning an amicable arrangement of the claims of the Count of Boulogne; and in the end, that nobleman agreed to compound all his demands for the sum of one thousand pounds sterling per annum, which has been supposed equal to about sixteen thousand pounds of our present money. The treaty, by which this agreement was concluded, was extremely beneficial to Henry; for the Count of Boulogne, by the terms thereof, bound himself to receive this annuity as a beneficium, for which he engaged to do military service, and to render homage and fealty to the King of England, so that thereby, he was changed from an enemy into an ally; and a new hold was obtained by the crown of England upon the Counts of Flanders.