It may be necessary, however, to notice here, that previous to this period, namely, in the year 1163, Henry had entered into a subsidiary treaty with Thierry and his son Philip, shortly before the former departed for the Holy Land, by the terms of which Henry granted an annuity to the Count upon the condition of military service; and it is not easy to discover upon what plea the Sovereign of Flanders so far broke the engagements of this convention, as to appear in arms against England in 1166.

A brief summary must now be given of the progress of the dispute between Becket and the King, from the period of the unsuccessful embassy which Henry sent to Pope Alexander at Sens; though we have already noticed some of the principal facts, and need not trace the course of this affair very minutely during Becket's exile, as but few events affecting greatly the general course of this history present themselves in that space of time.

The death of Victor, the confederation of several Italian cities in favour of his opponent, and other circumstances of a similar kind, had induced Alexander to try his fortunes once more in Italy, and he had succeeded in establishing himself in Rome. We have seen, that Henry's indignation towards Becket had in no degree decreased; and that he had even extended that indignation towards Alexander, in the menaces written to the Archbishop of Cologne, and pronounced by Henry's

ambassadors at Wurtzburgh. Neither, on the other hand, had Becket or the Pope in the least receded from their pretensions; and the acts and the threats of the King of England only irritated, without dismaying, them. All the relations and dependents of Becket were driven out of England; and we are told that an oath was exacted of them to join the exiled prelate at Pontigny, whither he had gone, after leaving Alexander at Sens. Near four hundred persons, men, women, and children at the breast, were comprised in this proscription, their lands and goods were confiscated, and they were thus sent to Becket in misery and want. But this base and cruel act did not produce the effect that Henry intended; for the very name of the prelate had become a recommendation to the princes and nobles of Europe, and in general his relations and friends thus banished, found plenty to support them and promote their fortunes. About the same time, or a little before, the payment of Peter-pence to the Pope was stopped, the revenues of Becket himself, and of all the ecclesiastics who followed him into exile, were seized, and the clergy were strictly forbidden to pray for him in the churches.

In return, Becket thundered forth denunciations against the monarch, wrote to him letter after letter of an insolent and a menacing character, and loudly announced his determination of excommunicating his King, and persecuting, to the utmost

own cause.

of his power, the bishops and clergy who had supported Henry. The Bishops again appealed to the Pope; and Alexander, embarrassed with his own dangers and difficulties, left many of their addresses either unnoticed, or very briefly answered; but in the meanwhile he gave Becket full power to try and punish, by ecclesiastical means, all those inferior persons who had done him or his friends any injury, thereby making him judge in his In regard to the King of England, the Pope left to Becket the discretionary power of acting in whatever way he might think his archiepiscopal station justified; and that Prelate instantly determined to proceed, without remorse, to the excommunication of his sovereign and his benefactor. He was preparing for the execution of this resolution in the manner that he judged most likely to produce a great effect upon the minds of men, visiting shrines, and holding vigils by the tombs of saints, when a change took place in the fortunes of the Pope Alexander himself, which brought about an alteration of measures very unfavourable to the views of Becket.

The news of this change, indeed, would not have reached the exiled Archbishop in time to prevent him from fulminating his sentence of excommunication at Henry himself, had not that monarch been seized with a dangerous illness, which induced Louis King of France to entreat or to command the prelate to suspend his purpose for a time. There can be lit

tle doubt that but for the intercession of the French monarch, no pious considerations would have caused Becket to pause in the course of his revenge; and, in order to sate himself as far as possible, he proceeded at once to excommunicate a number of the King's most faithful friends and servants, using the legatine power with which the Pope invested him in October 1165 in the service of his angry passions.

In the meantime, however, Henry, before he was seized with the illness we have mentioned, had called an assembly at Chinon, and in consequence of the advice he received from the bishops and nobles present, had interposed an appeal to the Pope against the authority of Becket. This was an inconsistent act, as he had himself forbidden his clergy to have recourse to the same expedient, and Becket's friends triumphed in proportion; but Becket himself did not receive intimation of the appeal till after he had suspended the sentence of excommunication which he had been about to pronounce. At the same time, negociations were going on between Henry and Alexander, which wrought an extraordinary change, for the time, in the position of both parties. The Marquis of Montferrat, anxious to increase his power, which was already very great, by an alliance with a monarch of such authority as the King of England, sent ambassadors to Henry, beseeching him to give one of the daughters of the house of Plantagenet in marriage to his heir; and it is morcover asserted

these ambassadors were instructed to promise the King, that if the request were granted, the Marquis would take such measures as to lead to the deposition of Becket from the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

What assurances the Lord of Montferrat could give Henry in regard to his power of performing so mighty an undertaking, we cannot now tell; but that he possessed some strong influence over the mind of Alexander there can be no doubt. Henry immediately acceded to the request of the Marquis, and, apparently at his suggestion, sent three ambassadors to treat with Alexander, the chief of whom was no other than that John of Oxford, who, in execution of the King's commands, had already been excommunicated. Henry must have been very well assured that his ministers would meet with a favourable reception, before he chose so obnoxious a person, as one of his envoys to the Pope. The embassy was undoubtedly successful in a much greater degree than could have been expected; the Pontiff received the present representatives of Henry with far more kindness than he had displayed towards the King's former ambassadors. John of Oxford surrendered into his hands the Deanery of Salisbury, which Becket had declared uncanonically conferred, and immediately received it back again from the Pontiff, with absolution for that and all his other sins. Presenting letters from the English monarch to the Bishop of