thereof, to Henry, his eldest son; who should do homage for them to the King of France, and owe nothing more either to his father or brother,* with respect to those provinces.

Thirdly, that Henry's second son, Richard, should in like manner pay homage and fealty to Louis for the Duchy of Aquitaine, and should espouse Adelais, the youngest daughter of that King. It is to be remarked that no precise dowry was settled upon her, but it was left to her father to fix its nature and amount at an after period.

Fourthly, it was agreed that the office of great Seneschal of the kingdom of France should be given up by the Count of Blois, on whom Louis had bestowed it some years before, and restored to Prince Henry, in right of the County of Anjou, to which it belonged.

Fifthly, that the King of England should hold Touraine as a fief from the Count of Blois.

Sixthly, that the hostages given to Louis by the insurgent nobles of Poitou and Bretagne should be given up by him to Henry; and that they themselves should return to their former allegiance, upon condition of pardon for their revolt, and the restitution of all the castles and lands, which had been taken from them since the troubles in those countries began.

It will be seen, that in entering into this treaty,

*This clause would seem to relate to some claim which his brother Geoffrey might have upon a part of Maine.

Henry still kept in view the chance of one of Louis's daughters succeeding to the throne of France; and although he dissevered the various provinces which he had united in his own person, it evidently appears that he did not intend at once to give up all rule therein, probably trusting to contingencies, as was very frequently the case with him, to obviate any inconveniences which might arise from the arrangements now made.

Richard, to whom he transferred the Duchy of Aquitaine, was not yet twelve years old, and Adelais was still younger; so that several years were to elapse, ere the government could possibly be entrusted to that prince. It might well happen also that in the succeeding years, relieved from Becket's pretensions, and having subdued his other internal enemies, he might follow the example of Louis himself in regard to the cession of the Norman Vexin, and object to the fulfilment of the covenant he now made.

However that may be, the treaty was extremely gratifying to the French nobles, who had long beheld with reasonable alarm the consolidation of such immense territories in France in the hands of the English monarch. The Count of Blois, too, who had undoubtedly no small share in promoting the treaty of peace which was now signed, had every reason to be satisfied with the result; as in return for the sacrifice of an office to which he had no right, and which must always have proved a

matter of strife between him and each succeeding Count of Anjou, he obtained, as a voluntary act from Henry, a feudal honour, which might at an after period be turned to much greater advantage. To Richard, Henry gave nothing, in fact, but that which had been before promised when, in order to secure the alliance of the Count of Barcelona, a marriage had been negociated between the young prince and the daughter of the Count. The promised bride of Richard had died in infancy, and Henry could hardly do less in betrothing his son to the daughter of the King of France, than he had done on the former occasion. Perhaps, too, he might hope that the Barons of Aquitaine, who had never shown themselves well pleased with their subjection to the crown of England, might be more submissive to his rule, as well as that of his son, when they had the full assurance of being ultimately governed by a prince of their own.

If such was his hope, the very first proceedings that took place in Aquitaine must have shaken those expectations, for dissensions almost immediately ensued between the monarch and a number of the former insurgents, regarding the restitution of the lands that had been promised. The Barons insisted that the terms of the treaty were not fully and properly observed towards them, and they consequently remained in arms, with the powerful Lords of An-. goulême and La Marche at their head. From the grasping character of Henry, we might be led to

suppose that the charge of the Barons was not unfounded; but the silence of the King of France, to whom recourse was open, and from whom every favour was to be expected, affords a strong motive for believing that justice was on the side of the English monarch. Henry, however, whose activity knew no pause, marched at once into the south, invaded the territories of the Lords of Angoulême and La Marche, captured several strong places, and succeeded in reducing the whole province to obedience. He then returned to Normandy, where he employed himself in the more beneficial works of peace; and to this period of his reign are ascribed various public buildings of importance; amongst which was an immense dyke of thirty miles in length, constructed with a view to restrain the Loire from overflowing the lowlands in the neighbourhood of Angers. The frontiers of Normandy, too, he strengthened by lines and fortifications, in order to guard, as far as possible, against those desolating incursions which had so frequently occured during the late war.

In the meanwhile he had sent his son Henry to Paris, in order to take possession of the high office of Seneschal, in right of the County of Anjou ; and at a great banquet the English prince served the King of France at table in that capacity. Nor had he neglected the affairs of Britanny, although the resistance of the Barons of Aquitaine had called him sooner than he probably intended from that

duchy. He had, nevertheless, very shortly after the signature of the peace of Montmirail, taken his son Geoffrey into Britanny, and caused the nobles of the land to do homage to him in the town of Rennes.

In the south of France he had still some embarrassments to contend with, as his claims upon the County of Toulouse had been in no degree affected by the late arrangements. The Count remained virtually unsubdued, and Henry resolved to bring him to do homage. We find that his intention of so doing must have been openly avowed; for at a meeting that took place between the English monarch and the King of France at the Abbey of Saint Denis, in November 1169, the affairs of the County of Toulouse came under discussion between him and Louis; and in order to counterbalance the evil impressions which that prince had received from some late transactions regarding Becket, Henry promised to treat the Count of Toulouse leniently, out of regard to the French monarch. The ostensible motive of Henry's journey to Saint Denis was to accomplish a pilgrimage, or to perform some religious vow; but the real object was to recover, as far as possible, the good will of the French king, and apparently to diminish, in some degree, the influence of Becket. Amongst other concessions or promises which the English sovereign made to Louis, was an engagement to send his son Richard to be educated at Paris by that

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