insurrection in suppressing which he had taken a prominent part. This was Richard de Lucy the Grand Justiciary, who, worn out with labours in his master's service, and seeing peace fully rëestablished, retired shortly after to a convent which he himself had founded, and assuming the cowl spent the rest of his life in calm tranquillity, terminating his days peacefully in 1179. Universal respect and esteem followed his memory, and men honoured in him a brave and gallant knight, a skilful and successful general, a just though stern judge, a clear-sighted and prudent politician, and a faithful servant of his king and of his God. Some men have scoffed at him and at others, who-in those times, and with the feelings of those times-thought fit to pass the last years of their existence in monasteries; but it seems to me, that while an opportunity of encouraging reflection, thought, and repentance is very necessary to those who have spent their days in vice and crime-a state of calm seclusion from worldly cares and anxieties, a gentle dissevering of earthly ties, a dedication of our last hours to the thoughts of that new condition to which we are approaching, is no ungraceful conclusion for a well-spent life.

If the loss of old, tried, and sincere friends can ever be said to receive compensation, the bereavement which Henry sustained by the death of the Earl of Cornwall and Richard de Lucy, was in some degree made up to him by the acquisition of

several new allies. His two unmarried daughters were, about this time, sought as brides by two European princes, of great distinction. One of these was Alphonso, King of Castile, a monarch who had distinguished himself in the wars which then, as now, continually desolated the Peninsula. The Princess Eleanor was finally united to him early in the year 1176, having been long betrothed. Joan, the youngest daughter, was also sought about this time by William, surnamed the Good, King of Sicily, who had rendered himself famous in the wars of Italy, constantly supporting the party of the Pope against the imperial faction. The lenity of his government and the equity which he displayed in the administration of justice, seem to have entitled him to the name which a grateful people bestowed; and the firmness with which he refused to wed the daughter of the Emperor when her hand was offered to him, on account of his engagements with the Pope, showed that stability of purpose and integrity of character, which rendered his alliance doubly desirable to a monarch surrounded by friends so little to be trusted as those whom Henry the Second had about him. The King of Sicily had also, it is said, refused the hand of another child of an imperial house, though it is doubtful whether the marriage, which was at one time proposed, between William and the daughter of Manuel Comnenus, was broken off by himself or by the Greek Emperor. At all events his reputation as a warrior and a politician were

at that time very high in Europe; and there can be no doubt that Henry received with no slight pleasure, the ambassadors which he sent to demand the hand of the Princess Joan, in the year 1175. The Pope himself is supposed to have taken part in the arrangement of the alliance; and the Bishop of Syracuse, who was an Englishman by birth, is also said to have had some share in promoting an event so desirable to his native sovereign. Rich presents were sent to England by the King of Sicily, as soon as it was known that the consent of Henry had been obtained to the match; but the gifts were lost at sea, together with two Sicilian ships. In the year 1176, however, the young princess was sent to her husband, who received her joyfully, and settled on her a rich dowry. About the same time a marriage was negociated between Henry's youngest son John, and Isabella, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester. The object of the King in promoting a match between that prince and the child of a subject, connected with his own royal house by not very desirable ties, namely those of illegitimate birth, was to secure the large possessions of the Earl of Gloucester to John. Some difficulties presented themselves; but Henry promised to give portions to the amount of a hundred pounds yearly to the Earl's two married daughters, on condition that his cousin of Gloucester would settle upon Isabella the whole of his estates. The treaty was concluded; but neither the bride nor bride

groom being yet marriageable, the alliance was postponed.

Besides the ambassadors who came to England to negociate the marriage of the King's two daughters, and the various princes who daily flocked to offer at the shrine of Thomas à Becket, envoys on a matter of considerable moment, added lustre to the court of Henry, about the period of which we now speak. The occasion of their being sent was a dispute between Sancho King of Navarre, and Alphonso of Castile, regarding some territories claimed by both those monarchs. Each, it would appear, had usurped a portion of his neighbour's kingdom; each refused to give up what he had taken; and the only agreement that they could come to was, to refer their quarrel to the decision of Henry, taking care, at the same time, to send two champions to his court to fulfil that part of the judicial system of the day, which in many such disputes required a trial by combat, in case the King of England should judge that resource necessary. In a chivalrous age, no greater compliment could be paid to any monarch than that of referring a cause of this kind to his arbitration.

The ambassadors arrived in the beginning of the year 1177, and the letter of Peter of Blois, Henry's secretary, giving him an account of their having landed, affords us a curious picture of Henry's habits. The writer laments therein the utter impossibility of finding out where the King was,

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from the excessive rapidity of his movements; and adds to the four things which puzzled the wisdom of Solomon to discover, a fifth, which was to trace the path of the King in England. The letter reached Henry at length, however; and he immediately summoned a parliament to meet on the first Sunday in Lent, not choosing to decide so important a question without due deliberation. On the council being assembled, the ambassadors displayed their powers, and put in a Latin statement of their several masters' claims. They swore, also, that the two Kings should abide by the decision of Henry, which submission to his decree is provided for likewise by the treaty between Alphonso and Sancho, who had, moreover, placed in the hands of neutral parties, four strong places on each part, as security for the fulfilment of the arbitrators' sentence. In the statements made by the ambassadors, there was no denial that mutual usurpations had really taken place, and the decision of the King of England, which was given on the succeeding Sunday, seems to have been dictated by a strict sense of equity. He adjudged both parties to restore that which had been forcibly taken; and he likewise condemned his son-in-law, the King of Castile, to pay to the King of Navarre a certain sum of Spanish money yearly, for ten years.

This sum is stated in Rymer, to have been three thousand marabotins; but I am unable to say what