THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE SECOND, AND OF THE AGE IN WHICH HE LIVED, I N FIVE BOOK S: то WHICH IS PREFIXED A Hiftory of the Revolutions of England From the Death of EDWARD the Confeffor To the Birth of HENRY the Second: PRINTED FOR J. DODSLEY, IN PALL-Mall. MDCCLXXVII. THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE O'F King HENRY the Second. T HE clergy having fo unanimously de- BOOK I. clared for Matilda, almoft all England was induced by their powerful influence, and by the fear which the defeat and captivity of the king had brought on his party, to think likewife of fubmitting to the government of that lady, except the fingle county of Kent, which the queen maintained for her husband, with the affiftance of his favorite, William of Ipres. This general, Vid. auctores immediately after the battle of Lincoln, re-citat. ut fuprà. tired thither with most of the mercenary troops, encouraged the people of that county, who had been always well-affected to Stephen, and drew to his ftandard all the braveft of that prince's friends, who daily came in from every part of the kingdom; fome of them hoping to ferve their unfortunate master, and others to obVOL. II. B tain |