clined to reject his testimony in this instance, and to receive the account of Hoveden, both because the chaplain was with Henry at the time, and because his relation bears with it every circumstance of probability, while even at the first view that of the Abbot of Peterborough can hardly be credited.

Hoveden places the demand of the French Vexin and of the city of Bourges at a subsequent period, after Henry had received a summons of an extraordinary nature from the King of France which we shall have to notice presently, and to which the application of the English monarch was a retort. It must also be remarked that the demand of Bourges brought forward a question which Henry was most unwilling to agitate except when he was driven to it; and it therefore appears to me very probable, that the Abbot of Peterborough has in his narrative confounded the messages which the Bishop of Ely, the Archdeacon of Oxford, and others, were certainly commanded to bear to the younger Henry, with the demands which were shortly afterwards made by the King of England upon Louis the Young. In this opinion I am confirmed by the fact that the Bishop of Ely and the Archdeacon do not appear to have gone on to Paris at all.

On the consideration of all the circumstances, I am inclined to believe that all Henry required from Louis at this time was to abstain from instiga

ting his son to acts of rebellion, and to send back the Princess Margaret into Normandy; or at most that the demand comprised the cession of the French Vexin.

There existed it is true other serious matters of discussion between Henry II. and the King of France; and although the historians of the time do not mention the negociations which took place in regard to disputed portions of territory, yet we find from state papers, which are the surest of all guides, that frequent communications must have passed between the ministers of Henry and Louis concerning parts of Auvergne, Berri, and other districts. The ambassadors which Henry now sent to the court of France, might be, and probably were, instructed to demand explanations or satisfaction in regard to these claims; but the answer returned by Louis is not known, and before Henry could execute his intention of going into Normandy, messengers arrived at Winchester bringing him the distasteful news that Peter, Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus, had arrived in France, commanded by the Pope to put his whole territories on both sides of the water under interdict, in case he refused to unite his son Richard to Alice the daughter of the French king.

This act on the part of the Pope is, in every point of view, extraordinary, and worthy of consideration. The Roman see had always contended for the right of interfering in every case what

soever where the spiritual rule was either remotely or immediately concerned, and thus in regard to marriages we find the Popes continually stepping forward either to enforce or mitigate the severity of the canons, as suited their views and purposes; but I know of no instance, except this, in which they thought fit to interpose in order to compel the execution of an engagement in regard to a marriage where no act of espousal had taken place. In cases of espousal, the Roman church considered the spiritual marriage as complete, and that the church had therefore a right to enforce the engagement; but in the present instance, the parties not being in fact affianced, the matter mained merely as a simple treaty between two crowns; in regard to any differences concerning which, the Pope might very well mediate as the common Father of the Christian world, but had not the slightest pretence for resorting to such compulsory measures as excommunication and interdict, unless indeed some very peculiar circumstances existed to give a character to the transaction, different from that which it bore at the first view.

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In the next place, this act was extraordinary, inasmuch as we do not find that it was preceded by any exhortation or remonstrance either on the part of Louis or on that of the Pope, in regard to the delay of Richard's marriage. Such a remonstrance indeed might have been made by

Louis, without coming down to our times; but it is very improbable that the document should have been lost, had the Pope preceded his threat of interdict by such a letter of admonition as might have been expected from him in ordinary circumstances.

Another remarkable fact connected with this whole proceeding is, that no unreasonable delay had in truth taken place; Richard himself was just nineteen, and the princess could not, by any account, be yet sixteen, and according to all the best statements, was only eleven years of age. If indeed the assertion of Henault and almost all other authors be correct, that Philip Augustus was the first child which Louis the Young had by his third wife, Alice of Champagne, the princess could not have been marriageable at this period; and therefore Louis could only, at the very utmost, demand that Henry should cause the ceremony of affiancing to be performed.

The many extraordinary circumstances connected with this transaction, and the lamentable result which ultimately took place, have caused historians to believe that Henry, even at this time, entertained a criminal passion for the Princess Alice of France, and have induced them to suppose and assert, that it was in consequence of indubitable evidence of this passion that the Pope and the King of France urged with such vehemence and haste the union of the Princess with Richard.

This hypothesis, however, is not only overturned by the fact of Alice's age, supposing her to have been born at the period usually assigned; but it is clearly shown to be erroneous by the after transactions of Louis, Henry, and the Pope; for we shall soon have to point out, that, upon a very slight consideration, Louis left the matter, which he now so eagerly pressed, entirely in suspense; and it can scarcely be supposed that, if he had known that Henry entertained the intention of seducing his daughter, he would have suffered her calmly to remain in his hands, would have made peace with that monarch, and would have resumed for a considerable time the most friendly intercourse with him. I am therefore perfectly convinced, that whatever was the age of the Princess Alice, the whole account of Henry's passion for her at this period is without the slightest foundation, and that Lord Lyttleton and others have allowed themselves-in attempting to account for matters which appeared strange and incongruous to be betrayed into suppositions altogether inconsistent with the facts of history.

As soon as the arrival of the Legate in France was known to the King of England, and the powers with which he was invested were announced, Henry hastened his preparations for passing over to the continent, and at the same time appealed to the Pope himself against the interdict which the Cardinal of St. Chrysogonus was em