Robert of Gloucester is exchanged for Stephen, Nov. 1, and joins Maud at Gloucester.

Henry of Blois holds a council at Westminster, in which he excommunicates Maud's adherents, Dec. 7; an emissary of Maud reproaches him " with great harshness of language," for his inconstancy

A.D. 1142. Maud removes to the castle of Oxford, while Robert seeks ineffectually aid from her husband Geoffrey.

Olaf does homage to Magnus V. of Norway, for Man and the Isles; he is killed by his nephews, June 29. Godred, his son, succeeds.

Maud is besieged in Oxford by Stephen, in September.

Robert returns, bringing with him Prince Henry, and some troops, but is unable to relieve the castle.

Maud, after a while, escapes to Wallingford, Dec. 20.

A.D. 1143. Maud retires to Gloucester, and is generally acknowledged as sovereign in the western counties; Stephen holds London and the eastern and central counties; David, the king of Scotland, rules beyond the Tees.

The partisans of Stephen and Maud devastate the country between them.

Godred of Man invades Ireland.

A.D. 1144. Owen captures Aberteivi from the Normans; they, however, storm St. Asaph, and Gilbert is consecrated its bishop by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury.

A.D. 1145. Sigfrid, bishop of Chichester, is driven from his see.

Robert of Gloucester dies, October 31; Maud with

draws to Normandy.

Owen is successful against the Normans, and takes the castles of Carmarthen and Mold from them.

A.D. 1146. Bernard of Clairvaux preaches a new crusade, which is headed by the emperor Conrad and Louis VII. of Francek, but effects nothing of importance.

A.D. 1147. Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, oppressed by Henry of Blois, the papal legate, and driven into exile. He returns, and places the king's demesnes under an interdict.

4.D. 1149. Henry, the son of Maud, visits Scotland, and is there knighted by King David; he makes an inroad on the north of England, but without success, and soon returns to Normandy.

Madoc, prince of Powys, accompanied by the earl of Chester, invades North Wales; they are defeated by Owen at Consilt, near Flint.

A.D. 1150. The Norman settlements in South Wales greatly harassed by the sons of Griffin, the son of Rhys ap Tudor', the last prince of the country.

A.D. 1151. The earl of Chester is imprisoned, and obliged to give up the castle of Lincoln and other strongholds.

Theobald and the other prelates refuse to crown Eustace, the son of Stephen.

Death of Geoffrey of Anjou, Sept. 7.

The king of France was accompanied by his wife, Eleanor of Guienne, but he divorced her soon after his return, and she then married Henry of Anjou, (afterwards Henry II.)

1 See p. 222.

A.D. 1152. Henry, the son of Maud, lands in England.

The castle of Tenby captured by the Welsh.

A.D. 1153. Eustace, the son of Stephen, dies, Aug. 18; in consequence a treaty is made, Nov. 7, which provides for the succession of Henry to the throne on the death of Stephen. Fealty is accordingly sworn to him as the future king. He remained some time in England, and the Saxon Chronicler remarks, " All men loved him, for he did good justice, and made peace."

Eystein, king of Norway, ravages the coast of England, and destroys Scarborough.

A.D. 1154. Henry returns to Normandy after Easter.

Stephen dies, Oct. 25, and is buried at Feversham". Henry is summoned from Normandy; he lands in England Dec. 6.

At the suppression of the monastery in the time of Henry VIII. the tomb was destroyed, the leaden coffin stolen, and the king's bones thrown into the sea.

HIS celebrated line of kings sprang from the marriage of the empress Matilda with Geoffrey,

the son of Fulk, earl of Anjou, who also had the office of seneschal of France, and event

ually became king of Jerusalem. The name is evidently derived from planta genista, the broom

plant, a sprig of which, it seems, was usually worn by Geoffrey in his cap, or other head-gear; but whether it is to be taken as an indication of his love for field sports, or was assumed as a token of humility or badge of penance, is doubtful; the latter, however, being the most probable.

Planta genista.

The Plantagenet kings were fourteen in number, and their rule extended over a period of 331 years (A.D. 1154-1485). Some of our ablest monarchs are found among them; but they were almost incessantly engaged in fierce struggles with either their subjects or their kindred, in many cases with such disastrous results to themselves, that Henry III. and Richard II. passed the greater part of their lives under tutelage or stricter restraint; Henry II. and John sank broken-hearted (the latter perhaps poisoned) under their difficulties; Richard I. and Richard III. fell in the field, and Edward II., Richard II., Henry VI., and Edward V., met with violent death in other forms. Yet, to the great body of their subjects, the results of these dire convulsions were eminently beneficial; they first weakened, then shook to its centre, the feudal system, and admitted the municipal bodies and the commons of the land to a share in the government, which was so enlarged under succeeding kings, as at length to render it impossible that England should ever again be ruled merely by the sword.

The great foreign events of the Plantagenet era were, the annexation of Wales and the partial conquest of Ireland; the loss of the English continental possessions, and the long series of attacks upon Scotland and France, which, happily for all parties, were ultimately unsuccessful. The kings of France formed counter projects for the conquest of England, but they were indifferently seconded by their nobles, who had no wish to lose the asylum which our island frequently afforded them from any violent exertion of the royal power, and therefore their efforts were altogether abortive.