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eastern empire. Not he, but a count of Flanders was destined to realise the dream of Bohemond and of Henry VI. The thought of Richard before Constantinople makes the heart leap.

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The interval between July 1194 and January 1196 was filled to a great extent by military preparations, and the history of the negotiations is sufficient to show that the conclusion of peace was likely to lead to an outbreak of war. Indeed, those who lived through this time felt that the occupation of Vaudreuil in the summer of 1195 was the real beginning of the great war. Soon after midsummer in this year the emperor had urged Richard to proceed. In the midst of his successes, peace in the north of France would have been most distasteful to him. Apart from his own feelings, Richard was bound to the emperor; for one cause or another he was Henry's man; the ransom was not paid up; some of the hostages were still in Germany. Desiring to be assured of the emperor's sincerity, Richard sent the bishop of Ely to him. Philip felt the danger, and having tried, without success, to detain the bishop as he passed through French territory, declared that the truce had been broken and resumed the war. Both kings naturally resorted to Vaudreuil, of whose safety Philip seems to have entertained grave doubts. He decided to destroy the castle, and the mines were hurriedly dug beneath its walls, while a conference between the two kings was actually taking place not far away. King Richard heard the crash of the walls, and swore by the legs of God that saddles should be emptied that day; his knights rushed upon the French, and Philip leaving Vaudreuil fled across the Seine, and broke down the bridge behind him. From this time Vaudreuil and the valley 1. Guillaume le Maréchal, iii, 139–40.

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2. Cf. Howden, iii, 300.

3. Howden, iii, 300. Rigord, i, 131.

4. Guillaume le Maréchal, iii, 139.

Howden, iii, 301. For the

chronology, see Meyer's note to Guillaume le Maréchal, and Cartellieri,

iii, 108-9.

of the Eure were never again out of Richard's power. The great castle was renewed at great expense,1 and the bridge over the Seine at Portjoie was afterwards built as a link between Vaudreuil and Chateau-Gaillard. 2

Still the negotiations went on. Philip's unfortunate sister Alice, who had been carried from place to place in Normandy for so many years, 3 was at last handed back to her brother, and was immediately betrothed to William III of Ponthieu. The sister of Arthur of Brittany, previously designed for the heir of Austria, was, according to a new treaty, to marry Philip's son Louis. 5 Negotiations had been hurried by the news of a disaster in Spain. But the proposed marriage and the other terms of the treaty were postponed for full ratification until November 8th, when the will of the emperor might be known. The emperor objected to the treaty. It was a shameful thing, he thought to quitclaim anything that was not under one's control. He would remit 17,000 marks of the ransom to help Richard to recover all that he had lost. Consequently the meeting of November 8th, which took place near Verneuil, was a failure. War was resumed in the northeast, where Philip had recently allotted the county of Eu and Arques as the dowry of his sister Alice. Perhaps it was now that Richard laid siege to Arques, while the French, on November 10th burned Dieppe and destroyed its shipping by means of Greek fire. This act was the

1. The exchequer rolls show with what expense. 137, etc.

2. Guillaume le Maréchal, iii, 140.

Cf. Rot. Scacc., i,

3. Howden, iii, 303. For Alice in Normandy, compare the entry in Rot. Scacc., i, 233. "pro hernesio sororis Regis Francie deportando de Bonnavilla usque Cadomum v. so. per breve Regis."

4. Actes, No. 453. Cf. Cartellieri, iii, 114.

5. Howden, iii, 303.

6. Howden, iii, 303-4; Gervase of Canterbury, i, 530.

7. Howden, iii, 304.

8. Ibid. Cf. Rigord, i, 131. Rigord's chronology is somewhat confused.

renewal of the desperate policy of destruction begun at Vaudreuil. Philip meant the real brunt of the war to be borne by Richard at the weakest spot in his empire; and he laid siege to Issoudun in Poitevin Berri. When the news came that Philip had taken the town and was besieging the castle, Richard was at Vaudreuil. In three days he had covered the distance between Vaudreuil and Issoudun. 1 A large force had gathered round him on the way, and Philip, taken by surprise, tried in vain to obtain leave to retire. Richard seized the opportunity and treated for a favourable peace. On December 5 terms were arranged: 2 a strict truce was to be maintained until their ratification in full assembly on the feast of St. Hilary (Jan. 13th). Richard spent Christmas at Poitiers, and met Philip at Louviers between Vaudreuil and Gaillon, on the 11th January. After long consultations peace was made on January 15th. 3

A comparison of Philip's position in the truce of 1194 with that which he accepted early in 1196 is some measure of the effect produced by Richard's vigorous government

1. It is possible that the reference, in Rot. Scacc., i, 136, refers to the speedy relief of Issoudun: "baronibus et militibus euntibus ad Regem apud Isoldun tempore guerre, m. li. cccc. li. xl. li. de dono." In this case the exchequer roll would belong to 1196, not to 1195. There are other indications in favour of this view. On the other hand, according to a copy of a charter in the Tanner MS. 233, p. 31, Richard was also at Issoudun on July 3rd, 1195 (cf. Cartellieri, iii, 221, no. 236).

2. Howden says December 9th (iii, 305), but the later treaty refers to the terms arranged, "in vigilia Sancti Nicholai, inter Exoldunum et Charrocium."

3. The treaty in Teulet, Layettes, ii, 182-4, no. 431; Delisle, Cart. Norm., pp. 276-7, no. 1057. For the place, see Howden, iv, 3. The date in Rigord, i, 133–4. The letter from the archbishop of Rouen to Ralph de Diceto shows that the conference began before the 13th January (infra octavas Epiphaniae, Rad. Dic., ii, 135). The archbishop left on Saturday night, the third day of the conference. In 1196 the 13th was a Saturday. This gives Thursday for the opening of the conference and Monday for the conclusion of peace. Cf. Cartellieri, iii, 119.

after his return. In 1194 the line drawn from the Eure to the Seine showed that Philip held Vaudreuil with the neighbouring fiefs of Louviers, Acquigny and Léry,1 as a self-contained outwork on the Norman frontier.2 Behind this line Philip included in the truce Vernon, Gaillon, Paci, Illiers l'Eveque, Louye, Nonancourt and Tillières : in other words the Evrecin and the old frontier of Normandy to the west were either in his own hands, or had been distributed among his friends and servants.3 To the east of the Seine the French king retained most of the centres of military and civil administration: Arques, Drincourt, Eu, Gisors and the Vexin. Hugh of Gournai seems to have absorbed, as Philip's vassal, the honour of Aumâle and the neighbouring district (officium) of Beauvoir; the count of Boulogne had submitted his Norman fiefs to France; the wealthy William of Caïeux had been secured by the grant of Mortemer; and a Frenchman, William Garland, held the castle of Neufmarché.5 In 1196 Philip retained the Vexin (except Beauvoir) and the southern half of the Evrecin; Gisors, Vernon, Gaillon, Paci, Ivry and Nonancourt protected France in the later war; but Evreux and Vaudreuil to

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1. The line ran from Pont de l'Arche along the wooded slope above the Eure to La Haye Malherbe. Louviers and Léry were dependent on Vaudreuil (Rot. Scacc., i, 111; Cart. Norm., no. 1076, p. 285). For Acquigny, compare the treaty of 1200, below, p. 250. 2. For the truce, see Howden, iii, 257–260.

3. Of the places named in the text, Richard of Vernon afterwards exchanged Vernon for other lands (Cart. Norm., nos. 33, 34) and Robert of Leicester ceded Paci (Cart. Norm., nos. 36–41; cf. Howden, iii, 278). For Illiers l'Eveque, see Stapleton, I, cxv.

4. Below p. 163.

5. Cf. Cart. Norm., p. 9, no. 32, apparently a renewal after the treaty of 1196.

6. In his later wars against the duke of Normandy it is worthy of notice that Philip seems to have made Vernon his usual headquarters. Here, as generally, he was careful to maintain the identity of its administration and the interests of its inhabitants. See Cart. Norm., Nos. 35, 1079; Actes, No. 456.

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the west, and all the French conquests east of the Seine, with the exception of the Vexin, were recovered by Richard.

A great assembly of clergy, barons and officials met at Louviers to discuss the affairs of Normandy. The position of some among the great barons and landholders of the duchy was defined in the treaty, and the restoration of north-eastern Normandy necessitated a precise understanding with regard to many more. Ralph of Exoudun was able to resume possession of his county of Eu;1 Richard of Vernon decided to throw in his lot with Richard and to receive back his lands in the Côtentin; but the position of others was more equivocal; it may be of interest to dwell at greater length upon the relations of some of these with King Richard.

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Like Richard of Vernon, Hugh of Gournai came back to the side of King Richard. By the terms of the treaty,

1. Richard had given him a grant from the revenue of Argentan (Rot. Scacc., i, 210).

2. Richard of Vernon had originally received lands in France in exchange for Vernon (Cart. Norm., p. 278). Later, apparently, these lands were commuted for 800li. of Paris (Cart. Norm., p. 9, no. 14). This sum was guaranteed in the treaty to Richard of Vernon: the lands of Hugh of Gournai outside the Vexin were set apart for the purpose. My own reading of the treaty suggests, in opposition to Stapleton's (I, cxliv), that Richard of Vernon was anxious to join King Richard. This is confirmed by an entry in the Rot. Scacc., i, 145, at the end of Robert the Angevin's return of the farm of the great Vernon honour at Néhou, which had been escheated. The honour was farmed at the large sum of 460li. The farmer accounted for all but £16. 0s. 2d. "Idem reddit compotum de eodem debito. Ricardo de Vernone xvi, li. ii. d. quos habuit de tempore quo Robertus tenere debuerat manerium per breve Regis." Richard of Vernon was certainly with King Richard in 1198 Round, Calendar, p. 537.

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