the heiress of Conan le Petit, earl of Bretagne. In the contests of his father and brothers, he sided alternately with each, so as to become detestable for his treachery ; he was thrown from his horse and killed at a tournament at Paris, Aug. 19, 1186. His children were the unfortunate Arthur and Eleanor, the victims of their uncle John.

5. JOHN became king.

6. Matilda, born at London in 1156, was married to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, and after sharing many troubles with him, died June 28, 1189, shortly after his exile by the emperor Frederick I.

7. Eleanor, born at Domfront, in Normandy, in 1162, was married to Alphonso III. of Castile, with whom she lived forty-three years, and died of grief, October 31, 1214, only twenty-five days after his decease.

8. Joanna, born at Angers in October, 1165, was married while a child to William the Good, king of Sicily ; she was early left a widow, and afterwards married Raymond VI., count of Toulouse. She ac

companied her brother Richard to the Holy Land, and did not long survive him, dying, after having assumed the habit of a nun, in Sept. 1199; she was buried with him at Fontevraud.

Henry had a number of mistresses, and left several illegitimate children, of whom two especially require notice.

William, called Longespee, received in marriage Ela, the heiress of William Fitz-Patrick, earl of Salisbury. He was an eminent military commander, and the main support, both by his arms and his counsel, of his brother

John, and by whom he appears to have been duly

Arms of William Longespee.

valued. He did much damage to the towns, and burnt the fleet of France, but was himself captured at Bouvines; he died March 7, 1226. His son, of the same name, served in Egypt under Louis IX. of France, and was killed there in 1249.

Geoffrey, though not in orders, had the see of Lincoln bestowed on him in 1173, and held it till Jan. 6, 1182, when he resigned it, devoting himself to a secular life, and accompanied his father as his chancellor; his conduct contrasted so greatly with that of his brothers, that the king declared Geoffrey was his true son, and on his death-bed, which he alone attended, expressed a wish that he should become archbishop of York. Richard accordingly bestowed it on him, though he prohibited his coming to England. Geoffrey, however, took possession after a short struggle with Longchamp, the jus ticiary, and held his see till 1207, when opposing the exactions of John, he was driven abroad, and he died in exile in Normandy, Dec. 18, 1212.

Another natural son, Morgan, a priest, became provost of Beverley, and in 1215 was elected to the see of Durham, but rejected by the pope on the ground of his illegitimate birth, which he proudly refused to conceal, by taking, as the pontiff is said to have advised, the

name of Bloet, that of his mother.

as

In this king's reign the royal arms of England sumed their present form, "Gules, three lions passant gardant, in pale, or," being, as is supposed, a lion added

for Aquitaine to the two before used for Normandy and Poitou. Beside using the badge of his house, the broomplant, the personal devices of an escarboucle and a sword and olive-branch are attributed to him.

Arms and Badge of Henry II.

Planta Genista.

The character of Henry, judging from his actions, cannot be drawn in other than unfavourable colours. His cotemporaries are almost unanimous in describing him as polished in his manner, though subject to occasional fits of ungovernable rage; faithless to his oath, and even attempting to justify his conduct, by remarking that it was better to have to repent of words than of deeds; crafty rather than brave, and cruel in the extreme, when irritated by defeat; licentious in his life, and most unwise in his treatment of his children; and so covetous of empire as to marry a divorced wife for the sake of her patrimony, and to strip his own brother

i See anno 1165, p. 250.

Henry's children all rebelled against him; but the fault was not wholly theirs, or their mother's, whom historians in general blame so heavily. From his childhood he had encouraged Richard to look on himself as the future sovereign of Aquitaine, and he had early employed him against rebels in that quarter, which rendered the young prince unpopular there, yet he allowed Henry and Geoffrey to make war upon him, in their support; and his conduct was such regarding the possessions of Margaret and Adelais, who were betrothed to Henry and Richard, as to shew that views of territorial aggrandisement actuated him as much in the case of their marriages as in his own.

of the few castles which their father had allotted to him, and vainly endeavoured to secure by directing that his body should not be buried until his eldest son had sworn to respect his bequest. Some improvement in the administration of the law is ascribed to this king, and his constant efforts to curb the power of his nobles must have been beneficial to the rest of his subjects; but these seem very insufficient titles to the praises often lavished on him by writers, who, misled by pity for his unhappy end, or strong feelings on the conflict of ecclesiastical and regal power which marked his time, have described him as the greatest and best of English kings.

A.D. 1154. Henry is crowned at Westminster, by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, Dec. 19o.

A.D. 1155. Stephen's Flemish mercenaries are sent to reinforce their countrymen in West Wales (Pembrokeshire).

Henry renews the charter of liberties of Henry I., resumes many of the late king's grants, destroys most of the newly-erected castles, and appoints justices to redress the disorders of the time.

1 See p. 258.

m The practice of allowing the tenants of the crown to compound for their military service by the payment of a sum of money, termed scutage, introduced in this reign, may be regarded as the first great blow to the feudal system. At first it was doubtless a relief, but its effect was far from beneficial, as it placed funds in the hands of suc ceeding kings, which they often expended in hiring Brabançons and other foreign mercenaries, and thus were enabled to oppress classes, and for a time to violate their oaths and disregard their charters with impunity.

The years of his reign are computed from this day. • See p. 219. P See p. 231.

Henry, bishop of Winchester (brother of King Stephen), quits the kingdom without permission, when his strong castles are seized by the king.

The king applies to the pope (Adrian IV.) for permission to undertake the conquest of Ireland, which is granted to him, but he does not for many years avail himself of it.

Hugh Mortimer, lord of Wigmore, on the Welsh border, refuses to surrender his castles to the king, but is soon obliged to submit.

A.D. 1156. Godred of Man defeated by Sumerleid, lord of Argyll', in a naval battle, Jan. 6; the Isles are in consequence partitioned.

Henry passes into France, and deprives his brother Geoffrey of Anjou, and the castles of Chinon, Mirabel, and Loudun, which had been bestowed on him by their father. Geoffrey seeks refuge in Britanny, where he becomes governor of the town of Nantes.

A.D. 1157. Henry compels the Scots to withdraw from the north of England, and in return confirms the earldom of Huntingdon to the Scottish king (Malcolm IV.).

William, the son of Stephen, Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, and many other nobles, are obliged to surrender their castles.

Henry interferes in the quarrels of Owen Gwynneth

The pretext was, "to extend the bounds of the Church, and to teach a rude people the rudiments of the Christian faith," as if the Irish were still pagans; the real reasons, apparently, the craving of the king for larger territory, and the desire of the pope to see his supremacy formally recognised in Ireland, where as yet it was only allowed by the Ostmen.

The ancestor of the potent Lords of the Isles of a later day.