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A.D. 1171. The king sends ambassadors to the pope, to deny all complicity in the archbishop's death; the pope pronounces a sentence of excommunication against the murderers in general, and appoints legates to examine who are the really guilty parties.

The king returns to England in August, equips an army, and invades Ireland; he lands at Waterford, Oct. 18.

The Irish prelates hold a council at Armagh, in which all English slaves are ordered to be set at liberty; in another council, held at Cashel, Nov. 6, Henry is acknowledged as king; he arrives in Dublin, Nov. 12.

A.D. 1172. The king leaves Ireland, April 17, and returns to Normandy in May; at a council held at Avranches, May 21, he is formally absolved from all guilty knowledge of the archbishop's death.

A.D. 1173. Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey, the king's sons, flee to the court of the king of France, March 8. Eleanor, their mother, endeavours to join them, but being captured, is imprisoned during the remainder of the king's life1.

The kings of France and Scotland support the young princes, and a civil war breaks out both in England and Normandy.

less than sixty-four churches still exist in England dedicated to him. The first was built by Richard de Lucy, the justiciary, in 1178.

The legates after a while expressed themselves satisfied that the only criminals were the above-named knights, who were in consequence enjoined a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and they all died in the Holy Land in less than four years after.

She was set at liberty for a short time in the year 1184, on occasion of the visit of her daughter Matilda, and her husband, Henry of Saxony, but was again imprisoned on their departure.

Carlisle is besieged by the Scots, and Norwich taken by the earl of Leicester, a partisan of young Henry.

Richard, prior of Dover, is elected archbishop of Canterbury, "and immediately," says Roger of Wendover, "the bishop-elect swore fealty to the king, 'saving his order,' and no mention was made of observing the customs of the kingdom. This took place at Westminster, in the chapel of St. Catherine, with the consent of the king's justiciaryi."

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Roger de Mowbray, who had fortified the isle of Axholme and the cathedral of Lincoln for Prince Henry, is obliged to surrender; the earl of Leicester is captured, Nov. 1.

Hugh Lacy is appointed governor of Ireland, receiving the district of Meath as his fee.

A.D. 1174. Henry comes over to England, and does penance at the tomb of the archbishop, July 12.

The king of Scotland is captured by surprise at Alnwick, on the same day, July 12. David, his brother,

retreats.

The Irish make a desperate effort to drive out the Normans, and cut off many of their garrisons.

The king returns to Normandy; he raises the siege of Rouen, Aug. 14; is reconciled to his sons, Sept. 29. Richard and Geoffrey do homage for their earldoms, Oct. 11.

The king of Scotland, who had been imprisoned at Falaise, is released, Dec. 8, on doing homage to Henry

i The king withheld his assent, but the pope confirmed him, April 2, 1174; the king gave way, and thus the famous Constitutions of Clarendon were abandoned.

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and his son, and promising to surrender the castles of Jedburgh, Roxburgh, Berwick, Edinburgh, and Stirling.

The Scottish kings had before done homage to the kings of England, but, in all probability, only for the English lands which they held, as Cumberland and Huntingdon. This homage was, however, for the kingdom of Scotland, and its exaction was an ungenerous attempt to turn the personal misfortune of the king into a sacrifice of the rights of an independent nation. William the Lion paid a sum of money to Richard I. for the abandonment of the homage and the surrender of his castles, and thus placed the relations of the two crowns on their former footing.

The king returns to England, accompanied by the young king Henry.

A.D. 1175. The bull of Pope Adrian IV.1 is brought forward in Ireland; Roderic, king of Connaught, and many other chiefs, formally acknowledge Henry as their lord paramount.

At a council at Northampton, the archbishop of York (Roger of Bishopsbridge) claims, in vain, canonical obedience from the Scottish prelates, Jan. 25.

The archbishop of York thrown down and trampled on by the partisans of the see of Canterbury, at a council at Westminster, March 14.

A.D. 1176. The king levels the castle of Leicester, and several other strongholds belonging to the favourers of his sons.

A great council held at Northampton, at which England is divided into six districts, nearly corresponding to the 1 See p. 245.

judges' circuits of the present day, and three judges assigned to each3, with powers to hear and determine most of the causes that had formerly been cognizable only before the king.

A.D. 1177. A great council held at Oxford, in May, at which several Welsh chiefs attend, and do homage to the king.

Earl John is declared Lord of Ireland (Hugh Lacy being his deputy), and the whole country is allotted to various knights and nobles, who undertake to achieve its complete conquest1.

A.D. 1178. The kings of England and France are reconciled, and profess an intention to undertake a crusade together.

THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM.

THE Christian kingdom in the Holy Land was at this time in imminent danger. Its king (Baldwin IV.) was a leper, unable to conduct the affairs of the state, and the regency was contended for by his sister Sibylla and Raymond of Tripoli, his most powerful vassal; Raymond

Itinerant justices existed even in the time of William II. (see p. 216), but apparently they had no fixed circuits. The regulation of their proceedings, not their institution, is owing to Henry II.

The court styled Aula Regis consisted of the king himself, his justiciary, chancellor, and treasurer, the constable, chamberlain, marshal, and steward of his household; its powers were unlimited, and every kind of cause came under its cognizance. It apparently could only be held at the place where the king had his residence, and hence parties had to travel from England to Normandy and from Normandy to England in search of justice, and were commonly ruined before their suits were decided.

Wales had been similarly partitioned by William Rufus and Henry I. (see pp. 209, 221.)

was unsuccessful, and is generally believed to have allied himself with the infidels, who, with Saladin at their head, were preparing for the reconquest of the country. The promised crusade of the two kings, however, never took place; the king of France (who had indeed thirty years before served and suffered in Palestine) died shortly after, and Henry, when pressed on the matter, positively refused to leave Europe, but the enterprise was carried out by their sons, Philip Augustus and Richard Cœur de Lion.

A.D. 1179. The eleventh general council (of the Lateran) held at Rome, on matters of discipline, March 5 to 19.

The king of France visits the tomb of Archbishop Becket as a pilgrim, in September.

A.D. 1180. Richard, the king's son, ravages the territory of Geoffrey de Luneville, in Poitou, "scarce regarding the sanctity of the churches."

The king of France dies, Sept. 18, and is succeeded by his son Philip Augustus.

A.D. 1181. The king issues an ordinance commanding every person to provide himself with arms, according to

Saladin was a Koordish military adventurer, who, after serving in Egypt under the famous Noureddin, on the death of that prince, in 1173, made himself master of the whole country between the Nile and the Tigris. He shortly after attacked the Christians of Palestine, but at first with little success. In 1187 he again made war on them, and overran the whole country; Tyre, however, was held against him by Conrad of Montferrat, Acre and other coast towns were captured oy Richard I., and Saladin died shortly after (March 4, 1193); the vast empire that he had acquired was broken up by his death; his brother Saphadin dispossessing his nephews, as Saladin himself had dispossessed the son of his master, Noureddin.

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