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CHAP. act, nowise derogatory to the clerics who were taken. The Pope, at the request of the Chapter of Beauvais, demanded the liberation of the bishop; to which Richard, anxious for ransom, replied by sending the bishop's armour, and asking if the Pope acknowledged his son's tunic.

The most remarkable circumstance of the war was its extension to Germany, and its connection with the feuds of that country. It was one result of the crusades, which had mingled together princes of different lands. Henry the Second had married his daughter Matilda to Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Brunswick. Otho the Second, son of this marriage, had attached himself to his uncle King Richard, who created him Duke of Aquitaine and Poitou. After the death of the Emperor Henry the Sixth, the cruel ransomer of Richard when it was proposed to raise up a competitor to his family, Otho was pitched upon, and Richard naturally embraced his cause. Philip Augustus of course allied with the Hohenstauffen, the family of Henry the Sixth, and formed an especial alliance with its representative, Philip the Gentle. The dispute was rendered more complicated by the Pope's embracing the part of Otho, for the sake of crushing the pretensions of the Hohenstauffen in Naples. Philip Augustus found a decided enemy in the Count of Flanders, from whom he had retained several of the important towns of his dominions. The king thought at first to reduce the count to submission by invading his country; but he did this with a boldness and precipitancy which his counsellors dissuaded. The count allowed the French to advance, then broke the sluices, and filled the dykes behind them, so as to cut off all supply of provisions or reinforcements. This act obliged the king to purchase a retreat by the surrender of the towns which he had taken.

The death of Richard turned the efforts of Philip in another direction. During the late years of the war,

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John had shown no leaning towards his old ally, the CHAP. King of France. He had, on the contrary, led troops against Beauvais, and had urged Richard to the alliance by which the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne had agreed to break with France. Philip Augustus, therefore, was at full liberty to embrace the rightful claim of Arthur, John's nephew, especially upon Brittany, Maine, and Anjou. Eleanor, the queen-mother, however, disliked Constance, the mother of Arthur. She maintained John's rights, and when the nobles of Touraine and Anjou made submission to Arthur, she enabled John to march with his trusty Brabançons (whose services he had secured) against these provinces. Le Mans and Angers were successively taken and sacked. And Constance could do no more than commit young Arthur to the keeping of the French monarch, John, after his first advantages, hurried to England to secure his recognition, and then returned to meet Philip, who made large demands. But France then lay under an interdict, and its monarch was not in a condition to push Arthur's claims by arms, abandoned as that prince was both by the English and Normans. Philip, therefore, came to an agreement with John at Andelys. Neither was to build any forts or castles between the woods of Vernon and those of Andelys. John gave up what he possessed in Berry to Philip's son Louis, who was to marry John's niece, Blanche of Castille. The King of England was not to aid the Count of Flanders, or the Emperor Otho, against Philip. Arthur was to have Brittany; and John was to pay 20,000 marks by way of relief for what he held in France. Philip's chief object seems to have been the money, as, being under an interdict, he could only depend upon the soldiers whom he paid.

The death of Mary of Meran soon after put it in Philip's power to become reconciled to the Church, and get rid of the difficulties which till then beset him.

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The first use he made of his freedom was to recommence
the war with John. That king had carried off the wife
of the Count de la Marche, who complained to Philip
Augustus. The latter summoned John before the
Court of Peers, which mandate John disobeying, the
King of France invaded Normandy, and sent young
Arthur to attack Tours and Poitou. The Dowager
Eleanor happened at the time to be at Mirabeau ;
which Arthur and his companions immediately invested,
and forced the walls of the town. Eleanor withdrew
to the castle; but John hastened to the relief of his
mother, surprised the besiegers by a night attack, and
took them all prisoners. Young Arthur was forthwith
committed to the tower of Falaise, whilst Philip, who
had advanced as far as Angers, hastened back to the
rescue of Arthur; but it was too late. The spring of
1202 was spent by Philip in an invasion of Aquitaine,
which proved without results. After relieving Alençon
from John, who besieged it, the French king mustered
his forces for the reduction of Château Gaillard, near
Andelys, then the great frontier fortress of Normandy.
John, on his part, brought his captive nephew to
Rouen, when, to be rid of so dangerous a competitor,
the English king caused him to be murdered.

This crime, though imperfectly proved, sufficed to
deprive John of most of his friends, as well as of all
energy and presence of mind. He feared to face his
enemy in battle. He could have raised soldiers, or at
least contributions, in England; but he preferred feast-
ing at Rouen and at Caen, and mocking those who ex-
postulated with him. Cœur de Lion had fortified the
approach to Normandy by the Seine, building the strong
castles of Andelys. Philip determined to reduce them,
and first directed his attacks to the castle on the island.
John, who had maintained but a weak garrison in these
forts, made a feeble effort to retain them, sending to
their relief a band of mercenaries, with a certain num-

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ber of the citizens of Rouen. Their attempt to relieve the castle in the island, the only effort made by John to defend Normandy, having failed, the French king took possession of the island, and then invested Château Gaillard, as the castle on the height was called. He surrounded it with a line of fortifications, well manned, and maintained a blockade for six months, in order to starve out the garrison. He then attacked it with his machines, and made a breach. De Lacy, the governor, having no longer a meal, tried to cut his way through the besieging army, at the head of some six and thirty knights- the whole garrison, with the exception of about a hundred gens d'armes. They were surrounded, and taken. Philip spent the year of 1203 in reducing Normandy south of the Loire. In the following year he turned towards Rouen. That city, together with the remaining garrisons of John, promised to surrender to the French king, on his stipulating to respect their privileges, and in case that John did not send them succour within a month. John could afford none; and in June, 1204, Rouen, after having for 300 years belonged to Norman princes, opened its gates to Philip Augustus.

This complete and unexpected conquest of a province which had so often proved itself equal, if not superior, to the duchy or the kingdom of France, did not relax the efforts of Philip Augustus. In a few weeks after, he crossed the Loire, took Poictiers, and was only stopped by winter. He summoned his "counts, dukes, and magistrates" for the following Easter, and the nobles flocked readily to the standard of the conqueror. Loches and Chinon were the fortresses of Touraine, erected or strengthened by Cœur de Lion. Philip took the first by assault, with its garrison of 120 men; and Chinon afterwards underwent the same fate.

The infatuated John was in the meantime levying heavy contributions in England, in order to raise fleets

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CHAP. and armies for the defence of his provinces. He set sail from Portsmouth, but in a few days re-landed near Wareham. Not only had his barons deserted him, but even the clergy contemned so weak a prince. The monks of Canterbury elected an archbishop without consulting him; and this led to his quarrel with the Pope, at the very time when he durst not meet the French in the field.

The state of Aquitaine, however, was such in a short time as to inspire John with hopes. The conquests of Philip Augustus were not, like those of William the Norman, made exclusively with the sword. The nobles of the provinces which submitted to him transferred, not unwillingly, their allegiance to the King of France. He could not, therefore, dispossess them or replace them by barons more firmly in his trust. He left, therefore, Poitou in the keeping of Guy de Thouars, one of the chief nobles, whose brother at the same time ruled Brittany, as guardian of its infant duchess. Differences arising between Philip Augustus and de Thouars, the latter called John to his aid. Philip marched against Nantes, and made himself master of it, as well as of the young Duchess of Brittany. John landed at La Rochelle, and was at first successful. He crossed the Loire, took Angers and Dol, but was as unable as unwilling to face the army which King Philip led in person. They concluded, therefore, a two years' truce between them, John being ashamed to sanction by the name of peace the cession of his ancestral dominions on the Continent. The truce is dated October, 1206.

The commencement of the thirteenth century was an epoch of great change, the relative positions of countries and of powers being altogether different, nay, the reverse of what they were some years previous. In the twelfth century the kingdom of France was circumscribed and overwhelmed by the superior extent, in power and wealth, of the Anglo-Norman monarch;

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