At last he decided to cross the
Norman frontier, to besiege Vernon and make a demonstration before
Verneuil.
Norman frontier, to besiege Vernon and make a demonstration before
Verneuil.
Cambridge Medieval History - v5 - Contest of Empire and the Papacy
This
time the king had overrated his powers; the hour had not yet come for
great conquests and the subjection of the great fiefs. It was the head
of the Anglo-Norman monarchy who was to be the chief instrument in
proving this fact to Louis.
Ever since the middle of the eleventh century the kings of France had
been making ceaseless efforts to arrest the dangerous and ever-increasing
expansion of the Norman dominion. Philip I, as we have seen', was as
eager as his father Henry to seize every possible chance of embarrassing
this formidable vassal and supporting his enemies. But the King of
France had a redoubtable foe to deal with. The Conqueror's third son,
Henry Beauclerc, was not the man to be intimidated by the Capetian.
Having deprived his brother Robert Curthose of his duchy of Normandy
and sent him into captivity, declaring, not without reason, that he was
incapable of maintaining order and peace in his dominion (1106),
Henry I hastened to take possession of the castle of Gisors. This fortress
on the right bank of the Epte formed, it is true, an integral part of the
Norman Vexin, but such was the strategic importance of its position
commanding the road from Rouen to Paris, that when Henry I did
homage for Normandy to the King of France they made a special
agreement on the subject. Both were pledged never to occupy the place
in person, but either to leave it in the hands of a neutral castellan, at
that time Païen of Neauphle, or else to demolish it.
Louis VI lost no time in protesting. He called upon his vassal to
observe the conventions of the treaty, and summoned him to account for
his conduct in the presence of his suzerain, whom he was to meet on the
frontier of their respective dominions, at the bridge of Neauphle on the
Epte. Both kings came there in force. Henry refused to submit to the
demands of the King of France, whereupon the latter naively, if courage-
ously, offered, if need were, to prove his right by meeting the King of
England in single combat. To the bearers of this strange message Henry
replied: “When the King of France attacks me I shall know how to
defend myself! ” This incident happened about March 1109.
This meant war—a war that was destined to drag on for twenty years,
interrupted from time to time by a truce or a sham peace which enabled
each of the two foes to keep his eye upon the other while awaiting a
Supra, Vol. II, Chap. v.
CH. XVIII.
## p. 602 (#648) ############################################
602
Struggle with Henry I of England
propitious moment to renew the attack. The tactics of the King of
France, in his efforts to arrest the growth of the power of Normandy,
were simple. They consisted in allying himself with the Count of Anjou,
and favouring the Angevin intrigues in Maine, with a view to keeping
the Norman from that province, and finally himself attacking him at his
most vulnerable point, the Vexin, in order to free the royal domain from
the perpetual menace that threatened it if Gisors remained in the hands
of the English king. As for Henry, his policy was to secure freedom of
action by seizing every possible chance of creating difficulties for the
King of France in his own dominions; and, while seeking to be on good
terms with the Count of Anjou, to lend his support to Theobald, Count
of Blois and Chartres, who was to wage perpetual war against Louis,
harassing his army in the rear as his Norman foes slowly advanced.
In 1109, at the beginning of hostilities, the alliance between Henry
of England and Theobald of Blois was not yet concluded, and at one time
it almost seemed as though Louis VI were about to triumph. He crossed
the Epte, repulsed Henry's troops, and pursued his victorious way
through part of the Norman Vexin. But in 1111 everything was changed.
Theobald, who in 1109 had figured in Louis VI's army, suddenly changed
sides, and by the spring of the following year had succeeded in bringing
together a formidable coalition against the King of France. This coalition
was composed, as we have already seen', of Henry of England and a host
of petty barons: Lancelin of Bulles, lord of Dammartin, Païen of
Montjay, Ralph of Beaugency, Milo of Bray-sur-Seine, Hugh of Crécy,
Guy of Rochefort, and Hugh of Le Puiset himself, not to speak of Hugh,
Count of Troyes. This time Louis was forced to yield. He succeeded, it
is true, in overcoming the coalition of French barons and in repulsing
Theobald; but he found it impossible to defeat the English monarch.
Not only was there now no question of obliging him to abandon Gisors,
but a treaty was signed before the walls of that fortress at the end of
March 1113, by which Louis agreed, perforce, to recognise Henry I as
suzerain of Brittany as well as of Maine, which in 1110 had come by
marriage into the hands of the Count of Anjou.
Three years were hardly gone before war broke out again (April 1116),
a war of constant skirmishes on the confines of the Norman and the
French Vexin, in which each king captured in turn the strongholds of his
rival. Louis VI, encouraged by several successes, of which the most
brilliant was the surprise and capture of Les Andelys, early in 1119, by
means of treachery within the walls, thought the hour had come for
a decisive engagement. He suddenly offered battle to Henry I in the plain
of Brémule, not far from Noyon-sur-Andelle. The result was disaster.
The troops of the King of France were seized with panic when confronted
by the large and well-disciplined army that the English king had at bis
disposal, and took to flight, carrying Louis with them in their stampede.
1 See supra, p. 597.
## p. 603 (#649) ############################################
Negotiations for peace
603
He fled precipitately to Les Andelys, where he succeeded in finding a refuge,
but only after wandering alone in the forest of Musegros; his war-horse and
banner he left in the hands of the enemy (20 August 1119). In his rage
and humiliation he vainly tried, a month later, to avenge himself by
attacking the district of Évreux; but, though he captured and burnt Ivry,
he failed before Breteuil, which was the object of the expedition. In the
meantime his son-in-law William of Chaumont was being equally un-
successful at the siege of Tillières, where he fell into the hands of the
enemy. Louis was again forced to beat a retreat, and such was his fury
that he was on the point of burning Chartres, to vent his wrath at the
expense of Count Theobald.
And now his failing health, and his weariness of this long struggle
that had brought him only mortification, prompted Louis to negotiate
for peace. He appealed to the supreme arbitrator, Pope Calixtus II, on
the occasion of a council held by the latter at Rheims on 20 and 21
October 1119. The Norman monk, Ordericus Vitalis, has given us in
his chronicle, if not the exact words, at least the substance of the speech
delivered on this occasion by the “strongly-built, pale, corpulent, eloquent”
king, whom he seems himself to have seen and heard. The speech was a
veritable indictment, a denunciation of Henry I's conduct from first to
last. Nothing was overlooked, from the iniquitous imprisonment of
Robert Curthose to the arrest of Robert, lord of Bellême, who had been
sent on a mission to Henry by the King of France in 1112. “The King
of England, who was long my ally, has been guilty of constant acts of
aggression and violence at my expense, and at that of my subjects; he
took forcible possession of Normandy, which forms part of my kingdom ;
he has treated Robert, Duke of Normandy, shamefully, in defiance of law
and justice. Ignoring the fact that Robert was my vassal and his own
brother and lord, he subjected him to all manner of vexations, and finally
imprisoned him. Even now he has him fast in his dungeons. And here
before you stands the son of this unhappy duke, William (Clito), who has
come hither with me, having been driven into exile and disinherited by
the King of England! By the mouths of bishops and counts and many
others, I have called upon him to restore to me the duke whom he holds
imprisoned; but I have obtained no satisfaction. Robert of Bellême, my
ambassador, whom I sent to signify my will to him, was arrested by his
orders in his palace. He loaded him with chains, and has kept him to this
day in a cruel prison. ” Finally, Henry was also accused of inciting to
rebellion that Count of Blois, Theobald, whose shameful excesses had
disturbed the whole kingdom. The Pope promised to intervene. But
this ex parte statement of Louis VI, who had omitted to say that he
himself, in 1107, had connived at the spoliation of Robert Curthose,
was met by Henry I with another that was no less biassed, and
moreover supported by various gifts on the occasion of an interview that
he had with Calixtus II at Gisors in the following November. Henry
was
CH. XVIII.
## p. 604 (#650) ############################################
604 Marriage of Louis VII with Eleanor of Aquitaine
agreed, however, to enter into negotiations with the King of France, and
in 1120 peace was concluded on these terms: the two adversaries were to
restore their respective conquests, and Louis VI was to receive homage
for the duchy of Normandy from William Aetheling, only legitimate
son of Henry I and heir apparent to the throne of England. In the
matter of Gisors Louis was obliged to yield. This was a decided set-back.
On both sides underhand hostilities continued. On 25 November
1120, Louis VI's hopes were revived by the unexpected death of William
Aetheling in the White Ship; and in 1123 a coalition of Norman
and French seigneurs was formed with the object of expelling the King
of England from the duchy of Normandy and replacing him by William
Clito. Henry I stoutly held his own against this coalition, while at his
instigation his son-in-law, the Emperor Henry V, made ready to fall upon
Rheims in order to hamper Louis VI's actions (August 1124). The latter,
however, succeeded in diverting the storm. With the most remarkable
eagerness and unanimity the entire country rose at the king's appeal, and
rallied round him to repel the national danger. Thereupon Henry V,
daunted by finding a whole nation in arms, beat a hasty retreat. But
Louis could not recover the upper hand in Normandy. Henry I triumphed
over all his enemies, and contributed by his manoeuvres and aggressions
towards the frustration of the French policy in Flanders. He even went
so far as to ally himself with the Count of Anjou by marrying (1127
or 1128) his widowed daughter Matilda, the sole survivor of his legi-
timate children, to Geoffrey the Fair, heir to the fiefs of Anjou and
Maine. This marriage was a terrible menace to hang over the head of
the French king, and it was not long before Louis VII felt its fatal
effects.
And yet, as the time drew near for Louis VI to die, it seemed that
the French monarchy was in a good position. Henry I of England had
died on 1 December 1135, and Stephen of Blois, who obtained the
English crown, was fully occupied at home with difficulties that quite
prevented him from meditating any kind of intervention on the Continent.
Count Theobald, who, since the death of his uncle Hugh I of Champagne
in 1125, had been lord over all the territory of the ancient House of Blois
-namely Champagne, Blois, and Chartres—had at last laid down his arms
and rallied to the Capetian cause. And finally, an unexpected windfall
had just placed the whole duchy of Aquitaine in the hands of the future
king. Duke William X, who had died on 9 April 1137, during a
pilgrimage to the shrine of St James of Compostella, had upon his
death-bed confided to Louis VI the care of marrying his daughter and
heiress Eleanor; and Louis had promptly taken steps to get his son
accepted as her husband. The future Louis VII was occupied in taking
possession of Aquitaine when the death of his father on 1 August 1137
placed him on the throne of France.
## p. 605 (#651) ############################################
The early years of Louis VII
605
During the first few years of his reign the new king, who thus became
his own master at the age of sixteen or seventeen, displayed more activity
than discretion. It is possible that the suggestions of his young queen,
Eleanor, on whom he lavished, says one of the chroniclers, “an extravagant
love," may sometimes have misdirected his energies; and the counsels of
the discreet but somewhat ingenuous Suger were inadequate to counteract
this influence. Without disturbing himself in the least, or putting the
smallest obstacle in the way, Louis allowed the Count of Anjou to
increase his territory so rapidly that his power was every day a greater
menace, and in the meantime threw himself heart and soul into rash
undertakings which, being ill-organised and ill-executed, brought him
nothing but mortification.
Not content with the acquisition of Aquitaine, which he had already
found sufficiently hard to control, he bethought him soon afterwards, in
1141, of insisting upon the rights to the county of Toulouse that his
predecessors in the duchy had several times claimed. Accordingly he
organised an expedition against Count Alphonse-Jourdain. Towards the
end of June a considerable army marched rapidly upon Toulouse under
the king's leadership; but after a few weeks he was obliged to retrace
his steps without having gained any advantage.
It was not long before the young king was concerned with more serious
affairs. For more than two years he squandered the strength of the
monarchy in a twofold and sterile struggle against the Papacy on the one
hand and Count Theobald of Champagne on the other. On the death of
the Archbishop of Bourges in 1141 two candidates were put forward to
succeed him: Cadure, the king's Chancellor, and Peter of La Châtre, a
near relative of the Chancellor of the Roman Church. The one was the
king's candidate, the other the Pope's. The second was elected, in spite
of the fact that Louis forbade the clergy to choose him. Louis in a fury
swore upon the sacred relics that, as long as he lived, Peter should not
enter Bourges. The sovereign pontiff, Innocent II, calmly retorted by con-
secrating Peter with his own hands at Rome, and, since Bourges still
remained closed to him, by laying an interdict on every town, village, or
castle that should shelter the king. "The King of France is a child,” the
Pope is declared to have said, "and must be educated, and prevented
from acquiring bad habits. ” In the meantime Count Theobald had added
fuel to the fire by taking part openly against his sovereign and receiving
Peter of La Châtre in his domain. This was enough to exasperate Louis VII,
who already had a subject of complaint against this vassal, in that he had
twice refused his feudal contingent–in 1138, on the occasion of an ex-
pedition against the rebels of Poitou, and more recently when Louis had
marched against Toulouse.
A fresh incident occurred to aggravate the dissension and hasten
the rupture. Ralph, Count of Vermandois and Seneschal of France,
having repudiated his first wife, Theobald's niece, in order to marry
cu. XVIII.
## p. 606 (#652) ############################################
606
Struggle with Count Theobald of Champagne
Queen Eleanor's sister Alice (also called Petronilla) of Aquitaine, three
bishops of the royal domain consented to dissolve the first marriage on
grounds of consanguinity, and to bless the second. It was not long
before protests were raised; and, at a council held under the presidency
of a papal legate at Lagny-sur-Marne, the three accommodating prelates
were excommunicated, their decision reversed, the second marriage
annulled, and the territory of the Count of Vermandois laid under an
interdict. In itself the incident was commonplace, and the history of the
times records a score of similar episodes. But the young king, stimulated
by Queen Eleanor, took the matter as a personal insult. Here again he
was confronted with Count Theobald. The council that had annulled
the marriage of Ralph and Petronilla was held at Lagny-sur-Marne, on
the territory of the Count of Champagne, who openly took the part of
his niece, Ralph's repudiated wife. This was enough to make the irascible
King of France hold Theobald responsible for the whole affair. With an
outburst of fury that took his enemy by surprise, Louis VII descended on
Champagne, attacked Vitry-sur-Marne, captured it, and left it in flames.
Hundreds of the inhabitants-thirteen hundred, it is said-perished in
the burning church. Theobald, whose turbulent habits and baneful
energy had gradually given place of late years to a spirit of devotion and
a zeal for good works, assumed a pathetic attitude that earned him the
ridicule even of his own subjects. “Why,” they asked, “has not Count
Theobald spent his time and his money in more useful ways? He has
what he deserves: for knights he has monks; for bowmen, lay brethren.
He sees now how little such as these can avail to serve him! ” The
clergy of Champagne, who had suffered cruelly from the royal invasion,
were at a loss to determine what to do.
But Louis VII, no doubt, was equally embarrassed. His victory
brought him no practical advantage; it merely increased the unpopu-
larity of his cause. He was only too thankful, in the summer of 1143,
to accept terms that pledged him to evacuate Champagne on condition
that Theobald—through the good offices of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
-should secure the removal of the ban that had been laid upon the Count
of Vermandois and the queen's sister.
It was not long before Louis perceived that the venerable Abbot of
Clairvaux, who had conducted all the negotiations, had taken unworthy
advantage of his inexperience. Hardly had he restored his conquests to
Theobald before Ralph and Petronilla, who refused to be separated, were
excommunicated for the second time. The young king's wrath was
boundless, and he swore to be revenged upon Count Theobald. Bernard
of Clairvaux only incensed him the more by affecting airs of innocence.
What, asked the abbot, had he and Theobald done to deserve the king's
reproaches? Was it their fault if Ralph had behaved in such a way as to
merit excommunication? Had not Count Theobald done his utmost, had
he not even done violence to his conscience, to secure Ralph's absolution
## p. 607 (#653) ############################################
Conquest of Normandy by the Count of Anjou
607
on the first occasion in the face of a thousand difficulties? And what
could he do against this fresh excommunication?
The war was resumed. Louis VII again occupied a portion of
Champagne, and refused to allow the appointment of bishops to vacant
sees. Theobald's attempt at retaliation was to form a feudal league; he
allied himself with the Counts of Flanders and Soissons. Every day the
conflict became more bitter, without any advantage accruing to either
party. Suger and St Bernard were in favour of peace, and perhaps also
the immediate circle of the new Pope, Celestine II, who had just
(26 September 1143) succeeded Innocent II, but it was not without
difficulty that they prevailed over the obstinacy of the young king.
After stubbornly seeking for months to wreak his vengeance upon
Theobald, he was forced to yield at all points: to evacuate Champagne
entirely and unconditionally, to abandon Ralph of Vermandois to his
fate, and to recognise Peter of La Châtre as Archbishop of Bourges.
This was indeed a triumph for the Papacy.
It was fully time for Louis to pull himself together and turn his
attention towards the west. For, while he was thus exhausting his
strength in fruitless efforts, the Count of Anjou and Maine, Geoffrey the
Fair, was taking advantage of every opportunity to extend his dominions.
While his wife Matilda in England was carrying on a ceaseless struggle
with its king, Stephen of Blois, in defence of the rights that she had in-
herited from her father Henry I, Geoffrey descended upon Normandy and
conquered it by slow degrees. In the course of the successive campaigns
in which he engaged almost yearly between 1136 and 1144 he won
nearly the entire province. There remained at last only Rouen; and on
23 April 1144 that town also yielded. Louis had no choice but to
accept the accomplished fact, and to recognise his powerful vassal as the
possessor of the conquered duchy. He had the acuteness, however, to
prevail upon Geoffrey, in exchange for this concession, to evacuate
Gisors, the strategical importance of which we have already seen. This
was, at all events, some compensation.
It may be thought that by this time the king would have learnt
wisdom and, profiting by the experience of these early years, would take
up the reins of government with a firm hand. But hardly was his
desperate struggle with the Church at an end, before he became possessed
by a spirit of mystic piety which prompted him to desert his kingdom
and go forth to fight the infidels in a distant land.
The news of the capture of Edessa by the Atābeg Zangi of Mosul on
25 December 1144 had recently filled the whole of western Christendom
with consternation. On Christmas Day 1145, when Louis was with his
court at Bourges for the ceremony of wearing his crown- a solemnity
that was customary at the great festivals-he suddenly informed the
barons of his intention to take the Cross, and exhorted them to follow
CH. XVIII.
## p. 608 (#654) ############################################
608
Louis VII on crusade
his example. This suggestion they received with so little enthusiasm that
it was found necessary to postpone the final decision to another court to
be held at Vézelay the following Easter. The pious Suger himself advised
the king against this enterprise; and St Bernard, on being entreated to
use his influence for the furtherance of the Crusade, dared not take upon
himself so serious a responsibility, and therefore referred the question to
the Pope. We have seen in an earlier chapter how the latter decided to
espouse the cause, and how St Bernard, in accordance with the Pontiff's
urgent desire, preached the Crusade with enthusiasm and became its life
and soul. He it was whose eloquence, at the assembly at Vézelay on
31 March 1146, succeeded in rousing a fresh outburst of zeal for the holy
war; it was he who kindled the ardour of the Germans and overcame the
resistance of King Conrad III, and who was responsible for the organisa-
tion of the expedition, for all the preparations and arrangements. When
Louis VII's army set out on 11 June 1147, success appeared certain. We
know how these hopes were frustrated: by the discord that so soon broke
out between French and Germans, and weakened their attack upon the
common enemy; by the disasters that overtook both armies, the Germans
at Dorylaeum and the French near Laodicea; and finally by the deplorable
repulse of the crusaders before Damascus in July 1148, after which the
greater number of them gave up the struggle.
Louis VII, however, was quite content to linger in the Holy Land,
visiting the sacred places and forgetting his own kingdom while he
devoted himself overseas to pious works. The Abbot of St Denis, Suger,
who had carried on his shoulders nearly the whole weight of the regency
since the day of the king's departure, urged him to return. Hitherto the
abbot had succeeded admirably in keeping order in the kingdom; but the
king's brother Robert of Dreux had lately returned, and the malcontents
had begun to gather round him. There was even some talk among
them
of deposing Louis and making Robert their king. Happily Suger
contrived to frustrate these intrigues, and, when at last, at the beginning
of November 1149, Louis made up his mind to return to his kingdom
after an absence of nearly two years and a half, he found the country at
peace.
Louis VII at last realised where the true interests of the monarchy
lay. During the early years of his reign he had allowed the whole of
Normandy to be appropriated by the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey the Fair ;
and the energetic campaigns conducted by Geoffrey's wife Matilda and
their son Henry Plantagenet-afterwards Henry II-plainly shewed
whither the dangerous ambitions of the House of Anjou were likely to
lead. The security of the Crown imperatively demanded that the king
should employ every possible means, if indeed it were not already too late,
to undermine this formidable power, which was infinitely more menacing
1 See supra, Chap. xi, pp. 373-75.
## p. 609 (#655) ############################################
Eleanor's divorce and re-marriage
609
than the Anglo-Norman power had ever been in the days of Henry I of
France.
It was an incident of minor importance, the siege of Montreuil-Bellay
by Geoffrey the Fair, that supplied the pretext for a rupture. Gerald, the
lord of this little Angevin fortress, had placed himself at the head of a
strong coalition formed against his suzerain, Count Geoffrey, who had
retaliated by laying siege to the rebel's stronghold. But Gerald was the
king's protégé and his seneschal in Poitou ; Louis therefore made his
cause his own, and called upon Geoffrey the Fair to raise the siege (1150).
Suger, who was in this, it must be owned, more remarkable for upright-
ness than for political insight, succeeded for a time in warding off the
storm; but on 13 January 1151 he died, and since Gerald still held out
stubbornly against Geoffrey the Fair, and Geoffrey continuously refused,
not unnaturally, to comply with the royal command, hostilities broke
out.
Louis had already decided upon a line of conduct. His policy con-
sisting in putting forward Eustace of Boulogne, the son of King Stephen
of England, as a rival to the Count of Anjou and his son Henry
Plantagenet, to whom Geoffrey had transferred the duchy of Normandy
at the beginning of 1150. Acting in concert, Louis and Eustace made a
sudden descent upon Caux in May or June, 1151, and repulsed Henry at
Arques; then, in July, they advanced as far as Séez, which they burnt.
In the following month, when Louis was preparing to invade the duchy
of Normandy anew at the head of a still stronger army, a sudden attack
of fever obliged him to suspend operations. Geoffrey the Fair and his son
were only too glad to seize this opportunity of coming to terms; and
towards the end of August a treaty was signed in Paris by which they
surrendered to the king, not now Gisors alone, but the whole of the
Norman Vexin.
Unfortunately Louis then made an irreparable blunder. His love for
his wife Eleanor, which had been so ardent during the first years of their
marriage, had gradually cooled; while the queen, for her part, having
grown more and more indifferent to Louis, had been led into frailties, or
at least into follies, that were by no means pleasing to her husband. This
state of things had at last resulted in an open rupture between them, and
Louis, to whom personal feelings were of more importance than reasons
of State, prevailed upon a council held at Beaugency on 21 March 1152
to dissolve the marriage on grounds of consanguinity. Barely two months
later (May 1152) Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, who, on the
sudden death of his father Geoffrey the Fair on 7 September 1151, had
succeeded to the county of Anjou. Since, naturally, the daughter of
Duke William X took her dowry with her to her second husband, this
marriage not only meant a loss to the monarchy of the whole duchy of
Aquitaine, but also a new and formidable acquisition of territory for its
rival.
C. MED. H. VOL. V. CH. XVIII.
39
## p. 610 (#656) ############################################
610
Henry Plantagenet becomes King of England
Too late, Louis recognised the mistake that he had made. He hastened
to take up arms once more, and, as Henry was preparing to cross the
Channel and fight King Stephen for the English crown, he again invaded
Normandy. With his army marched, not only Eustace of Boulogne but
also Count Robert of Perche, Henry the Liberal, Count of Champagne,
and even the Count of Anjou's own brother Geoffrey, who was to oppose
Henry Plantagenet on many more occasions than this. Had the attack
been conducted with vigour it might have proved disastrous for the young
Count of Anjou. It was, however, conducted timidly and half-heartedly:
Louis contented himself with besieging a few places on the frontier, of
which Neufmarché was the only one he captured. He retreated hastily
to the shelter of his own castle-walls as soon as Henry shewed signs of
retaliating. Moreover, when Henry, whose affairs demanded his presence
in England, proposed a truce at the end of August 1152, Louis—with
almost incredible weakness—instantly agreed to the suggestion.
For eight months he remained inactive. At a time when an energetic
attack on Normandy might perhaps have been fatal to Henry's success
in England, and might even have undermined his position on the
Continent, Louis abstained from action.
At last he decided to cross the
Norman frontier, to besiege Vernon and make a demonstration before
Verneuil. He even succeeded, after two sieges, in entering Vernon
(August or September 1153); but he was content to do no more, while
Henry calmly pursued his advantages in England. By the time the latter
returned to Normandy in April 1154, his recognition by Stephen of
Blois as the heir to the English throne had been brought about by the
death of Eustace of Boulogne; and Louis VII in alarm hastened to sign a
treaty of peace (August 1154). This peace really amounted to a capitula-
tion on his part. By it he engaged, in return for an indemnity of 2000
silver marks, to restore the two fortresses that were all he had succeeded
in capturing, Vernon and Neufmarché, and to relinquish the title of Duke
of Aquitaine, which he had hitherto continued to use. On 25 October
following Stephen of Blois died, and a few weeks later (19 December 1154)
Henry was crowned at Westminster without any attempt on the part of
Louis to hamper the movements of his formidable enemy.
At an age when most men are in the full exercise of their powers
Louis VII, whose blundering impetuosity had once been so much to be
deplored, seemed suddenly to have become irresolute and almost sluggish.
Those who were much with him at this time lay stress on his simplicity,
his gentleness, his placability, and his piety. A certain monk of Vézelay
frankly declares that the king always inclined to compromise, that he
loved quiet and detested conflict. Another writer recalls having seen him
in the midst of a procession, modestly mingling with the crowd of clergy.
Upright and loyal himself, he had confidence in the honesty of others.
He was in the habit of walking alone amid his subjects, and it is even told of
him that one day he lay down in a forest and slept profoundly with only
## p. 611 (#657) ############################################
Louis VII betrothes his daughter to Henry the Younger 611
two knights to guard him. When someone expressed surprise, the king
answered: “I can sleep alone in perfect safety, because no man wishes
me ill. ” He carried this confiding spirit into all his dealings, without
any regard for the subtleties of the statesman. A contemporary chronicler,
Gervase of Canterbury, tells us that he was “a very Christian king, but
somewhat simple-minded. ” “A very pious man” is the description of
another writer, "a friend to the clergy, a devout servant of God, one who
was deceived by many and himself deceived none. ”
To the end of his reign his policy towards Henry II consisted in
perpetual retreat. Any attempt at resistance on the part of the King
of France invariably ended in a treaty that gave fresh advantages to his
opponent.
Hardly had Henry II established his authority in England before he
undertook the task of extending his dominions in every direction on the
Continent. In the north it was the Norman Vexin that he desired to
recapture from the King of France; in the west it was Brittany that he
aspired to make his own; in the south it was the county of Toulouse
that he demanded as a dependency of Aquitaine. This gigantic pro-
gramme he promptly set to work to carry out. .
In 1156, amid the domestic dissensions that had harassed Brittany
from time immemorial, the county of Nantes had submitted to Geoffrey
of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet's brother. When Geoffrey died on 26 July
1158, Henry claimed the succession to the county, and, as he was quite
prepared to support his claim by force of arms, his authority was
recognised at Nantes. Not only did Louis VII abstain from opposing him,
but he even went so far, it seems, as to smooth his enemy's path by authorising
him to enter Brittany with the title of Seneschal of France, which must
doubtless have given an air of legality to the King of England's act of
usurpation.
The two kings at this time were firm friends. They met near Gisors
on 31 August 1158, when Louis VII unhesitatingly agreed to betroth his
third daughter, Margaret, an infant six months old, to the King of
England's eldest son, Henry, whose age was then three years, and pledged
himself to give the bride for marriage-portion the whole of the Norman
Vexin. This dowry, till the children were of marriageable age, was to be
left in charge of the Templars. The "good and gentle” king had no
suspicions; he welcomed his rival to Paris as though he were his best
friend, and allowed him to take away the little princess. So delighted
was he with his new friendship that he even made a pilgrimage across
Normandy to Mont-Saint-Michel, accepting the attentions and marks of
affection that Henry lavished upon him during the journey without for
a moment doubting their sincerity. He was entirely absorbed in pious
thoughts. The pilgrimage to Mont-Saint-Michel failing to satisfy his
devotion, he planned a great crusade against the Moors of Spain. He
made sure that his dear friend Henry would accompany him.
CH. XVIII,
39-2
## p. 612 (#658) ############################################
612 Henry II of England occupies the Norman Vexin
The latter, however, was of a more practical nature, and, having
gathered a considerable army and formed a sound coalition, was preparing
to enforce his rights over Toulouse at the expense of Count Raymond V.
Recalled thus roughly to the world of reality, Louis VII at last awoke
and attempted to negotiate. Henry humoured him, and conferences were
held at Tours (March 1159) and Heudicourt (6-8 June 1159). But the
King of England had already resolved upon his course of action. At the
end of June his army set out towards Languedoc, occupied a portion of
that province, and proceeded rapidly in the direction of Toulouse. The
town would doubtless have fallen if Louis VII, who had followed his
rival with a few troops, had not decided, after fresh delays and renewed
attempts at negotiation, to intrench himself within the walls (September
1159). Henry dared not take so serious a step as to besiege his suzerain
the King of France; and as Louis, who was delighted at the success of a
manoeuvre that called for no effort, resolutely remained in Toulouse,
the King of England contented himself for the moment with establishing
his troops firmly in Cahors. He then hastened back to Normandy.
It was not long before Louis learnt the reasons for this rapid retreat.
Henry had gained the adherence of Theobald of Blois, Seneschal of
France, and had proceeded without delay to attack the Beauvaisis in
person. Louis had barely time to hasten thither; and when he found
that the Count of Évreux had also deserted him, and had handed over to
the King of England the castles of Montfort-l'Amauri, Rochefort, and
Épernon, he was only too glad to obtain a truce (December 1159). This truce
was followed, in May 1160, by a treaty of peace. The King of France, while
confirming the former agreement with regard to the Norman Vexin, con-
fined himself to stipulating, on behalf of the Count of Toulouse, for a
year's truce. Henry II, whatever befell, was to keep the fortresses he had
captured in Languedoc until the expiration of the truce.
The treaty was hardly signed before the English king, without a word
of warning, celebrated the marriage of his son Henry to Margaret, the
little princess whom Louis had so confidingly entrusted to his care
(2 November 1160). The young husband was only five-and-a-half years
old, and the bride was certainly not yet three! But the King of England
was impatient to lay his hand upon the dowry, the Norman Vexin, which
he succeeded in obtaining from the Templars in whose charge it had been
placed. Once more the simple-minded Louis perceived that he had been
outwitted ; once more he hankered after revenge. He arranged with
Theobald, Count of Blois, that Chaumont-sur-Loire should be made the
centre for an attack on Touraine; but in December 1160 the King of
England took possession of the place. In the following spring, after
allowing his adversary ample time to fortify himself in Gisors and to
garrison all the frontier fortresses, Louis made a show of preparing to
recover the Vexin at the point of the sword; but after a few skirmishes
he consented to a new truce. In September 1162—-yielding as usual to
## p. 613 (#659) ############################################
Louis VII protects Becket
613
the force of circumstances—he agreed to sign a treaty of peace which was
an open confession of weakness.
It was at this juncture that the case of Thomas Becket came into
prominence. We have seen in an earlier chapterhow the Archbishop of
Canterbury, at the end of the year 1164, fled from England, where his
position was imperilled, and took refuge in France. Louis VII, who
was delighted to revenge himself upon his enemy without having recourse
to arms, and was also, no doubt, honestly distressed by the misfortunes
of the prelate, had declared openly for him at the very beginning. He
gave his protection to the exile in spite of the protests of the English
king, who declared that the treaty of 1162 contained a clause to the
effect that neither of the monarchs should receive in his dominions any
rebellious subject of the other. When Henry, in one of his letters of
protest, referred to Becket as the “ex-Archbishop of Canterbury,” the
King of France exclaimed: “What! Ex-Archbishop? Why, the King
of England has no more right than I to depose even the humblest of his
clergy! " Yet for two years the matter dragged on, while every day the
discussion grew less amicable, and a fresh rupture more inevitable. War
broke out in June 1167; but again nothing was effected on either side
save a few skirmishes on the frontier. When each had burnt a village or
two and a few castles, the two kings were ready to come to terms. Henry
could employ his time more profitably than in continuing so fruitless a
struggle, and Louis was even less disposed than usual to take advantage
of his enemy's many difficulties and to conduct the war with spirit. In
August they agreed to lay down their arms until Easter 1168. On the
renewal of hostilities Louis acted with his habitual irresolution and weak-
ness, chiefly confining himself to supporting the rebellions in Aquitaine
and Brittany against Henry. The month of August saw fresh negotia-
tions, which led to new truces and new ruptures. Finally, on 6 January
1169, the two kings again met at Montmirail, near the frontier of Maine,
to arrange a peace, and at the same time to come to some conclusion on
the question of Thomas Becket, which was still unsettled. Louis VII, true
to his character, was content to receive purely nominal satisfaction, such
as the homage of the younger Henry for Normandy, Brittany, Maine,
and Anjou, and that of the English king's second son, Richard, for the
county of Poitou. As for the questions that had caused the war, they
were not considered. The Vexin, which Henry had so unceremoniously
annexed, remained in his possession ; his rights over Brittany, which he
had conquered, received formal recognition; even Thomas Becket was
almost sacrificed as well. It was not till many months had passed, and
many conferences had been held, that an apparent reconciliation was
effected between him and Henry.
Shortly after the tragic end of the Archbishop of Canterbury on
29 December 1170, the opportunity came at last to Louis VII for a
· See supra, Chap. XVII.
CH. XVIII.
## p. 614 (#660) ############################################
614
Further progress by Henry II
striking act of vengeance. Henry II, who pursued his policy of invasion
untiringly, had succeeded in securing the homage of the Count of
Toulouse (January 1173), and his power on the Continent seemed to be
more firmly established than ever, when suddenly his sons broke out
into rebellion. We have already seen how his son Henry, whose disaffec-
tion against his father had been carefully nourished by the King of
France, had (8 March 1173) suddenly fled to the French court, where
his two brothers Richard and Geoffrey soon joined him, at the instiga-
tion of Queen Eleanor. At last Louis seemed determined to take a firm
line; strong in the support of a powerful faction, which included the
Counts of Flanders, Champagne, Boulogne, Blois, Sancerre, Dreux, and
others, he at last shewed a warlike spirit. When the envoys of King
Henry-Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, and Arnulf, Bishop of Lisieux-
came to negotiate with Louis, he turned upon them with bitter com-
plaints of his adversary's encroachments. “Why,” he asked, “ has the
King of England, in spite of his solemn pledge, kept Margaret's dowry,
Gisors and the Vexin ? Why does he seek to incite against their rightful
sovereign the people of France, from the mountains of Auvergne to the
Rhone? Why did he receive the liege homage of the Count of Toulouse?
Tell your master that I swear I will never make peace with him without
the express consent of his wife and sons ! ” Not only was Henry the
Younger received at the court of France with every sign of favour, but
Louis VII affected to regard him as the true King of England. He had
a royal seal made for him, and took a solemn pledge to help him in the
winning of the crown. Henry the Younger received the homage of a
great number of barons, who had followed him in his rebellion.
There can be no doubt that a prompt and energetic attack would
have placed Henry II in a peculiarly dangerous position. But Louis
was no more capable than on previous occasions of acting swiftly and
striking with a firm hand. While Henry the Younger, in concert with
the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne, invaded the country round Bray,
to the north of the Seine, the King of France lingered over the siege of
Verneuil; and when, on 9 August, Henry II's army drew near, he im-
mediately decamped and began to parley with the enemy. In the
following year he made a final effort against Rouen ; but again, on the
approach of the King of England, he beat a shameful retreat, burnt
his engines of war himself (14 August 1174), entered into negotia-
tions, and finally deserted the cause of the rebels, whom he forced to
implore pardon of the King of England at Montlouis (30 September
1174).
Thus Louis VII, with his customary indolence, let slip this unexpected
opportunity of driving the English monarch into important concessions.
He allowed Henry II to reduce at his leisure his English and continental
subjects, who had risen at the call of his rebellious sons, and to enlarge
1 See supra, Chap. XVII.
## p. 615 (#661) ############################################
Increase of royal power under Louis VII
615
his dominions still further at the expense of the French monarchy by
the acquisition of the county of La Marche (1177). There was even a
time, shortly before his death, when Louis seemed to cherish the illusion
that he had transformed Henry II into a faithful friend of the Capetian
monarchy.
Yet, feeble as this “good” king appeared in his struggle with the
enterprising and active English sovereign, so strong was the force of
circumstances that, in spite of everything, he left the French monarchy
more firmly established than he found it—left it with its prestige defin-
itely restored, and its position in Europe such that it was thenceforward
a power to be reckoned with.
And first, within the limits of his own kingdom we find that Louis VII
pursued, not unsuccessfully, the work of pacification and concentration
that his father had begun with so much energy. In the preamble to
one of his charters we read that “it is the office of the Crown to crush
those who evade justice, and to support the obedient and submissive and
secure to them their rights. ” Louis VII indeed was as ready as Louis VI
to face hardships, and at times to embark upon long expeditions at the
call of the oppressed, in order to make the royal tribunal respected
throughout the country and thereby secure recognition of the king's
supremacy. In 1153, for instance, when Hervé of Donzy complained
that his father Geoffrey of Donzy was trying to deprive him unjustly of
the fief of Gien, Louis proceeded thither without delay, captured the
town, and forced the unnatural father to respect the laws of feudal
heredity. A few years later the king responded to an appeal from Dreu
of Mouchy, whom Névelon of Pierrefonds had driven out of Mouchy.
Louis mustered some troops and obliged the offender by force of arms
to shew a proper regard for justice. On two occasions, in 1163 and
1169, the canons of Clermont and of Brioude appealed to the king as
their natural protector to save them from the violence of the Counts of
Auvergne and their agents ; and Louis unhesitatingly plunged into the
mountains of central France to inflict exemplary punishment upon the
delinquents, whom he even kept for some time imprisoned. In 1166 the
Count of Chalon, too, who had dared to lay his hand on the property
of the great monastery of Cluny, felt the weight of the king's displeasure.
The count, though repeatedly summoned to answer for his misdeeds,
refused to appear; whereupon Louis marched into his territory, took
forcible possession of it, and confiscated it. In 1173 it was the turn of
the Viscount of Polignac, whom the royal troops pursued, captured, and
imprisoned, for molesting the canons of Le Puy.
As time went on the royal court of justice became able to take a
more commanding tone, and to insist that the great vassals of the Crown
should obey its summons. The Count of Nevers, the persecutor of the
monks of Vézelay, for instance, was forced in 1166 after many evasions
I
CH, XVIII.
## p. 616 (#662) ############################################
616
Appeals of distant vassals to the king
to appear before the king's tribunal in Paris and to abjure his turbulent
ways. Louis VII's words to the injured monks at the beginning of this
long affair were significant: "I have sent my messengers to summon the
count. As to what he will answer or what he will do I know nothing
as yet ; but you may rest assured that if he held as much land as the
King of England in our kingdom I should not allow his violence to go
unpunished. ” It is also noticeable that as a rule this determined language
took effect, and that the nobles brought an ever-increasing number of
cases to be tried before the king's tribunal. Thus in 1153 the Bishop of
Langres and the Duke of Burgundy travelled as far as Moret to lay their
differences before Louis.
From all quarters of France, even the most distant, appeals were
addressed to the king. In 1163 the inhabitants of Toulouse, whom he
had recently defended against Henry II, wrote to express their devotion
and to beg for further support: “Very dear lord, do not take it amiss
that we write to you so often. After God, we appeal to you as to our
good master, our protector, our liberator. Upon your power, next to
the divine power, we fix all our hopes. ” A certain lord of Uzès wrote
to him to complain of the illegal dues levied by the Count of Melgueil,
and to beg for the king's intervention. Again, in 1173 Ermengarde,
Viscountess of Narbonne, entreated him in the most urgent terms to
hasten to the rescue of Languedoc, which was threatened by Henry
Plantagenet. “We are profoundly distressed, my fellow-countrymen
and 1,” she wrote, " to see this country of ours-owing to your absence,
not to say your fault-in danger of being subjected to the authority of
a foreigner who has not the smallest right to rule over us. Do not be
angry, dear lord, at the boldness of my words; it is because I am a
vassal, especially devoted to your crown, that it grieves me to see the
lightest slur cast on your dignity. It is not merely the loss of Toulouse
that we are threatened with, but that of our whole country from the
Garonne to the Rhone, which our enemies are confident of conquering.
I feel that they are even now making all the speed they can, so that,
when they have subjected the members, they may the more easily over-
come the head. I entreat you of your valour to intervene, and appear
among us with a strong army. The audacity of your foes must be
punished, and the hopes of your friends fulfilled. ”
Beyond the frontiers of the kingdom, too, the prestige of the King
of France was steadily growing. From the kingdom of Arles came
numerous promises of fealty, if in return the king would grant his
intervention. Raynald of Bâgé, lord of La Bresse, cried urgently for
his help: “ Come into this country, where your presence is as necessary
to the churches as it is to me. Do not fear the expense;
you all that you spend ; I will do homage to you for all my castles,
which are subject to no suzerain; in a word, all that I possess shall be
at your disposal. ” In Dauphiné, when Louis VII's sister Constance was
I will repay
## p. 617 (#663) ############################################
Louis VII supports Pope Alexander III
617
לל
married to the Dauphin of Viennois, it was considered a matter for
rejoicing that the French influence had gained ground in that direction.
Thus it is not surprising to find Louis VII in 1162 playing his
accustomed part of arbitrator in the great papal schism between
Alexander III and Victor IV, the candidate of the Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa. To tell the truth the king's rôle was not always very brilliant,
nor did it reflect much credit on his perspicacity. In August and Sep-
tember 1162 Frederick, with the connivance of the Count of Champagne,
entangled him in a web of mystification which at one time nearly had
disastrous consequences. It will be well to relate the circumstances, as
we may gain from them some idea of the weaving and unravelling of
intrigues that went on round this “good” king, Louis VII.
When Hadrian IV died in 1159 two Popes had been elected at the same
time: Cardinal Roland under the name of Alexander III, and Cardinal
Octavian under that of Victor IV. Alexander III, who was elected by a
majority of the cardinals, represented the party that was opposed to the
absolute power of the Emperor, the party of Italian independence.
Between him and Frederick Barbarossa there was no possibility of
agreement, whereas naturally an alliance existed between the Emperor
and Victor IV. Alexander III, who had obtained recognition both from
Louis VII and from the King of England immediately after his election,
took refuge in France. But, whether because he had not held the balance
sufficiently equal between Louis and his rival, or because the King of
France was reckoning on the advantage over Henry II that an under-
standing with the Emperor might secure for him, the end of the year
1161 saw the opening of negotiations between Frederick and Louis.
The question of the schism was naturally placed first on the pro-
gramme.
Now, at the court of France there existed a Germanophil party
headed by Louis VII's own brother-in-law Henry the Liberal, Count of
Champagne. He it was whom the king chose to be the principal nego-
tiator; and moreover Louis made the further blunder of giving a
prominent part in the affair to the Bishop of Orleans, Manasse, who
from the first had shewn decided hostility towards Alexander III. So
successfully did these two, Henry of Champagne and Manasse, conduct
the affair in the direction of their wishes, that Louis found himself
involuntarily and almost unconsciously led into far closer relations with
Frederick than he had desired. The bishop, writing in his sovereign's
name to convey final instructions to the Count of Champagne, abused
Louis' confidence so far as to insert, on his own initiative, a phrase that
gave the count full authority to make pledges for the King of France.
Count Henry lost no time in coming to terms. It was agreed that the
two monarchs should meet on a bridge that crossed the Saône at Saint-
Jean-de-Losne on 29 August 1162; that each of them should bring his
Pope with him; and that, then and there, a mixed commission of
CH. XVIII.
## p. 618 (#664) ############################################
618
The interview at Saint-Jean-de-Losne
arbitrators should be chosen from the clergy and laymen of the two parties
to adjudicate between the two Pontiffs. Both sovereigns were pledged
to abide by this judgment; and in the case of Louis refusing to acquiesce
in these arrangements, or to accept the decision of the arbitrators,
Count Henry took a solemn oath to abjure his fealty to the King of
France and to give his allegiance to the Emperor.
In the meantime Louis, who was still ignorant of the engagements
entered into by the Count of Champagne, had made every effort to
persuade Alexander III to be present at the projected meeting. At an
interview between them at Souvigny in August 1162, the king had in
vain urged the Pope to yield in this matter, expressing surprise, with
more or less sincerity, “that since the Pontiff was conscious of the justice
of his claim he should miss this opportunity of upholding it by a public
statement of his case. ” Alexander was immovable. He agreed to send
four cardinals as delegates, but would do no more; he refused to accom-
pany the King of France. The latter, chagrined, reached Dijon on
28 August, and found there the Count of Champagne, who revealed to
him all the clauses of the treaty and placed him—should Alexander
persist in his refusal—in this dilemma: he must either recognise Victor IV
as Pope, or he must lose the province of Champagne to the Emperor.
“What ! ” exclaimed the king, “ you presumed to take it upon yourself
to make such an engagement for me without my knowledge, without
consulting me! ” Henry quoted the letter that he had received from
Manasse, giving him full powers. The King of France perceived that
he had been tricked. It was too late for him to retire; but what could
be hoped from negotiations that were founded on misunderstandings
such as these?
On 29 August the Emperor Frederick came at dawn of day from
Dôle, accompanied by his Pope, to the bridge of Saint-Jean-de-Losne.
Finding no one there he went away, leaving only a few members of
his suite upon the spot. A little later Louis VII arrived in his turn
from Dijon, and begged Frederick's representatives to consent to a
delay, since it was only on the previous day that he had heard the
terms of the convention. At the same time he promised to secure
the presence of Pope Alexander. On the following morning the Count
of Champagne, who played a dubious part throughout the affair,
came to Louis to remind him that, should he reject the terms of the
treaty, he--Count Henry-was pledged by them to transfer his allegiance
to the Emperor. “However," added this sanctimonious individual, “I
have prevailed on the Emperor to grant a delay of three weeks, on
condition of your promising to be present, with Alexander, at another
meeting at the end of that time, and to accept on that occasion the
arbitrators’ judgment between him and his rival. You must bind your-
self by securities, in case you fail to abide by their award, to give yourself
up as a prisoner into the Emperor's hands at Besançon. ” Louis again
## p. 619 (#665) ############################################
Failure of negotiations with the Emperor
619
naively accepted the terms, and gave as his hostages the Duke of
Burgundy and the Counts of Flanders and Nevers.
He hoped to persuade Alexander to accompany him ; and indeed a
good deal of anxiety was felt at this time by the adherents of the
Pontiff. But a fresh comedy was about to be enacted. Frederick's army,
being short of provisions, had gradually broken up and disappeared ;
and at this moment the King of England, who feared nothing so much
as an alliance between Louis VII and the Emperor, responded to an
appeal from Alexander III by arriving on the scene in full force.
Frederick had but one desire—to withdraw, but to put a good face
upon it. On the morning of the appointed day, 22 September, Louis
again repaired to Saint-Jean-de-Losne, where he found no one but
Rainald of Dassel, the Chancellor of the Empire, who feigned ignorance.
Never, he declared, could it have entered his sovereign's head to submit
the decision on the pontifical election to a commission drawn from
France as well as from the Empire, seeing that none but the Emperor
and the bishops of his dominions were qualified to give judgment in
such a case. Louis then turned to the Count of Champagne, who was
standing beside him, and begged him to repeat the clauses of the con-
vention, “Well, you see ! ” exclaimed the king when this had been
done, “the Emperor, who should be here, has not appeared, and his
representatives have just changed the terms of the treaty in your very
presence! You are witness to it. ”—“That is true," answered the
count. _“I am freed, then, from all my engagements, am I not? ”-
Certainly you are free,” replied Henry. Then the king turned to the
barons and prelates of his suite. “You have all heard and seen,” he
said, “ that I have done everything in my power. Am I still bound by
the convention ? "_“ No,” answered they all, “ you have redeemed your
word. ” Then, wheeling his horse, Louis galloped away upon the road
to Dijon, turning a deaf ear to the Emperor's representatives, who tried
to detain him.
Such was the end of the tragi-comic adventure into which Louis had
so imprudently allowed himself to be drawn. It put an end for ever to
any inclination on his part to come to an understanding with the
supporters of Victor IV, and it was on the morrow of the meeting at
Saint-Jean-de-Losne that he appeared before the world as the protector
of the true Pope. Alexander III was lodged in the royal town of Sens ;
his protector Louis VII carried on a regular and constant correspondence
with him ; and his close alliance with the Capetian monarchy during the
crisis that followed his election contributed not a little to increase the
prestige of that monarchy, and to give it the position in Europe that
was established so firmly in the days of Philip Augustus.
Not only did Louis VI and Louis VII succeed in extending their
supremacy, but they contrived to place the government of their con-
CH.
time the king had overrated his powers; the hour had not yet come for
great conquests and the subjection of the great fiefs. It was the head
of the Anglo-Norman monarchy who was to be the chief instrument in
proving this fact to Louis.
Ever since the middle of the eleventh century the kings of France had
been making ceaseless efforts to arrest the dangerous and ever-increasing
expansion of the Norman dominion. Philip I, as we have seen', was as
eager as his father Henry to seize every possible chance of embarrassing
this formidable vassal and supporting his enemies. But the King of
France had a redoubtable foe to deal with. The Conqueror's third son,
Henry Beauclerc, was not the man to be intimidated by the Capetian.
Having deprived his brother Robert Curthose of his duchy of Normandy
and sent him into captivity, declaring, not without reason, that he was
incapable of maintaining order and peace in his dominion (1106),
Henry I hastened to take possession of the castle of Gisors. This fortress
on the right bank of the Epte formed, it is true, an integral part of the
Norman Vexin, but such was the strategic importance of its position
commanding the road from Rouen to Paris, that when Henry I did
homage for Normandy to the King of France they made a special
agreement on the subject. Both were pledged never to occupy the place
in person, but either to leave it in the hands of a neutral castellan, at
that time Païen of Neauphle, or else to demolish it.
Louis VI lost no time in protesting. He called upon his vassal to
observe the conventions of the treaty, and summoned him to account for
his conduct in the presence of his suzerain, whom he was to meet on the
frontier of their respective dominions, at the bridge of Neauphle on the
Epte. Both kings came there in force. Henry refused to submit to the
demands of the King of France, whereupon the latter naively, if courage-
ously, offered, if need were, to prove his right by meeting the King of
England in single combat. To the bearers of this strange message Henry
replied: “When the King of France attacks me I shall know how to
defend myself! ” This incident happened about March 1109.
This meant war—a war that was destined to drag on for twenty years,
interrupted from time to time by a truce or a sham peace which enabled
each of the two foes to keep his eye upon the other while awaiting a
Supra, Vol. II, Chap. v.
CH. XVIII.
## p. 602 (#648) ############################################
602
Struggle with Henry I of England
propitious moment to renew the attack. The tactics of the King of
France, in his efforts to arrest the growth of the power of Normandy,
were simple. They consisted in allying himself with the Count of Anjou,
and favouring the Angevin intrigues in Maine, with a view to keeping
the Norman from that province, and finally himself attacking him at his
most vulnerable point, the Vexin, in order to free the royal domain from
the perpetual menace that threatened it if Gisors remained in the hands
of the English king. As for Henry, his policy was to secure freedom of
action by seizing every possible chance of creating difficulties for the
King of France in his own dominions; and, while seeking to be on good
terms with the Count of Anjou, to lend his support to Theobald, Count
of Blois and Chartres, who was to wage perpetual war against Louis,
harassing his army in the rear as his Norman foes slowly advanced.
In 1109, at the beginning of hostilities, the alliance between Henry
of England and Theobald of Blois was not yet concluded, and at one time
it almost seemed as though Louis VI were about to triumph. He crossed
the Epte, repulsed Henry's troops, and pursued his victorious way
through part of the Norman Vexin. But in 1111 everything was changed.
Theobald, who in 1109 had figured in Louis VI's army, suddenly changed
sides, and by the spring of the following year had succeeded in bringing
together a formidable coalition against the King of France. This coalition
was composed, as we have already seen', of Henry of England and a host
of petty barons: Lancelin of Bulles, lord of Dammartin, Païen of
Montjay, Ralph of Beaugency, Milo of Bray-sur-Seine, Hugh of Crécy,
Guy of Rochefort, and Hugh of Le Puiset himself, not to speak of Hugh,
Count of Troyes. This time Louis was forced to yield. He succeeded, it
is true, in overcoming the coalition of French barons and in repulsing
Theobald; but he found it impossible to defeat the English monarch.
Not only was there now no question of obliging him to abandon Gisors,
but a treaty was signed before the walls of that fortress at the end of
March 1113, by which Louis agreed, perforce, to recognise Henry I as
suzerain of Brittany as well as of Maine, which in 1110 had come by
marriage into the hands of the Count of Anjou.
Three years were hardly gone before war broke out again (April 1116),
a war of constant skirmishes on the confines of the Norman and the
French Vexin, in which each king captured in turn the strongholds of his
rival. Louis VI, encouraged by several successes, of which the most
brilliant was the surprise and capture of Les Andelys, early in 1119, by
means of treachery within the walls, thought the hour had come for
a decisive engagement. He suddenly offered battle to Henry I in the plain
of Brémule, not far from Noyon-sur-Andelle. The result was disaster.
The troops of the King of France were seized with panic when confronted
by the large and well-disciplined army that the English king had at bis
disposal, and took to flight, carrying Louis with them in their stampede.
1 See supra, p. 597.
## p. 603 (#649) ############################################
Negotiations for peace
603
He fled precipitately to Les Andelys, where he succeeded in finding a refuge,
but only after wandering alone in the forest of Musegros; his war-horse and
banner he left in the hands of the enemy (20 August 1119). In his rage
and humiliation he vainly tried, a month later, to avenge himself by
attacking the district of Évreux; but, though he captured and burnt Ivry,
he failed before Breteuil, which was the object of the expedition. In the
meantime his son-in-law William of Chaumont was being equally un-
successful at the siege of Tillières, where he fell into the hands of the
enemy. Louis was again forced to beat a retreat, and such was his fury
that he was on the point of burning Chartres, to vent his wrath at the
expense of Count Theobald.
And now his failing health, and his weariness of this long struggle
that had brought him only mortification, prompted Louis to negotiate
for peace. He appealed to the supreme arbitrator, Pope Calixtus II, on
the occasion of a council held by the latter at Rheims on 20 and 21
October 1119. The Norman monk, Ordericus Vitalis, has given us in
his chronicle, if not the exact words, at least the substance of the speech
delivered on this occasion by the “strongly-built, pale, corpulent, eloquent”
king, whom he seems himself to have seen and heard. The speech was a
veritable indictment, a denunciation of Henry I's conduct from first to
last. Nothing was overlooked, from the iniquitous imprisonment of
Robert Curthose to the arrest of Robert, lord of Bellême, who had been
sent on a mission to Henry by the King of France in 1112. “The King
of England, who was long my ally, has been guilty of constant acts of
aggression and violence at my expense, and at that of my subjects; he
took forcible possession of Normandy, which forms part of my kingdom ;
he has treated Robert, Duke of Normandy, shamefully, in defiance of law
and justice. Ignoring the fact that Robert was my vassal and his own
brother and lord, he subjected him to all manner of vexations, and finally
imprisoned him. Even now he has him fast in his dungeons. And here
before you stands the son of this unhappy duke, William (Clito), who has
come hither with me, having been driven into exile and disinherited by
the King of England! By the mouths of bishops and counts and many
others, I have called upon him to restore to me the duke whom he holds
imprisoned; but I have obtained no satisfaction. Robert of Bellême, my
ambassador, whom I sent to signify my will to him, was arrested by his
orders in his palace. He loaded him with chains, and has kept him to this
day in a cruel prison. ” Finally, Henry was also accused of inciting to
rebellion that Count of Blois, Theobald, whose shameful excesses had
disturbed the whole kingdom. The Pope promised to intervene. But
this ex parte statement of Louis VI, who had omitted to say that he
himself, in 1107, had connived at the spoliation of Robert Curthose,
was met by Henry I with another that was no less biassed, and
moreover supported by various gifts on the occasion of an interview that
he had with Calixtus II at Gisors in the following November. Henry
was
CH. XVIII.
## p. 604 (#650) ############################################
604 Marriage of Louis VII with Eleanor of Aquitaine
agreed, however, to enter into negotiations with the King of France, and
in 1120 peace was concluded on these terms: the two adversaries were to
restore their respective conquests, and Louis VI was to receive homage
for the duchy of Normandy from William Aetheling, only legitimate
son of Henry I and heir apparent to the throne of England. In the
matter of Gisors Louis was obliged to yield. This was a decided set-back.
On both sides underhand hostilities continued. On 25 November
1120, Louis VI's hopes were revived by the unexpected death of William
Aetheling in the White Ship; and in 1123 a coalition of Norman
and French seigneurs was formed with the object of expelling the King
of England from the duchy of Normandy and replacing him by William
Clito. Henry I stoutly held his own against this coalition, while at his
instigation his son-in-law, the Emperor Henry V, made ready to fall upon
Rheims in order to hamper Louis VI's actions (August 1124). The latter,
however, succeeded in diverting the storm. With the most remarkable
eagerness and unanimity the entire country rose at the king's appeal, and
rallied round him to repel the national danger. Thereupon Henry V,
daunted by finding a whole nation in arms, beat a hasty retreat. But
Louis could not recover the upper hand in Normandy. Henry I triumphed
over all his enemies, and contributed by his manoeuvres and aggressions
towards the frustration of the French policy in Flanders. He even went
so far as to ally himself with the Count of Anjou by marrying (1127
or 1128) his widowed daughter Matilda, the sole survivor of his legi-
timate children, to Geoffrey the Fair, heir to the fiefs of Anjou and
Maine. This marriage was a terrible menace to hang over the head of
the French king, and it was not long before Louis VII felt its fatal
effects.
And yet, as the time drew near for Louis VI to die, it seemed that
the French monarchy was in a good position. Henry I of England had
died on 1 December 1135, and Stephen of Blois, who obtained the
English crown, was fully occupied at home with difficulties that quite
prevented him from meditating any kind of intervention on the Continent.
Count Theobald, who, since the death of his uncle Hugh I of Champagne
in 1125, had been lord over all the territory of the ancient House of Blois
-namely Champagne, Blois, and Chartres—had at last laid down his arms
and rallied to the Capetian cause. And finally, an unexpected windfall
had just placed the whole duchy of Aquitaine in the hands of the future
king. Duke William X, who had died on 9 April 1137, during a
pilgrimage to the shrine of St James of Compostella, had upon his
death-bed confided to Louis VI the care of marrying his daughter and
heiress Eleanor; and Louis had promptly taken steps to get his son
accepted as her husband. The future Louis VII was occupied in taking
possession of Aquitaine when the death of his father on 1 August 1137
placed him on the throne of France.
## p. 605 (#651) ############################################
The early years of Louis VII
605
During the first few years of his reign the new king, who thus became
his own master at the age of sixteen or seventeen, displayed more activity
than discretion. It is possible that the suggestions of his young queen,
Eleanor, on whom he lavished, says one of the chroniclers, “an extravagant
love," may sometimes have misdirected his energies; and the counsels of
the discreet but somewhat ingenuous Suger were inadequate to counteract
this influence. Without disturbing himself in the least, or putting the
smallest obstacle in the way, Louis allowed the Count of Anjou to
increase his territory so rapidly that his power was every day a greater
menace, and in the meantime threw himself heart and soul into rash
undertakings which, being ill-organised and ill-executed, brought him
nothing but mortification.
Not content with the acquisition of Aquitaine, which he had already
found sufficiently hard to control, he bethought him soon afterwards, in
1141, of insisting upon the rights to the county of Toulouse that his
predecessors in the duchy had several times claimed. Accordingly he
organised an expedition against Count Alphonse-Jourdain. Towards the
end of June a considerable army marched rapidly upon Toulouse under
the king's leadership; but after a few weeks he was obliged to retrace
his steps without having gained any advantage.
It was not long before the young king was concerned with more serious
affairs. For more than two years he squandered the strength of the
monarchy in a twofold and sterile struggle against the Papacy on the one
hand and Count Theobald of Champagne on the other. On the death of
the Archbishop of Bourges in 1141 two candidates were put forward to
succeed him: Cadure, the king's Chancellor, and Peter of La Châtre, a
near relative of the Chancellor of the Roman Church. The one was the
king's candidate, the other the Pope's. The second was elected, in spite
of the fact that Louis forbade the clergy to choose him. Louis in a fury
swore upon the sacred relics that, as long as he lived, Peter should not
enter Bourges. The sovereign pontiff, Innocent II, calmly retorted by con-
secrating Peter with his own hands at Rome, and, since Bourges still
remained closed to him, by laying an interdict on every town, village, or
castle that should shelter the king. "The King of France is a child,” the
Pope is declared to have said, "and must be educated, and prevented
from acquiring bad habits. ” In the meantime Count Theobald had added
fuel to the fire by taking part openly against his sovereign and receiving
Peter of La Châtre in his domain. This was enough to exasperate Louis VII,
who already had a subject of complaint against this vassal, in that he had
twice refused his feudal contingent–in 1138, on the occasion of an ex-
pedition against the rebels of Poitou, and more recently when Louis had
marched against Toulouse.
A fresh incident occurred to aggravate the dissension and hasten
the rupture. Ralph, Count of Vermandois and Seneschal of France,
having repudiated his first wife, Theobald's niece, in order to marry
cu. XVIII.
## p. 606 (#652) ############################################
606
Struggle with Count Theobald of Champagne
Queen Eleanor's sister Alice (also called Petronilla) of Aquitaine, three
bishops of the royal domain consented to dissolve the first marriage on
grounds of consanguinity, and to bless the second. It was not long
before protests were raised; and, at a council held under the presidency
of a papal legate at Lagny-sur-Marne, the three accommodating prelates
were excommunicated, their decision reversed, the second marriage
annulled, and the territory of the Count of Vermandois laid under an
interdict. In itself the incident was commonplace, and the history of the
times records a score of similar episodes. But the young king, stimulated
by Queen Eleanor, took the matter as a personal insult. Here again he
was confronted with Count Theobald. The council that had annulled
the marriage of Ralph and Petronilla was held at Lagny-sur-Marne, on
the territory of the Count of Champagne, who openly took the part of
his niece, Ralph's repudiated wife. This was enough to make the irascible
King of France hold Theobald responsible for the whole affair. With an
outburst of fury that took his enemy by surprise, Louis VII descended on
Champagne, attacked Vitry-sur-Marne, captured it, and left it in flames.
Hundreds of the inhabitants-thirteen hundred, it is said-perished in
the burning church. Theobald, whose turbulent habits and baneful
energy had gradually given place of late years to a spirit of devotion and
a zeal for good works, assumed a pathetic attitude that earned him the
ridicule even of his own subjects. “Why,” they asked, “has not Count
Theobald spent his time and his money in more useful ways? He has
what he deserves: for knights he has monks; for bowmen, lay brethren.
He sees now how little such as these can avail to serve him! ” The
clergy of Champagne, who had suffered cruelly from the royal invasion,
were at a loss to determine what to do.
But Louis VII, no doubt, was equally embarrassed. His victory
brought him no practical advantage; it merely increased the unpopu-
larity of his cause. He was only too thankful, in the summer of 1143,
to accept terms that pledged him to evacuate Champagne on condition
that Theobald—through the good offices of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
-should secure the removal of the ban that had been laid upon the Count
of Vermandois and the queen's sister.
It was not long before Louis perceived that the venerable Abbot of
Clairvaux, who had conducted all the negotiations, had taken unworthy
advantage of his inexperience. Hardly had he restored his conquests to
Theobald before Ralph and Petronilla, who refused to be separated, were
excommunicated for the second time. The young king's wrath was
boundless, and he swore to be revenged upon Count Theobald. Bernard
of Clairvaux only incensed him the more by affecting airs of innocence.
What, asked the abbot, had he and Theobald done to deserve the king's
reproaches? Was it their fault if Ralph had behaved in such a way as to
merit excommunication? Had not Count Theobald done his utmost, had
he not even done violence to his conscience, to secure Ralph's absolution
## p. 607 (#653) ############################################
Conquest of Normandy by the Count of Anjou
607
on the first occasion in the face of a thousand difficulties? And what
could he do against this fresh excommunication?
The war was resumed. Louis VII again occupied a portion of
Champagne, and refused to allow the appointment of bishops to vacant
sees. Theobald's attempt at retaliation was to form a feudal league; he
allied himself with the Counts of Flanders and Soissons. Every day the
conflict became more bitter, without any advantage accruing to either
party. Suger and St Bernard were in favour of peace, and perhaps also
the immediate circle of the new Pope, Celestine II, who had just
(26 September 1143) succeeded Innocent II, but it was not without
difficulty that they prevailed over the obstinacy of the young king.
After stubbornly seeking for months to wreak his vengeance upon
Theobald, he was forced to yield at all points: to evacuate Champagne
entirely and unconditionally, to abandon Ralph of Vermandois to his
fate, and to recognise Peter of La Châtre as Archbishop of Bourges.
This was indeed a triumph for the Papacy.
It was fully time for Louis to pull himself together and turn his
attention towards the west. For, while he was thus exhausting his
strength in fruitless efforts, the Count of Anjou and Maine, Geoffrey the
Fair, was taking advantage of every opportunity to extend his dominions.
While his wife Matilda in England was carrying on a ceaseless struggle
with its king, Stephen of Blois, in defence of the rights that she had in-
herited from her father Henry I, Geoffrey descended upon Normandy and
conquered it by slow degrees. In the course of the successive campaigns
in which he engaged almost yearly between 1136 and 1144 he won
nearly the entire province. There remained at last only Rouen; and on
23 April 1144 that town also yielded. Louis had no choice but to
accept the accomplished fact, and to recognise his powerful vassal as the
possessor of the conquered duchy. He had the acuteness, however, to
prevail upon Geoffrey, in exchange for this concession, to evacuate
Gisors, the strategical importance of which we have already seen. This
was, at all events, some compensation.
It may be thought that by this time the king would have learnt
wisdom and, profiting by the experience of these early years, would take
up the reins of government with a firm hand. But hardly was his
desperate struggle with the Church at an end, before he became possessed
by a spirit of mystic piety which prompted him to desert his kingdom
and go forth to fight the infidels in a distant land.
The news of the capture of Edessa by the Atābeg Zangi of Mosul on
25 December 1144 had recently filled the whole of western Christendom
with consternation. On Christmas Day 1145, when Louis was with his
court at Bourges for the ceremony of wearing his crown- a solemnity
that was customary at the great festivals-he suddenly informed the
barons of his intention to take the Cross, and exhorted them to follow
CH. XVIII.
## p. 608 (#654) ############################################
608
Louis VII on crusade
his example. This suggestion they received with so little enthusiasm that
it was found necessary to postpone the final decision to another court to
be held at Vézelay the following Easter. The pious Suger himself advised
the king against this enterprise; and St Bernard, on being entreated to
use his influence for the furtherance of the Crusade, dared not take upon
himself so serious a responsibility, and therefore referred the question to
the Pope. We have seen in an earlier chapter how the latter decided to
espouse the cause, and how St Bernard, in accordance with the Pontiff's
urgent desire, preached the Crusade with enthusiasm and became its life
and soul. He it was whose eloquence, at the assembly at Vézelay on
31 March 1146, succeeded in rousing a fresh outburst of zeal for the holy
war; it was he who kindled the ardour of the Germans and overcame the
resistance of King Conrad III, and who was responsible for the organisa-
tion of the expedition, for all the preparations and arrangements. When
Louis VII's army set out on 11 June 1147, success appeared certain. We
know how these hopes were frustrated: by the discord that so soon broke
out between French and Germans, and weakened their attack upon the
common enemy; by the disasters that overtook both armies, the Germans
at Dorylaeum and the French near Laodicea; and finally by the deplorable
repulse of the crusaders before Damascus in July 1148, after which the
greater number of them gave up the struggle.
Louis VII, however, was quite content to linger in the Holy Land,
visiting the sacred places and forgetting his own kingdom while he
devoted himself overseas to pious works. The Abbot of St Denis, Suger,
who had carried on his shoulders nearly the whole weight of the regency
since the day of the king's departure, urged him to return. Hitherto the
abbot had succeeded admirably in keeping order in the kingdom; but the
king's brother Robert of Dreux had lately returned, and the malcontents
had begun to gather round him. There was even some talk among
them
of deposing Louis and making Robert their king. Happily Suger
contrived to frustrate these intrigues, and, when at last, at the beginning
of November 1149, Louis made up his mind to return to his kingdom
after an absence of nearly two years and a half, he found the country at
peace.
Louis VII at last realised where the true interests of the monarchy
lay. During the early years of his reign he had allowed the whole of
Normandy to be appropriated by the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey the Fair ;
and the energetic campaigns conducted by Geoffrey's wife Matilda and
their son Henry Plantagenet-afterwards Henry II-plainly shewed
whither the dangerous ambitions of the House of Anjou were likely to
lead. The security of the Crown imperatively demanded that the king
should employ every possible means, if indeed it were not already too late,
to undermine this formidable power, which was infinitely more menacing
1 See supra, Chap. xi, pp. 373-75.
## p. 609 (#655) ############################################
Eleanor's divorce and re-marriage
609
than the Anglo-Norman power had ever been in the days of Henry I of
France.
It was an incident of minor importance, the siege of Montreuil-Bellay
by Geoffrey the Fair, that supplied the pretext for a rupture. Gerald, the
lord of this little Angevin fortress, had placed himself at the head of a
strong coalition formed against his suzerain, Count Geoffrey, who had
retaliated by laying siege to the rebel's stronghold. But Gerald was the
king's protégé and his seneschal in Poitou ; Louis therefore made his
cause his own, and called upon Geoffrey the Fair to raise the siege (1150).
Suger, who was in this, it must be owned, more remarkable for upright-
ness than for political insight, succeeded for a time in warding off the
storm; but on 13 January 1151 he died, and since Gerald still held out
stubbornly against Geoffrey the Fair, and Geoffrey continuously refused,
not unnaturally, to comply with the royal command, hostilities broke
out.
Louis had already decided upon a line of conduct. His policy con-
sisting in putting forward Eustace of Boulogne, the son of King Stephen
of England, as a rival to the Count of Anjou and his son Henry
Plantagenet, to whom Geoffrey had transferred the duchy of Normandy
at the beginning of 1150. Acting in concert, Louis and Eustace made a
sudden descent upon Caux in May or June, 1151, and repulsed Henry at
Arques; then, in July, they advanced as far as Séez, which they burnt.
In the following month, when Louis was preparing to invade the duchy
of Normandy anew at the head of a still stronger army, a sudden attack
of fever obliged him to suspend operations. Geoffrey the Fair and his son
were only too glad to seize this opportunity of coming to terms; and
towards the end of August a treaty was signed in Paris by which they
surrendered to the king, not now Gisors alone, but the whole of the
Norman Vexin.
Unfortunately Louis then made an irreparable blunder. His love for
his wife Eleanor, which had been so ardent during the first years of their
marriage, had gradually cooled; while the queen, for her part, having
grown more and more indifferent to Louis, had been led into frailties, or
at least into follies, that were by no means pleasing to her husband. This
state of things had at last resulted in an open rupture between them, and
Louis, to whom personal feelings were of more importance than reasons
of State, prevailed upon a council held at Beaugency on 21 March 1152
to dissolve the marriage on grounds of consanguinity. Barely two months
later (May 1152) Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, who, on the
sudden death of his father Geoffrey the Fair on 7 September 1151, had
succeeded to the county of Anjou. Since, naturally, the daughter of
Duke William X took her dowry with her to her second husband, this
marriage not only meant a loss to the monarchy of the whole duchy of
Aquitaine, but also a new and formidable acquisition of territory for its
rival.
C. MED. H. VOL. V. CH. XVIII.
39
## p. 610 (#656) ############################################
610
Henry Plantagenet becomes King of England
Too late, Louis recognised the mistake that he had made. He hastened
to take up arms once more, and, as Henry was preparing to cross the
Channel and fight King Stephen for the English crown, he again invaded
Normandy. With his army marched, not only Eustace of Boulogne but
also Count Robert of Perche, Henry the Liberal, Count of Champagne,
and even the Count of Anjou's own brother Geoffrey, who was to oppose
Henry Plantagenet on many more occasions than this. Had the attack
been conducted with vigour it might have proved disastrous for the young
Count of Anjou. It was, however, conducted timidly and half-heartedly:
Louis contented himself with besieging a few places on the frontier, of
which Neufmarché was the only one he captured. He retreated hastily
to the shelter of his own castle-walls as soon as Henry shewed signs of
retaliating. Moreover, when Henry, whose affairs demanded his presence
in England, proposed a truce at the end of August 1152, Louis—with
almost incredible weakness—instantly agreed to the suggestion.
For eight months he remained inactive. At a time when an energetic
attack on Normandy might perhaps have been fatal to Henry's success
in England, and might even have undermined his position on the
Continent, Louis abstained from action.
At last he decided to cross the
Norman frontier, to besiege Vernon and make a demonstration before
Verneuil. He even succeeded, after two sieges, in entering Vernon
(August or September 1153); but he was content to do no more, while
Henry calmly pursued his advantages in England. By the time the latter
returned to Normandy in April 1154, his recognition by Stephen of
Blois as the heir to the English throne had been brought about by the
death of Eustace of Boulogne; and Louis VII in alarm hastened to sign a
treaty of peace (August 1154). This peace really amounted to a capitula-
tion on his part. By it he engaged, in return for an indemnity of 2000
silver marks, to restore the two fortresses that were all he had succeeded
in capturing, Vernon and Neufmarché, and to relinquish the title of Duke
of Aquitaine, which he had hitherto continued to use. On 25 October
following Stephen of Blois died, and a few weeks later (19 December 1154)
Henry was crowned at Westminster without any attempt on the part of
Louis to hamper the movements of his formidable enemy.
At an age when most men are in the full exercise of their powers
Louis VII, whose blundering impetuosity had once been so much to be
deplored, seemed suddenly to have become irresolute and almost sluggish.
Those who were much with him at this time lay stress on his simplicity,
his gentleness, his placability, and his piety. A certain monk of Vézelay
frankly declares that the king always inclined to compromise, that he
loved quiet and detested conflict. Another writer recalls having seen him
in the midst of a procession, modestly mingling with the crowd of clergy.
Upright and loyal himself, he had confidence in the honesty of others.
He was in the habit of walking alone amid his subjects, and it is even told of
him that one day he lay down in a forest and slept profoundly with only
## p. 611 (#657) ############################################
Louis VII betrothes his daughter to Henry the Younger 611
two knights to guard him. When someone expressed surprise, the king
answered: “I can sleep alone in perfect safety, because no man wishes
me ill. ” He carried this confiding spirit into all his dealings, without
any regard for the subtleties of the statesman. A contemporary chronicler,
Gervase of Canterbury, tells us that he was “a very Christian king, but
somewhat simple-minded. ” “A very pious man” is the description of
another writer, "a friend to the clergy, a devout servant of God, one who
was deceived by many and himself deceived none. ”
To the end of his reign his policy towards Henry II consisted in
perpetual retreat. Any attempt at resistance on the part of the King
of France invariably ended in a treaty that gave fresh advantages to his
opponent.
Hardly had Henry II established his authority in England before he
undertook the task of extending his dominions in every direction on the
Continent. In the north it was the Norman Vexin that he desired to
recapture from the King of France; in the west it was Brittany that he
aspired to make his own; in the south it was the county of Toulouse
that he demanded as a dependency of Aquitaine. This gigantic pro-
gramme he promptly set to work to carry out. .
In 1156, amid the domestic dissensions that had harassed Brittany
from time immemorial, the county of Nantes had submitted to Geoffrey
of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet's brother. When Geoffrey died on 26 July
1158, Henry claimed the succession to the county, and, as he was quite
prepared to support his claim by force of arms, his authority was
recognised at Nantes. Not only did Louis VII abstain from opposing him,
but he even went so far, it seems, as to smooth his enemy's path by authorising
him to enter Brittany with the title of Seneschal of France, which must
doubtless have given an air of legality to the King of England's act of
usurpation.
The two kings at this time were firm friends. They met near Gisors
on 31 August 1158, when Louis VII unhesitatingly agreed to betroth his
third daughter, Margaret, an infant six months old, to the King of
England's eldest son, Henry, whose age was then three years, and pledged
himself to give the bride for marriage-portion the whole of the Norman
Vexin. This dowry, till the children were of marriageable age, was to be
left in charge of the Templars. The "good and gentle” king had no
suspicions; he welcomed his rival to Paris as though he were his best
friend, and allowed him to take away the little princess. So delighted
was he with his new friendship that he even made a pilgrimage across
Normandy to Mont-Saint-Michel, accepting the attentions and marks of
affection that Henry lavished upon him during the journey without for
a moment doubting their sincerity. He was entirely absorbed in pious
thoughts. The pilgrimage to Mont-Saint-Michel failing to satisfy his
devotion, he planned a great crusade against the Moors of Spain. He
made sure that his dear friend Henry would accompany him.
CH. XVIII,
39-2
## p. 612 (#658) ############################################
612 Henry II of England occupies the Norman Vexin
The latter, however, was of a more practical nature, and, having
gathered a considerable army and formed a sound coalition, was preparing
to enforce his rights over Toulouse at the expense of Count Raymond V.
Recalled thus roughly to the world of reality, Louis VII at last awoke
and attempted to negotiate. Henry humoured him, and conferences were
held at Tours (March 1159) and Heudicourt (6-8 June 1159). But the
King of England had already resolved upon his course of action. At the
end of June his army set out towards Languedoc, occupied a portion of
that province, and proceeded rapidly in the direction of Toulouse. The
town would doubtless have fallen if Louis VII, who had followed his
rival with a few troops, had not decided, after fresh delays and renewed
attempts at negotiation, to intrench himself within the walls (September
1159). Henry dared not take so serious a step as to besiege his suzerain
the King of France; and as Louis, who was delighted at the success of a
manoeuvre that called for no effort, resolutely remained in Toulouse,
the King of England contented himself for the moment with establishing
his troops firmly in Cahors. He then hastened back to Normandy.
It was not long before Louis learnt the reasons for this rapid retreat.
Henry had gained the adherence of Theobald of Blois, Seneschal of
France, and had proceeded without delay to attack the Beauvaisis in
person. Louis had barely time to hasten thither; and when he found
that the Count of Évreux had also deserted him, and had handed over to
the King of England the castles of Montfort-l'Amauri, Rochefort, and
Épernon, he was only too glad to obtain a truce (December 1159). This truce
was followed, in May 1160, by a treaty of peace. The King of France, while
confirming the former agreement with regard to the Norman Vexin, con-
fined himself to stipulating, on behalf of the Count of Toulouse, for a
year's truce. Henry II, whatever befell, was to keep the fortresses he had
captured in Languedoc until the expiration of the truce.
The treaty was hardly signed before the English king, without a word
of warning, celebrated the marriage of his son Henry to Margaret, the
little princess whom Louis had so confidingly entrusted to his care
(2 November 1160). The young husband was only five-and-a-half years
old, and the bride was certainly not yet three! But the King of England
was impatient to lay his hand upon the dowry, the Norman Vexin, which
he succeeded in obtaining from the Templars in whose charge it had been
placed. Once more the simple-minded Louis perceived that he had been
outwitted ; once more he hankered after revenge. He arranged with
Theobald, Count of Blois, that Chaumont-sur-Loire should be made the
centre for an attack on Touraine; but in December 1160 the King of
England took possession of the place. In the following spring, after
allowing his adversary ample time to fortify himself in Gisors and to
garrison all the frontier fortresses, Louis made a show of preparing to
recover the Vexin at the point of the sword; but after a few skirmishes
he consented to a new truce. In September 1162—-yielding as usual to
## p. 613 (#659) ############################################
Louis VII protects Becket
613
the force of circumstances—he agreed to sign a treaty of peace which was
an open confession of weakness.
It was at this juncture that the case of Thomas Becket came into
prominence. We have seen in an earlier chapterhow the Archbishop of
Canterbury, at the end of the year 1164, fled from England, where his
position was imperilled, and took refuge in France. Louis VII, who
was delighted to revenge himself upon his enemy without having recourse
to arms, and was also, no doubt, honestly distressed by the misfortunes
of the prelate, had declared openly for him at the very beginning. He
gave his protection to the exile in spite of the protests of the English
king, who declared that the treaty of 1162 contained a clause to the
effect that neither of the monarchs should receive in his dominions any
rebellious subject of the other. When Henry, in one of his letters of
protest, referred to Becket as the “ex-Archbishop of Canterbury,” the
King of France exclaimed: “What! Ex-Archbishop? Why, the King
of England has no more right than I to depose even the humblest of his
clergy! " Yet for two years the matter dragged on, while every day the
discussion grew less amicable, and a fresh rupture more inevitable. War
broke out in June 1167; but again nothing was effected on either side
save a few skirmishes on the frontier. When each had burnt a village or
two and a few castles, the two kings were ready to come to terms. Henry
could employ his time more profitably than in continuing so fruitless a
struggle, and Louis was even less disposed than usual to take advantage
of his enemy's many difficulties and to conduct the war with spirit. In
August they agreed to lay down their arms until Easter 1168. On the
renewal of hostilities Louis acted with his habitual irresolution and weak-
ness, chiefly confining himself to supporting the rebellions in Aquitaine
and Brittany against Henry. The month of August saw fresh negotia-
tions, which led to new truces and new ruptures. Finally, on 6 January
1169, the two kings again met at Montmirail, near the frontier of Maine,
to arrange a peace, and at the same time to come to some conclusion on
the question of Thomas Becket, which was still unsettled. Louis VII, true
to his character, was content to receive purely nominal satisfaction, such
as the homage of the younger Henry for Normandy, Brittany, Maine,
and Anjou, and that of the English king's second son, Richard, for the
county of Poitou. As for the questions that had caused the war, they
were not considered. The Vexin, which Henry had so unceremoniously
annexed, remained in his possession ; his rights over Brittany, which he
had conquered, received formal recognition; even Thomas Becket was
almost sacrificed as well. It was not till many months had passed, and
many conferences had been held, that an apparent reconciliation was
effected between him and Henry.
Shortly after the tragic end of the Archbishop of Canterbury on
29 December 1170, the opportunity came at last to Louis VII for a
· See supra, Chap. XVII.
CH. XVIII.
## p. 614 (#660) ############################################
614
Further progress by Henry II
striking act of vengeance. Henry II, who pursued his policy of invasion
untiringly, had succeeded in securing the homage of the Count of
Toulouse (January 1173), and his power on the Continent seemed to be
more firmly established than ever, when suddenly his sons broke out
into rebellion. We have already seen how his son Henry, whose disaffec-
tion against his father had been carefully nourished by the King of
France, had (8 March 1173) suddenly fled to the French court, where
his two brothers Richard and Geoffrey soon joined him, at the instiga-
tion of Queen Eleanor. At last Louis seemed determined to take a firm
line; strong in the support of a powerful faction, which included the
Counts of Flanders, Champagne, Boulogne, Blois, Sancerre, Dreux, and
others, he at last shewed a warlike spirit. When the envoys of King
Henry-Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, and Arnulf, Bishop of Lisieux-
came to negotiate with Louis, he turned upon them with bitter com-
plaints of his adversary's encroachments. “Why,” he asked, “ has the
King of England, in spite of his solemn pledge, kept Margaret's dowry,
Gisors and the Vexin ? Why does he seek to incite against their rightful
sovereign the people of France, from the mountains of Auvergne to the
Rhone? Why did he receive the liege homage of the Count of Toulouse?
Tell your master that I swear I will never make peace with him without
the express consent of his wife and sons ! ” Not only was Henry the
Younger received at the court of France with every sign of favour, but
Louis VII affected to regard him as the true King of England. He had
a royal seal made for him, and took a solemn pledge to help him in the
winning of the crown. Henry the Younger received the homage of a
great number of barons, who had followed him in his rebellion.
There can be no doubt that a prompt and energetic attack would
have placed Henry II in a peculiarly dangerous position. But Louis
was no more capable than on previous occasions of acting swiftly and
striking with a firm hand. While Henry the Younger, in concert with
the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne, invaded the country round Bray,
to the north of the Seine, the King of France lingered over the siege of
Verneuil; and when, on 9 August, Henry II's army drew near, he im-
mediately decamped and began to parley with the enemy. In the
following year he made a final effort against Rouen ; but again, on the
approach of the King of England, he beat a shameful retreat, burnt
his engines of war himself (14 August 1174), entered into negotia-
tions, and finally deserted the cause of the rebels, whom he forced to
implore pardon of the King of England at Montlouis (30 September
1174).
Thus Louis VII, with his customary indolence, let slip this unexpected
opportunity of driving the English monarch into important concessions.
He allowed Henry II to reduce at his leisure his English and continental
subjects, who had risen at the call of his rebellious sons, and to enlarge
1 See supra, Chap. XVII.
## p. 615 (#661) ############################################
Increase of royal power under Louis VII
615
his dominions still further at the expense of the French monarchy by
the acquisition of the county of La Marche (1177). There was even a
time, shortly before his death, when Louis seemed to cherish the illusion
that he had transformed Henry II into a faithful friend of the Capetian
monarchy.
Yet, feeble as this “good” king appeared in his struggle with the
enterprising and active English sovereign, so strong was the force of
circumstances that, in spite of everything, he left the French monarchy
more firmly established than he found it—left it with its prestige defin-
itely restored, and its position in Europe such that it was thenceforward
a power to be reckoned with.
And first, within the limits of his own kingdom we find that Louis VII
pursued, not unsuccessfully, the work of pacification and concentration
that his father had begun with so much energy. In the preamble to
one of his charters we read that “it is the office of the Crown to crush
those who evade justice, and to support the obedient and submissive and
secure to them their rights. ” Louis VII indeed was as ready as Louis VI
to face hardships, and at times to embark upon long expeditions at the
call of the oppressed, in order to make the royal tribunal respected
throughout the country and thereby secure recognition of the king's
supremacy. In 1153, for instance, when Hervé of Donzy complained
that his father Geoffrey of Donzy was trying to deprive him unjustly of
the fief of Gien, Louis proceeded thither without delay, captured the
town, and forced the unnatural father to respect the laws of feudal
heredity. A few years later the king responded to an appeal from Dreu
of Mouchy, whom Névelon of Pierrefonds had driven out of Mouchy.
Louis mustered some troops and obliged the offender by force of arms
to shew a proper regard for justice. On two occasions, in 1163 and
1169, the canons of Clermont and of Brioude appealed to the king as
their natural protector to save them from the violence of the Counts of
Auvergne and their agents ; and Louis unhesitatingly plunged into the
mountains of central France to inflict exemplary punishment upon the
delinquents, whom he even kept for some time imprisoned. In 1166 the
Count of Chalon, too, who had dared to lay his hand on the property
of the great monastery of Cluny, felt the weight of the king's displeasure.
The count, though repeatedly summoned to answer for his misdeeds,
refused to appear; whereupon Louis marched into his territory, took
forcible possession of it, and confiscated it. In 1173 it was the turn of
the Viscount of Polignac, whom the royal troops pursued, captured, and
imprisoned, for molesting the canons of Le Puy.
As time went on the royal court of justice became able to take a
more commanding tone, and to insist that the great vassals of the Crown
should obey its summons. The Count of Nevers, the persecutor of the
monks of Vézelay, for instance, was forced in 1166 after many evasions
I
CH, XVIII.
## p. 616 (#662) ############################################
616
Appeals of distant vassals to the king
to appear before the king's tribunal in Paris and to abjure his turbulent
ways. Louis VII's words to the injured monks at the beginning of this
long affair were significant: "I have sent my messengers to summon the
count. As to what he will answer or what he will do I know nothing
as yet ; but you may rest assured that if he held as much land as the
King of England in our kingdom I should not allow his violence to go
unpunished. ” It is also noticeable that as a rule this determined language
took effect, and that the nobles brought an ever-increasing number of
cases to be tried before the king's tribunal. Thus in 1153 the Bishop of
Langres and the Duke of Burgundy travelled as far as Moret to lay their
differences before Louis.
From all quarters of France, even the most distant, appeals were
addressed to the king. In 1163 the inhabitants of Toulouse, whom he
had recently defended against Henry II, wrote to express their devotion
and to beg for further support: “Very dear lord, do not take it amiss
that we write to you so often. After God, we appeal to you as to our
good master, our protector, our liberator. Upon your power, next to
the divine power, we fix all our hopes. ” A certain lord of Uzès wrote
to him to complain of the illegal dues levied by the Count of Melgueil,
and to beg for the king's intervention. Again, in 1173 Ermengarde,
Viscountess of Narbonne, entreated him in the most urgent terms to
hasten to the rescue of Languedoc, which was threatened by Henry
Plantagenet. “We are profoundly distressed, my fellow-countrymen
and 1,” she wrote, " to see this country of ours-owing to your absence,
not to say your fault-in danger of being subjected to the authority of
a foreigner who has not the smallest right to rule over us. Do not be
angry, dear lord, at the boldness of my words; it is because I am a
vassal, especially devoted to your crown, that it grieves me to see the
lightest slur cast on your dignity. It is not merely the loss of Toulouse
that we are threatened with, but that of our whole country from the
Garonne to the Rhone, which our enemies are confident of conquering.
I feel that they are even now making all the speed they can, so that,
when they have subjected the members, they may the more easily over-
come the head. I entreat you of your valour to intervene, and appear
among us with a strong army. The audacity of your foes must be
punished, and the hopes of your friends fulfilled. ”
Beyond the frontiers of the kingdom, too, the prestige of the King
of France was steadily growing. From the kingdom of Arles came
numerous promises of fealty, if in return the king would grant his
intervention. Raynald of Bâgé, lord of La Bresse, cried urgently for
his help: “ Come into this country, where your presence is as necessary
to the churches as it is to me. Do not fear the expense;
you all that you spend ; I will do homage to you for all my castles,
which are subject to no suzerain; in a word, all that I possess shall be
at your disposal. ” In Dauphiné, when Louis VII's sister Constance was
I will repay
## p. 617 (#663) ############################################
Louis VII supports Pope Alexander III
617
לל
married to the Dauphin of Viennois, it was considered a matter for
rejoicing that the French influence had gained ground in that direction.
Thus it is not surprising to find Louis VII in 1162 playing his
accustomed part of arbitrator in the great papal schism between
Alexander III and Victor IV, the candidate of the Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa. To tell the truth the king's rôle was not always very brilliant,
nor did it reflect much credit on his perspicacity. In August and Sep-
tember 1162 Frederick, with the connivance of the Count of Champagne,
entangled him in a web of mystification which at one time nearly had
disastrous consequences. It will be well to relate the circumstances, as
we may gain from them some idea of the weaving and unravelling of
intrigues that went on round this “good” king, Louis VII.
When Hadrian IV died in 1159 two Popes had been elected at the same
time: Cardinal Roland under the name of Alexander III, and Cardinal
Octavian under that of Victor IV. Alexander III, who was elected by a
majority of the cardinals, represented the party that was opposed to the
absolute power of the Emperor, the party of Italian independence.
Between him and Frederick Barbarossa there was no possibility of
agreement, whereas naturally an alliance existed between the Emperor
and Victor IV. Alexander III, who had obtained recognition both from
Louis VII and from the King of England immediately after his election,
took refuge in France. But, whether because he had not held the balance
sufficiently equal between Louis and his rival, or because the King of
France was reckoning on the advantage over Henry II that an under-
standing with the Emperor might secure for him, the end of the year
1161 saw the opening of negotiations between Frederick and Louis.
The question of the schism was naturally placed first on the pro-
gramme.
Now, at the court of France there existed a Germanophil party
headed by Louis VII's own brother-in-law Henry the Liberal, Count of
Champagne. He it was whom the king chose to be the principal nego-
tiator; and moreover Louis made the further blunder of giving a
prominent part in the affair to the Bishop of Orleans, Manasse, who
from the first had shewn decided hostility towards Alexander III. So
successfully did these two, Henry of Champagne and Manasse, conduct
the affair in the direction of their wishes, that Louis found himself
involuntarily and almost unconsciously led into far closer relations with
Frederick than he had desired. The bishop, writing in his sovereign's
name to convey final instructions to the Count of Champagne, abused
Louis' confidence so far as to insert, on his own initiative, a phrase that
gave the count full authority to make pledges for the King of France.
Count Henry lost no time in coming to terms. It was agreed that the
two monarchs should meet on a bridge that crossed the Saône at Saint-
Jean-de-Losne on 29 August 1162; that each of them should bring his
Pope with him; and that, then and there, a mixed commission of
CH. XVIII.
## p. 618 (#664) ############################################
618
The interview at Saint-Jean-de-Losne
arbitrators should be chosen from the clergy and laymen of the two parties
to adjudicate between the two Pontiffs. Both sovereigns were pledged
to abide by this judgment; and in the case of Louis refusing to acquiesce
in these arrangements, or to accept the decision of the arbitrators,
Count Henry took a solemn oath to abjure his fealty to the King of
France and to give his allegiance to the Emperor.
In the meantime Louis, who was still ignorant of the engagements
entered into by the Count of Champagne, had made every effort to
persuade Alexander III to be present at the projected meeting. At an
interview between them at Souvigny in August 1162, the king had in
vain urged the Pope to yield in this matter, expressing surprise, with
more or less sincerity, “that since the Pontiff was conscious of the justice
of his claim he should miss this opportunity of upholding it by a public
statement of his case. ” Alexander was immovable. He agreed to send
four cardinals as delegates, but would do no more; he refused to accom-
pany the King of France. The latter, chagrined, reached Dijon on
28 August, and found there the Count of Champagne, who revealed to
him all the clauses of the treaty and placed him—should Alexander
persist in his refusal—in this dilemma: he must either recognise Victor IV
as Pope, or he must lose the province of Champagne to the Emperor.
“What ! ” exclaimed the king, “ you presumed to take it upon yourself
to make such an engagement for me without my knowledge, without
consulting me! ” Henry quoted the letter that he had received from
Manasse, giving him full powers. The King of France perceived that
he had been tricked. It was too late for him to retire; but what could
be hoped from negotiations that were founded on misunderstandings
such as these?
On 29 August the Emperor Frederick came at dawn of day from
Dôle, accompanied by his Pope, to the bridge of Saint-Jean-de-Losne.
Finding no one there he went away, leaving only a few members of
his suite upon the spot. A little later Louis VII arrived in his turn
from Dijon, and begged Frederick's representatives to consent to a
delay, since it was only on the previous day that he had heard the
terms of the convention. At the same time he promised to secure
the presence of Pope Alexander. On the following morning the Count
of Champagne, who played a dubious part throughout the affair,
came to Louis to remind him that, should he reject the terms of the
treaty, he--Count Henry-was pledged by them to transfer his allegiance
to the Emperor. “However," added this sanctimonious individual, “I
have prevailed on the Emperor to grant a delay of three weeks, on
condition of your promising to be present, with Alexander, at another
meeting at the end of that time, and to accept on that occasion the
arbitrators’ judgment between him and his rival. You must bind your-
self by securities, in case you fail to abide by their award, to give yourself
up as a prisoner into the Emperor's hands at Besançon. ” Louis again
## p. 619 (#665) ############################################
Failure of negotiations with the Emperor
619
naively accepted the terms, and gave as his hostages the Duke of
Burgundy and the Counts of Flanders and Nevers.
He hoped to persuade Alexander to accompany him ; and indeed a
good deal of anxiety was felt at this time by the adherents of the
Pontiff. But a fresh comedy was about to be enacted. Frederick's army,
being short of provisions, had gradually broken up and disappeared ;
and at this moment the King of England, who feared nothing so much
as an alliance between Louis VII and the Emperor, responded to an
appeal from Alexander III by arriving on the scene in full force.
Frederick had but one desire—to withdraw, but to put a good face
upon it. On the morning of the appointed day, 22 September, Louis
again repaired to Saint-Jean-de-Losne, where he found no one but
Rainald of Dassel, the Chancellor of the Empire, who feigned ignorance.
Never, he declared, could it have entered his sovereign's head to submit
the decision on the pontifical election to a commission drawn from
France as well as from the Empire, seeing that none but the Emperor
and the bishops of his dominions were qualified to give judgment in
such a case. Louis then turned to the Count of Champagne, who was
standing beside him, and begged him to repeat the clauses of the con-
vention, “Well, you see ! ” exclaimed the king when this had been
done, “the Emperor, who should be here, has not appeared, and his
representatives have just changed the terms of the treaty in your very
presence! You are witness to it. ”—“That is true," answered the
count. _“I am freed, then, from all my engagements, am I not? ”-
Certainly you are free,” replied Henry. Then the king turned to the
barons and prelates of his suite. “You have all heard and seen,” he
said, “ that I have done everything in my power. Am I still bound by
the convention ? "_“ No,” answered they all, “ you have redeemed your
word. ” Then, wheeling his horse, Louis galloped away upon the road
to Dijon, turning a deaf ear to the Emperor's representatives, who tried
to detain him.
Such was the end of the tragi-comic adventure into which Louis had
so imprudently allowed himself to be drawn. It put an end for ever to
any inclination on his part to come to an understanding with the
supporters of Victor IV, and it was on the morrow of the meeting at
Saint-Jean-de-Losne that he appeared before the world as the protector
of the true Pope. Alexander III was lodged in the royal town of Sens ;
his protector Louis VII carried on a regular and constant correspondence
with him ; and his close alliance with the Capetian monarchy during the
crisis that followed his election contributed not a little to increase the
prestige of that monarchy, and to give it the position in Europe that
was established so firmly in the days of Philip Augustus.
Not only did Louis VI and Louis VII succeed in extending their
supremacy, but they contrived to place the government of their con-
CH.
