and the marriage would carry the Angevin dominions almost from the Atlantic to the Alps, and give into Henry’s control every pass into Italy from the Great St. Bernard to the Col di Tenda, and all the highways by which travellers from Geneva and German lands beyond it, from Burgundy or from Gaul, made their way to Rome.  To celebrate such a treaty Henry forgot his thrift.  The two kings of England travelled with ostentatious splendour to meet the Count of Maurienne in Auvergne in January 1173.  The King of Aragon and the Count of Toulouse met them at Montferrand, and a peace which Henry concluded between Toulouse and Aragon declared the height of his influence.  Raymond bent at last to do homage for Toulouse, an act of submission which brought the dominion of Anjou to the very border of the Mediterranean.

There was a wild outbreak of alarm among all Henry’s enemies as from his late humiliation he suddenly rose to this new height of power.  The young king listened eagerly to those who plotted mischief, and one night in mid-Lent he fled to the court of Louis.  In an agony of apprehension Henry sought to close the breach, and sent messages of conciliation to the French king.  “Who sends this message to me?” demanded Louis.  “The King of England,” answered the messengers.  “It is false,” he said; “behold the King of England is here, and he sends no message to me by you; but if you so call his father who once was king, know ye that he asking is dead.”  The Counts of Flanders, of Boulogne, and of Blois, joined the young king in Paris, and did homage to him for fiefs which he bestowed on them—­Kent, Dover, Eochester, lands in Lincolnshire, and domains and castles in Normandy—­while he won the aid of the Scot king by granting him all Northumberland to the Tyne.  The rebellion was organized in a month.  Eleanor sent Richard, commander of the forces of Aquitaine, and Geoffrey, lord of Britanny, to take their share in the revolt; she herself was hastening after them when she was seized and thrown into prison.  In Aquitaine, where the people impartially hated both French and Normans, the enthusiasm for independence was stirred by songs such as those of the troubadour, Bertrand de Born, lord of a fortress and a thousand men, who “was never content, save when the kings of the North were at war.”  In Normandy old hatreds had deepened year by year as Henry had gone on steadily seizing castles and lands which had fallen out of the possession of the crown.  In 1171 he had doubled the revenue of the duchy by lands which the nobles had usurped.  In 1172 he had alarmed them by having a new return made of the feudal tenures for purposes of taxation.  The great lords of the duchy with one consent declared against him.  Britanny sprang to arms.  If Maine and Anjou remained fairly quiet, there was in both of them a powerful party of nobles who joined the revolt.  The rebel party was everywhere increased by all who had joined the young king, “not because they thought his the juster cause,” but in fierce