Henry, however, was absolute master of the whole central administration of the realm.  Moreover, by his decree of the year before he had set over every shire a sheriff who was wholly under his own control, trained in his court, pledged to his obedience, and who had firm hold of the courts, the local forces, and the finances.  The king now hastened to appoint bishops whom he could trust to the vacant sees.  Geoffrey, an illegitimate son who had been born to him very early, probably about the time when he visited England to receive knighthood, was sent to Lincoln; and friends of the king were consecrated to Winchester, Ely, Bath, Hereford, and Chichester.  Prior Richard of Dover, a man “laudably inoffensive who prudently kept within his own sphere,” was made Archbishop of Canterbury.  Richard de Lucy remained in charge of the whole kingdom as justiciar.  The towns and trading classes were steadfast in loyalty, and the baronage was again driven, as it had been before, to depend on foreign mercenaries.

War first broke out in France in the early summer of 1173.  Normandy and Anjou were badly defended, and their nobles were already half in revolt, while the forces of France, Flanders, Boulogne, Chartres, Champagne, Poitou, and Britanny were allied against Henry.  The counts of Flanders and Boulogne invaded Normandy from the north-east, and the traitor Count of Aumale, the guardian of the Norman border, gave into their hands his castles and lands.  Louis and Henry’s sons besieged Verneuil in the south-west.  To westward the Earl of Chester and Ralph of Fougeres organized a rising in Britanny.  In “extreme perplexity,” utterly unable to meet his enemies in the field, Henry could only fortify his frontier, and hastily recall the garrison which he had left in Ireland, while he poured out his treasure in gathering an army of hired soldiers.  Meanwhile he himself waited at Rouen, “that he might be seen by all the people, bearing with an even mind whatever happened, hunting oftener than usual, showing himself with a cheerful face to all who came, answering patiently those who wished to gain anything from him; while those whom he had nourished from days of childhood, those whom he had knighted, those who had been his servants and his most familiar counsellors, night by night stole away from him, expecting his speedy destruction and thinking the dominion of his son at once about to be established.”  Never did the kings show such resource and courage as in the campaign that followed.  The Count of Boulogne was killed in battle, and the invading army in the north-east hesitated at the unlucky omen and fell back.  Instantly Henry seized his opportunity.  He rode at full speed to Verneuil with his army, a hastily collected mob of chance soldiers so dissatisfied and divided in allegiance that he dared not risk a battle.  An audacious boast saved the crafty king.  “With a fierce countenance and terrible voice” he cried to the French messengers who had hurried out to see if the