The death of the prince gave occasion to some new troubles in Normandy; for the Earls of Meulant and Evreux, Hugh de Montfort, and other associates, began to raise insurrections there, which were thought to be privately fomented by the French King, out of enmity to King Henry, and in favour of William the son of Robert, to whom the Earl of Anjou had lately given his daughter in marriage.  But William of Tankerville, the King’s lieutenant in Normandy, surprising the enemy’s forces by an ambush, entirely routed them, took both the earls prisoners, and sent one of them (Meulant) to his master; but the Count d’Evreux made his escape.

  1126.

King Henry having now lost hope of issue by his new Queen, brought with him, on his return to England, his daughter Maud, who by the Emperor’s death had been lately left a widow and childless; and in a Parliament or general assembly which he had summoned at Windsor, he caused the crown to be settled on her and her children, and made all his nobles take a solemn oath to defend her title.  This was performed by none with so much forwardness as Stephen Earl of Boulogne, who was observed to shew a more than ordinary zeal in the matter.  This young lord was the King’s nephew, being second son of the Earl of Blois by Adela the Conqueror’s daughter:  he was in high favour with the King his uncle, who had married him to the daughter and heiress of the Earl of Boulogne, given him great possessions in England, and made him indeed too powerful for a subject.

The King having thus fixed the succession of the crown in his daughter by an Act of Settlement and an oath of fealty, looked about to provide her with a second husband, and at length determined his choice in Geoffrey Plantagenet Earl of Anjou, the son of Fulk lately deceased.

This prince, whose dominions confined on France and Normandy, was usually courted for an ally by both Kings in their several quarrels; but having little faith or honour, he never scrupled to change sides as often as he saw or conceived it for his advantage.  After the great victory over the French, he closed in with King Henry, and gave his daughter to the young prince William; yet at the same time, by the private encouragement of Louis, he prevailed on the King of England to be easy in the conditions of a peace.  Upon the unfortunate loss of the prince, and the troubles in Normandy thereupon, he fell again from the King, gave his other daughter to William the son of Robert, and struck up with France to take that prince again into protection.  But dying soon after, and leaving his son Geoffrey to succeed in that earldom, the King was of opinion he could not anywhere bestow his daughter with more advantage, both for the security and enlargement of his dominions, than by giving her to this earl; by which marriage Anjou would become an acquisition to Normandy, and this be a more equal match to so formidable a neighbour as France.  In a short time the marriage was concluded; and this Earl Geoffrey had the honour to introduce into the royal family of England the surname of Plantagenet, borne by so many succeeding Kings, which began with Henry II. who was the eldest son of this marriage.