and laid siege to Rouen.  Henry recruited his army with a body of auxiliary Welsh, arrived at Rouen with his usual expedition, raised the siege, and drove the King of France quite out of Normandy.  It was then that he agreed to an accommodation, and in the terms of peace, which he dictated in the midst of victory to his sons, his subjects, and his enemies, there was seen on one hand the tenderness of a father, and on the other the moderation of a wise man, not insensible of the mutability of fortune.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 1176]

The war which threatened his ruin being so happily ended, the greatness of the danger served only to enhance his glory; whilst he saw the King of France humbled, the Flemings defeated, the King of Scotland a prisoner, and his sons and subjects reduced to the bounds of their duty.  He employed this interval of peace to secure its continuance, and to prevent a return of the like evils; for which reason he made many reforms in the laws and polity of his dominions.  He instituted itinerant justices, to weaken the power of the great barons, and even of the sheriffs, who were hardly more obedient,—­an institution which, with great public advantages, has remained to our times.  In the spirit of the same policy he armed the whole body of the people:  the English commonalty had been in a manner disarmed ever since the Conquest.  In this regulation we may probably trace the origin of the militia, which, being under the orders of the crown rather in a political than a feudal respect, were judged more to be relied on than the soldiers of tenure, to whose pride and power they might prove a sort of counterpoise.  Amidst these changes the affairs of the clergy remained untouched.  The king had experienced how dangerous it was to attempt removing foundations so deeply laid both in strength and opinion.  He therefore wisely aimed at acquiring the favor of that body, and turning to his own advantage a power he should in vain attempt to overthrow, but which he might set up against another power, which it was equally his interest to reduce.

Though these measures were taken with the greatest judgment, and seemed to promise a peaceful evening to his reign, the seeds of rebellion remained still at home, and the dispositions that nourished them were rather increased abroad.  The parental authority, respectable at all times, ought to have the greatest force in times when the manners are rude and the laws imperfect.  At that time Europe had not emerged out of barbarism, yet this great natural bond of society was extremely weak.  The number of foreign obligations and duties almost dissolved the family obligations.  From the moment a young man was knighted, so far as related to his father, he became absolute master of his own conduct; but he contracted at the same time a sort of filial relation with the person who had knighted him.  These various principles of duty distracted one another.  The custom which then prevailed, of bestowing lands and jurisdictions, under