party.  But this was mere excuse.  The union of La Marche and Angouleme largely increased Count Hugh’s power, and he showed perfect impartiality in pursuing his own interests by holding a balance between his stepson and the King of France.  Against him neither Savary nor the Poitevin communes could contend with success.  The anarchy of Poitou was an irresistible temptation to Louis VII.  “Know you,” he wrote to the men of Limoges, “that John, king of England, was deprived by the unanimous judgment of his peers of all the lands which he held of our father Philip.  We have now received in inheritance all our father’s rights, and require you to perform the service that you owe us.”  While the English government weakly negotiated for the prolongation of the truce, and for the pope’s intervention, Louis concluded treaties with the Poitevin barons, and made ready an army to conquer his inheritance.  Foremost among his local partisans appeared Henry’s stepfather.

The French army met at Tours on June 24, 1224, and marched through Thouars to La Rochelle, the strongest of the Poitevin towns, and the most devoted to England.  On the way Louis forced Savary de Mauleon to yield up Niort, and to promise to defend no other place than La Rochelle, before which city he sat down on July 15.  At first Savary resisted vigorously.  The siege of Bedford, however, prevented the despatch of effective help from England, and Savary was perhaps already secretly won over by Louis.  Be this as it may, the town surrendered on August 3, and with it went all Aquitaine north of the Dordogne.  Savary took service with the conqueror, and was made warden of La Rochelle and of the adjacent coasts, while Lusignan received the reward of his treachery in a grant of the Isle of Oleron.  When Louis returned to the north, the Count of La Marche undertook the conquest of Gascony.  He soon made himself master of St. Emilion, and of the whole of Perigord.  The surrender of La Reole opened up the passage of the Garonne, and the capture of Bazas gave the French a foothold to the south of that river.  Only the people of Bordeaux showed any spirit in resisting Hugh.  But their resistance proved sufficient, and he withdrew baffled before their walls.

The easiness of Louis’ conquests showed their instability.  “I am sure,” wrote one of Henry’s officers, “that you can easily recover all that you have lost, if you send speedy succour to these regions.”  After the capture of Bedford, Hubert undertook the recovery of Poitou and the defence of Gascony.  Henry’s younger brother Richard, a youth of sixteen, was appointed Earl of Cornwall and Count of Poitou, dubbed knight by his brother, and put in nominal command of the expedition despatched to Gascony in March, 1225.  His experienced uncle, William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, and Philip of Aubigny, were sent with him as his chief counsellors.  Received with open arms by Bordeaux, he boasted on May 2 that he had conquered all Gascony, save La Reole, and had received