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Hen. II. Naval Expeditions, &c, of the English, Book t

CDH A P. V.

Naval Expeditions and Transadhons of the English; with some otherOccurrences, during the Reign of King Henry II.

TEPHENf dying in OSlober1154- Henry, surnamed Planta-genet, (a) Duke of Normandy ,succeeded to the Crown, by theName of Henry II, without any Op-position, pursuant to a Treaty madewith the late King, {b'j the Year be-fore, with the Content of the Lords Spi-ritual and Temporal : NotwithstandingPrince William, Stephen's Son, was liv-ing, (c) and wanted not a considerableInterest ; and tho’ he did not come toEngland 'till six Weeks after Stephen'sDeath. This Echard thinks was owingto the Miseries of the late Civil Wars,which had conquered the Spirit of Am-bition in the Land. He was crowned,together with his Queen, Eleanor, onTbe'corona- t ^ ie nineteenth Day of December, (or,tionof Hen. as Gervase and Hoveden fay Sundayry II. and before Christmas') a few Days after hishts Queen. yy 1T j va ]. Being (fays Diceto) electedby all, and anointed King by Theobald,Archbishop of Canterbury, (ab omnibuseleclus & in Regem undlus eft a, &c.)it 56. Henrv, having settled all Things inHenry goes England to his Mind, crossed the Sea,pj™' this Year, to do Homage to theEchard. King of France, for all the ProvincesHolinslaead. p e possessed in that Kingdom; And, atDiceto? d ‘ the same Time, to recover the EarldomM. Paris, of Anjou, which had been seized byhis Brother Geoffrey, by Virtue of hisReturns. Father’s Will. He returned, the sameYear, after having driven his Brother tothe Necessity of leaving the Country,and retiring, to Nantes, contented withan Annuity of a Thousand Pounds En-glijh. (d)

H 54 -

Diceto.

Gervase.

Brompton.

Echard.

Gervase.

In the Year 1157, King Asiwy fit- 1 ^ 7 -ted out a Fleet to invade the Welch by t f d Fl ffJffSea, to prevent the Incursions they had gai fp t j jemade into England ; But they chose to Welch,submit. Brom P ton<

GnoFFREy, the King’s Brother, dy- n 59 -ing this Year, Henry passed over intoNormandy ; with a large Fleet and Ar- He . n ss ; l e .my, to claim, as Heir to his Brother, t0 F rance .the Earldom of Nantz, which hadbeen seized by the Duke of Bretagne :

And he not only succeeded in his En-terprize, but made a Treaty with thatDuke, for the Marriage of his SonGeoffrey, then in the Cradle, with Con -fiance, the Duke’s Daughter, by whichMarriage Geoffrey afterwards became Argentre.Duke of Bretagne. The same Year, Gervase.Henry marched with a considerable y^eto. 31 "Force (e) towards Languedoc, tookCahors in his Way, and fate down, tho’without Success, before Thoulouse, onwhich Earldom he had a Pretence ofRight. Henry did not return to Eng-land till the Year 1163. But then it n6z.was with great Satisfaction, Honour and g r etur» 5Reputation. Historians differ in th Q with greatassigning particular Dates to these and Reputation •some other Events, which happenedwithin the Compass of these fourYears.

I n this Year, King Henry went into 1 >65-Normandy, in Lent-, but History does Holinlh-not mention upon what Account, andhe returned the same Year to England.

The next Year the King’s youngestSon, John, who afterwards obtained hern.the Crown of England, was born: And M. WeP'’

the

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(a) That is Riant a Genefla, or Broom-Elant,a Name one of his Ancestors had taken at Jerusa-lem, where he underwent the Penuance of beingseverely scourged with that Plant.

(b) He was the eldest Son of Matilda, the\/tp ’ Empress, by the Earl of Anjou, whom she mar-M- Fans. r i ec t after the Emperour’s Death ; and Matilda

being the Gran daughter of Queen Margaret, theSister of Edgar Atheling , in him the Royal Lineof the old English Saxons was restored. DicetoDirPto g^es his Genealogy from Noah. He was not on-ly the nearest Heir to the Crown, after his Mo-ther’s Decease, but was also the most powerfulMonarch that had hitherto sate upon the EnglishThrone; being, besides England and Normandy,possessed of Anjou, Gttienne, Aquitain and Poic-fou.

(c) The Treaty sets forth: That William, Rymer’sffSon of Stephen, had done Homage to Henry, who, dera, T-on his Part, engaged to leave 11 Uliam all the p. 13.Estate which Stephen was possessed of before he

was King, and to shew him other Favours.

(d) Hoveden places this Voyage in 1155, Hoveden-and the King’s Return in 1156.

( e ) Our Histories do not mention wherein Gervase-this Force consisted, but it must have been consi-derable ; For Gervase fays, he was accompanied by

the King of Scotland , one of the Kings of Wales,and all the Earls and Barons of England , Nor-mandy, Aquitain , Anjou, Gafccgne , &c. and he-raised for this Expedition a Scutage, which a-mounted to One Hundred and eighty ThousandPounds, a very large Sum in those Days.