Poitou by marriage, and after the anarchy
of Stephen's reign in England had passed over, the Angevin Empire
began from the Pyrenees to the Firth of Forth. At ten years old the
second Henry had been recognised by Rouen as her duke, and it can be
easily understood that the citizens used every advantage it was
possible to win from the years of his minority, and from the days of
uncertain authority before it. Already under Henri Beauclerc the
municipality of Rouen had obtained ampler recognition than before. Its
population increased accordingly, and was augmented by the extension
of freedom to a considerable number of serfs. The bounds of the city
itself were enlarged, and from the fact that a fire is recorded (in
November 1131) to have destroyed the Hotel de Ville, near the Porte
Massacre, in the Rue de la Grosse Horloge, we may gather that the
municipality, whose rights in property were recognised, had been able
to secure a common meeting-place for the discussion of its civic
business. By 1150 these meetings had resulted in a league, definitely
made by the burgesses, to defend their rights against all feudal
encroachments, a league which very nearly deserves that name of
"Commune" at last, which was apparently first given in Normandy to Eu
and to St. Quentin. Geoffrey Plantagenet, during his government of the
Duchy for his son, had recognised the strength of this civic movement,
by confirming the privileges of the citizens, and favouring the growth
of this industrial corporation. In May of that same year the first law
court of the town, as opposed to feudal or ecclesiastical justice, was
also established, and called the Vicomte de l'Eau. It had the charge
of all civil and criminal cases by river and by land, and kept the
standard of the weights and measures. Its importance may be judged
from the fact that in the hands of the merchants of Rouen was the
monopoly of all wines sent by Seine or sea towards the north. The
Confrerie of these "Marchands de l'eau" had been accorded a special
port, known as Dunegate, at Thames' mouth, by Edward the Confessor,
and their monopoly extended also to the whole trade between Normandy
and Ireland, a trade they kept until the reign of Philip Augustus.

Other corporations were also rapidly increasing in strength and
importance. The tanners, whose especial church was St. Martin Sur
Renelle, received the charter of their privileges from Henry II. of
England. The "savetiers" and "cordonniers" e