ouraine, and part of Poictou;[**] and in this manner the
French crown, during the reign of one able and active prince, received
such an accession of power and grandeur, as, in the ordinary course of
things, it would have required several ages to attain.

John, on his arrival in England, that he might cover the disgrace of his
own conduct, exclaimed loudly against his barons, who, he pretended, had
deserted his standard in Normandy; and he arbitrarily extorted from them
a seventh of all their movables, as a punishment for the offence.[***]

[* Trivet, p. 147. Ypod. Neust. p. 469.]

[** Trivet, p 149]

[*** M. Paris, p. 146. M. West. p. 265.]

Soon after he forced them to grant him a scutage of two marks and a half
on each knights' fee for an expedition into Normandy; but he did not
attempt to execute the service for which he pretended to exact it. Next
year, he summoned all the barons of his realm to attend him on this
foreign expedition, and collected ships from all the seaports; but
meeting with opposition from some of his ministers, and abandoning
his design, he dismissed both fleet and army, and then renewed his
exclamations against the barons for deserting him. He next put to sea
with a small army, and his subjects believed that he was resolved to
expose himself to the utmost hazard for the defence and recovery of his
dominions; but they were surprised, after a few days, to see him
return again into harbor, without attempting anything. {1206.} In the
subsequent season, he had the courage to carry his hostile measures
a step farther. Gui de Thouars, who governed Brittany, jealous of the
rapid progress made by his ally, the French king, promised to join the
king of England with all his forces; and John ventured abroad with a
considerable army, and landed at Rochelle. He marched to Angers, which
he took and reduced to ashes. But the approach of Philip with an army
threw him into a panic; and he immediately made proposals for peace, and
fixed a place of interview with his enemy; but instead of keeping
this engagement, he stole off with his army, embarked at Rochelle,
and returned, loaded with new shame and disgrace, into England. The
mediation of the pope procured him at last a truce for two years
with the French monarch;[*] almost all the transmarine provinces
were ravished from him; and his English barons, though harassed with
arbitrary taxes and fruitless expeditions, saw themselves and their
coun