civil wars, to make further advances in her usurpations; and appeals to
the pope, which had always been strictly prohibited by the English laws,
became now common in every ecclesiastical controversy.

[* W. Malms, p. 180., M. Paris, p. 51 Hagul, p. 312., H.
Hunting. p. 395.]

CHAPTER VIII.

[Illustration: 100.jpg HENRY II.]

HENRY II.

{1154.} The extensive confederacies, by which the European potentates
are now at once united and set in opposition to each other, and which,
though they are apt to diffuse the least spark of dissension throughout
the whole, are at least attended with this advantage, that they prevent
any violent revolutions or conquests in particular states, were totally
unknown in ancient ages; and the theory of foreign politics in each
kingdom formed a speculation much less complicated and involved than at
present. Commerce had not yet bound together the most distant nations
in so close a chain: wars, finished in one campaign, and often in one
battle, were little affected by the movements of remote states: the
imperfect communication among the kingdoms, and their ignorance of each
other's situation, made it impracticable for a great number of them to
combine in one object or effort: and above all, the turbulent spirit and
independent situation of the barons or great vassals in each state, gave
so much occupation to the sovereign, that he was obliged to confine his
attention chiefly to his own state and his own system of government,
and was more indifferent about what passed among his neighbors. Religion
alone, not politics, carried abroad the views of princes, while it
either fixed their thoughts on the Holy Land, whose conquest and defence
was deemed a point of common honor and interest, or engaged them in
intrigues with the Roman pontiff, to whom they had yielded the direction
of ecclesiastical affairs, and who was every day assuming more authority
than they were willing to allow him.

Before the conquest of England by the duke of Normandy, this island
was as much separated from the rest of the world in politics as in
situation; and except from the inroads of the Danish pirates, the
English, happily confined at home, had neither enemies nor allies on the
continent. The foreign dominions of William connected them with the king
and great vassals of France; and while the opposite pretensions of
the pope and emperor in Italy produced a continual intercourse between
German