eater advantages on the side of the
vassal: and when England was added to so many provinces, the French king
had reason to apprehend, from this conjuncture, some great disaster to
himself and to his family. But, in reality, it was this circumstance,
which appeared so formidable, that saved the Capetian race, and, by
its consequences, exalted them to that pitch of grandeur which they at
present enjoy.

The limited authority of the prince in the feudal constitutions,
prevented the king of England from employing with advantage the force
of so many states which were subjected to his government; and these
different members, disjoined in situation, and disagreeing in laws,
language, and manners, were never thoroughly cemented into one monarchy.
He soon became, both from his distant place of residence and from
the incompatibility of interests, a kind of foreigner to his French
dominions; and his subjects on the continent considered their allegiance
as more naturally due to their superior lord, who lived in their
neighborhood, and who was acknowledged to be the supreme head of their
nation. He was always at hand to invade them; their immediate lord was
often at too great a distance to protect them; and any disorder in any
part of his dispersed dominions gave advantages against him The other
powerful vassals of the French crown were rather pleased to see the
expulsion of the English, and were not affected with that jealousy which
would have arisen from the oppression of a co-vassal who was of the same
rank with themselves. By this means, the king of France found it more
easy to conquer those numerous provinces from England than to subdue a
duke of Normandy or Guienne, a count of Anjou, Maine, or Poietou.
And after reducing such extensive territories, which immediately
incorporated with the body of the monarchy, he found greater facility in
uniting to the crown the other great fiefs which still remained separate
and independent.

But as these important consequences could not be foreseen by human
wisdom, the king of France remarked with terror the rising grandeur of
the house of Anjou or Plantagenet; and in order to retard its progress,
he had ever maintained a strict union with Stephen, and had endeavored
to support the tottering fortunes of that bold usurper. But after this
prince's death, it was too late to think of opposing the succession of
Henry, or preventing the performance of those stipulations which, with
the unanimous