cester, were inclined to make some resistance to
this salutary measure; but the approach of the king with his forces soon
obliged them to submit.

{1156.} Everything being restored to full tranquillity in England, Henry
went abroad in order to oppose the attempts of his brother Geoffrey,
who, during his absence, had made an incursion into Anjou and Maine,
{1157.} had advanced some pretensions to those provinces, and had got
possession of a considerable part of them. On the king's appearance, the
people returned to their allegiance; and Geoffrey, resigning his claim
for an annual pension of a thousand pounds, departed and took possession
of the county of Nantz, which the inhabitants, who had expelled Count
Iloel, their prince, had put into his hands. Henry returned to England
the following year: the incursions of the Welsh then provoked him to
make an invasion upon them; where the natural fastnesses of the country
occasioned him great difficulties, and even brought him into danger.
His vanguard, being engaged in a narrow pass, was put to rout: Henry de
Essex, the hereditary standard-bearer, seized with a panic, threw down
the standard, took to flight, and exclaimed that the king was slain; and
had not the prince immediately appeared in person, and led on his troops
with great gallantry, the consequences might have proved fatal to the
whole army. For this misbehavior, Essex was afterwards accused of felony
by Robert de Montfort; was vanquished in single combat; his estate was
confiscated; and he himself was thrust into a convent. The submissions
of the Welsh procured them an accommodation with England.

{1158.} The martial disposition of the princes in that age engaged them
to head their own armies in every enterprise, even the most frivolous;
and their feeble authority made it commonly impracticable for them to
delegate, on occasion, the command to their generals. Geoffrey, the
king's brother, died soon after he had acquired possession of Nantz;
though he had no other title to that county than the voluntary
submission or election of the inhabitants two years before, Henry laid
claim to the territory as devolved to him by hereditary right, and he
went over to support his pretensions by force of arms. Conan, duke or
earl of Brittany (for these titles are given indifferently by historians
to those princes) pretended that Nantz had been lately separated by
rebellion from his principality, to which of right it belonged; and