then known in England, and that the coronation robes of the
young king and queen cost eighty-seven pounds ten shillings
and fourpence, money of that age.]

Though it had been the constant practice of France, ever since the
accession of the Capetian line, to crown the son during the lifetime
of the father without conferring on him any present participation of
royalty; Lewis persuaded his son-in-law, that, by this ceremony, which
in those ages was deemed so important, he had acquired a title to
sovereignty, and that the king could not, without injustice, exclude
him from immediate possession of the whole, or at least a part of his
dominions. In consequence of these extravagant ideas, young Henry,
on his return, desired the king to resign to him either the crown of
England or the duchy of Normandy; discovered great discontent on the
refusal; spake in the most undutiful terms of his father; and soon
after, in concert with Lewis, made his escape to Paris, where he was
protected and supported by that monarch.

While Henry was alarmed at this incident, and had the prospect of
dangerous intrigues, or even of a war, which, whether successful or
not, must be extremely calamitous and disagreeable to him, he received
intelligence of new misfortunes, which must have affected him in the
most sensible manner. Queen Eleanor, who had disgusted her first husband
by her gallantries, was no less offensive to her second by her jealousy;
and after this manner carried to extremity, in the different periods of
her life, every circumstance of female weakness. She communicated her
discontents against Henry to her two younger sons, Geoffrey and Richard;
persuaded them that they were also entitled to present possession of the
territories assigned to them; engaged them to fly secretly to the court
of France; and was meditating herself an escape to the same court, and
had even put on man's apparel for that purpose, when she was seized by
orders from her husband, and thrown into confinement. Thus Europe saw
with astonishment the best and most indulgent of parents at war with
his whole family; three boys, scarcely arrived at the age of puberty,
require a great monarch, in the full vigor of his age and height of his
reputation, to dethrone himself in their favor; and several princes not
ashamed to support them in these unnatural and absurd pretensions.

Henry, reduced to this perilous and disagreeable situation, had recourse
to the cour