randizement each of himself
and his own family, that, notwithstanding this pernicious concession,
which must have produced the ruin of the kingdom, the greater part of
them had conspired to make an insurrection, and to support the prince's
pretensions.

[* Hoveden, p. 539.]

[** Hoveden, p. 536. Brompton, p. 1085.]

[*** Hoveden, p. 536.]

[**** Hoveden, p. 533. Brompton, p. 1084. Gal.
Neubr. p. 508.]

The king's principal resource lay in the church and the bishops with
whom he was now in perfect agreement; whether that the decency of their
character made them ashamed of supporting so unnatural a rebellion, or
that they were entirely satisfied with Henry's atonement for the murder
of Becket and for his former invasion of ecclesiastical immunities. That
prince, however, had resigned none of the essential rights of his crown
in the accommodation: he maintained still the same prudent jealousy of
the court of Rome; admitted no legate into England, without his swearing
to attempt nothing against the royal prerogatives; and he had even
obliged the monks of Canterbury, who pretended to a free election on the
vacancy made by the death of Becket, to choose Roger, prior of Dover, in
the place of that turbulent prelate.[*]

[* Hoveden, p. 537.]

The king of Scotland made an irruption into Northumberland, and
committed great devastations; but being opposed by Richard de Lucy, whom
Henry had left guardian of the realm, he retreated into his own country,
and agreed to a cessation of arms. This truce enabled the guardian to
march southwards with his army, in order to oppose an invasion which
the earl of Leicester, at the head of a great body of Flemings, had made
upon Suffolk. The Flemings had been joined by Hugh Bigod, who made them
masters of his castle of Framlingham; and marching into the heart of the
kingdom, where they hoped to be supported by Leicester's vassals, they
were met by Lucy, who, assisted by Humphry Bohun, the constable, and the
earls of Arundel, Glocester, and Cornwall, had advanced to Farnham with
a less numerous, but braver army to oppose them. The Flemings, who were
mostly weavers and artificers, (for manufactures were now beginning to
be established in Flanders,) were broken in an instant, ten thousand of
them were put to the sword, the earl of Leicester was taken prisoner,
and the remains of the invaders were glad to compound for a safe retreat
into their own country.

{