y opened the eyes of the
king of England, and fully convinced him of the perfidy of his son, and
his secret alliance with Philip, of which he had before only entertained
some suspicion. The king of France required that Richard should be
crowned king of England in the lifetime of his father, should be
invested in all his transmarine dominions, and should immediately
espouse Alice, Philip's sister, to whom he had been formerly affianced,
and who had already been conducted into England. Henry had experienced
such fatal effects, both from the crowning of his eldest son, and from
that prince's alliance with the royal family of France, that he rejected
these terms; and Richard, in con sequence of his secret agreement with
Philip, immediately revolted from him, did homage to the king of France
for all the dominions which Henry held of that crown, and received the
investitures, as if he had already been the lawful possessor. Several
historians assert, that Henry himself had become enamored of young
Alice, and mention this as an additional reason for his refusing these
conditions; but he had so many other just and equitable motives for
his conduct, that it is superfluous to assign a cause, which the great
prudence and advanced age of that monarch render somewhat improbable.

Cardinal Albano, the pope's legate, displeased with these increasing
obstacles to the crusade, excommunicated Richard, as the chief spring
of discord; but the sentence of excommunication, which, when it was
properly prepared and was zealously supported by the clergy, had often
great influence in that age, proved entirely ineffectual in the present
case. The chief barons of Poictou, Guienne, Normandy, and Anjou, being
attached to the young prince, and finding that he had now received the
investiture from their superior lord, declared for him, and made inroads
into the territories of such as still adhered to the king. Henry,
disquieted by the daily revolts of his mutinous subjects, and dreading
still worse effects from their turbulent disposition, had again recourse
to papal authority; and engaged the cardinal Anagni, who had succeeded
Albano in the legateship, to threaten Philip with laying an interdict
on all his dominions. But Philip, who was a prince of great vigor and
capacity, despised the menace, and told Anagni, that it belonged not to
the pope to interpose in the temporal disputes of princes, much less in
those between him and his rebellious vassal. He