ke
down that unity of authority, which had, been hitherto maintained in
the English realm, and entered into open war with his King.

Henry II was, like most of the sovereigns of that age, above all
things a warrior; you could see by his stride that he spent his days
on horseback; and he was an indefatigable hunter. But yet he found
time besides for study; he took pleasure in solving, in the company of
scholars, the difficulties of the theologico-philosophical problems
which then largely occupied men's minds; there is no doubt that he
also fully understood these politico-ecclesiastical questions. He was
by no means a good husband, rather the contrary, but, in other things,
he could control himself; he was moderate in eating and drinking.
Success did not make him overweening, but all the more prudent:[26]
ill-success found him resolute; yet it was remarked that he was more
severe in success, milder in adversity. If contradicted, he showed all
the excitability of the Southern French nature; he passed from
promises to threats, from flatteries to outbursts of wrath, until he
met with compliance. His administration at home witnesses to a noble
conception of his mission and to a practical understanding; from his
lion-like visage shone forth a pair of quiet eyes, but how suddenly
did they flame up with wild fire, if the passion was roused that
slumbered in the depths of his soul! It was the passion of unlimited
power; an ambition for which, as he once said, the world appeared to
be too small. He never forgave an opponent; he never reconciled
himself with an enemy or took him again into favour.

He would of himself have been much inclined to abandon Alexander III,
and attach himself to the Pope set up by the Emperor: his ambassadors
took part in a German diet at which the most extreme steps were
approved of. But Henry was not sufficiently master of his clergy nor,
above all, of his people for this; the solemn curse of Thomas Becket
wrought on men from far away. Was there really any foundation for what
men then said, that the King thought it better that his foe should be
in the country rather than out of it? An apparent reconciliation was
brought about, which, however, left the main questions undecided, each
side only consenting generally to a peace with the other. Becket did
not allow himself to be hindered by it, on his return to England, from
excommunicating leading ecclesiastics who had supported the King's
party. But at th