d his son Henry, then no more than sixteen
years old. But the young king, even on the day of his coronation,
discovered an haughtiness which threatened not to content itself with
the share of authority to which the inexperience of his youth and the
nature of a provisional crown confined him. The name of a king
continually reminded him that he only possessed the name. The King of
France, whose daughter he had espoused, fomented a discontent which grew
with his years. Geoffrey, who had married the heiress of Bretagne, on
the death of her father claimed to no purpose the entire sovereignty of
his wife's inheritance, which Henry, under a pretence of guardianship to
a son of full age, still retained in his hands. Richard had not the same
plausible pretences, but he had yet greater ambition. He contended for
the Duchy of Guienne before his mother's death, which, alone could give
him the color of a title to it. The queen, his mother, hurried on by her
own unquiet spirit, or, as some think, stimulated by jealousy,
encouraged their rebellion against her husband. The King of France, who
moved all the other engines, engaged the King of Scotland, the Earl of
Flanders, then a powerful prince, the Earl of Blois, and the Earl of
Boulogne in the conspiracy. The barons in Bretagne, in Guienne, and even
in England, were ready to take up arms in the same cause; whether it was
that they perceived the uniform plan the king had pursued in order to
their reduction, or were solely instigated by the natural fierceness and
levity of their minds, fond of every dangerous novelty. The historians
of that time seldom afford us a tolerable insight into the causes of the
transactions they relate; but whatever were the causes of so
extraordinary a conspiracy, it was not discovered until the moment it
was ready for execution. The first token of it appeared in the young
king's demand to have either England or Normandy given up to him. The
refusal of this demand served as a signal to all parties to put
themselves in motion. The younger Henry fled into France; Louis entered
Normandy with a vast army; the barons of Bretagne under Geoffrey, and
those of Guienne under Richard, rose in arms; the King of Scotland
pierced into England; and the Earl of Leicester, at the head of fourteen
thousand Flemings, landed in Suffolk.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1173]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1174]

It was on this trying occasion that Henry displayed a greatness
independent of all fortune.