of his retinue, with ten knights and seventy archers; and receiving permission shortly after for himself, he landed with two hundred horse and an hundred archers. All these English forces, now joining together, became irresistible; and though the whole number did not amount to a thousand, yet, such was the barbarous state of the natives, that they were every where put to the rout. The city of Waterford quickly surrendered; Dublin was taken by assault; and Strongbow, soon after marrying Eva according to treaty, became master of the kingdom of Leinster upon Dermot's decease.

The island being thus in a manner wholly subdued, for nothing was capable of opposing the further progress of the English arms, Henry became jealous of their success, and was willing to share in person those honours, which the adventurers had already secured. He therefore shortly after, landed in Ireland at the head of five hundred knights and some soldiers; not so much to conquer a disputed territory, as to take possession of a subject kingdom. In his progress through the country, he received the homage of the petty chieftans as he went along, and left most of them in possession of their ancient territories. In a place so uncultivated and so ill peopled, there was still land enough to satisfy the adventurers who had followed him. Strongbow was made senechal of Ireland, Hugh de Lacy was made governor of Dublin, and John de Courcy received a patent for conquering the provinces of Ulster, which had as yet remained unsubdued. The Irish bishops very gladly admitted the English, as they expected from their superior civilization, a greater degree of reverence and respect. Pope Adrian, who had, in the beginning, encouraged Henry to subdue the Irish, by his bull, granting him the kingdom, now confirmed him in his conquest, and the kings of England were ac

knowledged as lords over Ireland for ever. Thus, after a trifling effort, in which very little money was expended, and little blood shed, that beautiful island became an appendage to the English crown, and as such it has ever since continued, with unshaken fidelity.

The joy which this conquest diffused was very great; and Henry seemed now to have attained the summit of his utmost wishes. He was now undisputed monarch of the greatest domain in Europe; father of a numerous progeny, that gave both lustre and authority to his crown; victorious over all his enemies, and chearfully obeyed by all his subjects. Henry, his eldest son, had been anointed king, and was acknowledged as undoubted successor; Richard, his second son, was invested with the dutchy of Guienne and Poitou; Geoffry, his third son, inherited in right of his wife, the dutchy of Britany and John, his youngest, was designed as king, in Ireland. Such was the flattering prospect. of grandeur before him; but such is the instability of human happiness, that this very exaltation of his family, proved the means of embittering his future life and disturbing his government.

Among the few vices ascribed to this monarch, unlimited gallantry was one. Queen Eleanor, whom he had married from motives of ambition, and who had been divorced from her former royal consort for her incontinence, was long become disagreeable to Henry; and he sought in others those satisfactions he could not find with her. Amor, the number of his mistresses we have the name of Fair Rosamond, whose personal charms, and whose death, make so conspicuous a figure in the romances and the ballads of the time. It is true, that the severity of criticism has rejected most of these accounts as fabulous; but even well-known fables, when much celebrated, make a part of the history,

at least of the manners of the age. Rosamond Clifford is said to have been the most beautiful woman that was ever seen in England, if what romances and poets assert be trne. Henry loved her with a long and faithful attachment; and in order to secure her from the resentmentof his queen, who, from having been formerly incontinent herself, new became jealous of his incontinence, he concealed her in a labyrinth in Woodstock Park, where he passed in her company his hours of vacancy and pleasure. How long this secret intercourse continued is not told us; but it was not so closely concealed but that it came to the queen's knowledge, who, as the accounts add, being guided by a clew of silk to her fair rival's retreat, obliged her, by holding a drawn dagger to her breast, to swallow poison. Whatever may be the veracity of this story, certain it is, that this haughty woman, though formerly offensive by her own gallantries, was now no less so by her jealousy; and she it was who first sowed the seeds of dissension between the king and his children.

Young Henry was taught to believe himself injured; when upon being crowned as partner in the kingdom, he was not admitted into a share of the administration. This prince had, from the beginning, shewn a degree of pride that seems to have been hereditary to all the Norman succession; when the ceremony of his coronation was performing, the king, willing to give it all the splendour possible, waited upon him at table; and while he offered him the cup, observed that no prince ever before had been so magnificently attended. There is nothing very extraordinary, replied the young prince, in seeing the son of a count serving the son of a king. From this instance, nothing seemed great enough to gratify his ambition; and he took the first opportunity to assert his aspiring pretensions.

The discontent of young Henry was soon followed by that of Geoffry and Richard, whom the queen persuaded to assert their title to the territories assigned them; and upon the king's refusing their undutiful demands, they all fled secretly to the court of France, where Lewis, who was instrumental in encreasing their disobedience, gave them countenance and protection. Queen Eleanor herself was meditating an escape to the same court, and had put on man's apparel for that purpose, when she was seized by the king's order and put into confinement. Thus Henry saw all his long perspective of future happiness totally clouded; his sons, scarce yet arrived at manhood, eager to share the spoils of their father's possessions; his queen warmly encouraging those undutiful princes in their rebellion, and many potentates of Europe not ashamed to lend them assistance to support their pretensions, Nor were his prospects much more pleasing when he looked among his subjects: his licentious barons, disgusted with a vigilant government, desired to be governed by princes whom they could flatter or intimidate: the clergy had not yet forgot Becket's death; and the people considered him as a saint and a martyr. In this universal disaffection, Henry supported that intrepidity which he had shewn through life, and prepared for a contest from which he could expect to reap neither profit nor glory. Twenty thousand mercenary soldiers, joined to some troops which he brought over from Ireland, and a few barons of approved fidelity, formed the sole force with which he proposed to resist his opponents.

It was not long before the young princes had sufficient influence upon the continent to raise a powerful confederacy in their favour. Beside the king of France, Philip count of Flandess, Matthew count of Boulogne, Theobald, count of Blois,

A. D.
1173.

and Henry count of Eu, all declared themselves in their interests. William, king of Scotland, also made one of this association, and a plan was concerted for a general invasion of Henry's extensive dominions. This was shortly after put into execution. The king's continental dominions were invaded on one side, by the count of Flanders and Boulogne ; on the other by the king of France, with a large army, which the young English princes. animated by their presence and popularity. But. Henry found means to oppose them on every quarter: the count of Boulogne, being mortally wounded in the assault of the town of Drincourt, his death stopped the progress of the Flemish arms on that side. The French army being obliged to retire from the siege of Verneuil, Henry attacked the rear, put them to. the rout, and took several prisoners. The barons of Britany also, who had risen in favour of the young princes, shared no better fate; their army was defeated in the field, and, taking shelter in the town of Dol, were there made prisoners of war. These successes repressed the pride and the expectations of the confederated forces, and a conference. was demanded by the French king, to which Henry readily agreed. In this interview, he had. the mortification to see his three sons, ranged on the side of his mortal and inveterate enemy; but he was still more disappointed to find that their de mands rose with their incapacity to obtain them by compulsion.

While Henry was thus quelling the insolence of his foreign enemies, his English subjects were in no small danger of revolting from their obedience at home. The nobility were in general united to oppose him; and an irruption at this time by the king of Scotland, assisted their schemes of insurrection. The earl of Leicester, at the head of a