dangerous illness, which made fuch an impreffion upon the fpirit of his father, that he performed a pilgrimage to the fhrine of St. Thomas Becket, to folicit his interpofition for the recovery of young Philip:

When Lewis arrived at Canterbury, he met with a noble and generous reception from Henry, and on his return found his fon recovered. But his own health now funk under the united preffure of years and of anxiety. A fit of apoplexy, fucceeded by a paralytic ftroke, which deprived him of the ufe of his right fide, warned him of his approaching defolution. He therefore gave orders for the fpeedy coronation of his fon, which was performed by the archbishop of Rheims, with great folemnity. The marriage of Philip with Ifabella, the daughter of the count of Hainault foon followed. But Lewis did not long furvive either ceremony. No art of medicine being able to arreft the pro

grefs of his diforder, he died at Paris in the A. D. 1180. fixtieth year of his age, and the forty-fourth of

his reign.

It may not be improper to give fome account of this prince's family, as feveral of their names may again occur, in the fubfequent parts of this hiftory. His firft wife Eleanor, to whom he behaved fo generously, and who, by all accounts, was a woman of unbounded intrigue, died at an advanced period of life. The two daughters he had by her, were Mary, wife to Henry, count of Champagne, and Alice, who married Thibaut, count of Blois, brother to the faid count. Lewis, by his fecond marriage with Conftantia of Caftile, had likewife two daughters, Margaret, married to Henry the younger, king of England; and afterwards, having no children by him, to Bela III. king of Hungary. This princess becoming a widow the fecond time, devoted the remainder of her life to be spent in the Holy Land, and fhe died at Potolemais, in 1197. The other fifter, Alice, died unmarried. Lewis, by his third wife, Adelaide, daughter to Thibaut, count of Champagne, a princefs of great merit and beauty had, befides his fucceffor, Philip Auguftus, two daughters, Alice, whofe history is fo myfteribus, and who had been long contracted to Richard of England; but was afterwards married to William, count of Ponthieu, and died in 1195. The name of his fecond daughter by the fame marriage, was Agnes. When he was but ten years of age, fhe was contracted to Alexis Comnenus, emperor of Conftantinople; and next year their marriage was celebrated with great magnificence. She afterwards married the murderer and fucceffor of her husband, Andronicus I. and he likewife being dethroned and murdered, the married TheoVOL. I.

Y

dore

dore Bramas, lord of Adrianople. Adelaide, the third wife of Lewis, gave her husband a most magnificent interment in a monaftery of his own founding, at Barbeau on the Seine. His body was put into the tomb with a golden crofs at his breast, and rings on his fingers. His monument was afterwards opened by Charles IX. who found the body entire, with the above ornaments, and he himself wore the rings.

CHAP. LX.

Philip II. furnamed Auguftus.-Diftreffes of the Afiatic Chrif tians.-The third Crusade.—Philip marries a Danish Princefs. His Character as a Legiflator.-His ufeful Works.

HILIP II. whose various epithets of the Gift of God, Magnanimous, and Conquering, fettled at laft, into that of Auguftus, was fifteen years of age at the time of his acceffion to the throne, and gave early proofs of his genius for government. The count of Flanders, acted as his tutor or first minister; but he took the executive power into his own hands, and began his reign with two popular acts. The first was the banishment of all buffoons and jesters from his court, and of the Jews who were noted for ufury. The nobility attempted to protect them; but they were obliged to yield to the king, who was fupported by his people.

A court faction, however, foon interrupted the public tranquillity. Adelaide, the king's mother, jealous of the partiality he difcovered for the count of Flanders, united with her brother William, the cardinal, and archbishop of Rheims, in intrigues to diffolve the marriage of her fon. But their efforts were vain, and Philip manifested his difpleafure by appointing the coronation of himself and Isabella at the abbey of St. Dennis, and commanding the ceremony to be performed by the archbishop of Sens, inftead of the archbishop of Rheins. Adelaide afterwards folicited and obtained the aid of Henry of England, who met her in Normandy, and advanced with a numerous army to enforce her demands; but a peace was foon after negotiated, in which the wisdom and moderation of Philip were confpicuous.

Upon the death of the countess of Flanders, who had been heiress to the county of Vermandois, the emperor of Germany stept in to the affiftance of the count, when Philip

offered

offered to annex that county to his crown. This was another quarrel, excited by the jealoufy of the nobility against the king. Philip affirmed that the alienation of the county of Vermandois from the crown, ought to laft no longer than the efforts made by the count and his friends. Philip re-annexed it to his domain, and left nothing to the count of Flanders but the towns of Perron, and St. Quintin.

On the death of the younger Henry of Eng

land, who died in France without iffue, Philip A. D. 1184. claimed from the elder Henry Gifors, and fome

other dependencies in Normandy, which had been given to his fifter Margaret as a dowry. A reconciliation followed, by the elder Henry performing homage to Philip for all the lands he held in France, and promifing that his fon Richard fhould marry the princefs Alice.

The unhappy paffion which the elder Henry is fuppofed to have entertained for that princefs, was a fruitful fource of calamity to his reign and perfon. It gave the princes of his family, and his queen Eleanor, whom he kept prifoner for twelve years before her death, a perpetual fubject for complaint and diffatisfaction.

About this time, the Chriftians of Afia were in imminent danger of being driven from Jerufalem. The Turks were determined to difpoffefs them of the holy city. With Noradin at their head, they began to put their defign in execution; and Saladin, his fucceffor, accomplished it.

Saladin had, in a fhort time conquered Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and Mefopotamia. In poffeffion of thefe countries, he determined upon the conqueft of Jerufalem, rent by the violence of faction. Guy de Lufignan, then king of Jerufalem, affembled the Chriftiáns, marched against Saladin, who, having drawn the Chriftian army into a narrow pass, obliged Guy and his troops to furrender prifoners of war. From the field of battle he marched to Jerufalem, which opened her gates to the conqueror, and put an end to that little kingdom, after it had exifted near a century.

The victories of the brave and generous Saladin filled Europe with alarm and trouble; and the news of Jerufalem being taken proved fatal to Urban III. who died of grief. The Chriftian princes, eager to recover the holy land, fufpended their particular quarrels, and prepared a third crufade. Frederic Barbaroffa, one of the greatest emperors that ever reigned in Germany, a wife politician, well acquainted with the art of war, and whofe arms had been often fuccefsful, marched by land at the head of a hundred and fifty thousand warriors. Philip Auguftus went by fea, followed by a well-appointed army. Richard Coeur de Lion, king of England, the hero of the crufade, marched

at the head of the English nobility, and a chofen body of troops.

Frederic was obliged to fight the Greeks, who, afraid of the crufaders, had made an alliance with Saladin. He opened a paffage into Thrace, though oppofed by the emperor Ifaac Angelus, and twice defeated the Sultan of Iconium; but having bathed while hot, in the river Cydnus, he died, and his victories became of no confequence. The arrival of Philip revived the hopes of the crufades. He defeated the Saracens, took feveral towns, and laid fiege to Acre. Richard haftened to fecond his efforts. He had been neceffarily detained in Sicily, and during his ftay, had regulated the affairs of that ifland. In his paffage to the Archipelago, a ftorm and want of provifions obliged him to touch at Cyprus. He requested refreshments for his troops from Ifaac, king of that ifland, who had the inhumanity to deny him. Richard, provoked at his refufal, lands his troops; defeats Ifaac, puts him and his family in irons, and caufes himself to be crowned king of the whole ifland. Having performed this atchievement, he continued his route to the holy land, where he arrived, covered with glory. Philip, jealous of Richard's fuperior talents for war, feigns fickness and returns to France, having promised, with an oath, not to moleft his rival's ter ritories during his abfence. Richard, mafter of the field of honour, difplayed the most heroic courage, took the city of Acre, defeated Saladin's generals in many battles, engaged Saladin himself, and had the honour to difarm him. In the midst of these fucceffes, he was informed, that Philip Auguftus, in contempt of his oath, had taken advantage of his abfence to feize part of Normandy, and had even excited his brother to rebel. This news induced him to conclude a truce with Saladin, by which the Chriftians of Palestine were to enjoy peace; but he was obliged to allow the Sultan to remain in poffeffion of Jerufalem, and to give up the end of the crufade. On his return he was made prifoner by the duke of Auftria, and confined in a dungeon in Germany, from whence he purchased his release by a very large ranfom.

Philip's queen, Ifabella, having died in his abfence, he married Ingerberge, daughter of Waldemar, and fifter to Canute, king of Denmark. His motive for this match was mean and mercenary. He infifted upon Canute making over to him all the claims the Danes had upon England; and upon his lending him a fleet for making it goed, which Canute refufed.

Ingerberge, whofe virtues were incapable of fixing the affections of the insensible monarch, retired at his command to a monaftery; whither fhe was followed by the esteem of

a people

a people who knew how to value her modefty, her piety, and her patience. A divorce, under the common pretence of confanguinity, was granted by the fubfervient prelates : and the king, three years after his union with Ingerberge, had married Agnes, the daughter of the duke of Dalmatia, The Dane, fired by the indignity offered his fifter, appealed to the Pope, and, after a variety of fentences, Philip was compelled to refign Agnes, and recal Ingerberge. Agnes, too fenfible of her degradation, fell a victim to grief, and the Pope, who had exiled her from her husband, legitimated their fon and daughter.

The extenfive poffeffions, which the royal family of England had in France, were perpetual fources of misfortunes to both kingdoms. Queen Eleanor of Guienne, formerly queen-confort of France, was yet alive, and, on the death of Richard, faw her youngest fon John on that throne; which was alfo claimed by Arthur, the grandfon of Henry II. by his third fon Geoffrey. The inexperience of Arthur was directed by the vigorous counfels of his mother Conftance; a princefs of a haughty and implacable, bold and turbulent difpofition, Anjou, Touraine, and Maine acknowledged the authority of Arthur; and Agnes was delivered by the governor into his power.

While Philip, in fupport of the claim of Arthur, entered Normandy, John feized on the capital of Maine, and razed the walls, as an example of terror to other towns, which might be inclined to revolt. Doubtful of his own ftrength, John wifhed to negotiate a peace; and offered to Lewis, the eldest fon of Philip, his niece Blanche, the daughter of Alonzo king of Caftile; promifing to entail upon that princefs, in cafe he died without iffue, all his territories in France. Hardly any vice, which can enter into the compofition of a king, or a man, was a ftranger to John. He had repudi ated the daughter of the duke of Gloucester, and had married Ifabel of Angouleme, who had been betrothed to the count of March, who refented the injury done him. Tho' both Philip and the lady's father had at firft approved of the match, yet on the reprefentation which the count made, Philip refolved to improve the difaffection that had been raifed by the count against John to his own purpofe; and encouraged young Arthur to march with an army to befiege his grandmother Eleanor, in the caftle of Mirabeau. John paffing from England with an army to her relief, defeated Arthur, took him prifoner, and fent him to the caftle of Rouen, where he was murdered, fome fay, by John's own hands. Philip did not fail to improve to his own advantage every circumstance of this barbarity, efpecially as the barons