The possession of Normandy brought Henry into more immediate contact with France. Louis VI. was upon the throne of that kingdom, the first of those great kings to whom the monarchy owed its ultimate triumph over feudalism. It was natural that he should look with jealousy on the vast strength of his great vassal, and should attempt to curtail that power which the supineness of his predecessor had allowed to accumulate. A constant border warfare was the consequence, rendered the more possible by the doubtful position of such counties as Maine, Evreux, the Vexin, Blois, and Alençon, the counts of which were for ever changing their allegiance. Louis had no difficulty in finding a pretender to the Norman Duchy whom he might use as his instrument in opposing the English King. William, the son of Robert, had fallen into Henry’s hands, and had been by him intrusted to the care of Hélie de St. Saen. In 1110, in connection apparently with a movement of disaffected nobility (for Braiose, Malet, and Bainard are mentioned as being exiled at that time), Hélie fled with the young Prince, and sought to raise all the neighbouring princes in his cause. Their efforts were not successful. Henry’s arch-enemy, Robert of Belesme, fell into the King’s hands at Bonneville, where he had presented himself with extraordinary effrontery, trusting that a message with which he was charged from the King of France would give him the security due to an ambassador. The same year Theobald of Blois, acting for Henry, defeated the French King at Puysac. And when Henry himself succeeded in capturing the town of Alençon, and in attaching the Count of Anjou to his interests, by giving him his heir, William the Ætheling, as a husband for his daughter, Louis found it desirable to conclude a peace at Gisors, by which he resigned his claim of suzerainty over Maine, Belesme, and Brittany, and left entirely unmentioned the rights of William, son of Robert. There followed a period of some years, during which Henry was able to live in tolerable peace in England. [Sidenote: Prince William acknowledged heir.] His position was, indeed, unusually strong. His son was contracted to the daughter of the Earl of Anjou; his natural daughter to Conan, son of Alan Fergant of Brittany; and, in the following year, his daughter Adelaide or Matilda was married to the German Emperor Henry V. He took this opportunity of securing the succession to his son William, to whom, in the years 1115-1116, he succeeded in inducing the barons both of England and Normandy to promise their allegiance. But this cessation of hostilities was not of long duration. [Sidenote: Renewal of the war.] [Sidenote: Depression of Henry.] [Sidenote: Battle of Brenneville, and complete prosperity. 1119.]