Of course, during that time Henry could not afford to let his other business rest. But it is the quarrel with the Archbishop which gives its complexion to the history of those years. In 1165 the Pope was enabled to return to Italy, but Frederick of Germany, still refusing to acknowledge him, at an Assembly at Wurtzburg caused Cardinal Guido to be elected under the title of Pascal III. in the place of Octavian, who was just dead. Henry seized the opportunity. He had already forbidden all intercourse between England and the Pope, and he now despatched an embassy, headed by John of Oxford and Richard of Winchester, to attempt to act in consort with Frederick. This was in reply to a demand on the part of the Emperor, who had sent his chancellor, Reginald of Cologne, to ask for two of Henry’s daughters in marriage, the one for his son, the other for Henry the Lion of Saxony. The ambassadors declared that there were fifty bishops ready to accept the anti-pope. However, matters did not reach this point: Alexander still temporized. The clergy of England were very averse to deserting the legitimate Pope, and the old policy of the Norman kings had yet a strong hold upon Henry. [Sidenote: Meanwhile he attacks Wales, and secures Brittany. 1166.] [Sidenote: Becket excommunicates his enemies.] Meanwhile, leaving the quarrel in abeyance, he again invaded Wales, again without much success. He was more successful in the following year in his designs on Brittany. “He dealt,” says the Chronicler,[27] “with the nobles of the district of Le Mans according to his pleasure, and the region of Brittany, and with their castles....” A treaty of marriage between his son Geoffrey, and Constance, the daughter of Conan of Brittany and Richmond, having been entered into, this Earl made a grant to him of the whole of Brittany, with the exception of Guingamp, which had descended to him from his grandfather. The King received the homage of all the barons of Brittany at Thouars. Thence he came to Rennes, and by taking possession of that city, the capital of Brittany, he became lord of the whole duchy. While thus triumphing, he received news that Becket, weary of the Pope’s procrastination, had gone to the Church at Vezelay, and there, after explaining the Constitutions of Clarendon, had excommunicated John of Oxford, Richard of Ilchester, and Richard de Lucy, the King’s Counsellors, and Joscelin of Balliol, and Ranulph de Broc, who had entered into possession of his confiscated estates. This step caused considerable anxiety, and the bishops and abbots of England met and appealed to the Pope, thus postponing the execution of the excommunication. The Archbishop, in reply, bid them carry the excommunication at once into effect, and at the same time excommunicated Godfrey Ridel, the Archdeacon of Canterbury, for not remitting to him the income of his see. In anger, the King threatened to expel from England the whole Cistercian order, as a