be supposed that this was real personal homage for the kingdom of Scotland, as William the Lion’s claims on the Northern counties were still postponed. [Sidenote: Outbreak in Poitou.] [Sidenote: John’s French provinces forfeited. 1202.] But the King’s difficulties soon began. Wishing to collect an army to suppress disturbances in Poitou, he was met by a refusal from his barons, who assembled at Leicester, and demanded the establishment of their rights. The disturbances in Poitou were caused by the insurrection of the Count de la Marche, full of anger at losing his wife. Deserted by his barons, John was unable to suppress the insurrection. He had been invited to Paris, and received with every demonstration of friendship; but while there the barons of Poitou, following the policy of Philip Augustus, and it is fair to believe induced by him, lodged formal complaints with the French king as their suzerain. John was called upon to plead before the feudal Court of Peers. He refused, averring that the Duke of Normandy had never transacted business with his suzerain except personally upon the borders of his own duchy. Philip seized the opportunity, urged that the Duke of Normandy was at the same time Count of Poitou, obtained judgment against John, declared all his fiefs forfeited and again raised the claims of Arthur. War was the immediate consequence. The defection of the Count of Boulogne opened the west of Normandy, and that side of the country was speedily in the hands of the French. [Sidenote: Death of Arthur. 1203.] Arthur himself now appeared in arms, renounced John, and entered Poitou in alliance with the insurgent barons. He there besieged Mirabeau, where the old Queen then was lying ill on her return from a journey into Spain, whither she had gone to fetch the Princess of Castile, according to the treaty with the French King. The capture of the castle seemed inevitable, when John, with one of those sudden acts of vigour which broke his indolent life, suddenly came upon the besiegers, and surrounded them, rescued his mother, and took the young prince captive. The war became still more vehement. The Bretons claimed the restoration of their prince. Philip moved his army to the Loire, and town after town was captured, while John lay in sensual enjoyment at Rouen. The Norman barons, unused to an unwarlike governor, deserted to Philip, and John was compelled to return to England. He had hardly reached it when the terrible rumour spread that the young Prince Arthur had disappeared. His fate is variously related. The more commonly accepted story is, that, imprisoned at Falaise, under the care of Hubert de Burgh, he escaped, by the good will of his custodian, from the designs of John, who had sent to have his eyes put out. He was thence removed to Rouen, to the charge of Robert de Vipont, and murdered, perhaps by his uncle’s own hand, and his body thrown into the Seine. [Sidenote: Loss of Normandy. 1205.]