Geoffrey had lately died at Nantes (1158) and his brother claimed that city as belonging to him by inheritance. In vain the citizens protested: in vain Conan, duke of Brittany, and earl of Richmond in England, maintained the rights of his vassals, King Henry confiscated the lands of the Earl of Richmond and crossed the sea with so powerful an army that the inhabitants of Nantes were terrified and opened their gates to him. Henry immediately took possession of all the territory between the Loire and the Vilaine, and proposed to the duke to terminate their differences by affiancing his daughter Constance to Geoffrey, the third of the English princes. In order to obtain the consent of the King of France, Louis VII., to this increase of his power upon French soil, Henry had sought the hand of Margaret of France on behalf of Henry, his eldest son. This gleam of a good understanding between the great powers of the earth was very soon disturbed by new ambitious dreams of Henry Plantagenet. Eleanor of Aquitaine had, or believed herself to have through her grandmother, claims to the countship of Toulouse. Her first husband, Louis VII., had relinquished those rights by treaty after an attempt to seize them by force of arms; but by virtue of the divorce, Eleanor had vested her pretensions in her second husband, Henry, king of England, who claimed the cession pure and simple of the countship by Raymond of St. Gilles, count of Toulouse. {150} The latter invoked the aid of his suzerain lord, the King of France. In the prospect of this distant struggle, Henry commuted the military service which his vassals were bound to render into a tax, and by means of this money he secured the services of an army of Brabantines. With these marched Malcolm, king of Scotland; and the King of Aragon, who like the King of France and the Duke of Brittany had lately affianced his daughter to one of the sons of Henry, and the most warlike of the English barons. But Louis VII. had already entered Toulouse, when Henry advanced against that city. Louis had but few troops with him and the King of England might easily have attempted an assault: scruples based upon his position of vassal of his lord, however, restrained him. When the French army had joined Louis VII. a few feats of arms of little importance soon brought the war to an end; but it had left indelible traces. The inhabitants of the south of France had acquired the habit of calling to their aid sometimes the King of France, sometimes the King of England, and their independence was destined to succumb under these powerful protectors. It was so well known upon the banks of the Garonne that the southern provinces were at peace when their dangerous allies were quarrelling elsewhere that people openly asked, in the form of a prayer, "When will the truce between the English and the Tournois come to an end?"