Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies. Volume IAnonymous
History
Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies. Volume I
Anonymous
Great Britain -- Biography
of that duchy, as he had held it in her absence; that is, without any
dependence upon her. Instead of submitting to this, she would perhaps
have stayed in England, and buried herself under the ruins of her own
greatness, if the anguish of her mind had not been soothed by the hope
that Prince Henry, her son, might, when he should attain to an age of
maturity, be able to revenge her on Stephen, and recover the crown which
she had lost. Her whole care was therefore employed upon his education.
She laboured to inspire him with thoughts as high as her own; to give
him an ardour for glory, an ambition for empire, and a spirit of
conquest. His genius was very suitable for such instructions; but the
fire he drew from her was happily tempered with the lessons of prudence
and humanity which he had been taught in England by his uncle; and which
his father, a prince of great discretion and judgment, continued to fix
in his mind."[2]
Henry remained in Normandy till the year 1149. Meanwhile his friends in
England had been gradually recovering heart and strength; and it was
arranged that the young prince, whom, although as yet only sixteen, they
now looked to as their head, should show himself among them. From this
time his mother may be regarded as having withdrawn her pretensions in
his favour; no express act of resignation ever took place, but both she
and her husband (for Geoffrey also gave up something in abandoning the
hope of a crown for his wife) were too much attached to their son, and
too sensible, besides, of the present state of circumstances, and of
what the exigency demanded, to stand in his way. He landed early in the
year at the head of a considerable force, probably at Wareham, marched
through the western counties, where he was joined by the Earl of
Chester, the Earl of Hereford, and other barons; and made his way to his
great-uncle King David of Scotland, who had been for some time in
possession of the three northern counties of Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Westmoreland, and whom he found at the head of an army in the town
of Carlisle. During the festivities of Whitsuntide, which were
distinguished on this occasion by extraordinary magnificence, Henry
received the honour of knighthood from his uncle; but he had no
opportunity of gaining his spurs, a disappointment which vexed him the
more that Stephen's son Eustace, who had been knighted about the same
time, had been already put by his father in command of a military force,
with which he was ravaging the lands of some of the very barons who were
now lying in idleness with their retainers at Carlisle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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