Meanwhile, however, the warlike barons of Aquitaine were exasperated at the failure of their league against Richard; and their anger reached its height when at the conclusion of the Christmas festivities held by King Henry and his sons at Caen, the young king of his own accord renewed his oath of allegiance to his father, confessed his secret alliance with Richard’s enemies, and offered to abandon it and make peace with his brother if his father would but insist upon the surrender of Clairvaux. Richard, after some hesitation, gave up to his father the fortress in dispute.[1051] The incident apparently opened Henry’s eyes to the necessity of clearly defining his sons’ political relations with each other; and while Bertrand de Born was giving a voice to the wrath of his fellow-barons at the young king’s desertion of their cause,[1052] Henry led his three sons back to Angers, made them all take an oath of obedience to him and peace with each other,[1053] and then called upon the two younger to do homage to the eldest for their fiefs.[1054] Geoffrey obeyed;[1055] Richard indignantly refused, declaring it was utterly unreasonable that there should be any distinction of rank between children of the same parents, and that if the father’s heritage belonged of right to the eldest son, the mother’s was equally due to the second.[1056] The young king, on the other hand, was on account of his entanglements with the Aquitanian barons almost as unwilling to receive the homage as Richard was to perform it.[1057] The end of the discussion was that Richard quitted the court, “leaving behind him nothing but threats and insults,” and hurried into Poitou to prepare for defence and defiance.[1058] [1051] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 291, 294, 295. [1052] Clédat, _Bert. de Born_, p. 47. [1053] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 295. Cf. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 18. [1054] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 291. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 273. [1055] _Ibid._ R. Diceto as above. [1056] R. Diceto (as above), pp. 18, 19. _Gesta Hen._ (as above), p. 292. Cf. Gerv. Cant. (as above), p. 303. [1057] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 18. _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 292. The two accounts do not exactly agree, Ralf placing at this point the young king’s confession of his dealings in Aquitaine; while the story in the _Gesta_ is extremely confused, because it is told twice over, in different forms (pp. 291, 292 and 294, 295). [1058] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 292.