[1077] Will. Newb. as above. Geoff. Vigeois, l. ii. c. 17 (as above, p. 337). [1078] _Gesta Hen._ as above. [1079] “Annulum preciosum ... qui Henrici munifici Regis olim extitisse narratur.” Geoff. Vigeois as above. Cf. Will. Newb. as above, and Th. Agnellus, _De Morte Hen. Reg. jun._ (Stevenson, _R. Coggeshall_), pp. 265, 266. [1080] Geoff. Vigeois as above. [1081] Geoff. Vigeois, l. ii. c. 24 (Labbe, _Nova Biblioth._, vol. ii. p. 339). _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 300, 301. [1082] Geoff. Vigeois as above. [1083] _Ib._ c. 17 (p. 337). Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 279. On young Henry’s vow of crusade see _Gesta Hen._ as above, pp. 297, 298. [1084] Rog. Howden as above. [1085] Geoff. Vigeois, l. ii. c. 19 (as above, p. 338). [1086] Will. Newb., l. iii. c. 7 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 234). CHAPTER VI. THE LAST YEARS OF HENRY II. 1183–1189. The unexpected death of the young king was a catastrophe almost equally overwhelming to both parties in the war. Henry himself, when the news was brought to him by the prior of Grandmont, whither the body had been taken to be prepared for burial,[1087] went almost out of his mind with grief.[1088] For a moment indeed friends and foes alike seemed incapable of anything but mourning. Hero or saint could scarcely have won a more universal tribute of affection and regret than was showered upon this young king who, so far as we can see, had done so little to deserve it. Stern voices like that of Bertrand de Born, accustomed only to the bitterest tones of sarcasm, insult and angry strife, melted suddenly into accents of the deepest tenderness and lamentation.[1089] Sober-minded churchmen and worldly-wise courtiers, though they could not deny or excuse the dead man’s sins, yet betrayed with equal frankness their unreasoning attachment to his memory.[1090] As his body, arrayed in the linen robe which he had worn at his coronation--its white folds, hallowed by the consecrating oil, made to serve for a winding-sheet--was borne on an open bier upon the shoulders of his comrades-in-arms from Grandmont northward through Anjou, the people streamed forth from every castle and town and village along the road to meet it with demonstrations of mourning and tears;[1091] and at Le Mans, where it was deposited for a night in the cathedral church, the bishops and citizens forcibly took possession of it, refused to give it up, and buried their beloved young king then and there by the side of his grandfather Geoffrey Plantagenet.[1092]. [1087] Geoff. Vigeois, l. ii. c. 20 (Labbe, _Nova Biblioth._, vol. ii. p. 338). [1088] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 301. Cf. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 279, and Gir. Cambr. _De Instr. Princ._, dist. ii. c. 8 (Angl. Christ. Soc., p. 30).