Sepulchre itself, beseeching him in Baldwin’s name to carry them back at the head of his crusading host. [1139] Will. Tyr., ll. xix.–xxii. l. xxi.; containing a most moving account of Baldwin. See also Will. Newb., l. iii. c. 10 (Howlett, vol. i. pp. 240–247), and Bishop Stubbs’s elucidation of the whole story and its significance in his introduction to _Itin. Reg. Ric._, pp. lxxxi. _et seq._ [1140] “Sicut ab eo ad cujus nutum regnum Jerosolymitanum de jure hæreditario prædecessorum suorum spectabat.” _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 328. [1141] _Ib._ p. 335. They had come through France, and had been received in Paris by Philip on January 16; Rigord (Duchesne, _Hist. Franc. Scriptt._, vol. v.), p. 14. They were at Canterbury on January 29, and it seems that even the Patriarch of Jerusalem, with the very keys of the Sepulchre itself in his hands, thought it well to stop and pay his devotions at the martyr’s tomb; Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 325. A third envoy, the Grand Master of the Temple, had died on the way at Verona; _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 331; R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 32. [1142] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 335; cf. R. Diceto as above. Gir. Cambr., _De Instr. Princ._, dist. ii. c. 24 (Angl. Christ. Soc., p. 59) places the meeting at Winchester. The whole assembly wept with the Patriarch; and the king himself was deeply moved.[1143] How many of his earlier projects of going on crusade--now to Spain, now to Holy Land, now alone, now with the king of France--had been mere political expedients, we cannot tell; there may have been more sincerity in them than one is at first disposed to imagine. Little as Henry cared for either war or adventure merely for its own sake, still there flowed in his veins, no less than in those of his young cousin Baldwin, the blood of Angevin pilgrims and crusaders. The lifelong dream of Fulk Nerra and Fulk V. may have been also the dream of Henry, although none of the three was a man to let his dreams influence his conduct until he saw a clear possibility of realizing them. Whether there was such a possibility now, however, was a question whose decision did not rest with Henry alone. If he was to head a crusade, he must head it not merely as count of Anjou but as king of England, with all England’s powers and resources, material and moral, at his back; and this could only be if England sanctioned his undertaking. The “faithful men of the land”--the bishops and barons, the constitutional representatives of the nation--were therefore gathered together in council at Clerkenwell on March 18; Henry bade them advise him as they thought best for his soul’s health, and promised to abide by their decision. After deliberation, they gave it as their unanimous judgement that he must remain at home and not