venture to abandon, for the sake of giving his personal assistance in the east, the work to which he was pledged by his coronation-oath, of keeping his own realms in peace and order and securing them from external foes.[1144] Whether or not the decision thus arrived at was wise for the interests of Christendom at large--whether or not it redounds altogether to the honour of England--it was surely the highest tribute she could pay to her Angevin king. A ruler from whom his people were so unwilling to part had clearly some better hold over them than that of mere force. That they shrank with such dread from any interruption of his kingly labours is the best proof how greatly they had benefited by those labours during the past thirty years. [1143] _Gesta Hen._ as above, pp. 335, 336. R. Diceto as above, pp. 32, 33. Cf. Gir. Cambr. as above (pp. 59, 60). [1144] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 33, 34. The author of _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 336, dates the council eight days earlier than Ralf, and finds nothing more to say about it than “cum diu tractâssent de itinere Jerosolimitanæ profectionis, tandem placuit regi et consiliariis consulere inde Philippum regem Franciæ.” But the totally independent versions of Henry’s answer to the Patriarch given by Gir. Cambr., _De Instr. Princ._, dist. ii. c. 27 (Angl. Christ. Soc., pp. 64, 65), and Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 32, both distinctly support Ralf thus far, that they represent the king’s refusal as grounded on the difficulty of reconciling the proposed expedition with the fulfilment of his duty to his own realms.