It had proved easier to subdue Britanny than to hold Aquitaine. The half independent princes of the south, so scornful of a king beyond the Loire, were at least equally scornful of a king from beyond the sea; in November 1166 Henry was obliged to summon them to a conference at Chinon,[230] and to relieve Eleanor of her task of government by sending her to keep Christmas in England,[231] while he himself took her place at Poitiers.[232] His foes seized their opportunity to revive the vexed question of Toulouse; a meeting with Raymond at Grandmont and an attempt to assert Henry’s ducal authority over the count of Auvergne led to a fresh rupture with Louis;[233] and in the spring of 1168 the discontented barons of Aquitaine, secure of the French king’s goodwill, broke into open revolt. In the midst of a negotiation with Louis, Henry hurried away to subdue them.[234] Scarcely had he turned northward again when Earl Patrick of Salisbury, whom he had appointed to assist Eleanor in the government of the duchy, was murdered by one of the rebel leaders;[235] and Eleanor was once more left to stand her ground alone in Poitou, while her husband was fighting the Bretons, staving off the ecclesiastical censures which threatened him, and vainly endeavouring to pacify Louis, who now openly shewed himself as the champion of all Henry’s disaffected vassals, Breton, Poitevin, Scottish and Welsh,[236] as well as of the exiled archbishop. [230] Ep. ccliii. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. vi.), p. 74. [231] Eyton, _Itin. Hen. II._, pp. 104, 108. [232] Rob. Torigni, a. 1167. Cf. Ep. cclxxvii. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. vi.), p. 131. [233] Rob. Torigni, a. 1167. Cf. Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Serg. a. 1166 (Marchegay, _Eglises_, pp. 40, 149). [234] Rob. Torigni, a. 1168. Ep. ccccix. (Robertson, _Becket_, vol. vi.), p. 408.