King Henry had joined his daughter in Normandy in the summer of 1130; in July of the next year they returned to England together. They were soon followed by a message from Geoffrey, who was now becoming awake to his rights and duties as husband of King Henry’s heiress, and having made himself thoroughly master in his own dominions felt it time to demand the return of his wife. A great council held at Northampton on September 8 decided that his request should be granted;[644] and the assembled prelates and barons repeated their homage to Matilda as her father’s destined successor.[645] She then went back to her husband, by whom she was, if not warmly welcomed, at least received with all due courtesy and honour.[646] Fortunately for the ill-matched couple, they were both of that cold-blooded temperament to which intense personal affection is not a necessary of life. Henceforth they were content to work together as partners in political enterprise, and to find in community of worldly interests a sufficient bond of union. On Mid-Lent Sunday--March 5, 1133--the bond was made indissoluble by the birth of their son and heir. Most fittingly, the child to whom so many diverse nationalities looked as to their future sovereign[647] was born not in the actual home of either of his parents, but in that city of Le Mans which lay midway between Normandy and Anjou, which had so long been the ground of their strife, and had at last been made the scene of their union.[648] He was baptized in the cathedral church by the bishop of the diocese on Easter Eve, receiving the name of his grandfather Henry, and was then, by his mother’s special desire, solemnly placed under the protection of the local patron saint on the same altar where his father had been dedicated in like manner thirteen years before.[649] [644] Hen. Hunt., l. vii. c. 41 (Arnold, p. 252). [645] Will. Malm. _Hist. Nov._, l. i. c. 6 (Hardy, p. 698). [646] Hen. Hunt. as above. [647] “Quem multi populi dominum expectant.” Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 763. [648] _Acta Pontif. Cenoman._, c. 36 (Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._, p. 322). Cf. Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Serg. a. 1133 (Marchegay, _Eglises_, pp. 33, 144, 145), Chron. S. Flor. Salm. a. 1133 (_ib._ p. 191, giving a wrong day), _Hist. Gaufr. Ducis_ (Marchegay, _Comtes_), pp. 277, 278, also wrongly dated. [649] _Acta Pontif. Cenoman._ as above.