So great was his fame as a true friend of peace and an equitable arbitrator in the contests between princes and people, that his intervention and his decisions were often asked for and accepted, in disputes beset with great difficulty and danger. {103} In spite of his brilliant victories in 1242, over Henry III. of England at Taillebourg and Saintes, Louis saw, after his return from the East, that there was no solid peace between England and France, and that at any moment the possessions which he had acquired by these victories might again give rise to new wars, which would be injurious to both, and possibly disastrous to one people or the other. He conceived the idea of establishing this very desirable peace upon a sound basis, by founding it on a transaction which both sides should acknowledge to be equitable. He succeeded in this by restoring to the King of England some of those possessions which he had lost in the war of 1242, and by obtaining from him in return, 'both in his own name and in the names of his sons and of their heirs, a formal renunciation of all the rights to which they could lay claim in the Duchy of Normandy, the counties of Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Poitou; a resignation of the homage paid for Berry, Bretagne, Auvergne, Marche, Angoumois, and in general a cession of all the possessions which he and his ancestors; had ever held on the continent of Europe, with the exception of those which the King of France restored to him by this treaty, and of those which he still held in Gascoigne.' For all these the King of England undertook to pay homage to the King of France in the character of Peer of France and Duke of Aquitaine, and to fulfil strictly all the duties of his fiefs. When Louis informed the members of his council of this transaction, 'they were strongly opposed to it,' says Joinville. 'It seems to us, sire,' they said, 'that if you believe you have no right to the possessions which you and your ancestors have conquered from the King of England, you do not make fitting restitution to the said king unless you restore them all to him; and if you believe that you have a right to them, you throw away all those that you give up to him.' {104} 'Sirs,' answered Louis, 'I am certain that the ancestors of the King of England very justly lost the possessions which I keep; and the land which I give him I do not give it to him and his heirs because they have a right to it, but in order to create love between his children and mine, who are cousins-german. And it seems to me that what I give to him I use right well, for he was not formerly my vassal, and now he comes to do me homage.' And, in truth, Henry did go to Paris in order to take with him the treaty which he had signed, and to perform the ceremony of homage.