Great Britain -- History -- Henry II, 1154-1189; Henry II, King of England, 1133-1189
Henry was now shut in on every side. Poitou and Britanny were both in
revolt. The forts along the Sarthe, the Loir, and the Loire had fallen
into the hands of Philip. On the 30th of June his army was seen under
the walls of Tours. Henry himself was on the same day suddenly struck
down by fever; unable to meet the French king, he fell back down the
river to Saumur. The great French princes, aghast at the swift catastrophe
which had fallen, men scarcely knew how, on the Angevin king, trembling
lest in this strange victory of the French monarchy his ruin should be the
beginning of their own destruction, made a last effort for peace. But
Philip stood firm, "seeing that God had delivered his enemy into his
hand." On Monday, the 3d of July, the walls of Tours fell before his
assault, and he sent a final summons to Henry to meet him at Colombières,
a field near Tours. The king travelled as far as the house of the Templars
at Ballan. But there he was seized with intolerable agony in every nerve
of his body from head to foot. Leaning for support against a wall in his
extreme anguish, he called to him William the marshal, and the pitying
bystanders laid him on a bed. News of his illness was carried to the
French camp. But Richard felt no touch of pity. His father was but
feigning some excuse to put off the meeting, he told Philip; and a
message was sent back commanding him to appear on the next day. The sick
king again called the marshal, and prayed him at whatever labour to carry
him to the conference. "Cost what it may," he vowed, "I will grant
whatever they ask to get them to depart. But this I tell you of a surety,
if I can but live I will heal the country from war, and win my land back
again." With a final effort of his indomitable will he rode on the 4th of
July through the sultry summer heat to Colombières. The great assembly
gathered to witness the triumph of France was struck with horror at the
marks of suffering on his face, and Philip himself, moved by a sudden
pity, called for a cloak to be spread on the ground on which the king
might sit. But Henry's fierce temper flashed out once more; he would not
sit, he said; even as he was he would hear what they asked of him, and why
they cut short his lands. Then Philip stated his demands. Henry must do
homage, and place himself wholly at the French king's mercy to do whatever
he should decree. Richard must receive, as Henry's heir, the fealty of the
barons of the lands on both sides the sea. A heavy sum was to be paid to
Philip for his conquests in Berri. Richard and Philip were to hold Le Mans
and Tours, and the other castles of Maine and Touraine, or else the
castles of the Vexin, until the treaty was completely carried out. Henry's
barons were to swear that they would force him to observe these terms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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