For military and political reasons alike Philip did not want to fight with Richard. He knew that Richard would be compelled ere long to make a friend of him, for nothing but his friendship could enable Richard to secure his rights as Henry’s heir; and Richard himself now saw that until those rights were secured it was impossible for him to venture on leaving Europe. He therefore resolved on bringing matters to a crisis. At his suggestion the two kings arranged to meet again on November 18 at Bonmoulins.[307] Meanwhile, as an English writer says, he “was reconciled to” Philip—which probably means that he made, and Philip accepted, an apology for what had occurred at Châtillon—and “endeavoured to soften the mind of the French king, that in him he might find at least some solace if his own father should altogether fail him.”[308] Accordingly he had a private interview with Philip before the formal conference, and went to the place of meeting in his company, “for the sake,” so he told his father, “of concord and peace.”[309] Philip opened the colloquy with a proposal that all the results of the fighting since a certain event—which is stated as “the taking of the Cross,” but seems to have been really the agreement at Gisors on March 10, 1186—should be wiped out, he himself setting the example of restitution, “and after this, all things should continue as they were before” the specified date. This Richard opposed; “it seemed to him unmeet that he should by the acceptance of these terms be compelled to restore Cahors and its whole county, and many other places forming part of his domain, which were worth a thousand marks a year or more, in exchange for Châteauroux and Issoudun and Graçay which were not ducal domains, but merely underfiefs.”[310] Philip’s proposal and Richard’s answer may have been arranged between them beforehand, and may have been merely intended to prepare the way for the introduction of the crucial question which Richard was determined to bring, with Philip’s help, to a decisive issue once for all. He now asked his father for an explicit recognition, to be confirmed by an oath, of his rights as heir. Furthermore, as such a recognition would, so far as Henry’s continental territories were concerned, be ineffectual without Philip’s sanction as overlord, and as it was now clearly understood that Philip’s sanction depended on the marriage of Aloysia, her hitherto reluctant bridegroom at last made up his mind to the sacrifice and asked his father to give him at once the bride who was lawfully his, “and the kingdom”—that is, the assurance of succession to the Crown. In these requests he was supported by Philip.[311] Henry answered “that he would on no account do this in existing circumstances, since he would appear to be acting under constraint rather than of his own free will.”[312] Richard persisted in his entreaties, but in vain. At last he exclaimed: “Now what I hitherto