The first important event of Richard’s childhood was his betrothment. When he was about four years of age he was formally affianced to Alice, the child of Louis, king of France. Alice was three years of age. Another of King Louis’ children had been married in the same way to Richard’s eldest brother Henry, and the English king complained that the dowry of the young French princess was not sufficient, and this quarrel was settled by an agreement that King Louis should give his other daughter Alice to Richard, and with her another province. These infant marriages, or betrothments, were made by kings in order to get possession of rich territories, for the father of the husbands became the guardians of the provinces, and received any sum of money agreed upon, which they usually appropriated to their own use. This betrothment of Richard became the cause of future differences between himself and Philip, the brother of Alice, when Richard had become king of England, and Philip king of France. At length, in the midst of one of the frequent wars between the king of England and his sons, his eldest son Henry was taken very sick, and being at the point of death, he sent to his father to obtain his forgiveness, and to beg that he would come to see him. The king, fearing it was only some stratagem to get him into the power of the rebellious young prince, who had often broken his word, did not dare to go, but sent an archbishop to Prince Henry, with a ring as a token of his forgiveness. The poor prince who was really dying, and very penitent for his unfilial conduct, pressed the ring to his dying lips with frantic tears of remorse, and commanded his attendants to lay him upon a bed of ashes, which he had ordered prepared, that he might die there as a sign of his sincere repentance. When King Henry heard of the sad death of his eldest son, he was moved to tears, and releasing his wife Queen Eleanor from her imprisonment, he became reconciled to her for a time. But soon again the family dissensions arose. Prince Geoffrey, the second son of King Henry, was killed in a tournament, and Richard, who had now reached manhood, demanded that his father should give him the Princess Alice in marriage, and with her the lands and money intrusted to his care by the king of France. This King Henry refused to do. Some said, because he wished to keep the rich lands himself; others said, because he himself loved the Princess Alice, and that he was determined to seek a divorce from Queen Eleanor, so that he might marry the young princess. Whatever was his motive, King Henry refused to have Richard’s marriage with Alice consummated, and kept the princess shut up in a castle. Whereupon Richard rebelled against his father, and persuaded his younger brother John to espouse his cause. Of course Eleanor took sides with her sons, so she was again shut up in a castle by King Henry, and Richard and John set off for Paris and gained the support of Philip II., of France,