Stephen suspected that a plot would be concocted on behalf of the empress and her son; Henry of Winchester suspected that the archbishop wanted to apply for the legation. Leave was therefore refused, and Theobald went without leave; Stephen took the measures usual in such cases, confiscation and threats, and sent his chief ministers, Richard de Lucy and William Martel, to counteract the archbishop’s influence in the council. This had the effect of throwing Theobald, who had hitherto only been restrained by his oath of allegiance from taking the side of the empress, openly into the arms of her party; so much so that he preferred exile to submission, and even went so far as to consecrate the celebrated Gilbert Foliot, the abbot of Gloucester, and nominee of Henry of Anjou, to the see of Hereford, in opposition to both king and bishops. Neither Stephen nor Theobald was, however, as yet in a position to act freely. Stephen confiscated and Theobald excommunicated, but a hollow peace was patched up between them in the autumn by Hugh Bigot and the bishops. [Sidenote: Question of succession. ] In 1149, Henry of Anjou, now sixteen years old, was knighted by his great uncle David, at Carlisle. Stephen, accounting this the beginning of war, hastened to York; but went no farther, and that cloud seemed to have passed away. The king was growing old, and it was necessary for him to secure the succession to his son Eustace; the military interest of the time, always very languid, now flags altogether, and the real business is conducted at the papal court. There, as usual, fortune seems to halt according to the depth of the purses of the rivals, the balance, however, in the main inclining as the pope would have it. Sometimes there is talk of peace; now the bishop of Winchester is to be made archbishop of Wessex, now Theobald is to have the legation; now the bishops are persuaded to recognise Eustace, now they are forbidden peremptorily to do any such thing. And this goes on for five years, Stephen relieving the monotony of the time by an occasional expedition into the West of England. [Sidenote: Progress of Henry of Anjou. ] Henry, however, was making good use of his time on the Continent. Eustace, whose marriage with Constantia of France, a marriage purchased by the treasures of bishop Roger in 1139, made him a dangerous competitor, laid claim to Normandy. Geoffrey, after defending it on his son’s behalf during two years, finally made it over to him in 1151 and then died. Henry the next year married Eleanor of Aquitaine, the divorced wife of Lewis VII., and so secured nearly the whole of Western France. By the Christmas of 1152 he was ready to make a bold stroke for England also. [Sidenote: Arrival of Henry, 1153. ] [Sidenote: Negotiations for peace. ] [Sidenote: Stephen’s death 1154. ]