each other, when the accession of Stephen to England and Normandy brought the old interests of Blois and Anjou into fierce antagonism, and for a time neither side won a preponderating position over the other. Though Matilda the Empress failed to conquer England, her husband established himself in Normandy, and in 1144 received from Louis VII. the formal investiture of the duchy. In 1149 Geoffrey and Matilda handed over their Norman claims to their son Henry, now sixteen years old. [Sidenote: The growth of Anjou.] In September 1151 the death of Geoffrey made Henry Fitz-Empress (so the young prince was commonly described) sole lord of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. Anjou now rapidly prevailed over Blois. Young as he was, Henry had already a character and a policy. After his marriage with Eleanor he had a position in France far stronger than that of King Louis himself; from the Somme to the Pyrenees, from the Bay of Biscay to the mountains of Auvergne, Henry and Eleanor ruled directly or indirectly over the fairest half of France. [Sidenote: The Empire of Henry II.] Two years later, the death of Stephen made Henry King of England. In 1158 Henry added to his possession the county of Nantes and re-enforced the old Norman claims of overlordship over Duke Conan of Brittany. Later he secured the hand of Constance, Conan’s daughter and heiress, for his second son Geoffrey, who in 1171 peacefully succeeded his father-in-law as Duke of Brittany. Henry was equally successful in realising the many pretensions of Eleanor over the lands of south-western France. In 1158 Eleanor’s claims to overlordship over the county of Toulouse led Henry to lead an expedition against Count Raymond V., who had succeeded his father Alphonse in 1148, and by his marriage with Constance, sister of Louis VII., and widow of Eustace of Boulogne, King Stephen’s son, had united himself against the Angevin with the houses of France and Blois. The personal intervention of King Louis saved Raymond from absolute submission, though the peace transferred Cahors and the Quercy from Toulouse to the duchy of Aquitaine. In 1173 Henry accomplished his purpose. Henceforth the county of Toulouse, with its dependencies the Rouergue and the Albigeois, became, by Raymond’s submission, recognised dependencies of Aquitaine. With equal energy Henry pressed his claims to overlordship over Berri, where his aggressions were particularly unwelcome by reason of the large strip of royal domain which ran from Bourges southward. Henry also revived successfully the old Aquitanian claim to the overlordship of Auvergne, while his alliance with the rising house of Maurienne, now Counts of Savoy, gave him some command of the upper Rhone valley and the chief passes over the Alps. The extraordinary ability of Henry made his commanding position the more formidable. He was no mere feudal chief like the Counts of Blois, but a statesman capable of building up a mighty empire.