she hardly escaped during the rest of Henry II.’s life. [Sidenote: Progress of the Monarchy under Louis VII.] In the last seven years of his life Louis VII. made no sensible advance against Henry II., but though beaten in the field, he had broken up the unity of the Angevin power, and could still count upon the support of the sons of his enemy. His reign ended as ingloriously as it had begun. Nevertheless, the constant interest of the king in the policy of the remotest parts of the monarchy was a step forward in the royal operations. The intervention of Louis in Toulouse, in Auvergne, in Burgundy, though not always successful, marked an advance over the incuriousness and indifference of his father’s reign in matters not directly concerning the domain. He even looked beyond his kingdom into the Arelate, where Barbarossa’s coronation in 1178 was a source of inquietude to him. Moreover, Louis VII.’s constant friendship for the Church stood him in good stead in his dealings with his remoter vassals. His pilgrimages to distant shrines, to St. James of Compostella, to the Grande Chartreuse, and to the new shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury, spread his fame. The younger monastic orders, especially the Cistercians and the Carthusians, were his enthusiastic friends, and the unostentatious and timid support of a crowd of bishops and abbots gave Louis VII.’s reign its peculiar position in history. The chronicler tells us how, in Louis VII.’s days, war was rare, and the realm ruled peacefully and strenuously; many new towns established, and ancient ones increased; many forests were cut down; and divers orders of religion marvellously multiplied in various parts of the land. [Sidenote: Family, old age, and death of Louis VII.]