forty shillings; although Otto seems to have contented himself with a smaller sum.[1211] In October {13 Oct.} the clergy made their grant to the Crown; it consisted of a sixteenth of the annual income of their benefices.[1212] Meanwhile Henry was chafing under the Papal command to refrain from war in France while Louis was on crusade. Again he sought to form alliances among the neighbours and the disaffected feudatories of the French King; in April he was negotiating with the Duke of Lorraine,[1213] in October he was making plans--which however came to nothing--to marry the daughter of the Duke of Britanny.[1214] Suddenly the political situation in France changed. On 8th November Master William Pierepunt’s forecast came true; Louis of France died at Montpensier in Auvergne.[1215] His successor was a boy ten years old. Neither the late King nor his father, Philip Augustus, had been liked by the barons, and many of these seized the occasion to assail the Queen-mother, Blanche of Castille, with demands for the restitution of sundry liberties of which, they said, Louis VIII and Philip had deprived them.[1216] The coronation, on 30th November, was almost if not quite as scantily attended as the first crowning of Henry had been.[1217] Henry at once despatched the Archbishop of York, Philip d’Aubigné, and some other envoys, to the chief nobles of Normandy, Anjou, and Poitou, and to the Duke of Britanny--all lands which, from his point of view, ought rightfully to be subject to himself--announcing his intention of going over sea, and calling upon them to receive him loyally.[1218] On 18th December elaborate schemes of concessions to Hugh and Isabel, and also to Hugh of Thouars[1219] and William Larchevêque, were drawn up, witnessed, and sealed ready for despatch, but they were never sent.[1220] Perhaps they were deemed needless owing to a piece of news which may have arrived from Aquitaine: Savaric de Mauléon had on the death of Louis VIII reverted to his old allegiance, and opened the gates of La Rochelle to Richard.[1221] Henry, however, was not ready for immediate action on a great scale; and at Mid-Lent (18th March), 1227, a truce was made between Richard of Poitou on the one part, and Louis IX, Blanche, Hugh of Lusignan, and their adherents on the other, to last till a fortnight after Midsummer.[1222] [Sidenote: 1227]