which strongly inclined to pleasure, he listened to nothing but ambition; at an age which is usually given up to passion, he submitted delicacy to politics, and even in his marriage only remembered the interests of a sovereign,—­for, without examining too scrupulously into her character, he married Eleanor, the heiress of Guienne, though divorced from her husband for her supposed gallantries in the Holy Land.  He made use of the accession of power which he acquired by this match to assert his birthright to Normandy.  This he did with great success, because he was favored by the general inclination of the people for the blood of their ancient lords.  Flushed with this prosperous beginning, he aspired to greater things; he obliged the King of France to submit to a truce; and then he turned his arms to support the rights of his family in England, from whence Matilda retired, unequal to the troublesome part she had long acted.  Worn out with age, and the clashing of furious factions, she shut herself up in a monastery, and left to her son the succession of a civil war.  Stephen was now pressed with renewed vigor.  Henry had rather the advantage in the field; Stephen had the possession, of the government.  Their fortunes appearing nearly balanced, and the fuel of dissension being consumed by a continual and bloody war of thirteen years, an accommodation was proposed and accepted.  Henry found it dangerous to refuse his consent, as the bishops and barons, even of his own party, dreaded the consequences, if a prince, in the prime of an ambitious youth, should establish an hereditary title by the force of foreign arms.  This treaty, signed at Wallingford, left the possession of the crown for his life to Stephen, but secured the succession to Henry, whom that prince adopted.  The castles erected in this reign were to be demolished; the exorbitant grants of the royal demesne to be resumed.  To the son of Stephen all his private possessions were secured.

Thus ended this tedious and ruinous civil war.  Stephen survived it near two years; and now, finding himself more secure as the lawful tenant than he had been as the usurping proprietor of the crown, he no longer governed on the maxims of necessity.  He made no new attempts in favor of his family, but spent the remainder of his reign in correcting the disorders which arose from his steps in its commencement, and in healing the wounds of so long and cruel a war.  Thus he left the kingdom in peace to his successor, but his character, as it is usual where party is concerned, greatly disputed.  Wherever his natural dispositions had room to exert themselves, they appeared virtuous and princely; but the lust to reign, which often attends great virtues, was fatal to his, frequently hid them, and always rendered them suspected.

CHAPTER VI.

REIGN OF HENRY II.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 1154.]

[Sidenote:  A.D. 1158.]