On the death of Geoffrey (1158) the city of Nantes fell under the authority of Conan, the hereditary Count of Brittany, who also possessed estates in Yorkshire, with the title of Earl of Richmond. Henry then set up a claim to the free city of Nantes, as a portion of the inheritance to which, as the heir of his brother, he was entitled. Actuated by the prospect of getting possession of the whole of Brittany, and affecting to regard Conan as a usurper, Henry confiscated his estate and title of Richmond. Then crossing the Channel with a large army, the king appeared before the walls of Nantes, and compelled the citizens to expel Conan, and to pay allegiance to himself. Henry then garrisoned the town with a body of his troops, and took possession of the rest of the country between the Loire and the Vilaine.
HEROISM OF ST. CLAIR AT THE SIEGE OF BRIDGENORTH CASTLE. (See p. [182.])
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Anticipating the alarm this great increase of his territory would cause in the French court, Henry sent there as ambassador Thomas Becket, and afterwards followed in person, and a treaty was concluded, by which the French king undertook to maintain his neutrality. Louis, after his divorce from Eleanor, had married Constance of Castile, who had borne to him a daughter. Henry affianced his eldest son to the young princess, who was delivered up to one of the Anglo-Norman barons, and her dower was confided to the custody of the knights of the Temple, to be restored on the celebration of the marriage.
Henry then proceeded to secure the possession of the whole of Brittany by an alliance with Conan, to whose daughter, then but five years old, he affianced his youngest son, Geoffrey, who was only eight years of age. By this treaty Conan was to keep Brittany for his life, on condition that at his death the future husband of his daughter was made heir to his power. The fears of the French king were aroused once more by this alliance, which it was evident would one day place the whole of western France under the power of the Anglo-Normans. Louis attempted to procure the Pope's interdict of the marriage, on the ground that Conan was the descendant of a bastard daughter of the grandfather of Henry II. The Pope Alexander III., however, refused to recognise such consanguinity, and the marriage was celebrated in the year 1166.
BECKET BEFORE HIS ENEMIES IN THE COUNCIL HALL AT NORTHAMPTON.
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