Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/195

A.D. 1158.] hostility towards each other, and, on the election of Geoffrey, the people of Nantes maintained a government altogether distinct from that of the Armorican lords. On the death of Geoffrey (A.D. 1158), the city 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. Henry was actuated by the prospect of getting possession of the whole of Brittany, and affecting to regard Duke Conan as a usurper, 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.



Anticipating the alarm this great increase of his territory would cause in the French court, Henry sent there as ambassador Thomas à 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 born to him a daughter. Henry affianced his eldest son to the young princess, who was delivered up to one of