Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/490

 4i8 Outlines of Etiropean History English kings still continued to hold south- western France John of Eng- land becomes a vassal of the Pope homage for his continental possessions, Philip caused his court to issue a decree confiscating almost all of the Plantagenet lands, leaving to the English king only the southwest corner of France. Philip found little difficulty in possessing himself of Normandy itself, which showed no disinclination to accept him in place of the Plantagenets. Six years after Richard's death the English kings had lost all their continental fiefs except Guienne. It should be observed that Philip, unlike his ancestors, was no longer merely siizei-ain of the new conquests, but made himself duke of Normandy, and count of Anjou, of Maine, etc. The boundaries of his domain — that is, the lands which he himself controlled directly as feudal lord — now extended to the sea. St. Louis, Philip's successor, arranged with John's successor in 1258 that the English king should do him homage for Guienne, Gascony, and Poitou, and should surrender every claim on all the rest of the former possessions of the Plantagenets. So it came about that the English kings continued to hold a portion of France for several hundred years. John not only lost Normandy and other territories which had belonged to the earlier Norman kings but he actually consented to become the Pope's vassal, receive England as a fief from the papacy, and pay tribute to Rome. This strange proceeding came about in this wise : The monks of Canterbury had (1205) ventured to choose an archbishop — who was at the same time their abbot ^ — without consulting King John. Their appointee hastened off to Rome to gain the Pope's confirmation, while the irritated John forced the monks to hold another election and make his treasurer archbishop. The Pope at that time was no less a person than Innocent III, one of the greatest of medieval rulers.^ Innocent rejected both the men who had been elected, sent for a new deputation of monks from Canterbury, and bade them choose Stephen Langton, a man of great ability. John then angrily drove the monks of Canterbury out of the kingdom. 1 See above, p. 357. 2 See below, p. 457.