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 The Development of France 211 lord, the abbot joined to himself the abbot of Trois-Fontaines, and with his aid made clear to the two princes the wishes of the pope. The pope ordered them to convoke the arch- bishops, bishops, and the other great people of the whole kingdom, in order, while guarding their respective rights, to make peace in the presence of the assembly and to reestab- lish in their former estate the monasteries and nunneries, as well as the churches, which had been destroyed in the course of their wars. Philip received this injunction at Mantes in the week of the Assumption of the most blessed Virgin Mary. He immediately appealed in the presence of the bishops, abbots, and barons of the kingdom, who submitted the whole case to the examination of the sovereign pontiff. The last day of the same month the king of France assembled an army and besieged Rodepont. In about a fortnight, having raised about the place his movable wooden towers and set up his other machines of war, he took the town. He secured as prisoners twenty knights who had bravely defended themselves, a hundred squires, and thirty crossbowmen. When he had recovered his strength and that of his army Philip he laid siege to Castle Gaillard, in the month of September attacks and , . . T:r. * ., . takes Castle following. This was a strong fortress which King Richard Gaillard. had had constructed upon a high rock which dominated the Seine near the island of Andelys. The king of the French and his army were delayed by the siege of this place for five months, for they were unwilling to under- take an assault lest much blood should be spilled and they might damage the walls and the tower. They hoped to force the besieged to surrender through hunger and depri- vation. [Later the king decided upon an attack and suc- cessfully took the fortress by assault]. . . In the year of our Lord 1203, Philip, king of the French, Philip having assembled his army, entered Normandy on the 2d of May, took Falaise, a very strong castle, Domfront, and a very rich town which the people call Caen. He also brought under his control all the neighboring districts as far as Mont St. Michel. The Normans then came to ask for