Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/507

 INNOCENT III AND THE STATES OF EUROPE 457 it the same time were laying the foundations of the French ind English national governments. When Innocent be- came pope, Richard was still King of England and was ilefending against the attacks of the wily Philip Augustus >f France the vast Plantagenet possessions upon the Con- jinent, which he had inherited from his father, Henry II of England, Anjou, and Normandy, and from his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Within a year the pope had induced hese two monarchs to sign a five-year truce. But straight- yay Richard died and his brother John, who succeeded him, yithin a few years had lost Normandy, Maine, Anjou, fouraine, and Poitou to Philip Augustus. Innocent re- tarded Philip's conquests as unjust aggressions, but his jhreats and protests failed to deter the French king in the jeast. The pope had the further reason for taking the side •f the English king that he was an ally of the papal protege n Germany, Otto of Brunswick. John, however, soon showed himself such an unmitigated ascal and so complete a failure as a ruler, that he was un- j.kely to remain on good terms with Innocent Misrule br long. He interfered in episcopal elections, he of J ohn eized episcopal_revenues, and in general oppressed the phurch and the clergy as he did every one else. His mother, Eleanor, and his brother's widow, Berengaria, both com- ilained to the pope that John was pocketing their private icomes. Furthermore, he had left his first wife and married ne intended bride of another lord, and after he captured is young nephew, Arthur, whom Philip Augustus had tirred up against him, the boy disappeared forever and ohn was charged with his murder. Arthur was the son of ireoffrey, an older brother than John, and by hereditary ght should have succeeded Richard on the throne rather lan his uncle, John. It was not these evil deeds by John, however, that di- ictly caused the struggle between the king and the pope, ut a disputed election to the Archbishopric of The Canter- anterbury. This highest church office in Eng- bur y election nd had been held during the latter part of Richard's and