from Bayeux to Anet" had promised Philip that they would surrender to
him as soon as he was master of Rouen, an event which, Peter plainly
hinted, was not likely to be long delayed. This information about the
western towns was probably incorrect, for it was on Western Normandy
that Philip made his next attack. John meanwhile had in January
imposed a scutage of two marks and a half per shield throughout
England, and, in addition, a tax of a seventh of movables, which,
though it fell upon all classes alike, the clergy included, he is said
to have demanded expressly on the ground of the barons' desertion of
him in Normandy.

The hire of a mercenary force was of course the object to which the
proceeds of both these taxes were destined; but they took time to
collect and John soon fell back upon a readier, though less
trustworthy, resource, and summoned the feudal host of England to meet
him at Portsmouth, seemingly in the first week of May. It gathered,
however, so slowly that he was obliged to give up the expedition.
Philip was about this time besieging Falaise; he won it, and went on
in triumph to receive the surrender of Domfront, Seez, Lisieux, Caen,
Bayeux, Coutances, Barfleur, and Cherbourg. He was then joined by
John's late ally, the Count of Boulogne, as well as by Guy of Thouars,
the widower of Constance of Brittany; and these two, their forces
swelled by a troop of mercenaries who had transferred their services
from John to Philip after the surrender of Falaise, completed the
conquest of Southwestern Normandy, while the French King at last set
his face toward Rouen. He was not called upon to besiege it, nor even
to threaten it with a siege. On June 1, 1204, Peter de Preaux made in
his own name, and in the names of the commandants of Arques and
Verneuil, a truce with Philip, promising that these two fortresses and
Rouen should surrender if not succored within thirty days. The three
castellans sent notice of this arrangement to John, who, powerless and
penniless as he was, scornfully bade them "look for no help from him,
but do whatsoever seemed to them best." It seemed to them best not
even to wait for the expiration of the truce; Rouen surrendered on
June 24th, and in a few days Arques and Verneuil followed its example.

Thus did Normandy forsake--as Anjou and Maine had already
forsaken[37]--the heir of its ancient rulers for the King of the
French.

FOUNDING OF THE MONGOL EMPIRE BY GENGHIS KHAN

A.D. 1