rinces of French birth and extraction, in imitation of the like
practice in their native country,[42] where it was usual for kings grown
old and infirm, or swayed by paternal indulgence, to receive their
eldest son into a share of the administration, with the title of King; a
custom borrowed, no doubt, from the later emperors of Rome, who adopted
their Caesars after the like manner.

[Footnote 42: Mezeray. [D.S.]]

1153

The King was employed in his usual exercise of besieging castles when
the news was brought of Henry's arrival. He left the work he was about,
and marched directly against the Duke, who was then sat down before
Malmesbury. But Stephen forced him to raise the siege, and immediately
offered him battle. The Duke, although his army was much increased by
continual revolts, thought it best to gain time, being still in number
far inferior to the King, and therefore kept himself strongly
entrenched. There is some difference among writers about the particulars
of this war: however, it is generally agreed, that in a short time
after, the two armies met, and were prepared for battle, when the nobles
on both sides, either dreading the consequences, or weary of a tedious
war, prevailed with the King and Duke to agree to a truce for some days
in order to a peace; which was violently opposed by Eustace, the King's
son, a youth of great spirit and courage, because he knew very well it
could not be built but upon the ruin of his interests; and therefore
finding he could not prevail, he left the army in a rage, and, attended
by some followers, endeavoured to satiate his fury, by destroying the
country in his march: But in a few days, as he sat at dinner in a castle
of his own, he fell suddenly dead, either through grief, madness, or
poison.

The truce was now expired, and the Duke began to renew the war with
fresh vigour; but the King was wholly dispirited upon this fatal
accident, and now first began to entertain real thoughts of a peace. He
had lost a son whom he dearly loved, and with him he likewise lost the
alliance of the French King, to whose sister the young prince was
married. He had indeed another son left, but little esteemed by the
nobles and people; nor, as it appears, much regarded by his father. He
was now in the decline of his age, decayed in his health, forsaken by
his friends, who, since the death of Eustace, fell daily from him; and
having no further care at heart for his posterity, he thought it