ing
his feudal status of great French vassal as well as that of foreign
sovereign, seeking peace rather than strife with his youthful suzerain,
and some-times even going to his aid. He thus played off the greater
part of the undeclared attempts or armed expeditions by which, from 1186
to 1189, Philip tried to cut him short in his French possessions, and,
so long as Henry IL lived, there were but few changes in the territorial
proportions of the two states. But, at Henry's death, Philip found
himself in a very different position towards Henry's two sons, Richard
Coeur de Lion and John Lackland. They were of his own generation; he had
been on terms with them, even in opposition to their own father, of
complicity and familiarity: they had no authority over him, and he had no
respect for them. Richard was the feudal prince, beyond comparison the
boldest, the most unreflecting, the most passionate, the most ruffianly,
the most heroic adventurer of the middle ages, hungering after movement
and action, possessed of a craving spirit for displaying his strength,
and doing his pleasure at all times and in all places, not only in
contempt of the rights and well-being of his subjects, but at the risk of
his own safety, his own power, and even of his crown. Philip was of a
sedate temperament, patient, persevering, moved but little by the spirit
of adventure, more ambitious than fiery, capable of far-reaching designs,
and discreet at the same time that he was indifferent as to the
employment of means. He had fine sport with Richard. We have already
had the story of the relations between them, and their rupture during
their joint crusade in the East. On returning to the West, Philip did
not wrest from King Richard those great and definitive conquests which
were to restore to France the greater part of the marriage-portion that
went with Eleanor of Aquitaine; but he paved the way for them by petty
victories and petty acquisitions, and by making more and more certain his
superiority over his rival. When, after Richard's death, he had to do
with John Lackland, cowardly and insolent, knavish and addle-pated,
choleric, debauched, and indolent, an intriguing subordinate on the
throne on which he made pretence to be the most despotic of kings, Philip
had over him, even more than over his brother Richard, immense
advantages. He made such use of them that after six years' struggling,
from 1199 to 1205, he deprived John of the greater p