ith the siege of Rouen:
the inhabitants were so inflamed with hatred to France, that, on the
appearance of his army, they fell on all the natives of that country
whom they found within their walls, and put them to death. But after
the French king had begun his operations with success, and had taken
some of their outworks, the citizens, seeing no resource, offered to
capitulate; and demanded only thirty days to advertise their prince of
their danger, and to require succours against the enemy. [MN 1st
June.] Upon the expiration of the term, as no supply had arrived,
they opened their gates to Philip [w]; and the whole province soon
after imitated the example, and submitted to the victor. Thus was
this important territory re-united to the crown of France, about three
centuries after the cession of it by Charles the Simple to Rollo, the
first duke: and the Normans, sensible that this conquest was probably
final, demanded the privilege of being governed by French laws; which
Philip, making a few alterations on the ancient Norman customs,
readily granted them. But the French monarch had too much ambition
and genius to stop in his present career of success. He carried his
victorious army into the western provinces; soon reduced Anjou, Maine,
Touraine, and part of Poictou [x]; and in this manner the French
crown, during the reign of one able and active prince, received such
an accession of power and grandeur, as in the ordinary course of
things, it would have required several ages to attain.
[FN [w] Trivet. p. 147. Ypod. Neust. p. 459. [x] Trivet, p. 149.]

John, on his arrival in England, that he might cover the disgrace of
his own conduct, exclaimed loudly against his barons, who, he
pretended, had deserted his standard in Normandy; and he arbitrarily
extorted from them a seventh of all their moveables, as a punishment
for the offence [y]. Soon after he forced them to grant him a scutage
of two marks and a half on each knight's fee for an expedition into
Normandy; but he did not attempt to execute the service for which he
pretended to exact it. Next year he summoned all the barons of his
realm to attend him on this foreign expedition, and collected ships
from all the sea-ports; but meeting with opposition from some of his
ministers, and abandoning his design, he dismissed both fleet and
army, and then renewed his exclamations against the barons for
deserting him. He next put to sea with a small army, and his subje