ight have justified them in the deposition of
their king; they declined insisting, before Philip, on a pretension
which is commonly so disagreeable to sovereigns, and which sounds
harshly in the royal ears. They affirmed, that John was incapable of
succeeding to the crown, by reason of the attainder passed upon him
during his brother's reign; though that attainder had been reversed,
and Richard. had even, by his last will, declared him his successor.
They pretended that he was already legally deposed by sentence of the
Peers of France, on account of the murder of his nephew; though that
sentence could not possibly regard any thing but his transmarine
dominions, which alone he held in vassalage to that crown. On more
plausible grounds they affirmed, that he had already deposed himself
by doing homage to the pope, changing the nature of his sovereignty,
and resigning an independent crown for a fee under a foreign power.
And as Blanche of Castile, the wife of Lewis, was descended by her
mother from Henry II., they maintained, though many other princes
stood before her in the order of succession, that they had not shaken
off the royal family, in choosing her husband for their sovereign.

Philip was strongly tempted to lay hold on the rich prize which was
offered to him. The legate menaced interdicts and excommunications,
if he invaded the patrimony of St. Peter, or attacked a prince who was
under the immediate protection of the holy see [y]: but as Philip was
assured of the obedience of his own vassals, his principles were
changed with the times, and he now undervalued as much all papal
censures, as he formerly pretended to pay respect to them. His chief
scruple was with regard to the fidelity which he might expect from the
English barons in their new engagements, and the danger of intrusting
his son and heir into the hands of men, who might, on any caprice or
necessity, make peace with their native sovereign, by sacrificing a
pledge of so much value. He therefore exacted from the barons twenty-
five hostages of the most noble birth in the kingdom [z]; and having
obtained this security, he sent over first a small army to the relief
of the confederates; then more numerous forces, which arrived with
Lewis himself at their head.
[FN [y] M. Paris, p. 194. M. West. p. 275. [z] M. Paris, p. 193.
Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 74.]

The first effect of the young prince's appearance in England was the
desertion of John's foreig