ened in the subsequent year, he took possession
both of Anjou and Maine, and concluded a marriage, which brought him a
great accession of power, and rendered him extremely formidable to his
rival. Eleanor, the daughter and heir of William, Duke of Guienne and
Earl of Poictou, had been married sixteen years to Lewis VII. King of
France, [MN 1152.] and had attended him in a crusade, which that
monarch conducted against the infidels; but having there lost the
affections of her husband, and even fallen under some suspicion of
gallantry with a handsome Saracen, Lewis, more delicate than politic,
procured a divorce from her, and restored her those rich provinces,
which by her marriage she had annexed to the crown of France. Young
Henry, neither discouraged by the inequality of years, nor by the
reports of Eleanor's gallantries, made successful courtship to that
princess, and, espousing her six weeks after her divorce, got
possession of all her dominions as her dowry. The lustre which he
received from this acquisition, and the prospect of his rising
fortune, had such an effect in England, that, when Stephen, desirous
to ensure the crown to his son Eustace, required the Archbishop of
Canterbury to anoint that prince as his successor, the primate refused
compliance, and made his escape beyond sea, to avoid the violence and
resentment of Stephen.
[FN [m] Hagulst. p. 275, 276.]

[MN 1153.] Henry, informed of these dispositions in the people, made
an invasion on England. Having gained some advantage over Stephen at
Malmesbury, and having taken that place, he proceeded thence to throw
succours into Wallingford, which the king had advanced with a superior
army to besiege. A decisive action was every day expected; when the
great men of both sides, terrified at the prospect of farther
bloodshed and confusion, interposed with their good offices, and set
on foot a negotiation between the rival princes. The death of
Eustace, during the course of the treaty, facilitated its conclusion;
[MN Compromise between the king and Prince Henry.] an accommodation
was settled, by which it was agreed, that Stephen should possess the
crown during his lifetime, that justice should be administered in his
name, even in the provinces which had submitted to Henry, and that
this latter prince should, on Stephen's demise, succeed to the
kingdom, and William, Stephen's son, to Boulogne and his patrimonial
estate. After all the barons had sworn to the o