s to those provinces, and
had got possession of a considerable part of them [g]. On the king's
appearance, the people returned to their allegiance; and Geoffrey,
resigning his claim for an annual pension of a thousand pounds,
departed and took possession of the county of Nantz, which the
inhabitants, who had expelled Count Hoel, their prince, had put into
his hands. [MN 1157.] Henry returned to England the following year:
the incursions of the Welsh then provoked him to make an invasion upon
them; where the natural fastnesses of the country occasioned him great
difficulties, and even brought him into danger. His vanguard, being
engaged in a narrow pass, was put to rout. Henry de Essex, the
hereditary standard-bearer, seized with a panic, threw down the
standard, took to flight and exclaimed, that the king. was slain: and
had not the prince immediately appeared in person, and led on his
troops with great gallantry, the consequences might have proved fatal
to the whole army [h]. For this misbehaviour, Essex was afterwards
accused of felony by Robert de Montfort; was vanquished in single
combat; his estate was confiscated; and he himself was thrust into a
convent [i]. The submissions of the Welsh procured them an
accommodation with England.
[FN [g] See note [O], at the end of the volume. [h] Neubr. p. 383.
Chron. W. Heming. p. 492. [i] M. Paris, p. 70 Neubr. p. 383.]

[MN 1158.] The martial disposition of the princes in that age engaged
them to head their own armies in every enterprise, even the most
frivolous; and their feeble authority made it commonly impracticable
for them to delegate, on occasion, the command to their generals.
Geoffrey, the king's brother, died soon after he had acquired
possession of Nantz: though he had no other title to that county than
the voluntary submission or election of the inhabitants two years
before, Henry laid claim to the territory as devolved to him by
hereditary right, and he went over to support his pretensions by force
of arms. Conan, Duke or Earl of Britany, (for these titles are given
indifferently by historians to those princes,) pretended that Nantz
had been lately separated by rebellion from his principality, to which
of right it belonged; and immediately on Geoffrey's death he took
possession of the disputed territory. Lest Lewis, the French king,
should interpose in the controversy, Henry paid him a visit; and so
allured him by caresses and civilities, that an a