ctou, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and
Britany; and the statute took place in all these last-mentioned
territories [c], though totally unconnected with each other [d]; a
certain proof how irregular the ancient feudal government was, and how
near the sovereigns, in some instances, approached to despotism,
though in others they seemed scarcely to possess any authority. If a
prince, much dreaded and revered, like Henry, obtained but the
appearance of general consent to an ordinance which was equitable and
just, it became immediately an established law, and all his subjects
acquiesced in it. If the prince was hated or despised; if the nobles
who supported him had small influence; if the humours of the times
disposed the people to question the justice of his ordinance; the
fullest and most authentic assembly had no authority. Thus all was
confusion and disorder; no regular idea of a constitution; force and
violence decided every thing.
[FN [c] Bened. Abb. p. 248. It was usual for the kings of England,
after the conquest of Ireland, to summon barons and members of that
country to the English Parliament. Mollineux's case of Ireland, p.
64, 65, 66. [d] Spellman even doubts whether the law were not also
extended to England. If it were not, it could only be because Henry
did not choose it; for his authority was greater in that kingdom than
in his transmarine dominions.]

The success which had attended Henry in his wars did not much
encourage his neighbours to form any attempt against him; and his
transactions with them during several years, contain little memorable.
Scotland remained in that state of feudal subjection to which he had
reduced it, and gave him no farther inquietude. He sent over his
fourth son, John, into Ireland, with a view of making a more complete
conquest of the island; but the petulance and incapacity of this
prince, by which he enraged the Irish chieftains, obliged the king
soon after to recall him [e]. The King of France had fallen into an
abject superstition; and was induced, by a devotion more sincere than
that of Henry, to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Becket, in order to
obtain his intercession for the cure of Philip, his eldest son. He
probably thought himself well entitled to the favour of that saint on
account of their ancient intimacy; and hoped that Becket, whom he had
protected while on earth, would not now, when he was so highly exalted
in heaven, forgot his old friend and benefactor. Th