tablished the credit of the new
saint, it established Henry in the minds of his people: they no longer
looked upon their king as an object of the Divine vengeance, but as a
penitent reconciled to Heaven, and under the special protection of the
martyr he had made. The Flemish army, after several severe checks,
capitulated to evacuate the kingdom. The rebellious barons submitted
soon after. All was quiet in England; but the King of France renewed
hostilities in Normandy, and laid siege to Rouen. Henry recruited his
army with a body of auxiliary Welsh, arrived at Rouen with his usual
expedition, raised the siege, and drove the King of France quite out of
Normandy. It was then that he agreed to an accommodation, and in the
terms of peace, which he dictated in the midst of victory to his sons,
his subjects, and his enemies, there was seen on one hand the tenderness
of a father, and on the other the moderation of a wise man, not
insensible of the mutability of fortune.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1176]

The war which threatened his ruin being so happily ended, the greatness
of the danger served only to enhance his glory; whilst he saw the King
of France humbled, the Flemings defeated, the King of Scotland a
prisoner, and his sons and subjects reduced to the bounds of their duty.
He employed this interval of peace to secure its continuance, and to
prevent a return of the like evils; for which reason he made many
reforms in the laws and polity of his dominions. He instituted itinerant
justices, to weaken the power of the great barons, and even of the
sheriffs, who were hardly more obedient,--an institution which, with
great public advantages, has remained to our times. In the spirit of the
same policy he armed the whole body of the people: the English
commonalty had been in a manner disarmed ever since the Conquest. In
this regulation we may probably trace the origin of the militia, which,
being under the orders of the crown rather in a political than a feudal
respect, were judged more to be relied on than the soldiers of tenure,
to whose pride and power they might prove a sort of counterpoise. Amidst
these changes the affairs of the clergy remained untouched. The king had
experienced how dangerous it was to attempt removing foundations so
deeply laid both in strength and opinion. He therefore wisely aimed at
acquiring the favor of that body, and turning to his own advantage a
power he should in vain attempt to overthrow, but which he mi