er his own supremacy by ordering Richard and Geoffrey
to do homage to their brother for Aquitaine and Britanny. Richard's
passionate refusal struck the first open blow at his father's imperial
schemes, and war at once broke out. The nobles of Aquitaine, weary of
the severe rule of Richard, had long plotted to set in his place his
gentler brother Henry, and the young king, along with Geoffrey, lent
himself openly to the conspiracy. In 1183 they called for help from
Flanders, France, and Normandy, and a general revolt seemed on the point
of breaking out, like that of ten years before. Henry II. was forced to
march himself into Aquitaine. But in a war with his sons he was no
longer the same man as when he fought with French king or rebel barons.
His political sagacity and his passionate love of his children fought an
unequal battle. Duped by every show of affection, he was at their mercy
in intrigue. Twice peaceful embassies, which he sent to Henry and
Geoffrey, were slain before their eyes without protest. As he himself
talked with them they coolly saw one of their archers shoot at him and
wound his horse. The younger Henry pretended to make peace with his
father, sitting at meat with him, and eating out of the same dish, that
Geoffrey might have time to ravage the land unhindered. Geoffrey
successfully adopted the same device in order to plunder the churches of
Limoges. The wretched strife was only closed at last by the death of the
younger Henry in 1183.

His death, however, only opened new anxieties. Richard now claimed to
take his brother's place as heir to the imperial dignity, while at the
same time he exercised undivided lordship over an important state a
position which the king had again and again refused to Henry. Geoffrey,
whose over-lord the young king had been, sought to rule Britanny as a
dependent of Philip, and his plots in Paris with the French king were
only ended by his death in 1185. Philip, on his part, demanded, at the
death of the young king, the restoration of Margaret's dowry, the Vexin
and Gisors; when Geoffrey died he claimed to be formally recognized as
suzerain of Britanny, and guardian of his infant; he demanded that
Richard should do homage directly to him as sovereign lord of Aquitaine,
and determined to assert his rights over the lands so long debated of
Berri and Auvergne. For the last years of Henry's reign disputes raged
round these points, and more than once war was only averted by the