which he held by grant from his father, and king Henry gave him, in return, all that Stephen held on the day when Henry the First died. At the same time, also, Hugh Bigod resigned hie castles to the king : and during the same year king Henry prepared a large armament, to attack Wales by sea and land: for this expedition every two knights were called on to find the costs for furnishing a third. When all was ready, the king entered Wales, cut down the woods and forests, and, opening a road for his army, laid siege to Bhydlar castle. He recovered all the fortresses which had been taken from his ancestors, rebuilt Basingwerk castle ; and, when he had reduced the Welsh to submission, returned in triumph to England. The same year, his queen Eleanor bore him a son, who was named Richard. Robert du Mont St. Michael brought down his chronicle to this date. How king Henry laid aside his crown. A.D. 1158. King Henry was crowned on Christmas day at Worcester, and, after the celebration of the sacraments, he laid his crown on the altar, and wore it no longer. The same year his queen Eleanor bore him a son named Geoffrey : a new mintage was also coined in England, and Thomas, the king's chancellor,* went on an embassy, with much splendour, to Paris, to receive Margaret, the daughter of the king of France, as wife to prince Henry, the king of England's son. King Henry, also, in consequence of his brother Geoffrey's death, crossed the channel, and took possession of the city of Nantes: he, moreover, paid a visit, by invitation, to the French king at Paris, where he was lodged in the palace, and Louis with his queen took up their quarters in the cloister of the canons of St. Mary's the virgin. How king Henry besieged Toulouse. A.D. 1159. King Henry marched against Toulouse, and took several castles in its neighbourhood, whilst the French king was in that city. Henry would not, however, attack the city itself out of respect to the French king, whose sister * A full and interesting account of this embassy is given in FitzStephen'e life of Becket : see " Vita Sancii Thomae, ab auctoribus contemporaneis scripta." 8vo. London, 1S45. vol. i. p. 196. The English reader will find the whole narrative translated in my " Life and Letters of Thomas a Becket." 8vo. London. 1846. vol. i. p. 101.