them, so that there was great hunger therein. When they could no longer hold out, they stole out and fled. And they without were aware, and followed them, and took Robert earl of Gloucester, and led him to Rochester, and there put him in prison; and the empress fled to a monastery. Then went wise men betwixt the king's friends and the earl's friends, and so agreed: that the king should be let out of prison for the earl, and the earl for the king, and they so did. After that, the king and earl Randolf agreed at Stamford, and swore oaths, and plighted troth, that neither of them should prove traitor to the other; but it stood for naught; for the king afterwards took him at Northampton, through wicked counsel, and put him in prison, and eftsoons, through worse counsel, he let him out, on the condition that he should swear on a relic, and find hostages, that he would give up all his castles. Some he gave up, and some he gave up not; and then did worse here than he should. Then was England much divided; some held with the king and some with the empress; for when the king was in prison, the earls and the great men imagined that he never more would come out; and agreed with the empress, and brought her to Oxford, and gave her the burgh. When the king was out, he heard that say, and took his force, and besieged her in the tower; and she was let down by night from the tower with ropes, and she stole out, and fled, and went on foot to Wallingford. After that she went over sea, and they of Normandy all turned from the king to the count of Anjou, some voluntarily, some by compulsion, for he besieged them till they gave up their castles; and they had no help from the king. Then went Eustace, the king's son, to Constance. France, and took the king of France's [1]sister to wife, imagining to get Normandy thereby; but he sped little, and by good right, for he was an evil man, for wheresoever he was, he did more evil than good. He robbed the lands, and laid great imposts on them. He brought his wife to England, and put her in the castle of . . . . . A good woman she was, but she had little bliss with him; and Christ would not that he should long rule; and he died, and his mother also; and the count of Anjou died, and his son Henry succeeded to the county. And the queen of France parted from the king, and she came to the young count Henry, and he took her to wife, and all Poitou with her. He then went with a great force to England, and
- ↑ Coustance.
