Hubert’s last act was the great carucage of 1198, a tax of five shillings on every carucate. He ordered the carucate to represent a hundred acres; a new Domesday survey was commissioned, with clerks and knights in every shire, the sheriff, stewards of barons, lords or bailiffs of townships, and reeves and four lawful men, applying the jury-inquest to the assessment of taxation on real property. Before Whitsuntide Hubert’s retirement was announced and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter appointed in his stead. Geoffrey, formerly sheriff of Northampton and a judge, acted with fewer scruples: when some religious orders refused to pay the carucage, a royal edict declared the whole body of clergy incapable of claiming redress for wrongs by the laity while satisfaction was exacted to the uttermost farthing for any injury done by a clerk to a layman. The decree requiring all charters granted under the old seal to be brought up for confirmation was renewed. Three justices-errant held pleas of the Crown in the northern shires, and justices of the forest were sent all over England for a great forest-assize.
The French monarchy, built around Paris, was now a match for the Angevin power north of the Loire. Philip had acquired Vermandois in 1186, and the death of the Flemish count Philip in 1191 made him master of all Flanders south of the Lys. Richard had bought Philip’s assent to his peaceful entrance upon his heritage by renunciation of claims on Auvergne and cession of Graçay and Issoudun. The Angevin empire had no single centre; it was held together only by Richard’s personal energy. Philip’s audacity in claiming the whole Vexin and the counties of Aumale and Eu, with no shadow of reason, indicated a more definite design against the Angevins. The terms of his treaty with John reserved the whole Norman territory on the right bank of the Seine except Rouen, the castles of Vaudreuil, Verneuil and Ivry, and the best part of Touraine. With Richard still a prisoner, Philip won the Vexin, Aumale and Eu, and besieged Rouen. He accepted Richard’s overtures of peace in July, but seven months later invaded again, took Evreux, and besieged Rouen once more.
On May 12 Richard landed at Barfleur and by the end of another fortnight was encamped at L’Aigle within miles of Verneuil. The defection of John and the surprise of Evreux alarmed Philip, who on Whitsun Eve fled into his own dominions. Richard hurried to relieve Montmirail, found it levelled, pushed on to Tours, and drove the canons of S. Martin from their abbey. He blockaded Loches with Navarrese and Brabantines; it surrendered on June 13. Bertrand de Born was again stirring up the south. On July 4 the two kings were within miles of each other—Richard at Vendôme, Philip at Fréteval. Philip struck his tents and withdrew; Richard pursued, missed Philip himself, but fell upon the troops convoying his baggage, capturing the royal seal, the treasury-rolls, and the charters of agreement between Philip and all the Norman, Angevin and Poitevin rebels.
By July 22 Richard was master of all the castles of the Angoumois. He marched north, secured Anjou and Maine, and returned to Normandy, where his representatives had concluded a truce. He then withdrew the seal from William of Longchamp and repudiated all engagements under it. For the next four years fruitless negotiations alternated with indecisive warfare confined to the Norman border, where Richard proved more than a match for Philip in diplomatic rivalry.
Richard now sought to win John, who discovered his own interests could be better served by supporting his brother. Arthur of Britanny’s succession seemed impossible in England and fatal in Gaul. In 1196 Richard summoned Constance to a conference in Normandy; she was caught by her husband Earl Ralf of Chester at Pontorson and imprisoned in his castle of S. James-de-Beuvron. Richard renewed his claim to the wardship of Arthur. The Bretons sent their young duke to the bishop of Vannes, then intrusted him to the king of France, who sent him to be educated with his own son.
In 1196 Richard allied with Toulouse by offering the hand of his sister Queen Jane of Sicily to the new Count Raymond VI. He gained over Leopold of Austria by offering his niece Eleanor of Britanny as wife to Leopold’s son, but the marriage was not executed when Leopold met a fatal accident. Henry VI sent Richard a golden crown charging him to invade France and promising imperial support. Richard suspected a trap but sent William of Longchamp to inquire; Philip tried to intercept the envoy. Henry remitted seventeen thousand marks of the ransom. When Henry VI died on Michaelmas Eve 1197, Richard was summoned as chief among the lay members of the Empire to the election at Cöln. Richard wished the imperial crown for his nephew Duke Henry of Saxony, but his absence in the Holy Land caused the scheme to be rejected. Richard’s representatives proposed Henry’s brother Otto; on February 22 Otto was elected Emperor and crowned at Aachen on July 12.
A grandson of Henry Fitz-Empress on the imperial throne delighted the friends of the Angevin house. A rival Emperor was set up in Philip of Suabia, who made common cause with his French namesake. The vast sums Hubert Walter had been sending over sea were bringing good interest: Flanders, Britanny and Champagne had been secretly detached from the French alliance and bought over to Richard’s service. In summer 1198 Baldwin of Flanders, Reginald of Boulogne, Baldwin of Guines, Henry of Louvain, Everard of Brienne, Geoffrey of Perche, Raymond of Toulouse, young Count Louis of Blois, and the boy-duke Arthur leagued themselves with Richard. Philip begged Hubert Walter to make peace, offering the surrender of all the Norman castles except Gisors; Richard would listen to no terms that did not include his allies. In November a truce was made; when it expired, a colloquy on the Seine was followed by a five years’ truce mediated by Cardinal Peter of Capua.
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