--Two years subsequently, another council was also
assembled at Lisieux, by the same sovereign, and for nearly the same
objects; and again, in 1119, Henry convened his nobles a third time at
Lisieux, when this parliament ratified the peace concluded at Gisors,
six years previously, and witnessed the marriage[68] of the king's son,
William Adelin, with Matilda, daughter of Fulk, earl of Anjou.
Historical distinction is seldom enviable:--in the wars occasioned by
the usurpation of Stephen, Lisieux once more obtained an unfortunate
celebrity. The town was attacked in 1136, by the forces of Anjou, under
the command of Geoffrey Plantagenet, husband of the Empress Maud, joined
by those of William, Duke of Poitiers; and the garrison, consisting of
Bretons, seeing no hope of effectual resistance or of rescue, set fire
to the place to the extreme mortification of the invaders, who, in the
language of the chronicles of the times, "when they beheld the city and
all its wealth a prey to the flames, waxed exceedingly wroth, at being
deprived of the spoil; and grieved sorely for the loss of the booty
which perished in the conflagration."--The town, however, was not so
effectually ruined, but that, during the following year, it served King
Stephen as a rallying point, at which to collect his army to march
against his antagonist.
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