Source C

William of Newburgh, an historian, writing in the chronicle The History of English Affairs (completed c1198). Much of the chronicle was based on the writings of others.

The younger Henry, by the advice of the French, devising evil from every source against his father, went secretly into Aquitaine, where his two brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, resided with their mother; and with her connivance [plotting], brought them with him into France. Their father had granted Aquitaine to one and Brittany to the other. Hence the younger Henry believed, from the suggestions of the French, that the people of Aquitaine and Brittany would, because of Richard, support him as would the Bretons under Geoffrey. The younger Henry also allied himself to the count of Flanders—a man of great power and immoderate presumption [arrogance]. The younger Henry gained the count’s support by making great promises with the consent of the king of France [Louis VII]. Then many powerful and noble persons— in England and in foreign parts—driven by hatred, which until then they had hidden, or persuaded by promises of the vainest kind, began by degrees to desert the father for the son, and to make every preparation for war.