the kingdom of England and all his territories. Then the king commanded Arthur to be conducted rapidly to Rouen, and to be carefully kept in the closest custody, and soon after he disappeared. The same year, king -John, coming into England, was crowned at Canterbury, by the hand of Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, on the fourteenth of April, and immediately afterwards he crossed the sea to Normandy, and when he arrived there, a general belief of the death of Arthur gained ground throughout the whole kingdom of France, and throughout all the countries beyond the sea, to such an extent, that king John was looked at with suspicion by all men, as if he had slain him with his own hand. On which account, many people from that time forth were wholly alienated from the king, and pursued him to the death with implacable hatred. And the king of France himself summoned king John before him on a charge of treason, and as he refused to appear to answer this charge after many citations, he was deprived of all his possessions, according to the decision of his peers, by the barons of the court of the king of France, whose vassal he was, and the king accused him openly, and branded him with infamy. The same year, William de Stutevil, and William of Oxford, prior of Southwark, died, and he was succeeded by Richard of Saint Ethelred. The king of France took the nolle castles of Normandy, king John being inactive. A.D . 1203. John, king of England, kept the feast of the Nativity of the Lord at Caen, in Normandy, where, putting aside his warlike cares, he devoted the hours of the night to drinking ; and, protracting his morning slumbers till dinnertime, he replied, with a laugh, to all who brought him news that the king of France was displaying great activity, and daily subduing one castle after another, so that, in one day, as it were, he recovered all that he had lost. Hugh de Goumay, seeing the incorrigible torpor of the inactivity of the king, surrendered to the king of France the castle of Montfort, and at last, as all had forsaken the spiritless king, even Rouen was lost. At length, king John, effeminate and dissolved in luxury as he was, seeing his losses, and that he was deprived of all military reinforcements, and of all refuge in Normandy, embarked in haste on board his ships, and landed at Portsmouth,