WHEN Mr. Richard Howlett, in the preface to his edition of the Gesta Stephani for the Rolls series, announced that we were indebted to its “careful author” for the knowledge of an invasion of England by Henry FitzEmpress in 1147, “unrecorded by any other chronicler,” and endeavoured at considerable length to establish this proposition, it was received, from all that I can learn, with general incredulity. As, however, in the volume which he has since edited, he reiterates his belief in this alleged invasion, it becomes necessary to examine in detail the evidence for a discovery so authoritatively announced in the pages of the Rolls series.

The accepted view of Henry's movements has hitherto been that, by his father's permission, in the autumn of 1142 he accompanied the Earl of Gloucester to England; that he remained there about four years; that, by his father's wish, at the end of 1146 or beginning of 1147 he returned from England; that he then spent two years and four months over sea; that in the spring of 1149 he again came to England, and was knighted at Carlisle by the king of Scots on 22nd May. As to the above long visit, commencing in 1142, Gervase of Canterbury is our chief authority, but the other chroniclers (omitting for the present the Gesta Stephani) harmonise well with his account.