The British nation a history / by George MWrong . country. Henry, red and freckled, witha powerful frame, short-croppedhair, and square face, is the pictureof coarse-fibred vigour. His mindand body were ever active; even atmass he would write busily. Inhis restless journeyings he wasoften followed by the whole equi-page of a court and government,and he moved sometimes with amazing rapidity. The King of England does not rideor sail, he flies, said the King of France. The disordersurrounding Henry was compared to the chaosof the infernal regions. He cared nothing forcomfort, and though the age l
The British nation a history / by George MWrong . country. Henry, red and freckled, witha powerful frame, short-croppedhair, and square face, is the pictureof coarse-fibred vigour. His mindand body were ever active; even atmass he would write busily. Inhis restless journeyings he wasoften followed by the whole equi-page of a court and government,and he moved sometimes with amazing rapidity. The King of England does not rideor sail, he flies, said the King of France. The disordersurrounding Henry was compared to the chaosof the infernal regions. He cared nothing forcomfort, and though the age loved ceremony,there was at his court scarcely a trace of formality. Vis-itors might apparently approach him whenever they couldfind him, at dinner, in church, or even in bed. He wouldsummon his great men for a council, and when his pres-ence was expected would be found to have gone off fora days hunting. Henry understood many languages,among them the despised tongue of his English subjects,which, however, he could not speak; he loved the society. Henry II. From his tomb at Fonte- vrault. The characterof Henry. 94 THE BRITISH NATION of the educated, and surrounded hiniself with the purestand noblest characters of the time—usually men betterthan himself. For suffering he showed pity that was rarein his time and class: if he built few churches and mon-asteries, he founded many hospitals and refuges for thepoor. Though a despot, he loved justice. But he wasprofligate; at times his temper was wild and ungovernable,and then his words Avere rash and blasphemous, his actionsthose of a madman, Avho tore oil his clothes, rolled on thefloor, and gnawed the straw. Sometimes he was deliber-ately faithless. He had a passionate love for his children,but used them as pawns in his game of politics, and ex-pected them to submit; it was their disobedience thatbrought dark clouds upon his later years. When Henry came to the throne, foreign mercenaries Avere roaming over the country, and there wa
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