Note 583 — Chapter IV · HENRY AND THE BARONS. 1166–1175.
Reading edition
“The government party was made up of two elements—the higher order of the Clergy, who joined the king out of cowardice, having more at stake than they could make up their minds to lose; and the higher order of the Laity, who in this instance sided with the king against the Church, that when they had removed this obstacle they might afterwards fight him single-handed.” (R. H. Froude, Remains, vol. iv. p. 30). Which is just what Arnulf of Lisieux saw from the first (Ep. clxii., Robertson, Becket, vol. v. pp. 309, 310), and what Henry learned to his cost in 1173.