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Page 60
that would define its worth in rents. It would be his duty not only to secure the revenues to the King but to protect the estate as well as the heiress in times of trouble. At present the nation appeared ready to accept Richard as King without protest, but, as Simon had said already to Sir Andre and Sir John, this happy condition might not survive Richard's sojourn in the Holy Lands. Worse, if he should die there without an heiran all too likely possibilitythe succession was not clear. Between Richard and his brother John, there had been another son, Geoffrey. Geoffrey was dead, but he had married and had a son and heirArthur. By strict right of primogeniture, Arthur was the heir to Richard's throne, but Arthur was only three years old. It was not rational to put a child on an uneasy throne. Unfortunately Johnfor good reasonwas already disliked and distrusted. The situation spelled trouble.
There was another, more immediate, problem in terms of defense. Alinor's estates ran for miles along the seacoast, and it was necessary for Simon to consider protection for the lands both from the pirate bands that periodically swarmed ashore to rape and loot and from the ever-present chance of French invasion. Theoretically Philip of France was Richard's ally. He had helped Richard destroy his father and had also taken the Cross and promised to go on Crusade. However, Philip of France had a deep-seated and ineradicable hatred for all Angevinswith good cause. Philip's father Louis had once been married to Alinor of Aquitaine and her huge possessions, a third of France, had once belonged to the French Crown. Then Henry the Angevin had tempted the Queen to annul her marriage to her French husband and take him instead. With her went her enormous provinces. Philip would not rest, nor cease to hate the Angevins, until every stick and stone of Alinor's dowry was back in French hands. He had tried by war, but Henry and Richard had beaten him. Then he worked by guile.

 
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