He carried his victorious army into the western provinces; soon reduced Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and part of Poictou;[**] and in this manner the French crown, during the reign of one able and active prince, received such an accession of power and grandeur, as, in the ordinary course of things, it would have required several ages to attain.
John, on his arrival in England, that he might cover the disgrace of his own conduct, exclaimed loudly against his barons, who, he pretended, had deserted his standard in Normandy; and he arbitrarily extorted from them a seventh of all their movables, as a punishment for the offence.[***] [* Trivet, p.147.Ypod.Neust.p.

469.] [** Trivet, p 149] [*** M.Paris, p.146.

M.West.p.

265.] Soon after he forced them to grant him a scutage of two marks and a half on each knights' fee for an expedition into Normandy; but he did not attempt to execute the service for which he pretended to exact it.

Next year, he summoned all the barons of his realm to attend him on this foreign expedition, and collected ships from all the seaports; but meeting with opposition from some of his ministers, and abandoning his design, he dismissed both fleet and army, and then renewed his exclamations against the barons for deserting him.