It was almost equally a
matter of course that as soon as they were free they began intriguing
against John. But the chronic intrigues of the south were in
reality--as John himself seems to have discovered--a far less serious
danger than the disaffection in his northern dominions. This last evil
was undoubtedly, so far as Normandy was concerned, owing in great
measure to John's own fault. He had intrusted the defence of the
Norman duchy to his mercenaries under the command of a Provencal
captain--whose real name is unknown--who seems to have adopted for
himself the nickname of _Lou Pescaire_ ("the Fisherman")--which the
Normans apparently corrupted into "Louvrekaire"--and who habitually
treated his employer's peaceable subjects in a fashion in which other
commanders would have shrunk from treating avowed enemies. Side by
side with the discontent thus caused among the people there was a
rapid growth of treason among the Norman barons--treason fraught with
far greater peril than the treason of the nobles of Aquitaine, because
it was more persistent and more definite in its aim; because it was at
once less visible and tangible and more deeply rooted; because it
spread in silence and wrought in darkness; and because, while no
southern rebel ever really fought for anything but his own hand, the
northern traitors were in close concert with Philip Augustus.
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