In 1153, Henry Plantagenet crossed the Channel. His father, Geoffrey, had already taken Normandy from Stephen, so now it was up to Henry to take England. Faced with an exhausted nation and defecting barons, Stephen caved in. A deal was struck. Stephen would be allowed to die on the throne on condition he named Henry as his heir. Within a year, Stephen was dead and Eleanor and Henry were crowned together at Westminster Abbey, King and Queen of England. When they emerged from the vivats and incense, they were the French-speaking sovereigns of an enormous realm which stretched from the Pyrenees through the vineyards of Gascony, along the cod-fish run coastal waters of Brittany, then over the Channel to England, along the length and breadth of the country to the Welsh borders and the windy moors of Cumbria and Northumbria.