135 CHAPTER XII. HENRY III. A. D. 1216-1272. THE English, being now happily rid of a tyrant who threatened the kingdom with destruction, had still his rival to fear, who only aimed at gaining the crown, to make it subservient to that of France. The partiality of Lewis on every occasion was the more disgusting, as it was the less concealed. The diffidence which he constantly discovered of the fidelity of the barons, increased that jealousy which it was so natural for them to entertain on the present occasion. An accident happened, which rendered him still more disagreeable to his new subjects. The government of the castle of Hertford becoming vacant, it was claimed as of right by Robert Fitzwalter, a nobleman who had been extremely active in his service; but his claim was rejected. It was now, therefore, apparent that the English would he excluded from every trust under the French government, and that foreigners were to engross all the favour of their new sovereign. Nor was the excommunication denounced against Lewis, by the pope, entirely without its effect. In fact, the people were easily persuaded to consider a cause as impious and profane, for which they had already entertained an insurmountable aversion. In this disposition of the people, the claims of any native, with even the smallest pretensions to favour, would have had a most probable chance of succeeding. A claim was accordingly made in favour of young Henry, the son of the late king, who was now but nine years of age. The earl of Pembroke, a nobleman of great worth and valour, who had faithfully adhered to John in all the fluctuations of his fortune, was at the time of that prince's death mareschal of England, and consequently at the head of the army. This nobleman determined to support the declining interests of the young prince, and had him solemnly crowned by the bishops of Winchester and Bath, at Gloucester. In order also to enlarge and confirm his own authority upon the present occasion, a great council of the barons was summoned at Bristol, where the earl was chosen guardian to the king, and protector of the kingdom. His first act was highly pleasing to the people, and reconciled them to the interests of the young prince; he made young Henry grant a new charter of liberties, which contained very few exceptions from that already extorted from his predecessor. To this was added a charter, ascertaining the jurisdiction and the boundaries of the royal forests, which thence was called the Charta de Foresta. By this it was enacted, that all the forests which had been enclosed since the reign of Henry the Second should be restored to the people, and new perambulations made for that purpose. Offences on the forests were no longer declared to be capital, but punishable by gentler laws; and all the proprietors of land were gratified with a power of cutting and using their own wood at pleasure. To these measures, which gave universal satisfaction, Pembroke took care to add his more active endeavours against the enemy. He wrote letters, in the king's name, to all the malcontent barons, assuring them of his resolution to govern them by their own charters; and represented the danger which they incurred by their adherence to a French monarch, who only wanted to oppress them. These assurances were attended with the desired effect. The party in the interest of Lewis began to lose ground every day, by the desertion of some of its most powerful leaders. The earls of Salisbury, Arundel, and Warrenne, with William Mareschal, eldest son of the protector, came over to the young king; and all the rest of the barons appeared desirous of an opportunity of following their example. The protector was so much strengthened by these accesA. D. sions, that he took the field; but the French army appear1217. ing, he was obliged to retire. The count de Perche, who commanded for Lewis, was so elated with his superiority, that he marched to Lincoln; and, being admitted into the town, began to attack the castle, which he soon reduced to extremity. The protector, now finding that a decisive blow was to be struck, summoned all his forces from every quarter, in order to relieve a place of such importance; and he, in turn, appeared so much superior to the French, that they shut themselves within the city, and resolved to take shelter behind the walls. But the garrison of the castle, having received a strong re-enforcement, made a vigorous sally upon the besiegers, while the English army assaulted them from without; and, scaling the walls, entered the city sword in hand. Lincoln was delivered over to be pillaged; the French army was totally routed, the commander-in-chief was killed, and many of the rest made prisoners of war. This misfortune of the French was but the forerunner of another. Their fleet, which was bringing over re-enforcements both of men and money, was attacked by the English, under the command of Philip d'Albiney, and was repulsed with considerable loss. D'Albiney is said to have practised a stratagem against them, to which he owed his victory. Having gained the wind of the French, he ordered his men to throw quick-lime in the faces of the enemy; which blinding them, they were disabled from farther defence. These repeated losses served, at length, to give peace to the kingdom. Lewis, finding his cause every day declining, and that it was at last grown wholly desperate, began to be anxious for the safety of his person; and was glad to submit to any conditions favourable to his retreat. He concluded a peace with the protector, in which he agreed to leave the kingdom, and exacted, in return, an indemnity for all his adherents. Thus ended a civil war which had for some time drenched the kingdom in blood, and in which not only its constitution, but all its happiness, seemed irretrievable. The death of John, and the abdication of Lewis, were circumstances that could hardly be expected even by the most sanguine well-wishers of their country. The one was brought about by accident, and the other by the prudence and intrepidity of the earl of Pembroke, who did not long survive his success. A. D. 1219. The young king was of a character the very opposite to that of his father: as he grew up to man's estate, he was found to be gentle, merciful, and humane; he appeared easy and good-natured to his dependents, but no way formidable to his enemies. Without activity or vigour, he was unfit to conduct in war; without distrust or suspicion, he was imposed upon in time of peace. A king of such beneficent and weak qualifications was very little fitted to hold the reins of a kingdom such as England was at that time, where every order was aspiring to independence, and endeavouring to plume themselves with the spoils of the prerogative. The protector was succeeded in his office by Peter, bishop of Winchester, and Hubert de Burgh, high justiciary; but no authority in the governors could control a people who had been long used to civil discord, and who caught every slight occasion to magnify small offences into public grievances. The nobles were now, in effect, the tyrants of the people; for, having almost totally destroyed the power of the crown, and being encouraged by the weakness of a minority, they considered the laws as instruments made only for their defence, and with which they alone were to govern. They therefore retained by force the royal castles which they had usurped during the former convulsions; they oppressed their vassals; they infested their weaker neighbours; and they invited all disorderly people to take protection under their authority. It is not then to be wondered, that there were many complaints against those who were placed over them. Hubert de Burgh, who took the lead in the government, experienced many conspiracies formed not only against his authority but his person; and so little did the confederates regard secresy, that they openly avowed their intentions of removing him from his office. When they were required by him to give up their castles, they not only refused, but several of them entered into a confederacy to surprise London; and, with the earls of Chester and Albemarle at their head, they advanced as far as Waltham with that intention. At that time, however, their aims were frustrated by the diligence of the government; but they did not desist from their enterprise: for, meeting some time after at Leicester, they endeavoured to seize the king, but found themselves disappointed in this, as in their former attempt. In this threatening commotion, the power of the church was obliged to interpose; and the archbishops and prelates threatened the barons with the sentence of excommunication, if they should persist either in their attempts upon the king or in detaining his castles. This menace at last prevailed. Most of the fortresses were surrendered; and the number at that time is said to have amounted to above a thousand. But though Henry gained this advantage by the prudence and perseverance of his minister, yet his power still rested upon a very weak foundation. A contest with his brother Richard, who had amassed such sums of money as to be reckoned the richest prince in Europe, soon showed the weakness both of his power and his disposition. Richard had unjustly expelled an inferior baron from his manor; and the king insisted upon his restoring him. The other persisting in his refusal, a powerful confederacy was formed, and an army assembled, which the king had neither power nor courage to resist. Richard's injustice was declared legal; and his resentment was obliged to be mollified by grants of much greater importance than the manor which had been the first ground of the quarrel. Thus was the king obliged to submit to all the demands of his haughty vassal; and he had scarcely any person who seemed solicitous for his interests but Hubert de Burgh, whom, nevertheless, he discarded in a sudden caprice, and thus exposed his A. D. faithful servant to the violent persecution of his enemies. 1231. Among the many frivolous crimes objected to him, he was accused of gaining the king's affections by enchantment, and sending the prince of Wales a jewel which he had stolen from the treasury, that rendered the wearer invulnerable. Hubert, when he found his ruin resolved on, was compelled to take sanctuary in a church; but the king was prevailed upon to give orders for his being dragged from thence. Thus irresolute and timid, the orders of one moment contradicted those of the preceding. He quickly recalled the orders he had given, and again renewed them. The clergy interposed, and obliged the king to permit him to return to his sanctuary; but he was once more constrained to surrender himself a prisoner, and was confined to the castle of Devizes. From thence Hubert made his escape; and though he afterwards obtained the king's pardon, he never testified any desire to encounter future dangers in his service. But, as weak princes are never to be without governing favourites, the place of Hubert was soon supplied by Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, a Poictevin by birth, one equally remarkable for his arbitrary conduct and for his courage and abilities. Henry, in pursuance of this prelate's advice, invited over a great number of Poictevins and other foreigners, who, having neither principles nor fortunes at home, were willing to adopt whatever schemes their employer should propose. Every office and command were bestowed on these unprincipled strangers, whose avarice and rapacity were exceeded only by their pride and insolence. So unjust a partiality to strangers very naturally excited the jealousy of the barons; and they even ventured to assure the king, that if he did not dismiss all foreigners from court, they would drive both him and them out of the kingdom. But the bishop of Winchester had taken his measures so well, that he brought over many of the most powerful of the confederates; and the estates of the more obnoxious barons were confiscated, for the benefit of his needy countrymen. In these violent measures the king was a calm consenting spectator; he was contented with present advantages; and while these confiscations A. D. procured immediate wealth, he little regarded the consequences. But, as he was chiefly swayed by tumultuary remonstrances, another confederacy, at the head of which was the archbishop of Canterbury, induced him to dismiss his minister, and to send him and his indigent countrymen out of the kingdom. Encouragement to foreigners was the chief complaint against the king; and it was now expected that the people were to be no longer aggrieved by seeing such advanced above them. But their hopes were quickly disappointed; for the king, having married Eleanor, daughter of 1236. the count of Provence, transferred his affections to the strangers of that country, whom he caressed with the fondest affection, and enriched with the most imprudent generosity. Places, dignities, and vast treasures were lavished upon them; many young noblemen, who were wards to the crown, were married to wives of that country; and when the sources of the king's liberality were dried up, he resumed all the grants he had formerly made, in order to continue his favours. The resentment of every rank of people was excited by this mischievous attachment; but their anger was scarcely kept within bounds, when they saw a new swarm of these intruders come over from Gascony, with Isabella, the king's mother, who had been some time before married to the count de la Marche. To these just causes of complaint were added the king's unsuccessful expeditions to the continent, his total want of economy, and his oppressive exactions, which were but the result of the former. The kingdom, therefore, waited with gloomy resolution, resolving to take vengeance when the general discontent should arrive at maturity. A. D. 1253. To these temporal discontents, those arising from the rapacity of the see of Rome were added. The clergy of England, while they were contending for the power of the pope, were not aware that they were effectually opposing their own interests; for the pontiff, having by various arts obtained the investiture of all livings and prelacies in the kingdom, failed not to fill up every vacancy with his own creatures. His power being established, he now began to turn it to his profit, and to enrich the church by every art of extortion and avarice. At this time all the chief benefices of the kingdom were conferred on Italians. Great numbers of that nation were sent over at one time to be provided for; the king's chaplain alone is said to have held at once seven hundred ecclesiastical livings. These abuses became too glaring even for the blind superstition of the people to submit to; they rose in tumults against the Italian clergy, pillaged their barns, wasted their fields, and insulted their persons. But these were transient obstacles to the papal encroachments. The pontiff exacted the revenues of all vacant benefices; the twentieth of all ecclesiastical livings without exception; the third of such as exceeded a hundred marks a year, and the half of such as were held by non-residents: he claimed the goods of all intestate clergymen; he pretended a right of inheriting all money obtained by usury; and he levied voluntary contributions on the people. The indignities which the people suffered from |