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 their former convul. sions; they oppressed their vassals; they infested their weaker neighbours; and they invited alf 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 seemed to take the lead in government, at this time experienced many conspiracies formed not only against his authority, but his person; and so little did the confederates regard secrecy, that they openly avowed their intentions of removing him from his office. The barons being required by him to give up their castles, they not only refused, but several of them entered into a confederacy to surprize 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 arms were frustrated by the diligence of the government: but they did not desist from their enterprize; for meeting some time after at Leicester, in order to seize the king, they 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, should they persist in either of 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 was still established 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 shewed 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 vassals, and he had scarce any person who seemed solicitous for his intersts, but Hubert de Burgh, whom, nevertheless, he discarded in a sudden ca price; and thus exposed his faithful servant to the violent persecution of his enemies. Among the many frivolous crimes objected to him, he was accused of gaining the king's affection by enchantment, and of sending the prince of Wales a jewel, which he had stolen from the treasury, that ren dered 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 Devises. From thence Hubert made his escape; and, though he afterwards obtained 1 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 de 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 A. D. neither principles nor fortunes at home, were willing to adopt whatever schemes 1231. their employer should propose. Every office and command was bestowed on these unprincipled strangers, whose avarice and rapacity were exceed ed 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 those confiscations procured immediate wealth, he little regarded the consequence. But as this king was chiefly swayed by tumultuary remonstrances, another confederacy the head of which the archbishop of Canterbury was, induced him to dismiss his minister, and to send him and his needy 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 A. D. their hopes were quickly disappointed; for the king having married Eleanor, daughter of the count of Provence, he transferred 1236. 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 scarce 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 expedition 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 was arrived at maturity. To these temporal discontents, those arising from the rapacity of the see of Rome were added shortly after. 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 act of extortion A. D. 1253 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 an 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 got by usury, and he levied voluntary contributions on the people. The indignities which the people suffered from these intruding ecclesiastics were still more oppressive than their exactions. On a certain occasion, while the English were complaining of the avarice of their king, and his profusion to foreign favourites, the pope's legate made his triumphal entry into England, and some business induced him to visit Oxford before his return. He was received there with all possible splendour and ceremony; and the most sumptuous preparations were made for his table. One day as the legate's dinner was preparing, several scholars of the university entered. his kitchen, some incited by motives of curiosity, others of hunger; while they were thus employed in admiring the luxury and opulence in which this dignitary was served, and of which they were only to be spectators, a poor Irish scholar ventured to beg relief from the cook, who was an Italian, as 'were all the legate's domestics. This brutal fel |