oath, while the bishops excommunicated all who should break them, a sum was granted him in 1253, and he went to Bordeaux. But he was stern when he should have been mild, and pardoned when he should have punished, and the unruly Gascons defied him till Simon (who had refused the regency of France lest he should be thought to desert England) joined him, when the rebels fled, "for they dreaded Simon like a thunderbolt." Henry then made peace with Alfonso of Castile, by marrying his son Edward to the Spanish king's daughter Eleanor, and started homeward by way of Pontigny and Paris to visit S. Edmund's tomb, to see his brother-in-law Louis, who welcomed him with feasts and merry-making. He reached England in 1254 so deeply in debt that he dared not let his nobles know how much he owed, and fresh troubles arose.

Grossetête died before they came, but he had foreseen them. He drew up a list of the Rights of the English Church, which might serve as a standard against royal attacks, and boldly reproved the envoys of the Pope (whose foreign nominees drew 70,000 marks a year from English livings) for ordering him to give Innocent's nephew a living for which he was unfit. "The Pope has power to build up," he wrote, "but not to pull down. These appointments tend to destruction, not to edification, being of man's device and not according to the words of the apostles or their Master, whose earthly type the Pope should be. I therefore, as a priest, a Catholic, a Christian, and your servant, disobey, deny, and hold void your commands respecting this young man." Before his death he also solemnly charged Simon of Montfort (whom he loved as he had loved Richard the Marshal) never as he cared for his soul to forsake the cause of the people he had come among, but to stand up even to the death, as might most likely be needful, for a true and righteous government.

10. It was not long ere his help was called for. On the Emperor's death, Innocent had offered the crown of Sicily to Earl Richard, who of course refused the costly gift; but Henry was foolish enough in 1255 to accept it from Pope Alexander for his second son, Edmund. The Pope was to carry on the war against Manfred, Frederick's son, who now held it, at Henry's cost, till he could come to Sicily himself, and the English clergy were to give the king their tenth as if for a crusade. Nobles and clergy both withstood this mad scheme, which could profit none but the Pope's officers; but Henry persisted, and in 1257 had to confess that he had

of 1258.

bound himself to pay 140,000 marks to Alexander for past services. The clergy, pressed by the Pope's agents, gave The Purveyance him a little money, but the nobles withheld all supplies till reforms were made. These could not be put off much longer. The king's judges, sheriffs, and foreign favourites were breaking the law unchecked and unpunished; the king was disgracefully driven back in an attack on Llewelyn Prince of Wales (who had succeeded his uncle David), and a wet season was followed by a grievous famine.

Earl Richard had formerly advised his brother well, but since his marriage with Sanchia the queen's sister in 1243, he stood aloof from English affairs, and was now in Germany, where he had by his wealth and wisdom got himself chosen Emperor. Prince Edward, who was to show his worth later, was now hand in glove with Roger of Mortimer and the wild Lords Marchers, sons of King John's friends, wholly taken up with tournaments and the Welsh border war. Simon was the only man akin to the royal house from whom help was to be looked for, and in 1258, when Richard of Clare Earl of Gloster, came forward in Parliament, and declared that the royal mistakes called for special treatment, he gave him hearty support. There was a hot debate, the king's friends holding that Henry must be free to override the laws in case of need, to choose his own officers, and manage the realm as he would. The barons answered, "How would the king do without us in war? He ought, therefore, to listen to us in peace. And can it be called peace when evil counsellors mislead the king, fill the land with foreign tyrants, and grind down us native Englishmen? for," as one of Simon's friends sang

The king that tries without advice to seek his people's weal

Must often fail, he cannot know the wants and woes they feel;
The Parliament must tell the king how he may serve them best,
And he must see their wants fulfilled and injuries redressed.
A king should seek his people's good, and not his own sweet will,
Nor think himself a slave because men hold him back from ill;
For they that keep the king from sin serve him the best of all,
Making him free that else would be to sin a wretched thrall.
True king is he, and truly free, who rules himself aright,
And chooses freely what he knows will ease his people's plight.
'All things are lawful to the king,' yea, but we also find

All things are not convenient,' which the true king keeps in mind.
Think not it is the king's goodwill that makes the law to be-
For law is steadfast, and a king has no stability-

No! law stands high above the king, for law is that true light
Without whose ray the king would stray and wander from the right.

When a king strays, he ought to be called back into the way
By those he rules, who lawfully his will may disobey
Until he seeks the path; but when his wandering is o'er,
They ought to help and succour him, and love him as before."

The armed barons at last made Henry consent that a Board of XXIV. (half chosen by him, half by the barons) should reform the realm. On June 11, at Oxford, this board, having appointed a justiciar, Hugh le Bigod, a chancellor and treasurer, and named a temporary committee to see to the king's wants and debts, presented to the Parliament a list of Thirty Grievances (chiefly touching the employment of aliens and the evil conduct of royal officers), and a New Constitution, known as the Purveyance or Provisions of Oxford.

The king was to have a standing Privy Council of Fifteen, by whose advice he was bound to act, and to whom the ministers were accountable.

Three times a year a Parliament was to be held, to which the baronage (to save the trouble and expense of all being present) were to send Twelve Commissioners to represent them, who with the Council and the king should make laws, settle taxation, and do all weighty business. Four knights were to be chosen by the freeholders in each shire to watch over the sheriff and other royal officers.

Every minister must resign or seek re-election at the end of his year of office.

The Fifteen Counsellors were-Archbishop Boniface, the Earls of Richmond, Aumale, and Warwick, John Mansel, and James of Audley -all of the king's party; and of the barons' side, Walter of Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, the Earls of Leicester, Gloster, Hereford, and Norfolk, Piers of Montfort, Roger of Mortimer, Richard of Grey, and John Geoffrey's son.

This new Constitution, which bound Henry more tightly than the Charter tied his father, was accepted and sworn to by the barons and proclaimed by the king in letters written in French, Latin, and English. The aliens, headed by Henry's half-brothers, fled over sea. Their posts were filled by Englishmen; and next year, on the motion of Simon and Prince Edward, at the demand of the Bachelery [knights and country gentlemen], to complete the promised reform, Parliament gave remedies for the Thirty Grievances, promised that the nobles should treat their vassals as the king treated them, and agreed to the sheriffs being chosen by the shire-moots.

Simon and the king then went over sea to make a final treaty with France, and at Paris, 1258, Henry gave up all claims to Normandy in exchange for the Limousin, Quercy, and Perigord, and the pay for 500 knights for two years.

11. The Purveyance held good for five years, though till his death in 1262 Richard of Clare showed great jealousy of Simon and the Bachelery, in spite of the people's warning:

'End, O Earl of Gloster, what thou hast begun!

Save thou end it fitly, we are all undone.

Play the man, we pray thee, as thou hast promised,

Cherish steadfastly the cause of which thou wast the head.
He that takes the Lord's work up, and lays it down again,
Shamed and cursed may he be, and all shall say Amen."

And the queen and John Mansel, by taunting the king with giving up his rights, led him more than once to strive to free himself from control. But Simon drove out the aliens he had recalled, and the king's brother (now back in England as King of the Romans) and Prince Edward stood firm to their oaths.

At last the Londoners' insults to his mother, whom they pelted and hooted as a witch, and the deadly feud between Simon's friend Llewelyn and his friends and neighbours Roger Lord Mortimer and the Marchers, made the prince turn, and both sides made ready to fight it out. To save bloodshed it was settled to refer the whole dispute to King Louis. His award, the Mise of Amiens, 23rd January 1264, swept away the Purveyance, gave the king power to choose his own ministers (whether aliens or no), but confirmed the charters. A few days later Pope Urban freed Henry from his oath, and declared the New Constitution null and void. King Richard, Lord Clifford, and many of the northern barons, Lord Mortimer and the Marchers, and most of the bishops and earls now deserted the reformers; but Simon said, " 'Though all should forsake us, I and my four sons will stand up to the death for the righteous cause I have sworn to uphold, to the honour of the Church and the good of the realm;" and bitterly added, “I have been in many lands, heathen and Christian, but nowhere have I seen such bad faith and falsehood as in England." Chief among the faithful few were Hugh le Despenser the Justiciary, Gilbert the young Earl of Gloucester, and the midland barons; but the Cinque Ports and London, the Oxford scholars and the Franciscan friars were

Simon's warmest partisans. As in John's days, the barons' strength lay in the south and east, the king's in the west. Prince Edward and the Marchers took Gloucester, and joined Henry at Oxford in March. Having taken Simon the earl's son and eighty of his knights at Northampton, Henry turned south to crush the

The war of
Lewes, 1264.

Cinque Ports, cut off London, and relieve Rochester, which Simon was besetting. The king's army plundered freely, and made the towns pay heavy ransom; and the barons, on a rumour that the Jews were betraying them, killed all they could take and laid hands on their money. Simon started to meet the king, sending to offer King Richard £3000 if he would settle a peace, and to assure Henry that he only wished to free him from his foes; but his words were despised, and he was defied as a traitor. In the dawning of the 14th May, having surprised the royal outposts, Simon marched over the downs on Lewes. When he saw the spire of the priory where the king lay he halted his men, and, all dismounting, spoke: "Brethren, we are going to fight to-day for our country and our oath's sake. Let us pray God, if this our undertaking be pleasing in His sight, to give us might to fulfil the same, serving Him as good knights, and overcoming all our enemies." The soldiers then fell upon the ground and prayed, stretching their arms out crosswise, "Lord, give us victory according to our desires and Thy glory!" while the brave old Bishop of Worcester blessed them. Simon now drew up his army, and having knighted the Earl of Gloucester and other young

squires, waited for the king's attack. Prince Edward, eager to avenge his mother, began the battle, falling on the Lon