HENRY III. 1216 - 1272
Born at Winchester in 1207 son of John by Isabel of Angouléme ;- Married Eleanor of Provence daughter of Raymond, count of Provence, by whom he had six sons and two daughters. Began to reign, 1216. - Reigned 56 years. - Died 1272.
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DOMINIONS Henry succeeded John in so much of the kingdom of England as was not in the hands of the barons supporting Louis of France, and did homage to the Papal Legate for the kingdom of England and for Ireland. In 1217 the French withdrew, agreeing, it was said, to surrender the continental dominions which they had conquered, which was not done.
In 1230 Henry tried in vain to recover the provinces, marching from Britanny through Anjou and Poictou. In 1242 another attempt was followed by disastrous defeat and a five year truce, by which Poictou was practically resigned. |
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| Henry III. aged only nine at his coronation he was aided by William Marshal, Stephen Langton and Hubert de Burgh. |
In Great Britain the customary acknowledgment of supremacy was made by the King of Scots, and the usual border
contests carried on with the Welsh. The princes of North Wales however were taking more part in English political
struggles, siding with De Montfort against Edward Earl of Chester, the king's son, and the Mortimers, and becoming
more like turbulent barons on the outskirts of the country, sure to be conquered when the royal authority was generally
vindicated .
PRINCIPAL EVENTS.
| 1216. | The Papal legate Gualo crowned John's eldest son Henry III. (28th October) of Winchester" at Gloucester, when the boy king |
| did homage to the Pope for his dominions. | |
| 1217. | Prince Louis of France contends for the crown, and is defeated at Fair of Lincoln. (20th May) |
| 1219. | Earl Pembroke died (May) and was buried in the church of the Knights Templar's, in London. The regency was now |
| conferred on two, - the Chief Justiciary, Hubert de Burgh, and the Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches, a native of Poitou. | |
| 1220 | Henry III. (May) was crowned a second time by Langton. |
| 1221 | Henry's eldest sister Joan married (June) Alexander II. of Scotland |
| 1223. | Henry aged sixteen declared by a papal bull to be capable of exercising royal power. |
| Philip II. (Augustus) King of France died. Henry III. demands from Louis VIII., of France the restoration of Normandy to the English Crown | |
| 1224. | Louis VIII. invades Poitiou and seized Rochelle. |
| 1226. | Louis VIII. died. |
| 1227. | Henry comes of age, procured a bull from the Pope requiring the barons to yield obedience to him, and relied on it to evade |
| the clauses of Magna Charta. | |
| 1227-1229 | The sixth crusade took place under Frederick II. of Germany, when Jerusalem and other places were restored to the Christians. |
| 1230. | The French fleet destroyed by Hubert de Burgh, . Henry attempts to recover Normandy, but fails. |
| 1233. | Improvements were made to the manufacture of linen, of leaden water pipes, 1236; candles (instead of splints of wood) and |
| gold coins, distillation, the arts of astronomy and geography, from the Moors 1220, and the mariner's compass by a Venetian; while coal was discovered at Newcastle in 1234. Roger Bacon born in Somersetshire, 1214, educated at Paris invented the telescope and magic lantern. | |
| 1242. | Henry resumed hostilities against King Louis IX. of France in support of his step-father the Count de la Marche; |
| 1248. | Parliament [Matthew Paris] |
| 1248-1254. | The seventh crusade, was led by Louis IX. of France, who was captured by the Moors at Damietta, and after his release |
| effected little. | |
| 1249- 1252 | Views of Matthew Paris |
| 1253. | Henry, repelled an attack of King Alphonso X. of Castile on Guienne, after which a treaty was concluded and Henry's son |
| Prince Edward was betrothed to Alphonso's daughter Eleanor. | |
| 1255. | A great massacre of Jews. |
| 1257. | Henry III. was tempted by the Pope Alexander IV., to support his cause against his own brother in law, the German emperor |
| Frederick II., and he agreed to pay the Pope an enormous sum for the gift of the crown of Scily, - the king Conradin son of Conrad IV. of Germany, being excommunicated. | |
| 1258. | Disputes between Henry and his barons. |
| " Mad Parliament" Provisions of Oxford (11th June) | |
| 1. Four knights should be selected from each shire to state its grievances. | |
| 2. This Parliament should meet thrice every year, in February, June, and October. | |
| 3. A sheriff for each county should be annually elected. | |
| 4. an account of public money should be regularly given. | |
| 5. Estates should not be given to foreigners. | |
| The barons appointed a committee of twelve to act when the Parliament was not sitting, and to remove all legal check, made the judges go on circuit septennially instead of annually. | |
| 1259. | Treaty with France (November) at Abbeville. Louis restored to England Perigord, Limousin, Agenois, Guerey, and Saintonge. |
| While Henry renounced his claims to Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Poitou. | |
| 1261. | Henry received a bull, annulling the Provisions of Oxford from Pope Alexander IV. |
| 1263. | Simon de Montfort regent. |
| 1264. | Dissension's of the Barons: Arbitration of St. Louis IX. of France.(January) council held at Amiens, favours Henry III. |
| 1264-1267 | Civil war: the barons victorious at Lewes, and Henry and his son Edward made prisoners. |
| 1265. | Simon de Montfort assembles the first regular parliament. |
| In the same year, Prince Edward escapes, and in a battle fought at Evesham, (4th August ) De Montfort is slain. | |
| 1266. | The award of Kenilworth |
| 1270. | Re-building of Westminster Abbey, begun in 1221, was nearly completed. |
| 1270-1272 | Departure of Prince Edward for the eighth crusade. |
HENRY III was only nine years of age when he succeeded his father, John. He was in a most difficult position, for the country was split in two, some swearing allegiance to the new King, while others still thought the French prince, Louis, should take the throne. There were many feelings against John, and people naturally wondered whether it would be a case of " like father like son." Ten days after the death of his father, Henry was crowned, not with the royal crown, for that had been lost in the Wash with the remainder of the Crown Jewels, but with a plain circlet of gold.
As Henry was just a mere boy, it was decided at a Great Council held in Bristol, on the 11th November 1216 that William Marshal Earl of Pembroke, should be appointed "Governor of the King and Kingdom". (Rector Regis et Regni) Magna Charta was confirmed, and a new forest charter was issued, by which all forests inclosed since the reign of Henry II. were thrown open, fines and imprisonment, substituted for the death penalty, for offences against the laws of the forest.
At the time of his accession the Dauphin
of France, Louis, was at the head of a foreign army, supported by a faction of English nobles,
and had assumed the reins of government; but many of his English supporters had gone to the side of the new King.
After a defeat of his army at Lincoln and of his fleet of ships off Dover, he gave up the struggle and returned to France.
The Earl
of Pembroke, was only
a guardian of the young king until 1219, as Henry approached manhood he displayed a character wholly unfit for
his station, he become fond of fine clothes, jewellery and banquets, he also discarded his most able minister Hubert de Burgh. In 1230, he received homage in Poitou and
Gascony, and began to bestow his chief favours upon foreigners,
his marriage in 1236 with Eleanor of Provence, increased the cultured people at Court who were also foreign relations
and friends of the King, and, later, of his wife. They tended to think of themselves as being superior to the English,
which angered the English people.
THE RE-BUILDING OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Henry pulled down the abbey which had been built by Edward the Confessor at Westminster and replaced it with the building which still stands to-day as a masterpiece of architecture.Often, when a church living fell vacant, the King allowed the Pope to appoint an Italian priest, who never came to England and could not even speak a word of English. It was only natural that the people should resent the money being sent out of the country each year to someone they never saw, but who was supposed to be responsible for their spiritual welfare.
Henry was always anxious to get as much money as he could, he received frequent grants of money from parliament, on condition of confirming the Great Charter, yet his conduct after each ratification was as arbitrary as before. Though they were very annoyed they did little, until, in 1258 , they were shocked into action by an incredible piece of folly. The Pope had offered the crown of the island of Sicily to Edmund, the second son of Henry, provided that Henry supplied the army and financed the expedition. Henry approved the plan, and demanded one-third of the wealth of the country for this expedition. Moreover, the Pope demanded a tenth of the property of the Church, which was to be valued for this purpose.
For many years the barons had been discontented, but, if the King thought they would tolerate this idea, he was sadly mistaken.
THE MAD PARLIAMENT
At length the nobles rose in rebellion under Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester and husband of the kings sister; and in 1258, a parliament was held at Oxford. known in history as the Mad Parliament. All the great nobles were there, determined to break the power of the King, obliged the king to sign the body of resolutions known as the Provisions of Oxford, they took away from the King all his royal powers, which were placed in the hands of a council, known as the Council of Fifteen, or, more commonly, "The Fifteen." They took charge of the Royal Seal, without which no laws could be passed, and regulated the life of Henry as they thought fit.
At this time, there were two groups of people in the country. One of these, known as the Bachelors, claimed that the knights and citizens should have some say in the government of the country. The other, the Royalists, began to think that some of the power of the King should be given back to him.
THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW PARLIAMENT
A feud arose, however, between Montfort and Gloucester, even the Fifteen split, and the King took the opportunity of seizing the Royal Seal. Then in 1263, their was civil war, in 1264 the King was defeated at Lewes and put under the charge of the barons again. Louis was called in as arbitrator, a convention, called the Mise of Lewes, provided for the future settlement of the kingdom; but his award being favourable to the king, Leicester refused to submit to it.
Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, was now the most important man in the land, the chief of the reformers. In 1265 Simon de Montfort included commoners as well as lords, to his Parliament, the conception of the idea our parliamentary system is based on.
In Whitsun-week 1265, Prince Edward escaped from his guards and joined the remnant of Mortimer's army in Wales. He was joined by Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and other barons, the reformers were not strong enough to withstand the Royalists, Simon de Montfort was defeated and slain in the battle of Evesham in Worcestershire. The King regained his powers, and, with the reformers killed or disinherited, there was no one to oppose him, the country was again in a state of peace, and so it remained until his death 16th November 1272. He was laid to rest in the new Westminster Abbey which he had been responsible for re-building.
His son Edward I. succeeded him.
