ENGLAND, 1087-1272

[Dana Carleton Munro, The Middle Ages, 395-1272 (New York: The Century Company, 1921), pp. 256-271]

Character of the Period. After the Conquest, England was under the rule of an absolute monarch whose associations and interests were mainly on the other side of the Channel. The Church in England was under his control and had become a useful servant. The people were divided; two languages, in fact three, were in common use: Norman French was spoken at court, in business, and generally by the upper classes; English was the tongue of the common people; Latin was the language of the Church. There seemed to be little likelihood of unity among the people; or that England would become free from foreign entanglements and from the authority of a despotic ruler. Yet the thirteenth century saw the inhabitants of England fused into a united people and the country itself partially detached from entangling alliances, so that this people was able to become a strong nation and to curb the power of the king. The Church passed then from service to the king and championship of the people to domination over both to such an extent that it aroused general indignation.

William Rufus, 1087-1100. On the Conqueror's death William Rufus became king, but not without opposition, as many of the nobles preferred his elder brother Robert, duke of Normandy. In order to put down their revolt William sought support from Englishmen, promising better government and lighter taxation. By their aid he crushed the barons. But he had to contend against Robert until the latter, wishing to go on the first crusade, made over the government of his duchy to him in return for money to equip the expedition to the Holy Land. He also had trouble with the Church. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, who had been one of the Conqueror's advisors, had aided William to secure the throne and exercised a restraining influence upon him. But after Lanfranc died in 1089 no archbishop was appointed for four years, as the king wished to keep the income of the archbishopric for his own expenses. Finally a fit of sickness led him to appoint Anselm of Bec, an Italian pupil of Lanfranc; but when he recovered he refused to invest Anselm and kept part of the property of Canterbury in his own hands. Anselm, finding that he could accomplish nothing, withdrew to the Continent. William threw aside all pretense of good government and religion and his harsh chair rule made him so detested that there was a general feeling of relief when he was shot while hunting in the New Forest.

Henry I, 1100-1135. His brother Henry at once seized the royal treasure at Win- IlIloooyllI35 chester and had himself crowned. Since his right to the succession was doubtful, and Robert, his elder brother, still had partizans, he felt it necessary to seek support by every possible means. He promulgated a charter of liberties, to be read in every shire court, promising good government and, in particular, to refrain from some of the acts that had made William unpopular. He punished the justiciar of his brother, who was especially disliked. He married the English Edith, a descendant of Alfred the Great, in order to secure the good will of the English.[1] He recalled Anslem and aided him in the reformation of the Church; but he came into conflict with him on the question of investiture. The two reached an agreement in 1106, by which the king gave up the right of investiture with ring and staid, the ecclesiastical insignia, but was to receive homage from each bishop and abbot before the latter could be consecrated. He was successf ul in reducing his unruly barons to obedience. After a long struggle with Robert, whom he captured and kept in prison, he obtained Normandy. He did this in spite of the aid given to Robert by the French king, who was anxious to restrict the power of Henry and to secure his own rights as overlord of Normandy. Henry also reformed the government of England in many ways; but these reforms will be discussed under Henry II. The long period of anarchy that followed the death of Henry I caused most of the reforms to be abandoned temporarily.

Stephen, 1135-1154. The king's son was drowned in the wreck of the Whie Ship[2] as he was crossing from Normandy to England. This led to a dispute over the succession, as the only other legitimate child was a daughter, Matilda, who had been married to Henry V of Germany and consequently was known as "the Empress". After the death of her first husband she had been married to Godfrey, count of Anjou. Henry attempted to secure the succession for her and her husband; but this was opposed by many barons both in England and Normandy, as they had often been at war with Anjou and did not want Godfrey for their lord and king. They favored Stephen, the nephew of Henry, who had many fiefs in both England and Normandy and powerful friends among the clergy. He went to England as soon as Henry died, seized the royal treasure, and had himself crowned. Since his position was insecure, he issued a charter of liberties similar to the one that Henry had granted but had f requently violated. Stephen was not so strong as either William Rufus or Henry, and was not able to maintain order or to carry on the administration effectively. Matilda invaded England, while her husband attempted to secure Normandy. This brought on a civil war in which they found many adherents. During the struggle between the two claimants the nobles favored sometimes one, sometimes the other, but were themselves virtually independent and unrestrained, so that feudal anarchy ensued. The peasants suffered severely; churches were burned; tortures were used frequently by the partizans to extort money. "I neither can nor may I tell," to adopt the words of a contemporary, "all the wounds and all the pains which they inflicted on wretched men in this land. This lasted the nineteen winters while Stephen was king; and it grew continually worse and worse." The common misery tended to fuse the people together, as in the general anarchy Norman and English fought and suffered side by side. The Church, too, became more independent and monasteries were multiplied, one hundred and fifteen being founded during the reign of Stephen; many persons sought in these the peace that they could not find elsewhere.

Henry II, 1154-1189. Godfrey died, and his son Henry took up the war for Matilda's rights. The death of Stephen's heir led to a compromise by which it was agreed in 1153 that Henry should succeed when Stephen died; and this happened a year later. The new king, Henry II, was only twenty-one years of age, but he was already experienced both in warfare and in government. He made a deep impression upon his subjects as well as upon the history of England. His personal appearance, his habits, his virtues and vices, were so fully recorded by his contemporaries that he is better known to us than any one of the other medieval kings of England. Through all the contradictory statements that serve to bring out the many sides of his character, we get the impression of a man of tireless energy, determined to maintain order and to have his own way; not a very lovable nor a very pious individual, but one who commanded and still commands respect for the work that he did. It is important to remember that he could give only a part of his time to England; for he had inherited from his parents Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Touraine. With his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, he secured Poitou, Guienne, and Gascony. By his own efforts he obtained the overlordship of Brittany and Ireland, and claimed that of Scotland and Wales. Small wonder that he could spend in England only about twelve years of his reign of more than thirty-four, and that his longest stay was only about two and a half years. He was French, not English, and never spoke the English language; yet England is heavily in his debt for the many reforms he accomplished.

Reforms. In some of these reforms he was but reestablishing the conditions under Henry I, whose charter of liberties he had taken as a model for his own grant. His first task, too, was to restore the good order of his grandfather's reign, who had "made peace for men and deer." The barons were compelled to give up their castles or else to destroy them; the armed bands of foreign mercenaries were ordered to leave the country, and, frightened, "they disappeared like phantoms"; the crown lands that had been alienated under Stephen were reclaimed and the royal revenues increased. The former treasurer, whom Stephen had dismissed, was reinstated. The central administration was reinstituted, much as it had been in the days of Henry I. The justiciar was the chief official, and in the king's absence acted as regent. The chancellor was responsible for the drawing up of all legal documents and kept the official records. The treasurer was the third of the great ministers. The hereditary offices of marshal, steward, chamberlain, and constable were held by great nobles, but they had little part in the duties of government, for the king preferred men of lower rank who would be less dangerous to him, and more devoted.

The Exchequer. The great nobles, both lay and clerical, still met occasionally as the king's council. But this name had also begun to be applied to a very different body composed of the ministers who were constantly in the king's employ to attend to lawsuits and to administrative work. This smaller council, or curia regis, sat frequently to try suits between the barons or cases in which the king was concerned. Twice a year it sat to receive the accounts of the sheriffs and others who owed money to the king. The table around which it then sat was marked off into squares in order to facilitate the calculations, so that it resembled a checkerboard, and from this came the name exchequer. Each sheriff had to render an account of all the sums he had received or expended in the service of the king. All the business was recorded on broad pieces of parchment, which when rolled up were known as the pipe-roll. This custom had come down from the days of Henry I, one of whose pipe-rolls is still preserved. Beginning with the reign of Henry II, there is a continuous series down to the nineteenth century, which contains an enormous mass of in- | formation about prices and customs. No other country has financial records for so long a period that are at all comparable with the pipe-rolls.

Justices is Eyre. Another feature of the administration that was borrowed from 1 n Henry I was the custom of sending out the justices in eyre. Theking had no regular place of residence, and his ministers had to | follow him wherever he went, when he was in England. Consequently men who were parties to lawsuits before the king's council had formerly been obliged to follow the court in its travels until the case was decided. This made it difficult to get at the truth because of the absence of local witnesses who alone knew the facts. To obviate this difficulty, the elder Henry had sent members of his council to try cases in the various shires of England. These ministers were also employed to collect dues and to attend to other business of the king. Henry II made great use of these justices in eyre, or on circuit, and systematized their work. How great a boon this was may be judged from the experience of Richard of Anesty, who in order to get a lawsuit settled had to follow the court for five years. This luckless suitor saw a large part of the king's dominions, both in England and on the continent, in his unwelcome journeyings. He was subject to many delays and expenses, for which he had to borrow from the Jews, so that when he won the suit he was heavily in debt. Other suitors were freed from a like fate by the judges' circuits.

Jury. Closely connected with the employment of the justices in eyre was the development of the jury. The judge had cognizance of all cases in which the king's interests were concerned, and also of the more heinous crimes, unless the latter had been committed on the fief of some lord who had the right of high and low Justice. Henry extended this jurisdiction greatly, especially in the cases of disputed land titles. He did this to increase the income from his courts and also to restrict the power of the feudal barons. By the "great assize" any freeman might buy the right to have a dispute concerning his title to land decided in the king's court even if a suit had been begun in a baronial or other court. The judges in such a case were empowered to summon men who would probably know the facts, and to compel them to give a verdict as to which party had the better right. Leading men in the locality, usually twelve in number, were called together for this purpose. This was so much more satisfactory than the older methods of compurgation, ordeal, or wager of battle that it was extended to other than land cases. The assize of Clarendon, 1166, was issued mainly for the purpose of preventing crime, and in order to do this laid the foundation for the grand jury, or jury of indictment. Up to this time many crimes of violence had gone unpunished because there was no one except the injured party or his friends whose duty it was to bring the criminal to trial. If the latter was a powerful man those injured often feared to accuse him, lest a worse fate might befall them. By this assize Henry made it the duty of the itinerant justices and sheriffs to call together twelve men from each hundred and four from each vill, and to put them upon oath to say "whether there is in their hundred or in their vill any man who has been accused or publicly suspected of himself being a robber, or murderer, or thief, or of being a receiver of robbers, or murderers, or thieves, since the lord king has been king." The accused was required to undergo the ordeal of water. If he failed, he was punished; if he came out successfully he was banished if he was "of very bad testimony and publicly and disgracefully spoken ill of by the testimony of many and legal men. "By this assize the feudal courts were restricted in their right of criminal justice, because those indicted by the jurors could be tried only by the king's court. In the thirteenth century the use of ordeals was prohibited and the question of guilt had to be determined otherwise. This was usually done by compelling the accused to have his guilt decided by the verdict of the grand jury, or eventually by a number of its members, usually twelve, who came to be called the trial or petit jury.

Sheriffs. The employment of the itinerant justices for such a large variety of work took much power from the sheriffs. When Henry became king these officials had been great lords, who were extremely powerful, both through the fiefs that they held and through the authority delegated to them by the king. Sometimes one had two shires under his jurisdiction, which included the collection of the revenues due to the king, holding the county courts, and raising military levies. At first the justices and the sheriffs had some duties in common, although the former were directed to watch the latter and to take from their jurisdiction special cases that concerned the king. By the assize of Clarendon, as already noted, the sheriffs concurrently with the justices had the duty of making inquests concerning criminals. Apparently many of the sheriffs abused this opportunity and aroused general resentment by their tyranny; for in 1170 Henry ordered an inquest of their acts, and as a result of the reports that were made he degraded all from office; of the twenty-two who were dismissed only seven were reinstated, and of these seven all but two were members of the king's household. Even after this it is evident that there were still dangerous possibilities in the office, as more power was gradually shorn from it, until by Magna Carta the sheriffs were left with only comparatively slight authority.

Military Reforms. One means by which their power was lessened was by Henry's military reforms, especially the assize of arms in 1181, by which 1 every free layman was required to have arms appropriate to his 1 status and means, and to be ready to serve. The execution of this assize was assigned to the justices and not to the sheriffs By this assize Henry sought to obtain a national army for service in England. For his many foreign wars he did not use the feudal levies to any great extent, preferring to collect a fine, called scutage, in place of the service due from vassals, and with the money thus obtained he hired foreign mercenaries. This gave him a much more serviceable army.

Confict with Church. In his reforms of the courts Henry came into conflict with the Church. This had become much more independent during the anarchy under Stephen. In particular, its courts had become more powerful and claimed jurisdiction over many classes of cases. These included all in which clerks or Church property were concerned; all matters of faith; all suits depending upon questions of marriage, wills, and inheritances; and all that were caused by the breach of an oath. If pushed to the logical extreme these categories would include a very large proportion of all suits, and thus would seriously lessen the income that the king received f rom court fines. Moreover, the Church courts were popular because the penalties imposed were lighter and did not include death or mutilation--common punishments in the lay courts. All who could sought to have their cases tried in the clerical courts. Many could claim membership in the clergy in addition to the bishops, priests, deacons, monks, and nuns it included all officials and servants of the Church, all students and all crusaders. In such a numerous and heterogeneous body there were some criminals. In the first eight or nine years of his reign Henry found that one hundred murders had been committed by clerks, who had received only very light punishments in the ecclesiastical courts. He determined to check this abuse and in doing so came into conflict with the Church, and especially with Thomas Becket.

Becket. Thomas was the son of a wealthy London merchant of Norman birth. After schooling in both London and Paris he had entered a London office, and there had attracted the attention of the archbishop of Canterbury, who offered him a position. "There was none dearer to the archbishop than he," writes a contemporary, for "he had a singular gift of winning affection." The archbishop was interested in canon law, and sent Thomas to Bologna and Auxerre to master this subject. Later Becket was sent to Rome on a diplomatic mission, and then was made archdeacon of Canterbury. It is well to remember that an archdeacon was so occupied with secular duties that some strict churchmen doubted whether any archdeacon could be saved. When Henry became king the archbishop recommended Thomas, and he was made chancellor. Henry was then twenty-two, Thomas thirtyeight; and the latter soon endeared himself to the king, so that the two became almost inseparable companions. Both were fond of hunting, hawking, and chess, but both were keen men of business. Thomas received many gifts from Henry, and one of his friends praised him because "he magnanimously disdained to take the poorer benefices and required only the greater things." Becket was noted for his luxury in dress and food, and kept a splendid household where the king's son and many young nobles were trained to chivalry. As chancellor he had fifty-two clerks in his employ. For more than seven years he served the king faithfully, enforcing royal rights, when necessary, against ecclesiastical claims. Naturally, when the archbishopric became vacant, the king wished to make his favorite archbishop as well as chancellor; by this appointment he hoped to avert all trouble with the Church and to have the two powers work in harmony for the good of the government. Thomas, who always threw himself with his whole heart into anything that he undertook, saw more clearly. He said, "whoever is made archbishop must soon give offense either to God or to the king." But Henry could not be checked, and Thomas was duly elected by the monks. One day he was ordained priest, the next he was consecrated as archbishop. He very soon resigned the chancellorship, much against Henry's will, so that he might "have leisure for prayers and to attend to the Church's affairs." He gave up his luxurious dress and wore a hair shirt daily; he visited the sick and washed the feet of beggars. "As he had been accustomed to preeminence in worldly glory, he now determined to be first in holy living."

The Quarrel. Henry felt deeply disappointed at Thomas's conduct, and causes of difference between the two soon arose. This came to a head, at a council in I I64, on the question of "criminous clerks." Henry demanded that clerks who were guilty of heinous crimes should be degraded by the bishops' courts and handed over to the secular courts for punishment. Thomas refused, asserting that the members of the clergy were not to be judged by any lay authority. When asked whether he would obey the customs (i.e., the laws of the land), he answered: "Yes, saving our order." The bishops present made the same reply. Henry demanded that Thomas should retract his words, and when Thomas refused left in anger. Many of the influential clergy feared a breach with the king, and pressure was brought upon Thomas, who finally consented to swear obedience to "the customs of the kingdom." Henry seized upon this admission, and summoned the council of Clarendon. When Thomas, having repented, refused to take the oath, Henry "was as a madman in the eyes of those who stood by." All besought Thomas to yield, fearing the king's wrath; and finally, "in fear of death," he said: "I am ready to keep the customs of the kingdom." Henry ordered that these should be written out, so that there might be no question in the future concerning them, and "the wise men" drew up the Constitutions of Clarendon. When these were read to Thomas and he was asked to set his seal to them, he replied: "Never, while there is breath left in my body ! "

Constitutions of Clarendon. For these Constitutions greatly restricted the jurisdiction and independence of the Church. Many cases that concerned clerks were to be tried in the king's courts; no tenant in chief was to be excommunicated without previous notice to the king; no appeals to the pope were to be allowed; no bishop was to leave the realm without permission of the king; in particular, criminous clerks, when convicted, were no longer to be protected by the Church, but were to be punished by the royal courts. If these "customs" were accepted the Church would lose almost everything that it had gained since the Conquest.

Exile of Thomas. Thomas was unwilling to make this surrender. Henry tried to force him, and finally Thomas, fearing for his life, fled to France to seek the support of the pope and of the French king. Henry confiscated his property, banished his friends, and in turn sought the pope's aid. The latter, Alexander III, was in exile and was struggling against an anti-pope whom the emperor supported; consequently he hesitated to alienate Henry, and temporized. Thomas threatened to excommunicate both the king and his adherents- the latter included most of the English bishops. After several years Henry felt compelled by circumstances to make peace with Thomas and to allow him to return to England.

Death of Thomas. The archbishop was more firmly resolved than ever to maintain all the prerogatives of his see and to insist upon the freedom of the Church; consequently he excommunicated bishops who had sided with the king and laymen who had occupied the lands Clarendon, without consulting the king. News of these acts was sent to Henry, who was still in France, and his wrath knew no bounds. He uttered rash words, which were seized upon by four of his knights as authority for action. They crossed to England, hastened to Canterbury, and murdered the archbishop in the very cathedral itself.

Revolt Against Henry. His death as a martyr secured victory for Thomas. Henry undoubtedly realized this, and also was genuinely grieved at the result of his outburst of passion. For days he shut himself up, fasting and alone. He took oath that he was innocent of the murder, and a year later made a pilgrimage to Canterbury, where he submitted himself to a public penance and scourging which was so severe that he fell ill. He also withdrew some of the Constitutions, although he tried to carry out his policy by other means. Yet the popularity of St. Thomas did much to increase the unpopularity of the king. The shrine at Canterbury was the goal of thousands who nourished feelings of bitter indignation against the monarch whom they considered the murderer of the saint. The nobles took advantage of this feeling and a great revolt broke out; but this was sternly repressed by Henry. The Scottish king, who had aided the rebels, was captured, and had to do homage for his kingdom. A little later Henry also received the homage of several chieftains in Ireland. While successful in these respects, he had to struggle against rebellions in his continental dominions, in which his sons took part as allies of the French king. In 1189 he was forced to make peace with them, and died broken-hearted, moaning, "' Shame on a conquered king ! "

Work of Henry. Yet his work lived after him. The government he had es- tablished continued to function during the reign of Richard, who was absent from England for all but a few months of his reign of ten years, and during the first part of the rule of John. The good order that Henry had maintained, the justice he had established, the fusion he had brought about by his stern rule, made the English nation strong, rich, and united.

Loss of French Possessions. John's weakness and vices caused changes of great moment to England. First of these was the loss of Normandy and of most of the other continental possessions of the Angevins., John placed himself in the wrong by marrying Isabelle of Angouleme, who was betrothed to one of his own vassals. This excited a rebellion, and Philip Augustus intervened as John's overlord to whom John's vassals had appealed. John refused to obey Philip's summons to appear at Paris and answer the charges against him. Accordingly, Philip made war upon him, and recognized Arthuras heir to the Angevin possessions, with the exception of Normandy. Arthur was the son of John's early lost older brother Godfrey, and already had some partizans. Philip now made use of him against John, but the boy was soon captured and murdered. This and other brutal acts alienated the nobles in Normandy and Aquitaine; and, as John showed little energy or ability in fighting for his rights, all of his possessions in France, except Gascony 5 and a part of Poitu, fell, in 1204, under the power of Philip.

Struggle with Innocent III. The following year the archbishop of Canterbury died, and the choice of a successor caused a contest that did much to weaken John's power in England. The monks of Canterbury had the right of election, and some of them chose their sub-prior and sent him to Rome to seek confirmation from the pope. In the meantime John caused one of his followers to be elected by the monks and sent him also to Rome to seek the pope's support. Innocent III refused to accept either candidate, and had Stephen Langton elected. John refused to receive him as archbishop, and seized rich estates of Canterbury for his own use. The pope then laid England under an interdict. John threatened to exile the clergy and to confiscate their lands; he actually did the latter, and all but two of the bishops fled from the kingdom. Curiously enough, the interdict seems to have had comparatively little effect, and the common people apparently sided with the king. Possibly this was due to the fact that the interdict was not so rigorously enforced as some earlier ones had been possibly the people were influenced because their financial burdens were lessened temporarily, as John got large sums from the ecclesiastical estates and did not have to raise as much from the people. It must be remembered that many towns had received charters from the kings and were well disposed toward them. But John was disliked by many of the nobles, so that when Innocent excommunicated him in 1209 he was in a difficult position. He acted with unusual energy and at times with great brutality, which made him bitterly hated. He also found it necessary now to increase the taxation in various ways, and this made him generally unpopular. By 1212 rebellion was rife. In 1213 Philip Augustus, at the suggestion of the pope, was preparing to invade England. John decided that he must yield and in May he made his peace with Innocent, received Langton, and became a vassal of the pope.

Battle of Bouvines, 1214. By this submission John escaped the most pressing dangers, and for a time his fortunes seemed promising. He made an alliance with the emperor Otto of Germany and some rebel French barons against Philip. But the war against France was unpopular in England, and few trusted John. An unwise appointment to the justiciarship brought the discontent to a head. Stephen Langton was recognized as the leader of the barons, and proposed that they should work for the liberties contained in the charter of Henry I. They were greatly aided by the decisive victory that Philip won at Bouvines in 1214, when he defeated Otto and -the rebel barons, and thus John was left without allies.

Magna Carta. The barons seized the opportunity, and presented to the king a statement of their grievances and of their demands. John, in great anger, rejected it. Then the barons and some of the citizens of London revolted against him. John was compelled to yield, and in June, 1215, signed the Magna Carta. This was _. destined to be a great landmark in the development of English liberties, and by later generations much was read into the Charter which was not present at all in the minds of the barons who extorted it from the king. It was a feudal document and is mainly concerned with defining feudal customs so as to prevent extortion and injustice on the part of the king. The first clause confirmed the freedom of the Church, and there were some grants of rights, generally rather indefinite, to cities, merchants, and free men; but the great mass of provisions concerned only the barons and the king's conduct toward them. Yet the Charter is very important because it was extorted from the king and served as a precedent for other restrictions on his power. Moreover, it contained several general clauses that could, in later centuries, be interpreted very definitely and very differently f rom what the barons had intended, so that these clauses could be cited as precedents for the maintenance of the liberties of the English people. In fact, the Charter was important, in the thirteenth century, becaused it furnished a program to the feudal nobles for restricting the despotic government of the king; in the seventeenth century and later, as a venerable document, into which might be read the aspirations of a later age for the good government and the just treatment of the nation that had become the political heir of the barons who had forced John to grant them their rights. Consequently, the articles that the barons and the king considered most important, such as the restrictions upon levying feudal aids, scutages, and reliefs, were lost sight of in the later ages.

War against John. At the time these were all important, and the king was compelled to agree to the election of twenty-five barons who should see that he did justice and in case of need should make war upon him to compel him to redress grievances. Of course, John had no intention of keeping such a compact, and asked Innocent to annul it. The pope did so. As the barons continued rebellious, Innocent preached a crusade in favor of John, who had taken the cross and was expected by him to lead a new crusade. French knights were urged to obtain remission of their sins by fighting against the barons, who were preventing John from going on a crusade. At the same time, Louis, the son of Philip Augustus, was in treaty with the barons and hoped to obtain the English crown. He landed with an army, and was joined by most of the barons; but when John died, a few weeks later, many rallied to the support of his nine-year-old son Henry. Innocent had died, but the new pope took the side of Henry and sent a legate who, in turn, preached a crusade against Louis. In 1217 the latter had to make peace and leave England.

Misrule of Henry III, 1216-1272. During the minority of Henry, England was ruled by a regent, and the Charter was twice confirmed, although with the omission of some clauses that restricted the power of the king. When Henry came of age he surrounded himself with foreign favorites and rewarded them with English offices and wealth. He was subservient to the popes, who constantly demanded money and used English ecclesiastical positions to reward their Italian favorites. The amounts that the popes received from England were very large, and excited the animosity of the English clergy. Henry, too, required vast sums for his foreign enterprises. Thrice he led expeditions to war on France. He attempted to secure the crown of Sicily for his son Edmund. His brother, Richard of Cornwall, spent much English money in securing his election as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. All of this made Henry very unpopular. Moreover, he proved untrustworthy, taking oaths only to break them.

Provisions of Oxford. His constant need of money forced Henry to summon almost every year the great council, or the parliament, to give it the new name by which it was gradually coming to be known. Frequently there were disputes, usually about money, between the members and the king. The dissatisfaction was general when, in 1258, after a famine and an unsuccessful war against the Welsh, Henry attempted to raise money for a Sicilian expedition to seat his son on the throne of the Hohenstaufens. Then the barons demanded that the government should be reformed, foreigners sent home, and a council of twenty-four appointed to advise the king. A second meeting the same year, called "the Mad Parliament," drew up the so-called Provisions of Oxford, by which these arrangements should be carried out and the government administered by a permanent council chosen by a committee from the twenty-four barons already named. For a few years this council governed England.

Simon de Montfort. The leading man in the council was Simon de Montfort, the son of the leader of the crusade against the Albigensians and the grandson of an English heiress. Like so many other foreigners, he had gone to England to seek his fortune, and had won the favor of the king. He was given the earldom of Leicester, to which he had a claim through his grandmother, and he married the king's sister, much to the indignation of the native English nobles. He quarreled with the king and went on a crusade. On his return he and the king were reconciled and he was made governor of Gascony. There he was accused of bad government and was formally tried. Although he was acquitted and allowed to continue in office, he was thwarted and finally superseded by the king's orders, so that after serving Henry for a quarter of a century he was forced into opposition and became the leader of the native nobles. When Henry induced the pope to declare the Provisions of Oxford annulled, war was imminent between the king and the barons led by Montfort, but both parties agreed to submit their cause to Louis IX of France. He decided against the barons, and Simon at once resorted to arms. In the battle of Lewes, 1264, he won a victory and captured Henry, in whose name he carried on the government for about a year.

Simon de Montfort's Parliament. He was not unopposed; but the foreigners who had been expelled attempted an invasion, and this strengthened his cause. In order to make his position more secure and more legitimate, Montfort summoned a parliament in 1265. To this he called only his partisans, and, as his strength consisted partly in the support of the knights and burgesses, he included, besides the barons and clergy, two knights from each shire and two burgesses from each borough. Knights of the shire had occasionally been summoned before, but this was the first time that representatives of the boroughs sat in parliament. This precedent was to be followed by Edward I, especially in his "Model Parliament." It was an indication of the change that was gradually making the citizens an important factor in political life.

Last Years of Henry. Simon de Montfort was slain in battle the same year. His death and a general weariness of the long strife broke down the opposition to Henry, who was more cautious in his actions and had less need of money. His last years were comparatively quiet, and his heir, Edward, felt that it was safe to go on crusade, leaving England to regret his absence rather than his presence.

Rise of Third Estate. During the period from 1087 to 1272 civil wars had been fret quent in England, and the kings spent much of their effort in foreign expeditions. Yet the period had not been a disastrous one for the people, who had made great progress. The life on the manors, the rise of towns, the development of architecture, the growth of universities, will be discussed elsewhere. Here it is necessary only to note the great wealth of England and its importance for the third estate. Grain and wool were the most important products; the former was consumed at home, the latter, mainly exported. In addition, trade had been fostered by the connection with the Continent and the acquisition of new tastes for foreign wares. The merchants profited; they were granted privileges by the monarchs who needed their money. Their importance increased, and from this time on the third estate will be a recognized power in the political life of England.

Growth of National Unity. At the beginning of the period the king was virtually a foreign despot; at the close, his power was limited by the growth of law and by the necessity of consulting parliament whenever he needed any unusual grant of money. And these were very real checks upon the king. Moreover, the despotism of Henry II, the misrule of John, the weakness and favoritism of Henry III, had welded all classes together to a greater degree than in any other country in Europe. The loss of most of the continental possessions had restricted the interests of the barons, and the preference shown to foreigners by Henry III had consolidated the feeling of nationalism, so that in England, by the close of his reign, all the people felt themselves to be, and were, Englishmen. English poems were being written and English songs sung. Although French was still spoken at court and by the upper classes, English was the language of the great mass of the people, and was steadily gaining ground.

The Church and the Nation. This feeling of national unity had been increased by the exactions of the popes, who had drained great sums from the country, much against the people's will. Taking advantage of the king's liking for foreigners and his complaisance toward the demands of the Church, the pope, in the reign of Henry III, had appointed many Italians to rich English benefices. This was resented by the monks and the lower orders of the clergy, as well as by the people, who felt that they were being exploited to meet the demands of rapacious foreigners. Simon de Montfort had won support by a program to reform the Church as well as the state. The Church's censures had fallen somewhat into disrepute, and public opinion in England was gradually taking shape, so that Edward I would find general support in his struggle with the papacy.

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