СНАР. 1259 Struggle between and the king. of the King of France and the people of England. When one is in Paris, the other attempts to steal a march upon him in London. When Henry returns to England Simon finds it convenient to be in France. Earl Simon The two stand opposite each other not as king and subject, but as two independent princes, in whose private disputes as well as in their political quarrels a king. or a queen of France is called upon to arbitrate. A process goes on somewhat similar to that before 1258. De Montfort after a temporary depression regains his hold upon the people, while the Pope and the King of France unite to support Henry, the result being an immediate reunion of the national party and the downfall of the monarchy. A council in the kings absence. When Henry went to France in November of regency 1259, the royal authority was vested in a Council of Regency, pretty equally composed of the two parties, consisting of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Worcester, the Earl Marshal, Hugh Bigod the justiciar, and Philip Basset.' The last three were however already wavering, and their nomination shows that the tide had turned.2 How far this council may be held to have superseded the Council of Fifteen, or whether it was anything more than a committee chosen from it-since all but Basset were members of the Fifteen-is uncertain. It is not probable that the baronial government lost its power till after the kings return, or even later. Before his departure, Henry took leave of the citizens of London in the Folkmoot, and conferred upon them certain unimportant liberties. Lib. de Ant. Leg. sub anno. ? They are found on the kings side in 1264. P. Basset was the kings justiciar in 1261. CHAP. VIII. 1260 Henry negotia But no sooner did he feel himself somewhat secure, thinking probably he had made sure of Louis, than he wrote to the Pope from Paris to say that he hoped now to renew the negotiations about Apulia ; while on renews the same day, 16 January 1260, he sent a studiously tions with polite letter to the justiciar, explaining the reason of the Pope, his delay abroad, asking him to send another arbiter to France, and bidding him refrain from summoning the regular Lent Parliament on account of the report of a Welch invasion. Shortly afterwards he distinctly informed Hugh Bigod that the Sicilian enterprise was to be taken up again. Thus did he on the first opportunity return to his old schemes, and break one of the most important of the Oxford Provisions, by forbidding the assembly of Parliament at the stated time. A sign of his reviving power, and a more defensible exercise of it, was an edict he issued at the same time, bidding the sheriffs look to their duties as guardians England. of the public peace. But he was too cautious at once to assert fully the reactionary policy; he wrote to the Pope begging him not to insist on the return of the Bishop of Winchester. and re assumes power in Earl Meanwhile however, after the conclusion of peace, Return of Earl Simon, whose absence had been as usual much re- Simon. gretted, had returned with his wife and a large suite to England. He was not likely to acquiesce in such a breach of the law as that commanded in the kings letter. The barons therefore intimated to the king their desire to hold a Parliament, but received only a See throughout this period Royal Letters ii. 147 seq. 2 Anglia illius præsentia diutius viduata.'-Matt. West. 292. On 10 Feb., 1260, he was at St. Albans, and presented a costly baldekin to the shrine.-Ibid. CHAP. 1260 Letter from The barons still more distinct command not to do so till he returned. If anything had been needed to convince them of the necessity of union, and the danger of the Pope. yielding a foot to the attempted renewal of Henrys foreign policy, it was supplied by a letter from the Pope, which seems to have arrived about this time in answer to their remonstrances on the effect of the usurpation of lay patronage.' In it the Pope lays down the principle that no layman has a right to dispose of ecclesiastical things, although his predecessor had fifteen years before confirmed the right of presentation; the laity may not even, he declares, call upon the Church to reform her ways. With such a warning as this before their eyes, and with the kings attitude plainly declared, the barons summoned a Parliament in opposition to his mandate, and informed the king that, if he did not soon return from France, he might find it impossible to return when he wished.3 Henry had, in fear of another outbreak, begged his brother Richard to hinder an intended invasion of his half-brothers, and the assembling of forces in France; while he reported to Louis, probably prematurely, that de Montfort was bringing men and arms into England, whence his attitude towards the king was plainly visible.' Meanwhile, as he confessed a year later, he was himself collecting forces, and in fact brought them into the country soon after his own return. summon a Parliament. Return of the king. Alarmed by the attitude of the barons, and still more by the report that Prince Edward had shown a decided leaning towards them, Henry suddenly re 1 Ann. Burt. 487. Fad. i. 262. 3 Ann. Dunst. 315. CHAP. VIII. 1260 appeared in London a few days after Parliament had met.' There was some ground for the rumours as to his son; for the old quarrel had burst out again. between Gloucester and Leicester, and Edward had taken his uncles side. The king immediately entered London and shut the gates, while the barons held their Parliament in the Temple. The city had decided, on the approach of the disputants with their armed followings, in violation of the Provision of 1259, which forbade the bearing of arms, to obviate the chance of disturbance by shutting both parties out. Henry however admitted Gloucester, who doubtless during his long stay in France 2 had come to a good understanding with him; Edward and de Montfort remained outside with their partisans. It seems very Prince probable, from Edwards character and general atti- Edward. tude at this time, that he preferred Leicester to Gloucester; but though the king refused to see him for a whole fortnight, from fear that his Roman sense of justice would give way before parental fondness,' he was at the end of that interval reconciled to his father. Henry, having secured his son, gave vent to Henry his long-concealed displeasure in an open attack on Simon, using, according to one account, false witnesses against him. What was the ground of the attack we know not, but it probably had something to do with the recent breach of filial duty committed by the prince. Be that as it may, Simon answered everything as he had once before on a similar occa 1 Parliament met on 19 April; Henry returned on 23 April. Ann, Dunst. 214. Q attacks de Montfort. CHAP. 1200 War and truce with the Welch. Connexion between Earl Simon Edward: sion, so that his accusers were powerless. Richard, as usual, acted peacemaker, and Simon seems so far to have been taken back into favour that he was sent, as the most able and prudent general in England,' to conduct the war against the Welch. His skill was not however called into requisition, for a truce was made shortly afterwards. Perhaps it was owing to this that he was not present as high steward at the marriage of the Princess and Prince Beatrice, in October 1260, at which Henry of Almaine discharged the duty for him. That this absence is not to be looked on as implying any disgrace, is made more probable by the fact that about the same time de Montforts two sons were knighted by Prince Edward. It may have been owing to the dangerous influence, which the earl seemed at this time to be getting over the chivalrous spirit of the young prince, that the latter was sent to Gascony, of which province t will be remembered he had been made lieutenant the Prince. five years before. It seems very likely that the thought of making Edward regent had crossed the character of mind of de Montfort. The nobility of character and warm impulses of the young prince, the sense of honour which from the first distinguished him, and the sympathy for the oppressed, of which he had already given evidence, were enough to encourage such hopes. But these qualities were at this time overpowered by others a hot-headed rashness, and a quickness of resentment which made him lose sight of aims requiring patience and forethought, and a fickleness of temper which caused him with reason to be compared Bel ator prudentior et validior Angliæ.'-Matt. West, 299. |