Accession of the King—Renewal of the Great Charter—Messages of Conciliation—Battle of Lincoln—Destruction of the French Fleet—Departure of Louis—Reduction of Albemarle—Resumption of the Royal Castles—War with France—Characters of Richard of Cornwall and Henry III.—Fall of Hubert de Burgh—Peter des Roches—Henry is his own Minister—The House of Provence—The King's Marriage Articles—The Marriage and Entry into London—Influx of Foreigners—Papal Aggressions—Persecution of the Jews—Oppression of the Londoners—A Religious Ceremony.
Henry III., or, as he was more generally designated, Henry of Winchester, was only ten years of age when the death of his father called him to the throne. It was almost an empty honour, the kingdom being in a most distracted state. London and the southern counties acknowledged the authority of his rival Louis, to whom the King of Scotland and the Welsh prince had taken the oath of fealty as vassals.
In this position there were only two parties on whom the youthful monarch could rely for any effectual support: the first consisted of the barons and foreign mercenaries who had remained faithful to the late king; the second was the Papal See, which, since the degrading surrender of the crown by John, considered itself lord paramount of England, and in that capacity naturally exerted all its influence to secure the succession to the son of him who had bestowed upon it so rich a gift.
About ten days after the death of his father, Henry was conducted to the abbey church of Gloucester; and having taken the coronation oath, and sworn fealty to the reigning Pope, Honorius, was crowned by his legate Gualo and the Bishops of Winchester, Exeter, and Bath, who placed upon his head a simple circlet of gold, the regal crown having been lost with the rest of the royal treasures in the disastrous passage of the Wash.
Immediately after this ceremony a proclamation was issued, in which the boy-king lamented the dissensions between his father and the barons, which he professed his willingness to forget, and offered to his subjects full amnesty for the past, and their liberties, as secured by the Great Charter for the future. He also commanded the tenants of the crown to do homage to him for their possessions, and take the oath of allegiance. During a month the people were forbidden to appear in public without a white fillet round the head in honour of his coronation. The care of Henry's person was confided to the Earl of Pembroke, Earl Marshal of England, who was also named guardian of the kingdom. Well did this illustrious nobleman merit the confidence reposed in him. It was owing to his loyalty and energy that the foreigners were driven from the kingdom. The earl, in order that he might reconcile all orders in the state to the government of the new king, made him grant a fresh charter, which, though copied in most instances from the one extorted from John, contained several exceptions. The privilege of elections granted to the clergy was not confirmed, nor the liberty of withdrawing from the kingdom without the consent of the crown. In this omission we may perceive the germ of resistance to the supremacy of Rome. Even at a period when it was most necessary to conciliate its influence in favour of the young king, both the regent and the barons of the party were desirous of reserving the right of the crown to issue the congé d'élire to the monks and chapters, as some check upon the encroachments of the Papacy. But the greatest change was the omission of the obligations to which John had subscribed, binding himself not to levy any aids or scutages, as they were termed, upon the nation without the consent of the Great Council; the article was even pronounced severe, and was expressly left to future deliberation. This charter was confirmed by the king in the following year, and several additional articles added, to prevent the oppression of the sheriffs. The forest laws were modified; those forests which had been enclosed since the reign of Henry II. were thrown open; offences against the forest laws were declared no longer capital, but punished by fine and imprisonment. These last ameliorations were made in a separate charter.
Whilst the Earl of Pembroke, by these wise proceedings, gave so much satisfaction to the nation in general, he made great personal efforts to recall the revolted barons to their allegiance by writing in the king's name to each. In his letters he reminded them that whatever cause of offence John might have given them, his son, who had succeeded to the crown, inherited neither his principles nor resentments; that he was the lineal heir of their ancient kings; and pointed out how desperate was the expedient they had employed in calling in a foreign potentate—an expedient which, happily for them and the nation, had failed of success. It was, he reminded them, still in their power, by a speedy return to their duty, to restore the independence of the kingdom, and those liberties for which they had so zealously contended; adding that, as all their past offences were now buried in oblivion, they ought, on their part, to show equal magnanimity, and forget their complaints against their late sovereign, who, if he had been in any way blamable in his conduct, had left to his successor the salutary warning to avoid the paths which had led to such fatal and dangerous extremities. The considerations so temperately yet strongly urged, enforced by the high character for honour and consistency which Pembroke had ever maintained, had great influence with the barons, many of whom began secretly to negotiate with him, whilst others returned openly to their allegiance.
The suspicion which Louis discovered of their fidelity forwarded this general inclining towards the king; and when at last he refused the government of the castle of Hertford to Robert Fitz-Walter, one of his most faithful adherents, who claimed that fortress as his property, they plainly saw that the English nobility were to be systematically excluded from every position of trust, and that his own countrymen and foreigners engrossed all the confidence and affection of their new sovereign.
The excommunication, too, which the legate of the Pope had pronounced against all the adherents of Louis, was not without effect. Men were easily convinced of the impiety of a cause which it was their interest to abandon.
Louis, who, on the death of John, had deemed his triumph certain, found, on the contrary, that that event had given an incurable wound to his cause. On his return from France, where he had been to recruit his forces, he discovered his party among the English barons much weakened. The Earls of Salisbury, Arundel, and Warrenne, together with William Marshal, eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke, had returned to their natural allegiance, and the nobles who remained were only waiting an occasion to follow their example.