A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Far indeed from assisting Louis, Henry had regarded his absence as an opportunity for regaining his power in the south of France. Gascony was in a state of complete confusion, chiefly through the insurrections of Gaston of Bearn and assaults from the King of Navarre. To bring it into order, Henry had, in 1248, appointed Simon de Montfort his governor there. His government had been completely successful, and at length, in 1250, Gaston was sent a prisoner to England. In his foolish soft-heartedness, Henry at once pardoned and released him. But the vigorous government of Simon had excited the displeasure both of the nobles and of the towns. They sent an embassy under the Archbishop of Bordeaux to lay charges against him before Henry. The King, fickle and jealous, listened to them; and Leicester was summoned home. He had almost ruined himself in his efforts to carry on his government well, and an angry scene of personal recrimination occurred, the King charging him with treason, while Simon demanded repayment for the money he had expended. It shows the state of personal contempt into which the King had fallen, that Leicester could venture to give him the lie direct. But the King could not do without him; by the influence of the Earl of Cornwall the quarrel was adjusted, and De Montfort returned as he believed to his government. His back was scarcely turned when the King appointed in his place his young son Edward, and ordered the Gascons not to obey De Montfort. Feeling himself thus freed from his charge, De Montfort went to Paris. The opinion of his abilities was so high, that he was offered the regency of France; but slighted though he had been at home, he was still true to his adopted country, and declined the flattering offer.

By Leicester’s aid Gascony is saved.

Henry’s money difficulties.

Left to himself, Henry found the Gascons more than he could manage. He collected indeed much money for the expedition; the Charter being renewed as usual as the price of a grant. The Jews had to advance money, the towns were tallaged. But, after all, things would have gone badly had not Leicester again patriotically offered his services, and taken command of the disturbed province. With his assistance, and with money obtained from England, by dint of lying letters, narrating the extreme danger of the King from the approach of a vast army of Christians and Saracens under the King of Castile, peace was made with Alphonso X., at that time the King of Castile, and a marriage arranged between Edward and his daughter the Princess Eleanor. This expedition therefore had on the whole been successful; but it plunged the King still deeper into money difficulties, while his constant demands for money, and the dishonest means he had taken to secure it, had lowered him still further in the eyes of the people. His foolish ambition and his adherence to the Papal See completed what his long reign of misgovernment had begun.

The Pope offers Edmund the kingdom of Sicily. 1254.

Henry accepts Sicily on ruinous terms.

It has been said that the Pope’s chief object was to remove the Hohenstaufen from their Italian dominions. As early as 1252, seeking some prince whom he might set in their place, and being assured of the fidelity of the English King, he offered the throne of Sicily to Richard of Cornwall. That Prince, remembering that Henry, Frederick’s son, was his own nephew, and too prudent to trust himself blindly to the Pope, declined the offer. But when young Henry died in 1253, and Sicily fell into the hands of Conrad and of his half brother Manfred, the Pope repeated his offer to King Henry’s son Edmund. By him it was foolishly accepted; Conrad also died, and a great opportunity was opened for the Pope’s intrigues. There were three parties in Sicily: the German party, who upheld a son of Conrad, the Italian Gibellines, who obeyed Manfred, and the Sicilians, who followed Peter Rufus, the Emperor’s lieutenant. The Pope succeeded in bribing the leader of the German party, and his views seemed on the point of realization, when he died. He was succeeded by Alexander IV., who was reputed a moderate man, but who accepted all the arrangements of his predecessor. Henry had returned from Gascony, after a costly visit to Paris, deeply in debt. The Charter of London was again set aside, and a heavy tallage inflicted; the Jews were again compelled to pay large sums of money; and the Barons in Parliament were loudly complaining of grievances, and demanding the appointment of a Parliamentary Justiciary and Chancellor. In the midst of all these difficulties, the King was foolish enough to accept the Sicilies on ruinous terms. Two hundred ounces of gold yearly, and the support of 300 knights, were to be promised, the expenses of the war to be paid, and an army at once sent to claim the kingdom. The Pope kept the management of this war in his own hands, but the Bishop of Hereford, Henry’s envoy, was allowed to make the King responsible for the outlay. The Pope began immediately to send his creditors direct to Henry, and twice before the end of the year 1256, a Papal Legate of the name of Rustand had appeared in England, raised money of unknown value from the English Church, and freed the King from his Crusader’s oath, that he might employ his forces against Sicily.

Consequent exactions.

Terrible famine. 1257.

Parliament at length roused to resistance.