Two of the most important provisions were, that four knights should be chosen by the freeholders of each county to ascertain and lay before parliament all wrongs committed by the royal officers, and that parliaments should meet thrice in the year.
1259. Henry formally renounced all claim to the English possessions in France lost in John’s reign, and Louis IX. ceded to him Limousin, Querci, and Perigord.
1261. Henry refused to abide by the Provisions of Oxford, and tried, though without success, to recover his authority by forcible means.
1264. The Barons’ War. The barons, led by Simon de Montfort, resorted to arms, and defeated Henry at Lewes (May 14). He and his brother Richard taken prisoners.
The next day a treaty, called the Mise of Lewes, was concluded, by which it was agreed that Prince Edward and his cousin Henry should be kept as hostages for their fathers, and that all matters that could not be amicably settled in the next parliament should be referred to arbitration. Simon de Montfort, in the king’s name, summoned a parliament to meet early in the following year.
1265. ORIGIN Of POPULAR REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT. The first parliament, to which representatives for cities and boroughs were summoned, met at Westminster. The royalists, under Prince Edward, who had escaped from his keepers, overthrew the barons at Evesham (Aug. 4). Simon de Montfort fell in the battle.
1270. The country being restored to tranquillity, Prince Edward took the cross, and set sail for the Holy Land.
Edward I., surnamed Longshanks.
D. He was the eldest son of Henry III. B. at Westminster, 1239. M. (1) Eleanor, daughter of Ferdinand III., king of Castile; (2) Margaret, daughter of Philip III. of France. Dd. at Burgh-on-the-Sands, near Carlisle, July 7, 1307. R. 34½ years (1272 to 1307).
1274. Edward returned to England.