The early Plantagenets

by William Stubbs

Disunion
among the
barons.

The Barons’
War, 1263.

Award of
Lewis IX.

England had now, it would appear, adopted a new form of government, but it must have been already sufficiently clear that so many rival interests and ambitious leaders would not work together, that Henry would avail himself of the first pretext for repudiating his promises, and that a civil war would almost certainly follow. The first year of this provisional government passed away quietly. The King of the Romans, who returned from Germany in January, 1259, was obliged to swear to the provisions. In November Henry went to France, returning in April, 1260. Immediately on his return he began to intrigue for the overthrow of the government, sent for absolution to Rome, and prepared for war. Edward, his eldest son, tried to prevent him from breaking his word, but before the king had begun the contest the two great earls had quarrelled; Gloucester could not bear Leicester, Leicester could not bear a rival. A general reconciliation was the prelude as usual to a general struggle. In February, 1261, Henry repudiated his oath, and seized the Tower. In June he produced a papal Bull which absolved him from his oath to observe the Provisions. The chiefs of the government, Leicester and Gloucester, took up arms, but they avoided a battle. The summer was occupied with preparations for a struggle, and peace was made in the winter. In 1262 Henry went again to France for six months, and on his return again swore to the Provisions; that year the Earl of Gloucester died, and Edward began to draw nearer to his father. Simon was without a rival, and no doubt created in Edward that spirit of jealous mistrust which never again left him. The next year was one of open war. The young Earl of Gloucester refused to swear allegiance to Edward; Simon insisted that the pertinacious aliens should be again expelled. Twice if not three times in this year Henry was forced to confirm the Provisions; but Edward saw that they had now become a mere form under which the sovereignty of Simon de Montfort was scarcely hidden; and the increasing conviction of this induced the barons to refer the whole question to the arbitration of Lewis IX. of France. This was done on December 16, 1263. An examination of the names of the barons which appear in the two lists of sureties who undertake the carrying out of this arbitration, shows that Simon de Montfort had now lost some of his most important allies. The young Earl of Gloucester appears in neither list, but the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford, Hugh Bigot, and Roger Mortimer are now on the king’s side, and no earl except Leicester himself appears in the baronial party, the foremost layman there being Hugh le Despenser, the justiciar. There can be no doubt that since the outbreak of the war much moral weight had fallen to the royalists, and it seems most probable that Earl Simon had rather offended than propitiated the men who regarded themselves as his equals. The conduct of the barons after the award of Lewis IX. seems to place them in the wrong, and to show either that Simon de Montfort’s views had developed, under the late changes, in the direction of personal ambition and selfish ends, or that other causes were at work, of which we have no information. The barons were so distinctly justified in their first proceedings, that an equitable consideration cannot be refused to their later difficulties. Both parties, however, equally bound themselves to abide by the arbitration.

Henry took the wise course of being personally present on the occasion and taking his son Edward with him. Some of the barons also appeared in person, but not the Earl of Leicester, who was supporting the Welsh princes in their war with Mortimer, a method of continuing the struggle which was neither honest nor patriotic. At Amiens Lewis heard the cause, and did not long hesitate about his answer, which was delivered on January 23, 1264. By this award the King of France entirely annulled the Provisions of Oxford, and all engagements which had been made respecting them. Not content with doing this in general terms, he forbade the making of new statutes, as proposed and carried out in the Provisions of Westminster, ordered the restoration of the royal castles to the king, restored to him the power of nominating the officers of state and the sheriffs, the nomination of whom had been withdrawn from him by the Provisions of Oxford; he annulled the order that natives of England alone should govern the realm of England, and added that the king should have full and free power in this kingdom as he had had in time past. All this was in the king’s favor. The arbitrator, however, added that all the charters issued before the time of the Provisions should hold good, and that all parties should condone enmities and injuries arising from the late troubles.

Motives for
the decision
of the
French king.

Lewis mentions as his chief motive for thus giving the verdict practically in the king’s favor, the fact that the Provisions had already been annulled by the Pope, and the parties bound by them released from their oaths. But we cannot suppose that he was entirely guided by this consideration; it is probable that he did not understand the limits which the growth of constitutional life had put upon the exercise of royal power as early as Magna Carta, or the shameless way in which Henry had broken his engagements. He may, very reasonably, have regarded England as much the same sort of country as his own, and have seen in the strengthening of the royal power—a thing absolutely necessary in France at the time—a measure as necessary for England. He may have been moved by Henry’s own pleadings, or by the more weighty if more moderate statements which we can imagine were laid before him, by Edward. And the care that he shows for the restoration of peace and good feeling, may well be interpreted to prove that, although his award was more favorable to the one party than to the other, he yet did not think the defeated party entirely in the wrong.

Effects of
the award
of Lewis.

The award, however, was entirely in favor of the crown. The new form of government was already giving way, and both parties might have and ought to have submitted to the sentence. Henry had had a severe lesson, and might not offend again; the baronage had had their chance, and had been found wanting both in unity of aim and in administrative power. Neither party, however, acquiesced in the admonition, and each of course laid on the other the blame of disregarding a judgment by which both had sworn to stand. At first the war was continued on the Welsh marches principally; Edward’s forces assisting Mortimer, and Montfort continuing to support Llewelyn, the Prince of Wales, his opponent. But when the king returned from France, as he did in February, the struggle became general.

Military
successes of
the king and
of Simon de
Montfort.