Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/314

300 The of Early English buildings are, in general, very fine compositions, and though plainer in detail; than those of the succeeding styles, they have more elegance of proportion. A good idea of their general arrangement may be formed from the one here given of the south transept of Beverley Minster.

South Transept of Beverley Minster.

 

Immediately after the funeral of Henry III., the barons proclaimed his son Edward, then absent on the crusade, to be king. Walter Merton was nominated chancellor of the kingdom, and the Earl of Gloucester, the Earl of Cornwall, a son of the King of the Romans, and Walter Gifford, Archbishop of York, were appointed regents. So wise were the measures taken, and so general was the assent of all parties, that no disturbance of the public peace took place, as bad hitherto frequently happened on the death of a king. Prince Edward was accepted by the people as their ruler, and his accession was attended with less difficulty or opposition than that of any of his predecessors. When Louis IX. departed on his second expedition to the Holy Land, he turned aside to attack the Bay of Tunis, and, instead of proceeding direct to Syria, he landed on the shores of Africa. This deviation from his original course was probably due to the representations of his brother, Charles of Anjou, who, in the battle of Grandella ( A.D. 1266), had won from Manfred the crown of Italy. There was some pretence of a claim to tribute possessed by the kings of Sicily against Tunis, but it is probable that the real object of the expedition lay in the hope of plundering that immense wealth which was supposed to be treasured up in the African cities.

The forces of Louis soon made themselves masters of the town of Carthage, but they had landed during the summer, and the excessive heat of that unaccustomed climate, added to the want of good water and provision, produced severe 