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Henry III quarrelled with the Archbishop of Canterbury about a fief, and the archbishop went to Rome [see under ]. The king was much grieved at hearing of the death of William Marshall, which took place on 15 April 1231, and exclaimed, ‘Woe, woe is me! is not the blood of the blessed martyr Thomas fully avenged yet?’ (, iii. 201). The death of the earl, who guarded the Welsh border, was followed by a fresh outbreak of the Welsh. Henry marched against them, and they at once retreated; but on his departure Llewelyn invaded the lands of the marchers. Henry summoned his forces to meet him at Oxford in July, and advanced to Hereford, Llewelyn's army being near Montgomery. He met with no success, and was deceived and out-generalled by the Welsh. He rebuilt and garrisoned Maud's Castle in the present Radnorshire, which had been destroyed by the enemy. While there he was visited by the Duke of Brittany and the Earl of Chester, who had been carrying on war with Louis IX, and had finally made a three years' truce between the two kings. With them came Richard Marshall, who claimed his brother's lands. Henry refused, and accused him of treacherous dealings with the French. But when the earl made arrangements to take forcible possession of his inheritance, the king restored him his rights. Henry returned to England in October 1231; he had some thoughts of marrying a daughter of the Scottish king, but was dissuaded by the Earl of Chester, on the ground that the justiciar had already married the elder daughter, and that it would not be seemly for him to take the younger. He spent Christmas at Winchester with Peter des Roches, who, lately come back from the crusade, had quickly regained his influence over him. The breach between the king and the justiciar was widened meanwhile by the rumour that Hubert was concerned in a series of attacks made on the persons and property of the papal agents and other Roman clerks; for Henry was devoted to the papacy, which had been his early protector. At a council at Westminster on 7 March 1232 the barons refused an aid for the Welsh war, on the plea that they had served in person, while the prelates objected, because some of their number were absent. The Welsh renewed their ravages, and Henry complained that he was too poor to stop them. By the advice of Bishop Peter he made a change in his ministers, and on 29 July dismissed Hubert, to whom he attributed all his difficulties, from the justiciarship, and gave it to Stephen Segrave. He brought a series of charges against Hubert, who fled to sanctuary, and was after a time taken and imprisoned [see under ]. With the fall of the justiciar ‘Henry's own administration of government begins,’ and during the next twenty-six years he gave abundant proofs of his ‘insincerity and incapacity’ (Const. Hist. ii. 43).

In September 1232 the king held a council at Lambeth, and obtained the grant of a fortieth on all moveables, except spiritualities, for the payment of his debts to the Duke of Brittany. At Christmas he completed the change in the administration by turning out all his English officers and replacing them by Poitevins. The predominance of the Poitevins offended the nobles at home, and was unacceptable to Rome. It partly explains the renewed papal interference in the election to the see of Canterbury, when, after the death of Richard Grant, three archbishops-elect were set aside by Pope Gregory [see ]. By the death of the Earl of Chester in October 1232 the baronage lost their leader; his place was taken by Richard Marshall, who, in 1233, told the king that if he chose to have Poitevins as his advisers he and the nobles generally would withdraw from his court. Henry was frightened and answered meekly; but the Bishop of Winchester spoke saucily to the earl, and he and his associates left in anger. Henry summoned his lords to a council at Oxford on 24 June, but they refused to attend. He was violently angry, and took counsel with his courtiers. The lawyers advised that the lords should be summoned three times, and a council was called to meet at Westminster on 5 July. To Henry's dismay the associated nobles refused to come to Westminster. By Bishop Peter's advice he summoned all to attend at a conference on 14 Aug. on pain of being declared traitors. Many came and were won over by bribes. Richard Marshall and a few others who believed that the king designed to seize them stayed away, and nothing was settled. Henry and the bishop had, however, sent for a number of foreign troops, and determined to compel the lords to submission. The king gathered his military tenants at Gloucester on 17 Aug. 1233; was joined at Hereford by the Poitevin mercenaries, and ravaged the lands of the associated lords, obtaining possession of the earl-marshal's castle (at Usk?) by a disgraceful piece of deceit on 2 Oct. (, iv. 268–73;, iii. 241–9). He held a council at Westminster on 9 Oct., and there all present besought him to make peace with his lords, the Franciscan and Dominican friars to whom he generally paid deference urging the wrong he was doing in thus wasting the lands of nobles who had not been judged by their peers. Bishop