Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/26

Henry III naught, and in 1240 Gregory, in order to bind the Roman citizens to his side, ordered that three hundred English benefices should be provided for distribution among their sons and nephews. Archbishop Edmund, after vainly remonstrating with the king, left the kingdom in despair, and died abroad. Frederic II was highly displeased at the help which the pope was allowed to receive from the spoils of the English church. On his side Henry used the church for the benefit of his foreign favourites. After the death of the elect of Valence he tried to obtain the see of Winchester for another of his wife's uncles, Boniface of Savoy [q. v.], and shamefully oppressed the convent because the chapter persisted in the election of William of Raleigh. He succeeded in procuring Canterbury for Boniface in 1241, and the see of Hereford for another foreigner, for whom he also tried in vain to procure first Durham and then London. Foreigners, chiefly Provençals, swarmed about the court and lived on the country. Another of the queen's uncles, Peter of Savoy, came over and received the earldom of Richmond, and the citizens of London were compelled to attend the festivities held in his honour. The departure of Richard of Cornwall on a crusade removed the check which he had from time to time put on the king's doings. Large sums of money were squandered, and the Londoners were specially irritated by the new works which were added to the fortifications of the Tower. The Jews were compelled to find money to meet the royal expenses. Meanwhile the king's foreign possessions were neglected, and lay at the mercy of Louis. One success the king had. On Llewelyn's death his son David adopted an independent and hostile attitude. Henry summoned all his military tenants to assemble at Gloucester in the summer of 1241; marched to Shrewsbury on 2 Aug., and so overawed the prince that without a blow having been struck he submitted by the end of the month.

In 1242 Henry received a message from the Count of La Marche urging him to come to his help with a numerous force, and promising him the assistance of the Poitevins, the Gascons, the king of Navarre, and the Count of Toulouse. The king summoned a council of the magnates for 28 Jan., and Richard of Cornwall came back in time to help him. A report of the proceedings, ‘the first authorised account of a parliamentary debate,’ is preserved (, iv. 185; Const. Hist. ii. 58). The king sent his message, requesting an aid for the recovery of his French possessions, by the Earl of Cornwall, the Archbishop of York [see under ], and the provost of Beverley. In reply the lords spoke of the aids, subsidies, and scutages which he had received, of the wealth which he had gained by escheats and wardships, of the revenues of vacant sees, and of the absence of all accounts, which made it probable that the last thirtieth granted in 1237 was still in his hands, and refused to make him a fresh grant while the truce remained unexpired. On the next day he called several of them into his private chamber one after another, talked to them separately, with great craftiness, and so obtained by persuasion no small amount of money, though not nearly so much as a general aid would have yielded. Having appointed the Archbishop of York guardian of the kingdom, he sailed from Portsmouth on 13 May 1242 with thirty casks of money, his queen and his brother, seven other earls, and about three hundred knights, and, after being obliged to put back for a day to wait for a wind, reached Finisterre on Sunday the 18th, and on the following Tuesday landed at Royan at the mouth of the Gironde. After staying there some days he went to Pons in Saintonge, where he held a conference with the Count of La Marche and other lords of his party, and by their advice sent messengers to Louis, and, failing to obtain satisfaction, decided that the truce was at an end. Thence he marched to Saintes, where, on 8 June, he wrote a declaration of war, and so on to Tonnay, and on the 30th took up a position outside Taillebourg, and to the south of the Charente. Meanwhile Louis took Fontenay and many castles in Poitou, and having made himself master of the country north of the Charente, led his army to Taillebourg, which was surrendered to him, though its lord had made Henry believe that he would give up the city to him. On the morning of 20 July the English position was threatened by Louis. Earl Richard obtained a truce until the following day, and as soon as the sun set Henry and his army fled to Saintes. On the 22nd Louis pursued him, and a skirmish between the Count of La Marche and a French foraging party led to an indecisive engagement outside Saintes. Two days later, finding that the king of France was likely to attack him, Henry retreated to Pons, and thence to Barbesieux. There the Count of La Marche, who had made terms with Louis, deserted, after having so nearly delivered the army into the hands of the French king, that the English only saved themselves by a forced march of a day and a night to Blaye. The king neither ate nor slept for nearly forty-eight hours, and a good part of the baggage train was lost. At Blaye he remained some