Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/692

658 involved in constant difficulties with his sons and with the French king, owing to the mutual jealousies of the former and the intrigues of the latter, to which Henry s partiality for his youngest son John and his refusal to allow the marriage of Richard with Alice gave rise. A war between the brothers in was brought to an end by the death of the young Henry in the. The feud broke out again in, and continued at intervals, in spite of the death of Geoffrey in , to the end of the reign. At length Henry s apparent intention to name John as his successor forced Richard to ally himself with Philip II, and in the war that followed Henry was beaten at all points. He was forced to make a disgraceful peace, the terms of which, together with the discovery that John was among his enemies, broke his heart. He died at Chinon, July 6,, and was buried at Fontevraud. Henry s legislative activity, which was great and constant, deserves special notice. His aim was the consolidation of royal power by means of a centralized system of justice and administration. The Constitutions of Clarendon were an essential part of this scheme, designed to bring the clergy, as well as other classes of the nation, under the rule of law, and to prevent an ecclesiastical &quot; imperium in imperio.&quot; Other enactments, as the Assize of Clarendon, were intended to perfect the judicial system and to supersede the baronial by the royal courts. The system of recognition by jury took the place of trial by battle. The grand jury was organized for the presentment of criminals for trial. The jury system was further employed for the inquiry into the conduct of the sheriffs, and for the assessment of the Saladin tithe. The circuits of the justices itinerant were, after repeated experiments, brought to some thing like perfection, and a high court of justice formed out of the Curia Regis, which was the origin of the Court of King s Bench. By the commutation of feudal service for scutage, and by the Assize of Arms, which revived the national militia, Henry made himself independent of the baronage, and formed that alliance between king and people which was the surest basis of his power. Whatever may be said against his private character, the wisdom and steadiness with which he pursued these aims, and the permanence of the mark that he left upon the constitution, secure him the title of a great king.

1em 1em  HENRY III. (–), king of England, eldest son of John and Isabella, was born on October 1,, and was just nine years old on his father s death. Ten days after that event he was crowned at Gloucester (October 28, ). His long reign falls into four periods, that of the regency, ending with the fall of De Burg ; that of government by favourites, which led to the Mad Parliament ; the period of the Barons War ; and the short period between the close of the war and Henry s death. At his accession the whole country was in rebellion, and Louis with his Frenchmen hell the east and south. In this crisis it was fortunate that the government fell into the hands of such a man as William Marshall, and that the pope gave him all the assist ance in his power. The acceptance of the charter at once recalled many to their allegiance, and the defeat and retire ment of Louis broke up the opposition. The charter was confirmed and order rapidly restored. The legate Gualo aided the earl marshal and Archbishop Langton in the work. On Marshall s death Pandulf took Gualo s place, and asserted the papal authority in a way which obliged Langton to make a personal protest at Rome. Pandulf was recalled, and Hubert de Burg, the justiciar, ruled with Langton till the latter s death, and alone afterwards. Tbe influence of Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, the head of the foreign party and guardian of the king s person, was successfully resisted. Meanwhile a last outbreak of pure feudalism under Falkes de Breaute&quot; was put down, and the charter again issued in its final shape. But the worst plague of the reign, the influence of foreign favourites, had already made itself felt, while another great evil, the financial exactions of Rome, was causing much discontent. An expedition to Poitou, opposed by De Burg, caused the first quarrel between him and the king. Shortly afterwards Peter des Roches re turned from a temporary banishment, and gained such influence over Henry that he dismissed De Burg with insult and ingratitude. From this point his real reign may be said to have begun. The bad promise of his youth was amply redeemed in the events of the next twenty-six. Under the influence of Peter des Roches, foreigners began to flock to the court, and even foreign mercenaries were introduced into England. Richard, earl marshal, who openly rebuked the king for this conduct, was outlawed, but other barons took up his cause, and collisions between them and the king s troops took place. Civil war appeared imminent, when Archbishop Edmund persuaded Henry to dismiss Peter des Roches, and the danger was avoided for the time. But the king s partiality for foreigners was a constant source of dis content. In he married Eleanor of Provence. Two uncles of the queen, William, bishop of Valence, and Peter of Savoy, came over with her, and were immediately placed in positions of honour and emolument. In Henry married his sister Eleanor to Simon de Montfort, an event which nearly produced an outbreak. Resistance already centred in the Great Council, which in had declined &quot;to change the laws of England,&quot; and supported the bishop of Chichester in his refusal to give up the great seal at the king s demand. Henry s personal extravagance caused him much embarrassment, and the extortions of the papal see pressed heavily on the church. In the barons refused to give the aid demanded by the king for another expedi tion to Poitou, and when they met again after his return, they joined with the clergy in a general protest against his misgovernment. In order to remedy this state of things, it was proposed that the king s advisers should be chosen by the parliament, as it now began to be called, but Henry found means of evading the demand. Hitherto his brother Richard, earl of Cornwall, had been the leader of the opposition, but Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, was now becoming the centre of constitutional resistance. In the king s step-father, the count of La Marche, died, and Henry s half-brothers came to England, bringing with them a fresh crowd of hungry followers. The demands made upon the great cities, especially London, upon the Jews, and upon the clergy, to meet the expenses caused by the king s favourites, were constantly on the increase. Owing to the cessation of the office of justiciar since the fall of De Burg, the judicial system was falling into decay, and crime of all kinds was rampant. At the same time the pope, engaged in his great struggle with Frederick II., regarded England as an &quot; inexhaustible spring of wealth,&quot; and redoubled his demands. He won over most of the bishops by supporting them in their claim to inspect the monastic houses in their dioceses, and the church, deprived of its natural head, for Boniface, an uncle of the queen, was archbishop cf Canterbury, was disunited and helpless. 