Page:History of the Kings & Queens of England.pdf/9

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HENRY III.

Born 1207.Began to Reign Oct. 17, 1216. Died Nov. 16, 1272. Reigned 56 Years.

When only nine years of age, succeeded to the throne at the death of his father, and by the favour and support of the Earl of Pembroke, was crowned by the bishops of Bath, Gloucester, and Winchester. The early part of his reign is made memorable by the loss of the British possessions in France. He was a prince of a changeable and fanciful temper, haughty and proud ; and altogether a prince of very poor abilities; distinguished by no virtue, except that of granting his enemies their lives, after he had pillaged them of their estates. Henry died at Westminster, in the fifty-seventh year of his reign; being the longest met with in the chronicles of English history, till the time of George III.

Eminent men in this reign :- Monford, Earl of Leicester; Des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, and Lord Chancellor ; Earl of Pembroke, Protector.