The History of England Volume II

XII. Henry III

HistEngVii_001-051.indd 3 5/27/11 2:58 PM XII HENRY III Settlement ofthe government - General pacification - Death ofthe Protector - Some commotions - Hubert de Burgh displaced The bishop of Winchester minister - King's partiality to foreigners - Grievances Ecclesiastical grievances - Earl of Cornwal elected king ofthe Romans - Discontent of the barons - Simon de Mountfort earl of Leicester - Provisions of Oxford Usurpation ofthe barons- Prince EdwardCivil wars ofthe barons - Reference to the king ofFrance - Renewal ofthe civil wars - Battle ofLewes - House of commons - Battle ofEvesham and death ofLeicester - Settlement ofthe government Death - and character ofthe king Miscellaneous transactions ofthis reign. ~~~ M OST SCIENCES, in proportion as they encrease and improve, invent methods by which they facilitate their reasonings; and employing general theorems, are enabled to comprehend in a few propositions a great number of inferences and conclusions. History also, being a collection of facts which are multiplying with3 1216. HistEngVii_001-051.indd 4 5/27/11 2:58 PM 4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND out end, is obliged to adopt such arts of abridgment, to retain the more material events, and to drop all the minute circumstances, which are only interesting during the time, or to the persons engaged in the transactions. This truth is no where more evident than with regard to the reign, upon which we are going to enter. What mortal could have the patience to write or read a long detail of such frivolous events as those with which it is filled, or attend to a tedious narrative which would follow, through a series of fifty-six years, the caprices and weaknesses of so mean a prince as Henry? The chief reason, why protestant writers have been so anxious to spread out the incidents of this reign, is in order to expose the rapacity, ambition, and artifices of the court of Rome, and to prove, that the great dignitaries of the catholic church, while they pretended to have nothing in view but the salvation of souls, had bent all their attention to the acquisition of riches, and were restrained by no sense ofjustice or of honour, in the pursuit of that great object.a But this conclusion would readily be allowed them, though it were not illustrated by such a detail of uninteresting incidents; and follows indeed, by an evident necessity, from the very situation, in which that church was placed with regard to the rest of Europe. For, besides that ecclesiastical power, as it can always cover its operations under a cloak of sanctity, and attacks men on the side where they dare not employ their reason, lies less under controul than civil government; besides this general cause, I say, the pope and his courtiers were foreigners to most of the churches which they governed; they could not possibly have any other object than to pillage the provinces for present gain; and as they lived at a distance, they would be little awed by shame or remorse, in employing every lucrative expedient, which was suggested to them. England being one of the most remote provinces attached to the Romish hierarchy, as well as the most prone to superstition, felt severely, during this reign, while its patience was not yet fully exhausted, the influence of these causes; and we shall often have occasion to touch cursorily upon such incidents. But we shall not attempt to comprehend every transaction transmitted to us; and till the end of the reign, when the events become more aM. Paris, p. 623. HistEngVii_001-051.indd 5 5/27/11 2:58 PM 5 CHAPTER XII memorable, we shall not always observe an exact chronological order in our narration. The earl of Pembroke, who, at the time of John's death, was mareschal of England, was by his office at the head of the armies, and consequently, during a state of civil wars and convulsions, at the head of the government; and it happened fortunately for the young monarch and for the nation, that the power could not have been intrusted into more able and more faithful hands. This nobleman , who had maintained his loyalty unshaken toJohn during the lowest fortune of that monarch, determined to support the authority of the infant prince; nor was he dismayed at the number and violence of his enemies. Sensible, that Henry, agreeably to the prejudices of the times, would not be deemed a sovereign, till crowned and anointed by a churchman; he immediately carried the...