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HENRY III

Henry III was king of England from 1216 to 1272. He was born in 1207 at Winchester and died in 1272. Henry III was the son of John by Isabel of Angouleme, and was only nine when he became King. At the time of his accession the dauphin of France, Louis, at the head of a foreign army, supported by a faction of English nobles, had assumed the reins of government; but was compelled to quit the country by the Earl of Pembroke, who was guardian of the young king until 1219.

As Henry approached manhood he displayed a character wholly unfit for his station. He discarded his most able minister Hubert de Burgh, and after 1230, when he received homage in Poitou and Gascony, began to bestow his chief favours upon foreigners. His marriage in 1236 with Eleanor of Provence, increased the dislike to him felt by his subjects, and although he received frequent grants of money from parliament, on condition of confirming the Great Charter, yet his conduct after each ratification was as arbitrary as before.

At length the nobles rose in rebellion under Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester and husband of the king's sister; and in 1258, at a parliament held at Oxford, known in history as the Mad Parliament, obliged the king to sign the body of resolutions known as the Provisions of Oxford. A feud arose, however, between Montfort and Gloucester, and Henry III recovered some of his power. War again broke out, and Louis was called in as arbitrator, .but his award being favourable to the king, Leicester refused to submit to it. A battle was fought near Lewes, in which Henry III was taken prisoner. A convention, called the Mise of Lewes, provided for the future settlement of the kingdom; and in 1265 the first genuine House of Commons was summoned. Leicester, however, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and Henry was replaced upon the throne. After his death, his son Edward I succeeded him.
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