Henry III A long reign and so much pain!

The King is dead, long live the king!

In death, John managed to achieve that which he could not do in life; he thwarted the will of King Philip ‘Deesgusting’ Augustus. He left as his heir, his son, the nine year old prince Henry. Taken under the wing of that great knight, William Marshall, young Henry was crowned king in Gloucester Cathedral on October 28th 1216. The coronation ceremony took place at Gloucester, because Westminster Abbey was in the hands of the Dauphin. In fact there was no crown to place on the king’s head as it had been lost, possibly in the sands of the Wash. Instead a simple gold circlet was used for the ceremony.

At Henry’s coronation, his head was not adorned with a regal crown!

Yet this did not cause the young king to frown!

He strode to the Cathedral altar, attired in a very fine gown!

Few monarchs have had such an inauspicious start to their reign, and many thought that Henry would soon be removed from the throne. This would later produce its own irony, as Henry would go on to be the longest-serving monarch until Queen Victoria, six hundred years later. Circumstances began to change in Henry’s favour. Many of the nobles who were in revolt against John were not going to make the son pay for the sins of his father. The evil old dog was gone, why continue the hostilities. A number of them decided to shift their allegiance away from the Dauphin Louis, to Henry.

The new king’s ascent to the throne changed the whole very messy picture. Also standing with Henry was the reassuring figure of the 70 year old William Marshall whose reputation as a baronial leader was unmatched in England at that time. The year 1217, saw Marshall secure two vital victories against the king’s enemies. Firstly, at Lincoln in May, and then the old baron foiled a French seaborne assault led by the notorious Eustace the Monk off the coast near Sandwich in August. This engagement was notable for its deployment of an early form of chemical warfare. The English fired pots of lime on to Eustace’s ship, blinding and choking the crew, completely debilitating them. It was a sweet moment for the English as Eustace was a much hated figure and they were bent on revenge.

‘Now it was time to use a weapon containing a concoction of lime!

The English decided that Eustace must pay for his many crimes!’

Eustace was captured and offered a fortune in ransom in return for his life, but the English decided that in this instance, they would forego the loot. The unfortunate monk was summarily executed aboard his own flagship.

‘The pirate monk, Eustace is caught, what a catch!

He sailed into our kingdom intent on English riches to snatch!

He offers a fortune to save his skin, but no, all he gets, is courtesy of an axe!

A well deserved quick, bloody dispatch!

Under the circumstances, Louis had little choice but to sue for peace. This would have been unthinkable less than a year ago when he was sure that the English crown was within his grasp. However fortunes alter, and after peace talks in September 1217, Louis accepted the princely sum of £7,000 to retire to France.

William Marshall now began to restore order to the much disturbed kingdom, ravaged by civil war. In this endeavour, he would labour tirelessly until his death in 1219. It is due to the action of this great knight that England, for better or worse, was bestowed with the longest reign of the medieval period.

So what kind of person would reign for so long? Well, all are agreed that he was nothing like his father, King John. Henry possessed a humility and piety which was totally lacking in his tyrannical predecessor. He loved to attend mass and was known to be moved to tears by the words uttered by the priest when giving the sermon. Henry was generous in his alms giving to the poor, and was happy to carry out the custom of washing the feet of the destitute.

Although he would have been schooled in the knightly arts of combat, the allure of the saddle held little attraction for Henry. The new king would never become a warrior prince like his ancestors and indeed his descendants, his was a more peaceable disposition. The masculine pursuits of the chase which engaged earlier and later monarchs appeared to leave Henry a little cold. The times spent out riding through the rural expanses, hunting wildlife and joyfully bringing their carcasses as trophies back to the royal residence were few.

Henry was to be something of an ‘indoor‘ monarch. When not in church he spent a great deal of time preparing new designs for his castles and palaces. Indeed, his domestic conduct contrasted with that of both his father, John and grandfather, Henry II in other respects. He did not inherit their insatiable lust, and an endless succession of mistresses were not a feature of his bedchamber. All of his life he was devoted to his wife, Eleanor of Provence and their five children. Indeed he became upset if he was separated from them for any length of time at all.

Which leader from the past would Henry adopt as his role model? Julius Caesar, Charlemagne or perhaps his ancestor, William the Conqueror? No he chose Saint Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon king of England as his patron saint.