Henry III bows out, and ‘the Lord Edward now rules is the shout!’

Old King Henry breathed a sigh of relief as he was pulled from the ground. Although relief turned to boundless joy when he learned of the slaughter of Monty and his allies. The twelve man assassination squad were selected for particular praise:

‘You tore that treacherous Monty limb from limb!

Giving him a death, agonizingly painful and grim!

You have made your elderly king happy and content!

Tis by God’s good hand that to serve me you were sent!’

King Henry’s thoughts soon turned to revenge. He, an annointed king had suffered a humiliating captivity in his own realm by his own brother-in-law Monty. He, who was appointed monarch by God, had been towed through the English countryside like an item of valuable baggage to be traded for profit when the time came. Henry was now planning to confiscate the lands of the rebels as a punishment for their treachery in supporting Monty. Instead of living like princes, this vile shower would be cast out as paupers, their future residence, the side of the road.

‘In order to make your punishment totally real!

I will guarantee it with my royal seal!

Another person who was reflecting on recent events was Simon the younger.

Simon the Younger.

Lord Edward had been in the doldrums after his mishap at Lewes, but it was nothing to what Simon was feeling in the aftermath of Evesham. His failure to arrive on time at Evesham had cost his father, Simon de Montfort and his supporters their lives. Why was he late? Riding along the road to Evesham that morning he had felt somewhat peckish and decided to stop for a bite of breakfast. An army marches on its stomach, so halt, open up the grub wagon and give the lads a tasty start to the day.

‘Roll! Roll! Roll out the serving tables and give each and every man a huge bacon and duck egg roll!

After such a great meal they will be ready to fight with every fibre of their body and soul!’

While his father, Monty and allies were fighting for their lives, Simon and his soldiers were merrily tucking into a hearty plateful in the green woodlands of Worcester. Wracked with shame and grief at his failure at Evesham, Simon fled Henry’s wrath and sailed for France. The son of the once most powerful man in England now roamed France and Italy as a sword for hire. It was a miserable existence, made even more so when he and his brother Guy were excommunicated by the Pope for murdering their cousin inside a church in Italy in 1271. Simon died later that year of fever at Sienna.

Recriminations and reconciliation. The King’s peace.

An image of Henry III.

To begin with, the allies of de Montfort did have their estates confiscated. However, King Henry now showed his gallant side in dealing with the wives of the rebels; Henry was at heart, a man of moderate, peaceful tendencies.

‘This baron’s War has made of the country, a dreadful mess!

But by my hand no damsel will ever fall into a state of pitiful distress!’

The thought that Henry might cause a good many damsels to fall into distress was something that he was totally unable to countenance. Although never a real warrior, the king revealed himself to be a knight in shining armour as far as the beleaguered  womenfolk were concerned. In almost all cases these ladies were spared the misery of destitution.

The papal legate to England, Ottobuono de’Fieschi had been sent to England by the Pope to act as a mediator between the two sides in the ‘Baron’s War and he preached moderation to the king. Henry, religious man that he was, listened to de’Fieschi and the result was the Dictum of Kenilworth.

Ottobuono de’Fiesci

The Dictum of Kenilworth of October 1266 did two things: it restored royal authority and moderated the punishment meted out to the rebels. The Provisions of Oxford were dispensed with, but the king reaffirmed Magna Carta. The rebels were, in the main, pardoned and they were to pay fines rather than suffer the total confiscation of their estates. A year later the Statute of Marlborough re-established much of the Provisions of Oxford and it is said that this marked the beginning of the end of feudalism in England.

King Henry III, the final years.

The sheer length of Henry’s reign made it an almost impossible burden to bear. In his final days, he craved an ambience of peace and the time to engage in practices of piety above all other things.  Happily he received both.

Henry carrying a relic of the Holy Blood to Westminster Abbey earlier in his reign.

Henry spent his final years on the rebuilding of his beloved Westminster Abbey the consecration of which, sadly he would not live to see. It was a Herculean task and obviously a most expensive one, but the cost itself was but a mere trifle as far as Henry was concerned. The rebuilt abbey would be his own personal monument to the glory of God. In 1269, Henry had the body of his patron saint Edward the Confessor moved from his original resting place to a most ornate shrine in the abbey. Indeed, he himself acted as a pallbearer, walking as solemnly through the great nave as if the late king, dead two hundred years had but recently died.

Edward too embarked upon a religious activity with a fervour which equalled that of his father. However, his course of action regarding the affirmation of his faith was to be of a different complexion. Characteristically, Edward would select the military option in order to express his devotion to God. The heir to the throne decided to take the cross, and left England in 1270 in order to travel to the Holy Land on crusade.

The goodbyes between father and son at Winchester would be the last conversation between the two of them.

Henry himself died at Westminster on November 16th 1272. He was sixty-five years old and had reigned for fifty six years. At the beginning of his reign, in the wake of his father King John’s death, many felt that his reign would be of the briefest duration, but events conspired otherwise. In fact most of his subjects would be unable to remember any other king but he. King Henry was interred by the high altar in Westminster in the former resting place of his beloved St Edward the Confessor.

Henry’s effigy on his tomb in Westminster Abbey.

‘The king is dead, long live the king!’

But Edward was not there to hear these heartfelt cries. He was away in the Holy Land engaged in warfare. This activity would prove to be the hallmark of his reign.