his treaty with the pope were unfulfilled. At this moment Geoffrey Fitz-Peter died, and was succeeded as justiciar by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, a Poitevin.

Barons determine to demand a charter.

When John had been freed from his sentence of excommunication the barons again refused to follow him to France, on the plea that their term of service was expired, and while John was away they held a series of meetings, at one of which Langton, who, contrary to the expectation of the pope, was taking the side of the barons, read to them the charter of Henry I., and they determined to demand something of the kind from John.

War in Poitou

plans by the battle of Bouvines.

John prepares to resist the

Meanwhile John was fighting in Poitou; but the real seat of war was Flanders, where Otto, John's nephew, the emperor, William Earl of Salisbury, John's half-brother, and the Count and Flanders. of Flanders were advancing against Philip. The Ruin of John's forces of the allies, however, suffered a complete defeat at the battle of Bouvines, 1214, which completely shattered John's hopes of revenging himself on Philip, and forced him to return home to face the anger of his barons. He found the barons determined to demand their rights; and, indeed, they had bound themselves with a solemn oath to levy war the king till they were successful. upon John put them off with a promise to answer their demands at Easter, and meanwhile he did what he could to strengthen himseif for the struggle. He fortified his castles; brought over foreign mercenaries from Poitou and Flanders; made a desperate effort to win back of election to Langton and the clergy, by granting freedom of election to episcopal sees and monasteries; demanded an oath of allegiance from every freeman throughout England; and put himself under the especial protection of the Church, by taking the cross as a Crusader. The barons, however, were too strong for him. Mustering their forces in the midlands, they marched to London, and were well received by the citizens. John found himself deserted

barons.

Fortifies

castles.

Hires

mercenaries.

Grants freedom

the clergy.

Demands an oath of allegiance.

John's defeat. on all sides, and, brought to bay at last, was obliged,

at Runnymede, to agree to the demands of the barons on June 15, 1215.

Magna Carta.

The demands of the barons, to which John now gave his assent, form the Great Charter. This document contains a large number of clauses, and deals with the Church, the baronage, the collection of aids and scutages, the administration of justice, purveyance,1 trade, and a variety of other points, some of permanent and some of only temporary interest. most important of John's concessions were these:—

The Church was secured in the enjoyment of all its rights, including John's concession of free election.

The

The Church.

The barons. Aids and scutages.

Feudal dues.

The feudal dues of the barons were fixed at a regular rate, in proportion to the land held, and the rights of wardship and marriage were made less galling. No aids or scutages were to be collected by the king from the tenants-inchief except the three ordinary ones (to ransom the lord's body, for the knighting of his eldest son, and for the first marriage of his eldest daughter). Any other aids or scutages were to be voted by a council of prelates and greater barons, summoned separately, and of lesser barons and tenants-in-chief, summoned by writ, addressed to the sheriff in the county court.

Great council

of feudal tenants.

Justice. Court of Common Pleas fixed.

As we have seen, the higher courts of the country were developed from the Curia Regis. This court went with the king wherever he might happen to go, which was a great source of trouble to the suitors, who might have to travel from one end of England to another before their case had been heard. To remedy this, it was arranged that the Court of Common Pleas was to stay at a certain fixed place. This place was Westminster, where lay one of the king's chief palaces. It was also settled that the justices in eyre were to make their circuits four times a year, Justice not to so that suitors should not be kept waiting. The king promised that he would not sell, refuse, or defer right or justice to any one. More than all, that no freeman was to be imprisoned, outlawed, punished, by jury or trial

or molested, except by the judgment of his equals or

Justices in

eyre.

be delayed or sold.

No freeman to

be punished without trial

by battle.

1 Purveyance was the right which the king exercised of providing for his household on a journey. This was done by forcing people to sell what the king wanted at nominal prices.

by the law of the land, i.e. by the decision of a jury, by trial by battle, or by ordeal.

Purveyance

An attempt was made to get rid of abuses in the system of purveyance, but as the king still retained the right of reformed. pre-emption, that is of buying a thing if he needed it, there was plenty of room left for abuse.

Merchants were to come and go freely in the kingdom-there were to be no passports; and, finally, the barons and clergy agreed that every liberty which the king had granted

Merchants.

to his tenants should be observed by them to theirs.

John's attempt

Charter.

No sooner was the Charter agreed to than John set about freeing himself from his oath. For this purpose he trusted to the assistance of the pope, while, to prepare himself for a new camto annul the paign, he began to hire fresh mercenaries abroad. Innocent did not disappoint him, but took his side with vigour, threatened to excommunicate the barons for levying war upon a Crusader, and for exacting concessions detrimental to the honour of the Holy See, and finally suspended Langton from the exercise of his functions. Meanwhile John was harrying the estates of the barons with fire and sword, and he crossed the border to ravage Scotland, whose young king Alexander had taken the side of the barons. The atrocities of John's foreign mercenaries were terrible; they turned the country through which they passed into a desert. At last the barons determined to offer the crown to the eldest son of Philip of France, Louis, and his wife Blanche of Castile, granddaughter of Henry II. Louis accepted the crown, and, landing at Sandwich, marched on London, where he was received with enthusiasm by the barons. The young prince made a very good impression, and won popularity by making Simon Langton, the brother of the archbishop, his chancellor, and the King of Scots came to Dover to do him homage. Meanwhile John and his mercenaries marched north and captured Lincoln and Lynn; but, in returning to Lincolnshire, John had the

Barons call on
Louis of
France.

John's misfortunes and death.

misfortune to lose all the baggage of his army, containing his jewels and money, which were swallowed up by the tide while crossing the Wash. That night he fell into a fever, and with difficulty reached Newark, where he died, on October 19, 1216.

CHAPTER IV.

HENRY III., 1216-1272 (56 years).

Born 1207; married, 1236, Eleanor of Provence.

Chief Characters of the Reign.-Stephen Langton, William Marshall, Hubert de Burgh, Falkes de Breauté, Peter des Roches, Richard Earl of Cornwall, Robert Grossetête, Simon de Montfort, and Gilbert Earl of Gloucester.

Prospects of
Henry.

Ar the moment when John died, Louis of France appeared to have every chance of winning the kingdom; he was supported by the most powerful of the barons, and had received the homage of the King of Scotland and the Prince of Wales; but matters were changed by the death of the king. It had been John's character which had driven his subjects to rebel, while the innocence of the young king, now only in his tenth year, called for the protection of all loyal men. It took time, however, for a new royal party to be formed, and at first the supporters of the king were outnumbered by those of Louis.

The Council.

Henry's most powerful supporters were William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who was made regent, Peter des Roches, and Gualo, the papal legate. These three represented, respectively, the English, the foreign supporters of John, and the overlordship of the pope, and they formed a council to conduct the affairs of the young king.

Defeat of Louis

The first thing to be done was to get rid of Louis; but the decisive battle was not fought till May, 1217, when Louis' forces were overthrown at a battle fought in the streets of Lincoln, which was commonly called Lincoln Fair. Louis still at Lincoln and hoped to get assistance from France; but a fleet of eighty ships which was bringing it was defeated off Sandwich by Hubert de Burgh, who, though he only had forty vessels, managed

Sandwich.

by a clever manœuvre to get to the windward of the French, and then his sailors grappled the ships of the enemy, while they threw quicklime in the eyes of the crews, and so completed their discomfiture. These two defeats secured the departure of Louis, and gave the regent time to take measures for the good government of the kingdom.

Magna Carta republished.

Magna Carta had already been published, but all the clauses of a temporary nature had been omitted, and also those about aids and scutages, and the summoning of the council of archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater and lesser barons. New council of In 1219, William Marshall, the great Earl of Pembroke, died, and the government then fell into the hands of Peter des Roches, Pandulf the legate, and Hubert de Burgh.

regency.

Turbulent nobles put down.

The great object of the Government was to re-establish security for life and property, and remove the disorders which had been created Reforms of the by the struggle against John. The chief obstacles to regents. their designs were the representatives of the turbulent barons of the Conquest, and the foreigners who had been brought into the country by John. The leaders of these two classes were William of Aumâle, who was obliged to submit in 1221, and Falkes de Breauté. Falkes had been the leader of John's foreign mercenaries, he had become sheriff of six counties, and he was in possession of several strong castles. So lawless was he, that he actually imprisoned one of the king's judges because he had condemned him to pay damages at the assizes at Dunstable. But the capture of his castle of Bedford broke his power, and he was expelled from the country in 1224.

Papal exactions.

The early years of this reign were distinguished by the first attempt by the pope to raise a regular revenue from the clergy of England. Already he received one thousand marks a year as overlord; but, besides that, he wished to make the English clergy contribute to the support of his court, partly by making them pay a direct tax, partly by paying his servants by giving them livings in England. At first he tried to get both laity and clergy to pay. The laity, however, refused, but the clergy had to give up to the pope a tenth of their yearly income, and the first year's emoluments of all benefices. These sums were