Gascony and the International Context 1243–1252

This chapter describes how, before his departure from Gascony in the autumn of 1243, Henry III had worked hard to set the province to rights. He had toured the duchy, reconciled competing factions, maintained his rights, and bolstered the defences against external attack, or at least tried to do so. But, as a would-be conqueror of Gascony had once said, it was like trying to plough the seashore. For the next ten years, Henry was never free from Gascon worries. They led him in 1248 to place the duchy under Simon de Montfort and, when that ended in disaster, they forced him in 1253 to go there himself, despite being now pledged to go on crusade. Henry's concentration on Gascony and commitment to the crusade reflected the more general international situation, which left him with little else to do. There was no chance of attempting to recover the lost continental empire. Indeed, the ten years between Henry's two sojourns in Gascony in 1243 and 1253 saw a significant shift in the European balance of power towards the Capetian kings of France.

Henry and Hubert De Burgh 1227–1231

This chapter examines the relationship between Henry III and Hubert de Burgh. In January of 1227, with the lifting of the last restrictions on his power, the whole nature of Henry's kingship changed. With his authority enhanced, he might lead the campaign to recover his continental empire. Within England, he could reverse the damaging inroads made since 1225 into the royal forests. There was also money to be made from those seeking confirmation of old charters and fresh concessions in new ones. All this took place within a framework set by the justiciar, Hubert de Burgh. Such was his dominance that unpopular policies were often blamed on the minister not the monarch. With the king's emancipation in 1227, Hubert had another ambition, one, beyond a certain point, less commendable. It was to direct the flow of Henry's patronage towards himself.

From Henry’s Birth to the End of the Minority 1207–1227

This chapter discusses the period from Henry III's birth to the end of the minority. Henry was born on October 1, 1207, in the royal castle of Winchester. Henry's birth strengthened King John's immediate political position and secured the future of his dynasty, what he later called ‘our perpetual hereditary succession’. Around 1211 or 1212, John made a major decision about Henry's future by entrusting him to the guardianship of Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester. Bishop Peter was still impacting on Henry's life and envenoming English politics more than twenty years later. The chapter then details Henry's accession to the throne, after which his governors issued a new version of Magna Carta.

Years of Division 1243–1250

This chapter addresses the years between Henry III's return from Gascony in 1243 and his departure again for the duchy ten years later, which form a discrete period in his personal rule, although one separated by his decision in 1250 to take the cross. Henry could claim many positive achievements. The most visible, of course, was the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. Very hands on when it came to money, Henry managed in these years to keep going by cash or credit and in the early 1250s to save up a considerable treasure. Unfortunately, this is far from the whole picture. These were years of increasing tension and division. Henry suffered a series of bruising defeats over episcopal elections and had a bishop of Winchester forced on him by the pope. The establishment of his Lusignan half-brothers proved far more disruptive than that of the Savoyards, partly because of their own behaviour, partly because they seemed to suck up far too much from a diminishing pool of royal patronage. One result was factional struggles at court which sometimes pitched Henry against his queen. Another was the growing perception that England was being tyrannized by greedy and lawless foreigners. Ultimately, this was a decisive period in the development of parliament.

The Court of Henry III

This chapter assesses the court of Henry III. King Henry III was keen to impress with the magnificence of his entourage and person. Yet in one key respect his court was fundamentally different from that of his predecessors. Henry travelled far less often and remained stationary for far longer periods than his father. The many courtiers who worked across the reigns thus had a far easier time, in terms of travel, under Henry than under John, yet they would have noticed little change in the actual structure of the court. The chapter begins with Henry's itinerary and the homes in which he lived, the court's physical environment. It then looks at the chancery, the wardrobe, the food and drink departments, the stewards, the household knights, and the place of the queen. The chapter also discusses the role of liveries, the rituals of gift-giving, and the question of access to the king and the power of his presence. The court was a highly political place, but it was also a place for pleasure. The chapter concludes by looking at the pleasure Henry had from books, jokes, jesters, and falconry.

The Last Years of the Personal Rule 1255–1257

This chapter reflects on the last years of Henry III's personal rule. After Henry's return to England, a degree of political calm is suggested by the paucity of notes on the chancery rolls stating on whose authority letters had been issued. The almost blanket coverage of such notes had lapsed during the course of 1253 and was not revived. Henry was also working with his council. How frequently and formally it met is unknown, but it was certainly involved in a wide variety of business. Indeed, in 1257 it attempted to reform the king's finances and lay down rules for its own conduct. Some of its membership is clear: the king's foreign relatives, the bishop of Worcester, Richard of Cornwall, Richard de Clare, John fitzGeoffrey, Hugh Bigod (Roger Bigod's brother), John Mansel, the household stewards, and the king's senior judges, with Henry of Bath now returning to head the court coram rege. Yet there was also, in Henry's relations with his council, something which foreshadowed the crash to come. For Henry remained quite able to disregard its advice and forge ahead on his own. Over the Sicilian affair he did so with cataclysmic consequences.

Conclusion

This concluding chapter outlines the considerable achievements of Henry III's personal rule. Within England, Henry's personal rule was a period of domestic peace. That created favourable conditions for the building of churches, the work of the friars and pastoral-minded bishops, the explosion of the money supply, and the development of a new network of markets and fairs. It provided the conditions too for the expansion of the common law. If Henry had achievements to his credit, he had also clearly failed. He had not recovered the continental empire and acknowledged his condition would be ‘worsened’ by the forthcoming peace with France. Within England itself, Henry faced vehement criticisms of his rule in parliament and demands for reforms which would virtually strip him of power. The feeling that Henry was handing England over to grasping and lawless foreigners was a major factor separating him from his people. Up to a point Henry here, in his generous way, was simply trying to do his best for his foreign relations without any wider strategic purpose. To set in the balance against his failings, Henry had one golden weight; it was, of course, his piety.

The Piety of Henry III

This chapter focuses on the piety of Henry III. King Henry III was widely regarded by his contemporaries as a ‘rex Christianissimus’, ‘a most Christian king’. Everything known about his religious practices confirms that opinion. In some areas, notably the distribution of alms and the hearing of masses, he was doing what all his predecessors had done, but on a new scale and with a new intensity. In other areas, notably in his efforts to convert the Jews to Christianity and his adoption of Edward the Confessor as his patron saint, he was doing something very new. His devotion to the Confessor, in particular, became central to his life and led to the greatest monument of his kingship, the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. One reason for Henry's piety was almost certainly his father's reputation for impiety. Henry also lived in a new spiritual environment, one created by the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council, the work of pastorally minded bishops, the preaching and example of the friars, and the ideas developed in the twelfth century about purgatory, confession, penance, and the eucharist.

The Regime of Peter Des Roches 1232–1234

This chapter evaluates the regime of Peter des Roches. As Henry III journeyed back from Painscastle to Windsor and Westminster, he was about to enter the most traumatic political period of his life, barring the later years of reform, rebellion, and civil war. Henry would be pulled one way and another by the struggle for power between Hubert de Burgh and Peter des Roches. With de Burgh gone, he would be driven by Bishop Peter into a series of lawless acts and an unsuccessful war against Richard Marshal. In the end, he would be reined in by a great council and forced to admit his faults. The principles of Magna Carta would be vindicated and the difficulty of returning to anything like the rule of King John exposed.

Henry the Crusader 1250–1253

This chapter studies how Henry III took the cross in March of 1250 and hoped to fire his subjects with enthusiasm for the enterprise. He was unsuccessful. In these years, Matthew Paris's critique of Henry's rule reached a crescendo. The king's financial exactions, patronage of foreigners, and acts of injustice, so Paris thought, had utterly deprived him of his subjects' love. The contrast here with Louis IX in France was stark. Having taken the cross, Louis, in a series of wide-ranging inquiries, sought to redress the injustices committed by himself and his officials. It was an example that Henry failed to follow. Had he embarked on a similar path of reform, he might have defused the grievances underlying the revolution of 1258. This period presaged the revolution in another way, namely in the factional struggles at court. It became clear that the two groups of foreigners established there, the Lusignans and the Savoyards, did not get on. In 1252, there was open conflict between them, the king's men, and the queen's men as they were called by Matthew Paris.