Prostrate with vexation, John made his way to the abbey of Swines head, and there, according to the story, he endeavoured after his fashion to drown his grief in a hearty supper. The result was a fever. With difficulty he reached Newark, and there died on October Death of 19th, 1216, leaving behind him the name of the worst king John. who ever reigned in England, and one of the worst men who have ever disgraced our race. Had he lived he would probably have lost his throne: his death at this crisis saved the kingdom for his descendants.

Honorius III., d. 1227; Innocent Iv., 1241, d. 1254; Alexander Iv., d. 1261.

The Regency of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke-His place taken by Hubert de Burgh-Henry takes the Rule into his own hands, governs badly, and allows himself to fall into the hands of Favourites-Rise of a Baronial Party under Simon de Montfort-The Barons' Wars.

THE reaction against Louis, of which some symptoms had appeared before John's death, made rapid progress after the removal of the Henry's tyrant. The wickedness of John and the enmities which advantages. his personal character had created were buried in his tomb, while the innocence of his eldest son Henry, now only in his tenth year, called for the protection of all good subjects. 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. No time was lost by Pembroke in putting Henry's rights on a legal footing, and on October 28th he was crowned at Gloucester, and did homage to Gualo, the papal legate, as representative of the pope. That done, a council was held, in which the magnates, following the practice of the kingdom of Jerusalem, elected the earl as rector regis et regni, ruler of the king and kingdom, while the king's person was intrusted to Peter des Roches. To gain support and to break definitely with the evil traditions Measures of of the late reign, the royalists then took the judicious step the Reign. of publishing so much of the Charter as met with general approval and presented no special difficulty in execution. They omitted,

First

however, the clauses about taxation-perhaps as too hampering to the government at such a crisis as a civil war-and those dealing with the forests and some other matters, all of which were postponed for future consideration.

Louis's

The conduct of the war next claimed their attention. With the exception of Dover Castle, which the bravery of Hubert de Burgh had maintained for the royalists, Louis was supreme in the southwestern shires. Elsewhere also he had many supporters in the Position. open country and in the towns; but the castles of the midlands and the north were all in royalist hands-and in those days the possession of the castles was the real test of military superiority. The citizens of Lincoln, for example, were eagerly in his favour, but the castle was held for the royalists, and till it was taken the town could not be left unprotected. In December, Louis was obliged to pay a visit to France, and his departure was the signal for the desertion of the earl of Salisbury and William Marshall, Pembroke's son, who threw in their lot with the young king. In April he returned, and at once despatched the count of Perche to aid Robert Fitz-Walter in the siege of Lincoln, while he himself resumed the attack on Dover. Perche's march was a scene of terrible outrage, for Louis' foreigners showed themselves as unscrupulous plunderers as those of John. To relieve Lincoln, Pembroke collected a powerful force. Passing round the town, he stormed the northern gate, assisted by a sally from the castle, took the besiegers in the rear, threw them into confusion in the narrow, winding, and steep streets of the town, and completely routed them. Perche was killed and Fitz-Walter was taken prisoner. To punish the citizens for their disloyalty, the town was then sacked; and so great was the booty that the battle was long remembered as 'Lincoln Fair.'

Battle of
Lincoln.

The disaster at Lincoln destroyed Louis' military supremacy, and forced him to return to London; but he still had hopes of the arrival of a fleet of eighty vessels under Eustace the Monk, with the reinforce- Battle of ments collected by the energy of his wife Blanche. By Dover. this time, however, the indefatigable Hubert de Burgh had supplied the loss of John's fleet by collecting another at Dover. He had only forty ships, but with these he boldly sallied out, on August 24th, and, making up by skill for his want of numbers, took the 'weather-gauge' of the French by a clever manoeuvre, and, as his men grappled the French vessels, he ordered them to throw quicklime in the eyes of their defenders. This new method of attack took the Frenchmen by surprise. The rout of their fleet was complete; their leader was killed, and Louis' last hope ruined. The victory was a signal for a general advance of the royalists; and

Louis saw that nothing was to be gained from continuing the struggle. On September 11th, the treaty of Lambeth brought hostilities to a close; and within a few weeks Louis had left the country. The treaty Treaty of of Lambeth is almost as important as the Great Charter Lambeth. itself. It was based on the principle of a general amnesty for the past, and the restitution of all forfeited property. Ten thousand marks were paid to Louis, nominally for his expenses, in reality to secure his speedy departure; and shortly afterwards Pembroke and Gualo wisely issued a new edition of the Great Charter, and also a Charter of the Forests, which included not only the articles relating to forest law embodied in the original form of the charter, but other regulations which probably made it almost as popular a document as the Great Charter itself. When for the future the confirmation of the charters was demanded, the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forests are the two meant.

Pandulf.

These events occupied the year 1217. At the close of that year, Gualo, who seems to have worked in harmony with Pembroke, and to whom some praise is certainly due for his share in these pacificatory measures, left the kingdom, and his place was taken by Pandulf, an inferior man, who remained till 1221. However, in 1218, Langton returned to England, and, till his death in 1229, had the chief ecclesiastical power. In 1219 Pembroke died, leaving behind him a reputation not only for unflinching loyalty but also for priceless services to the country at large. No 'rector' was appointed in his place, but the chief power was exercised by Hubert de Burgh, who had Burgh. been justiciar since 1215. statesmen trained under Henry II., was a period of great importance. Pembroke's measures by getting all the castles back again into the king's hands, and also of ridding England of such lawless foreigners as Falkes de Breauté, whom Pembroke had been obliged to tolerate as the price of their military services.

Hubert de

Hubert was the last of the great and his rule from 1219 to 1232 His chief task was to complete

In achieving his first object, the chief obstacle was the action of William of Aumâle, who repeated the conduct of his grandfather in 1155, William of and refused to give up his castles. He was abetted by the Aumâle. earl of Chester, and also by Falkes, and probably had the secret support of Peter des Roches, who was jealous of Hubert's authority. The years 1220 and 1221 were mainly occupied in dealing with Falkes de him, but at length he was reduced to complete submission. Falkes' turn came next. This rascal, a refugee from Normandy, had been John's right-hand man, and as such had been rewarded

Breauté.

with everything his master had to offer. He had married an heiress, had received numerous estates; he was sheriff of six counties, and had the custody of several castles, notably that of Bedford. This he intrusted to his brother William, a man as lawless as himself, who actually ventured to imprison one of the king's judges because he had condemned him to pay a fine at Dunstable assizes. Hubert immediately marched to besiege the castle.

Siege of

Bedford.

The siege of Bedford Castle was a most formidable undertaking, and typical of the warfare of the time. The defences consisted of an outwork or barbican, of an inner wall, and of the keep itself. It was amply provisioned and garrisoned, and Falkes expected it to hold out for twelve months. The attack began in midsummer. Hubert erected against it two wooden towers, from the tops of which the archers could shoot down on the defenders of the outer works, and with their aid the barbican was assaulted and taken. Then seven military engines were brought to bear upon the inner wall. That, too, was forced, and the cattle and horses of the garrison fell into the hands of the besiegers. Finally, under the protection of a machine called a cat, the sappers began operations and undermined the huge walls of the keep itself. One corner sank, and a vast rent appeared in the walls. The garrison then sued for mercy, but Hubert wished to give a lesson to such as they. Eighty of the leaders were hanged, the rest driven from the country, and the castle itself was razed to the ground. Falkes himself then gave up the game and was allowed to relieve the country of his presence by a permanent exile. The discomfiture of his friends discouraged des Roches; and after 1224 he had little influence for some years, and, being dismissed from the chancellorship in 1227, left the country to take part in the Crusades.

Henry comes of age.

In 1227, Henry, who was then twenty, declared himself of age to govern. His minority, besides the stirring events already mentioned, was remarkable for several advances in the unwritten law. During its continuance there springs into evidence an inner circle of advisers, who revived in a somewhat different form the political as distinguished from the judicial powers of the old Curia Regis. The appointment of the regent by the common council appears to be the beginning of a claim for the nation, as represented by the council, to have a voice in the appointment of ministers; and, lastly, the distinction naturally drawn between a boy king, who could in no way be responsible for the policy of the government, and the ministers themselves, seems to have been the origin of the maxim that 'the king can do no wrong.'