HENRY III. of England, grandson of Henry II., and eldest son of king John, was b. Oct. 1, 1206, and succeeded to the throne on his father's death at the age of ten. He inherited his father's weakness, and he managed everything ill both at. home and abroad. A war with France cost him Poitou, and might have been more disastrous, but for the virtuous disposition of the French king, Louis IX., commonly called St. Louis. In his boyhood, under the direction of the judicious earl of Pembroke, he ratified the magna charts; and he did so in manhood, to appease the discontent of his parliament, and obtain allowances of money. But he kept no vows. -He was beset with favorites chiefly from the country of his queen, Eleanor of Provence, and he allowed exorbitant exac tions on the part of the clergy and the pope. His misrule roused the people and the barons in parliament, headed by his brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, earl of Leices ter, who forced him to transfer his power temporarily to a commission of barons. He agreed to this by the provisions of Oxford in 1238. The barons were somewhat tardy in reforming the state, and the king desired to regain a power which he alleged, with truth, had been taken from him by compulsion, though wearing the appearance of free will. The question of the validity of these provisions was submitted by both parties to St. Louis of France, whose conscientiousness was such that foreigners could trust him. He annulled the provisions. Leicester and his party disregarded their agreement
to be bound by his judgment, and took up arms against the king. They defeated him, and took him prisoner in the battle of Lewes, on May 14, 1264. The battle was followed by an agreement called the arise of Lewes, more humiliating to the king than the pro visions of Oxford. Leicester, being virtually king, summoned a sort of parliament; and to extend his popularity, which was already great, he intimated that boroughs should be represented, and this kind of representation was realized in embryo for the first time in English history. But his supremacy did notlast long. Within a year, the powerful earl of Gloucester deserted his party, and enabled prince Edward, the talented son of the king, who had been taken prisoner at Lewes, to escape from captivity. They led an overwhelming army against Leicester, who was defeated and slain at Evesham, on Aug. 4, 1265. The king died on Nov. 16, 1272, and was succeeded by his son Edward. The weakness of Henry and his father had allowed the development of the power of the barons, and the counterpoise of these two forces, regal and aristocratic, was approached in these reigns by a method which has developed into the British parlia ment. Statute law dates from the time of Henry III.; the "provisions of Merton," passed in the twentieth year of Henry's reign, being the first enactment on the English statute-book.