HENRY III., eldest son of King John and Isabella of Angouleme; born in Win chester, in 1207. He succeeded his father in 1216. The regency was intrusted to William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who, in 1217, defeated the French army at Lincoln, and compelled the dauphin Louis to retire to France. On Pem broke's death, in May, 1219, Hubert de Burgh and Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, became regents; but mutual jealousies and dissensions disturbed their administration and weakened their power. Henry was crowned a second time, in 1220, and two years later was declared of age, but his feebleness of character unfitted him to rule, and the real power remained with his ministers. His fondness for foreign counsellors, his unsuccessful wars with France, and his attempts to govern without parliaments, excited much ill-humor in the nation. This was increased by the heavy impo sitions on his subjects, made necessary by his acceptance of the crown of Sicily for his son Edmund. At length, in 1258, he was virtually deposed by the "Mad Par liament," which assembled at Oxford, and a council of state was formed under the presidency of Simon de Montfort.
The popular leaders quarreled among themselves, while the king was a prisoner in their hands. But in 1262 civil war be gan, the king being compelled to employ foreign mercenaries. In 1264 the battle of Lewes was fought, at which the king, Prince Edward, Earl Richard, king of the Romans, and his son Henry, were made prisoners by the barons. Soon after, De Montford, now virtually sover eign, summoned a Parliament, which met in January, 1265, and was the first to which knights of the shires and repre sentatives of cities and boroughs were called; thus constituting the first House of Commons. In August of that year De Montfort was defeated and killed by Prince Edward, at the battle of Evesham, and the king regained his liberty. But the war lasted two years longer. In 1270 Prince Edward set out on the crusade, and before his return Henry died at Westminster, Nov. 16, 1272.