Incapable of ruling for himself.

Henry’s youth turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Senior royal officials

were selected as his guardians, and they ruled competently on his behalf.

Foremost of these officials was William Marhsall, a man who had worked for

all the previous Plantagenet kings and who commanded huge respect.

William retired in 1219, and when he did so, a trio of regents was appointed.

Part of the deal for the regents was that they ruled with the consent of a

larger group of barons known as the Great Council. If they wanted to levy

taxes, the regents had to get the approval of the Council, who thereby acted

as a sort of brake on the power of the regents. The Council were keen on this

role and also insisted on reissuing Magna Carta, the document that had curtailed

the power of King John, to remind everyone that kings, and those who

rule on their behalf, are not above the law. The barons were flexing their muscles

and doing everything they could to limit royal power.

The art of making enemies

Henry himself did not take kindly to the restraints put on royal power by

the barons, especially as the barons held on to power long after he was old

enough to rule. They’d lost a lot of their trust in royalty after the rough way

King John had treated them. Henry wanted to rule in his own right, even if his

rule was restricted by the law. In 1232, when he was in his mid-twenties, the

young king finally lost patience, threw out the regents, and started to govern.

To begin with, things went well. Henry respected Magna Carta and ruled in

relative peace until 1258.

Then the problems began. In 1236, Henry had married Eleanor of Provence,

a princess with a lot of powerful relations in Europe. Henry hoped that these

people would help him gain more power in France, so he started to shower

expensive gifts on them and give them important positions at court. A

number of other foreigners, including Henry’s half-brothers, the children of

his mother Isabella and her second husband Hugh of Lusignan, also got powerful

jobs in England. At the same time, Henry began an expensive scheme to

conquer Sicily.

The English barons were appalled. They were losing their power to foreigners

and losing their money to the king’s madcap schemes. Before he knew where

he was, Henry had a clutch of baronial enemies at court. These enemies were

peeved, and they were in no mood to be messed around. In 1258, the barons

confronted Henry with their demands.

In a weird twist of irony, the man who emerged as leader of the rebel barons

was a Frenchman, Simon de Montfort (see sidebar). It was de Montfort who

realised that if they were to get further with Henry, they would need to do

more than throw a few French lords out of the country. They would have to be

more organised. He began to draw up lists of demands to limit royal power.

Royal power reduced

Simon de Montfort and his friends got serious about government in a document

called the Provisions of Oxford. For the first time, this document drew

up proper guidelines for selecting the people who were to advise the king. It

also laid down the law about parliament. Key points of the Provisions of

Oxford included:

_ A committee of 24 men (12 chosen by the king, 12 by the nobility) were

to oversee the reforms.

_ A group of 15 (selected by representatives of the 24) should make up the

king’s Council or advisers.

_ Parliament should meet at set times, not just when the king wanted it

to meet.

_ The king’s officers should be appointed for specific year-long terms and

were to be answerable to the Council, as well as the monarch.