CHAP. 1246-49 Degradation of England. No advance in constitu tional of Winchester, though he died soon after consecration without having enjoyed the see. Even Baldwin, the banished Emperor of Constantinople, came to England as if to the worlds poor-house. No wonder that the English were despised and robbed by other nations; that the whole world acted on the new version given by the Pope of the saying, that of those who have much, much shall be required. The Emperor called the English weak as women, and even the opponents of papal arrogance likened this country to Balaams ass, spurred and beaten till she at length found a voice.2 And soon the king, not to be behindhand in the race, began to give up all resistance, and joined eagerly with the spoilers in wasting the land committed to his. charge. The English are indeed a long-suffering race, but the miseries they endured during this time leave only a feeling of amazement that the revolt of 1258 did not break out ten years sooner. The parliamentary history of this period is little more than a wearisome repetition of demands for principles. money, and resistance generally made in vain. Since 1244 no new ideas made their appearance. It was the time during which the papal claims usurped every ones attention. Just at the close indeed a new turn was given to affairs by the kings desertion of the national policy he had, however feebly, pretended to take up. His renewed extravagance and favouritism Parliament caused the tide of opposition to begin to flow against of 1248. Matt. West. 226, 227. 2 Angli vilescunt et depauperantur.'—Matt. West. 249, under year 1251. Puteus inexhaustus est (sc. Anglia), et ubi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri,' words of the Pope, Matt. Par. 705; see the picture given by a certain cardinal, an Englishman, of the position of the papacy in 1246, when opposing the Popes intention of putting England under an interdict. Id. 715. him rather than against Rome. His demands for CHAP. III. Demands ment; the king. money at the Lent Parliament of 1248 met with a stubborn refusal. 'How was it,' the barons asked, 1246-49 'that he did not blush to make such a request, in de- of Parliaspite of all his promises?' A long list of complaints was brought forward, accusing him of extravagance and manifold injustice, and showing the fatal consequences of his acts; the old demand for the appointment of the high officers of State by the council was renewed. The king prorogued Parliament, but without effect. Finding the barons still refractory, he at resisted by last refused outright to allow the principle for which they strove, and argued that he was only claiming a privilege allowed to every free man in acting without counsellors and as he would.' The barons therefore unanimously declared their resolution not to submit. to further spoliation, and the council broke up, neither party having gained its object, in mutual anger and disgust. The king seems however to have yielded at least in word, for Parliament met at Easter 1249 to carry out what he had promised as to the election. of officers of State; but owing to the absence of Richard of Cornwall, who was still looked up to as the head of the opposition, nothing was done.2 It had been discovered by this time that the only Appointmeans of checking the judicial abuses which prevailed, ment of and the enormous power conferred upon the king by by the his command of the administration, lay in getting possession of the great offices under which the dif 1 Matt. Par. 748. 2 Id. 765. The same reason is given in the original text of the Hist. Angl. 51; the later text, which states that Henry refused the demand again, seems to be taken from the account of the Parliament of 1248. council. CHAP. 1246-49 Appointment of ministers by the council. Political ferent branches of government were organised. The system established by Henry II was, as has been often said, a great bureaucracy. To keep such a machine in order it was necessary that a man of business like its founder should be at its head. It was encompassed by many dangers, both to king and people, though a blessing to the latter under an able monarch. To the former the chief danger was that the great offices should become hereditary in certain great families, or that the baronage should get the appointment to them into their own hands. A centralised government, though immensely powerful when the centre is strong, is more open to assault when the centre is weak. The barons were right in directing their efforts on the citadel; the king tried to hide his weakness by leaving the chief posts unfilled, and ruling through subordinates. It seems hardly doubtful that Simon de Montfort took a leading part in the struggle which I have attempted to sketch. Whenever any names are mentioned as taking the lead, though this, it is true, is seldom enough, his is amongst them. He was present at the Parliament of 1248. How much is owing to him it is impossible to say. But we have seen the opposition growing stronger and stronger, and the character of the last debate, the boldness of the accusations brought against the king, the emphatic refusal of his demands, seem to point to the rapid approach of a crisis. It is difficult not to connect in some way the absence of Simon de Montfort on the Continent with the sudden lull in the internal politics Matt. Par. 743. Pauli, Simon de Mont. 50, says he took no part in the opposition on this occasion, but on what ground does not appear. of England after his departure. If the opposition flagged, it was not because the evils under which the country laboured were less. They were gradually accumulating, till the thought of them became a fixed resolve that such a state of things must have an end. Meanwhile the man who was to give that thought expression had another work to do; and while the way in which he performed his task is quite sufficient to justify the choice, the tendencies he had already shown, and the obvious dislike and jealousy with which the king regarded him while he was in Gascony, make it hard to avoid the suspicion that Henry was glad to see him out of the country, and perceived in him already his most determined opponent. CHAP. III. 1246-49 life of Simon de Of Simons private life during the period we know Private but little. A young family was growing up around him in his home at Kenilworth. We hear of his visit- Montfort. ing the monastery of Waverley in the spring of 1245, in company with the countess and two of their sons; an event recorded with much satisfaction by the chronicler, In the year 1247 he and his wife took the cross, but the expedition to Palestine, if such was contemplated, was postponed indefinitely by his appointment in Gascony. He lived in intimate friendship with the Bishop of Lincoln, in whose house his children were for some time brought up; with the Franciscan Adam Marsh, one of the most learned men of the day, who seems almost to have filled the post of confessor to him and his wife; and with John of Basingstoke, Archdeacon of Leicester, a man who had studied at Athens, and was deeply versed in the 1 Ann. Wav., quoted by Mrs. Green, Princesses ii. 87. CHAP. III. 1246-49 Attitude of literature of Greece and Rome. He studied Grossetestes political pamphlets, and interchanged with him. and other friends letters on the chief topics of the day. At the same time he doubtless watched with careful eyes the feelings of the less influential classes around him, as he did those of the baronage in the council hall at Westminster. Knowing as we do his character and after-life, it is hard to believe that he remained idle all this time, or that he emerged from obscurity into the daylight of public life when he took upon himself the task of saving Gascony for the English Crown. His death in 1252 caused the earl much sorrow.-Matt Par. 835. Monum. Francisc. 110 seq. 163, 170, &c. Grosseteste sent him a treatise, 'de principatu regni et tyrannidis,' which he returned through Adam Marsh. He was much struck by the bishops proposal de liberandis animabus,' and was prepared to support it 'cum complicibus suis, si tamen inveniantur.' This seems to show that Simons ideas were too far advanced to find much support yet. |