Divorced, Beheaded, Died: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude Read Free Book Online Page A

an important document that symbolized the principle that the King was not above the law and that his subjects had the right to due process of law and were protected from arbitrary arrest.
    But John had no intention of keeping to its terms and soon persuaded the Pope to revoke it, leading to civil war. The barons gave their support to Philip II’s son, Louis, who landed in Britain and by May 1216 had captured Winchester and London. King John died later that same year, having over-indulged in peaches and new cider, leaving his diminished, threatened kingdom to his nine-year-old son, Henry. John had five children with Isabella and twelve illegitimate children.

    H ENRY III
    Reigned 1216–1272
    Henry was a God-fearing, family-loving man, but although his reign was a long one, he was a naive and weak king. His failures as a soldier and diplomat meant that he did not recover the French territories lost by his father, and his reputation was further damaged by his preference for foreign advisors and his outrageous financial demands.
    Henry was born at Winchester Castle in 1207 and was nine years old when his father John died in 1216. He was crowned in Gloucester because London and Winchester were under the control of Prince Louis of France, and with his mother’s circlet because the Crown Jewels had been lost in the Wash. His position seemed precarious, but the honesty and commitment of his regent, William Marshal, saved him from the French, and Louis withdrew in 1217. The Magna Carta was reissued that same year, and by the time Marshal died in 1219, the country was ruled by a committee of barons led by Hubert de Burgh.
    Henry came of age in 1227 and began his personal rule, ending baronial control and replacing them with hated foreign advisors. He made matters worse by raising taxes to pay for a campaign to recapture the French territories, an attempt to buy the kingdom of Sicily for his son and his plans to rebuild Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. Only his architectural adventures were successful, especially at Westminster, where his work remains a physical embodiment of his conception of kingship, but he was left with no new territories and a ruined country.
    The barons, led by Henry’s brother-in-law Simon de Montfort, revolted and forced the King to accept the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, which limited his power and reintroduced a baronial governing council. For the first time, the Crown was forced to recognize the rights of Parliament, which was to meet three times a year. The King turned to the Pope for help and civil war broke out once again.
    De Montfort captured Henry and his son Edward at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, and effectively took over the kingdom. In 1265 he called Europe’s first elected Parliament, with elected representatives from both the major towns and the counties. Unluckily for de Montfort, however, Prince Edward had escaped his imprisonment and formed an army, and de Montfort was defeated and killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Although Henry lived for another seven years after regaining his throne, his much more effective son was in de facto control of the country, leaving Henry free to pursue his great passion – patronage of the arts – until his death in 1272.

    E DWARD I
    Reigned 1272–1307

    Edward was born in 1239 at Westminster. Known as ‘Longshanks’ (he was 6ft 2in) and ‘the Lawgiver’, he was the nearest thing to a proper English king since Harold II. He even spoke English, albeit with a lisp. By the time he came to the throne in 1272, he had already proved himself to be a formidable and determined military leader, having rescued his father Henry III and defeated the rebel Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. When Henry died, Edward was on a crusade with his wife, Eleanor of Castile, who accompanied him on most of his military campaigns, and so he was not crowned until two years later. The transition arrangements, with the new King absent overseas,