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had no personal injuries to avenge on those who had raised the standard of revolt against his father's rule.

All these, and other like considerations, tended to make the work of final pacification less difficult now that John had been laid to rest in his tomb at Worcester. But undoubtedly the mind that watched over and fostered the work was that of the recently chosen pope, Honorius III, and the agent that carried out his instructions in England was Gualo, the Cardinal legate.

On October 12th, 1216, just four days before he was called to his long account, John had written to the pope in view of his approaching end. He is suffering, he says, from a serious and indeed incurable malady, and feels that he is not long for this life. He is tortured with anxiety how best to provide for the future of his kingdom that it might prove to be "to the honour of God and of the Holy Roman Church." Whilst seeking for some way to untie the knot of difficulties which seemed to threaten the inheritance and succession of his heir, "by an inspiration of God who never deserts those who rely on Him," he says, "I recalled the fact that as our kingdom was now the patrimony of Saint Peter and the Holy Roman Church, it was securely defended by a divine and apostolic protection. Whereupon, calling the nobles faithful to us, we determined to commend our kingdom, which is really your kingdom, and our heir to your protection and that of the Holy Roman Church." He writes these letters, therefore, to crave "humbly and as it were on bended knees" the pope's fatherly protection for the kingdom and his son against the "enemies of the Holy Roman Church."1

Almost before this petition could have left the country the king was dead. After the obsequies had been celebrated 1 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,351, f. 28; cf. Raynaldus, Ep. 141.

at Worcester, the youthful Henry and his supporters among the barons, with the bishops and abbots who had attended the funeral, passed on to Gloucester. Here the new king was anointed and crowned king of England on 28th October, 1216, by the Cardinal legate Gualo.' Jocelin, bishop of Bath, administered an oath to him "that he would strive for the honour, peace, and reverence of God, of Holy Church and its commandments all the days of his life: that he would rule according to justice, and if there were any bad laws or abuses that he would cause them to be abrogated." After this "he did homage to the Holy Roman Church and the pope " in the person of the legate, for the kingdoms of England and Ireland; and swore to pay the thousand marks yearly, which his father had undertaken to give, as long as he held the kingdoms."

On the news of the king's accession reaching him, Honorius wrote a letter of fatherly exhortation "as to a special son of the Roman Church." Since "the fear of God is the fount of life," he says, "so I pray and earnestly exhort your Majesty to accustom yourself from your youth to that fear of the Lord. May you ever govern yourself by means of that thought and restrain yourself from vice. May your study always be how to imbue yourself with every virtue. May you reverence Christ's Spouse, the Church, and its ministers, in whom, as the same Lord has declared, He Himself is honoured or despised. In this way, growing from grace to grace and from virtue to virtue, may you govern a people subject to you in the beauty of peace and the riches of contentment. And may the Lord add day

1 Rymer, i. 145. Matth. Paris says he was crowned by the bishops of Winchester and Bath; the king himself, that it was Gualo who did so. Cardinal Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury, was still in Rome.

2 Matth. Paris, iii. 1.

3 Ibid., iii. 2.

unto day and multiply the years of your life until from this earthly and transitory rule He shall translate you into the everlasting kingdom of Heaven. And since manners are formed by associates, strive to have for your firmest friends upright and honest men who, sincerely desiring your safety and honour, may be ever ready to suggest to you how you should please God and men." 1

Gualo, the legate, did not allow time to pass inactively. From the first he took the initiative. On St. Martin's day, November 11th, he presided over a council at Bristol in which he compelled the eleven bishops who were present, and many other inferior prelates, besides the earls, barons and knights who had come at his summons, to swear fealty to the new king. He placed Wales under an interdict because it favoured the barons against Henry, and he formally excommunicated all the nobles who sided with Louis of France, as also their aiders and abettors."

Meantime, if the legate was full of activity, the party of the recalcitrant barons was not less so. For the last six months of the year 1216 fortune seemed to favour the advocates of the French succession. On 1st December, Pope Honorius made an appeal to those "who had not as yet obeyed the order of the Apostolic See," to return to their natural obedience to their sovereign. Up to this time, he said, you have declared that you were fighting King John, your legitimate lord, because he put " an intolerable yoke of slavery" upon you. But now that he is dead, if you do not return to your obedience, you cannot excuse yourselves" from the sin and guilt of traitors." You are now

1 Matth. Paris, iii. p. 34. This letter is inserted in the Chronica Majora among the events of 1218. It is only known through Matthew Paris, as so many other documents of this period. Potthast (Regest. Pontif., 476) places it between August and December, 1216.

2 Wilkins, Concilia, i. 546.

opposed to his son, "who is entirely innocent" of all you charge against the father. He then urges them to return to their duty, for it is his special business to "watch over the orphan," "since the late king left in our hands and to our guardianship his orphaned children and his kingdom in the secure trust that we would provide for them." "Moreover," he continues, "because we would not conceal any motives from you, besides the above reason, we are bound to protect the rights of the people and to see that justice and judgement is done to them, since the kingdom belongs to the Apostolic See. We will, as far as God gives us the power, raise our hands in their defence and in that of the kingdom. We will invoke heaven and earth against your pestilent wickedness." 1

This letter was followed on 3rd December, two days later, by one to the legate, Gualo, encouraging him to work strenuously in the interests of the young king. The pope begins by expressing his sorrow at hearing of the death of the late king. He had loved him, he writes, "with sincere love in God, as a vassal of the Roman Church and as a special son." He goes on to express his fears that Gualo's cares and labours will be greatly increased by new anxieties to guard the interests of the young king, to whom the pope is bound to afford every protection and assistance. He is not without hopes, however, that God may turn the death of the father to the advantage of the son, and that those who had rebelled against John might now return to their allegiance to Henry. He charges the legate, as a sacred duty, to watch over the youth of the king and over the kingdom, and for that purpose Honorius gives him ample power to act in his name. In particular, he is at once to condemn as unlawful the oath taken by the barons to Louis. On 1 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,351, f. 33. 2 Ibid., f. 35.

the same date, and in much the same terms, the pope writes to the bishop of Winchester and other bishops and barons, referring them to Gualo, to whom he had given special powers.

The young king spent Christmas at Bristol with the legate and William Marshall, the earl of Pembroke, who was governor of the kingdom. Many of the English nobles were much disturbed as to their position. They had begun to fear that the French promises could not be relied upon, but hesitated to take the steps necessary for making peace with their sovereign. Meanwhile, wherever the royal cause could hope to secure protection from the church authority, by order of Gualo the solemn sentence of excommunication was, Sunday by Sunday, pronounced against all who continued to support Louis.

On 19th January, 1217, Pope Honorius wrote to the earl of Pembroke as the king's guardian and regent of the kingdom. After expressing his sorrow at the death of the late king, and his joy at learning King Henry had been happily crowned by the papal legate, he directs him to make proper provision for the defence of the kingdom against the rebel barons and their French allies. He is to concert measures for the government of the country with the cardinal legate, to whom he has given ample powers to act in his place (vice nostra). At the same time Honorius III writes in a similar strain to the wardens of the Cinque Ports, to the archbishop of York, the Chancellor and others.'

Roger de Wendover, ii. p. 204. The Council conferred on William Marshall the office, then specially created, of governor of the king and his realm. Bishop Stubbs was of the opinion that William Marshall was never “justiciar ” or "Justice of England"; but he is so named at least four times in the records. (Cf. G. J. Turner, The Minority of Henry III in Transactions of the Royal Hist. Soc., xviii. 246.

2 Brit. Mus. Add. MS., 15,351, f. 77.

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