of York, declared to Matthew Paris, that no less a sum than 30,000 marks (300,000l.), besides 200 gold marks for the queen, had been extorted from him in seven years; and others were heavily mulcted.

Toward London the hostility of Henry was strongly marked, and on various "right royal" pretexts he grievously mulcted the citizens; while his cruel execution of Constantine Fitz Arnulph, whose only crime seems to have been opposition to the overbearing conduct of the abbot of Westminster, encouraged an equal hostility in the hearts of the citizens; and from henceforward they determinately took their place in the ranks of the king's enemies.* Ere long they obtained a singular triumph. The king, reduced almost to beggary by the swarms of foreign adventurers, who grew rich upon his bounty, was compelled to pledge the crown jewels. In vain did he offer them to wealthy noble, or rich Italian merchant; none could buy; and it was the citizens of London who paid down the stipulated sum; and Henry saw the crown jewels pass into the hands of these the most detested of his subjects. "Those churlish Londoners," cried he, "if the wealth of Octavian were offered for sale, they could find the money."

During these years scarcely any notice of Elinor can be found her extreme youth probably incapacitating her from any interference with affairs of state;

* The whole account may be seen in Stow; and when we read that this unfortunate citizen offered 15,000 marks (£75,000) for his life, we have strong proof of Henry's hatred to London, which could urge so mercenary and so needy a monarch to reject such a ransom.

nor does her court appear to have been graced either with trouvère or troubadour. One of the former class alone, but the brightest ornament of the langue d'oil, Marie of France, seems to have found patronage at the English court; although, from the circumstance of her addressing the king, in her Introduction to Esop, as a mere youth, it was probably before the arrival of Elinor.* Nor, excepting Marie, do we find that Henry patronized any trouvère; indeed literature or science received little encouragement from the weak devotee, and capricious monarch, whose time was divided between superstitious ceremonials, and plans to refill his exhausted exchequer.

In the year 1247 he received a gift from the patriarch of Jerusalem, which he welcomed with unquestioning faith. This was, so said the Patriarch, "a portion of the blood of Christ." On receiving this inestimable relic, he commanded the attendance of all the clergy of London and Westminster, with banners, crosses, and tapers, at St. Paul's. Thither the king repaired, and, taking from the treasury the beautiful crystal vase that contained it, "with all honour, and reverence, and fear, he bore it upon its salver, walking on foot, and in mean attire, that is, in a coarse cloak, without a hood, to the church at Westminster; nor," conti

* As Marie of France, although she seems to have resided in England, was not of English parentage, we cannot class her among our early poets. This is to be lamented, since her lays are certainly superior, both in grace and feeling, to those of perhaps any other trouvère. A complete edition of her works has been published by M. Roquefort, but the reader must be warned against judging of the grace and spirit of the original, from the prose version which accompanies it.

nues the chronicler, "did he cease to bear it in both hands, through all the rugged and miry way, always keeping his his eyes fixed upon it, or elevated towards heaven." He had, however, a canopy held over him, supported by four lances; and an attendant on either hand, guiding him by the arms, lest he should stumble. When he arrived at Westminster, he was met by the whole convent at the church door; but not even then did the king relinquish his precious burthen he went round the church, the chapels, and the adjoining court, and at length presented the vase and its contents "to God and the church of St. Peter." Mass was then sung; and the bishop of Norwich, ascending the pulpit, delivered a sermon to the people, extolling the value of the relic, lauding the great devotion of the king, and anathematizing all those who hinted doubts of its reality; a forcible proof that, even at this early day, our forefathers did not believe all that was told them. This memorable day was closed by the king's feasting sumptuously, and conferring knighthood on his half brother, William de Valence; and the well pleased monk of St. Albans, who was present, records the gratifying circumstance that Henry, seeing him, called him, and prayed him "expressly and fully to record all these things in a well written book.' Nor did this instance of royal condescension fail of its intended effect ;-the whole account is written in a strain of courtesy which contrasts curiously enough with the plain speaking of the rest of the volume; and these two pages stand out from

the rest of the text, like a laureat's birth-day ode.*

But observances like these, however gratifying to the monarch, and however lauded by his dependants, could not avert the evil day that his misgovernment and reckless extravagance were fast hastening on. Among his hostile nobles, there was one, beyond all, whom he feared for his talents, and hated for his popularity this was the celebrated Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. This nobleman (the third son of that de Montfort who has obtained such disgraceful celebrity in the Crusade against the Albigenses), by the death of his elder brothers, became possessor both of his father's estates in France, and those in England which, together with his title, he inherited from his mother; and taking up his residence in England at an early period of Henry's reign, and marrying his sister Elinor, the young widow of the junior earl of Pembroke, he seems from that period to have identified himself with Englishmen, and to have warmly advocated the rights of the people. Making every allowance for the inflated eulogies of his monkish biographers, we may well consider him to have been a most valiant leader, and a wise statesman; while the circumstance of his being a munificent patron of learned men, and the friend of the excellent archbishop Edmund, and the celebrated Grostête, bishop of Lincoln, proves much in favour of his general character. After many differences between him and the king, Henry, in 1249,

* Vide Matthew Paris, p. 735 to 737.

anxious to free himself from his hated brother-in-law, sent him into Gascony to reduce the disturbances there. From this thankless office he was relieved in 1252; the king having, at the queen's instigation it is said, appointed his son Edward, although only thirteen years of age, to succeed him. Under the rule of a mere boy, it is not surprising that tumult and disorder increased; and the king sent to de Montfort, praying him to resume the government. This for some time he refused; at length, wrought upon by the entreaties of Grostête, he returned to Gascoigny with a large body of knights, maintained at his own cost, and reduced all to quietness.

Meanwhile Henry went on in his accustomed course of reckless expenditure; and in 1257, although his debts amounted to more than 600,000%. (9,000,000l.), he seems not to have made any effort to reduce his expenses. In 1252 he married his daughter Margaret, a child of ten years of age, to her cousin, the infant king of Scotland, with great magnificence; and, in the following year, he tried to raise supplies in aid of a "crusade," as it was termed, to place the crown of the two Sicilies on the brow of his second son Edmund, a child nine years old. Twenty thousand marks were wrung from the London citizens; the nobles and the clergy were mulcted in various ways; and at length, as a last resource to raise supplies, Henry proffered to renew his confirmation of the charters. On the 18th of May, 1253, the bishops, in the presence of the king and his court at Westminster, for a third time administered the oath of confirmation to the reluctant monarch,