 Henry III King of England, son of John I "Lackland" King of England and Isabella of Angouleme Taillefer Queen of England.Born Oct 1, 1207 at Winchester Castle, Hampshire, England, died Nov 16, 1272 at St. Edmund's, Suffolk, England, 65 years, buried at Westminster Henry III was the first son of John and Isabella of Angouleme, born in 1207. Age nine when he was crowned, Henry's early reign featured two regents: William the Marshall governed until his death in 1219, and Hugh de Burgh until Henry came to the throne in 1232. His education was provided by Peter des Roche, Bishop of Winchester. He married Eleanor of Provence in 1236, who bore him four sons and two daughters. Henry inherited a troubled kingdom: London and most of the southeast was in the hands of the French Dauphin Louis and the northern regions were under control of rebellious barons - only the midland and southwest were loyal to the boy king. The barons, however, soon sided with Henry (their quarrel was with his father, not him), and the old Marshall expelled the French Dauphin from English soil by 1217. Henry was a cultivated man, but a lousy politician. Frenchmen and Italians, who came at the behest of Eleanor, inundated his court, and whose relations were handed important church and state positions. His father and uncle left him an impoverished kingdom; Henry financed costly, fruitless wars with extortionate taxation. Inept diplomacy and failed war led Henry to sell his hereditary claims to all the Angevin possessions in France, save Gascony (which was held as a fief of the French crown) and Calais. Henry's failures incited hostilities among a group of barons led by his brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort. Henry was forced to agree to a wide-ranging plan of reforms, the Provisions of Oxford. His later papal absolution from adhering to the Provisions prompted a baronial revolt in 1263, and Henry was summoned to the first Parliament, a gathering of two knights from every shire and county and a forerunner to the modern House of Commons. Parliament insisted that a council be imposed on the king to advise on policy decisions. He was prone to the infamous Plantagenet temper, but could also be sensitive and quite pious - ecclesiastical architecture reached its apex in Henry's reign. The old king, after an extremely long reign of fifty-six years, died in 1272. He found no success in war, but opened up English culture to the cosmopolitanism of the continent. Although viewed as a failure as a politician, his reign defined the English monarchical position until the end of the fifteenth century: kingship limited by law - the repercussions of which influenced the English Civil War in the reign of Charles I, and extended into the nineteenth century queen-ship of Victoria. Source: www.britannia.com Married Jan 14, 1235/36 at Cantebury Cathedral, Kent, England (approximately 37 years married) to:  Eleanor of Provence Berenger Queen of EnglandBorn ± ABT. 1217 at Aix-en-Provence, France, died Jun 24, 1291 at Amesbury, Wiltshire, England, approximately 74 years Child: 1. Edward I "Longshanks" King of EnglandBorn Jun 17, 1239 at Westminster, Middlesex, England, died Jul 7, 1307 at Burgh-On-The-Sands, Cumberland, England, 68 years, buried at Westminster Edward (èd´werd), kings of England. Edward I, 1239-1307 (r.1272-1307), was the son and successor of HENRY III. He gained new claims to France through his marriage (1254) to Eleanor of Castile and was responsible for his father's victory in the BARONS' WAR. As king, his conquest of Wales (1277-82) was followed by a long, futile campaign against Scotland (1290-1307). Edward's legal reforms, notably the statutes of WESTMINSTER, earned him the title "English Justinian." He restricted private and church courts and controlled land grants to the church. His Model Parliament (1295) marked greater participation by the barons, merchants, and clergy whose resistance to war taxation had forced him to confirm previous charters (e.g., MAGNA CARTA). His son, Edward II, 1284-1327 (r.1307-27), was a weak king, dissipated and self-indulgent. His reign was noted for internal dissension and the loss of Scotland. His insistence on having his favorite, Piers Gaveston, at court caused rebellion among the barons, who eventually had Gaveston killed. Edward's later favorites, Hugh le Despenser and his son, virtually ruled England (1322-26). They made a truce with ROBERT I and recognized him as king of Scotland. Edward's wife, Queen ISABELLA, refused to return from France while the Despensers ruled. She entered into an adulterous alliance with Roger de MORTIMER and invaded England. The Despensers were executed and Edward forced to abdicate. He was imprisoned and almost certainly murdered by henchmen of Isabella and Mortimer. His son, Edward III, 1312-77 (r.1327-77), was dominated by Isabella and Mortimer until he seized power in a coup in 1330, putting Mortimer to death and forcing his mother into retirement. He supported Edward de BALIOL against the young Scottish king DAVID II, but despite his victory at Halidon Hill in 1333, the Scottish question remained unsettled. In 1337 the HUNDRED YEARS WAR began; it would dominate Edward's reign. He and his son EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE took an active part in the war, the first phase of which ended with the treaty of London in 1359. The war was renewed after various treaties and truces, but, like the Scottish wars, was inconclusive in Edward's reign. There were many constitutional developments in Edward's long reign. The most important of these was the emergence of Commons as a distinct and powerful group in PARLIAMENT. The king's constant need for money for his wars enabled Commons to assert its power to consent to all lay taxation. The Black Death (see PLAGUE) decimated the population, producing a labor shortage that enabled the lower classes to demand higher wages and social advancement. Edward quarreled with the church, and the resulting religious unrest found a spokesman in John WYCLIF. There was rivalry between a court party headed by Edward's son JOHN OF GAUNT and the parliamentary party, headed by the Black Prince. Edward was succeeded by RICHARD II. Source: The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | |||