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Henry’s efforts to have a peaceful country had not been going too well. The baron’s, descendants of those same ones who had
made his father, King John, sign the Magna Carta, still didn’t like everything that Henry was doing.
In 1242 Henry’s half-brother had involved him in a very expensive military campaign in France and this was on top of a campaign Henry had carried
out in 1230. The barons also didn’t like the influence that Henry’s foreign relatives, presumably including his half-brother, had over him. Then Henry tried
to have one of his son’s made King of Sicily and this was another expense. All the time he was making bigger and bigger tax demands on the barons.
In 1258 a group of barons, who included a guy called Simon de
Montfort, who was married to Henry’s sister, decided to set up a council who would advise the King. The Provisions of Oxford created a 15-member privy council,
selected by the barons, to advise the King and oversee the entire administration. A Parliament was to be held three times a year and the households and
spending of the King and Queen were also to be reformed. A year later the barons drew up the Provisions of Westminster which added a few more things to
those in the original one.
The King agreed to all of this.
Then he showed how like his father he was by claiming he didn’t have to agree and he got the Pope to back him up. Henry was also very clever and
managed to cause splits among the barons. This annoyed de Montfort so much he threw his toys out of the pram and left England in 1261. He will be back.
Forward to 1259AD
