About ten days after the death of his father, Henry was conducted to the abbey church of Gloucester; and having taken the coronation oath, and sworn fealty to the reigning Pope, Honorius, was crowned by his legate Gualo and the Bishops of Winchester, Exeter, and Bath, who placed upon his head a simple circlet of gold, the regal crown having been lost with the rest of the royal treasures in the disastrous passage of the Wash.
Immediately after this ceremony a proclamation was issued, in which the boy king lamented the dissensions between his father and the barons, which he professed his willingness to forgot, offered to his subjects a full amnesty for the past, and their liberties, as secured by the Great Charter, for the future. He also commanded the tenants of the crown to do homage to him for their possessions, and take the oath of allegiance. During a month the people were forbidden to appear in public without a white fillet round the head in honour of his coronation. The care of Henry's person was confided to the Earl of Pembroke, Earl Marshal of England, who was also named guardian of the kingdom.
Well did this illustrious nobleman merit the confidence reposed in him. It was owing to his loyalty and energy that the foreigners were driven from the kingdom.
The earl, in order that he might reconcile all orders in the state to the government of the new king, made him grant a fresh charter, which, though copied in most instances from the one extorted from John, contained several exceptions.
The privilege of elections granted to the clergy was not confirmed, nor the liberty of withdrawing from the kingdom without the consent of the crown.
In this omission we may perceive the germ of resistance to the supremacy of Rome. Even at a period when it was most necessary to conciliate its influence in favour of the young king, both the regent and the barons of the party were desirous of reserving the right of the crown to issue the congé d'elire to the monks and chapters, as some check upon the encroachments of the papacy.
But the greatest change was the omitting of the obligations to which John had subscribed, binding himself not to levy any aids or scutages, as they were termed, upon the nation without the consent of the great council: the article was even pronounced severe, and was expressly left to future deliberation.
When, at a later period of his reign, Henry was severely pressed for money, he never attempted by his mere will to exact any such imposts, though reduced to great necessity, and the supplies refused by the people. The barons would have opposed it. True, they were subservient enough where individual rights alone wore trampled on; but when the interests of the whole body were affected, they offered a formidable opposition to the oppression of the crown.
This charter was confirmed by the king in the following year, and several additional articles added, to prevent the oppressions of the sheriffs. The forest laws were modified: those which had been enclosed since the reign of Henry II. were thrown open: offences against the game laws were declared no longer capital, but punished by fine and imprisonment.
These last ameliorations were made in a separate charter. These charters were, during many generations, regarded by the nation as the palladium of their liberties; securing, as they did, the rights of all orders of men, they were zealously defended by all, and became the basis of a contract which limited the authority of the king, and ensured the conditional allegiance of the people. Though often violated, they were still appealed to; and as no precedent was supposed to invalidate them, they acquired, rather than lost, authority in the frequent attempts to set them aside which were made in after ages by royal and arbitrary power.
Whilst the Earl of Pembroke, by these wise proceedings, gave so much satisfaction to the nation in general, he made great personal efforts to recall the revolted barons to their allegiance by writing in the king's name to each.
In his letters he reminded them that whatever cause of offence John might have given them, his son, who had succeeded to the crown, inherited neither his principles nor resentments; that he was the lineal heir of their ancient kings; and pointed out how desperate was the expedient they had employed of calling in a foreign potentate—an expedient which, happily for them and the nation, had failed of success; that it was still in their power, by a speedy return to their duty, to restore the independence of the kingdom, and those liberties for which they had so zealously contended; adding that, as all their past offences were now buried in oblivion, they ought, on their part, to show equal magnanimity, and forget their complaints against their late sovereign, who, if he had been in any way blameable in his conduct, had left to his successor the salutary warning to avoid the paths which had led to such fatal and dangerous extremities.
The considerations so temperately yet strongly urged, enforced by the high character for honour and consistency which Pembroke had ever maintained, had great influence with the barons, many of whom began secretly to negotiate with him, whilst others returned openly to their allegiance.
The suspicion which Louis discovered of their fidelity forwarded this general inclining towards the king; and when at last he refused the government of the castle of Hertford to Robert Fitzwalter, one of his most faithful adherents, who claimed that fortress as his property, they plainly saw that the English nobility were to be systematically excluded from every position of trust, and that his own countrymen and foreigners engrossed all the confidence and affection of their new sovereign.
The excommunication, too, which the legate of the Pope had pronounced against all the adherents of Louis, was not without effect. Men were easily convinced of the impiety of a cause which it was their interest to abandon.
Louis, who, on the death of John, had deemed his triumph certain, found, on the contrary, that it had given an incurable wound to his cause. On his return from France, where he had been to recruit his forces, he discovered his party among the English barons considerably weakened. The Earls of SaUsbury, Arundel, and Warrenne, together with William Mareschall, eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke, had returned to their natural allegiance, and the nobles who remained were only waiting an occasion to follow their example.
The regent felt himself so much strengthened by these accessions to the royal cause, that he resolved no longer to remain on the defensive, but at once proceeded to invest Mount Sorel; but on the approach of the Count de la Perche with the French army, he raised the siege, his forces not being sufficient to oppose him.
