Henry III of England
Henry III reigned for fifty-six years, one of the longest in English history, and was twice made a prisoner by his own barons. Born at Winchester in 1207, the son of King John, he acceded at nine in the middle of a civil war with a French army in London, and was crowned with a plain circlet because the crown jewels had been lost in the Wash. William Marshal governed as regent and saved the throne, and Magna Carta was reissued in Henry's name. He took power in 1234 and ruled personally for the rest of his life. He was pious, artistically serious and politically inept. He rebuilt Westminster Abbey in the French Gothic manner from 1245, at ruinous expense, as a shrine for Edward the Confessor, whom he venerated and after whom he named his heir. It is the finest thing he did. His difficulties were money and foreigners. He promoted his wife's Savoyard relatives and his own Lusignan half-brothers, granting them lands and offices that the English barons resented, and he accepted the papacy's offer of the throne of Sicily for his second son, committing to an enormous debt for a kingdom he could not reach. In 1258 the barons forced the Provisions of Oxford on him, establishing a council of fifteen that controlled the king. He obtained a papal annulment of them, and war followed. Simon de Montfort captured him at Lewes in 1264 and summoned a parliament including burgesses and knights. Henry's son Edward killed Montfort at Evesham in 1265. He died in 1272.
- Lived: 1207 CE – 1272 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: king, head_of_state
