Provisions or Reforms of Oxford

The parliament" at Oxford' began by demanding that all aliens should leave England, and that castles in the hands of aliens should be given up to the English. This was agreed to and effected after some resistance on the part of the foreigners. Then the barons, in what is known as the Provisions of Oxford, set up a new government.

They agreed that the twenty-four already appointed should select four of their number, who in turn were to choose fifteen others as a permanent council to govern with the king. These fifteen were to keep in their own hands the appointment of the great officers of the kingdom. They were also to meet three times a year, in February, June, and October, and with them was to sit a special committee of twelve, chosen by the commonalty," that is, the party of the barons. This was a very complicated arrangement, and it set up, as can be seen readily, an oligarchical administration. Though this government lasted from 1258 to 1263, and though the bodies of fifteen and twelve met regularly three times a year, the system was too clumsy to be efficient, and the fact that the members of the king's party quarrelled with the representatives of the barons made failure almost inevitable.

The turning-point of the movement came when the old earl of Gloucester, who represented the nobility, and Simon de Montfort, who stood as the defender of the popular cause, disagreed for reasons that historians have never been able satisfactorily to ascertain. Then the king and his supporters, growing weary of the barons' control, and taking advantage of the discord in the reform party, tried to break down the government. Henry obtained a bull from the pope, releasing him from his oath; he removed the justiciar appointed by the barons, and defied the provisions by openly violating their conditions. Gloucester and Montfort buried their enmity in the presence of this danger. Civil war was imminent, though all sought to avoid it. Finally, in 1262, they referred the matter to the arbitration of Louis IX, whose reputation for justice all acknowledged. In January, 1264, the French king, in the award or Mise of Amiens, decided against the reformers, and at one stroke undid all that the barons had accomplished since 1258. The pope confirmed the verdict.

The Barons War: the Battle of Lewes

The Mise of Amiens was received in England with indignation, for all feared a return of the rule of the foreigners. The citizens of London rose in revolt, imprisoned the king's officers, and plundered the king's houses. Simon and the young earl of Gloucester (the old earl had died in 1262) became reconciled and were joined by Llewellyn, the Welsh prince, and other barons. But the king was far from weak. He was aided by his son Edward, by John Balliol and other lords of the north, and by his foreign allies from the continent. In the war that followed victory seemed at first to lie in the king's hands, but after a series of mistakes that more than counterbalanced his earlier successes, Henry was surprised by Simon, Gloucester, and the Londoners at Lewes in Sussex on May 14, 1264. The battle was lost for the king, in part because of the impetuous and ill-timed charge of Prince Edward, and in part by Simon's terrific attack on the centre of the king's army. The battle put Simon in possession of the machinery of government, and gave into his hands as a hostage Prince Edward, whom the defeat at Lewes had changed from a reckless youth of promise into a sober, capable man." For a year Simon ruled in the king's name.

Simons Government

In June, 1264, Simon summoned a parliament composed not only of barons and clergy, but also of four knights from each shire. This assembly restored the government established by the Provisions of Oxford, with the difference that Simon, Gloucester, and Bishop Berksted took the place of the council of four, and appointed a committee of nine to advise the king and to manage the affairs of the kingdom. During the months that followed, Simon's power was greatly strengthened by a threatened invasion of the foreigners, led by those who had been driven out of England. The English of all parties responded at once to the call for an army of resistance, and so determined were they that the invaders asked for a parley, and an agreement was reached to submit all questions in dispute to a great national assembly to be held in London in January, 1265.