Far indeed from assisting Louis, Henry had regarded his absence as an opportunity for regaining his power in the south of France. Gascony was in a state of complete confusion, chiefly through the insurrections of Gaston of Bearn and assaults from the King of Navarre. To bring it into order, Henry had, in 1248, appointed Simon de Montfort his governor there. His government had been completely successful, and at length, in 1250, Gaston was sent a prisoner to England. In his foolish soft-heartedness, Henry at once pardoned and released him. But the vigorous government of Simon had excited the displeasure both of the nobles and of the towns. They sent an embassy under the Archbishop of Bordeaux to lay charges against him before Henry. The King, fickle and jealous, listened to them; and Leicester was summoned home. He had almost ruined himself in his efforts to carry on his government well, and an angry scene of personal recrimination occurred, the King charging him with treason, while Simon demanded repayment for the money he had expended. It shows the state of personal contempt into which the King had fallen, that Leicester could venture to give him the lie direct. But the King could not do without him; by the influence of the Earl of Cornwall the quarrel was adjusted, and De Montfort returned as he believed to his government. His back was scarcely turned when the King appointed in his place his young son Edward, and ordered the Gascons not to obey De Montfort. Feeling himself thus freed from his charge, De Montfort went to Paris. The opinion of his abilities was so high, that he was offered the regency of France; but slighted though he had been at home, he was still true to his adopted country, and declined the flattering offer. [Sidenote: By Leicester’s aid Gascony is saved.] [Sidenote: Henry’s money difficulties.] Left to himself, Henry found the Gascons more than he could manage. He collected indeed much money for the expedition; the Charter being renewed as usual as the price of a grant. The Jews had to advance money, the towns were tallaged. But, after all, things would have gone badly had not Leicester again patriotically offered his services, and taken command of the disturbed province. With his assistance, and with money obtained from England, by dint of lying letters, narrating the extreme danger of the King from the approach of a vast army of Christians and Saracens under the King of Castile, peace was made with Alphonso X., at that time the King of Castile, and a marriage arranged between Edward and his daughter the Princess Eleanor. This expedition therefore had on the whole been successful; but it plunged the King still deeper into money difficulties, while his constant demands for money, and the dishonest means he had taken to secure it, had lowered him still further in the eyes of the people. His foolish ambition and his adherence to the Papal See completed what his long reign of misgovernment had begun.