NOTES I--The Truces of 1216–1217 269 II--The Blocked Gate at Lincoln 273 III--Falkes de Bréauté at Lincoln 275 IV--The End of the Battle of Lincoln 276 V--The Treaty of Kingston 278 VI--The Tenure of Crown Offices during the Minority 280 VII--The Papal Letters of 1223 286 VIII--The Royal Castles in 1223–1224 290 IX--Falkes and the “thirty pairs of letters” 292 X--Bedford Castle 293 XI--The Hanging of the Bedford Garrison 296 INDEX 301 _Filius non portabit iniquitatem patris._ THE MINORITY OF HENRY III CHAPTER I THE WAR WITH LOUIS 1216–1217 Iniit ergo omnis multitudo pactum in domo Dei cum rege, dixitque ad eos Joiada: Ecce, filius regis regnabit. [Sidenote: 1216] On the 19th of October, 1216, King John lay dead in Newark castle. Nearly half of his realm, including the capital, was in the hands of a foreign invader who was supported by a numerous and powerful section of the English baronage as well as by the citizens of London; and the sole surviving male representatives of the royal house of England were two boys, the elder of whom was but nine years old. The King had been cut off suddenly, at a moment when not one of his English counsellors was at his side; and the small body of troops which he had brought with him from the west consisted almost entirely of foreign mercenaries. It might well have been expected that these men would, as soon as the “landless king” was dead, transfer their services to his rival. But John had possessed that mysterious gift which seems to have been common to the whole Angevin house, the gift of inspiring a personal attachment out of all proportion to the merits of its object. These men, seemingly without any leader to direct their action, took upon themselves and faithfully and successfully fulfilled the duty of carrying into effect John’s last wishes, so far as lay in their power, by conveying his corpse across England from Newark to Worcester, and calling on the loyal barons to meet them there for the double purpose of burying the dead King and concerting offensive and defensive measures to secure the rights of his heir.[1]