, and easily suffered
himself to be persuaded by his favorites that his promises were not to
be kept, because they had been compulsory and extorted from him in
opposition to the just claims of his crown.

On the fall of Hubert de Burgh the King had given his confidence to
his former tutor, Peter the Poitevin, Bishop of Winchester. That the
removal of the minister would be followed by the dismissal of the
other officers of government, and that the favorite would employ the
opportunity to raise and enrich his relatives and friends, is not
improbable; but it is difficult to believe, on the unsupported
assertion of a censorious chronicler, that Peter could be such an
enemy to his own interest as to prevail on the King to expel all
Englishmen from his court, and confide to Poitevins and Bretons the
guard of his person, the receipt of his revenue, the administration of
justice, the custody of all the royal castles, the wardship of all the
young nobility, and the marriages of the principal heiresses. But the
ascendency of the foreigners, however great it might be, was not of
very long duration. The barons refused to obey the royal summons to
come to the council: the Earl Marshal unfurled the standard of
rebellion in Wales, and the clergy joined with the laity in censuring
the measures of government. Edmund, the new archbishop of Canterbury,
attended by several other prelates, waited on Henry. He reminded the
King that his father, by pursuing similar counsels, had nearly
forfeited the crown; assured him that the English would never submit
to be trampled upon by strangers in their own country; and declared
that he should conceive it his duty to excommunicate every individual,
whoever he might be, that should oppose the reform of the government
and the welfare of the nation. Henry was alarmed, and promised to give
him an answer in a few weeks. A parliament of the barons was called,
and Edmund renewed his remonstrance. The Poitevins were instantly
dismissed, the insurgents restored to favor, and ministers appointed
who possessed the confidence of the nation.

At the age of twenty-nine the King had married Eleanor, the daughter
of Raymond, Count of Provence. The ceremony of her coronation, the
offices of the barons, the order of the banquet, and the rejoicings of
the people are minutely described by the historian, who, in the warmth
of his admiration, declares that the whole world could not produce a
more glorious and ravishing s