ing that the king could not be
brought to keep the Provisions, took arms against him. He was a master
in the art of war, and gained one fortified post after another. Henry,
being, as usual, short of money, called on the Londoners for a loan.
On their refusal Edward seized a sum of money which belonged to them,
and so exasperated them that, on the queen's passing under London
Bridge, the citizens reviled her and pelted her with stones. The war
was carried on with doubtful results, and by the end of the year both
parties agreed to submit to the arbitration of the king of France.

21. =The Mise of Amiens. 1264.=--The king of France Louis IX.,
afterwards known as St. Louis, was the justest and most unselfish of
men. In =1259= he had surrendered to Henry a considerable amount of
territory in France, which Henry had been unable to reconquer for
himself; and was well satisfied to obtain from Henry in return a
formal renunciation of the remainder of the lands which Philip II. had
taken from John. Yet, well-intentioned as Louis was, he had no
knowledge of England, and in France, where the feudal nobility was
still excessively tyrannical, justice was only to be obtained by the
maintenance of a strong royal power. He therefore thought that what
was good for France was also good for England, and in the beginning of
=1264= he relieved Henry from all the restrictions which his subjects
had sought to place upon him. The decision thus taken was known as
the Mise, or settlement, of Amiens, from the place at which it was
issued.

22. =The Battle of Lewes. 1264.=--The Mise of Amiens required an
unconditional surrender of England to the king. The Londoners and the
trading towns were the first to reject it. Simon put himself at the
head of a united army of barons and citizens. In the early morning of
May 14 he caught the king's army half asleep at Lewes. Edward charged
at the Londoners, against whom he bore a grudge since they had
ill-treated his mother, and cleared them off the field with enormous
slaughter. When he returned the battle was lost. Henry himself was
captured, and Richard, king of the Romans, was found hiding in a
windmill. Edward, in spite of his success, had to give himself up as a
prisoner.

[Illustration: A fight between armed and mounted knights of the time
of Henry III.]

[Illustration: Seal of Robert Fitzwalter, showing a mounted knight in
complete mail armour. Date, about 1265.]

23. =Earl Simon's Government. 12