d
that the king should, in return, make a final cession of Normandy and
the other provinces, which he could never entertain any hopes of
recovering by force of arms [l]. This cession was ratified by Henry,
by his two sons, and two daughters, and by the King of the Romans and
his three sons: Leicester alone, either moved by a vain arrogance, or
desirous to ingratiate himself with the English populace, protested
against the deed, and insisted on the right, however distant, which
might accrue to his consort [m]. Lewis saw, in his obstinacy, the
unbounded ambition of the man; and as the barons insisted that the
money due by treaty should be at their disposal, not at Henry's, he
also saw, and probably with regret, the low condition to which this
monarch, who had more erred from weakness than from any bad intention,
was reduced by the turbulence of his own subjects.
[FN [k] M. Paris, p. 604. [l] Rymer, vol. i. p. 675. M. Paris, p.
566. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 53. Trivet, p. 208. M. West. p. 371. [m]
Chron. T. Wykes, p. 53.]

[MN 1261.] But the situation of Henry soon after wore a more
favourable aspect. The twenty-four barons had now enjoyed the
sovereign power near three years; and had visibly employed it, not for
the reformation of the state, which was their first pretence, but for
the aggrandizement of themselves and of their families. The breach of
trust was apparent to all the world: every order of men felt it, and
murmured against it: the dissensions among the barons themselves,
which increased the evil, made also the remedy more obvious and easy;
and the secret desertion, in particular, of the Earl of Gloucester to
the crown, seemed to promise Henry certain success in any attempt to
resume his authority. Yet durst he not take that step, so
reconcilable both to justice and policy, without making a previous
application to Rome, and desiring an absolution from his oaths and
engagements [n].
[FN [n] Ann. Burt. p. 389.]

The pope was at this time much dissatisfied with the conduct of the
barons, who, in order to gain the favour of the people and clergy of
England, had expelled all the Italian ecclesiastics, had confiscated
their benefices, and seemed determined to maintain the liberties and
privileges of the English church, in which the rights of patronage,
belonging to their own families, were included. The extreme animosity
of the English clergy against the Italians was also a source of his
disgust to this or