sworn to observe them [s]: he himself had been
constrained by violence to take that oath; yet he was determined to
keep it. By this scrupulous fidelity, the prince acquired the
confidence of all parties, and was afterwards enabled to recover fully
the royal authority, and to perform such great actions, both during
his own reign and that of his father.
[FN [s] M. Paris, p. 667.]

The situation of England, during this period, as well as that of most
European kingdoms, was somewhat peculiar. There was no regular
military force maintained in the nation: the sword, however, was not,
properly speaking, in the hands of the people: the barons were alone
intrusted with the defence of the community; and after any effort
which they made, either against their own prince or against
foreigners, as the military retainers departed home, the armies were
disbanded, and could not speedily be re-assembled at pleasure. It was
easy, therefore, for a few barons, by a combination, to get the start
of the other party, to collect suddenly their troops, and to appear
unexpectedly in the field with an army, which their antagonists,
though equal, or even superior in power and interest, would not dare
to encounter. Hence the sudden revolutions which often took place in
those governments: hence the frequent victories obtained, without a
blow, by one faction over the other: and hence it happened, that the
seeming prevalence of a party was seldom a prognostic of its long
continuance in power and authority.

[MN 1262.] The king, as soon as he received the pope's absolution
from his oath, accompanied with menaces of excommunication against all
opponents, trusting to the countenance of the church, to the support
promised him by many considerable barons, and to the returning favour
of the people, immediately took off the mask. After justifying his
conduct by a proclamation, in which he set forth the private ambition,
and the breach of trust, conspicuous in Leicester and his associates,
he declared, that he had resumed the government, and was determined
thenceforth to exert the royal authority for the protection of his
subjects. He removed Hugh le Despenser and Nicholas de Ely, the
justiciary and chancellor appointed by the barons; and put Philip
Basset and Walter de Merton in their place. He substituted new
sheriffs in all the counties, men of character and honour: he placed
new governors in most of the castles: he changed all the officers of
hi