hn Lord Basset, Ralph Basset, Hammond l'Estrange, Roger Mortimer, Henry
de Piercy, Robert de Brus, Roger de Leybourne, with almost all the lords
marchers, as they were called, on the borders of Wales and of Scotland,
the most warlike parts of the kingdom, declared in favor of the royal
cause; and hostilities, which were scarcely well composed, were again
renewed in every part of England. But the near balance of the parties,
joined to the universal clamor of the people, obliged the king and
barons to open anew the negotiations for peace; and it was agreed by
both sides to submit their differences to the arbitration of the king of
France.[**]

* M. Paris, p. 669. Trivet, p. 213.

** M. Paris, p. 668, Chron. T. Wykes, p. 58. W. Heming, p.
580. Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 363.

{1264.} This virtuous prince, the only man, who, in like circumstances,
could safely have been intrusted with such an authority by a neighboring
nation, had never ceased to interpose his good, offices between the
English factions, and had, even, during the short interval of peace,
invited over to Paris both the king and the earl of Leicester, in order
to accommodate the differences between them, but found that the fears
and animosities on both sides, as well as the ambition of Leicester,
were so violent, as to render all his endeavors ineffectual. But when
this solemn appeal, ratified by the oaths and subscriptions of
the leaders in both factions, was made to his judgment, he was not
discouraged from pursuing his honorable purpose: he summoned the states
of France at Amiens; and there, in the presence of that assembly,
as well as in that of the king of England and Peter de Mountfort,
Leicester's son, he brought this great cause to a trial and examination.
It appeared to him, that the provisions of Oxford, even had they not
been extorted by force, had they not been so exorbitant in their nature
and subversive of the ancient constitution, were expressly established
as a temporary expedient, and could not, without breach of trust,
be rendered perpetual by the barons. He therefore annulled these
provisions; restored to the king the possession of his castles, and the
power of nomination to the great offices; allowed him to retain what
foreigners he pleased in his kingdom, and even to confer on them places
of trust and dignity; and, in a word, reestablished the royal power
in the same condition on which it stood before the meeting of
the par