es, or pretended voluntary contributions, from his
nobility and prelates.[******]

* Trivet, p. 174.

** M. Paris, p. 491. M. West. p. 338. Knyghton, p. 2436.

*** M. Paris, p. 566, 666. Ann. Waverl. p. 214. Chron.
Dunst. vol. i. p. 335.

**** M. Paris, p. 301

***** M. Paris, p. 406.

****** M. Paris, p. 507

He was the first king of England, since the conquest, that could fairly
be said to lie under the restraint of law; and he was also the first
that practised the dispensing power, and he employed the clause of "non
obstante" in his grants and patents. When objections were made to this
novelty, he replied that the pope exercised that authority, and why
might not he imitate the example? But the abuse which the pope made of
his dispensing power, in violating the canons of general councils, in
invading the privileges and customs of all particular churches, and
in usurping on the rights of patrons, was more likely to excite the
jealousy of the people than to reconcile them to a similar practice in
their civil government. Roger de Thurkesby, one of the king's justices,
was so displeased with the precedent, that he exclaimed, "Alas! what
times are we fallen into? Behold, the civil court is corrupted in
imitation of the ecclesiastical, and the river is poisoned from that
fountain."

The king's partiality and profuse bounty to his foreign relations, and
to their friends and favorites, would have appeared more tolerable to
the English, had any thing been done meanwhile for the honor of the
nation, or had Henry's enterprises in foreign countries been attended
with any success or glory to himself or to the public; at least, such
military talents in the king would have served to keep his barons in
awe, and have given weight and authority to his government. But though
he declared war against Lewis IX. in 1242, and made an expedition into
Guienne, upon the invitation of his father-in-law, the count de
la Marche, who promised to join him with all his forces, he was
unsuccessful in his attempts against that great monarch, was worsted at
Taillebourg, was deserted by his allies, lost what remained to him of
Poictou, and was obliged to return with loss of honor into England.[*]

{1253.} The Gascon nobility were attached to the English government,
because the distance of their sovereign allowed them to remain in a
state of almost total independence; and they claimed, some time after,
Henry'