in the first
rank of the English nobility. He represented to this company the
necessity of reforming the state, and of putting the execution of the
laws into other hands than those which had hitherto appeared, from
repeated experience, so unfit for the charge with which they were
intrusted. He exaggerated the oppressions exercised against the lower
orders of the state, the violations of the barons' privileges, the
continued depredations made on the clergy; and in order to aggravate the
enormity of this conduct, he appealed to the Great Charter, which Henry
had so often ratified, and which was calculated to prevent forever the
return of those intolerable grievances. He magnified the generosity of
their ancestors, who, at a great expense of blood, had extorted that
famous concession from the crown; but lamented their own degeneracy,
who allowed so important an advantage, once obtained, to be wrested from
them by a weak prince and by insolent strangers. And he insisted that
the king's word, after so many submissions and fruitless promises on his
part, could no longer be relied on; and that nothing but his absolute
inability to violate national privileges could henceforth insure the
regular observance of them.

* M. Paris, p. 649.

These topics, which were founded in truth, and suited so well the
sentiments of the company, had the desired effect, and the barons
embraced a resolution of redressing the public grievances, by taking
into their own hands the administration of government. Henry having
summoned a parliament, in expectation of receiving supplies for his
Sicilian project, the barons appeared in the hall, clad in complete
armor, and with their swords by their side: the king, on his entry,
struck with the unusual appearance, asked them what was their purpose,
and whether they pretended to make him their prisoner.[*] Roger Bigod
replied in the name of the rest, that he was not their prisoner, but
their sovereign; that they even intended to grant him large supplies,
in order to fix his son on the throne of Sicily; that they only expected
some return for this expense and service; and that, as he had frequently
made submissions to the parliament, had acknowledged his past errors,
and had still allowed himself to be carried into the same path, which
gave them such just reason of complaint, he must now yield to more
strict regulations, and confer authority on those who were able and
willing to redress the national gr