which England had any
considerable intercourse, was at this time governed by Lewis IX., a
prince of the most singular character that is to be met with in all
the records of history. This monarch united to the mean and abject
superstition of a monk all the courage and magnanimity of the greatest
hero; and, what may be deemed more extraordinary, the justice and
integrity of a disinterested patriot, the mildness and humanity of an
accomplished philosopher. So far from taking advantage of the divisions
among the English, or attempting to expel those dangerous rivals from
the provinces which they still possessed in France, he had entertained
many scruples with regard to the sentence of attainder pronounced
against the king's father, had even expressed some intention of
restoring the other provinces, and was only prevented from taking that
imprudent resolution by the united remonstrances of his own barons, who
represented the extreme danger of such a measure,[**] and, what had a
greater influence on Lewis, the justice of punishing by a legal sentence
the barbarity and felony of John. Whenever this prince interposed
in English affairs, it was always with an intention of composing the
differences between the king and his nobility: he recommended to both
parties every peaceable and reconciling measure; and he used all his
authority with the earl of Leicester, his native subject, to bend him to
a compliance with Henry.

* Chron. Dunst. vol. i. p. 348.

** M. Paris, p. 604.

He made a treaty with England at a time when the distractions of that
kingdom were at the greatest height, and when the king's authority was
totally annihilated; and the terms which he granted might, even in
a more prosperous state of their affairs, be deemed reasonable and
advantageous to the English. He yielded up some territories which
had been conquered from Poictou and Guienne; he insured the peaceable
possession of the latter province to Henry; he agreed to pay that prince
a large sum of money; and he only required 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.[*]
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 in