because Constantine was a man of high position, who had recently been a sheriff of London, and had once been a strenuous supporter of Louis of France.  It was rumoured that his followers had raised the cry, “Montjoie!  Saint Denis!” The quarrels of neighbouring cities were as dangerous to sound rule as the feuds of rival barons, and Hubert took instant measures to put down the sedition.  With the aid of Falkes de Breaute’s mercenaries, order was restored, and Constantine was led before the justiciar.  Early next day Falkes assembled his forces, and crossed the river to Southwark.  He took with him Constantine and two of his supporters, and hanged all three, without form of trial, before the city knew anything about it.  Then Falkes and his soldiers rushed through the streets, capturing, mutilating, and frightening away the citizens.  Constantine’s houses and property were seized by the king.  The weak Serlo was deposed from the mayoralty, and the city taken into the king’s hands.  It was the last time that Hubert and Falkes worked together, and something of the violence of the condottiere captain sullied the justiciar’s reputation.  As the murderer of Constantine, Hubert was henceforth pursued with the undying hatred of the Londoners.

During the next two years parties became clearly defined.  Hubert more and more controlled the royal policy, and strove to strengthen both his master and himself by marriage alliances.  Powerful husbands were sought for the king’s three sisters.  On June 19, 1221, Joan, Henry’s second sister, was married to the young Alexander of Scotland, at York.  At the same time Hubert, a widower by Isabella of Gloucester’s death, wedded Alexander’s elder sister, Margaret, a match which compensated the justiciar for his loss of Isabella’s lands.  Four years later, Isabella, the King of Scot’s younger sister, was united with Roger Bigod, the young Earl of Norfolk, a grandson of the great William Marshal, whose eldest son and successor, William Marshal the younger, was in 1224 married to the king’s third sister, Eleanor.  The policy of intermarriage between the royal family and the baronage was defended by the example of Philip Augustus in France, and on the ground of the danger to the royal interests if so strong a magnate as the earl marshal were enticed away from his allegiance by an alliance with a house unfriendly to Henry.[1]

    [1] Royal Letters, i., 244-46.

The futility of marriage alliances in modifying policy was already made clear by the attitude of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, the husband of Henry’s bastard sister Joan.  This resourceful prince had already raised himself to a high position by a statecraft which lacked neither strength nor duplicity.  Though fully conscious of his position as the champion of a proud nation, and, posing as the peer of the King of Scots, Llewelyn saw that it was his interest to continue the friendship with the baronial opposition which had profited him so greatly in the days of the