French invasion.  The pacification arranged in 1218 sat rightly upon him, and he plunged into a war with William Marshal the younger that desolated South Wales for several years.  In 1219 Llewelyn devastated Pembrokeshire so cruelly that the marshal’s losses were currently, though absurdly, reported to have exceeded the amount of the ransom of King Richard.  There was much more fighting, but Llewelyn’s progress was impeded by difficulties with his own son Griffith, and with the princes of South Wales, who bore impatiently the growing hold of the lord of Gwynedd upon the affections of southern Welshmen.  There was war also in the middle march, where in 1220 a royal army was assembled against Llewelyn; but Pandulf negotiated a truce, and the only permanent result of this effort was the fortification of the castle and town at Montgomery, which had become royal demesne on the extinction of the ancient house of Bollers a few years earlier.  But peace never lasted long west of the Severn, and in 1222 William Marshal drove Llewelyn out of Cardigan and Carmarthen.  Again there were threats of war.  Llewelyn was excommunicated, and his lands put under interdict.  The marshal complained bitterly of the poor support which Henry gave him against the Welsh, but Hubert restored cordiality between him and the king.  In these circumstances the policy of marrying Eleanor to the indignant marcher was a wise one.  Llewelyn however could still look to the active friendship of Randolph of Chester.  While the storm of war raged in South Wales, the march between Cheshire and Gwynedd enjoyed unwonted peace, and in 1223 a truce was patched up through Randolph’s mediation.

Earl Randolph needed the Welsh alliance the more because he definitely threw in his lot with the enemies of Hubert de Burgh.  In April, 1223, a bull of Honorius III. declared Henry competent to govern in his own name, a change which resulted in a further strengthening of Hubert’s power.  Towards the end of the year Randolph joined with William of Albemarle, the Bishop of Winchester and Falkes de Breaute, in an attempt to overthrow the justiciar.  The discontented barons took arms and laid their grievances before the king.  They wished, they said, no ill to king or kingdom, but simply desired to remove the justiciar from his counsels.  Hot words passed between the indignant Hubert and Peter des Roches, and the conference broke up in confusion.  The barons still remained mutinous, and, while the king held his Christmas court at Northampton, they celebrated the feast at Leicester.  At last Langton persuaded both parties to come to an agreement on the basis of king’s friends and barons alike surrendering their castles and wardships.  This was a substantial victory for the party of order, and during the next few months much was done to transfer the castles to loyal hands.  Randolph himself surrendered Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth.