Peace was impossible because Louis, like Philip, regarded the forfeiture of John as absolute, and as involving the right to deny to Henry III. a legitimate title to any of his lands beyond sea.  Henry, on the other hand, was still styled Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, Count of Poitou, and Duke of Aquitaine.  Claiming all that his father had held, he refused homage to Philip or Louis for such French lands as he actually possessed.  For the first time since the Conquest, an English king ruled over extensive French territories without any feudal subjection to the King of France.  However, Henry’s French lands, though still considerable, were but a shadow of those once ruled by his father.  Philip had conquered all Normandy, save the Channel Islands, and also the whole of Anjou and Touraine.  For a time he also gained possession of Poitou, but before his death nearly the whole of that region had slipped from his grasp.  Poitiers, alone of its great towns, remained in French hands.  For the rest, both the barons and cities of Poitou acknowledged the over-lordship of their English count.  Too much importance must not be ascribed to this revival of the English power.  Henry claimed very little domain in Poitou, which practically was divided between the feudal nobles and the great communes.  So long as they maintained a virtual freedom, they were indifferent as to their overlord.  If they easily transferred their allegiance from Philip to Henry, it was because the weakness of absentee counts was less to be dreaded than the strength of a monarch near at hand.  Meanwhile the barons carried on their feuds one against the other, and all alike joined in oppressing the townsmen.

During Henry’s minority the crown was not strong enough to deal with the unruly Foitevins.  Seneschals quickly succeeded each other; the barons expected the office to be filled by one of their own order, and the towns, jealous of hostile neighbours, demanded the appointment of an Englishman.  At last, in 1221, Savary de Mauleon, one of King John’s mercenaries, a poet, and a crusader against infidels and Albigenses, was made seneschal.  His English estates ensured some measure of fidelity, and his energy and experience were guarantees of his competence, though, as a younger member of the great house of Thouars, he belonged by birth to the inner circle of the Poitevin nobility, whose treachery, levity, and self-seeking were proverbial.  The powerful Viscounts of Thouars were constantly kept in check by their traditional enemies the Counts of La Marche, whose representative, Hugh of Lusignan, was by far the strongest of the local barons.  His cousin, and sometime betrothed, Isabella, Countess of Angouleme, the widow of King John, had left England to resume the administration of her dominions.  Early in 1220 she married Hugh, justifying herself to her son on the ground that it would be dangerous to his interests if the Count of La Marche should contract an alliance with the French