so much as attempting to settle its affairs.  In the following years weak seneschals, with insufficient powers and quickly succeeding each other, were unable to grapple with ever-increasing troubles.  The feudal lords dominated the countryside, pillaged traders, waged internal war and defied the authority of the duke.  In the autonomous towns factions had arisen as fierce as those of the cities of Italy.  Bordeaux was torn asunder by the feuds of the Rosteins and Colons.  Bayonne was the scene of a struggle between a few privileged families, which sought to monopolise municipal office, and a popular opposition based upon the seafaring class.  The neighbouring princes cast greedy eyes on a land so rich, divided, and helpless.  Theobald IV., the poet, Count of Champagne and King of Navarre, coveted the valley of the Adour.  Gaston, Viscount of Bearn, the cousin of Queen Eleanor, plundered and destroyed the town of Dax.  Ferdinand the Saint of Castile and James I. of Aragon severally claimed all Gascony.  Behind all these loomed the agents of the King of France.  Either Gascony must fall away altogether, or stronger measures must be taken to preserve it.

In this extremity Henry made Simon of Montfort seneschal or governor of Gascony, with exceptionally full powers and an assured duration of office for seven years.  Simon had taken the crusader’s vow, but was persuaded by the king to abandon his intention of following Louis to Egypt.  He at once threw himself into his rude task with an energy that showed him to be a true son of the Albigensian crusader.  In the first three months he traversed the duchy from end to end; rallied the royal partisans; defeated rebels; kept external foes in check, and administered the law without concern for the privileges of the great.  In 1249 he crushed the Rostein faction at Bordeaux.  The same fate was meted out to their partisans in the country districts.  Order was restored, but the seneschal utterly disregarded impartiality or justice.  He sought to rule Gascony by terrorism and by backing up one faction against the other.  It was the same with minor cities, like Bazas and Bayonne, and with the tyrants of the countryside.  The Viscount of Fronsac saw his castle razed and his estates seized.  Gaston of Bearn, tricked by the seneschal out of the succession of Bigorre, was captured, sent to England, and only allowed to return to his home, humiliated and powerless to work further evil.  The lesser barons had to acknowledge Simon their master.  On the death of Raymond of Toulouse in 1249, his son-in-law and successor, Alfonse of Poitiers, had all he could do to secure his inheritance, and was too closely bound by the pacific policy of his brother to give Simon much trouble.  The truce with France was easily renewed by reason of St. Louis’ absence on a crusade.  The differences between Gascony and Theobald of Navarre were mitigated in 1248 at a personal interview between Leicester and the poet-king.