After their triumph in 1258, the baronial leaders relaxed their efforts.  Contented with their position as arbiters of the national destinies, they made little effort to carry out the reforms contemplated at Oxford.  The ranks of the victors were broken up by private dissensions.  Before leaving for France, Earl Simon violently quarrelled with Richard, Earl of Gloucester.  It was currently believed that Gloucester had grown slack, and Simon rose in popular estimation as a thorough-going reformer who had no mind to substitute the rule of a baronial oligarchy for the tyranny of the king.  His position was strengthened by his personal qualities which made him the hero of the younger generation; and his influence began to modify the policy of Edward the king’s son, who, since the flight of his Poitevin kinsmen, was gradually arriving at broader views of national policy.  Even before his father’s journey to France, Edward took up a line of his own.  In the October parliament of 1259, he listened to a petition presented to the council by the younger nobles[1] who complained that, though the king had performed all his promises, the barons had not fulfilled any of theirs.  Edward thereupon stirred up the oligarchy to issue an instalment of the promised reforms in the document known as the Provisions of Westminster.  During Henry’s absence in France the situation became strained.  The oligarchic party, headed by Gloucester, was breaking away from Montfort; and Edward was forming a liberal royalist party which was not far removed from Montfort’s principles.  Profiting by these discords, the Lusignans prepared to invade England.  The papacy was about to declare against the reformers.  When the monks of Winchester elected an Englishman as their bishop in the hope of getting rid of the queen’s uncle, Alexander IV. summoned Aymer to his court and consecrated him bishop with his own hands.

    [1] “Communitas bacheleriae Angliae,” Burton Ann., p. 471.
    See on this, Engl.  Hist.  Review, xvii. (1902), 89-94.

Early in 1260, Montfort went back to England and made common cause with Edward.  Despite the king’s order that no parliament should be held during his absence abroad, Montfort insisted that the Easter parliament should meet as usual at London.  The discussions were hot.  Montfort demanded the expulsion of Peter of Savoy from the council, and Edward and Gloucester almost came to blows.  The Londoners closed their gates on both parties, but the mediation of the King of the Romans prevented a collision.  Henry hurried home, convinced that Edward was conspiring against him.  The king threw himself into the city of London, and with Gloucester’s help collected an army.  Meanwhile Montfort and Edward, with their armed followers, were lodged at Clerkenwell, ready for war.  Again the situation became extremely critical, and again King Richard proved the best peacemaker.  Henry held out against his son for a fortnight, but such estrangement was hard for him to endure.  “Do not let my son appear before me,” he cried, “for if I see him, I shall not be able to refrain from kissing him.”  A reconciliation was speedily effected, and nothing remained of the short-lived alliance of Edward with Montfort save that his feud with Gloucester continued until the earl’s death.