Louis, the French prince who had come to England in John’s reign as an armed claimant to the throne (S201), finding that both the barons and the Church preferred an English to a foreign king, now retired.  During his minority Henry’s guardians twice reissued the Great Charter (S199):  first, with the omission of the article which reserved the power of taxation to the National Council (S199, No. 3); and, secondly, with an addition declaring that no man should lose life or limb for hunting in the royal forests (S119).

On the last occasion the Council granted the King in return a fifteenth of their movable or personal property.  This tax reached a large class of people, like merchants in towns, who were not landholders.  On this account it had a decided influence in making them desire to have a voice in the National Council, or Parliament, as it began to be called in this reign (1246).  It thus helped, as we shall see later on, to prepare for a very important change in that body.[1]

[1] The first tax on movable or personal property appears to have been levied by Henry II, in 1188, for the support of the Crusades.  Under Henry III the idea began to become general that no class should be taxed without their consent; out of this grew the representation of townspeople in Parliament.

206.  Henry’s Extravagance.

When Henry became of age he entered upon a course of extravagant expenditure.  This, with unwise and unsuccessful wars, finally piled up debts to the amount of nearly a million of marks, or, in modern money, upwards of 13,000,000 pounds.  To satisfy the clamors of his creditors, he mortgaged the Jews (S119), or rather the right of extorting money from them, to his brother Richard.

He also violated the chaters and treaties in order to compel those who benefited from them to purchase their reissue.  On the birth of his first son, Prince Edward, he showed himself so eager for congratulatory gifts, that one of the nobles present at court said, “Heaven gave us this child, but the King sells him to us.”

207.  His Church Building.

Still, not all of the King’s extravagance was money thrown away.  Everywhere on the Continent magnificent churches were rising.  The heavy and somber Norman architecture, with its round arches and square, massive towers, was giving place to the more graceful Gothic style, with its pointed arch and lofty, tapering spire.

The King shared the religious enthusiasm of those who built the grand cathedrals of Salisbury and Lincoln.  He himself rebuilt the greater part of Westminster Abbey (S66) as it now stands.  A monument so glorious ought to make us willing to overlook some faults in the builder.  Yet the expense and taxation incurred in erecting the great minster must be reckoned among the causes that bred discontent and led to civil war (S212).

208.  Religious Reformation; the Friars, 1221; Roger Bacon.