England Under Henry III

Coming to the throne in 1216 at the age of nine, Henry III was king of England for 56 years. At his death in 1272, he was memorialised in the chronicle of Furness Abbey thus: "Qui fuit optimus Dei cultor, ecclesiæ sanctæ et divinorum officiorum devotus zelator, clementissimus populi rector, pacis æquitatisque executor et amator." Historians who cited this or any other excerpt from the primary sources typically did so without an accompanying translation. It not only validated their credentials, but imbued their work with gravity and prestige. In the 1920s a movement took shape to collect this material as "source-books" for students and the public. One of these is the current volume, which provides an overview of Henry's reign. While the focus is the king's minority and the constitutional issues that make his reign a landmark in English history, it also offers snippets of the social, economic and judicial fabric of this remarkable age.