King Henry III

An insight into England's longest reigning medieval monarch.

This post was inspired by the small Henry III Long Cross Cut Quarter (Moneyer - Nicol) dating to somewhere between 1247 to 1279, found whilst detecting in Norfolk last weekend. During 1247, Henry III introduced the long cross to replace the deteriorating short cross pennies in circulation. These coins were also introduced to try and stop the problematic clipping of coinage. These long cross pennies continued to be produced in Henry’s name until 1279, seven years after his death.

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Henry of Winchester (later to become King Henry III of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine) was the eldest son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême. He was born at Winchester Castle on 1st October 1207.

He succeeded the throne on the death of his father in 1216, at the tender age of nine years old, admist the chaos of the First Barons War. Due to the turbulent political crisis left by father’s rule, he was hastily crowned King at Gloucester Abbey (rather than Westminster) in a rather ‘make-do’ ceremony, as a large swathe of the South of England (including Westminster Abbey itself) was occupied by the Rebel Barons under the control of Louis VIII of France who had invaded England and seized half of the realm earlier that year. Loyalist leaders had decided to crown Henry immediately, in order to reinforce his claim to the English throne.

It was recognised that at such a young age Henry would not be equipped to rule, nor manage the difficult situation inherited from his Father’s disastorous reign. On his death, King John had, at least, had the foresight to entrust guardianship of his son to William Marshall (1st Earl of Pembroke), a highly respected and experienced knight of the realm and now elder statesman who had loyally served five English Kings. Prior to Henry’s coronation, a small and carefully picked contingent of senior nobles (headed by William Marshall) was scrambled in order to lead Henry’s government, including Ranulf de Blondeville (6th Earl of Chester) and the papal legate in England at the time, Cardinal Guala Bicchieri. To enable William Marshall to lead the miliary efforts, guardianship of Henry was entrusted to the Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches who had previously been the young prince’s tutor.

Henry’s coronation was a hurried affair with borrowed robes and a makeshift crown (a simple gold women’s circlet) possibly borrowed from his mother. It is not clear whether the coronation robes and crown were in french hands at Westminster, or had perished with King John’s baggage train, when, during the chaos of war, it had succumbed to the tidal waters of the unpredictable Norfolk bay known as ‘The Wash’, during a crossing of this perilous tidal inlet.

On the day of the boy King’s speedy coronation, he was first knighted by William Marshall, annointed by the Bishops of Exeter and Worcester, then crowned by Peter des Roches (Bishop of Winchester). He then paid homage to Pope Honorius III as his feudal overlord. This meant that the Pope and his incumbent legate in England (Cardinal Bicchieri) had complete authority to protect Henry and his Kingdom. Henry (as liege) and his realm were effectively under full papal rule.

Three and a half years later, in May 1220 when William Marshall’s s military efforts had expelled the French and restored peace with the rebel barons (not necessarily royal authority, however), Henry was coronated in a second “splendid and peaceful” ceremony (according to the nobles in attendance) at Westminster Abbey, complete with all the pomp and ceremony usually afforded the coronation of a king. In 1221, the papal legate in England was dismissed and it was agreed a replacement would not be sent.

Henry assumed formal control of his government in 1227 and came of age (twenty one) the following year. His advisors remained heavily influential and Henry, fairly ineffectual as a monarch, was more concerned with the symbolic and ecclesiastical rituals of royal power than cementing his royal authority and gaining the respect and homage of the Barons. Henry was a deeply pious man who attended mass daily and regularly went on pilgrimage. He feared excommunication, thunderstorms and according to written sources, his brother in law Simon de Montfort (and justly so, as he was later to lead opposition to Henry in the Second Baron’s War).

Henry took full advantage of having the pope as feudal overlord. It negated his accountability for unpopular policies and poor political decisions, which frustrated the Barons who ultimately struggled to bring Henry to account as a result. Despite the agreement in 1221 that the realm would be without a papal legate, Henry requested further legate support from the Pope when in 1237 the Barons threatened to rebel and in 1264, when Civil War broke out once again.

Henry III was clearly a devoted family man. He married Eleanor of Provence in 1236, when he was 28 years old. Eleanor was believed to be 12 at the time. She gave birth to their first child, Edward (later to become Edward I) when Eleanor was just 15, in 1239. Their marriage was, as medieval royal marriages go, a success. Henry, according to the records, appeared to dote on Eleanor and their five children. She travelled with him, whenever possible and there are no written records that he kept a mistress either before, or during, his marriage to Eleanor.

According to the records, Henry was particularly close to his eldest son, Edward. When Edward was 15, his father went on campaign and Edward reportedly wept when his father left. Henry was later “heartbroken” when in 1258, Edward pledged his support of Simon de Montfort, putting him at odds with his father. By the time Civil War broke out in 1263, their bond had been repaired and Edward had returned to his father’s side, becoming Simon de Montfort’s greatest enemy. After Henry’s capture at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 during the Second Barons War, Edward went on to defeat Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, free his father and restore him as king.

Henry clearly valued family and the paternal relationships in his life. When Henry’s own father died, he was buried in Worcester Cathedral (not necessarily through choice, more so through necessity). Wanting to respect his father’s wishes, in 1228 Henry wrote to the Pope (Gregory IX) to ask for permission to move his father’s remains from Worcester Cathedral to Beaulieu Abbey. For whatever reason, this did not happen and instead, Henry commissioned building work to repair Worcester Cathedral, which had been damaged in a fire in 1202, incorporating his fathers tomb and effigy, reported to be a ‘true likeness’ and now the oldest known existing effigy of a King in England.

During his lifetime Henry commissioned prolific building works to many of England’s notable landmarks and fortifications, including Westminster Abbey, Kenilworth Castle and the Tower of London at which he famously built a menagerie for the animals that had lived at the Tower during the reigns of previous Kings. Henry also added his own exotic additions, including three leopards, an elephant and a polar bear, which Henry ensured was muzzled and chained, but allowed to wade and fish on the banks of the thames.

Henry’s most notable building achievement and that which he must have been most proud of, was the extravagant £45,000 (around £15m today) rebuild of Westminster Abbey. Throughout his lifetime, Henry idolised Edward the Confessor (some may say, obsessively so) making him his patron saint and it is for this reason, that he may have commissioned the lavish gothic rebuild of Westminster Abbey and a new, central shrine to which the bones of St Edward The Confessor were relocated in 1269.

Henry died in 1272, aged 65. His reign had been the longest of any of his predecessors and in fact the longest reign of any English monarch until George III. In life, Henry had emulated his hero Edward The Confessor and in death too. He was buried beside Edward the Confessor’s Shrine within Westminster Abbey, in front of the High Altar in the exact same place the bones of his idol had lain for the previous 200 years. His son, Edward I, later moved Henry’s body to its final resting place within the abbey and where he rests to this day. In 1292, his heart was removed from his tomb and reburied at Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou to be buried alongside his ancestors as Henry had wished.