Part of a series of short books about English monarchs; previously reviewed are Aethelred the Unready and James I. I didn’t know much about Henry III, but it turns out he was responsible for some fairly important events in English history – although usually because they happened on his watch, not because he instituted them.

Everybody knows that King John was granted the Magna Carta; as it turns out what everybody knows isn’t quite true. John signed off on the Magna Carta, alright, but abrogated it within ten weeks and was back at war with his barons. When John died, his young son Henry (age 9) became king. Author Stephen Church notes this was the first time a minor had been crowned King of England since Aethelred. The barons who had gone to war with John weren’t having any more of this abrogating their rights stuff; the regents who took over immediately saw to it that the Magna Carta was reissued. When Henry finally came to his majority, he had nothing but trouble with the barons; it had been established that the King didn’t have arbitrary power; in particular that he couldn’t raise taxes on his own without the consent of the taxed. This led to the establishment of Parliament as a permanent body (Church notes there had been “parliaments” before, but starting with Henry III they are referred to with a Capital P, as “Parliament”).

Henry III didn’t like the idea of restrictions on royal power, but wasn’t competent to do anything about it; the baronial party found a leader in Simon de Montfort. Montfort turned out to be an effective military commander – unlike Henry – and rather quickly became the de facto ruler of England, keeping Henry III under close watch. Unfortunately for him he turned out to be rather poor at politics and eventually alienated his supporters; he was killed at the battle of Evesham after making the fatal mistake of assuming Henry III’s son Edward was as incompetent at military affairs as Henry. (Edward set up a “death squad” specifically to hunt down and kill de Monfort, and they were successful).

Henry III’s other noteworthy accomplishment was rebuilding Westminster Abbey from the previous Romanesque building to the Gothic church that’s there today.

A quick and easy yet instructive read. Contemporary illustrations, endnotes, and suggestions for further reading. ( )