Hello everyone and welcome back to the History of England, Episode 73, Return of the Jedi.

So last week we left Henry and Eleanor in control after an uncharacteristically well-organised

fight back.

Orbit, a characteristically dishonest fight back.

But in the hideous language of business we also gave everyone a heads up about a monumental

honest-to-goodness no poo bloomer on its way because in one short year Henry and Eleanor

were to throw away all the advantages they'd won and precipitate one of the most remarkable

crises in English history.

During 1262 the localities and knights of the Shires were given a constant reminder that

the provisions of Oxford and Westminster were dead.

The King's sheriffs were in power, the normal old type of heirs were in progress, i.e.

the ones that ended up leaving you feeling poorer, rather than the ones that allowed you

to raise grievances against badly-behaved sheriffs.

Now it's not always easy to gauge the level of discontent at a local level in times medieval,

but there's a great quote from a royalist lord here.

He visited his estates in Sussex and in a letter noted that it would have been all the

better for the King if he'd had on his side such preachers as his opponents had, which

builds a picture of a continuous undercurrent of complaint and disgruntlement.

Politically, Louis of France tried to deliver arbitration between Henry and Demonford

to try and finally put to bed all those arguments about money, but to no avail.

Henry called in the finest lawyer to stick it to Demonford, and it's pretty doubtful

that Demonford tried any harder to reach an amicable settlement.

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