A.D. 1264. LETTERS SENT TO THE BARONS. proposing to overthrow, to the utmost of our power, all those who are not our enemies but yours too, and the foes of the whole of your kingdom ; and if any other statement is made to you respecting these matters, do not believe it ; for we shall always be found your faithful subjects. And we, Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, and Gilbert de Clare, at the request of the rest, have, for us and for them too who are here present, affixed our seals. Given at," &c. But the king, despising this letter from his barons, was eager for war with all his heart, and sent them back the following letter of defiance :— " Henry, by the grace of God, king of England, &c , to Simon de Montfort and Gilbert de Clare, and their partisans. Since, from the war and general confusion existing in our kingdom, which has all been caused by you, and by the conflagrations and other lawless mischiefs, it is distinctly visible that you do not preserve the fidelity which you owe to us, and that you have in no respect any regard for the safety of our person, since you have wickedly attacked our nobles and others our faithful subjects, who have constantly preserved their fidelity to us, and since you still design to injure them as far as in your power, as you have signified to us by your letters, we consider their grievances as our own, and look upon their enemies as ours ; especially since those our faithful subjects before mentioned are manfully standing by us and maintaining their fidelity in opposition to your disloyal conduct, and we do not care for your safety or your affection, but defy you, as the enemies of us and them. Witness my hand, at Lewes, on the twelfth day of May, in the forty-eighth year of our reign." " Richard, by the grace of God, king of the Romans, always Augustus, and Edward, the illustrious eldeet son of the king of England, and all the other barons and nobles who constantly with the labours of sincere good faith and devotedness have adhered to the aforesaid king of England, to Simon de Montfort, Gilbert de Clare, and each and all the others who are accomplices in their treason. By your letters which you have sent to the illustrious king of England, our dearest lord, we understand that we are defied by you, although a verbal defiance of this kind was long ago sufficiently proved to us by actual reality, through your hostile pursuit of us, your burning of our properties, and general devastation of our possessions ; we, therefore, wish you to know that you are all defied