Evesham, and the king of England, having received a slight wound, was withdrawn from the battle by his son, and cured. While that most illustrious and glorious prince Henry the Third, by the grace of God, king of England, reigned, his kingdom was for a long time silent and tranquil, and the Lord the Prince of Peace gave peace to his territories, and filled them with the fat of corn. But after the French, and Poitevins, and Savoyards were introduced into the kingdom, whom their relationship and affinity to the aforesaid monarch, and his own liberality, raised up to dignities, and after they, as became the royal magnificence, were promoted without prejudice to the rights of others, because all power is naturally impatient of a partner, a cause of quarrel arose among those very relations and connections of the king and his native subjects, to see which of their bodies was more powerful and greater than the other. Among them were Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, formerly seneschal of Guienne, and John the son of Geoffrey, formerly justiciary of Ireland, both of whom were recalled from those offices ; and being stimulated by an ambition of greater power, and by a common dislike to the bishop elect of Winchester and to William de Valence, the king's own brothers, they became accomplices, and indeed leaders in faction* In those days, the number of the pretexts for interference on the part of the Apostolic See in the ecclesiastical benefices of England increased greatly, and the yoke of the Roman church pressed heavily, demanding money of the merchants for the service of the kingdom of Apulia, and also imposing severe exactions on general grounds. These were the causes of discord between the foreigners and the native English, both nobles and prelates, few of whom were influenced by any regard for the commonwealth, but many by envy, and many by considerations of private ambition. The bishops too (not to say the Pharisees), convened a council against the anointed of their lord the king, saying, " You see that we profit nothing if we let the king go thus. For the Romans will come and take away our coffers, money, and all ; let us, therefore, appoint twenty-four elders around his throne, who, excluding the Parthiane, Medes, Elamites, and Roman strangers, and delivering our Jerusalem from Egyptian slavery, may arrange all and each of the affaire of the kingdom ; reserving the highest seats at banquets, and the salutations in the market-place, for