with collecting the most powerful athletes he could find,
but caused them to seize weapons and to attack the defenceless citizens
who had come to take part in the games. The Londoners hurried home,
bleeding with wounds, and immediately took counsel as to what was best to
be done. Serlo, the mercer, who had held the office of mayor of the city
for the past five years, and was of a peaceable disposition, suggested
referring the matter to the abbot; and it was then that Constantine, who
had a large following, advocated an attack upon the houses of the abbot
and of his steward. No sooner said than done, and many houses had already
suffered before the justiciar appeared upon the scene with a large force.
As to the seizure of Constantine and his subsequent execution, the
chroniclers agree.

Constantine's fellow citizens were very indignant at the indecent haste
with which the justiciar had caused his execution to be carried out, and
did not fail to bring the matter up in judgment against him, when, some
ten years later, Hubert de Burgh himself fell into disgrace.(213) The
result was, that the justiciar took refuge in the Priory of Merton. When
the citizens received the king's orders to follow him there, and to take
him dead or alive, they obeyed with unconcealed joy. They allowed little
time to elapse, but set out at once, 20,000 strong, ready to tear him limb
from limb; but luckily they were stopped in time by another message from
the king, and Hubert obtained a respite.(214)

(M138)

At the time of Constantine's execution, there was real danger to be
anticipated from raising the cry in favour of any foreigner. The land was
already swarming with foreigners, and in that very year (viz. 1222), the
archbishop had been under the necessity of summoning a council of bishops
and nobles to be held in London, owing to dissensions that had arisen
between the Earl of Chester, William of Salisbury, the king's uncle, and
Hubert de Burgh, and to a rumour that had got abroad, that foreigners were
inciting the Earl of Chester to raise an insurrection.(215)

A few years later, the country was over-run by a brood of Italian usurers
who battened on the inhabitants, reducing many to beggary. When attempts
were made to rid the city of these pests, they sheltered themselves under
the protection of the Pope.(216)

Throughout the reign of Henry III, there was one continuous struggle
against foreign dominion, either secular or ecclesiastical. I