s Death (1265).

But De Montfort's great effort soon met with a fatal reaction. The
barons, jeolous of his power, fell away from him. Prince Edward, the
King's eldest son, gathered them round the royal standard to attack
and crush the man who had humiliated his father. De Montfort was at
Evesham, Worcestershire (see map facing p. 436); from the top of the
Bell Tower of the Abbey he saw the Prince approaching. "Commend you
souls to God," he said to the faithful few who stood by him; "for our
bodies are the foes'!" There he fell. He was buried in Evesham
Abbey, but no trace of his grave exists.

In the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, not far from Henry III's
tomb, may be seen the emblazoned arms of the brave Earl Simon. But
England, so rich in effigies of her great men, so faithful, too, in
her remembrance of them, has not yet set up in the vestibule of the
House of Commons, among the statues of her statesmen, the image of him
who took the first actual step toward founding that House in its
present form.

215. Summary.

Henry III's reign lasted over half a century. During that period
England, as we have seen, was not standing still. It was an age of
reform. In religion the "Begging Friars" were exhorting men to better
lives. In education Roger Bacon and other devoted scholars were
laboring to broaden knowledge and deepen thought.

In political affairs the people now first obtained a place in
Parliament. Their victory was not permanent then, but it was the
precursor of the establishment of a permanent House of Commons which
was to come in the next reign.

Edward I--1272-1307

216. Edward I and the Crusades.

Henry's son, Prince Edward, was in the East, fighting the battles of
the Crusades (S182), at the time of his father's death. According to
an account given in an old Spanish chronicle, an enemy attacked him
with a poisoned dagger. His wife, Eleanor, saved his life by
heroically sucking the poison from the wound (S223).

217. Edward's First "Complete or Model Parliament," 1295.

Many years after his return to England, Edward convened a Parliament,
1295, to which representatives of all classes of freemen were
summoned, and from this time they regularly met (S213). Parliament
henceforth consisted of two Houses.[1] This first included the Lords
and Clergy. The second comprised the Commons (or representation of
the common people). It thus became "a complete image of the nation,"
"assembled f