Illustration: Effigy of a knight at Gosperton, showing armour worn
from about 1250 to 1300. Date, about 1270.]

24. =The Battle of Evesham. 1265.=--Simon's constitution was
premature. Men wanted a patriotic king who could lead the nation
instead of one who, like Henry, used it for his own ends. The new
rulers were sure to quarrel with one another. If Simon was still Simon
the Righteous, his sons acted tyrannically. The barons began again to
distrust Simon himself, and the young Earl of Gloucester, like his
father before him, put himself at the head of the dissatisfied barons,
and went over to the king. Edward escaped from confinement, by urging
his keepers to ride races with one another, and then galloping off
when their horses were too tired to follow him. Edward and Gloucester
combined forces, and, falling on Earl Simon at Evesham, defeated him
utterly. Simon was slain in the fight and his body barbarously
mutilated; but his memory was treasured, and he was counted as a saint
by the people for whom he had worked. Verses have been preserved in
which he is compared to Archbishop Thomas, who had given himself as a
sacrifice for the Church, as Simon had given himself as a sacrifice
for the nation.

[Illustration: Building operations in the reign of Henry III., with
the king giving directions to the architect.]

25. =The Last Years of Henry III. 1265--1272.=--The storm which had
been raised was some time in calming down. Some of Earl Simon's
followers continued to hold out against the king. When at last they
submitted, they were treated leniently, and in =1267=, at a Parliament
at Marlborough, a statute was enacted embodying most of the demands
for the redress of grievances made by the earlier reformers. The
kingdom settled down in peace, because Henry now allowed Edward to be
the real head of the government. Edward, in short, carried on Earl
Simon's work in ruling justly, with the advantage of being raised
above jealousies by his position as heir to the throne. In =1270=
England was so peaceful that Edward could embark on a crusade. At Acre
he very nearly fell a victim to a fanatic belonging to a body which
counted assassination a religious duty. His wife, Eleanor of Castile,
who was tenderly attached to him, had to be led out of his tent, lest
her bitter grief should distract him during an operation which the
surgeons held to be necessary. In =1272= Henry III. died, and his
son, though in a distant land, was quietly a