t the King was to give an assurance
that he would never obtain from the Pope a revocation of the
arrangements agreed on; the archbishop, the bishops, and the Papal
plenipotentiary, Master Pandulph, were to guarantee this assurance. We
see to what quarter the anxieties of the nobles pointed, how they
wished above all to obtain security against the influences of the
Papal See. Yet this they were not able to obtain. There was no mention
in the document either of the bishops or of Master Pandulph; the King
promised in general, not to obtain such a revocation from any one;
they avoided naming the Pope.[34]

In reality it made no difference, whatever might be promised or done
in this respect. Innocent III was not the man to accept quietly what
had taken place against his declared will, or to yield to accomplished
facts. On the authority of the words 'I have set thee over the nations
and over the kingdoms,' which seemed to him a sufficient basis for his
Paramount Right, he gave sentence rejecting the whole contents of the
Charter; he suspended Stephen Langton, excommunicated the barons and
the citizens of London, as the true authors of this perverse act, and
forbade the King under pain of excommunication to observe the Charter
which he had put forth.

And even without this King John had already armed, to annul by force
of arms all that he had promised. A war broke out which took a turn
especially dangerous to the kingdom, because the barons called the
heir of France to the English throne and did him homage. So little
were the feelings of nationality yet developed, that the barons fought
out the war against their King, supported by the presence and military
Power of a foreign prince. For the interests of the English crown it
was perhaps an advantage that King John died in the midst of the
troubles, and his rights passed to his son Henry, a child to whom his
father's iniquity could not be imputed.[35] In his name a royalist
party was formed by the joint action of Pembroke, the Marshal of the
kingdom and the Papal Legate, which at last won such advantages in the
field, that the French prince was induced to surrender his claim,
which he himself hardly held to be a good one--the English were
designated as traitors by his retinue,--and give back to the barons
the homage they had pledged him. But he did so only on the condition
that not merely their possessions, but also the lawful customs and
liberties of the realm should be secur