in default to make war on the King till the matter was settled
to their satisfaction. Finally there was the oath to be taken on the part
of the King, and on the part of the barons that the articles of the Charter
should be observed in good faith according to their plain meaning.

The Great Charter was signed, and then in a wild burst of rage John shouted
to his foreign supporters, "They have given me five-and-twenty over-kings!"

Within a week of Runnymede the Great Charter was published throughout
England, but neither King nor barons looked for peace. John was ready to
break all oaths, and while he set about increasing his army of mercenaries,
he also appealed to the Pope, as his overlord, protesting that the Charter
had been wrested from him by force.

Langton and the bishops left for Rome to attend a general council. Pope
Innocent declared the Charter annulled on the ground that both King and
barons had made the Pope overlord of England, and that consequently nothing
in the government could be changed without his consent. But with Langton,
the bishops, and the Papal legate all away at Rome, there was no one to
publish the Papal repudiation of the Charter, and the King and barons were
already at civil war. Pope Innocent III. was dead in the spring of 1216,
and John's wretched reign was over when the King lay dying at Newark in
October.

Stephen Langton was back again at Canterbury in 1217, and for eleven more
years worked with William the Marshall and Hubert of Burgh to maintain
public peace and order during Henry III.'s boyhood. At Oxford, in 1223, the
Charter was confirmed afresh, and two years later it was solemnly
proclaimed again when the King wanted a new subsidy. As long as the great
statesmen were in office Henry III. was saved from the weakness that cursed
his rule in England for nearly forty years. But William the Marshall died
in 1219, Archbishop Stephen in 1228, and Hubert was dismissed from the
justiciarship in 1234. A horde of greedy aliens from Poitou fed at the
Court of Henry and devoured the substance of England, until men arose, as
Langton had arisen, to demand the enforcement of charters and a just
administration of the laws.

Again a national party arises under the leadership of Simon of Montfort,
and in their victory over the King we get the beginnings of Parliamentary
government and popular representation. Every step forward is followed by
reaction, but the ground lost is recovered, and the n