and the wretched King, before the altar of St. Paul, ceded his kingdom
as a fief of the Holy See. The Archbishop of Canterbury protested both
privately and publicly against it.

Henry III. succeeded, at the age of ten years, to a crown which his
father had degraded. The Pope addressed him as "Vassallus Noster," and
sent his legates, one after another, to maintain his authority. It was
in St. Paul's Cathedral that this authority was most conspicuously
asserted. Before the high altar these legates took their seat, issued
canons of doctrine and discipline, and assessed the tribute which
clergy and laity were to pay to the liege lord enthroned at the
Vatican. But the indignation of the nation had been waxing hotter and
hotter ever since King John's shameful surrender. Nevertheless, in the
first days of the boy King's reign, the Papal pretensions did good
service. The barons, in wrath at John's falseness, had invited the
intervention of France, and the Dauphin was now in power. In St.
Paul's Cathedral, half England swore allegiance to him. The Papal
legate, Gualo, by his indignant remonstrance, awoke in them the sense
of shame, and the evil was averted. Then another council was held in
the same cathedral, and the King ratified the Great Charter.

Henry III. grew to manhood, and gave himself up to the management of
foreign favourites, and in 1237, instigated by these, who were led by
Peter de la Roche, Bishop of Winchester, he invited Pope Gregory
IX. to send a Legate (Cardinal Otho "the White") to arrange certain
matters concerning English benefices, as well as some fresh tribute.
They called it "promoting reforms." Their object was to support him in
filling all the rich preferments with the Poitevins and Gascons whom
he was bringing over in swarms. The Cardinal took his lofty seat
before the altar of S. Paul's, and the King bowed before him "until