Book Review: "Henry III: A Simple and God-Fearing King" by Stephen Church

I am reading one book for every king and queen of England from Edward the Confessor all the way through to Queen Elizabeth II. First of all, I read a book about Edward the Confessor, then one about William the Conqueror and then one for William Rufus (William II). Next, I read a book about Henry I, then King Stephen and after that, Empress Matilda. Then, I read a book about Henry II and next were his children, King Richard I and then King John. Now, I have moved on to King John's heir apparent: Henry III. By Stephen Church and other sources, he has been given attributes such as 'simple' and 'god-fearing'. But mostly, I think he tried to make the most of a bad situation. Let's review Henry III: A Simple and God-Fearing King by Stephen Church.

The book starts off by assessing Henry III as being the first King of England since before the Norman Conquest to be born on English soil. This looks at what kind of advantages and disadvantages this may have had and for me, I think one of the biggest disadvantages to Henry III's reign was probably the fact that King John was his father and left, as Stephen Church rightly puts, a horrible mess for his son to clean up. Henry III married Eleanor of Provence who would serve as his regent whilst he was away and thus, Henry III tried to establish a state that obeyed him even when he wasn't there. With the fact that he tried to base himself on Edward the Confessor - we feel like this is going to be a 'simple' reign - he was a 'simple' man. Well, not quite.

Henry III proves unable to win the confidence of his people as his wife, Eleanor, took thousands and thousands of things from the treasury and sent them back home to France, absolutely wrapping the king around her finger. By the middle of the 1200s, they had both become extremely unpopular and even though he constructed the Great Hall in Winchester Cathedral, he couldn't live down his losses. His mother couldn't gain power in France and Henry himself was weakened as a king over the time of his reign, turning to his governing body in order to lift his kingship back from the depths.

Henry III's reign saw English barons revolt to extremes. Each time, they countered the king with even more force, proving that Henry was hugely unpopular and that his wife was also unpopular with the English public. Not knowing what exactly he should do in the 1230s, Simon de Montfort took over the country, imprisoning the king, his children and his wife. Simon de Montfort tried to establish what we would see today as a government with people from every county and town meeting in order to discuss topics of concern. However, there were still people who wanted the king back and so, Edward - Henry III's eldest son - needed to escape.

Eventually, the royalists revolted and mutilated the body of Simon de Montfort, possibly beyond recognition.

So there is what I have learnt from this book, this and a lot more. I'm not going to lie - I already knew about the revolution by Simon de Monfort. I loved the writing style, it wasn't overly simplistic and it starts off with Henry III's father's reign of King John. It was all put together nicely and I thought especially that it covered the reason why Henry III was considered 'simple'. It isn't really because he is a simplistic man, but rather ignorant of the country he was in charge of.