u/TheRedLionPassant

James was the son and heir of his father Robert III, but interfactional politics in Scotland meant that he was sent to France in 1406 for his safety. At sea he was captured by pirates and turned over to Henry IV of England, who held him captive in the Tower of London for eighteen years. It was while a prisoner that he learned his talent for music and poetry, and where he fell in love with Joan Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset and great-granddaughter of Edward III. In time the two were to be married, and James also developed a friendship with the new English king, Henry V, accompanying him on military campaigns to France.

In 1424 the ransom was finally paid off, and in the spring of that year, James and Joan departed London for their kingdom, entering Edinburgh in triumph on Palm Sunday, the day of Christ's own entry to Jerusalem. On 21st May they made their way to Scone Abbey, where Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St Andrews (who had a decade ago been responsible for the founding of the city's University), crowned and anointed them King and Queen of Scots; this was followed by King James travelling outside to the hilltop, where he received homage from the dukes, earls, barons and knights in the ancient manner.

James was now poised to take charge of his kingdom, which until that point had been ruled by regents from his own family. He immediately held parliaments, and the most powerful magnate, his first cousin Murdoch, Duke of Albany, was actually found guilty of treason and executed the next year. The authority of the King was now actively enforced, signalling a change in Scottish politics.

Henry was one of England's most famous warrior kings, like the other two. In less than a decade on the throne he became famous for his wars in France. But it seems that Henry's reputation didn't suffer as much in more modern times compared to Edward or Richard, when it became popular for historians to dismiss them as simply irresponsible adventurers and warmongers with no interest in government or politics. By the 19th century it was a common academic opinion among historians to view both Edward and Richard as bad kings. My question is: why not Henry to the same degree? Is it just because he won the war in the end? Or Shakespeare? Shakespeare did represent Edward and Richard positively, though the plays that mention them are less well known than Henry V (Edward III was only partly authored by him as well).

O most great King Edward, you are our foremost in war, you are our leader and our prize champion in the race: like Moses, great in faith, while you stretch out your hands to the stars, and to the people of Israel, Amalek is defeated, and Joshua overthrows Jericho, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed is acquired by Edward in one hour of the day. And that not only: for, like the army of Pharaoh and his whole host submerged in the sea, the perfidious multitude of the faithless is driven from England and the dominion of the King in one day.

In days of old Alexander, the King of Macedon, overthrew the kings of Persia and Media and subdued the eastern provinces: now in our time the great King Edward undertook a ten-year war against the illustrious King of France, Philip; we recovered Gascony, which had been taken by deceit, by force and arms we acquired Wales from the enemy's hand, we invaded Scotland, having overthrown its tyrant with the edge of the sword.

Indeed, he rescued the kingdom of England from the mouth of the lion, when he freed Daniel, our King Henry, from the hand of the beast, Simon of Montfort, in the battle at Evesham. And so we exalted the great Edward to the royal throne both by virtue of war and by hereditary succession.

Once Brutus, a man mighty in strength, in destroying the monstrous giants, boasted that he had acquired an empty and abundant isle; but Edward was more than Brutus, as will be clear.

King Arthur made the Orcadian, Norwegian, Aquitainian, Scottish and Irish islands, half-filled with peoples, under tribute, and yet he could not completely destroy the Saxon tribe which had treacherously entered Britain, and wounded by Mordred, he, preserver of the peace of the Britons, escaped. Our King Edward succumbed to none.

Did not Edgar, the happy King of the English, once sitting in a ship, while he had been rowed by the kings of Scots, Cumbrians, and five other petty-kings across the Dee, proclaim that his successors would boast that the kings of England, since they enjoyed such a prerogative of honour, would have the power of so many kings subject to them? And behold, more than Edgar our Edward, for he trampled on the aforesaid governments of the islands by his own virtue, reducing several of them into the dominion of his predecessors, he distinguished his successors by the title of monarchy as kings of England much more magnificent than all the aforesaid.

But the famous King Richard of England, once a warrior of valour, who like a roaring lion conquered many overseas lands, is worthy of the of many praises. However, he suffered the mark of disgrace in the presumption of audacity, he was captured and suffered at the hands of the Austrians, living out not the full length of his days, like to the great Alexander. For he, reigning twelve years, drank poison and died; this one, mortally wounded with a bolt, died in the tenth year of his reign. Not so our king Edward.

Not so, but greater than the greatest kings was King Edward; who, when in the Holy Land pursuing the cause of the cross, was stabbed five times by a certain assassin, yet did not die; shot by many arrows, as at Stirling, he returned unharmed and without injury.

Here King Edward increased above all kings in military glory: by an edict issued in France, in Flanders, in Aquitaine, in England, in Scotland, in Ireland and in Wales, that as many as wished to serve with arms should come to the King and most abundantly present all the military ornaments from their wardrobe. And who has heard of such things? Therefore, the English world remembers how many great things it has achieved under his leadership, and the more abundantly sighs and laments that it has lost so much in his absence.

O my best fellow soldiers, look what has happened to us, pay attention and see our disgrace. Will our swords be beaten into plowshares, and our weapons into sickles? Will our spears be reduced to pruning hooks? for the flower of chivalry has withered, under which it was glory to march and advance, and finally to fight and triumph.

>Here was Edgar, of the English lord, with courtly pomp hallowed to king at Akemanchester, the ancient city whose modern sons, dwelling therein, have named Bath. Much bliss was there by all enjoyed on that happy day, named Pentecost by men below. A crowd of priests, a throng of monks, I understand, in counsel sage, were gathered there. Then were agone ten hundred winters of numbered years from the birth of Christ, the lofty king, guardian of light, save that thereto there yet was left of winter-tale, as writings say, seven and twenty. So near had run of the lord of triumphs a thousand years, when this was done. Nine and twenty hard winters there of irksome deeds had Edmund's son seen in the world, when this took place, and on the thirtieth was he hallowed king. Soon after this the King led all his marine force to Chester; and there came to meet him six kings; and they all covenanted with him, that they would be his allies by sea and by land.

This coronation, held in the abbey on Whitsun Day 973, saw Edgar anointed with holy oil in the manner of David and Solomon, with the blessings of God to go forth and rule the people both justly and mercifully. The Te Deum was sung, and Edgar and Alfrida were crowned before taking communion, in the presence of bishops, abbots, earls and knights, as King and Queen of the English.

The significance of Bath, an old Roman city in the lands of the West Saxons, is obvious. Likewise was the symbolism behind Edgar's subsequent journey to the council at Chester, where six kings of the isles of Britannia pledged their troth to him; legend states that they rowed his barge up the River Dee from his palace to the church. The identity of these kings is known from several sources, and there may have been more of them than the chronicler's stated six (some sources identify there were eight, with some of them probably tributary leaders to others). They are Kenneth, King of the Scots; Malcolm, King of the Cumbrians of Strathclyde; Maccus, King of the Isles; and three Welsh kings.

Their presence can be accounted for. The three Welsh kings - Judicael, Hywel and Jacob - were possibly there to pledge an oath of peace, in Chester, a border region of the English and Welsh. The Scottish king, meanwhile, Kenneth the Fratricidal, had come to power following a period of conflict in which his rival, King Olaf, brother of Colin, who had seized power upon the latter's death, was slain by Kenneth. Kenneth's reign was dominated by fights in Lothian, including many punitive raids into Strathclyde as well as in England. It is probably these reasons which saw Kenneth escorted to the council by the Bishop of Lindisfarne (Elfdig), the Earl of Bamburgh (Edwulf the Evil-Child), and Earl of York (Oslac), and also saw the arrival of the King of Strathclyde, Malcolm, along with his father Dyfnwal. At the meeting the four kings agreed to discuss peace along the borders. Two more kings were present: Maccus, son of Harold, who was King of the Isles, and so a Norseman ruler of the Gaels, and a king named Sigferth, who was possibly also a Norse ruler. Together these kings and Edgar were the overlords of the British Isles.

Edgar's coronation set a pattern which all subsequent kings were to follow. Others were crowned and anointed in various locations: Bath, Kingston-upon-Thames, Canterbury, Winchester, and throughout London, before the coronation church became fixed as Westminster, the church of King Edward.

From The Constitutional History of England.

Richard the First:

The laborious and quarrelsome career of Richard came to an end in April, 1199. His subjects, fortunately for themselves, saw very little of him during the ten years of his reign. They heard much of his exploits, and reconciled themselves in the best way they could to his continual exactions. Under his ministers they had good peace, although they paid for it heavily: but the very means that were taken to tax them trained them and set them thinking. The ministers themselves recognised the rising tendency to self-government in such measures as those we have described.

To Richard the tendency would be probably unintelligible. He was a bad king: his great exploits, his military skill, his splendour and extravagance, his poetical tastes, his adventurous spirit, do not serve to cloak his entire want of sympathy, or even consideration, for his people. He was no Englishman, but it does not follow that he gave to Normandy, Anjou, or Aquitaine the love or care that he denied to his kingdom. His ambition was that of a mere warrior: he would fight for anything whatever, but he would sell everything that was worth fighting for. The glory that he sought was that of victory rather than conquest.

Some part of his reputation rests on the possession of qualities which the English had no opportunity of testing: they were proud of a king whose exploits awakened the wonder of Christendom, they murmured against ministers whose mediation broke the force of an oppression which would otherwise have crushed them. Otherwise the latter years of the reign were years of progress in wealth and in the comfort which arises from security: a little respite before the tyranny that was coming.

The reign of Richard is marked by no outbreak of feudal insubordination: had there been any such, the strength of the administration would have been sufficient to crush it. But the great nobles were, like the king himself, partly engaged abroad; those of them who were left at home had learned the lesson of submission; they saw themselves surrounded by a new body of equals, sprung from and working with the ministerial families, and they were assimilating themselves to this new nobility in forming hopes and ambitions more truly national. The feeling towards union that was working in society generally was affecting the barons not less than the people whom they were to lead on to liberty.

Edward the Third:

Edward III was not a statesman, although he possessed some qualifications which might have made him a successful one. He was a warrior; ambitious, unscrupulous, selfish, extravagant, and ostentatious. His obligations as a king sat very lightly on him. He felt himself bound by no special duty either to maintain the theory of royal supremacy or to follow a policy which would benefit his people. Like Richard I he valued England primarily as a source of supplies, and he saw no risk in parting with prerogatives which his grandfather would never have resigned.

Had he been without foreign ambitions he might have risen to the dignity of a tyrant or sunk to the level of a voluptuary. But he had great ambition and an energy for which that ambition found ample employment. If on the one side the diversion of his energy to foreign wars was to the benefit of his people, on the other it was productive of an enormous amount of suffering. The general history of the reign is thus full of strong contrasts.

The glory and the growth of the nation were dearly bought by blood, treasure, and agony of many sorts. The long war which began under Edward placed England in the forefront of Christendom; it gave her a new consciousness of unity and importance, and exercised, even whilst it exhausted, her powers. It enabled her leading men to secure, one by one, steps in advance which were never retraced, and to win concessions from Edward which he was unable or did not care to estimate at their true value. Hence whilst England owes no gratitude to the king for patriotism, sagacity, or industry, she owes very much to the reign.

Much however of the glory of the reign, on which later historians loved to dwell, was due to retrospect, and to a retrospect taken through the medium of Froissart's narrative. Edward was the last of the great kings who governed England with a safe and undisputed title, the patriarch of the great houses which divided and desolated the land for a century; and it had not yet become clear that the present evils, which caused men to look back upon his age as an age of gold, were all results of his foolish policy and selfish designs.

The writers of his own country and date, whilst they recognise his greatness as a warrior, describe the state of his kingdom in language which conveys a very different impression from that which is derived from the reading of Froissart. A king whose people fly from his approach, a king overwhelmed with debt, worn out with luxury, the puppet of opposing factions, such as Edward in his latter years became, is a very different thing from the gentle, gay, and splendid ideal king of chivalry.

Lucius, the Bishop [of Rome], servant of the servants of God, to Henry, the illustrious King of the English, health and the apostolic benediction.

Inasmuch as all your predecessors have been especially distinguished above all the other princes of the earth for glory in arms and nobleness of spirit, and the people of the faithful have been taught to look upon them in their adversity as their defenders; deservedly is application made to you, the heir not only of your father's kingdom but of his virtues, a certain degree of security being assured therefrom, at a time when peril or even extermination is dreaded as impending over the Christian people; that by the arm of your royal mightiness, protection may be granted to the members of him [Christ] who has in his mercy allowed you to reach such a height of glory and pre-eminence, and has rendered you an invincible wall of defence against those who wished to impugn his name.

In the first place, be it known to your serene highness how that the land of Jerusalem has been here buffeted by frequent and vexatious disputes on these matters, the special inheritance of him who was crucified, and the place in which the mysteries were foretold of our salvation, and brought to a completion by the carrying out of that event, and of which he who comprehended all things in his death, by a peculiar privilege made it the scene; and how being now trampled under foot, and hemmed in by the pressure of a perfidious and most abominable race, it stands nodding to its downfall; and how, which God forbid, the Christian religion must thereby sustain irreparable loss.

For Saladin, the most inhuman persecutor of that holy and fearful name, has now risen to such a pitch in the spirit of his fury, and is to such a degree putting forth all the might of his wickedness for the destruction of the people of the faithful, that, unless the vehement onset of his wickedness is checked as though by barriers placed in his path, he may entertain an assured hope and belief that Jordan will flow before his face, and that the land that was consecrated by the shedding of the vivifying blood, will be polluted by the contact of his most abominable superstitions, and the country which your glorious and noble predecessors, amid many labours and perils, rescued from the dominion of the unbelieving heathens, will once more be subjected to the accursed dominion of this most nefarious tyrant.

In consequence, therefore, of the urgency of the necessity, and of the sorrows thus imminent, we have deemed it advisable, by these apostolic letters, to entreat your mightiness, or rather with a palpitating heart to call upon you with the loudest voice, showing regard for the honor of him who has set you upon high, and, in comparison with the name of the mighty ones who are on earth, has bestowed upon you a glorious name, in the earnestness of your pious zeal, to give your attention to the desolate state of the before-named land, and, to the end that, in those parts, the confusion of him may be put an end to, who, in your behalf, submitted to be held in derision in that self-same land, to afford efficacious aid.

Wherefore, following in the footsteps of your predecessors, by the aid of the Lord, let that land be preserved in the worship of the great God by means of your diligence, which they rescued from the jaws of the prince of darkness. In such straits of oppression it befits your highness to labour with the more earnest zeal, inasmuch as you are aware that the land is deprived of the protection of a king, and the powerful men have thought proper to centre all their hopes of defending it in the protection of your mightiness.

And this your serene highness may be the better enabled to understand from the fact that they have despatched to your excellency the chief men of that land and the mighty defenders thereof, namely, our venerable brother Heraclius, the Patriarch, and our dearly beloved son, the Master of the Hospital, that from their dignified presence you may be enabled to take under consideration the present state of affairs, and to see how great and extreme is the necessity, on account of which they have so long endured to be without protection; to the end that in person they might the more easily incline your devotedness to comply with their desires.

Receive, therefore, the persons before-named with all kindness, as though sent to you by the Lord himself, treat them in all things with that brotherly love which is their due, and show yourself ready to acquiesce in their requests, according as, having regard to their weight and their probity, you shall think them deserving of your grace and favour.

And further, let your prudence call to mind, and with anxious meditation thereon ponder over those promises by which you have so often bound your highness as to undertaking the protection of the land so often named; and show yourself in this respect so wary and so zealous, that, at the terrible Day of Judgment your conscience may not accuse you, and the question put to you by that searching Judge who is not to be deceived, may not lead to your condemnation.

Of King Richard's Patience in his Persecutions:

Whilst we are speaking of the virtues of the noble king, we ought not to omit to mention, that as soon as he was crowned, he always afforded strict justice to everyone, and never allowed it to be subverted by bribery. All the vacant bishoprics and abbacies he at once bestowed without purchase on cauonically elected priests, nor did he ever consign them to the charge of laymen; he held all ordained prelates and especially religious men in such respect, and in his reverence of Jesus Christ was so afraid of offending them, that once on a time when all the prelates of the kingdom were assembled before the king by order of the Pope, to make a grant of the twentieth part of all moveable property for the assistance of the Holy Land, and were sitting apart discussing the matter, the King said in a low voice to Geoffrey FitzPeter and William Brewer, who sat at his feet, "Do you see those prelates who are sitting there?" They answered, "We do, my lord." The King then said to them, "If they knew how much I, in my reverence of God, am afraid of them, and how unwilling I should be to offend them, they would trample on me as on an old and worn-out shoe."

It is also to be remarked how he gave up the pleasures of his newly-gained kingdom in his love for the Eternal King, and how liberally he expended his own money and that of his late father in the service of Christ and for the liberation of the Holy Land, and how bravely he wrested the whole land of promise, besides the holy city of Jerusalem, from the hands of the enemies of the cross. And when his money failed him there he made a truce for three years and obtained permission from Saladin for a priest to perform the mass of the cross at the sepulchre of our Lord on each day till the termination of the truce at his own expense; and then departing to his own country, he recruited his forces and collected money, and at the end of the truce returned, leaving the kingdom and all the possessions of which he was lord in the western countries, that he might be crowned king in the holy city of Jerusalem, take command of the troops, fight the battles of the Lord of Sabaoth, and endeavour to subdue the enemies of the cross as long as he lived.

But the enemy of the human race, who is always envious of good works and of the prosperity of Christians, stirred up against this devoted king the Duke of Austria and the Roman Emperor, who laid snares for him on his return from the Holy Land, when he was taken by his enemies, and, like a bull or an ass, sold to the Roman Emperor. He was then imprisoned and vilely treated far otherwise than was fit for such a great man, and was obliged to pay a heavy sum for his ransom.

The French King moreover obstructed his plans by invading his dominions when he was employed in the service of the cross; and being thus hindered by enemies in all quarters, he kept in mind the martyrdom which he had not yet undergone in body, as he had determined to do, in the land of promise, for he longed to return and to die in the service of the cross. In addition to all these trials of the said king, whilst he was absent on the crusade, Earl John his brother conspired to subdue England, besieged castles, and made war on his brother, but by the commendable fidelity of the English, his plans were frustrated.

O wonderful firmness of this noble king, which could never be bowed down by adversity, and was never elated in prosperity, but he always appeared cheerful, and in him there never appeared any sign of diffidence! These and other like virtues had rendered our King Richard glorious in the sight of the most high God; wherefore now, when the time of God's mercy had arrived, he was deservedly removed, as we believe, from the places of punishment to the everlasting kingdom, where Christ his King, whom he had faithfully served, had laid by for his soldier the crown of justice, which God had promised to those who love him.

(Translated from the Middle English)

Of the Description of King Edward:

This King Edward was forsooth of a passing goodness, and full gracious among all the worthymen of the world; for he shone by virtue and grace given him from God, above all his predecessors that were noble men and worthy. And he was a well hard-hearted man, for he dread never of none mishaps, nor harm nor evil fortune that might befall a noble warrior, and a fortunable, both on land and on the sea. And in all battle and assembles, with a passing glory and worship he had ever the victory.

And he was meek and benign, homely, sober and soft to all manner of men, as well to strangers as to his own subjects, and to all that were under his governance. He was devout and holy, both to God and Holy Church; for he was worshipful and maintained Holy Church and her ministers with all manner of reverences.

He was entreatable and well advised in temperal and worldly needs, wise in counsel, and discreet, soft, meek, and good to speak with. In his deeds and in manners, full gentle and well taught, having pity on them that were in distress; plenteous in giving alms; and full lightly he bare and suffered wrongs and harms. And when he was given to any occupation, he left all other things in the meantime, and attended therto; seemly of body, and of mean stature; having always a good cheer.

And he governed gloriously his kingdom into his age. And he was large in giving, and wise in exspenses. He was fulfilled with all host of good manners, and virtuous; under whom to live, it was as though to reign; wherefore his name spread so far that it came into heatheness and barbary, shewing and telling his worthiness and manhood in all lands; and that in no land under heaven had brought forth so noble a king, so gentle and so blessed, or might raise such another when he were dead.

Nevertheless, lechery and sins of his flesh haunted him in his age; wherefore be rather, as it was to suppose, for unmeasurable fulfilling of his lust, his life shorted be sooner. And hereof taketh good heed, like as his deeds before beareth witness; for, as in his beginning all things were joyful to him and to all the people, and in his mid age he passed all men in high love and worship and blessedness; when he drew into old age, drawing downward through lechery and other sins, all good fortune and prosperity decreased and mishaped, and unfortunate things, and unprofitable harms, with many evils, began for to spring, and the more harm was continued a long time after.

In July 1220, the remains of the martyred saint Thomas Becket were moved to a new shrine at Canterbury Cathedral, under the watch of the Archbishop and a 12 year old King Henry, grandson of the namesake ruler largely responsible for the murder back in 1170. Present also at the cathedral, and lodged throughout the city, were prominent bishops, earls, barons and knights from all across England, as well as Scotland and France, and emissaries from Rome. Present also was a Queen Dowager, Berengaria, widow of Henry's uncle King Richard (there was no acting Queen of England at the time; Henry himself was as yet unmarried, his grandmother Eleanor was dead, and his mother Isabella was living in France with a new husband).

While it's unknown exactly what they may have discussed at the time (Henry's father John died when he was only a child, and his famous uncle was also dead before he was born); they may have talked about Richard and his exploits in the holy war - stories which the young king was raised on, and which Berengaria herself was involved in, having been to Acre with Richard and his sister Joan. But they would probably have taken a back seat to the more pressing issue of the unsettled dowry of the former queen.

Upon Richard's death, Berengaria inherited no English lands or titles, and was still owed money by King John. John had promised to give safe passage into London, but the turmoil of the latter part of his reign - including wars with the barons as well as the threat of French invasion - meant that he was unable to keep paying her. Following John's death, Berengaria had continued corresponding with his son. Now that they finally met in person they were able to settle the question, with Henry pledging to pay the full installment of the payment.

We know this thanks to a document sealed by Henry at London later that very same month in which he outlines his promises with money deposited in the Templar headquarters:

>The King to all to whom the present writing comes, greeting.

>We make known to your universality that since our father John, King of England of good memory, made a certain settlement with the Lady Berengaria, formerly illustrious Queen of England, widow of King Richard, our paternal uncle of bright memory, over her dower in England which she had sought from him; so that, according to the tenure of that settlement which we had and hold confirmed, made by our said father for himself and his heirs, sworn on his soul, said Lady Berengaria must receive annually from him and his heirs in the house of the New Temple at London, 1000 pounds of good and legal sterling as is contained fully with certain other articles in the charter of our father.

>And the Queen asked for that settlement to be observed and 4000 and 500 pounds sterling be paid to her for arrears, because there had been a cessation for so long of the payment of said thousand pounds; on such arrangements we concur for ourselves and our heirs, namely the following:

>That of the aforesaid sum of arrears, we give her 1000 marks now and that Queen, from the mentioned sum, remitted to us 500 pounds; and of the rest of the arrears, we shall give her each year 500 marks until the whole sum of those arrears is fully paid.

>Notwithstanding, we shall give her each year 1000 pounds of good and legal sterling, owed to her from the mentioned settlement; and so each year, she will receive 2000 marks for the settlement and the arrears.

>For all of which we have assigned our tin-mines of Cornwall and Devon, with all the revenues that come from them and the revenues of our money exchange. And we have placed it in the physical possession of those from whose income she will receive her payments, as mentioned above.

>If it should happen, however, that anything is produced beyond the 2000 marks from the aforesaid revenues, it will remain with us. If they do not suffice for the mentioned payment, we shall supplement it from our London revenues.

>And if that also did not suffice, we would give her the remainder from our London exchequer. She will receive the aforesaid revenues and will hold them without opposition or impediment from us or our people, as said above.

>But we shall assign, in the name of the Queen, to collect said revenues and pay them to the Queen, faithful and discreet men, who will swear that they will answer faithfully for all the revenues to the Lady Queen or her attorneys or proxies, in the house of the New Temple, up to the appointed sum of 2000 marks, namely 1000 marks on the Feast of All Saints, and 1000 on the Ascension of the Lord.

>When the payment of arrears is complete, however, the Lady Queen will receive each year from the aforesaid revenues and said place, as was said above, 1000 pounds of good and legal sterling, owed to her according to the aforesaid settlement. The Queen shall be able to dispose of said arrears at her will whenever it pleases her, in life or in death; and we will be bound to her or them to whom she has granted them, in the same manner as to her.

>If it should happen, however, in some way, that the Lady Queen does not receive the aforesaid payment, as said above, which according to our oath cannot happen, let the whole business be in that state in which it was when the present charter was drawn up: and let the 500 pounds which she remitted to us be not remitted and the mentioned settlement made by our father with that same Queen and all the other apostolic documents remain in force. And we will be bound to give that Queen all reasonable and moderate and honest expenses which she will have had in pursuit of this business because of our default.

>We however, by counsel of Lord Pandulf, Chamberlain of the Lord Pope, of the Bishop-Elect of Norwich, the Legate of the Apostolic See and our archbishops, bishops, and barons, asserting that this is expedient for our land, we have promised said Lady Queen and had our seneschal John Russel swear on our soul that we shall observe all the aforesaid and the following completely and in good faith; and we shall guarantee and defend her against any man or woman at any time in our life and preserve her in peaceful possession of the aforesaid, within our power in good faith.

>And to the greater assurance of this thing, at our mandate the archbishops, bishops, barons and other clergy and laymen have sworn that within their power in every way they will do, procure and give effective effort so that all things are fully observed as written and in no way opposed. And for so doing and preserving, each of them gave his letters patent to the Queen.

>And, if some of the aforesaid sworn should die, we will make their successors in their place swear the same and confirm by their letters patent and others whom the Lady Queen finds necessary to her cause.

>Wishing therefore to take care for the Lady Queen over the aforesaid, we entreat the Lord Pope faithfully that he confirm all these and affix all assurances which he will find expedient, and we will confirm them.

>Enacted at London in the year of the Lord's Incarnation, 1220, in the month of July, in the fourth year of our reign.

The Danes were led by King Christian I, who had previously also ruled Sweden from 1457-1464. His attempt to reclaim his former kingdom failed. During this time his rival king Charles VIII had three seperate reigns. Sten meanwhile had two regencies.