276 The Period of Constitution Making
in the administration of Prince Edward. The rising of
1258 was, in essential features, like that of 1215, a barons'
affair. Its immediate result was the attempted form of
government outlined in the Provisions of Oxford.z Here
was a repetition of the device, originated in article sixty-
one of the Charter, to put the government into the
hands of an aristocratic group, but with much elabora-
tion of detail. It is no matter of regret that the experi-
ment failed, for an aristocracy, once established, would
have been more difficult to deal with than the king.
But the Provisions of Oxford served to continue and
emphasise the idea that, under sufficient provocation,
the king might be deprived of his power.
In the spring of 1265, shortly before the tide turned
against the triumphant Simon, Henry III. confirmed the
peace made the preceding year and at the same time the
Charters. Perhaps the most striking clause in the
famous sixty-first article of the Great Charter was that
in which John was made to admonish his people to rise
against him, in case he broke the law, and by the use of
force bring him again to the lawful way. This was
repeated with great distinctness in this confirmation by
Henry III. After premising unlawful acts of the king or
Prince Edward, the language concludes:
. . . it shall be lawful for every one in our realm to rise
against us and to use all the ways and means they can to
hinder us; to which we will that each and every one shall
hencefortll be bound by our command, notwithstanding the
fealty and homage which he has sworn to us; so that they
shall in no way give attention to us, but that they shall do
everything which aims at our injury and shall in no way be
bound to us, until that in which we have transgressed and
offenced shall have been by a fitting satisfaction brought
again into due state, according to the form of the ordinance
of the aforesaid, and of our provision or oath; this having
done let them be obedient to us as they were before. . . .2
* A, and S., document 34, * Itrid.t document 36.