THE CASTLE AND PARLIAMENTS OF NORTHAMPTON. 317

As they throw considerable light on the personal habits of the monarch, as well as evidence the minute attention paid to matters of a public and private nature, a few of them shall be brought under review. We have a writ addressed to the barons of the exchequer authorizing them to repay the bailiffs of the town eight shillings which they had laid down for the carriage to London of cloth bought for the royal use at the fair, and for canvass and Avrappering to pack it up : one to the bailiffs, bidding them purchase for Nicolas the squire, six ells of bleu at eightccn-pence an ell, and a dressed lamb-skin : one to Hugh de Neville, authorizing him to give the prior of St. Andrews eight poles for making joists for the tower of his cluu'ch : the king had previously granted thirty rafters from the royal forest, to the abbot of St. James, whose buildings had been burnt down. About two months after this visit, Henry HI. again took up his residence in the castle of Northampton. He was then in his eighteenth year, on his way to Bedford, with the intention of crushing the in- sm'rection of Fulke de Breaute. It was an arduous under- taking, and the siege of that castle occupied him little less than eight weeks, since we find him there from the 21st of June to the 19th of August, (1224). Immediately he had proceeded on his journey as far as the castle then existing at Newport Pagnell, oppressed perhaps by the heat of the weather, he suddenly recollected having left behind him the royal store of wines, and a mandate was forthwith addressed to the sheriff of the county, desiring him to forward without the least delay the four casks that had been left in his custody at the castle. Though the legitimate title of Henry HI. to the English crown was imdoubtedly clear, yet it can hardly be said his pretensions to it were undisputed. He went however through the ceremony of a coronation, though the spnbol of royalty itself had been lost, with the rest of the regaha, whilst being transported across the Wash. He was youthful, and inexperienced, but the discretion of his protector the earl of Pendjroke, aided by the activity and valour of his high justiciary, Hubert de Burgh, made some amends for these dcticiencies, and enabled him to resist for a time the growing power of his barons, tas well as permanently to crush the danger menacing his possession of the sovereignty from Louis king of 1^'rancc. A caution has been already dr()pi)ed against VOL. III. T t