Henry III of England

Henry III was King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. He was the son of John, King of England, and Isabella of Angouleme, and acceded to the throne at age nine in the middle of the First Barons' War. He promised to abide by the Great Charter of 1225, a later version of Magna Carta, and after 1232 ruled England personally rather than through senior ministers, marrying Eleanor of Provence and investing heavily in his favourite palaces and castles. By 1258 his rule had grown unpopular over the failure of his expensive foreign policies, and a coalition of barons seized power, reforming royal government through the Provisions of Oxford; further conflict led to the Second Barons' War, in which Henry was defeated and captured at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 before his son Edward freed him by defeating Simon de Montfort at Evesham in 1265. He died in 1272 after a reign of 56 years, the longest in medieval English history, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, which he had rebuilt.