In the Lent Parliament of 1259 he had reproached them, and Gloucester above all, with faithlessness to their trust.

"The things we are treating of," he cried, "we have sworn to carry out.

With such feeble and faithless men I care not to have ought to do!" The peace with France was hardly signed when his distrust of his colleagues was verified.

Henry's withdrawal to the French court at the close of the year for the formal signature of the treaty was the signal for a reactionary movement.

From France the king forbade the summoning of a Lent Parliament in 1260 and announced his resumption of the enterprise against Sicily.