one, were appointed to prolong the truce with France, that the work of reform might proceed without external hindrance. There was a further project, strongly supported if not originated by Simon, for turning the truce into a definite peace, and on 28 May its terms were virtually agreed upon. Simon was still in France on 1 June. He was back on 11 June, when the parliament reassembled, and the commissioners' scheme was elaborated into the "Provisions of Oxford." Besides the redress of a number of administrative grievances, these included the appointment of a permanent council of fifteen, who were, "in fact, not only to act as the king's private council, but to have a constraining power over all his public acts" (Stubbs, ii. 76), and the election by the barons of twenty-four commissioners to treat of the aid demanded by the king. Of both these bodies Simon was a member, as well as of the original committee of twenty-four which was now to undertake the reform of the church. As soon as the ' Provisions' were ratified, Simon, in accordance with a clause requiring all warders of royal castles to surrender them to the king, resigned the custody of Odiham and Kenilworth. "Your castles or your head" was the alternative he offered to William of Valence, who refused to follow his example. Simon headed the deputation of barons who obtained the adhesion of the London citizens to the "Provisions," 22 July. He was also one of those who drew up a letter to the pope giving an account of the proceedings at Oxford, and protesting against the appointment of Aymer of Valence to the see of Winchester. About the same time Henry was overtaken by a thunderstorm one day when in a boat on the Thames. Driven to seek shelter in the house which Simon then occupied, he answered the earl's welcome by declaring that he feared his host "more than all the thunder and lightning in the world." "Fear your enemies, my lord king those who flatter you to your ruin not me, your constant and faithful friend," was the earl's reply. On 25 Aug. he was accredited on a mission to Scotland; on 18 Oct. "Sim' of Muntfort, Eorl of Leirchestr," "witnessed, as one of the king's fifteen sworn redesmen," Henry's English proclamation of the "Provisions." In November the barons chose him, with two bishops and the earl-marshal, to represent England at a conference which was to be held at Cambray between the kings of France and Germany, and in which Henry had been invited to take part. The conference, however, never came to pass.
At the end of January 1259 Simon was still in France, and his absence was causing great anxiety to the English people, "who did not know what had become of him over sea." He returned for the meeting of parliament in London, 9 Feb. On 16 March he was sent back again, with the Earl of Gloucester and four others, to resume negotiations for peace with France on the basis of a resignation of the English claims on the heritage of the Angevin house. The French king, however, required the Countess of Leicester and her sons to join in her brother's renunciation ; and this she and her husband alike refused without adequate security for at least a certain portion of the many debts for which Henry was answerable to them both. The negotiation therefore failed, and the ambassadors went home, not before Gloucester had flung insulting words at Leicester as the cause of its failure, and Leicester had retorted with a vehemence that almost led to bloodshed. At the close of a second meeting of parliament a quarrel arose between them on higher grounds. Gloucester, who outwardly ranked with Simon as leader of the reforming party, was showing signs of lukewarmness in the cause. Simon upbraided him severely, and at last exclaiming "I care not to live and act with men so fickle and so false," withdrew over sea. There, however, he worked on at the treaty. It was proclaimed in the October meeting of the parliament, where also an amended set of ordinances, the "Provisions of Westminster," was issued. Simon was absent in the body, but present in the spirit. The barons had implored him not to withdraw from their councils, and he had sent them back a solemn assurance that he would keep his word, no matter what came of it (Primat, Rer. Gall. Scriptt. xxiii. 17).
On 4 Dec. 1259 the treaty was ratified in Paris by the two kings in person, Simon and Eleanor making at the same time a complete renunciation of their claims. On 16 Jan. 1260 Henry forbade the parliament to assemble in his absence. This step threatened a violation of the "Provisions," which enacted that parliament should always meet thrice a year at Candlemas (2 Feb.), in June, and October. Simon waited for the king till the eleventh hour, and then, "to save his oath," hurried to England just in time to meet the rest of the royal council in London on Candlemas-day. Hearing from the justiciar that the king was expected in three weeks, they adjourned the parliament from day to day during that time. Henry, however, did not come till 30 April; then he shut Simon out of London, and laid before the council a string of written charges against him. Some were connected with the eternal matter of money which always
