Synopsis: Volume III 1243 to 1253
Book Four, The Revolutionary
King Henry, now that he has a son of his own body, Edmund Crouchback, is intent upon removing the bastard Edward from the succession to the throne. When he sends Edward and his teenage friends, with no support, to war against battle-wise Welsh, Simon raises a private army and rescues the boys. Lauded as a hero for rescuing the prince, Simon is safe from the king’s attack — for the moment. But now the lords of England, disgusted with Henry’s misrule, are ready to form a new kind of government — devised by Simon’s spiritual counselor Bishop Grosseteste — a government by the lords and by elected representatives of the people, composed as The Provisions of Oxford. But the Provisions are just words on parchment — and parchment in danger of being reused for class notes by the students of Oxford — until Simon seizes England and puts the Provisions into effect. A new government such as never seen before is formed under the name of Parliament.
