On this date 750 years ago, Louis IX of France delivered his Mise of Amiens. He had been asked to re-establish peace between the barons and royalists and the result was war. He had already given some indication that he approved the Provisions of Oxford, now he quashed them outright. Whether this was because he was wearing his hairshirt at the time or the queen’s nagging finally got to him, he knew he was unleashing a hornet’s nest and tried to hide behind the papacy’s earlier nullification. He also insisted that Magna Carta was unaffected by his ruling, something he was forced to do because the Montfortians had craftily woven it into their argument. It became their loophole for disregarding their oath to abide by what had to be one of the most ill-considered awards in the history of arbitration.
