Henry always put special meaning in being designated “the Third.” The number three symbolizes the Holy Trinity, the Resurrection, and the Three Kings, whose arrival with gifts for baby Jesus is commemorated today, the 6th of January. In 1258, after fifty years of endless truces between England and France, Henry was ready to make peace, in part because his ambitions had moved eastward. With his son Edmund aspiring to become the king of Sicily and his brother Richard of Cornwall (whose birthday was yesterday) occupying the throne of Germany, the Plantagenets were on the cusp of having three kings at the same time.
That same year of 1258, Henry agreed to reform the realm on the promise of his barons to help him make Sicily happen. In the meantime, he would settle for three kings in the form of himself the king of England, Richard the king of Germany, and Louis IX the king of France coming together to ratify the peace treaty. Like the Three Kings of old, they would offer the world gold, incense and myrrh, which is to say devotion, charity and peace.
But it never happened. The treaty called for Louis to pay Henry an enormous sum of money to help him acquire Sicily, but Simon de Montfort, the baronial leader, had other ideas. He did everything in his power to upset Henry’s plans, to no avail in the end. The peace treaty was ratified. Sicily, however, never became an English dominion. Henry ended up having to use the treaty money to fight off de Montfort and his followers.