16 NOVEMBER 1272
Henry III’s death doesn’t plunge England into crisis
After many tumultuous years, the crown passes seamlessly to the old king’s chosen heir
For many decades after Edward the Confessor breathed his last in 1066, the death of an English king wasn’t met by just grief – it regularly caused an outpouring of violence in the form of an invasion or a brutal civil war. So it’s unsurprising that when Henry III lay dying in 1272, his fervent wish was for the crown to pass to his heir, the future Edward I, without bloodshed.
This hope may have seemed particularly far-fetched because Prince Edward wasn’t even in the country. The warrior prince had been granted leave to go on crusade for one time only; having fought in the Holy Land, Edward
