72 The Empire Strikes Back

Things looked pretty good for the reformers in 1259; but at the heart of the reform movement were faultlines that weakened them, and made them vulnerable. The differing aims of the magnates; the avarice of de Montfort; and the fact that would pague the civil war 400 years later - how ever many times they defeated the king, he would still be the king. And in 1261, the royal fight back began.