When only nine years old he was declared king by his mother. Part
          of England was in the hands of the French king and so Henry was
          crowned in Gloucester by the Bishop of Winchester. In 1217, as a
          gesture of goodwill to the rebellious barons, the Magna Carta was
          reissued and, with courage and resolve, the French were driven out.
              His Regents were William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, until he died
          in 1219; and then Hubert de Burgh. As his mother had returned to
          France, Henry III was educated by Peter des Roches, Bishop of
          Winchester. In 1220 Henry was again crowned in Westminster Abbey. In
          1223 he was declared to be of age by Pope Honorius III; but only in
          1227, when he was twenty, did he take over the government.
              However, Hubert de Burgh kept his influence until, in 1232, he was
          imprisoned after being accused of malpractice. Now it was the turn of
          Peter des Roches to turn to power as Henry III was weak-willed. Only
          in 1234, when he was forced to remove Peter des Roches and his
          cronies, did Henry III become fully responsible for the government.
            About 1239, the king extorted from the Jews a heavy ransom in gold
          and silver. To say nothing of the rest, he defrauded one Jew, Aaron of
          York, of four marks of gold and four thousand marks of silver. The
          king received from each Jew, whether man or woman, the gold into his
          own hand thus becoming a new kind of tax-gatherer, especially for a
          king.
              In the Tower he kept a camel, buffaloes, the first elephant in
          England, a bear from the King of Norway, three leopards from the
          Emperor Frederick II, and a lion from Louis IX. The rebuilding of the
          Confessor's abbey at Westminster, partly inspired by the construction
          of the Sainte Chapelle by his brother-in-law, Louis IX of France, was
          probably Henry III's most spectacular architectural achievement.
              In the years that followed, Henry III made himself unpopular with
          the his high taxes and the favours he bestowed upon his wife's foreign
          relations and his own half-brothers. The barons united, headed by
          Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and husband of Eleanor the king's
          sister. In the civil war that followed, Henry III and his eldest son
          Edward were captured in 1264 at Lewes.
              Henry III was forced to summon parliament and then to rule
          according to the advice of the barons. Henry III may have had to
          concede but Prince Edward continued to battle and Montfort was killed
          at Evesham in 1265. Edward and his uncle Richard of Cornwall concluded
          a peace, but Henry III was from now on a puppet and his forced
          inactivity caused premature senility. The death of his beloved brother
          Richard on 12 April 1272 was the final straw. The king died 16
          November 1272 at Winchester.

Source: Leo van de Pas