The powers given to this council were most extensive, and to be exercised without control whenever the parliament was not sitting.  Besides the usual authority it possessed the appointment of all the officers of state, of all the officers of the household, and of all the governors of the royal castles.  Three were ordered to be in constant attendance on the King’s person; all were to be summoned on matters of great importance; and a majority of two-thirds was required to give a sanction to their decisions.  Hitherto the original committee seemed to have been forgotten; but it was contrived that when the council was so divided that the consent of two-thirds could not be obtained, the question should be reserved for the determination of the three electors, an artifice by which, under the modest pretence of providing against dissension, they invested themselves with the sovereign authority.  By additional enactments it was provided that no foreigner, though he might go or come, or reside peaceably, should be employed under the government; that past offences should be mutually forgiven; that the two charters, the provisions made the last year, in consequence of the Statutes of Oxford, and all the ancient and laudable customs of the realm, should be inviolably observed; and that three prelates should be appointed to reform the state of the Church, and to procure for the clergy, with the aid of the civil power if necessary, full compensation for their losses during the late troubles.

The earl was now in reality possessed of more extensive authority than Henry had ever enjoyed; but he soon discovered that to retain the object of his ambition would require the exertion of all his powers.  The cause of the captive monarch was ardently espoused by foreign nations and by the sovereign pontiff.  Adventurers from every province of France crowded to the royal standard which Queen Eleanor had erected at Damme in Flanders; and a numerous fleet assembled in the harbor to transport to England the thousands who had sworn to humble the pride of a disloyal and aspiring subject.  To oppose them Leicester had summoned to the camp on Barham downs, not only the King’s military tenants, but the whole force of the nation,[63] and, taking on himself the command of the fleet, cruised in the narrow seas to intercept the invaders.  But the winds seemed to be leagued with the earl; the Queen’s army was detained for several weeks in the vicinity of Damme; and the mercenaries gradually disbanded themselves, when the short period for which they had contracted to serve was expired.  At the same time the Pontiff had commissioned Guido, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, to proceed to England, and take Henry under the papal protection; but, deterred by the hint of a conspiracy against his life from crossing the sea, he excommunicated the barons unless before the 1st of September they should restore the King to all his rights, and at the same time summoned four of the English prelates to