Stock Photo - King Henry III (1207-1272) after the death of his father King John (1167-1216), 19th century. Henry is seen here being presented to the barons by the Earl of Pembroke. Henry III ruled England for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. Medieval English monarchs did not use numbers after their names, and his contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the Norman Conquest. Despite his long reign, his personal accomplishments were slim and he was a political and military failure. England, however, prospered during his century and his greatest monument is Westminster, which he made the seat of his government, and where he expanded the abbey as a shrine to Edward the Confessor.