The First Great Parliament

This London parliament of 1265 marks a great advance in the constitutional history of England. The old council of the king had been strictly a feudal assembly. At its meetings the people were not expected to be present; as far as they can be said to have been represented, they were represented by their lords. In 1213, after his submission to the pope, John had summoned a council at St. Albans, to which he called men from the vills on the royal demesne. In so doing he simply enlarged the scope of the inquest, for he wanted to make inquiry of these men about the losses and the confiscated property of each of the bishops who had excommunicated him. in 1209, and whose estates he had seized.

A more important innovation was the summons of four discreet men "from each shire to a council at Oxford three months later. These men were important landholders in the counties, who were called knights of the shire because they were chosen by the freeholders in the county court to act in certain capacities for the county. Originally lowest in rank of the feudal lords, they were rapidly becoming a middle class of small landowners. Scutage had relieved them of military service, agriculture had become their dominant interest, and the county court the scene of their chief political activity. The election of such knights as coroners for the county was already a familiar event, but their election to sit in the great council of the realm, was a new and almost bewildering extension of their functions. Still, such an election was not unnatural, for the knights were feudal in origin, and as coroners had been accustomed to guard the pleas of the crown for the royal justices and had become familiar with matters connected with the central administration.

After 1213 there was not another summons of knights for forty years. In 1254 Henry directed the sheriffs to send to the council of Westminster two knights to assess an aid to be laid on the county,' and his example was followed twice during the next ten years. The knights, as wealthy landowners, were becoming an important class in the shires, and their advice and help was desired by the king and the greater lords. Yet the latter had no thought of a representative governing body, or they would not have set up such an unwieldy system as that established by the Provisions of Oxford.

But when in 1265 Simon, in the king's name, summoned an assembly to make terms with the invaders, he introduced a great constitutional innovation. His chief enemies were among the barons, his chief supporters among the knights and freeholders of the counties and the citizens of the boroughs. After he had issued writs to the clergy and barons, as was always done in summoning a great council, he turned to his own allies and bade the sheriffs send up two knights from each shire, and the burgesses two of their number from each borough, who with the others were to meet with the king. The response to the summons was immediate and hearty. Five earls, eighteen barons, all the bishops who were not hostile to Simon, and a great number of knights and burgesses gathered at London. It was a partisan body, for it was composed only of Simon's followers ; but it was called for a partisan purpose, to uphold Simon's cause. There is no reason to believe that Simon intended such a body to be regularly or permanently summoned, or even to be summoned a second time. Nevertheless, this gathering set a precedent for the future, and in this sense, perhaps, Simon may be called the "creator of the House of Commons."

Simons Defeat and Death

The parliament of 1265 came to an agreement with the king, who swore to observe the Charter and the Provisions of Oxford. Simon was recognized ruler of England and seems to have been appointed justiciar. But while many of the barons had stood by him in the presence of foreign invaders, they were not likely to do so when he became the autocrat of England. The young earl of Gloucester, who had fought on Simon's side at Lewes, turned against him.

Prince Edward, watching carefully the course of events, and seeing indications of Simon's waning popularity, succeeded in escaping from his custodian, the earl of Hereford. With Edward free, Simon's cause was greatly imperilled. The barons wished a king as their ruler; and while they distrusted Henry and supported Simon against a foreign foe, they were more than willing to listen to Prince Edward when he promised to meet their wishes for reform. Gloucester and Edward came together at Ludlow in June, 1265, and the prince promised to persuade the king to meet at all important points the wishes of the barons.

War was now inevitable. Edward gathered his adherents in the west and turned to face Simon, who, dismayed at the turn affairs had taken, at once employed the machinery of government to crush the prince. He summoned the feudal array, ordered the sheriffs to capture Edward, requested the bishops to excommunicate him, and called on Llewellyn, prince of Wales, to invade England. Every effort was vain. The opposing armies met on the field near Evesham, and there,

on August 4, Simon was defeated and slain. Thus died a man who, in spite of all his ambition and imperiousness, did a great work for England. He had checked the denationalizing policy of Henry III, and whatever may have been his motive, had, for a time at least, stood forth as a national leader. His methods were not always commendable, but he had taught England a good lesson. By one Englishman that lesson was well learned; for when Edward made his peace with the barons, it was Simon's principle of government that he promised to adopt.

From 1266 to 1272, peace reigned, in the main, throughout England. In the Dictum of Kenilworth (1267), Henry III, restored to power, proclaimed an amnesty and confirmed the great charter. In 1268, Edward was able to leave England to join Louis IX, his uncle, on the last crusade. Two adventurous years were spent by him in the East, and his fame as a crusader spread over Europe. So well established was his place in the hearts of the English that in 1272, when Henry III died, he did not fear to delay for two years more his return to England. Proclaimed king in 1272, he did not arrive in his kingdom until 1274, when he was crowned. Then began the great work of one of the greatest of English kings.