The Development Of Parliament

When King John signed Magna Carta unwillingly, the nobles rebelled and pushed him out of the Southeast but John died suddenly in 1216 so civil war was avoided. His son, Henry III, who was only 9 years old, was under the control of powerful nobles and tied by Magna Carta. At the age of 25 when Henry was able to rule for himself, he wanted to be completely independent. Therefore, he spent his time with foreign friends and became involved in expensive wars, which upset the nobles. The nobles, under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, took over the government and elected a council of nobles in 1258. De Montfort called it a parliament, or parlement, a French word meaning discussion meeting. The Parliament, supported by the towns, took control of the treasury and forced Henry to get rid of his foreign advisors.

Some of the nobles remained loyal to Henry and they helped him defeat and kill Simon de Montfort in 1265. When Henry died in 1272 his son Edward I inherited the throne.

Edward I brought together the first real parliament.

Simon de Montfort s parliament included only nobles and it was able to make laws and take political decisions, but the lords were less able to provide the king with money.

Edward was the first to create a representative institution which could provide the money he needed.

This institution became the House of Commons, and unlike the House of Lords, it contained a mixture of gentry and merchants from the towns. These two classes produced and controlled England s wealth. In 1275 Edward I commanded each shire and each town to send two representatives to his parliament.

These commoners became representatives of their local community and this way began the idea that there should be no taxation without representation. The development of Parliament during the Middle Ages showed the beginning of a new relationship between the middle class and the king. Edward I had invited knights from the country and merchants from the towns in his parliament, because he needed money and they, more than any other social group, could provide it. But when Edward III asked for money from Parliament, they requested to see the royal accounts. It was an important development because for the first time the king allowed himself to be accountable to Parliament.

During the time of Edward III s reign, Parliament split into two houses: the Lords and the Commons (which represented the middle class). Only those commoners with an income of more than 40 shillings a year could qualify as members of Parliament.

The poor had no voice of their own in Parliament until the middle of the nineteenth century.

The alliance between esquires and merchants made Parliament more powerful, and separated the Commons more and more from the Lords.

Many European countries had the same kind of parliaments at the same time, but in most cases these disappeared when feudalism died out. In England, however, the death of feudalism helped ...