1265.]

STATE OF THE BOROUGHS.

73

controverted. At the present day, the counties are supposed to be represented by actual knights. The writ directs the sheriff to return two knights; and each member, when his election is declared, is girt with a sword to supply the fiction of knighthood.

But Magna Charta,—out of which the representation of the counties by knights, as members of the feudal union, may be considered to have almost directly sprung,-gave not the remotest ground for foreseeing, as a coming event, the attendance, in the great council, of representatives of cities and boroughs: it provided, as we have seen, that the city of London, and all other cities and boroughs, should have their ancient liberties and free customs; but these places, at the time of Magna Charta, were too completely excluded from the feudal union, to be allowed any share whatever in the national government. London was, indeed, a city of considerable importance; but the other cities and boroughs,-with the exception of a few to whom charters of immunity had been granted,-belonged to the king or the great barons, who treated them as property, exacting from them toll or tallage. But as trade and commerce extended, the cities and boroughs increased in population; and as their citizens and burgesses then also increased in power and importance they were able to procure, or to force from their lords, charters of liberties, which were numerously granted in the reign of John; so that, in the reign of Henry III., they had begun to acquire self-government, and oftentimes the ownership of land in the vicinity of the city or borough; and, what was more important, the abolition of the arbitrary power of tallage, by the substitution of a fee-farm rent, or rent certain. The charters by which these changes were produced, were often wrung from the lords of the boroughs; and they have been well called treaties of peace between the burgesses and their lords.2

1 See p. 55, ante.

Guizot's History of Civilization in Europe, p. 52. This observation of M. Guizot is illustrated by a charter tested Tuesday, the Feast

E

It is remarkable that the first summoning of representatives of counties and boroughs to a great council, did not proceed from the sovereign, but from a faction which, in the reign of Henry III., obtained for a time the command of the kingdom. Henry had displeased his subjects by his devotion to and his enrichment of foreigners. He paid no regard to the Great Charter, or the laws which it promulgated; although he was forced frequently to recognize and confirm it. The pusillanimity of his character was unequal to the control of the turbulent barons; many of the most powerful of whom lived in continual opposition to his administration and government. At length Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, conspired with other barons to get the king into their power. They forced him to call a great council or parliament at Oxford, which assembled there on the 11th of June, 1258: it consisted of the prelates and barons only; they came to the assembly armed, and attended by their military vassals, and the king found himself a prisoner in their hands. Through their coercion, certain laws were passed, called "THE PROVISIONS OF OXFORD;" which, until they were revoked by the restored authority of the king, took all power from him, and put the government under the control of twenty-four selected barons. Civil war was the result: a battle was fought, between the king and the of St. Mathias the Apostle, in the year 1305, and 34 Edward I., granted by William de Breouse, Lord of the Honour of Brember and Gower, to his burgesses of Swansea. After referring to a suit carried on by the burgesses against the lord in the king's court, which was compromised by the charter, it concludes with a grant by the lord,—that if he violate, by any act or device, the liberties or customs of the burgesses, he is become bound and indebted to our lord the king, of five hundred pounds of silver, in the name of pure debt; and to any one or more of the burgesses to whom wrong shall be done, contrary to the tenour of the charter, "in five hundred marks of silver, in the name of a pure debt," to be paid within "half a year of the wrong committed." (Dillwyn's Contributions towards a History of Swansea.) The combination and power of the burgesses must have been considerable to have forced concessions, guaranteed by a penalty, from so powerful a baron as William de Breouse.

1265.] KNIGHTS, CITIZENS, AND BURGESSES SUMMONED.

75

barons, at Lewes, on the 14th of May, 1264, in which the king's army was routed, and the king surrendered himself prisoner to the barons; his son, Prince Edward, being detained a hostage in Dover Castle.

Through this success, Leicester acquired the exercise of the sovereign power; and, to strengthen his power by increasing his popularity, he summoned, in the name of the captive king, a great council or parliament, to meet in London on the 20th of January, 1265, in the forty-ninth year of Henry's reign. The record of this parliament exists: it shows that twenty-three lay lords, and one hundred and twenty-two ecclesiastics, including abbots, priors, and deans, attended the assembly. Leicester also ordered the attendance of two knights from each shire, and two citizens and burgesses from each city and borough. That is the origin of the representation of the people. The writs for summoning this parliament are the earliest writs of summons now extant on record. Some historians have contended that earlier instances of representation may be inferred from the facts and documents of history; but the best authorities, and the highest research, have made it manifest that the assembly convened by Simon de Montfort is the first instance of popular representation in parliament.'

The prelates and barons were summoned by writs in the king's name, as were also the king's council; and by entries on the record it appears that all the sheriff's of England were commanded to cause to come to the king, at London, at the time stated, two of the more lawful and discreet knights of their several counties. It also appears that writs were sent to the cities and boroughs of England, commanding them to send two of the more discreet, lawful, and honest of their citizens and burgesses; and in like manner the barons and bailiffs of the Cinque Ports were required to send four of the more lawful and discreet men of their ports.

1 "After a long controversy, almost all judicious inquirers seem to have acquiesced in admitting this origin of popular representation." (Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 160.)

In these writs the purpose of the attendance is stated to be to treat on the king's affairs, with the king, prelates, and magnates.'

In this record we find, also, the origin of what afterwards became a settled practice,-that of paying the representatives of the people, wages, or expenses of attending parliament; for a writ is recorded to the sheriff of Yorkshire, commanding that the two knights who should attend the parliament should be paid their reasonable expenses in coming to the parliament, of staying there, and of returning to their own parts; which expenses the sheriff was directed to levy on the community of the county.

When the civil war had terminated, and Henry's authority was restored (which happened after the battle of Evesham, on the 4th of August, 1265, in which Leicester was slain, and the King was released from bondage by his son, Prince Edward), the precedent of Leicester, regarded as an act of usurpation, was discontinued, and was not revived during the remainder of Henry's reign, and the greater part of the following reign; but the great council of prelates and barons went on in its old course.

Edward I. succeeded his father Henry III., on the 16th November, 1272. He held his first Parliament at Westminster, on the 5th April, 1275. The Statute of Westminster was then passed, which consists of fifty-one chapters, and is called "the Acts of King Edward, made at his first Parliament, after his coronation, by his council, and by the

1 The following is the substance of the three writs :

"Item mandatum est singulis vicecomitibus per Angliam ; quod venire faciant duos milites de legalioribus, probioribus et discretioribus militibus singulorum comitatuum, ad regem London', in octab' prædictis, in forma supradicta.

"Item in forma prædicta scribitur civibus Ebor', civibus Lincoln' et ceteris burgis Angliæ, quod mittant in forma prædicta duos de discretioribus, legalioribus et probioribus, tam civibus, quam burgensibus suis.

"Item in forma prædicta mandatum est baronibus, et probis hominibus Quinque Portuum, prout continetur in brevi irrotulato inferius." (Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i. p. 449.)

1295.]

REPRESENTATION RESUMED.

77

assent of archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, and all the commonalty of the realm." But a subsequent statute of Edward I.-the Statute of Gloucester-made in the sixth year of his reign, 1278, omits any allusion to the commonalty, stating that the statute was made by the king, calling together the prelates, earls, and barons, and his council. Edward made a nearer approach to the precedent of Leicester in the eighteenth year of his reign, 1290; when writs of election were addressed to the sheriffs, directing them to return two or three knights, to appear at Westminster, with full powers for themselves and the 'communitas' of the shire, to consent to what should be then and there ordained by the earls, barons, and certain other of the 'Proceres' of the kingdom. In 22 Edward I., 1294, similar writs were addressed to the sheriffs, stating that the king intended to have a colloquium' (a term used for parliament) with the earls, barons, and other magnates of the kingdom, at Westminster, on the morrow of St. Martin; and ordering the sheriffs to cause two knights to be elected, with full power to consent, for themselves and the communitas,' to what should be ordained by the earls, barons, and proceres.2

The duties assigned to the knights in these parliaments were to consent to the ordinances of the earls and barons; but a more complete adoption of the precedent of Leicester soon followed. In 23 Edward I., 1295, writs of election were addressed to all the sheriffs of England, reciting that the king intended to hold a parliament, with the earls, barons and other proceres of the kingdom, for the purpose of providing against the dangers which threatened the kingdom; for which purpose they had been summoned to come to the king on Sunday next after the feast of St. Martin.

1 Parliamentary Writs and Records (Record Commission edition), vol. i. p. 15.

2 Idem, p. 20. "Between 49 Henry III. and 18 Edward I. there is no evidence to prove that the members of the House of Commons were present in Parliament; in fact, the records which are extant prove the contrary." (Hardy, on the 'Modus Tenendi Parliamentum,' pref. p. xi.)