The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe

Lecture 12

LECTURE 12 Struggle between Henry III and his Parliament. ~ Arbitration of Saint Louis. ~ The Earl ofLeicester heads the great barons in their struggle with the king. ...,.,.__, He is defeated andkilledat Evesham (I265). ~ Admission ofdeputies.from towns and boroughs into Parliament (I264). ~ Royalist reaction. ...,.,.__, Leicester's memory remainspopular. W have seen how, in the midst of the struggles between royalty and the feudal aristocracy, an intermediate class arose-a new but already imposing power-and how the two contending powers each felt the necessity ofsecuring an alliance with this third power; we have now to follow, by the examination of authentic documents, that is to say, ofthe writs and laws ofthe period, the progress ofthis new class, which we shall find taking an increasingly active part in the government ofthe country. We have seen how the twenty-four barons, who were commissioned toreform the constitution ofthe kingdom, abusing the power which they thus held in trust, had refused, in spite ofthe king and the country, to resign their dictatorship . This refusal soon excited violent dissensions between them and the king, and civil war was on the point of being again enkindled. In 1261, Henry sent writs to several sheriffs, enjoining them to send to him, at Windsor, the three knights ofeach shire who had been summoned to St. Albans by the Earl ofLeicester and his party.These writs plainly show that the king and the barons endeavoured more than ever to conciliate the body ofknights, and that the king had then succeeded in attaching them to his party. Henry sought yet another assistance. On his entreaty, the Pope released him from his oath offidelity to the Acts ofOxford. Delivered from his scruples, Henry now openly broke off his agreements with the barons, and again possessed himselfofthe reins ofgovernment. In 1262, he convoked a Parliament at Westminster, that his authority might be sustained by its sanction. He met with but litde opposition: wishing, however, to deprive the barons of every motive for revolt, he agreed to leave the adjustment oftheir claims to the judgment of an arbitrator. The great renown for wisdom and equity which Saint Louis posJ06 LECTURE 12 sessed pointed him out as the bestjudge in this important dispute. Accordingly Henry and his barons agreed to abide by his decision. Saint Louis assembled his great council at Amiens, and after careful deliberations , he recorded ajudgment bywhich the Acts ofOxford were to be annulled , and the king to be placed again in possession ofhis castles, as well as of the right to nominate his own counsellors. But as he was equally careful to preserve the lawful prerogatives of the English people and those of the crown, Saint Louis gave his formal approval to all the ancient privileges, charters, and liberties of England, and proclaimed an absolute and reciprocal amnesty for both parties. Scarcely had this decision been made known than Leicester and his party refused to submit to it, and took up arms for the purpose ofseizing by force that which had been refused to them by justice. Civil war was recommenced with much animosity, but it was not oflong duration. Leicester surprised the royalist army at Lewes, in the county ofSussex, on the 14th ofMay, 1264. Henry and his son Edward, being vanquished and taken prisoners, were constrained to receive the terms offered them by the conqueror. The conditions which he imposed were severe, but he did not assume to himselfthe right ofsettling the reforms that were to be made in the government; he only retained as hostages the brother and son ofthe king, and left to Parliament the care ofsettling political questions. Ideas respecting the legal authority ofParliaments, and the illegitimacy offorce in matters relating to government, must have made considerable progress, when we find that the victorious Earl ofLeicester did not venture to regulate on his own sole responsibility the plan ofadministration for the kingdom . He did not, however, scruple to exercise other rights which did not belong to him any more than these. Under the king's name, who, though to all appearance set at liberty, did in fact remain his prisoner, Leicester governed the kingdom . In each county he created extraordinary magistrates, called preservers of the peace. Their duties were almost identical with those ofthe sheriffs, but their power was ofmuch wider range. Leicester enjoined them to cause four knights to be elected in each county, and to send them to the Parliament which was to meet at London in June 1264. This Parliament...