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HISTORY OF THE BRITISH
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See also:HISTORY OF THE See also:BRITISH
See also:PARLIAMENT
The Anglo-Saxon Polity.—The origin of parliament is to be traced to Anglo-Saxon times
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The Angles, See also:Saxons and other See also:Teutonic races who conquered See also:Britain brought to their new homes their own See also:laws and customs, their settled framework of society, their kinship, their See also:village communities, and a certain See also:rude See also:representation in See also:local affairs
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And we find in the Anglo-Saxon polity, as See also:developed during their See also:rule in See also:England, all the constituent parts of parliament
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In their own lands they had chiefs and leaders, but no See also:kings
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But See also:conquest and territorial See also:settlement were followed by the See also:assumption of royal dignities; and the victorious chiefs were accepted by their followers as kings
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They were See also:quick to assume the traditional attributes of See also:royalty
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A See also:direct descent from their See also:god See also:Woden, and hereditary right, at once clothed them with a See also:halo of See also:glory and with supreme See also:power; and, when the See also:pagan deity was deposed, the See also:
But centuries were to pass before the See also:English See also:nobility was to assume its See also:modern See also:character and denominations
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At the See also:head of each village was an eorl, the See also:chief of the freemen, or ceorls—their See also:leader in See also:war and See also:patron in See also:peace
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The king's gesiths and thegns formed another privileged class
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Admitted to offices in the king's See also:household and See also:councils, and enriched by grants of See also:land, they gradually formed a feudal nobility
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The revival of the Christian See also: The See also:hundred-moot assumed a more representative character, comprising the reeve and a selected number of freemen from the several townships and burghs within the hundred . The shire-moot, or shire-gemot, was an See also:assembly yet more important . An ealdorman was its See also:president, and exercised a See also:jurisdiction over a shire, or See also:district comprising several hundreds . Attended by a reeve and four freemen from every hundred, it assumed a distinctly representative character . Its members, if not elected (in the modern sense) by the popular See also:voice, were, in some See also:fashion, deputed to See also:act on behalf of those whose interests they had come to guard . The shire-moot was also the See also:general folk-moot of the tribe, assembled in arms, to whom their leaders referred the decision of questions of peace and war . See also:Superior to these local institutions was the witenagemot, or assembly of See also:wise men, with whom the king took counsel in legislation and the government of the state . This national council was the true beginning of the parliament of England . Such a council was originally held in each of the kingdoms commonly known as the See also:Heptarchy; and after their See also:union in a single realm, under King See also:Edgar, the witenagemot became the deliberative and legislative assembly, or parliament, of the extended See also:estate . The witenagemot made laws, imposed taxes, concluded See also:treaties, advised the king as to the disposal of public lands and the See also:appointment and removal of See also:officers of state, and even assumed to elect and depose the king himself . The king had now attained to greater power, and more royal dignities and prerogatives . He was unquestionably the chief power in the witenagemot; but the laws were already promulgated, as in later times, as having been agreed to with the advice and consent of the witan . The witan also exercised jurisdiction as a supreme See also:court . These See also:ancient customs See also:present further examples of the continuity of English constitutional forms . The constitution of the witenagemot, however, was necessarily less popular than that of the local moots in the hundred or the shire . The king himself was generally present; and at his See also:summons came prelates, abbots, ealdormen, the king's gesiths and thegns, officers of state and of the royal household, andleading tenants in chief of lands held from the See also:crown . Crowds sometimes attended the meetings of the witan, and shouted their acclamations of approval or dissent; and, so far, the popular voice was associated with its deliberations; but it was at a distance from all but the inhabitants of the place in which it was assembled, and until a See also:system of representation (q.v.) had slowly grown up there could be no further See also:admission of the people to its deliberations . In the town-moot the whole See also:body of freemen and cultivators of the folk-lands met freely under a spreading See also:oak, or on the village See also:green; in the hundred-moot, or shiregemot, deputies from neighbouring communities could readily find a place; but all was changed in the wider council of a king-dom . When there were many kingdoms, distance obstructed any general gathering of the Commons; and in the wider See also:area of England such a gathering became impossible . Centuries were yet to pass before this obstacle was to be overcome by representation; but, in the meantime, the local institutions of the Anglo-Saxons were not without their influence upon the central council . The self-government of a free people informed the bishops, ealdormen, ceorls and thegns who dwelt among them of their interests and needs, their sufferings and their wrongs; and, while the popular forces were increasing with an advancing society, they See also:grew more powerful in the councils of their rulers . Another circumstance must not be overlooked in estimating the political influence of the people in Anglo-Saxon times . For five centuries the See also:country was convulsed with incessant See also:wars —wars with the Britons, whom the invaders were See also:driving from their homes, wars between the several kingdoms, wars with the Welsh, wars with the Picts, wars with the Danes . How could the people continue to assert their civil rights amid the clash of arms and a frequent See also:change of masters ?
The See also:warrior-kings and their armed followers were rulers in the land which they had conquered
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At the same time the unsettled See also:condition of the country repressed the social See also:advancement of its people
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See also:Agriculture could not prosper when the See also:farm of the husbandman See also:top often became a battlefield
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See also:Trade could not be extended without See also:security to See also:property and See also:industry
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Under such conditions the See also:great body of the people continued as peasants, handicraftsmen and slaves
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The time had not yet come when they could make their voice heard in the councils of the state
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The See also:Norman Conquest.—The Anglo-Saxon polity was suddenly overthrown by the Norman Conquest
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A stern See also:foreign king had seized the crown, and was prepared to rule his conquered realm by the See also:sword
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He brought with him the absolutist principles of See also:continental rulers, and the advanced feudal system of See also:France and See also:Normandy
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See also:Feudalism had been slowly gaining ground under the Saxon kings, and now it was firmly established as a military organization
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See also:
The king claimed the broad lands of England as his own, by right of conquest; and when he allowed his warriors to See also:share the spoil he attached the strict condition of military service in return for every See also: The ruling See also:powers, if combined, would have reduced the people to See also:slavery; but their divisions proved a continual source of weakness . In the meantime the strong rule of the See also:Normans, See also:bitter as it was to Englishmen, repressed See also:intestine wars and the disorders of a divided realm . Civil See also:justice was fairly administered . When the spoils of the conquerors had been secured, the rights of property were protected, industry and trade were See also:left free, and the occupation of the soil by foreigners drove See also:numbers of landowners and freemen into the towns, where they prospered as merchants, traders and artificers, and collected thriving populations of townsmen . Meanwhile, foreign rulers having brought England into closer relations with the See also:Continent, its See also:commerce was extended to distant lands, ports and See also:shipping were encouraged, and English traders were at once enriched and enlightened . Hence new classes of society were growing, who were eventually to become the Commons of England . The Crown, the Barons, the Church and the People.—While these social changes were steadily advancing, the barons were already preparing the way for the assertion of popular rights . Ambitious, turbulent and grasping, they were constantly at issue with the Crown . Enjoying vast estates and great commands, and sharing with the prelates the government of the state, as members of the king's council, they were ever ready to raise the See also:standard of revolt . The king could always See also:count upon barons faithful to his cause, but he also appealed for aid to the Church and the people . The baronage was thus broken by insurrections, and decimated by civil wars, while the value of popular alliances was revealed . The power of the people was ever increasing, while their oppressors were being struck down .
The See also:population of the country was still Saxon; they had been subdued, but had not been driven forth from the land, like the Britons in former invasions
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The English See also:language was still the See also:common speech of the people; and Norman See also:blood was being mingled with the broader stream of Saxon See also:life
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A continuous See also:nationality was thus preserved, and was outgrowing the foreign See also:element
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The Crown was weakened by disputed successions and foreign wars, and the baronage by the blood-stained See also:fields of civil war-fare; while both in turn looked to the people in their troubles
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Meanwhile the Church was struggling, alike against the Crown and the barons, in See also:defence of its ecclesiastical privileges and temporal possessions
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Its clergy were brought by their spiritual ministrations into See also:close relations with the people, and their culture contributed to the intellectual growth of English society
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When William See also:Rufus was threatened by his armed barons he took counsel with Archbishop See also:Lanfranc, and promised See also:good laws and justice to the people
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His promises were broken; but, like later charters, as lightly set aside, they were a recognition of the political rights of the people
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By the See also:charter of See also:
So strong-willed a king, who could cripple his too powerful nobles, and forge shackles for the Church, was not predisposed to extend the liberties of his people; but they supported him loyally in his See also:critical struggles; and his vigorous reforms in the839
administrative, judicial and See also:financial organization of his realm promoted the prosperity and political influence of the Commons
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At the same time the barons created in this and the two previous reigns, being no longer exclusively Norman in blood and connexion, associated themselves more readily with the interests and sympathies of the people
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`Under See also:Richard I. the principle of representation was somewhat advanced, but it was confined to the See also:assessment and collection of taxes in the different shires
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Magna Carta (q.v.).—It was under King See also: But one hundred and fifty years had now passed since the Conquest, and great advances had been made in the condition of the people, and more particularly in the population, See also:wealth and self-government of towns . Many had obtained royal charters, elected their own magistrates, and enjoyed various commercial privileges . They were already a power in the state, which was soon to be more distinctly recognized . The charter of King John was again promulgated under Henry III., for the See also:sake of a See also:subsidy: and henceforth the Commons learned to insist upon the redress of grievances in return for a grant of See also:money . This reign was memorable in the See also:history of parliament) . Again the king was in conflict with his barons, who rebelled against his See also:gross misgovernment of the realm . See also:Simon de See also:Montfort, earl of See also:Leicester, was a patriot in advance of his See also:age and fought for the English people as well as for his own order . The barons, indeed, were doubtful See also:allies of the popular cause, and leaned to the king rather than to Simon . But the towns, the clergy, the See also:universities and large bodies of the commonalty rallied See also:round him, and he overthrew the king and his followers at See also:Lewes . He was now master of the realm, and proclaimed a new constitution . Kings had made promises, and granted illusory charters; but the See also:rebel earl called an English parliament (1265) into being . Churchmen were on his See also:side, and a few barons; but his See also:main reliance was upon the Commons . He summoned to a national council, or parliament, bishops, abbots, earls and barons, together with two knights from every shire and two burgesses from every See also:borough . Knights had indeed been summoned to former councils; but never until now had delegates from the towns been invited to sit with bishops, barons and knights of the shire . In the reign of Edward I. parliament assumed substantially its present See also:form of king, lords and commons . The irregular and unauthorized See also:scheme of Simon de Montfort was fully adopted; and in 1295 the king summoned to a parliament two knights from • In 1254 we have a distinct See also:case of two knights summoned from each shire by royal writ . A war was going on in See also:Gascony, and the king wanted money . He called the barons and asked if they would provide the necessary funds . The barons said that unfortunately the See also:minor gentry were exceedingly unwilling to See also:con-See also:tribute, and the king sent to ask that two knights from each shire might be sent up to consult with him . In the result, the Commons refused to grant a subsidy, and the king had to fall back on the Church; but though the summoning of the knights of the shire was in form a small change from the previous practice of sending some one down to the counties to put pressure on them, the innovation is important as the first occasion on which their representatives met in a central assembly.—[H . Ca.] every shire chosen by the freeholders at the shire court, and two burgesses from every See also:city, borough and leading town.' The rebel earl had enlarged the basis of the national council; and, to secure popular support, the politic king accepted it as a convenient See also:instrument of See also:taxation . The knights and freeholders had increased in numbers and wealth; and the towns, continually advancing in population, trade and commerce, had become valuable contributors to the See also:revenue of the state . The grant of subsidies to the Crown, by the assembled baronage and representatives of the shires and towns, was a legal and comprehensive See also:impost upon the entire realm . See also:Secession of the Clergy.—It formed part of Edward's policy to embrace the clergy in his scheme for the representation of all orders and classes of his subjects . They were summoned to attend the parliament of 1295 and succeeding parliaments of his reign, and their form of summons has been continued until the present time; but the clergy resolutely held aloof from the national council, and insisted upon voting their subsidies in their own convocations of See also:Canterbury and See also:York . The bishops retained their high place among the earls and barons, but the clergy sacrificed to ecclesiastical jealousies the See also:privilege of sharing in the political councils of the state . As yet, indeed, this privilege seemed little more than the voting of subsidies, but it was soon to embrace the redress of grievances and the framing of laws for the general welfare of the realm . This great power they forfeited; and who shall say how it might have been wielded, in the interests of the Church, and in the legislation of their country ? They could not have withstood the See also:Reformation; they would have been forced to yield to the power of the Crown and the heated See also:resolution of the laity; but they might have saved a large share of the endowments of the Church, and perhaps have modified the doctrines and formularies of the reformed See also:establishment . Reluctance of the Commons to Attend.—Meanwhile the Commons, unconscious of their future power, took their humble place in the great council of the realm . The knights of the shire, as lesser barons, or landowners of good social See also:standing, could sit beside the magnates of the land without constraint; but modest traders from the towns were overawed by the power and dignity of their new associates . They knew that they were summoned for no other purpose than the taxing of themselves and their See also:fellow townsmen; their attendance was irksome; it interrupted their own business; and their journeys exposed them to many hardships and dangers . It is not surprising that they should have shrunk from the exercise of so doubtful a privilege . Considerable numbers absented themselves from a thankless service; and their constituents, far from exacting the attendance of their members, as in modern times, begrudged the sorry See also:stipend of 2S. a See also:day, paid to their representatives while on See also:duty, and strove to evade the See also:burden imposed upon them by the Crown . Some even See also:purchased charters, withdrawing franchises which they had not yet learned to value . Nor, in truth, did the representation of towns at this See also:period afford much See also:protection to the rights and interests of the people . Towns were enfranchised at the will or caprice of the Crown and the sheriffs; they could be excluded at See also:pleasure; and the least show of See also:independence would be followed by the omission of another writ of ' It now appears that substantially this was effected as See also:early as 1275 . The transition period between Simon de Montfort's parliament of 1265 and the " See also:model parliament " of 1295 was long a See also:puzzle to See also:historical students, since, except for two provincial councils in 1283, no trace was found in the records, between 1265 and 1295, of the representation—of cities or boroughs, or of representation of the counties between 1275 and 1290 . But in 1910 Mr C . Hilary Jenkinson (see English Historical See also:Review, for See also:April) found in the See also:Record See also:Office some old documents which proved to be fragments of three writs and of returns of members for the See also:Easter parliament of 1275 . They make it certain that knights of the shire were then present, and that burgesses and citizens were summoned (not as in 1265 through the mayors, but as since 1295 through the sheriffs) . The importance of the 1295 parliament thus appears to be smaller in English constitutional history, the full reforms appearing to have been adopted 20 years earlier . It is noteworthy, however, that in the writs of 1275 the instruction to the sheriff is " venire facias," not " eligi facias."—[H, Ch.]summons . But the principle of representation (q.v.), once established, was to be developed with the expansion of society; and the despised burgesses of Edward I., not having seceded, like the clergy, were destined to become a potential class in the parliaments of England . Sitting of Parliament at See also:Westminster.—Another constitutional change during this reign was the summoning of parliament to Westminster instead of to various towns in different parts of the country . This See also:custom invested parliament with the character of a settled institution, and constituted it a high court for the See also:hearing of petitions and the redress of grievances . The growth of its judicature, as a court of See also:appeal, was also favoured by the fixity of its place of meeting . Authority of Parliament recognized by See also:Law.—Great was the power of the Crown, and the king himself was bold and statesman-like; but the union of classes against him proved too strong for See also:prerogative . In 1297, having outraged the Church, the barons, and the Commons, by illegal exactions, he was forced to confirm the Great Charter and the Charter of Forests, with further securities against the taxation of the people without their consent and, in return, obtained timely subsidies from the parliament . Henceforth the financial necessities of a succession of kings ensured the frequent assembling of parliaments . Nor were they long contented with the humble See also:function of voting subsidies, but boldly insisted on the redress of grievances and further securities for national liberties . In 1322 it was declared by See also:statute 15 Edw . II. that " the matters to be established for the estate of the king and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, should be treated, accorded, and established in parliament, by the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls and barons, and the commonalty of the realm, according as had been before accustomed." The constitutional powers of parliament as a legislature were here amply recognized —not by royal charter, or by the occasional exercise of prerogative, but by an authoritative statute . And these powers were soon to be exercised in a striking form . Already parliament had established the principle that the redress of grievances should have See also:precedence of the grant of subsidies; it had maintained the right of approving councillors of the Crown, and punishing them for the abuse of their powers; and in 1327 the king himself was finally deposed, and the succession of his son, Edward III., declared by parliament . Union of Knights of the Shire and Burgesses.—At this period the constitution of parliament was also settling down to its later and permanent shape . Hitherto the different orders or estates had deliberated separately, and agreed upon their several grants to the Crown . The knights of the shire were naturally See also:drawn, by social ties and class interests, into See also:alliance with the barons; but at length they joined the citizens and burgesses, and in the first parliament of Edward III. they are found sitting together as " the Commons." This may be taken as the turning point in the political history of England . If all the landowners of the country had become united as an order of nobles, they might have proved too strong for the development of national liberties, while the union of the country gentlemen with the burgesses formed an estate of the realm which was destined to prevail over all other powers . The withdrawal of the clergy, who would probably have been led by the bishops to take part with themselves and the barons, further strengthened the united Commons .
Increasing Influence of Parliament.—The reign of Edward III. witnessed further advances in the authority of parliament, and changes in its constitution
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The king, being in continual need of subsidies, was forced to summon parliament every See also:year, and in order to encourage its liberality he frequently sought its advice upon the most important issues of peace or war, and readily entertained the petitions of the Commons praying for the redress of grievances
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During this reign also, the advice and consent of the Commons, as well as of the Lords spiritual and temporal, was regularly recorded in the enacting part of every statute
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Separation of the Two Houses.—But a more important event is to be assigned to this reign, the formal separation of parliament into the two houses of Lords and Commons
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There is no See also:evidence—nor is it probable—that the different estates ever voted together as a single assembly
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It appears from the rolls of parliament that in the early part of this reign, the causes of summons having been declared to the assembled estates, the three estates deliberated separately, but afterwards delivered a collective See also:answer to the king
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While their deliberations were See also:short they could be conducted apart, in the same chamber; but, in course of time, it was found convenient for the Commons to have a chamber of their own, and they adjourned their sittings to the See also:chapter-house of the See also: Their petitions, together with the king's answers, were recorded in the rolls of parliament; but it was not until the parliament had been discharged from attendance that statutes were framed by the See also:judges and entered on the statute rolls . Under such conditions legislation was, in truth, the prerogative of the Crown rather than of parliament . Enactments were often found in the statutes at variance with the petitions and royal answers, and neither prayed for by the Commons nor assented to by the Lords . In vain the Commons protested against so See also:grave an abuse of royal authority; but the same practice was continued during this and succeeding reigns . Henry V., in the second year of his reign, promised " that nothing should be enacted to the petitions of the Commons, contrary to their asking, whereby they should be See also:bound without their assent; " but, so long as the old method of framing laws was adhered to, there could be no security against abuse; and it was not until the reign of Henry VI. that the introduction of the more regular system of legislating by See also:bill and statute ensured the thorough agreement of all the estates in the several provisions of every statute . Increasing Boldness of the Commons.—The Commons, however, notwithstanding these and other discouragements, were constantly growing bolder in the assertion of their rights . They now ventured to brave the displeasure of the king, without seeking to shelter themselves behind powerful barons, upon whose forwardness in the national cause they could not reckon . Notably in 1376 their stout See also:Speaker, See also:Peter de la See also:Mare, inveighed, in their name, against the gross mismanagement of the war, impeached ministers of the realm, complained of the heavy burdens under which the people suffered, and even demanded that a trueaccount.should be rendered of the public See also:expenditure . The brave Speaker was See also:cast into See also:prison, and a new parliament was summoned which speedily reversed the resolutions of the last . But the See also:death of the king changed the aspect of affairs . Another parliament was called, when it was found that the spirit of the Commons was not subdued . Peter de la Mare was released from prison, and again elected to the See also:chair . The demands of the former parliament were reiterated with greater boldness and persistence, the evil councillors of the See also:late reign were driven out, and it was conceded that the See also:principal officers of state should be appointed and removed, during the minority of Richard II., upon the advice of the lords . The Commons also insisted upon the See also:annual assembling of parliament under the stringent provisions of a binding law . They claimed the right, not only of voting subsidies, but of appropriating them, and ofexamining public accounts . They inquired into public abuses, and impeached ministers of the Crown . Even the king himself was deposed by the parliament . Thus during this reign all the great powers of parliament were asserted and exercised . The foreign wars of Henry IV. and Henry V., by continuing the financial necessities of the Crown, maintained for a while the powers which parliament had acquired by the struggles of centuries . Relapse of See also:Parliamentary Influence.—But a period of civil wars and disputed successions was now at See also: |