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Magna Carta
Magna Carta (Latin, meaning Great Charter). An impression of the Great Seal was attached to it. Many copies of the Great Charter were made by royal clerks in the summer of 1215. Magna Carta was granted to all freemen of England, but the barons gained most from it.

Version of Magna Carta 1225, the third reissue with amendments.
Click the document for an enlargement.

John was not to ask for scutage until his tenants-in-chief had agreed to it. Relief was fixed at £100. John had considered the giving of justice to be a personal favor which he could refuse if he wanted to. He made some unfortunate barons pay large sums of money just to get a fair trail. John was not to sell or deny justice to anyone.

A committee of twenty-five barons was chosen to keep a check on the King. He preferred to fight rather than allow barons to sit in judgment on him. So in September 1215, civil war broke out again. John hired soldiers from the Continent and put up a strong resistance. On the night of October 18, 1216, he died suddenly at Newark in Nottinghamshire, after heavy eating and drinking.

"At his end," wrote a chronicler, "few mourned for him." However, John's death did not mean Magna Carta was forgotten. It became part of the law of the land and in the years ahead barons made sure that the kings remembered what it said.

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Henry III (1216 - 1272)
John's nine-year old son was crowned King Henry III. A group of loyal barons began to govern the country until the boy was old enough to rule.

Left: Illuminated manuscript shows Henry III holding one of his churches.
Right: Gilt-bronze-effigy of King Henry III in Westmenster Abbey.

Henry commissioned ecclesiastical buildings, most notably Westminster Abbey. Henry is shown directing construction at Westminster Abbey, built to house the shrine of Edward the Confessor.

He allowed his French wife, Eleanor, to crowd his court with her friends and relations. Foreigners were given large estates and important lands. Henry even allowed the Pope to appoint about 300 foreign clergymen to English churches. Henry was forced to hand over most of his power to a council of fifteen barons led by Simon Monfort.

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Simon de Monfort / First Parliament
For a while, Monfort was practically the ruler of England. He held a Great Council to which he invited not only the nobles who supported him but also the representatives of ordinary freemen. Each county was asked to send two knights, and each town that was friendly to him sent two burgesses (citizens). This sort of assembly later came to be called a "Parliament."

The rule of Simon de Montfort came to a sudden end in the summer of 1265. Many of his followers changed sides ,and he was defeated by Prince Edward, the King's eldest son. Edward took Simon de Montfort's idea. From time to time, he invited knights and burgesses to attend his Great Council of nobles. He listened to their complaints and asked them to agree, in the name of the people to the collection of certain taxes.

These gatherings gave the king and his subjects a chance to parley (talk). This is how we get the word "Parliament."

King Edward I presiding over a Parliamentary session, c.1278. Below the dais, the justices and law officers sit in the center on woolsacks. Two clerks note the proceedings. The lords are mostly on the kng's left, and the bishops and abbots are on his right. (No commons are present on this occasion.)

Lords and Commons
The Barons and Bishops of the Great Council were known as the "Lords" - The knights and burgesses, and the "Commoners." This is how the two houses of parliament were developed: Lords and Commons.

"Le roi le veult." The king wills it - it becomes law.