The Houses of
Parliament in London
By the 1250s King Henry III (1216-72) was running into difficulties with
his nobility. They were angry at the cost of some of his schemes, such as
the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey and a proposed campaign to make one of
his younger sons King of Sicily.
The Provisions of Oxford
(1258), imposed on Henry by his barons, established a permanent baronial
council which took control of certain key appointments. The leader of the
baronial movement was Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester. In 1259
the Provisions of Westminster reformed the common law.
Henry eventually renounced
both sets of provisions and challenged the barons. Civil war broke out in
1264, initially going well for Simon de Montfort. During the conflict he
sought to boost his baronial support by summoning knights of the shires
and burgesses to attend his parliament. This was the first time that
commoners had been represented.
De
Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, but his innovation
of summoning the commons to attend parliaments was repeated in later years
and soon became standard. Thus it is from him that the modern idea of a
representative parliament derives.
