• Gave the crown the control over the acquisition of land by the church. Landowners could not give a piece of land to the church without the approval of the king. This was done on order to prevent the church from becoming too powerful. To control church's influence. The more land you have, the more power you gain.

BIRTH OF PARLIAMENT

    King John had signed Magna Carta unwillingly (he didn't want to do this). Very soon it became clear that he wasn’t going to keep his promises. As the result of this nobles rebelled against him, civil war started and King John was defeated and very soon died in 1216.

    After his death it was his son, Henry III, who took over the throne. But at that time Henry was just 9 years old. A regency [ ридженси ] was needed. During the first 16 years as the King, Henry III was under the control of powerful English nobles and formally tied (связан) by Magna Carta.

    Henry was finally able to rule when he was already 25. He wanted to be completely independent of those people who had controlled his life for so long. So, he spent his time now mainly with his foreign friends and advisers. As a result of this he very often became involved in various foreign conflicts. It was not always in England’s interests to take part in these conflicts. Any war means a lot of spending.

    The nobles were not happy about what Henry III was doing. Once again, they acted as a class (just as when they made King John sign Magna Carta). This time their leader was Simon de Montfort [saimon de monfort].

In 1265 Simon [saimon] de Montfort summoned an early parliament, which is a prototype of real parliaments that were summoned later.

    Simon’s parliament was an elected council of nobles. They openly discussed matters of national importance. The fact that it was elected was something completely new to English system of government.

    It was Simon de Montfort who called this meeting ‘parliament’ (the word is French, it means ‘discussion meeting’).

    Eventually, this parliament even managed to take control over treasury, and forced Henry to get rid of all his foreign friends. Despite the fact that this prototype of parliament consisted of only the nobles, it was generally supported by people living in towns. This happened because people in towns wanted to get rid of Henry’s heavy taxes.

    The first King, who started summoning real parliament was Edward I .

Simon [saimon] de Montfort’s council had been called ‘parliament’, but it consisted only of noble people. It had been able to make statutes, political decisions, but it was less able to provide king with money in the 13th century.

    Henry I, for example, gained about 85% of his revenue from his nobles (85% of the King’s money came from feudal customary dues). In the 13th century that wasn’t enough, because by 1272 income from the land was less than 4%. This meant that a great deal of king’s money had to be somehow extracted ( извлечены , добыты ) with the help of taxation.

    Edward I knew that the traditional rules of the feudal society did not presuppose (не предполагали, не заключали в себе) much of the taxation that he needed to impose on his people. In order to avoid a rebellion (Edward I was a clever administrator, he remembered what had happened to the King John), people who were to be taxed had to somehow agree to be taxed.

    Edward I started to use these parliaments to somehow ensure this agreement of the people whom he wanted to tax. In 1275 Edward I summoned his first parliament. He summoned nobles and churchmen, but what makes this parliament very different from the one of Simon de Monfort, is the fact that Edward issued special orders ­– writs – for the election of two representatives from each shire and two representatives (представителей) from each town or city.
    The representatives from the shires were known as knights, and the representatives from the cities and towns were known as burgesses [ˈbərdgisis]. These people all together were needed to approve the King's plan of the new tax. And over the following years it became an accepted rule that the representatives of those (представители тех, кто) who were going to be most affected by the taxation gave their consent (согласие) to this taxation in parliament.

    By doing this, Edward I tend out (стремился) to be the first English monarch who create a real representative institution. Three functions of the Parliament:

· Parliament had to, of course, provide the money that he needed in a peaceful way. The main function of Edward's parliament was to approve taxation, but there were at least two legal functions.

· Another function was enhancing (повышение) communication between the King and his people. There were local representatives from shires and towns, and generally the process of petitioning (прошения, ходатайства) the King through these representatives was highly encouraged (одобрялся, поддерживался). So, now people had a way to give to the King some feedback.

· The third function was a legislative [леджислатив] function of course. This was not a primary function of the first parliaments. It could suggest the King on legislative issues, but it didn't do that very often.

    This institution contained a mixture of knights, other wealthy (состоятельных) free people from the shires, merchants ([мёрчентс] торговцы) from the towns and, of course, there were nobles and churchmen in it. The gentry (дворянство) and the merchants were the most important classes for the King at that time. These were social classes that produced and controlled England's wealth.
    The first parliaments were unicameral – there was only one chamber ([чеймба] палата). Parliaments were not regular and legislation was a secondary function (вторичная).

    Parliament summoned in 1295 is often referred to (упоминается как) as the model parliament (образцовый, примерный), because it contained all the elements that generally associated [эсоусиэйтид] with the word 'parliament'. For example, there were all representatives from local communities and it was fully representative of the whole community of the realm, but many Parliaments were attended solely by the magnates ( только магнатами ) with no representatives presents. Even the lower clergy (низшее духовенство) were summoned (созвано).

WARS OF EDWARD I

    Opposed to King John, Edward I was much less interested in winning back parts of France that English King used to control. He was more interested in bringing the rest of Britain under his control. William I after having conquered England, generally allowed his lords to try and win lands by conquest in Wales. And the Normans slowly extended their control in Wales. By the beginning of the 12th century, much of Wales was held by this people. They built castles and gradually assimilated with the Welsh (с Валлийцами).

    By the 13th century a new class here grew up which was a mixture of the Norman and Welsh rulers. They spoke either Norman language or Welsh (usually not English). Despite that most of them became vassals of the English King. The only exception here was the Welsh who lived around Snowdonia. Snowdonia was a wild mountainous area in the North of the Wales.

    These people were quite independent in their thoughts and at some point, their prince, Prince Llywelyn [livlin], decide to break all the ties (связи) with England and make his territory completely independent. So, in 1277 he refused to do homage to Edward I (He refused to accept that Edward I was his superior ([sjupirior] начальник, сеньор). Edward couldn't just swallow (проглотить) it. He was determined to defeat Llywelyn and bring Wales completely under English control. Edward invaded Wales with the support of ships – the navy (флот). It happened the same year. As a result, Llywelyn was blocked with his people in Snowdonia. Very soon people started starving (голодать). Llywelyn had to submit to Edward and as a result he was stripped (отобраны) of all his previous lands and possessions.

    Apart from that, Edward also build a lot of castles around Wales in order to ensure further English military control after Llywelyn had been defeated. After defeating Llywelyn Edward imposed the English administrative structure on Wales. In other words, Wales was divided into counties and shires just as England. In 1282 another rebellion arose and it was led by Prince Llywelyn and his brother David who was helping him. To suppress (подавить) it, Edward had to start the second campaign against Wales. He reconquered the power and killed both Llywelyn and his brother David. In 1284 the Statute of Wales was issued which united England and Wales under the government of the King of England. 10 years later the Welsh again tried to start a rising (восстание) which lasted for about two years. It was crushed by Edward I, and Wales remained controlled by England for at least the next century. It adopted English administrative system (hundreds and shires) and English legal system. Wales started to apply common law. Even today when we talk about English legal and court system, we may apply the same to Wales, because their systems turned out to be really-really similar.

    The English considered Wales now part of England. But Edward made a concession (уступку) to the Welsh. They wanted to have their own Prince, they didn't want to be simply controlled by the English King, and Edward gave them their prince.
    At a public ceremony at 1301 Edward I made his one baby son (later known as Edward II) the Prince of Wales. So, on the one hand, the Welsh now have their own prince; on the other hand, the Prince was heir (наследник, читается как air) to the English throne and literally an English King in future. However, the tradition survived and it still applied even today. The eldest son of the King or the Queen gets the title of the Prince of Wales. Now it is Prince Charles (Elizabeth's eldest son and probably the future King).

    In Scotland things were quite different.

    All those Scottish Kings had sometimes accepted the English King as an overlord (владыка). Generally, they were much stronger than several Welsh King taking together. By the 11th century it was only one King of Scots who managed to unite the North and the East of Scotland. And only a few areas at the West were still completely independent. But even these lands came under the King's control during the 12th and 13th century. Scotland was united under the rule of one King.

    It was only the English King with really big army that was fit to fight the Scottish. It much harder to deal with them. And most of the English Kings before Edward didn't even try to conquer Scotland. But Edward was different. He was really focused on winning the control over the whole island.

    Scotland had to experience succession crisis (кризис престолонаследия) in 1290 (twelve-ninety). The problem was that four years before that, in 1286, the Scottish King and Alexander III had been killed in an accident. His horse fell, and the King unfortunately didn't survive. He left the heir ( наследников ) to the throne – his granddaughter Margaret. But at the time of his death she was only 3 years old. Obviously, some time had to pass until she could inherit English throne. So, Edward had made an arrangement to marry his son to princess Margaret. But this wonderful plan unfortunately wasn't realized, because Margaret died in 1290. And that left Scotland in the situation of crisis.

    There were 13 claimants to Scottish throne. However, there were two main candidates. Their names were John de Balliol [beliel] and Robert de Bruce. They were both Norman-Scottish knights. And they decided to avoid a civil war in Scotland by inviting Edward and asking him to decide the matter of who should be the King.
    Edward saw this as a chance to finally unite Scotland and England. So, the first thing that he did – he made both John de Balliol and Robert de Bruce promise to be loyal to him. In other words, to do homage to the English King. He said that only after that he would decide what to with them and their claims.

    When it had been done, Edward simply invaded Scotland and put John de Balliol on the Scottish throne in 1292. De Balliol managed to stay the King for four years. And these four years were not the happiest years of his life. The thing was that by putting de Balliol on the Scottish throne, Edward retained (удержал, сохранил) a lot of influence. Very often Edward made de Balliol provide money and troops for the English army, implement English laws in Scotland, and accept the administrative system of England, and apply it to Scotland.   Of course, such a treatment provoked resistance of the Scottish people. In 1295 the Scots imposed a council of barons on John de Balliol. And the council made de Balliol sign a treaty with France. The treaty ([triti] договор) stated that if England tried to attack Scotland, France would immediately attack Gascony. (Yes, Henry III managed to win Gascony back from the French, and it was now territory controlled by the English). And if England attacked France – Scotland promised to attack England. Of course, this was infuriating ([инфьюриэйтинг] приводящий в ярость) for Edward I. War was inevitable.

    In 1296 –in quick and successful campaign Edward I defeated de Balliol and forced him to abdicate ([абдикейт] отречься от престола).

    Revolts started in Scotland against the English officials that had been appointed by Edward. The rebellion was headed by a famous Scottish national hero – William Wallace (Mel Gibson in his film 'Braveheart').

    Edward invaded Scotland again and captured all the main Scottish castles and some of the abbeys. During this invasion he managed to steal something from Scone abbey – Sacred Stone of Destiny (aka Stone of Scone). (Священный камень судьбы). There is a big stone placed under big throne. The legend said that all Scottish Kings had to sit on this Sacred Stone of Destiny – to somehow legitimize their rules. Edward proved that without that stone any Scottish coronation would seem illegal. Secondly, the fact that it was now owned by Edward himself would probably persuade the Scots to accept him as the King.

    Neither Edward nor his successors (ни Эдвард, ни его наследники) became kings of scots, and Scottish kings pretty much managed to do without the Stone.

    William Wallace was a leader of rebels and Scottish national hero. He managed to unite different highlanders (горцев) against the English. And his army (known as the People's army) even managed to win at least one big victory over the English. However, this didn't last too long and by 1297 the People's army was falling apart and eventually destroyed by the Edward I. However, this was followed by a serious and quite lengthy (долгий) and costly struggle (затратная борьба) against Scotland, which only brought some success by the beginning of the 14th century, by about 1304.

    It seemed that Edward had won in the war, he even managed to capture William Wallace himself and execute him in 1305 (казнил). Edward tried to make Scotland part of England, just the way he had done this with Wales before. And some Scottish nobles even accepted him. But people mainly refused to be under the rule of the English King. Some historians even say that the day when William Wallace was executed was the day when Scottish nationalism was born.

    Instead of William Wallace there was a new leader who took his place. And this was Robert de Bruce. He was able to defeat the English in several battles. Edward had to start another campaign against Robert de Bruce. So, he marched to the North in 1307 and unfortunately Edward I died on his way. This reopened conflict continued into the reign of Edward II who succeeded his father the same year. But probable the most important consequence of these events in Scotland is the fact that unlike Wales, Scotland managed to keep its independence, and as a result, develop of its own legal system. Even now the legal system and system of courts in Scotland are quite different from the one in England and Wales.

This picture refers to Scottish referendum.