• Gave the crown the control over the acquisition of land by the church. Land owners 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.

BIRTH OF PARLIAMENT

King John had signed Magna Carta unwillingly. 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 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 was needed. During the first 16 years as the King, Henry III was under the control of powerful English nobles and formally tied by Magna Carta.

       Henry was finally able to rule when he was 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.

       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.

In 1265 Simon 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 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.

       Henry I, for example, gained about 95% of his revenue from his nobles (95% of 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 with the help of taxation.

       Edward I knew that the traditional rules of feudal society did not presuppose much of the taxation that he needed to impose on his people. In order to avoid rebellion, people who were to be taxed had somehow to agree to be taxed.

WARS OF EDWARD I

Henry III managed to win Gascony back.

Big stone placed under the throne.