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LECTURE 12 - François Guizot, The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe [1861]

Edition used:

The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe, trans. Andrew R. Scoble, Introduction and notes by Aurelian Craiutu (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002).

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LECTURE 12

Struggle between Henry III. ~ and his Parliament. ~ Arbitration of Saint Louis. ~ The Earl of Leicester heads the great barons in their struggle with the king. ~ He is defeated and killed at Evesham (1265). ~ Admission of deputies from towns and boroughs into Parliament (1264). ~ Royalist reaction. ~ Leicester’s memory remains popular.

We have seen how, in the midst of the struggles between royalty and the feudal aristocracy, an intermediate class arose—a new but already imposing power—and how the two contending powers each felt the necessity of securing an alliance with this third power; we have now to follow, by the examination of authentic documents, that is to say, of the writs and laws of the period, the progress of this new class, which we shall find taking an increasingly active part in the government of the country.

We have seen how the twenty-four barons, who were commissioned to reform the constitution of the kingdom, abusing the power which they thus held in trust, had refused, in spite of the king and the country, to resign their dictatorship. This refusal soon excited violent dissensions between them and the king, and civil war was on the point of being again enkindled. In 1261, Henry sent writs to several sheriffs, enjoining them to send to him, at Windsor, the three knights of each shire who had been summoned to St. Albans by the Earl of Leicester and his party. These writs plainly show that the king and the barons endeavoured more than ever to conciliate the body of knights, and that the king had then succeeded in attaching them to his party.

Henry sought yet another assistance. On his entreaty, the Pope released him from his oath of fidelity to the Acts of Oxford. Delivered from his scruples, Henry now openly broke off his agreements with the barons, and again possessed himself of the reins of government. In 1262, he convoked a Parliament at Westminster, that his authority might be sustained by its sanction. He met with but little opposition: wishing, however, to deprive the barons of every motive for revolt, he agreed to leave the adjustment of their claims to the judgment of an arbitrator. The great renown for wisdom and equity which Saint Louis possessed pointed him out as the best judge in this important dispute. Accordingly Henry and his barons agreed to abide by his decision.

Saint Louis assembled his great council at Amiens, and after careful deliberations, he recorded a judgment by which the Acts of Oxford were to be annulled, and the king to be placed again in possession of his castles, as well as of the right to nominate his own counsellors. But as he was equally careful to preserve the lawful prerogatives of the English people and those of the crown, Saint Louis gave his formal approval to all the ancient privileges, charters, and liberties of England, and proclaimed an absolute and reciprocal amnesty for both parties.

Scarcely had this decision been made known than Leicester and his party refused to submit to it, and took up arms for the purpose of seizing by force that which had been refused to them by justice. Civil war was recommenced with much animosity, but it was not of long duration. Leicester surprised the royalist army at Lewes, in the county of Sussex, on the 14th of May, 1264. Henry and his son Edward, being vanquished and taken prisoners, were constrained to receive the terms offered them by the conqueror. The conditions which he imposed were severe, but he did not assume to himself the right of settling the reforms that were to be made in the government; he only retained as hostages the brother and son of the king, and left to Parliament the care of settling political questions. Ideas respecting the legal authority of Parliaments, and the illegitimacy of force in matters relating to government, must have made considerable progress, when we find that the victorious Earl of Leicester did not venture to regulate on his own sole responsibility the plan of administration for the kingdom.

He did not, however, scruple to exercise other rights which did not belong to him any more than these. Under the king’s name, who, though to all appearance set at liberty, did in fact remain his prisoner, Leicester governed the kingdom. In each county he created extraordinary magistrates, called preservers of the peace. Their duties were almost identical with those of the sheriffs, but their power was of much wider range. Leicester enjoined them to cause four knights to be elected in each county, and to send them to the Parliament which was to meet at London in June 1264.

This Parliament assembled and passed a decree which was designed to organize the government. This decree constrained the king to follow in everything the advice of a council composed of nine members, nominated by three principal electors, the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester, and the Bishop of Winchester.

Leicester still remained the real head of the State. In the midst of his power he was troubled by alarming disturbances; powerful preparations to oppose him were being made in France. These attempts were unsuccessful, and Leicester, in order to anticipate any fresh opposition, undisguisedly sought protection from that part of the population, which was every day becoming more numerous and powerful—the middle classes. On the 14th of December 1264, he summoned a Parliament, and gave to it all the extent which it has since preserved, that is to say, he called to it the peers, county deputies, and also borough deputies. This innovation was intended to conciliate popular favour, and Leicester did not relax in his endeavours to preserve it. Relieved from royal authority, he wished also to free himself from the aristocracy by whose assistance he had conquered the king. He turned his tyranny against the great barons who were not pliant to his caprices. He confiscated their lands, no longer summoned them to Parliament, and annoyed them in a thousand ways in their persons and their rights. But this was the infatuated course of a conqueror intoxicated by success. As soon as the royal power and the aristocracy combined against him, Leicester was obliged to yield. On the 28th of May, 1266, Prince Edward escaped from his confinement, raised an army against Leicester, and offered him battle on the 4th of August at Evesham. Leicester was defeated and killed in the combat. His conduct was, though factious, yet great and bold, so that he may be called the founder of representative government in England, for, while he struggled at one time against the king, at another time against the barons who were rivals to himself, he hastened the progress of the middle classes, and definitely established for them a place in the national assembly.

Henry, delivered from slavery by the death of Leicester, recovered his power and used it with moderation. Several Parliaments were convoked during the last years of his reign, but it is not proved that any deputies from the counties and boroughs sat in them. There is even reason for thinking that, in the midst of the disorder that then prevailed in the kingdom, the trouble of convoking them, which was always tedious and difficult, was dispensed with. The Parliament held at Winchester on the 8th of September 1265, in which the confiscation of the goods of the rebels was granted to the king, was composed entirely of prelates and barons. This also was the case with regard to that which was convened by the king at Kenilworth, the 22nd of August, 1266, in which, after the rigour of the confiscations had been somewhat moderated, the Acts of Oxford were annulled, but the charters were solemnly confirmed. Nor do we find that deputies were present at the Parliament held at St. Edmundsbury in 1267; but they were admitted to that held at Marlborough, convened in 1269, to which were called “the wisest in the kingdom, as well those belonging to a lower as to a higher rank.” Two years afterwards the deputies from counties and boroughs were summoned to a grand ceremony, in order to transfer the remains of Edward the Confessor to a tomb which the king had caused to be prepared in Westminster Abbey. After the ceremony a Parliament assembled; but it is uncertain whether or not the deputies had a place in it. This fact, however, does not the less prove the great importance which had at this time been acquired by the towns, and the habit which had been gradually established of summoning their deputies on all great occasions.

Such are the facts of the reign of Henry III. which relate to the introduction of county deputies into Parliament. No general act, no constitutional statute, called them thither. Indeed the idea of such political proceedings hardly existed at that period. Neither the government nor the people felt the need of regulating facts in a general manner, and fixing them on an absolute basis. The human mind had not arrived at that state of progress in which the conception of such a design is possible. Facts spontaneously developed themselves, in isolation and confusion, and according to the influence of existing circumstances. We may present a summary exhibiting the nature of their progress, and the causes by which the representation of counties was accomplished, in the following manner:—

All the king’s vassals originally formed one body, and were entitled to a seat in the general assembly.

This class of proprietors became divided; some became great barons, and continued to sit in the central assembly. Others continued to possess only a local influence. By this cause they were separated from the great barons, and became united by common interests to other free proprietors. The county courts became the point of convergence for this new class.

A struggle arose between the king and the great barons. Both of these sought support from the class of freeholders which existed in the counties. A part of these preserved, as direct vassals of the king, the right to take their seat in the central assembly. The great barons certainly alone exercised this right; but as their tendency was to possess themselves of authority, and to identify the great council of barons with the government, they felt the necessity of conciliating the body of freeholders who were vassals of the king or of themselves; and the idea of causing them to be represented by means of election was so much the more natural, inasmuch as elections had often taken place in the county courts, when there was any occasion to commit local affairs into the hands of certain proprietors. Thus the centralization of the higher aristocracy to resist the royal authority did of necessity involve and cause the centralization of the inferior proprietors, who could only exert their influence in the way of election.

Lastly, the principle that consent was necessary before any impost could be levied had prevailed; the charters established it to the advantage of the barons with regard to the king, and of the inferior vassals in reference to their lords. The more that power became centralized either in the hands of the king or of the assembly of barons, the more did the consent of the other proprietors to im-posts also necessarily centralize itself. That which had previously been local became general, and the centralization of the aristocracy of great barons involved the centralization of the aristocracy of free proprietors.

Another question now presents itself for examination: namely, the admission of town and borough deputies to parliament.

In general the towns possessed, before the Norman Conquest, considerable wealth and importance. We have seen them take a part in political events, and interfere actively in state affairs. The citizens of London concurred in the election of several Saxon kings; and those of Canterbury attended, under Ethelred II., at the county court. It is, however, nearly certain that the towns never sent deputies to the Wittenagemot. Their rights were limited within the circle of their own walls, and when they took part in politics, it was in an accidental and irregular manner.

After the Norman Conquest, the towns fell into decay, and lost not only their influence on general affairs, but even their local and individual rights. Their riches vanished with the commerce whence they had been derived, and the oppression of the conquerors completed their ruin.

They progressively recovered, especially after the reign of Henry II. At that time, considerable rights began to be granted or rather to be restored to them. The lord of the domain in which they were situated was at first the proprietor of them, and received tribute from their inhabitants; but they were allowed to ransom themselves from this burden by taking the town in fee-farm, a kind of tenure analogous to that of socage. Lastly, several towns obtained charters of incorporation, which gave them a more or less free municipal system.

The lord, whether king or baron, retained the right of imposing taxes upon them at will. This right, called the right of tallage, was at first exercised in an entirely arbitrary way, in virtue of the very superior force possessed by the lords; but in proportion as this superiority became enfeebled, and the towns, on the other hand, became strong enough to defend their independence, it was found necessary to make terms with them. In order to obtain money from them, privileges had to be granted to them; and if they did not exact concessions of this kind, they at least contended with their lord on behalf of their interests. Those towns especially which lay in the domain of the king, and were the most important of all, vindicated their rights with the greatest degree of vehemence. The royal judges had now no other occupation in their circuits than to obtain tribute from the towns and boroughs, leaving those which could resist pretty nearly to dictate their own terms, and making arbitrary charges on those which were not in a condition to defend themselves.

By these causes the admission of town deputies into the national assembly was delayed, while, on the other hand, the admission of county deputies was hastened. In the counties there was not that unity which is the natural characteristic of towns; there was hardly any possibility of treating separately and successively with proprietors scattered over their domains; and in order to obtain money from them, they had to be united. It was not so in the towns; the king dealt with them separately, made his advances upon them as they became isolated from one another, and always obliged them either to yield or to make him presents, to all appearance voluntarily.

However, some towns early acquired sufficient importance not only to gain and defend their liberties, but also to take part in general politics. Among these towns, London and the Cinque ports* must especially be mentioned. The importance which these possessed is established by a great number of facts, and we often find their inhabitants called nobiles and even barones. Indeed, their deputies appeared sometimes at the general assembly even before the Parliament of 1264, but in this there was no general principle, no public right recognized. There was this difference between the introduction into Parliament of county deputies, and that of town deputies—that the former is associated with a right, the right of the immediate vassals of the king, and therefore possessed from the first a character of generality; while the second, the introduction of town deputies, was dissevered from every idea of right, and resulted simply from isolated facts bearing no relation to one another. Representatives were granted to a particular town, but this did not involve any similar concession to all towns. Hence the arbitrariness that of necessity prevailed in the division of representation among towns and boroughs. Hence the vices which still actually exist in the electoral system of England.† There remain to the present day towns of considerable importance which send no deputies to the House of Commons; and these abuses arise from the fact that the elections of towns and boroughs have never been regulated in a general manner, and as public rights. In the first instance, all was decided by a solitary fact, and the right to representation has still continued as a right in the case of many boroughs and towns, although the primitive fact which originally suggested the right has disappeared—the fact, namely, of the importance of the town or borough. Through these causes the evil of rotten boroughs was introduced into the representative system of England.

However this may be, not till the parliament of 1264 do we see deputies from towns and boroughs appear in any large numbers in the Parliament. We do not know how many towns were then called upon to exercise this right; but the writs were addressed to them directly, and not by the intervention of the sheriffs. This innovation was doubtless a result of the policy of the Earl of Leicester. He had sought for protection against the king in the knights of the shires, and through these auxiliaries the king and the royal authority had fallen into his hands; but soon finding the want of another support against the barons, who had become his rivals, he found it in the towns, and called upon them to take a share in the exercise of power. This it was that rendered his memory so popular that the king was obliged especially to forbid his being spoken of as a saint.

We must then refer the complete formation of the English Parliament to the year 1264. Its existence was still very precarious; it rested on no law, on no public right; it was the creation of a time of faction. The first Parliament, in which Leicester had principally ruled (the Parliament of Oxford) was soon called the Mad Parliament—Parliamentum insanum. It might have been expected that the new form of Parliament, the presence of county and borough deputies, would have shared the same fate as that suffered by the other institutions which were introduced by Leicester for the purpose of organizing a purely aristocratic government, and which disappeared with him. But these rudiments of parliamentary organization were of a different character; they were veritably public institutions, which, instead of attaching themselves merely to particular interests, had for their basis the interests of the entire population. They survived Leicester, and his attempts against the royal power, which was itself obliged to adopt them. Under the reign of Edward I. they became definitely established, and acquired a consistency and stability which would no longer allow of their being attacked with success.

[* ]The five towns of Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Hastings and Hythe, were called the Cinque ports.

[† ]It must not be forgotten that this course of lectures was delivered in 1821, ten years before the passing of the Reform Bill.