clergy, the nobility, and the commonalty. . . . Thirty years had elapsed since the citizens and burgesses had been called to Simon de Montfort's convention in 1265. Since then it had been no uncommon thing to summon knights and burgesses to parliament, but the exact constitution of the assembly was by no means definitely settled. . . . This is, therefore, the first real parliament in which they had ever taken part. . . . The meeting of the Model Parliament of 1295 was a memorable day for England, and marks the beginning of a new era of parliamentary government.

CYRIL RANSOME, Advanced History of England. 219, 220.

S. R. GARDINER (1895)

Edward, attacked on two sides, threw himself for support on the English nation. Towards the end of 1295 he summoned a Parliament which was in most respects the model for all succeeding Parliaments. It was attended not only by bishops, abbots, earls, and barons, by two knights from every shire, and two burgesses from every borough, but also by representatives of the chapters of cathedrals and of the parochial clergy. S. R. GARDINER, Student's History of England. 218.

G. B. ADAMS (1900)

If the burgesses were certain to be admitted into the older institution there was nothing in that fact or in any other circumstance of the time that determined the form and character which the new institution was to assume, and this was a question of vital importance for the future. Upon it depended the existence of the constitution quite as much as upon the survival and the broadened significance of the ideas of the Magna Carta. In this particular the decisive period, the danger period, was that which extended from 1254 to 1295. We have a right, I think, to make 1295 the date of the beginning of Parliament. To be sure there was nothing whatever about the parliament of 1295 considered by itself alone which indicated that it was to be any more truly the model parliament than any one of the different experimental forms of the preceding forty years. It possessed more of the features of the curia regis than of a later parliament; the whole question of

estates and of organization was still unsettled; the struggle for the supremacy of the new parliament over the survivals of the old curia regis had still to be fought out in the following century, but as a historical fact the parliament of 1295 was the model parliament. The age of experimenting was over. In all the creative fundamental principles, both of constitution and of powers, Parliament was in existence as a different thing institutionally from the old curia regis. The later development was a perfection of details, an application of established principles to a constantly enlarging range of cases, not a work of new creation.

GEO. B. ADAMS, Critical Periods of English constitutional History, in American Historical Review (July, 1900). .656.

CHAPTER IV

CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM (1297)

SUGGESTIONS

IN events which led to this Charter we trace two distinct forces, each of them the result of accumulating influence, but timed by an extraordinary coincident, through the King's necessities, the treasury was utterly drained. King Edward, from sheer want, was driven to tyrannous extortion, when planning his second attack on France with the aid of Flanders. The Church and Baronage alike defied him. Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, headed the opposition. Edward found himself powerless to move, and in a burst of feeling owned that he had taken their substance without due warrant of law. Still in want of money, he appealed to the barons, but they in turn demanded redress of grievances and the confirmation of Magna Charta. In August, Edward proceeded to Ghent, leaving his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, as Regent. As soon as the King had departed, the Earls seized the opportunity to press their demands. Entering the Exchequer, they peremptorily forbade the Barons there to levy the aid, the grant of which they asserted had been illegally obtained, until the charters had been confirmed. Supported by a large military following, and backed up by the citizens of London, they were masters of the situation, and the young Prince and his Council found it necessary to yield. The Confirmatio Chartarum, which, although a statute, is drawn up in the form of a charter, was passed on the 10th of October, 1297, in a Parliament at which knights of the shire attended as representatives of the Commons, as well as the lay and clerical Baronage. It was immediately sent over to King Edward at Ghent, and there confirmed by him on the 5th of November following.

In Confirmatio Chartarum, as in Magna Charta, we find a culmination of influences bringing about a document which has a vital place in the organization of all future government. Such charters are "the rallying-point of the oppressed and the offended," and no student of American liberty can appreciate intelligently the struggle from 1765 to 1776 without an insight into the historic beginnings of " Taxation without representation."

For Outlines and Material, see Appendix A.

DOCUMENT

"Confirmatio Chartarum" of Edward I. (1297)

i. 123, 124,

487.

I. Edward, by the grace of God, King of Eng- The Statutes land, Lord of Ireland, and Duke Guyan, to all those of the Realm, that these present letters shall hear or see, greeting. translated Know ye that we to the honour of God and of holy by William Stubbs, Church, and to the profit of our realm, have granted Select Charfor us and our heirs, that the Charter of Liberties ters, 486, and the Charter of the Forest, which were made by common assent of all the realm, in the time of King Henry our father, shall be kept in every point without breach. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under our seal as well to our justices of The gist of the forest as to others, and to all sheriffs of shires, Magna Charta and and to all our other officers, and to all our cities of the Charthroughout the realm, together with our writs in the ter of the which it shall be contained, that they cause the pears in this foresaid charters to be published, and to declare to article; by the people that we have confirmed them in all points, the prerogaand that our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other tive of levyministers which under us have the laws of our land ing internal to guide, shall allow the said charters pleaded before given up. them in judgment in all their points; that is to wit, the Great Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the Forest according to the Assize of the Forest, for the wealth of our realm.

Forest ap

this statute

taxes was

II. And we will that if any judgment be given from henceforth, contrary to the points of the charters aforesaid, by the justices or by any other our The remedy ministers that hold plea before them against the against arbipoints of the charters, it shall be undone and holden

for nought.

III. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under our seal to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and shall be read before the people two times by the year.

trary judgment lay in

the law of Art. ii.

Arts. iii. and iv. limit the

IV. And that all archbishops and bishops shall authority of pronounce the sentence of great excommunication the Church.

against all those that by word, deed, or counsel do contrary to the foresaid charters, or that in any point break or undo them. And that the said curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if the prelates or any of them be remiss in the denunciation of the said sentences, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel and distrein them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid.

V. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and goodwill, howsoever they were made, might turn to a bondage to them and their heirs, because they might be at another time found in the rolls, and so likewise the prises taken throughout the realm by our ministers; we have granted for us and our heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises into a custom, for anything that hath been done heretofore, or that the principle, may be found by roll or in any other manner.

Articles v., vi., and vii. contain the essence of

"No taxa

tion without

tion."

VI. Moreover we have granted for us and our representa- heirs, as well to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church, as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, that for no business from henceforth will we take such manner of aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the common consent of the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and accustomed.

Beginning of

a system by

which taxes in foreign

VII. And for so much as the more part of the commonalty of the realm find themselves sore grieved with the maletote of wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and have made petition to us to release the same; we, at their requests, have clearly released it, and have granted for us and our heirs that we shall not take such thing nor any other without their common assent and good