Rev. 17 October 2003
The origins of Parliament are feudal. Feudalism was introduced into England by the Normans. William the Conqueror (1066-1087), who distributed lands among a group of 180 barons (tenants-in-chief), declared himself the ultimate owner of all the land in the country. The Anglo-Norman monarchs were strong kings who tended to abuse the rights that feudal lords had over their vassals: aids, relief, wardship, control of the marriages of their vassals' heiresses or widows, escheat or forfeit.
The main feudal service that vassals had to give in exchange for their fiefs was military service: forty days at the lord's side (in the case of smaller vassals) or a certain number of knights (in the case of wealthier ones). But they also owed court service. The feudal court (or curia) was the assembly of a lord's vassals, who met when the lord convoked them or at certain fixed times of the year. The court served as a tribunal to settle disputes, in particular those between the lord and one of his vassals (trial by peers). It also gave the lord advice on important decisions: feudal custom established that vassals had to be listened to.
When William I died, Robert Curthose, the Conqueror's eldest son, was in rebellion against his father. As a result, he did not inherit England along with the duchy of Normandy. Normandy was for Robert, but England was for his brother William Rufus (1087-1100). This was politically unstable, since Normandy and England shared the same baronage who owed loyalty simultaneously to two mutually hostile lords. The kings of England of this period soon learned that it was crucial for their safety to conquer the duchy for themselves.
When William Rufus was killed by an arrow in the New Forest, his younger brother Henry moved quickly to get crowned before Robert could react. Henry I (1100-1135) issued a Coronation Charter (also known as Charter of Liberties) to appease the barons and win their support. He promised not to abuse his feudal rights the way William II had done. He promised, for example, to stop selling heiresses and widows to the highest bidder and to refrain from keeping bishoprics empty for scandalously long periods of time in order to enjoy their revenues.
Henry I's grandson, Henry II Plantagenet (1154-1189), was the head of the Angevin empire, which comprised Anjou, Normandy, England, Aquitaine, Brittany and later Ireland. The efforts of Henry's successors to keep or recover these territories would eventually contribute to the development of Parliament. It was John Lackland (1199-1216) who, unable to maintain his Continental dominions to begin with nor to recover them later, faced a rebellion in England. The barons had no appropriate, alternative candidate to replace John, so they decided to confront him by imposing a document, later known as Magna Carta (1215). [See also a version with a glossary.] The king had to respect the acquired rights of his barons. He had to obey the law of the land, or else his vassals had the right to rebel. Magna Carta was annulled only months later, and this led to another insurrection, dissolved when John died and the barons assumed the regency of the new boy king, Henry.
Henry III (1216-1272), particularly after his marriage to Eleanor of Provence, tended to fill his small council (a body which had administrative, fiscal, and judicial functions) with foreign favourites. This provoked the resentment of the traditional feudal counsellors, the barons, who expected to be listened to. Henry's ambitious foreign policy (he tried to recover Normandy and Anjou) made him dependent on the barons' financial support as did the pope's threat of excommunication if he did not pay a debt he had incurred when he decided to make his son Edmund king of Sicily. The English monarch had thus to make concessions to the barons in exchange for the money. Twelve representatives of the king and twelve representatives of the barons met to deliberate on the government. They agreed on the Provisions of Oxford (1258), which established that a group of barons (the council of fifteen) would form part of the small council, and that there would be three parliaments every year. The Provisions were abolished in 1262. In response a group of barons led by Simon the Montfort rebelled. For fifteen months Simon ruled England in the spirit of the Provisions, until he was defeated by Henry's son Edward.
When Edward himself reigned (1272-1307) he tried to avoid provoking the barons. Due to his aggressive foreign policy towards his neighbours (Wales, Scotland) and the need to defend Gascony from the king of France, he called Parliament frequently.