THE FIRST PARLIAMENTS (1250-1300)

Our modern Parliament contains the House of Com-

mons and the House of Lords. The Lords is a throwback
to Magna Carta. The “Great Charter” gave the barons
the right to give the King advice.

But what about the Commons? Well, as the name sug-

gests, it’s not noblemen who sit in the House of Com-
mons, but ‘commoners’, which means people who aren’t
of noble birth. So when did Commoners first get to sit in
this, the greatest council in the land?

Well the answer is that ‘Commoners’ first entered Parliament in the century after Magna Carta, in the
reigns of Henry III and – most importantly - Edward I. And the reason Edward brought Commoners into
Parliament was that he needed the people of England on his side to help pay for his wars.

War was a constant in medieval life. Edward conquered

Wales and tried to conquer Scotland. His heirs spent a
century at war with the Kings of France – the “Hundred
Years’ War”. That’s what these people are re-enact-
ing here. War is costly. Not just in terms of human life,
but, literally, costly. The warhorses, the weapons, the
armour; mailshirts for the footsoldiers, arrows for the
bowmen. Kings of England needed cash to pay for all
this. Much of the cost of war was met by the barons, as
it always had been in the days of the Norman kings. Sol-
diers still served in the colours of their local lord. But the cost of war had soared. And since Magna Carta,
kings had found it harder and harder to squeeze the barons for more. And so, they had to raise taxes, to
pass the burden onto the people of England. But for that, they needed their consent. They needed the
people on their side.

So who were the people kings looked to, to fund their wars? To answer that question I’ve come to Stoke-
say Castle in Shropshire.

This place wasn’t built by some rampaging baron. This land was bought in reign of Edward I by a man
called Laurence of Ludlow, and he was a wool-merchant; he’d made his money in trade. So, for the first
time we’ve got people in England with property, with influence, who weren’t of noble blood. Laurence
built the Great Hall, and he got a license from the king to add those crenulations, those castle-like de-

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 fences to the tower. Not that he needed defending, he
wasn’t at war, but it was the up-market thing to do. He
was basically just showing off.

Across 13th century England, a new class had emerged,

the knights and squires of the countryside. Some, like
Laurence, had made their money in trade and farming.
Others were descended from the knights and squires
of the Conquest. Now they lived in manor-houses in the
country-side, they’d intermarried with Saxon women ‘til
the distinction between Norman and Saxon was blurred. Local peasants worked their lands; they had
status; influence; cash.

And it was these men Edward I wanted to help pay for his wars.

I’ll give you an example. The year is 1290, and Edward needed a hundred and sixteen thousand pounds
to complete his conquest of Wales – a fortune in those days. And so he called a Parliament. But first he
just called the Lords, and from April until July, they sat in Westminster, advising the king, and debating
this and that, but they failed to debate the one thing he really wanted – the money for his little Welsh
war. And so Edward called to Westminster the “Commons of the Realm”. The knights and the squires,
and the justices of the Peace, and the burgesses and the mayors of the towns and the leading mer-
chants – men like Laurence of Ludlow. And they came to London frankly flattered to be involved in the
process of government. The King dressed up his need for money as a kind of patriotic crusade, putting
the Welsh in their place. And the local gents were all too happy to pass his tax – they were chuffed to be
asked. And they trotted home to the shires, to explain how everyone should pay their tax with pride. And
everyone was happy – except the Welsh.

It wasn’t democracy. But it was (to an extent) rule by

consent. And people who weren’t of noble birth were
inside Parliament, giving advice, voting taxes. Yet anoth-
er small but significant step along the timeline of history.

THE FIRST PARLIAMENTS (1250-1300) 2