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Updated: June 10, 2025
The same financial reasons therefore existed for desiring the presence of borough representatives in the Great Council as existed in the case of the shires; but it was the genius of Earl Simon which first broke through the older constitutional tradition and summoned two burgesses from each town to the Parliament of 1265.
In this parliament, which met in 1265, the combination of rural with urban representatives brought all parts of England together in a grand representative body, the House of Commons, with interests in common; and thus the people presently gained power enough to defeat all attempts to establish irresponsible government, such as we call despotism, on the part of the crown.
We must still wait for a generation before the rival and disciple of Montfort, Edward, the king's son, established the popular element in our parliament on a permanent basis. Yet in the links which connect the early baronial councils with the assemblies of the three estates of the fourteenth century, not one is more important than Montfort's parliament of January, 1265.
"When was the Signor Alighieri born?" inquired Graf von Lira, very suddenly, as though to catch him. "May 1265, in Florence," answered the other, as quickly. "I said when, not where. I know he was in Florence born. When and where died he?" The question was asked fiercely. "Fourteenth of September 1321, at Ravenna."
This latter charge would appear incredible, if we had not the record of more than one case where the homicide justified his act by the plea that his victim was a mere native, and where the plea was held good and sufficient. A very vivid picture of Hiberno-Norman town-life in those days is presented to us in an old poem, on the "Entrenchment of the Town of Ross," in the year 1265.
Gloucester's later conduct proves the wisdom of Leicester's precautions. In the spring Parliament of 1265 he openly charged the Earl with violating the Mise of Lewes, with tyranny, and with aiming at the crown. Before its close he withdrew to his own lands in the west and secretly allied himself with Roger Mortimer and the Marcher Barons.
The following particulars, which have been gleaned from several sources, relating to the British Parliament, may be acceptable at the present time, when the English people are in hopes of a renovation of that Constitution which has been, and will still continue to be, the admiration of the civilized world: The word Parliament was first used in 1265; and the Commons were admitted at this time, though not regularly represented.
In 1265, simultaneously with the appearance of English townsfolk in parliament, an official document couched in the English tongue appeared like a first peak above the subsiding flood of foreign language.
The battle of Evesham was fought on the 4th of August, 1265, fourteen months after the misused victory of Lewes. So died the Earl of Leicester, termed, by the loving people of England, "Sir Simon the Righteous" a man of high endowments and principles of rectitude unusual in his age.
The Prince of Wales in return did homage and agreed to pay him 25,000 marks by instalments. The treaty is less favourable to Llywelyn than that of 1265. His rights in Deheubarth were curtailed, and he gave up his claims to Ellesmere and Montgomery, and possession of Maelienydd. The papal legate who arranged the treaty is not to be congratulated on his draftsmanship.
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