body was shamefully mutilated, and denied Christian burial. The people, however, fondly cherished his memory, vented their grief at his loss in pathetic ballads, and regarded him as a martyr.

But though Leicester was dead, the cause for which he had fought still lived, and forced itself upon the king in the very hour of victory. For, however much he hated it, Henry found himself obliged to respect the Great Charter; and to be moderate and forgiving towards his subjects-even towards the people of London, who had so long opposed his will and taken up arms against him.

There were more risings before the questions in dispute between Henry and his subjects were settled; but Edward did his best in all things to restore peace; and when something like order was effected, the prince and his cousin went to the Holy Land, and with many English lords and knights took part in the last crusade. In his absence the feeble old king died (1272), having enjoyed the quiet possession of his crown during the closing years of his life.

3

1 This was called the "Mad Parliament," which enacted the following "Provisions "9 :- "That four knights should come to Parliament to represent the freeholders of every County: That sheriffs should be chosen annually by vote: That accounts of the public money should be given every year: That Parliament should meet three times a year, in February, June, and October.

2 Eve'-sham, in Worcestershire. 3 During this reign England grew richer and more vigorous; the Universities became centres of learning and education; art flourished; and religion was revived by the energies of the friars, who were the missionaries of the towns which were now rising into import

ance.

ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. AMONG the Anglo-Saxons the king had been assisted in the government of the country by the Witan, or meeting of wise men. Under the Normans this was also the case nominally, though the council then had very little influence, and was submissive to the royal will. Still all new laws required its approval, without which there could be no legislation; yet it had no means whatever of shielding individuals from the exercise of what was called the king's prerogative or privilege.

Again, the Norman sovereigns raised funds by making their subjects pay fines, on all manner of excuses, in connection with feudality. Tenants-inchief paid the king for leave to marry; and towns, when they received a charter from him. What was still worse, people had to pay for redress in courts of law; and the Jews, when they obtained justice at all, paid for it. Magna Carta struck at the root of this oppression, by enacting that justice should neither be bought nor sold.

In the reign of John's son and successor, Henry III., when he was, as usual, in straits for want of money, the council or parliament refused to let him raise it, unless he would confirm the Great Charter. Here was an application of the principle therein laid down, restricting the royal power in such matters. The right to limit prerogative was also asserted, for a judge in this reign says: "The king can do nothing on earth, being the minister of God, but what he can do by law."

Henry III. continued to waste and extort money, until at last the barons took a decided step. At a parliament held at Oxford in 1258, they made him consent that twenty-four of their number should be appointed with governing powers, subject to the parliament, to enforce the keeping of those promises which he had so often made and broken. They founded this demand on the final provision in Magna Carta.

Foremost among the barons was the king's brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose name has won enduring fame as the founder of the House of Commons; but, like everything else in the English Constitution, it did not come suddenly into existence, but was of gradual growth. Before his time the tenants-in-chief were summoned by the king to the national council; such of them as were only knights sitting and voting with the barons and prelates. At a later date from among these knights some were elected to attend the council.

The great change made by Simon de Montfort was the introduction there of freemen of inferior rank, living in towns, belonging to and chosen by those below the nobility and gentry. It was in 1265, after civil war had broken out between the barons and the king, that Leicester, whose party was then in the ascendant, held a parliament in the king's name in London, to which were summoned two knights for each county, two citizens for each city, and two burgesses for each borough. This was the beginning of representative government in

England; that is, a government in which the different classes of society share, by some of their number, in the deliberations of the legislature.

This famous parliament assembled in January. In August the armies of the earl and of the king were marching to meet each other near the town of Evesham. The earl had taken up his position between two branches of the river Avon, relying on the support of the forces he had stationed near Kenilworth, not knowing that they had been obliged to yield to the attack of Prince Edward, the gallant son of the weak-minded king.

When De Montfort heard that the prince was advancing, he knew that there was no hope, and he exclaimed: "God have our souls, our days are all done." We are told that his brave son was by his side, and there was time for one to fly; but each wished to save the other, and neither would save himself, so father and son died together; while over the field there raged a frightful thunder-storm, which the people said was the sign of Heaven's wrath at the fall of him whom they loved to call, long after he was dead, "Sir Simon the Righteous."

That battle is well-nigh forgotten now; but the year in which it was fought is still memorable, because of the new element introduced by Simon de Montfort into the national council. The parliament thus amended was not, however, at once divided into the two houses of Lords and Commons; neither was it one compact body.

The knights of the shire still took their places with the barons, appearing with them at the royal

summons, when matters affecting the interests of the nobles were to be debated; while the borough members formed a distinct assembly, meeting separately with the king, by whom they were called together, to discuss and vote on subjects which related to the welfare of the towns, and to the class to which they belonged.

For a long time it rarely happened that any matter considered by the parliament concerned both bodies equally, and therefore it was seldom that both took part in one discussion. But as the Feudal System grew weaker, and as the difference in wealth and power between the great barons and the knights became more and more apparent, the latter, as representatives of the counties, naturally inclined to associate with the burgesses who, like themselves, were elected, though to the less important office of representing the boroughs.

The change came by degrees; but in the reign of Edward III. it was completed, and from that period parliament has consisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons; in the former none sitting but the peers spiritual and temporal, in the latter the members for counties and boroughs forming one assembly. This addition to the burgesses of men of higher rank, who were landowners, and were also a connecting link between the barons and the freemen of the towns, greatly increased the dignity and influence of the House of Commons, giving it a standpoint independent both of king and nobles,