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The Charter and its Guardian, Parliamen
Edward I and the Law; Part 3
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Edward I and the Law; Part 3
The end of the thirteenth century, then, saw the making of Parliament, the germ of a representative governing assembly. Yet it is going too far to think of Plantagenet parliaments as exactly like the busy, inquisitive, masterful body of to-day. In the first place, Lords and Commons still sat together; the severance between the two houses did not come till Edward II's day. Secondly, Parliament had no regular time for being summoned; that depended on the king. Thirdly, it had only a very indirect control over the king and his ministers; the only way it could make its power felt was by withholding supplies (Even so, much of the royal revenue was still beyond its control. Royal revenue at this time, and for long years after, may be broadly divided into two kinds, ordinary and exceptional. The ordinary supply came mainly from the royal demesne - the estates, that is to say, that the king owned, like a feudal lord. The profits of these, coupled with the fines imposed for breaches of the law; the payments made by towns on the royal demesne, and the money paid by merchants trading into and out of the kingdom, sufficed for the normal expenditure of the king. Extra or unusual expenses, such as were demanded by war, were met by "taxation", properly so called. This was not at first annual, but exceptional. It did not always fall on the same class; it might take the shape of a grant of a tenth or a fifteenth on the lands of the barons, or it might fall on the lands of the Church, or it might be a tallage on towns or a prisage imposed on the wine or wool of the merchants. By taking now one and now another, a rough equality was maintained. Still, so long as the king mainly "lived of his own" (on his own income), the control exercised by Parliament was bound to be incomplete. It was only as the king's private wealth dwindled and the importance of taxation increased that Parliament got a more complete hold over him). It could not make laws; what it did was to petition the king, and if he gave assent to its petitions with the words, Le Roi le veut, they became statutes; if, however, the king replied, Le Roi s'avisera (i.e. "The king will see about it"), the petition might be altered or dropped, It could not make ministers, though by degrees it found a cumbrous way of getting rid of exceptionally bad ministers by impeaching (Properly so-called an Impeachment is a trial in which the House of Commons is the accuser and the Lords are the judges. It differs from an Act of Attainder (the other parliamentary way of getting rid of an unpopular or guilty minister), for an Act of Attainder is not a trial at all, but (as its name denotes) a Bill of Parliament declaring that such and such a person is guilty of whatever it may be and is to be put to death. This becomes an Act by passing the two Houses in the usual way, and on receiving the Royal Assent becomes part of the law of the land - though only applying to the person or persons named in it. The word Attainder means that the "blood" (the family) was "attainted", and therefore the man's goods and property were forfeited to the king) them. It was not much consulted about affairs of state. Speaking generally, it had little force of its own. If the king smiled on it, it grew strong and even pugnacious; if the royal favour was turned away, it dwindled. Thus Parliament had little character of its own; it merely reflected the character of its patron for the time being. Members of the Commons did not covet membership, or come back year after year, as they do now, with the experience of many sessions. On the contrary, the task of being a member was rather looked on as a disagreeable and expensive duty, to be discharged once, and if possible eluded for the future. An assembly made up in the main of new and inexperienced men would naturally be timid. In a word, Parliament under the Plantagenets, and for many years after, was rather a weapon which could be wielded than a power which would act by itself. None the less, the root of the matter was in it. It did represent the nation; it did possess the power of the purse; and from this by degrees grew the rest.
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Chronology
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