The Later Plantagenet Kings
Historical Note
THE Great Charter had done much for the freedom of the
English, but the barons and prelates still made up the
council. The extravagance and falseness of Henry III
(1216-1272) brought into life a strong party pledged
for popular rights. Earl Simon de Montfort was its
leader. In 1265, he forced the king to issue writs for
a Parliament, to which two knights from each shire and
also two representatives from each city and borough
were summoned. This was the first representative
Parliament, the beginning of the House of Commons.
Civil war arose, and in the battle of Evesham, De
Montfort was slain. His ideas, however, lived; and
during the following reign, that of Edward I
(1272-1307), what was known as the "Model Parliament"
was formed.
Edward III, who came to the throne in 1327, laid claim
to the crown of France, and thus England became
involved in the Hundred Years' War. In order to get
money for this war and for the crusades, many
privileges were granted to towns. The scarcity of labor
brought about by the Black Death, a terrible plague
which is said to have swept away half the population of
England, increased its value; and the success of the
yeomen in the war showed them the needlessness of their
dependence upon the knights for protection. Throughout
the land there was dissatisfaction and discontent.
There was also a longing for the religious aid and
comfort which the prelates of the Church had often
failed to make manifest. A reformer arose, John Wiclif.
He instituted an order of "poor priests," whose work it
was to go about through the land, preaching to the
poor. Wiclif's democratic teachings were believed to be
responsible in part for the Peasants' Revolt of 1381,
which is said to have been punished by the execution of
some fifteen hundred persons. Wiclif himself died
peacefully in 1384, but his followers, the Lollards as
they were called, suffered severe persecution.
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