Coalition of barons against the king. The first Parliament
John tried to maintain his position over the Church and many of the nobility. His clash with the clergy caused England to be placed under Papal interdict between 1208 to 1213. John became the vassal of the pope. The pope became John’s closest ally. The war with the papacy and the French war had meant that John had increased taxation and had used every available means of collecting the money. The Church had been angry, first at the war with the papacy, and secondly at the King’s surrender to the pope. Thus, in 1215 the richest and the most powerful sections of English society — the aristocracy, the Church and the merchants - formed a coalition against the King. John’s opponents obliged him to agree to the terms of Magna Carta, or the Great Charter. This charter of liberties was a condemnation of John’s use of feudal, judicial and other governmental powers, for it defined and limited royal rights. Baronial liberties were protected and freemen were provided with some guaranties against royal actions. The king promised all “freemen” protection from his officers, and the right to a fair and legal trial.
John had no intention of agreeing Magna Carta without a fight. The war with the barons continued. John died in 1216. England was deep in war. His son Henry became the King Henry III. The years of Henry’s rule were marked by a series of minor crises in which the baronage tried to strengthen their position, often on the basis laid by Magna Carta. In 1258 a council of 15 people was appointed to direct the government of the country. Edward I, the son of Henry III brought together the first real parliament. The parliament included only nobles. It had been able to make statutes, or written laws, and it had been able to make political decisions. However, the lords were less able to provide the king with money. But Edward I was the first to create a “representative institution” which could provide the money he needed. This institution became the House of Commons. Unlike the House of Lords it contained a mixture of “gentry” (knights and other wealthy freemen from the shires) and merchants from the towns. These were the two broad classes of people who produced and controlled England’s wealth. In 1275 Edward I commanded each shire and each town to send two representatives to his parliament.
Edward I was less interested in winning back parts of France than in bringing the rest of Britain under his control. William I had allowed his lords to win land by conquest in Wales. The conquered people became vassals of the English king. In 1284 Edward I united west Wales with England, bringing the English county system to the newly conquered lands.
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The English considered that Wales had become part of England for all practical purposes. If the Welsh wanted a prince, they could have one. At a public ceremony Edward I made his own baby son (later Edward II) Prince of Wales. From that time the eldest son of the ruling king or queen has usually been made Prince of Wales.
Relations between England and Scotland
In Scotland things were very different. Although Scottish kings had sometimes accepted the English king as their “overlord”, they were much stronger than the many Welsh kings had been. By the eleventh century there was only one king of Scots, and he ruled over all the south and east of Scotland. Only a few areas of the western coast were still completely independent. But only the English king with a large army could hope to defeat the Scots. Most English kings did not even try, but Edward I was different.
The Scottish kings were closely connected with England. Since Saxon times, marriages had frequently taken place between the Scottish and English royal families. Scotland followed England in creating a feudal state. However, the tribal “clan” system continued to exist in the Highlands. Some Scottish kings held land in England, just as English kings held lands in France.
In 1290 a crisis took place over the succession to the Scottish throne. There were thirteen possible heirs. In order to avoid civil war the Scottish nobles invited Edward I to settle the matter. He invaded Scotland and put one of them, John de Balliol, who accepted his overlordship before he would help to settle the question, on the Scottish throne.
Edward tried tomake Scotland a part of England, as he had done with Wales. Some Scottish nobles accepted him, but the people refused to be ruled by the English king. However, neither he nor his successors became kings of Scots.
Capital of England
There was no real capital of the kingdom as there is today. Kings were crowned in Westminster, but their treasury stayed in the old Wessex capital, Winchester. When William and the kings after him moved around the country staying in towns and castles, they were accompanied by a large number of followers. Wherever they went the local people had to give them food and somewhere to stay. This system needed people who could administer taxation, justice, and carry out the king’s instructions. At first this “administration” was based in Winchester, but by the time of Edward I, in 1290, it had moved to Westminster. It is still there today.
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