The Evolution of Parliament

King John's castle

 

As I said in one of the previous posts, we owe to the British the institution of parliament in its modern form.

Today, we will see how that institution evolved on the British Isles. In fact, we will see the evolution of the English political system. A noteworthy fact is that the modern political system in England results mainly from practice, customs and developed habits rather than from written constitutions.

So, let's take it from the top. Here we go.

In Anglo-Saxon England, hide was a unit of land measurement representing the amount of land that was deemed sufficient to support one family (supposing that the members of that family did not eat as much as my brother, that is!)

One hundred hides constituted a hundred, an administrative unit with its own court.

Many hundreds constituted a shire, aka county, the head of which was a nobleman bearing the title of  ealdorman.

Lastly, many shires constituted (drumroll) the kingdom, the head of which was... guess who!

The monarch was helped with his duties by an assembly of secular and clerical noblemen known as Witenagemot (rumors that whoever managed to pronounce this correctly first try won a lifetime supply of chocolate are yet to be confirmed). That assembly also elected the monarch. In any case, though, the new king had to be one of the royal family line, since, as 'descendants' of God Odin, only those fellows had a right to the throne.

When William the Conqueror conquered England (details about that HERE), he imposed a more autocratic regime. He replaced the Witenagemot with a council called concilium privatum assiduum ordinarium, but, since the last person to try to pronounce this correctly is still being hospitalized in a comatose state, we call it curia regis for short.

In the beginning, that council had executive, legislative and judicial duties. However, as the workload increased over the centuries, several more specialized bodies gradually developed out of the curia regis, such as the Cabinet (in other words, the government), the Exchequer (finances), various courts of law and, of course, the Parliament.

Essentially, the Parliament was created in 1215. The noblemen were extremely displeased with King John, who kept asking for money in order to support the war with King Philip II of France, which led to the loss of most English territories in France.

Then again, as unfavorable as the outcome of that war might have seemed back then, the loss of those lands was probably a blessing in disguise; I mean, taking into account the cultural differences between England and France and the cost of guarding those territories, at the end of the day, they were just a pain in the ass for England.

In any case, the noblemen revolted and forced John to sign the Manga Carta. According to that, the king could no longer levy new taxes or increase already existing ones without the consent of the Great Council, an expanded form of the curia regis. The Great Council consisted of secular and clerical noblemen (archbishops, earls, barons yada yada). 

The Houses of Parliament

The institution further evolved during the Second Barons' War, when, at the Battle of Lewes, King Henry III was taken prisoner by the rebels, whose leader was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. And, while Henry was trying his hardest not to drop the soap in jail, Simon summoned the first parliament in English history without any prior royal authorization. Furthermore, this was also the first time that the boroughs sent representatives to the Parliament as well. Boroughs were semi autonomous, fortified settlements that functioned outside of the shires' administrative power.

However, the boroughs' representation in the Parliament did not become permanent before the Model Parliament, which King Edward I summoned in 1295. Edward probably did so in an attempt to balance out the aristocracy's power. And so, ever since, the Parliament is divided into two groups: the House of Lords (noblemen) and the House of Commons (peasants commoners).

How exactly each district elected their representatives to the Parliament back then is unclear. You are free to presume anything. Your guess is as good as mine. Use your imagination!

Over the following centuries, English politics were a constant contest for power between the Crown (the monarch) and the Parliament. Sometimes one side dominated, other times the other side dominated. For example, King Henry VIII enforced what was essentially a totalitarian regime; during his reign, the Parliament had practically zero power and His Majesty would summon them only whenever he felt like using them as blocks to play human tetris with.

The Parliament achieved the final victory in 1689, when William III and Mary II (should we call that shipping Milliam or Wary?) accepted the Bill of Rights. From now on, no bill could turn into a law unless voted by the Parliament.

Even though the Bill of Rights greatly limited the sovereign's power, the English political system was still far from the constitutional monarchy we are familiar with today. The monarch still had enormous power. 

For one thing, they were still the head of the government, the members of which they could appoint and dismiss regardless of the Parliament's opinion. (Though it eventually became a convention that the government should consist of PMs [parliament members] from the party having won the general elections, since, in practice, that was necessary for the Cabinet and the Parliament effectively collaborating.)

Also, true, no bill proposed by the government could turn into a law unless the Parliament approved it, but it was also the other way around: No bill voted by the Parliament could turn into a law unless the monarch approved it. In other words, at the end of the day, the monarch still had the final say.

The monarchy was essentially stripped of all its powers a few years later. On the pretext that King George I was German and, therefore, the English language wasn't exactly his strong point, the leadership of the government was undertaken by the prime minister. 

The House of Lords also lost its power, in 1911, after lengthy disputes with the House of Commons which led to the Parliament Act of 1911.

Nowadays, executive power is exercised by the government, legislative power is exercised by the House of Commons and, as for the Crown and the House of Lords, there is little left for them to do other than eating the taxpayers' food and decorating lifestyle magazines with photos of them. Well, theoretically, the monarch still has the right to veto a bill voted by the Parliament, but that royal prerogative hasn't been used since 1708. Ironically, the last monarch to have the balls to veto was a woman (Queen Anne).

Anyway, that's enough for today.

Till next time, don't forget to buy/advertise my novels on Amazon (my author page HERE) and share my posts on social media.

See you next time.