3. The Birth of Parliament

In 1215 the barons refused to pay the scutage, conspired to resist the King who raised the taxes, they also occupied London and made King John sign the Magna Carta. This important document consisted of promising freedoms to all people; protecting the rights of ordinary people; giving England the basis of a legal system; promising to have good and fair laws, and preventing any freeman from being punished without a proper trial. In many ways, Magna Carta only protected the rights and privileges of nobles. However, as time passed, the English people came to regard it as one of the foundations of their rights and liberties.

King Edward I and the Model Parliament

From the earliest times, the kings of England had assembled nobles and other important subjects in the witan, or council, to advise them. The transition from the king’s council to Parliament was gradual. In 1295 the meeting of king Edward I's council, King John's grandson,  was known as ‘The Model Parliament’, England’s first Parliament.  King Edward I took a major step by calling together a governing body that included commoners and lower-ranking clergy, as well as high-level Church officials and nobles. The Impact of Political Developments in England These political changes contributed to the decline of feudalism in two ways. Some of the changes strengthened royal authority at the expense of the nobles. Others eventually shifted some power to the common people. According to Smithson "Magna Carta established the idea of rights and liberties that even a monarch cannot violate. This document also affirmed that monarchs should rule with the advice of the governed. Henry II's legal reforms strengthened English common law and the role of judges and juries". We deduce that Edward I's Model Parliament gave a voice in government to common people, as well as to nobles. All these ideas formed the basis for the development of modern democratic institutions.