It was 760 years ago on this day, 28 June 1264, that England became a constitutional monarchy for the first time. Six weeks earlier Simon de Monfort led his popular army to victory against his lordship the king Henry III at the battle of Lewes. With the great seal now firmly in his hands, de Montfort summoned a parliament that convened at St. Paul’s in London.
He presented a plan to the assembly that called for three electors to choose a council of nine to govern the realm. He was the only elector that mattered and the nine below him were all close allies. The king was not deposed because Simon needed Henry’s seal and the fiction of his approval to make his populist regime palatable at home and abroad. To ensure the king made no trouble about it, his son and heir Edward was imprisoned as a hostage.
Six months later Simon summoned another parliament, the one that made him famous because it included representatives of the towns. In their wisdom, modern historians decided this action was a greater constitutional innovation than not only his first parliament but also the one that occurred a decade earlier in 1254. That’s when Queen Eleanor of Provence, acting as regent for her husband, ordered the counties to hold the first elections in history for parliamentary representation.
There was only one item on the agenda for Simon’s second parliament, and that was the release of Edward. The results were a sham because Edward still had to escape to obtain his freedom. It was soon over after that. Simon was forced to go on the run, but he refused to release the king because Henry’s great seal was all he had left. He used it for final time in the patent rolls on 28 June 1265. It was a desperate plea for help, issued exactly one year after he stood supreme before all and sundry.
The Henry III Roundtable will continue their discussion on Simon’s career today at 16:00 London time.
Meeting ID: 854 3174 8328
Passcode: 2Rhwfi