The beginning of parliament

King John promised to speak to his 'council' before he charged taxes. This council was a meeting of the bishops, abbots, earls, and barons. Soon after King John's time, it began to be called parliament. The name comes from the French word 'parler', to speak or talk. So a parliament was where the king talked to the great lords.

John's son, Henry III, also quarrelled with his barons. He too put up taxes without asking their advice. Simon de Montfort, who led the rebel barons, was on top for a while, but in the end he lost and was killed in battle. But Henry learned a lesson. In future, he asked parliament to agree to new taxes.

Henry III sometimes asked knights of the shire to come to his parliaments. These knights owned land, but were not as rich as the barons. Later, the boroughs, or main towns, were told to send burgesses. Burgess just means townsman, but the burgesses who came to parliament were always rich merchants. These knights and burgesses were the first 'common' men, or commons, to sit in parliament.

By the end of the thirteenth century, parliament met quite often. It contained both great lords and commons. It had the right to say 'Yes' or 'No' to taxes. And it had the power to make statutes, or new laws.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 31 f.