Magna Carta: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Great Charter and its Influence on Medieval England and the Rest of the World by Captivating History

Author:Captivating History [History, Captivating]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8 –Second Barons’ War and Edward I

The revolt started when seven barons formed an alliance with the goal of expelling King Henry III’s half-brothers, the Lusignans, out of England. Among them was even a foreigner, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who was French by origin. He married the king’s sister and gained titles, but soon after, he fell out of the king’s grace. His motivation for joining the revolt might have been personal, but he became the loudest advocate of reforms that would be beneficial not only to the barons but also to the knight class. Knights were also suffering as the government isolated the king, who allowed profit and financial advantages only to the people closest to him. Other barons who forged the alliance with them were Roger and Hugh Bigod, John Fitzgeoffrey, Peter de Montfort, Peter de Savoy, and Richard de Clare. These seven barons also gained the support of Queen Eleanor, who saw benefits in expelling the Lusignans out of the kingdom.

The baron’s revolt of 1258 is considered the second great crisis in the rule of Henry III. They sought, once more, to restrain the king’s authority, and they wished to move beyond the Magna Carta and secure permanent baronial involvement in the government, to control the king and put him under the rule of law. They also wished to reform the state offices so that they would start serving the kingdom, not just the king. The barons started the revolt slowly by showing up at Parliament sessions often to voice their demands and express their views of the kingship. After a relatively short time, the seven barons started demanding the changes with aggression, and Henry could no longer deny the danger of a new civil war. However, the barons faced a dilemma. There was nothing in their power to make the king accept the reforms if they wished to avoid violence, which could mark them as oath breakers and have them arrested for treason. They decided to treat the king as a mentally ill, incompetent ruler whose advisors needed to be changed. They sought to return the body of the councilors as the king’s guardians, just as in the years of his minority. The barons formed “le commun de Engleterre,” or, as translated in modern English, “the community of the realm,” a society that had the power to speak for the whole kingdom.

In June 1258, during the parliament session in Oxford, a demand was presented that the king should be faithful to the oath he made while reissuing the Magna Carta in 1225. Parliament proceeded with the insistence that both the king and the “community of the realm” should form a committee that would reform the government. Each party had to nominate twelve representatives, who would become the members of the committee and would work together to construct the acceptable reforms. This committee started their work and issued a series of governmental experiments that would last until 1265. They concentrated on searching for a way to limit the king’s power and broadened the responsibilities of the English government.

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