In 1224 war was on with Philip II for the possession of Poictou. The taxation which had not been severe up to this time, was insufficient for the prosecution of a war with France.[90] The justiciar at the Christmas Council 1224 brought forward a demand for a fifteenth of all movables.[91] The barons, acting beyond the power which even the Charter of John had given them, refused to consent, unless Henry should “of his own natural and good will” renew Magna Carta. Conditional grant of a fifteenth of movables, 1224 He yielded, and reissued both the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forests in practically the same form as the issue of 1217. That the reissue partook of the nature of a contract between the barons and the king is evinced in the concluding portion of the Charter itself.[92] There it is openly stated that “the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, freeholders, and all persons of the realm, give the fifteenth part of all movables to the king,” “for this concession and granting of liberties.”
Here is an unequivocal instance of a tax on movables, applying to every person in the kingdom from the archbishops and great nobles down, granted explicitly by the Council in return for Henry’s specific promise to adhere to the Charter. It was the most natural thing in the world, that the barons should demand a favor in return for granting one. They had Henry in a box and his acquiescence is none the less natural. Yet the action is of great importance in view of later developments. Time and time again the situation was to be repeated, and out of repetition was to come usage which would be frozen into law. It is of vast interest, therefore, to note the appearance so early of the conditional grant.
The Council continued to exercise the right not merely of making grants of money in consideration of a redress of grievances, Other conditional grants and instances of refusal but also of refusing to make a grant at all, whenever such a stand suited their convenience. In 1232 the Earl of Chester, being spokesman for the barons, objected to a request for money with which to carry on the French war, on the plea that they had served in person; the clergy sought postponement, raising the significant plea of an incomplete assembly of prelates.[93]
Again, five years later, Henry being in dire distress for money because of unwise expenditure and the lightness of recent taxation,[94] summoned an extraordinary council of barons and prelates “to arrange the royal business” and matters concerning the whole kingdom. William de Ralegh, a clerk of the king, introduced the royal needs, saying that “the king humbly demands assistance of you in money.” Sensing beforehand an attitude of antagonism, he made this remarkable concession, that “the money which may be raised by your good will shall be kept to be expended for the necessary uses of the kingdom, at the discretion of any of you elected for the purpose.” But the barons failed to perceive the greatness of the opportunity which lay open to them. Offer of a disbursing commission, 1237, rejected Had they but availed themselves of it, they would have gone far toward the establishment of the power of the legislature over the public purse, and might have accomplished in a moment, had they been able to maintain their control, what many succeeding parliaments were to strive for in vain. But apparently the baronage was not gifted with political perception; they saw only a demand for money and “began to murmur.” They complained that the foreign advisers of the king had been wasting the royal revenue and that there was no great enterprise afoot which required a full treasury. Then the king proceeded to conciliate them with what in comparison with the proposed concession of the disbursing commission, was a mess of pottage; he ordered the renewal of the sentence of excommunication of all violators of the Charter, promised to abide by it himself, and received three additional Councillors named by the Council.[95] Thereupon a grant of the thirtieth part of all the movable property in the kingdom was made by the lords “for themselves and their villans.”[96] In this phrase of the writ is evidence in favor of the supposition that the lords of the Council regarded themselves as authoritative spokesmen for their vassals. The money was to be collected in accordance with the prescription of the Council; four knights and a clerk (appointed apparently by the king), were to receive the assessment of each township from the reeve and four men, elected for the purpose. Here was evidence of progress; the step was not very long from the assessment and collection of a tax to the granting of it by the people themselves. The king profited to the amount of some £22,600.
After a lapse of five years, Henry found himself, as he supposed, on the brink of a war with France; he therefore sent out orders for a session of the Council. Apprehending that the summons presaged a demand for money, the baronage, “because they knew that the king had so often harassed them in this way on false pretences, ... they made oath together that at this council no one should on any account consent to any extortion of money to be attempted by the king.”[97] When the Council met, therefore, Henry was greeted with a refusal, on the grounds that he had engaged in the war without asking their advice, and that Refusal of a grant, 1242 “he had so often extorted large sums of money from them, which was expended with no advantage; they therefore now opposed him to his face, and refused once more to be despoiled of their money to no purpose.” Harking back to the conditions of the grant of 1237, and laboring, apparently, under the misconception that the king had promised that the money be spent under the direction of a disbursing commission, they complained because they did “not know and have not heard that any of the aforesaid money has been expended at the discretion or by the advice of any one of the said four nobles.”
Thus did they refuse. But Henry was neither to be robbed of his hoped-for supply nor yet induced to give further concessions. He therefore turned to strategy. Summoning the barons and prelates to him one by one, he “begged pecuniary aid from them, saying, ‘See what such an abbot has given to aid me, and what another has given me.’” By such means he managed to wring from the barons individually what he had been unable to induce them to give in the Council. With the money thus obtained Henry set out on a campaign doomed to ignominious failure. Before he came back to England he used this expedition as the pretext for a scutage of twenty shillings on the fee.[98]
Similar success did not meet Henry, when, two years later, he attempted to raise funds with which to prosecute a Scotch war. In the fall[99] of 1244 Henry summoned his Council to London; he laid before it the story of his recent journey to Gascony and used the debts which he had incurred as the pretext for a grant.[100] He addressed the baronage in person in the expectation that they would not refuse a face to face appeal; the nobles, however, withdrew to consult amongst themselves, with the result that a committee of twelve, representing the three bodies of Great Council in 1244 holds out for supervised expenditure prelates, earls, and barons, was chosen to draw up an answer to the king. Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose great opportunity was not yet come, served as one of the four earls; and Richard de Montfichet, one of the few executors of Magna Carta who still survived, acted amongst the delegation from the baronage. The reply was consistent with the works of both. The committee complained of the nonobservance of the Charter, of the rash and fruitless expenditure of money, and demanded the appointment of a justiciar and a chancellor “by whom the kingdom might be consolidated.”
The king, however, was unwilling to act under compulsion; he refused the petition and ordered the barons to reassemble three weeks after the Purification of the Virgin in 1245. Thereupon the nobles declared their willingness to grant him money, provided that in the meantime the king should choose proper counsellors and institute reforms. The proviso which was of greatest importance, however, was this, “that whatever money was granted to him should be expended by the twelve ... nobles for the king’s benefit.” These conditions were greatly to Henry’s distaste; he set himself to wring money from the prelates, but with no success. Then the Council “broke up, much to the king’s discontent.”
A scheme of control
The historian proceeds to give a scheme of reform which may possibly be the result of the deliberations of the magnates, presented by them to Henry for his consent.[101] It provides for the election by the Council of four of its “most discreet” members to serve as counsellors of the king. “By their inspection,” the account states further, “and on their evidence the king’s treasury shall be managed, and the money granted to him by the community in general shall be expended for the benefit of the king and kingdom according as they shall see to be most expedient and advantageous.” The four counsellors were to have numerous other powers and duties, many of which are suggestive of the scheme subsequently put into practice by Simon de Montfort.