A second Parliament was held in July. To it Edward summoned two or three elected knights from each shire.[143] The design behind the calling of the Parliament was probably the securing of a grant of a fifteenth of temporal movables, since it develops that such a tax was laid at that session, by clergy and laity alike.[144] Edward made a further demand of a tenth of spiritual revenue, which the clergy granted him on the 2d October following.[145] Apparently these offerings to the king were in payment for his banishment of the Jews, who were hated for their usurious habits and for their religion; the laity sought their expulsion for the former reason and the clergy ostensibly for the latter, but the offence to their pockets doubtless did much to arouse their religious zeal against the Jews.
The interval between 1290 and 1294 does not furnish a wealth of material. The royal poverty coexisted with a spirit of restlessness on the borders and in France during the four years, and little was accomplished toward relieving either the one or the other. In 1291 the Pope had complicated Edward’s relations with the English clergy by giving him a tenth of spiritual revenue for six years,[146] and the barons holding estates in Wales gave a fifteenth in 1292. Edward also had recourse to distraint of knighthood, which as in 1282 was symptomatic of a straitened treasury.[147]
Edward in June, 1294, held at Westminster a Parliament which was attended by the magnates of England and John Baliol, King of Scotland. The barons determined upon war with France, and proceeded to provide for the outlay necessitated by it, not by a general grant, but with private contributions. John Baliol gave the income from the estates which he held in England for three years, and the other magnates “promised aid according to their abilities.”[148] But the supply was far from being sufficient;Seizure of wool, 1294 Edward was obliged to adopt extraordinary means to meet his obligations. Shortly before the Westminster Council Edward had made a move which later assumed large proportions in the parliamentary eye. He seized all the wool in the country, belonging both to clergy and laymen, and released it the following July at a rate which meant scarcely less than redemption, three to five marks on the sack, and which was greatly in excess of the rate specified in 1275. Edward had a shadow of legal sanction for his act, perhaps the consent of the wool merchants,[149] perhaps an ordinance of his Council.[150]
In any event, he had the great defense of the exigencies of war, a plea which he knew how to make effective. Early in July he seized coined money which had been deposited in the cathedrals and religious houses for safekeeping, and had it removed to his treasury in London. “And he got much money which he never after restored,” says the Chronicler.[151]
Edward summoned for the 21st September of the same year a general convocation of the clergy to London. Beside the usual body of prelates, there were in attendance elected representatives of the parochial and cathedral clergy. Edward demanded half the spiritual revenue, to the great distress of the ecclesiastics. They demurred, and urged a postponement which Edward granted them. Upon their reassembling, the king reiterated his demand upon pain of outlawry in case of nonfulfillment. Clergy grant money under pain of outlawry, 1294 The Dean of St. Paul’s was so greatly terrified that he died of fright, and then the grant was made.[152] This assembly takes its importance from the fact that here was a tacit recognition of the need of clerical consent through representatives to taxation.
Knights of the Shire meet separately
On the 8th October, Edward addressed writs to the sheriffs ordering the election of two knights in each shire who were to come to Westminster on the 12th of the following month. They were to be of “full power for themselves and the entire community of the county aforesaid, to consult and consent for themselves and that community, to those things which the earls, barons, and chief men shall have agreed upon and ordained.”[153] The next day Edward sent out supplementary writs summoning two knights from each shire in addition to those previously called. There was no representation from the cities and boroughs. The laity proved more tractable than the clergy had been at their assembly in September, and readily accomplished Edward’s purpose. It is probable that their deliberations were not delayed, for on the same day with the assembling of the Parliament, was dated the appointment of the commissioners of collection. The laity of the baronage and the shires gave a tenth of all movables.[154] A sixth of movables was drawn from the towns by separate negotiation, or perhaps by way of tallage.[155]
The step to the events and attainments of the next year was not long, but it was of surpassing importance. The year 1295 is painted in scarlet on the canvas of constitutional progress in England. It witnessed the Model Parliament in the composition of which a principle was applied which must ever stand as the basic theory of popular legislative institutions; Events leading up to the Model Parliament, 1295 indeed, without it, there can be no lawmaking by the nation at all, and when the taxing power be included amongst the lawmaking functions, unless strict adherence be given to this principle, the taxpayer can never be assured of a voice in the laying of taxes. Edward I, furnishing the pattern, summoned the Model Parliament on the expressed theory that “what touches all, by all should be approved.” Here was the first authentic instance of a perfect and complete representation of the three estates in a national legislative body giving its assent to taxation.
The events immediately prior to the calling of the Parliament are of interest. Trouble was on with the Welsh, and a Scotch war began before the other was over. The French king had transgressed Edward’s Gascon possessions and his sailors had landed at Dover, putting a convent and some houses to the torch. Edward’s arms seemed doomed to universal failure; nowhere were his prospects bright. By no means the least serious feature of his position was an empty treasury. With the hope of devising the means of changing his fortune, he summoned to Westminster for the 1st August a Parliament composed of the barons and prelates of the realm. The session took place on the 15th August. The bulk of the debate was upon the proposal for papal mediation between England and France, and no attempt was made to raise money. But it was doubtlessly decided to ask for a grant at the meeting of Parliament intended for the following autumn.[156]
“What affects all, by all should be approved”