Parliament was not definitely divided into two houses until the reign of Edward III. In this reign the Commons succeeded in establishing the illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and the right of the Commons to enquire into public abuses and to impeach public counsellors. Under the second heading is introduced a distinction between statutes and ordinances; the latter being of a temporary character, and requiring to be confirmed by Parliament before they acquire permanent authority. In the next reign the Commons assert the right of examining the public expenditure. Moreover the Parliaments more openly and boldly expressed resentment at the acts of the king's ministers and claimed rights of control. For a time, however, the king secured supremacy by a coup d'état; which in turn brought about his deposition, and the accession of Henry IV., despite the absurd weakness of his title to the inheritance of the Crown.
The rights thus acquired developed until the War of the Roses. Notably redress of grievances became the condition of supply; and the inclination of the Crown to claim a dispensing power is resolutely combated. It is also to be remarked that the king's foreign policy of war or peace is freely submitted to the approval of Parliament.
This continues during the minority of Henry VI.; but the revival of dissatisfaction with the government leads to a renewed activity in the practice of impeachments; and Parliament begins to display a marked sensitiveness on the question of its privileges. The Commons further definitely express their exclusive right of originating money bills.
At this time it is clear that at least all freeholders were entitled to vote in the election of the knights of the shire. The selection of the towns which sent up members, and the franchise under which their members were elected, seems to have been to a considerable extent arbitrary. Nor can we be perfectly certain of the principles on which writs were issued for attendance in the upper house. We find that for some time the lower clergy as well as the higher were summoned to attend Parliament; but presently, sitting in a separate chamber, they ceased to take part in Parliamentary business.
We have seen the King's Court divided into three courts of justice. The court itself, however, as the king's Council, continued to exercise a juridical as well as a deliberative and administrative function. In spite of the charter, it possessed an effective if illegal power of arbitrary imprisonment.
So far the essential character of our constitution appears to be a monarchy greatly limited by law but swerving continually into irregular courses which there was no constraint adequate to correct. There is absolutely no warrant for the theory that the king was merely a hereditary executive magistrate, the first officer of the State. The special advantage enjoyed by England lay in the absence of an aristocracy with interests antagonistic to those of the people. It would be truer to say that the liberties of England were bought by money than by the blood of our forefathers.
The process by which the villein became a hired labourer is obscure and an attempt was made to check it by the Statute of Labourers at the time of the Black Death. This was followed by the peasant's revolt of 1382, which corresponded to the far worse horrors of the French Jacquerie. Sharply though this was suppressed, the real object of the rising seemed to have been accomplished. Of the period of the Wars of the Roses it is here sufficient to say that it established the principle embodied in a statute of Henry VII. that obedience to the de facto government is not to be punished on the ground that government is not also de jure.
V.--Europe
In spite of the Teutonic incursion, Latin remained the basis of language as it survived in Italy, France, and Spain. But the pursuit of letters was practically confined to the clergy and was by them employed almost exclusively in the interests of clerical authority. To this end a multitude of superstitions were encouraged; superstitions which were the cause of not a few strange and irrational outbursts of fanaticism. The monasteries served indeed a useful purpose as sanctuaries in days of general lawlessness and rapine; but the huge weight of evidence is conclusive as to the general corruption of morals among the clergy as among the laity. The common diversion of the upper classes, lay and clerical, when not engaged in actual war, was hunting. An extended commerce was impossible when robbery was a normal occupation of the great.
Gradually, however, a more orderly society emerged. Maritime commerce developed in two separate areas, the northern and western, and the Mediterranean. The first great commerce in the north arises from the manufacture in Flanders of the wool exported from England. And in the fourteenth century England herself began to compete in the woollen manufacture. The German free manufacturing towns established the Great Hanseatic League; but maritime commerce between the Northern and Southern areas was practically non-existent till the fifteenth century, by which time English ships were carrying on a fairly extensive traffic in the Mediterranean. In that area the great seaports of Italy, and in a less degree, of Catalonia and the French Mediterranean seaboard, developed a large commerce. Naturally, however, the law which it was sufficiently difficult to enforce by land was even more easily defied on the sea, and piracy was extremely prevalent.