Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/465

 THE CASTLE, AND ' THE PROVISIONS OF OXKOIU).' 303 kitolicii of the castle was ordered to lie rci)aired a<;ainst the King's visit at Christmas (Rot. Lib., 13, Hen. III.), seventeenth (1223), twenty-second (123S), tliirty-first (1247), thirty- eighth (1254), forty-second (1258), and forty-eighth (12(14), years of his reign, the barons who met here in the forty- second year, exacted those celebrated Provisions which, although impaired by arbitrary dictation to the King when lie was incapable of vindicating the royal prerogative, were nevertheless the universal cause of extending the privileges of the community ; and, notwithstanding a spirit of faction clouded the purity of their motives and rendered their patriotism doubtful, yet it must be confessed on all sides that their exertions greatly advanced the cause of national liberty. The overbearing conduct of Henry, his necessities, and his tyranny, had rendered him so extremely unpopular, that the discontented barons, yielding readily to the instigation of Simon de Montfort, assembled and demanded a redress of their grievances. Some of their wishes were sufficiently reasonable ; for instance, their desire to have a confirmation of the Great Charter of his ftither, and fixed periods during the year for the meeting of Parliament ; but when the Council of Twenty-four sought to reform abuses, they usurped an unconstitutional power over the whole kingdom, not unlike that exercised by the thirty tyrants at the close of the Peloponnesian war, and as long as the Provisions remained in force, the kingdom was kept in a state of disquietude and confusion. This is the first time the term Parliament occurs in any official document, and, in allusion to the strong measures introduced by the barons, it was subsequently called the Mad Parliament. Very little need be said about the Parliament held at Oxford in the forty-eighth of Henry the Third. The custom of assembling knights from every county had been previously adopted, but at this meeting, instead of being nominated, as formerl}^ by the King or the sheriff, they were summoned to be chosen b}^ the assent of the county, thus originating the modern practice. In the interval between the two Parlia- ments, the King of France had been called in to mediate betwixt Henry and the Barons, but his award was indig- nantly rejected, the nobles declaring that the Provisions of