Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/539

 NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND 489 time of their election to such conditions as annual parlia- ments and no arbitrary imprisonment. But most of these other medieval states were smaller than England ; most of them were in the course of time to lose their independence and become absorbed into the larger European states of later times ; in most of them the medieval representative^assemblies ultimately disappeared or sank into insignificance. Only in England was a parliament founded in the Middle Ages destined to lead a healthy and continuous existence into modern times and down to the present day, and furnish a model for other nations which have reintroduced parliamentary government in the last century. England also was the only large state to emerge from the Middle Ages with a unified national law. EXERCISES AND READINGS The Common Law. Maitland, The Constitutional History of England, pp. 1-23. Chambers, Constitutional History of England, pp. 286-301. White, The Making of the English Constitution, pp. 220-38. Magna Carta. Adams and Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History, pp. 42-52. Note the numbers of the articles dealing with each of the following points and briefly summarize their contents: (1) feudalism; (2) forests; (3) Church; (4) common council; (5) judicial procedure; (6) trade and industry; (7) freedom of the subject from oppression. Omit those articles which deal with Wales and Scotland or with mat- ters of no lasting importance. How are the provisions of the charter to be enforced? Origin of Parliament, especially the House of Commons. Maitland, pp. 64-75; Chambers, pp. 167-80; White, pp. 298-325; Med- ley, English Constitutional History, sections 19-20. Reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Cross, A History of England and Greater Britain, pp. 166-81. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, sections 248, 250-55. (The standard work on the medieval English constitution.) 'The Spanish Cortes. Hallam, View of the State of Europe in the Middle Ages; such parts of chap, iv, "The History of Spain to the Conquest of Granada," as bear upon this topic. (A pioneer work, now old-fashioned, but the first sympathetic treatment of medieval civilization in English.)