Democracy as we know it began in England in the summer of
1258. The document that set forth its shape and functions is not the much
lauded Magna Carta, but the Provisions
of Oxford, and the slightly amplified Provisions of Westminster written three
months later.
These two Constitutions are little known because knowledge
of them and their champion Simon de Montfort was suppressed for seven hundred
years. Fifty years ago today Queen Elizabeth II signaled recognition of England’s
stupendous leap toward modern government by celebrating the event that regained
the government of the Provisions: Simon de Montfort’s miraculous victory over
the royal forces at Lewes, May 14, 1264.
That victory has been re-enacted this year, and it’s hoped
that, though the Queen’s gesture fifty years ago brought little on-going
acknowledgement of Montfort and the Provisions, now and in the coming years his
astonishing achievement -- and the importance of the document created by
committees of lords and clergymen at Oxford in 1258 -- will be realized and
celebrated as they ought.
What did the Provisions set forth? A Parliament composed of
two Houses, one elected by the common people; a Chancellor (keeper of the royal
seal without which no document was official) and Justiciar (head of the royal
courts of law) chosen by the Parliament. The King remained upon the throne (the
executive branch: president or prime minister in most modern democracies) but
had power only to officially ratify Parliament’s decisions.
There had been “parliaments” before 1258, the word means
merely a “gathering to talk.” Emperors, kings, warlords and tribal chiefs from
time immemorial had sought advice from their followers, priests and even some
common subjects they selected. What marks the Parliament of the Provisions as
unique is that the Parliament had power over the king. And it met
thrice yearly at a regularly appointed time and place – whether the king
summoned it or not.
Edward I summoned a “parliament” that included common men. Diverting
attention from the far more radical powers of the Provisions, his is often
called “the great Parliament.” Edward was in no way compelled to follow his
gathering’s decisions – and for the most part he didn’t. Not until the
revolution of Oliver Cromwell did Parliament regain its full force -- with the
exception of the years 1264-1265, and it is this restoration that is celebrated
on its 750th anniversary today.
What happened between the close of the meeting at Oxford in
1258 and May 1264 that many celebrate today as if it were the anniversary of
the birth of England’s Parliament?
At the Oxford meeting’s close the lords who, in committees,
created the Provisions, departed in haste, pursuing King Henry III’s Lusignan half-brothers.
They feared the brothers would escape to the continent and raise an army
against the astonishing new form of government just proposed. Besieging the Lusignan
brothers in the castle at Winchester, the lords fell victim to poison – a favorite
Lusignan response to siege (they had poisoned King Louis IX’s army when they
were besieged at Frontenay in Gascony in 1242.)
Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester and England’s chief
military tactician, alone of the lords, did not go to Winchester but remained
at Oxford deftly putting the Provisions into effect, sending summons to all
England’s sheriffs to hold elections of “knights of the shire” to come and
represent the common people’s will at the newly constituted, and regularly
scheduled, Parliament to be held in October.
At that October meeting King Henry and his heir, Edward,
were made to swear to uphold the Provisions and the Parliament it created. In
the following year, at the next Parliament, the slightly amended, and
strengthened, Provisions were adopted under the name of the Provisions of
Westminster.
But now opposition to the innovations was gaining strength.
The very lords (those who had survived the poisoning) who’d been delighted to
curb the royal prerogatives of taxation and Henry’s particular offenses, were
infuriated when those same curbs of law were applied to their own powers over their
peasantry.
And there were the Ordinances – a proposal that would radically
change the economic system of feudalism to something approaching modern
socialism. The Ordinances were repeatedly blocked from coming up for vote.
From what did such radical, almost socialist, thinking
spring?
The philosophical/theological foundation upon which this amazing
revolution was built was the millennial theory of a twelfth century theologian,
Joachim de Fiore. He held that the year 1260 was to mark the advent of the
Third Era of mankind: a thousand years in which kingship, individual nations
and the church would dissolve into a single world order governed by the common
man through the process of free elections.
The revolution of 1258 was a practical response by the lords
and clergy of England to a long pattern of abuses by King Henry, but their
actions were seen by the common people, and by the Franciscan and Dominican friars
who preached to them, as the advent of the New Age.
And Simon de Montfort, taking upon himself the
responsibility of making the government of the Provisions a reality, was seen
as God’s agent – the Angel of the Millennium.
King Henry, never acquiescing in the Provisions, worked for
its suppression and by 1260 he was ready to oppose Parliament with an army
brought from France. Montfort, in a move that stuns the imagination, stole the
army initially collected and brought it to England to defend the Parliament.
When Henry eventually arrived in England, protesting his innocence and love of
Parliament, Montfort was tried for treason.
The trial, held in France and postponed until 1262, released
Montfort from all charges. But by that time Parliament in England had fallen
victim to King Henry’s undermining and the lords’ betrayal of the principals
that would have given their own people recourse against abuse.
Having had enough of England, preparing to go to Palestine,
Montfort was approached by clergymen and the young heirs of England’s nobility who
embraced the Provisions. An army was raised to oppose the King and lords, and,
succumbing to temptation, Montfort returned to England and agreed to lead it.
At first victory was his. City after city capitulated or was
conquered, King Henry and Edward were effectively held prisoners and made to
accept the Provisions. But with the King and Prince’s escape. Facing direct military
confrontation against the monarch to whom his loyalty had been solemnly sworn, Montfort
opted for arbitration by the King of France – supposing he again would win in France’s
Court.
But, injured in a riding accident, Montfort could not attend,
and the Mise of Amiens declared the Provisions null – against God’s principals
of Creation -- as currently interpreted by Thomas Aquinas whose theology now was
favored over that of revolution-provoking Joachim.
Montfort refused to accept the decision at Amiens and openly
went to war against his king. The common folk hailed him as the Angel with the
Sword of the Apocalypse. But his army consisted of his sons, a few young lords,
noble youths untried in battle, archers from Wales and from the criminal
hideouts of Sherwood and the Weald and several thousand Londoners distinguished
for rapine.
These amateurs faced the large, battle-wise army of the
lords of England and their knights, King Henry himself, Prince Edward and Henry’s
clever brother Richard, the elected King of the Germans.
After the Londoners in his following raped and murdered their
way through the city of Rochester, Montfort clearly came to doubt the divine
mission of his cause. Repeatedly he begged King Henry for peace and amnesty — up
to the night of May 13 when, following the royal army at a slight distance, he
sent ahead the Bishops of London and Worcester, offering his personal surrender
and payment of reparations to the sum of thirty-thousand pounds.
King Henry, lodging at the priory in the village of Lewes,
refused to grant mercy.
With no recourse -- with death inevitable as inexperienced
youths and rabble faced the King’s well-armed, well-taught military, Simon de
Montfort had the two bishops administer the Last Rights to his whole army.
Then, through the night, they marched to Lewes, taking up positions
on three peninsulas of the high downs that probed above the little valley of Lewes.
Dawn was their signal to gallop headlong to their deaths amid the King’s camp
gathered round the priory. At dawn Montfort’s army made their hopeless attack.
It was the morning of May 14, 1264, 750 years ago this day.
Miraculously, by afternoon the army of the Provisions and
its commander Simon de Montfort were victorious. The royal arm was destroyed,
most of the lords of England, the King and his brother Richard were held
prisoner. Prince Edward, who had absented himself and his soldiers from the
battlefield, intent upon pursuing fleeing Londoners across the downs, was held
tightly at siege in Lewes’ little castle.
The Angel of the Apocalypse and his army of innocents (cleansed
by Edward of its murderous Londoners) had won. It seemed indeed a miracle. And
it confirmed that the Provisions were God’s Will for mankind.
Nothing, not even God’s so manifested will, seems to move
with steady progress in history. Within a year the forces opposing the Provisions
had regrouped, and vanquished the Provisions’ partisans at the battle of Evesham.
Montfort was slain and his body desecrated, but from beneath
all that remained -- his naked torso -- a spring came forth, its waters proclaimed
to have healing powers.
Montfort was revered as the champion of the great lost
cause, the Angel with the Sword, or possible the Risen Christ returned to bring
God’s kingdom to mankind: that new order governed through direct divine
inspiration and election -- when God’s Will would be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
We have yet two hundred years to go in this millennium of
revolution. Thomas Merton foresaw the coming of a united world ruled by all
mankind as achievable through technological. This advent of World Consciousness
we seem on our way to achieving through the internet.
But will mankind be wise? The revolution of Joachim and
Simon de Montfort was one of faith. We might achieve dominance of a unified
world by the common man in two hundred years – but where is the divine spirit
guiding each soul to act and vote well? We
can create the new tools of the Millennium – but can we create the new man?
Katherine Ashe is the author of the four-volume novelized
biography of Simon de Montfort. The volumes relevant to the above article are Montfort the Revolutionary 1253-1260 and
Montfort the Angel with the Sword 1260 –
1265, and both contain a full bibliography of medieval and modern sources.
http://www.amazon.com/Montfort-Angel-Sword-1260-1265/dp/1452844232/ref=la_B004OTWHNQ_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400096222&sr=1-4
book website: www.simon-de-montfort.com
personal website: www.katherineashe.com
book website: www.simon-de-montfort.com
personal website: www.katherineashe.com
