Simon de Montfort's Parliament meets
After defeating Henry III at the Battle of Lewes the year before, Simon de Montfort summoned a Parliament in January 1265 that for the first time included not just barons and bishops but also two knights from each shire and — critically — two burgesses from each borough. Commoners as representatives. De Montfort was killed at Evesham eight months later and his Parliament dissolved, but the precedent stuck: by Edward I's Model Parliament of 1295, including commons-representatives had become standard. The House of Commons traces directly to this.
De Montfort's motives were mixed — he needed broader political backing than the barons alone could provide — but the structural precedent was permanent. Once non-noble representatives had been in the room, it was hard to argue they couldn't be in the room next time.
04 · Feudal Hierarchy
With Rome's collapse, the consensus mechanism in Europe fractured into two overlapping systems. Kings inherited power through bloodline. The Church ratified kings through coronation, and resolved doctrinal disputes through ecumenical councils of bishops. Between kings and kings, the feudal oath of fealty was the binding contract: personal, hierarchical, revocable only by death or excommunication. The first cracks in this system — Magna Carta, the Icelandic Althing, early parliaments — showed up as early as the 10th century but wouldn't compound into anything systemic for another 500 years.
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