THUS, in the winter of 1265, that House of Commons, or legislative assembly of the people, originated, which, when fully established in the next reign,* was to sit for more than three hundred years in the chapter-house of Westminster Abbey. At last those who had neither land nor rank, but who paid taxes on personal property only, had obtained representation.* Henceforth the king had a bridle which he could not shake off. Henceforth Magna Carta* was no longer to be a dead parchment promise of reform, rolled up and hidden away, but was to become a living, ever-present, effective truth.
From this date the Parliament of England began to lose its exclusive character and to become a true representative body standing for the whole nation, and hence the model of every such assembly which now meets, whether in the old world or the new; the beginning of what President Lincoln called, “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”*
* The ‘Model Parliament’ met in 1295 under Henry’s son Edward I. For a later edition of his book, Montgomery extended this passage to emphasise that de Montfort’s Parliament left something to be desired, since “de Montfort failed to summon all who were entitled to have seat in such a body; and secondly he summoned only those who favoured his policy.”
* Montgomery, an American writing for American readers, is suggesting a parallel with the American Revolutionary War and the battle-cry ‘No taxation without representation.’ See The Boston Tea Party in 1773.
* ‘Magna Carta’ is the Latin name for the Great Charter of Liberties signed by King John in 1215. See The Signing of the Great Charter.
* See The Gettysburg Address.