[2] They were first summoned by John in 1213.

Meanwhile, 1279-1290, three land laws of great importance were enacted.  The first limited the acquisition of landed property by the Church;[3] the second encouraged the transmission of land by will to the eldest son, thus keeping estates together instead of breaking them up among several heirs;[1] the third made purchasers of estates the direct feudal tenants of the King.[2] The object of these three laws was to prevent landholders from evading their feudal obligations; hency they decidedly strengthened the royal power.[3]

[3] Statute of Mortmain (1279):  see S226; it was especially directed
    against the acquisition of land by monasteries.
[1] Statute De Donis Conditionalibus or Entail (Westminster II) (1285): 
    see S225.
[2] During the same period the Statute of Winchester (1285)
    reorganized the national militia and the police system (S224).

12.  Edward I’s “Model Parliament”; Confirmation of the Charters.

In 1295 Edwrad I, one of the ablest men that ever sat on the English throne, adopted De Montfort’s scheme of representation.  The King was greatly pressed for money, and his object was to get the help of the towns, and thus secure a system of taxation which should include all classes.  With the significant words, “That which toucheth all should be approved by all,” he summoned to Winchester the first really complete or “Model Parliament” (S217),[4] consisting of King, Lords (temporal and spiritual), and Commons.[5] The form Parliament then received it has kept substantially ever since.  We shall see how from this time the Commons gradually grew in influence,—­though with periods of relapse,—­until at length they have become the controlling power in legislation.

[4] De Montfort’s Parliament was not wholly lawful and regular, because not voluntarily summoned by the King himself.  Parliament must be summoned by the sovereign, opened by the sovereign (in person or by commission); all laws require the sovereign’s signature to complete them; and, finally, Parliament can be suspended or dissolved by the sovereign only. [5] The lower clergy were summoned to send representatives to the Commons; but they came very irregularly, and in the fourteenth centrury ceased coming altogether.  From that time they voted their supplies for the Crown in Convocation, until 1663, when Convocation ceased to meet.  The higher clergy—­bishops and abbots—­met with the House of Lords.

Two years after the meeting of the “Model Parliament,” in order to get money to carry on a war with France, Edward levied a tax on the barons, and seized a large quantity of wool belonging to the merchants.  So determined was the resistance to these acts that civil war was threatened.  In order to avert it, the King was obliged to summon a Parliament, 1297, and to sign a confirmation of all previous charters of liberties, including the Great Charter (S202).