Thus, in the winter of 1265, that House of Commons, or legislative assembly of the people, as distinguished from the House of Lords, originated.  After it was fully and finally established in the next reign (S217), it sat for more than three hundred years in the chapter house[1] of Westmister Abbey.  It showed that at last those who had neither land nor rank, but who paid taxes on personal property only, had obtained at least temporary representation in Parliament.

[1] The building where the governing body of an abbey transacts business.

When that principle should be fully recognized, the King would have a “bridle” which he could not shake off.  Henceforth Magna Carta (S199) would be no longer a dead parchment promise of reform, rolled up and hidden away, but would become a living, ever-present, effective truth. (See SS261, 262, and Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, p. x, S11.)

From this date the Great Council or Parliament of England (S144) commenced to lose its exclusive character of a single House consisting of the upper classes only.  Now, it gave promise of becoming a true representative body standing for the whole nation.  Thus De Montfort began—­or at least tried to begin—­what President Lincoln called “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”  But it should be distinctly understood that his work had the defects of a first attempt, and that it did not last.  For, in the first place, De Montfort failed to summon all who were entitled to have seats in such a body; and secondly, he summoned only those who favored his policy.  We shall see that the honor of calling the first full and free Parliament was reserved for Edward I. Thirty years later, he summoned that body, which became the final model of every such assembly which now meets, whether in the Old World or the New (S217).

214.  Earl Simon’s Death (1265).

But De Montfort’s great effort soon met with a fatal reaction.  The barons, jeolous of his power, fell away from him.  Prince Edward, the King’s eldest son, gathered them round the royal standard to attack and crush the man who had humiliated his father.  De Montfort was at Evesham, Worcestershire (see map facing p. 436); from the top of the Bell Tower of the Abbey he saw the Prince approaching.  “Commend you souls to God,” he said to the faithful few who stood by him; “for our bodies are the foes’!” There he fell.  He was buried in Evesham Abbey, but no trace of his grave exists.

In the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, not far from Henry III’s tomb, may be seen the emblazoned arms of the brave Earl Simon.  But England, so rich in effigies of her great men, so faithful, too, in her remembrance of them, has not yet set up in the vestibule of the House of Commons, among the statues of her statesmen, the image of him who took the first actual step toward founding that House in its present form.

215.  Summary.