The origins of parliament

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Henry III favoured foreigners, especially his Lusignan half-brothers such as William de Valence, who were given lands and money and seemed to be above the law. He was also always short of money and made huge promises he could not keep, such as the 'Sicilian Business', in which he agreed to pay the Pope about 135,000 marks so that his son Edmund could become King of Sicily.

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Source A is useful for studying the causes of the barons' opposition to Henry III because it identifies two of the most important grievances. First, Paris complains that Henry favoured foreigners. This is accurate: after his marriage to Eleanor of Provence in 1236, Henry gave lands and offices to her Savoyard relatives, such as Peter of Savoy, and after 1247 he showered his Lusignan half-brothers, such as William de Valence, with lands and marriages. English barons felt pushed aside, and the expulsion of the Lusignans in 1258 shows how much they were hated. Second, Paris complains about Henry's constant demands for money and his waste. Henry was always short of money because of the failed campaign in Poitou in 1242, his rebuilding of Westminster Abbey and his gifts to favourites, and the great council repeatedly refused him taxes, so he squeezed the Church, the towns and the Jews instead.

The provenance adds to its value but also limits it. Paris knew Henry personally and the king sometimes gave him information, so he was well informed, and he was writing at the time. However, he was strongly prejudiced against foreigners and resented royal demands for money from the Church, so he may exaggerate both grievances. He was writing for monks, not barons, so his complaints reflect the Church's point of view.

The source is also incomplete. Paris died in 1259, and the summary leaves out other causes of the crisis of 1258, such as the Sicilian Business, in which Henry promised the Pope about 135,000 marks, the threat of excommunication, the famine of 1257-58 and the defeats in Wales. Overall, Source A is useful for showing two key causes of opposition from a well-informed contemporary, but it is exaggerated and does not give the full picture.

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Henry III's favouritism towards foreigners was significant because it angered the barons, gave them a clear target and helped to unite them against the king. Throughout his reign Henry relied on foreign advisers and relatives. After his marriage to Eleanor of Provence in 1236, her Savoyard uncles received important positions: Peter of Savoy was given the honour of Richmond, and Boniface of Savoy became Archbishop of Canterbury. From 1247 Henry's half-brothers from Poitou, the Lusignans, arrived in England. William de Valence married a rich heiress and received large sums of money, and Aymer de Valence was made bishop-elect of Winchester. English barons felt that the lands, offices and marriages that should have rewarded them were going to outsiders.

The favouritism was also significant because it seemed to show that Henry would not provide justice. The Lusignans and their followers were accused of violence and seizing property, but the king protected them. In 1258 Aymer de Valence's men attacked the household of John fitzGeoffrey, who was among the magnates who formed a sworn alliance against the king in April 1258. When the barons forced Henry to accept the Provisions of Oxford in June 1258, the Lusignans refused to swear to them and fled from England in July, which shows how central they were to the crisis.

In the longer term, hostility to foreigners became a key part of the reformers' message. Simon de Montfort, although himself French-born, used resentment of 'aliens' to win support, and the Song of Lewes, written by one of his supporters, condemned the king for favouring foreigners and flatterers. However, favouritism was not the only cause of dissatisfaction: the Sicilian Business, Henry's debts, failures in France and Wales and the famine of 1257-58 were also important. Overall, Henry's favouritism was significant because it united barons with different grievances and gave the reform movement a clear and popular target.

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War has often been a powerful force in the development of parliamentary democracy, because it forced rulers to seek the support of their subjects. However, the development of democracy also depended on economic change, new ideas and the campaigns of ordinary people, and in the nineteenth century these were more important than war.

In the medieval period war was crucial to the origins of Parliament. King John's attempts to win back Normandy, and his defeat at Bouvines in 1214, led to the heavy scutage that caused the rebellion of 1215, and Magna Carta's clause 12 required the common counsel of the kingdom for such taxes. Henry III's failed campaigns in Poitou and Wales added to the crisis that led to the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, and the civil war that followed made possible Simon de Montfort's Parliament of 1265, the first to include burgesses as well as knights. Edward I's wars in Wales, Scotland and France were even more important, because he needed taxes from the whole kingdom and so summoned knights and burgesses regularly, as in the Model Parliament of 1295. During the Hundred Years' War, the Commons used their control of taxation to increase their influence.

War was also decisive in the seventeenth century. In 1640 Charles I had to recall Parliament because he could not pay for the Bishops' Wars, and the Civil War that began in 1642 produced radical ideas. In the New Model Army the Levellers argued for votes for most men, and at the Putney Debates in 1647 Thomas Rainsborough declared that 'the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he'. In the twentieth century, the First World War led to the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which gave the vote to all men over 21 and to women over 30 who met a property qualification. Women's war work, and the feeling that soldiers who had fought deserved the vote, made reform hard to resist.

However, war does not explain the great reforms of the nineteenth century. The Great Reform Act of 1832 was the result of economic change and protest. Industrialisation had created a wealthy middle class and large industrial towns such as Manchester and Birmingham with no MPs, and after the Lords rejected reform in 1831 there were riots in Bristol and Nottingham. Earl Grey's government passed the Act to prevent revolution. The Chartists, whose six points included votes for all men and the secret ballot, were driven by economic hardship and democratic ideas, and although they failed in the 1840s, most of their points were achieved later. The Second and Third Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 extended the vote to many working men because politicians such as Disraeli and Gladstone saw political advantage in doing so.

Ideas and individuals also mattered. Thomas Paine's Rights of Man spread democratic ideas, and the campaign for women's suffrage, led by Millicent Fawcett's NUWSS and Emmeline Pankhurst's WSPU, kept the issue alive before 1914. Equal voting for women in 1928 and the lowering of the voting age to 18 in 1969 were passed in peacetime.

In conclusion, war was the main factor in the medieval origins of Parliament and played an important part in 1640 and 1918, because it forced rulers to seek support. But democracy itself - the vote for ordinary men and women - owed more to economic change, ideas and protest, especially in the nineteenth century. War created opportunities, but other factors decided how far democracy developed.