PART II

MAKING THE LAW
PARLIAMENT AND PEOPLE

CHAPTER IX

THE TWO
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

Development of Parliament

Relations Between the Two Houses

The House of Lords

One House or Two?

Reform

Conclusion

DEVELOPMENT OF PARLIAMENT.

The history of Parliament goes back to the I3th century.
Before that time the only rival to the King's power had been
that of the Great Council* an assembly of the chief men of the
Realm, some of whom were Lords Spiritual-—Archbishops and
Bishops—and some lay, or Teinporal Lords. Nearly all of them
were "tenants in chief*; that is to say, they held land, in accord-
ance with the feudal system, directly from the King. Essentially,
the Council was the organ of a class of great landowners. By the
early I3th century there had developed in England two classes,
possessed of considerable wealth but unrepresented in the

. Council—the smaller landowners, or "knights of the shire" and
the burgesses of towns. The Crown, reqjuiring money for wars
in France, considered the possibility of summoning represent-
atives of these classes to the Council so that they might make

L the necessary grants. In the reign of Henry III there was a
rising of the barons and power passed for a time to their leader,

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