130 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

Earl Simon de Montfort. He, in 1265, summoned a Parliament
which-was the Great Council plus two knights from each shire
and two burgesses fronji boroughs which had supported the
barons. De Montfort was later overthrown, but the next King,
Edward I, summoned in 1295 a Model Parliament composed in
the same way as that of ,1265. During the reign of Edward II,
Parliament began to sit in two Houses; the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, who had been the Great Council, formed the House
of Lords, and the new elements, the knights and burgesses,
became the House of Commons. Membership of the new House
was considered not so much a privilege as an expensive duty;
and the shires and .boroughs which paid part of their Members'
expenses and knew that the chief work of Parliament would be
to grant the King money, were often reluctant to carry out the
election. But Parliament was, as its name showed, a place for
talk; complaints of misgovernment could be voiced there and
the discontented could find out how far their feelings were
shared by those from other parts of the kingdom. The principle
that the King must attend to the Commons' complaints before
getting money from them, was gradually admitted, though not
always enforced.

When, in 1399, Henry IV took the throne from his cousin
Richard II, he sought to strengthen his position by getting the
approval of Parliament. He was thus obliged to show respect to
the Commons, and they secured the Bright of examining how the
money which they granted was spent. The great nobles, how-
ever, were not prepared to let power slip from their hands, and
began to use their armed retainers to interfere with the election
of the Commons. At the close of the I5th century, the Wars of
the Roses had weakened the nobility and given England a
stronger Central Government than ever before. The Tudor
monarchs of the i6th century found it wise to preserve
Parliament as a means of keeping in touch with the classes on
whom their power was based. Parliament, thus trained for
Government, rivalled the Crown; the two forces struggled for