378 The Period of Constitution Making
Of course there were no "houses" in an assembly of this
sort, but if the mobile material of 1295 had, as might
seem natural, hardened along the lines of clergy, nobles,
and third estate into a three-house body, one might expect
its failure on at least two grounds: in the first place, in
three-house assemblies, two of the houses are likely to
intrigue against or outweigh the third, and an assembly
ill-balanced and divided against itself results; in the
second place, if the knights were to continue to sit with
the barons, it left the burgesses the only true repre-
sentatives of the non-noble class, the only people in the
assembly that could be termed commons; and in the
middle ages, the urban population was not of sufficient
consideration or strength to make by itself an effective
"house." The knights would have been left in an un-
natural and ineffective position; and these representative
knights, as has been shown, were the most valuable and
English of all the elements in Parliament; they stood for
what was then to be found in no other country, a sub-
stantial middle class outside the city walls. And unless
the middle class outside the city walls could, through its
representatives in Parliament, unite with the middle
class inside the city walls through its representatives,
there could be little to guarantee the rights and liberties
of the English commons against the encroachments of
nobility and crown.1 The great historic English Parlia-
ment was no foregone conclusion in 1295.
behind and so were all those who had still any business to transact. But
the 'parliament' was not at an end. Many of its doings that are recorded
on our roll were done after the estates had been sent home. The king
remained at Westminster, surrounded by his councillors and his parliament
was still in session as a' full' andt general' parliament as late as the 5th and
6th of April.''—Introduction to Memoranda de Parliamento, pp. xxxv., xxxvi.
_x It should not be supposed that the separation of the lesser from the
higher nobility was complete in 1295; if it had been, it would be difficult
to account for the position taken by the knights when summoned to Par-
liament. In fact, it was just at this time, aided by the statute of Quia
Emptores, that the process was going on most rapidly. Let it not be for-
gotten, however, that it was not in anything belonging to this immediate
period that this most fateful movement had its source, but, as has been
shown above (pp. 34.7-353), long before and in events and conditions lying
at the basis of English history.