64-1265.=--Simon followed up his
victory by an agreement called the Mise of Lewes, according to which
all matters of dispute were again to be referred to arbitration. In
the meantime there were to be three Electors, Earl Simon himself, the
Earl of Gloucester, and the Bishop of Chichester. These were to elect
nine councillors, who were to name the ministers of state. To keep
these councillors within bounds a Parliament was called, in which with
the barons, bishops, and abbots there sat not only chosen knights for
each shire, but also for the first time two representatives of certain
towns. This Parliament met in =1265=. It was not, indeed, a full
parliament, as only Simon's partisans amongst the barons were
summoned, but it was the fullest representation of England as a whole
which had yet met, and not a merely baronial committee like that
proposed in =1258=. The views of Simon were clearly indicated in an
argumentative Latin poem written after the battle of Lewes by one of
his supporters. In this poem the king's claim to do as he likes with
his own is met by a demand that he shall rule according to law. Such a
demand was made by others than the poet. "The king," a great lawyer of
the day had said, "is not subject to any man, but to God and the law."
The difficulty still remained of ascertaining what the law was. The
poet did not, indeed, anticipate modern theories, and hold that the
law was what the representatives of the people made it to be; but he
held that the law consisted in the old customs, and that the people
themselves must be appealed to as the witnesses of what those old
customs were. "Therefore," he wrote, "let the community of the kingdom
advise, and let it be known what the generality thinks, to whom their
own laws are best known. Nor are all those of the country so ignorant
that they do not know better than strangers the customs of their own
kingdom which have been handed down to them by their ancestors."[14]
The poet, in short, regarded the Parliament as a national jury, whose
duty it was to give evidence on the laws and customs of the nation, in
the same way that a local jury gave evidence on local matters.

[Footnote 14:

"Igitur communitas regni consulatur;
Et quid universitas sentiat, sciatur,
Cui leges propriae maxime sunt notae.
Nec cuncti provinciae sic sunt idiotae,
Quin sciant plus caeteris regni sui mores,
Quos relinquunt posteris hii qui sunt priores."]

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