war in
Guienne and the north he needed supplies; but he needed yet more the firm
support of his people in a struggle which, little as he foresaw its
ultimate results, would plainly be one of great difficulty and danger. In
1295 he called a Parliament to counsel with him on the affairs of the
realm, but with the large statesmanship which distinguished him he took
this occasion of giving the Parliament a shape and organization which has
left its assembly the most important event in English history.

[Sidenote: The Great Council]

To realize its importance we must briefly review the changes by which the
Great Council of the Norman kings had been gradually transforming itself
into what was henceforth to be known as the English Parliament. Neither the
Meeting of the Wise Men before the Conquest nor the Great Council of the
Barons after it had been in any legal or formal way representative bodies.
The first theoretically included all free holders of land, but it shrank at
an early time into a gathering of earls, higher nobles, and bishops, with
the officers and thegns of the royal household. Little change was made in
the composition of this assembly by the Conquest, for the Great Council of
the Norman kings was supposed to include all tenants who held directly of
the Crown, the bishops and greater abbots (whose character as independent
spiritual members tended more and more to merge in their position as
barons), and the high officers of the Court. But though its composition
remained the same, the character of the assembly was essentially altered;
from a free gathering of "Wise Men" it sank to a Royal Court of feudal
vassals. Its functions too seem to have become almost nominal and its
powers to have been restricted to the sanctioning, without debate or
possibility of refusal, all grants demanded from it by the Crown. But
nominal as such a sanction might be, the "counsel and consent" of the Great
Council was necessary for the legal validity of every considerable fiscal
or political measure. Its existence therefore remained an effectual protest
against the imperial theories advanced by the lawyers of Henry the Second
which declared all legislative power to reside wholly in the sovereign. It
was in fact under Henry that these assemblies became more regular, and
their functions more important. The reforms which marked his reign were
issued in the Great Council, and even financial matters were suffered to be
debated there. But i