The Mad Parliament of 1258

King John wasn't the only Plantagenet monarch who had trouble keeping his word or pushing his angry barons too far.  Henry III had his own struggles with the barons.  This Parliament is also known as the Oxford Parliament or the Mad Parliament.  That is, in the sense of being very, very annoyed.  While some source suggest that the original meaning was a mistranslation of a Latin phrase labeling it the Insane Parliament, the men who gathered in Oxford would probably disagree.  The barons had had enough of Henry and they were ready to go to war if things didn't change.  They were sane and mad at the same time.

The problem was money.  Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, died in 1250 and Henry III wanted the Imperial Crown for his son, the future Edward I.  Henry knew that the various Electors would need healthy bribes and, once elected, Edward would spend a great deal of blood and treasure fighting to get and keep the Imperial title.  Henry had agreed with Pope Innocent IV to share the expense of putting the Crown of Charlemagne on Edward's head.  But he had reckoned without his barons.  Like most kings, Henry thought that if he needed money, he would summon a parliament and they would shell out in the form of new and more onerous taxes.  Then Pope Innocent died and Pope Alexander IV occupied the Chair of St. Peter.  Vexed that the selection of the next Holy Roman Emperor hadn't been settled, he upped the ante on Henry by threatening to excommunicate him and Edward if they didn't come up with their share of the money.  Henry called a parliament, but the barons were in no mood to finance a foreign war.

The barons, led by Simon de Montfort and his brother Peter, met at Oxford in 1258, not under Henry's thumb at Westminster.  And, they drew up a list of demands later known as the Provisions of Oxford.  Key among them was the fact that the King couldn't rule without the consent of the barons and parliament, but would be required to have a council to approve any measures the King decided on.  This was the beginnings of the Privy Council, and it was also the first instance of Parliament flexing its muscle to a king and getting their way.  Henry agreed the provisions, but the barons still wouldn't release the cash.  Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry, eventually used his own personal fortune for the bribes to the Electors to become King of Germany.  This was the stepping stone to the Holy Roman Empire but Richard decided he'd gone far enough and never made any attempt to claim imperial glory.   The Pope also let the matter drop for the time being.  Henry called on the King of France, of all people, to mediate the dispute between him and his barons.  Louis IX ruled predictably in Henry's favor.  The barons' temperature went up even more.

The barons began collecting their levies and the King and Prince Edward began rallying their forces.  After an initial success at Northampton, the King lost the Battle of Lewes.  He, Edward, and Henry's brother, Richard of Cornwall, the newly-minted King of Germany, were captured.  Eventually, Prince Edward and Richard escaped and rallied an army.  Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265.  However, the barons weren't about to settle down so quickly.  Henry had to agree to abide by the curbs on royal power presented by the Provisions of Oxford and a replacement document, the Provisions of Westminster of 1259, in order to avert further fighting.  These Provisions, along with the Magna Carta, are some of the foundations of English government and, indirectly with their curbs on central power, of our own.