History of the state and law of foreign countries. England in the 11th - 15th centuries

Theme: England from the Norman Conquest to Freedom

Goals: to characterize the features of the state structure during the period of the Norman dynasty; consider the reforms of Henry II Plantagenet; show the formation of parliamentarism in England.

Lesson plan:

Checking homework

Explanation of new material

Consolidation of the studied material

Lesson summary

Homework

Checking homework.

Who was interested in the unification of France (oral answer)

Reasons for the unification of France (work with the int.board)

What successes have been achieved in the unification of France (oral answer)

Conflict of King Philip 4 and Pope Bonifotius 8 (oral answer)

States General:

Estates of the States General (internet board)
Definition of the States General (int.board).

Activities of the States General.

From all of the above, let's conclude: what was the meaning of unification for France

Explanation of new material #1

Norman conquest. In 1066, the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy William began. Since he was related to the ending old dynasty, he laid claim to the royal throne.

He received the support of: the Pope; his vassals and knights from other regions of France.

William's troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the south coast of England. Here the battle took place Hastings that decided the fate of the country.

Battle of Hastings.

England was ruled by the Norman dynasty. William took away land holdings from most of the large feudal lords and distributed them to his knights.

What are the consequences of the Norman Conquest?

Strengthening royal power (all swore allegiance to William and became his vassals);

The beginning of the formation of a centralized state;

Strengthening of feudal oppression (a census of land and population was carried out - the income of the population began to be taken into account more fully).

How did the Norman Conquest affect the development of England?

Explanation of new material #2

HenryIIand his reforms.

What can you say about Henry?II. (page 161 – read)

During his reign, a lot of changes took place in the country and a number of reforms were carried out:

Judicial reform

creation of a royal court

(bypassing the court of the local feudal lord);

court for the free

12 jurors;

court for dependent peasants -

feudal court.

Military reform:

Introduction of shield money

(special contribution of the knights to the king instead of campaigns);

Shield money contained:

militia, permanent mercenary army.

Strengthening the power of sheriffs:

On the ground, the power of sheriffs was formed -

royal officials who

ruled the county: the sheriff collected taxes,

pursued a violation of the order.

What was the significance of these reforms for France?

Explanation of new material #3

Magna Carta.

After the death of Henry II, power passed to his eldest son, Richard I the Lionheart. After the death of Richard, the youngest son of Henry II, John the Landless, became king. In 1215 he signed Magna Carta- the great charter protected the nobility from the arbitrariness of the king, as well as knights and townspeople. However, having signed the Charter, John was not going to fulfill its requirements, having secured the support of the pope, he started a war against his opponents, but died in the midst of hostilities.

Working with a document (p.163.Semantic Reading Strategy )

Stage 1 - Before reading the text:

Read the title, highlight familiar and new terms in it.

Try to guess what will be discussed.

Stage 2 - While reading the text:

Find new words and determine their meanings in a dictionary.

Stage 3 - After reading the text:

Answer the questions for the test and comment on them;

The power of the king was limited, the guilty succumbed to the court.

The charter was beneficial to free people, barons, merchants.

They got freedom, they could defend it through the courts - a law appeared.

Explanation of new material #4

Parliament. The son of John Henry III was a spineless man, was under the influence of his wife. He generously granted land and income to foreigners, which caused discontent among the population.

In 1258, the harrows convened a royal council, called the "frantic council". The barons made demands to the king and he was forced to accept the demands:

Without barons, the king could not decide important matters;

Foreigners had to return the castles and estates received from the king.

Having achieved their goal, the barons did not take care of the knights and townspeople. In 1265, in order to strengthen his power, Count Monifort convened a meeting, which included: large spiritual and secular feudal lords, representatives of knights and townspeople. This class is called parliament.

Functions of Parliament:

Participation in the creation of laws;

Tax clearance;

Control over the use of taxes;

Baron restrictions.

In Parliament, these two houses acted jointly, so they were able to pass a law that no tax would be collected without the consent of the House of Commons. When approving a new tax, parliament usually presented its demands to the king and obtained concessions from him. Gradually, Parliament began to participate in changing laws. The English Parliament had a great influence on state affairs. But the peasants did not participate in the work of parliament. Many fled from their masters - the fugitives gathered in detachments, attacked the feudal lords, bishops and officials. About their adventures, the people composed songs - ballads. The favorite hero of English ballads was the good robber - Robin Hood.

Is there a difference between Parliament and the Estates General?

How many years has the English Parliament been in existence?

Let's highlight what qualities Robin Hood possessed?

Consolidation of the studied material:

Tic-tac-toe game

1. Norman conquest began in 1066 - X

2. William I was not related to the English dynasty - 0

3. Henry II did not carry out any reforms - 0

4. Under Henry II, “shield money” appeared - X

5. Charter in Latin means letter - X

6. Parliament consisted only of the House of Lords - 0

7. The House of Lords and the House of Commons acted separately - 0

8. Peasants did not participate in the work of parliament - X

9. The favorite hero of English ballads was a kind robber - Robin Hood - X.

Lesson Summary:

What new did you learn at the lesson today?

The events that took place in England in 1066 influenced its entire subsequent history. Then England was conquered by the Duke of Normandy - William.

Norman conquest

He laid claim to the English throne, and he managed to get the consent of the Pope. William managed to subjugate half of the lands of medieval England and captured the capital - London.

It was not large English feudal lords who fought against him, but free peasants. Despite the fact that the Duke of Normandy managed to seize power throughout the state, the Anglo-Saxons from the north continued to oppose him for several years.

Formation of a centralized state

It is important to note that the Norman Conquest strengthened royal power in England. First, William took rich lands from the feudal lords of England and gave them to his nobility. Then everyone - both large and small feudal lords - had to take an oath of allegiance to William and become his vassals.

This is what laid the foundation for the formation of the centralized state of England. During this period, feudal oppression was intensified, a special book was created in which there was a census of all lands and its population, and severely punished for false testimony in it. The census was called the Book of the Last Judgment.

Thus, the period of William's reign marked the beginning of the development of an independent England, which continued to flourish throughout the Middle Ages.

Formation of Parliament: King and Barons

By the 13th century, a situation was brewing in England that required transformations in the state system. Then Henry III decided to conquer the Sicilian kingdom for his son, and for this he needed one third of the country's income.

The English barons, who elevated him to the throne, were outraged and refused the king. The barons decided to convene a council, which they later called the "mad council", at which it was decided that the king had no right to make important decisions without the consent of the barons, and he should return the lands that he had given to foreigners, relatives of his French wife.

But the barons did not care about the knights and the townspeople. Then a split began among the opponents of Henry III. A civil war began, in which the opponents of the crawl, led by Simon de Montfort, won. It was he who began to rule the country after Henry and his heir were captured.

Montfort decided to convene a meeting in which not only the barons, but also the knights and representatives of the cities would participate. Such an assembly was called parliament. But soon the power of the king was restored, as the peasants took advantage of the discord between the large feudal lords and began to attack their castles.

Prince Edward, heir to the king, escaped from captivity, after which many barons went over to his side. Then the army of Montfort was defeated, the baron himself died. But thanks to these events, the king and the English barons were convinced that they could not govern the country without the participation of knights and townspeople.

Because of this, the kings continued to convene Parliament, which eventually appeared the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The first chamber included abbots and noble feudal lords, and the second - knights and representatives of the townspeople. Initially, Parliament approved taxes and participated in important state decisions.

Checking homework.

Who was interested in the unification of France (oral answer)
Reasons for the unification of France (work with the int.board)
What successes have been achieved in the unification of France (oral answer)
Conflict of King Philip 4 and Pope Bonifotius 8 (oral answer)
States General:

Estates of the States General (internet board)
Definition of the States General (int.board).

Activities of the States General.
From all of the above, let's conclude: what was the meaning of unification for France

Explanation of new material #1

Norman conquest.In 1066, the conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy William began. Since he was related to the ending old dynasty, he laid claim to the royal throne.

He received the support of: the pope; his vassals and knights from other regions of France.

William's troops crossed the English Channel and landed on the south coast of England. Here the battle took place Hastings that decided the fate of the country.

Battle of Hastings.

England was ruled by the Norman dynasty. William took away land holdings from most of the large feudal lords and distributed them to his knights.

What are the consequences of the Norman Conquest?

Strengthening royal power(all swore allegiance to William and became his vassals);
The beginning of the formation of a centralized state;
Strengthening of feudal oppression(a census of land and population was carried out - the income of the population began to be taken into account more fully).

How did the Norman Conquest affect the development of England?

Explanation of new material #2

Henry II and his reforms.

What can be said about Henry II. (page 161 – read)

During his reign, a lot of changes took place in the country and a number of reforms were carried out:

Judicial reform

creation of a royal court

(bypassing the court of the local feudal lord);

court for the free

12 jurors;

court for dependent peasants -

feudal court.

Military reform:

Introduction of shield money

(special contribution of the knights to the king instead of campaigns);

Shield money contained:

militia, permanent mercenary army.

Strengthening the power of sheriffs:

On the ground, the power of sheriffs was formed -

royal officials who

ruled the county: the sheriff collected taxes,

pursued a violation of the order.

What was the significance of these reforms for France?

Explanation of new material #3

Magna Carta.

After the death of Henry II, power passed to his eldest son, Richard I the Lionheart. After the death of Richard, the youngest son of Henry II, John the Landless, became king. In 1215 he signedMagna Carta- the great charter protected the nobility from the arbitrariness of the king, as well as knights and townspeople. However, having signed the Charter, John was not going to fulfill its requirements, having secured the support of the pope, he started a war against his opponents, but died in the midst of hostilities.

Working with a document (p.163.Semantic Reading Strategy)

Stage 1 - Before reading the text:

Read the title, highlight familiar and new terms in it.
Try to guess what will be discussed.

Stage 2 - While reading the text:

Find new words and determine their meanings in a dictionary.

Stage 3 - After reading the text:

Answer the questions for the test and comment on them;

The power of the king was limited, the guilty succumbed to the court.
The charter was beneficial to free people, barons, merchants.
They got freedom, they could defend it through the courts - a law appeared.

Explanation of new material #4

Parliament. The son of John Henry III was a spineless man, was under the influence of his wife. He generously granted land and income to foreigners, which caused discontent among the population.

In 1258, the harrows convened a royal council, called the "frantic council". The barons made demands to the king and he was forced to accept the demands:

Without barons, the king could not decide important matters;
Foreigners had to return the castles and estates received from the king.

Functions of Parliament:

Participation in the creation of laws;
Tax clearance;
Control over the use of taxes;
Baron restrictions.

Is there a difference between Parliament and the Estates General?

How many years has the English Parliament been in existence?

Let's highlight what qualities Robin Hood possessed?

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education “Moscow State Law University named after O.E. Kutafin (MSUA)"

Department of History of State and Law

COURSE WORK

ON THE TOPIC: ORIGIN AND STATEMENT OF PARLIAMENT IN ENGLAND

Gerasimova NataliaYurievna

1st year student, 7 groups

part-time education

Law Correspondence Institute

Supervisor:

Associate Professor BerzinaBUT.BUT.

Moscow 2014

Introduction

1. Prerequisites for a class-representative monarchy in England

1.1 Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot

1.2 Norman conquest

1.3 Consolidation of royal power

1.4 The estate structure of English society

2. Magna Carta 1215

2.1 History of creation

2.2 General characteristics of the Magna Carta

2.3 Main provisions of the Magna Carta

3. Emergence of Parliament

4. Structure and competence of Parliament

Conclusion

List of sources used

ATconducting

England is considered the birthplace of modern parliamentarism. The English Parliament has an amazing history. It can be called the "forefather" of all parliaments. It originated in the 13th century and functions today. The phenomenon of the English Parliament causes numerous disputes in English and in Russian historiography, which is why this topic is relevant.

In a number of countries, the emergence of class-representative institutions was not associated with any significant political upheavals. Usually, the royal power, on its own initiative, turned to estate representation. In England, where royal power was strengthened very early, depriving the feudal nobility of its political independence, the class-representative system developed as a result of a sharp struggle, sharply negative socio-political contradictions between the feudal lords and royal power.

The main goal of the course work is to identify the features of the development and formation of the English Parliament.

To accomplish this goal, I analyzed the class structure of English society. Also, the stages of centralization and their influence on the development of the estate-representative monarchy in England were considered. Based on historical sources, I devoted a significant part of my term paper to the history of the creation of the Magna Carta, the analysis of the articles of the Charter and the significance of the legal monument I am considering.

It was expedient to pay much attention to the reasons for the formation of the Parliament in England, to reveal the features and composition of competence. parliament monarchy england conquest

In the process of writing a term paper, the methods of a comprehensive historical and legal assessment of socio-political, historical and legal facts and events were used.

The history of English parliamentarism is a universal experience of preserving traditions and innovations, confrontations and compromises, and searching for optimal forms of organizing state power for any country in the world. That is why I chose this topic for my term paper.

1. Background of the estate-representative monarchy in England

1.1 Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot

Parliament in England took shape gradually; it traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. Witenagemot is a people's assembly, an advisory body that directly initiated, accepted and executed all the most important issues of state policy. O.A. Zhidkov, N.A. Krashennikova "History of the state and law of foreign countries" - M, 1991

Witenagemot included a layer of military service nobility (teny), representatives of the clergy (bishops, abbots, the most influential clergymen) and the highest aristocracy of the kingdom (earls) were also present. The representatives of Witenagemot were given the title of Witan. More than a hundred people attended the Witenagemot meetings. The advisory body was convened as needed, at the discretion of the king, but at least once a year. Witenagemot represented the interests of the king, the Anglo-Saxon nobility and the clergy.

The competence of the Witenagemot was varied, the Witans provided advice to the king on any issue that was brought up for discussion. The questions touched all spheres of life. Issues of tax, international, judicial policy were brought up at the meeting, the problems of the country's defense, questions of war and peace, and social problems were solved. The dynastic principle of succession has not yet been approved, so every king who comes to the throne must receive the approval of the Witenagemot.

Thus, Witenagemont gave rise to an estate-representative monarchy in England, due to the fact that he supported the principle of governing the king in agreement with the representatives of the nobility. But he had mainly advisory functions and in most cases the Witenagemot confirmed the decisions of the king. the possibilities of Witenagemont to influence the policy of the royal power were insignificant.

After the Norman Conquest, Witenagemot was transformed into the Royal Curia, to improve the central state apparatus.

1.2 Norman conquest

In 1066, England was invaded by the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror. On the morning of October 14, 1066, the Battle of Hastings took place in which the Norman troops attacked the Anglo-Saxons and the battle ended in the complete defeat of the English troops. The country was conquered by the Normans. King Harold was killed and William was recognized as King of England.

The accession of William had enormous consequences for the development of England. The power of William of Normandy was founded and relied solely on military force. The conquest finally ended with the subordination of the local feudal nobility to the new king, which led to the formation of a new ruling layer of feudal chivalry, built on the principles of vassal-fief relations. Thus begins the early Norman period. The social structure and land relations were reshaped along the lines of classical feudal society.

In 1086, William I the Conqueror demanded that all free landowners of the country take an oath of allegiance to him, and also declared himself the supreme owner of all the land; this oath made the feudal lords of all ranks vassals of the king, obliged to carry out military service in his favor

The Norman Conquest was of great importance for the further history of England, it contributed to the completion of feudalization, the strengthening of royal power and the improvement of the state system.

1.3 Consolidation of royal power

In the early Norman period, an important task for creating a stable situation in the state was the improvement of the central state apparatus. To solve this problem, on the basis of the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot, the Royal Curia was created, which is an advisory body. It was divided into a large council and a permanent government council (small curia). The Great Council consisted of representatives of the highest aristocracy and the clergy, it was convened by the king to resolve the most important issues of state administration. The composition of the council was changed in the interests of King William the Conqueror, instead of the Anglo-Saxon thegns, the Royal Curia of William I and his successors included Anglo-Norman barons and knights. The number of convocations was also ordered. The assembly met three times a year, all the barons of the kingdom, holding their lands from the king, as well as the highest clergy, were supposed to appear on it. Participation in the council was one of the main duties of the feudal aristocracy; this was done to strengthen the authority of the king in the face of large feudal lords. They advised the king on various issues and listened to the decisions and legislative acts of the king, the history of the state and the rights of foreign countries. / Ed. Batyra K.I. 2003 .

The permanent government council (small curia) dealt with issues of judicial-administrative and financial power. It consisted of royal dignitaries: the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, chamberlain, steward of the palace, keeper of the personal royal seal and servants of the court, as well as specially invited prelates and barons. Under Henry I, the small curia broke up into the actual royal curia, which served as the supreme judicial and administrative body, and the counting chamber (chamber of the "chessboard"), which was in charge of the financial affairs of the king. The sessions of the Curia were presided over by the King, and in his absence by the High Justicar. A prominent place in the administration was occupied by a katuger, who acted as a secretary of state, and a treasurer, who was in charge of the royal treasury and headed the accounting chamber. The constable and the marshal also belonged to the highest dignitary nobility (the first exercised jurisdiction over military affairs, the second participated in meetings of the treasury and judicial meetings of the curia). History of the state and law of foreign countries. / Ed. Batyra K.I. 2003

After the reign of Henry I, Henry II, one of the most powerful monarchs of the 12th century, comes to power; he pursues a policy of further improvement of the state apparatus. The main goal of his policy was to strengthen the jurisdiction of the state. To achieve this goal, a number of reforms have been carried out. The most important of these is judicial reform. He deprived his barons of the right to judge, the laws of the king were placed above local laws. The royal curia became a permanent acting supreme judicial body. It consisted of five lawyers - three laymen and two clerics. All royal vassals were under the jurisdiction of the Royal Curia.

Also, by the end of the 12th century, the institution of traveling judges was created, they resolved lawsuits in the districts, in addition, they carried out an audit of local government and controlled the activities of sheriffs.

To further strengthen the jurisdiction of the state in 1166, a court of accusatory jury was created. The institution of jury trials was applied to both criminal and civil cases.

The king's next task was to reorganize the army. The beginning of the reorganization of the military forces of the kingdom was initiated by the military reform of Henry II. The reform can be characterized as follows: firstly, instead of military service for the feudal lords, a tax was introduced, which was levied every time before a military campaign, Henry II used the money from this tax for hired knightly militia. Secondly, the king obliged the entire free population to acquire weapons at their own expense. Thirdly, mercenary foot and cavalry units and knightly militias of the counties began to obey only the king through constables and sheriffs.

As a result of the reorganization of the military forces, the dependence of the royal power on the will of the feudal lords was weakened at the expense of the mercenary army.

The next important task in the manifestation of the process of state centralization in England in the 12th - 13th centuries was the gradual expansion of the financial base of the central government. The financial possibilities of the state during the reign of Henry II were very modest. In connection with the implementation of reforms, the growth of administrative and military spending, the financial needs of the state were higher than possible, these circumstances required the reorganization of public finances and the implementation of tax policy. Taxes began to be collected regularly, all property was taxed.

All the innovations I have considered in the field of the court, military organization and finance, in turn, required the reorganization of the state apparatus, its expansion and complication.

1.4 Classstructure of the English society

The formation of the feudal estates in England took place in specific conditions. This happened for the following reasons: firstly, until the end of the 12th century, political class relations were complicated by ethnic differences, secondly, the centralization of fief relations reached a level that Western European feudalism did not yet know, and thirdly, strong royal power exerted strong pressure to the feudal lords.

During the period of the fief monarchy, the formation of a new estate system of English society was completed. Like the original, Anglo-Saxon, it was based on a feudal military hierarchy and interconnectedness with landed property. However, during the period of the fief monarchy, various immunities and privileges granted by state power became no less significant.

The upper class of peers was very few; this was one of the features of the social structure shaped by the English fief monarchy. Access to it is difficult, because it depended on the possession of land holdings of a special status. Belonging to this class was associated with the possession of significant financial and administrative privileges, and most importantly, the peers had jurisdiction in the areas subject to them, equivalent to royal. The peers were the heirs of the Norman families who came to England with William, most of them were also the royal court. Kovalevsky M. M. The social structure of England at the end of the Middle Ages. - M., 1880.

The second most important was the class of knights. A special position was occupied by a small layer of vassals of the king himself, the rest - on the basis of fief law, were subject to both peers and patronage of the crown. The knighthood was obliged to personal military service, payment of taxes, enjoyed the privileges of the royal court. At the same time, another feature of the social structure of medieval England was that the knightly estate (the basis of the feudal class) was not hereditarily closed: the right to belong to it was given not only by an award, but also by the possession of a knightly estate, which, in principle, was available to anyone.

Even during the heyday of feudal relations, a significant estate of free holders of freeholders was preserved, formally it united the owners of small knightly fiefs, peasants running their own households, and even partly the urban population. The main privilege of this estate (obliged to carry out military service and pay taxes) and at the same time the difference was the right of personal participation in legal proceedings, and then in self-government. Due to such features, the social transition between freeholders and chivalry became almost imperceptible, which later gave a special social appearance to the English "new nobility".

Belonging to the class hierarchy was not only objective, but also compulsory. In the development of ancient Anglo-Saxon laws, all free and unfree were ordered to enter under the patronage of the higher. Already under the laws of Henry II, it was prescribed that every vagrant person "should be arrested and kept under arrest until his master appears and vouches for him." Omelchenko Oleg Anatolyevich / "The General History of State and Law, 1998" Thus, by the beginning of the 13th century, a sharp political struggle gradually began to take shape in England.

2. Magna Carta 1215.

2.1 Historycreation

The reform activities of Henry II strengthened the royal power to extreme, almost despotic limits and became one of the prerequisites for the political crisis that erupted under one of his successors, John the Landless (1199-1216). Having ascended the throne, he began to pursue foreign policy. In 1202, the Anglo-French War began. There were not enough funds to wage war in England, so the poet, John began to impose extremely high fees on his vassals and other sections of English society, while violating all existing customs and behaving at the same time often defiantly and disrespectfully towards the barons. He abused in domestic and foreign policy, levied extremely high taxes, demanded payment of fines, waged a hopeless war in France. Also, he introduced a massive practice of confiscation of land in favor of the crown for dereliction of duty in military service, while John ignored the various benefits established by custom for military service. Petrushevsky D. M. / Essays on the history of the English state and society in the Middle Ages. -- 4th ed. - M., 1937.

John's abuses created an atmosphere of general discontent in English society: already in 1201, in response to the king's demand to go to war with him, the earls and barons at a meeting in Leicester decided to tell the king that they would not fight until their legal rights were returned to them. In 1207, the Archbishop of York protested against a tax that the crown had decided to levy on church property. However, such speeches were still isolated and easily suppressed by the royal authorities. The turning point, which as a result contributed to the emergence of a general movement against the royal power, was the confrontation between the king and the head of the Catholic Church - the Pope

In 1214-1215 a political crisis began in England, the war with France ended in the defeat of John and his allies.

On November 4, 1214, a meeting of the king and barons took place at Edmondsbury Abbey (Bury St. Edmunds). The meeting did not lead to any results, and the king left the abbey. The barons, remaining in the abbey under the pretext of pilgrimage, held a secret meeting on November 20, at which “a certain charter of King Henry I was announced, which these barons received from Stephen, Bishop of Canterbury, in the city of London” (Stabbs). All the barons present at this meeting swore an oath that if King John refused to restore in England the laws of Edward the Confessor and the rights written in the said charter, they would all together and at the same time oppose the king by war. They decided that they would fight until he confirmed by charter and royal seal all that they demanded. Each of the barons undertook to prepare a certain number of armed horsemen and infantry by December 25, 1214, stock up on food, weapons and equipment, and after the Christmas holidays, together with everyone, go to the king and present his demands to him. Dmitrichev F. M. Magna Carta: Ph.D. legal Sciences. - M., 1948.

The barons sent their delegates to the king. The delegates demanded that the king confirm the liberties and laws of King Edward, along with other liberties he had given to the kingdom of England and the English church, as recorded in the Charter of King Henry I. The king refused to confirm the liberties and tried other tricks to stop the unrest. Having received a refusal, the barons now formally renounced their vassal allegiance to the king and began an active political struggle, only a small retinue remained on the side of the king. John was forced to enter into negotiations, and on June 15, 1215, the king affixed his seal to the petition of the barons listing their demands, the so-called Articles of the Barons.

2.2 General characterMagna Carta stick

The Magna Carta is written in Latin and consists of 63 articles, not arranged in any particular system. It was noted in the literature that the Charter “bears the traces of its disorderly and hasty drafting; her articles obviously fit into it as each of them separately came to the minds of people who negotiated with the king. Based on the subject of legal regulation, the articles of the Charter can be divided into six groups: on the general council of the kingdom and the committee of 25 barons, on fees, taxes and duties, on the judiciary, legal proceedings and enforcement of decisions in property disputes, on the rights of the church, on the rights of cities and on trade, inheritance law and guardianship. Separately, a group of articles is singled out, the effect of which is limited to a relatively short period (in particular, on the specific obligations of the king) Yesayan E.S. Magna Carta and its place in the history of English law: Cand. legal Sciences. -- Er., 1986.

Initially, the Magna Carta was of a restorative (in the words of Soviet historians - reactionary) character: in most articles it consolidated, streamlined and clarified the generally recognized and well-established customary legal norms of feudal England. In particular, Article 2 of the Charter not only confirmed the obligation of the heirs of counts and barons and other direct holders of land from the king to pay only the “ancient relief”, but also fixed its legal framework in monetary terms; in Articles 3-5, traditional norms were fixed on the right of custody belonging to the king over the minor heirs of his vassals, etc. In seeking the signing of the Charter, the English barons pursued, first of all, their own feudal interests; they not only sought to protect these interests from arbitrariness on the part of the royal power, but also had a very definite goal to introduce this power into a purely feudal framework, limiting it to relations between overlord and vassals Petrushevsky D. M. Magna Carta and the constitutional struggle in English society in the second half of the thirteenth century. - M., 1918.

However, in pursuit of the protection of feudal interests, the norms of the Charter used a number of progressive principles - the conformity of the actions of officials with the law, the proportionality of the act and punishment, the conviction only in court, the inviolability of property, the freedom to leave the country and return to it and others. The very legal technique of the Charter contributed to the fact that it went beyond the boundaries of a purely feudal contract and introduced into English law the fundamental and hitherto unheard of principle of subordination of power to law under the threat of legitimate armed rebuff on the part of the population. D. M. Petrushevsky called the Charter "an agreement that once and for all bound royal power in relation to society and for a long time served as a banner uniting all free people of the English kingdom in the struggle for political freedom." According to English historians, the Magna Carta “serves as the true foundation of English freedom. All that has been achieved later is little more than a simple confirmation, a commentary on it, and if all further laws were destroyed, then these bold features would still remain that separate the free monarchy from the despotic Gneist R. History of the state institutions of England / Per. with him. ed. S. A. Vengerova. - M., 1885.

2.3 Main provisions of the Magna Carta

The Magna Carta contained an attempt to significantly limit royal power, which was especially evident in articles 12, 14 and 61. Although these articles remained in force for only a few weeks (from June 15 to August 24, 1215), their impact on subsequent legal development and state institutions of England proved to be very significant. The norm of Article 12 reads: “Neither shield money nor allowance shall be collected in our kingdom except by the general advice of our kingdom, unless it is for the ransom of our captivity and not for the knighting of our first-born son and not for the issue of a first marriage our firstborn daughter." Article 14 regulated the procedure for convening the aforementioned Council, and Article 61 assigned the obligation to monitor the observance of the Charter to a committee of 25 barons, called upon, together with the "community of the whole earth" to force the king to its execution, leaving him personally and members of his family inviolable.

The council of the realm was nothing new in the history of England. Even under the Anglo-Saxon kings, the Witenagemot acted, performing advisory functions. After the Norman Conquest it was replaced by the so-called Great Council, which consisted of the immediate vassals of the king, who sat in it as holders of landed estates; the role of the Grand Council was actually limited to non-obligatory advice to the king and listening to his instructions. Article 14 of the Magna Carta aims to constitute the feudal council, establishing its composition, rights, competence, time and place of activity. Each archbishop, bishop, abbot, earl and senior baron was given a guarantee that each of them would directly take part in the discussion of national issues that would be considered in the highest organ of state power - the general council of the kingdom. The members of this council received the right to express their thoughts on the issues under discussion and give their advice. In order to ensure the proper functioning of the Council, Article 14 of the Charter obliged the King, not later than 40 days before the Council was convened, to send out invitations to persons entitled to participate in it, and bring to their attention the issues planned for discussion. The general council of the kingdom was a direct, not a representative body of state power: its members were not elected or appointed by anyone. In essence, the general council of the kingdom was a large royal curia in full force, but with the right to refuse the king to collect allowances or shield money. Based on this new power for the English feudal council, in the literature the general council of the kingdom is called the predecessor of the Parliament of England.

As a guarantee of observance of the rights and liberties of the barons, Article 61 of the Charter provided for a special committee of 25 barons - a collegiate body whose members were to be elected from among the barons. In accordance with Article 61, in the event that the king or a royal officer violates any of the provisions of the Charter and this is reported to four of the 25 barons, they apply to the king or his justiciar in the absence of the king in the country with a request to immediately restore the violated right . If, within 40 days of this submission, the king or his justiciar fails to do what is required, then the four barons inform the rest of the committee. After that, all twenty-five barons, together with the “community of the whole earth,” take action to force the king to restore the right, including by seizing castles, lands, possessions, and by any other means, until the offense is eliminated. In fact, all means of state coercion, including the army, prisons and the people's militia, were transferred to the disposal of 25 barons. In addition, articles 52 and 55 of the Charter assigned to the committee of 25 barons the supreme judicial power in the kingdom: as the supreme court of first and last instance, the committee considered all disputes related to the deprivation of feudal lords of land holdings, castles, feudal liberties, political, property and personal rights . On the basis of Article 55, the committee accepted from all the inhabitants of England claims to the crown for the recovery of money illegally taken in the collection of fees for widowhood, for dowry, for marriage and inheritance, as well as for imposing various fines in favor of the royal power.

Article 61 required all the inhabitants of England to take an oath to the twenty-five barons that every person would scrupulously obey their orders. The king undertook not only not to interfere with the taking of such an oath, but also to give public permission for this; moreover, the king had by his own order to force to take the oath of those who did not want to do this voluntarily. The Charter made an attempt to put the actions of the committee of 25 barons into some framework and to some extent preserve the status of the head of the feudal lords on the king: during the armed actions of the committee, the personality of the king and his family remained inviolable. It was also specifically stipulated that after the removal of the offense, the barons should again obey the king, "as they did before." Decisions in the committee were taken by a majority of the members present. All twenty-five barons had to take an oath in the proper performance of their duties. Esayan E.S. Magna Carta and its place in the history of English law: Cand. legal Sciences. - Er., 1986. . Petrushevsky D. M. Essays from the history of the English state and society in the Middle Ages. -- 4th ed. - M., 1937.

Also in the Magna Carta, the reform of the taxation system was spelled out. For example, Article 12 of the Magna Carta completely abolished the former fiscal legal order, depriving the king of the right to arbitrarily establish taxes and duties: from now on, neither shield money nor cash allowance was to be collected except with the consent of the general council of the English kingdom.

In total, more than twenty articles of the Charter (2--4, 7, 10-12, 14, 15, 20-23, 25, 26, 28--31, 36 , 40, 41, 55) - a third of the entire document, which indicates the great importance that the barons attached to the fiscal primacy of the crown as the main source of state arbitrariness. Articles 12 and 14 assign to the general council of the realm and a committee of 25 barons the right to control the establishment of taxes and fees. The rest of the articles are directed against specific taxes, fines, duties and others, including extraordinary fees, which were collected by the kings of England since William the Conqueror. In particular, Article 28 prohibits the gratuitous seizure of property by royal officials; in Articles 30 and 31, the performance of certain gratuitous in-kind duties (provision of horses and carts for transportation, provision of timber for the construction of fortifications) is associated with the consent of the performer. Articles 28, 30 and 31 protected the rights not only of the feudal lords, but also of a significant part of the freeholders. Article 23 prohibits the obligation of communities and individuals to construct bridges, "except those who have been of old bound to do so by right."

Of particular importance was Article 25, according to which officials from now on had to hand over the collection of taxes at the mercy only "for a fee, which has been established since ancient times, without any surcharge"; thus, the practice of excessive increase in the payment for farming was eliminated, because of which tax-farmers could not collect tax without resorting to illegal extortion Dmitrichev F. M. Magna Carta: Cand. legal Sciences. - M., 1948.

Three articles settled the duties of the knights. Article 16 established that "no one should be forced to perform more service for his knightly fief or for other free holding than that which follows from him"; this rule was directed against the numerous payments to the crown, paid by the knights in addition to military duties. Article 29 partially settled the issue of separate payments that the knights paid in addition to military service: “no constable should force a knight to pay money in return for guarding the castle if he wants to personally guard it or through another honest person if he himself cannot do this for a good reason." Article 43 guaranteed the invariability of the position of the heirs of holders from the baron in cases where the barony became escheated and passed into the hands of the king. Such an heir was obliged to pay "the relief that he would give to the baron" and to carry out "the service that he would carry to the baron", as if the barony were in the hands of the baron himself.

The Charter contained norms that fixed the order of civil justice. It was recognized that the courts sat in a certain place, and that the courts (assises) of the counties took precedence in the consideration of common lawsuits. This guaranteed the local nobility the non-intervention of the crown in their affairs and secured the legal rights of the barons and magnates. In relation to the free, the rule of proportionality of fines and committed crimes was fixed. Sentences must be pronounced strictly "based on the testimony of honest people from the neighbors." The right of the nobility to the court of exclusively equals (peers) was established. Part of the articles was devoted to limiting the police supremacy of the crown. All investigations and investigations should be carried out only in their county with the participation of elected representatives from local estates, the king's right to intervene in disputes between feudal lords over land by special police orders was eliminated. The crown guaranteed that judges, sheriffs, and others would be appointed by persons who knew the laws of the country. The financial prerogatives of the king were somewhat reduced.

A completely new motive for legislation in England was to secure for the estates the right to sanctions against the crown. The existence of the Council of 25 barons was recognized, “who must with all their might observe and protect peace and liberty” in the kingdom. The Council was even assigned the right to “force and oppress” the king by any means (by seizing castles, lands, etc.) if a violation of liberties and rights was found. In financial matters, the word of the general council of the kingdom, which the Charter prescribed to convene in a certain order, with the participation of representatives from the localities, should also be decisive.

The Charter contained provisions formally devoted to the strengthening of justice, but which, in fact, recognized some inviolable civil rights for the free population in general. Art. 38-42 declared inviolable the right to freely leave the kingdom and return to it (with the exception of wartime and in relation to criminals), the duty of the authorities to ensure equal and free justice. Providing "law and justice" in the country could be exclusively a matter of state power and in the interests of all. No one could be arrested, deprived of property “or otherwise destitute” except by a court order and by law, illegal arrests and detentions were prohibited. These principles of the Charter subsequently became especially important in the political and legal struggle against state absolutism and the omnipotence of the crown, perhaps the first declaration of civil rights in world history.

The charter gave impetus to the long struggle of the estates with the crown for their rights and liberties, and to significant changes in the state organization.

The political weakening of royal power and the legal consolidation of the privileges of the estates brought to life new institutions and institutions in the state.

3. Emergence of Parliament

The struggle of the feudal estates against the king, which began under John the Zemless, reached its climax in the 1950s and 1960s. 13th century In 1224, his son Henry III came to the throne. He was a man of a non-state mentality, trusting and not energetic. His policy led to the emergence of strong opposition, which was supported by all classes of England.

The reason for the active actions of the anti-royal front was the Great Council of 1258, at which the king demanded a huge amount of money to cover the debt of the papal curia. June 11, 1258 held armed barons. The congress received the name "Mad Parliament". The barons demanded from the king the removal of foreign advisers, the cessation of extraordinary monetary extortions and new political concessions. There are 29 petition points in total. Their offerings went down in history as the "Oxford Provisions". According to the Oxford Provisions, all power was transferred to the hands of 15 barons, now they could fully control the activities of the king and all senior officials. In addition, it spelled out the need to convene parliament three times a year. Parliament is to be composed of a "council of fifteen" and 12 elected barons from the community.

Thus the barons established their dominion in England. This caused dissatisfaction among the knights, townspeople and other segments of the population. They held a meeting at Westminster and proclaimed the Provisions of Westminster. This document established guarantees for the rights of petty vassals in relation to their lords.

The regime of the baronial oligarchy led to feudal anarchy in the country. A civil war broke out between the king and the barons.

The civil war lasted from 1258 to 1267. And it became the main impetus for the emergence of parliament. The situation in England became so aggravated that the king had to make concessions, the price of which was relative calm in the state. Simon de Montfort, who led the army of the barons, defeated the king and, wanting the support of the knights and townspeople, convened parliament in 1265. He became the first Parliament of England and represented the interests of all representatives of the state.

The first parliament had two knights from each county and two representatives from each city. But, despite all the compromises, mass unrest began on the part of the peasantry, a split occurred on the part of Montfort and hostilities resumed.

The king was forced to establish a permanent parliament, from that moment begins the estate-representative monarchy of England.

4. Structure and competence of parliament

By the end of the XIII century. the royal power finally realized the need for a compromise, a political agreement with the feudal lords of all ranks and the elite of the townspeople in order to establish political and social stability. The consequence of such an agreement was the completion of the formation of the body of estate representation. In 1295, a "model" parliament was convened, the composition of which served as a model for subsequent parliaments in England. In addition to the large secular and spiritual feudal lords personally invited by the king, it included two representatives from 37 counties (knights) and two representatives from cities.

The creation of parliament led to a change in the form of the feudal state, the emergence of a monarchy with estate representation. The correlation of socio-political forces in the parliament itself and outside it determined the features of both the structure and the competence of the English medieval parliament. Until the middle of the XIV century. the English estates sat together, and then divided into two chambers. At the same time, the knights from the counties began to sit together with representatives of the cities in one chamber (the House of Commons) and separated from the largest magnates, who formed the upper house (the House of Lords). The English clergy was not a special element of estate representation. The higher clergy sat with the barons, while the lower clergy sat in the House of Commons.

At first, the possibilities of parliament to influence the policy of the royal power were insignificant. Its functions were reduced to determining the amount of taxes on personal property and to filing collective petitions addressed to the king. True, in 1297, Edward I confirmed the Magna Carta in Parliament, as a result of which the Statute "on the non-permission of taxes" appeared. It stated that the imposition of taxes, allowances and requisitions would not take place without the general consent of the clergy and secular magnates, knights, townspeople and other free people of the kingdom.

Gradually, the Parliament of medieval England acquired three important powers: the right to participate in the issuance of laws, the right to decide on issues of extortion from the population in favor of the royal treasury, and the right to exercise control over senior officials and act in some cases as a special judicial body.

The right of parliamentary initiative arose from the practice of filing collective parliamentary petitions with the king. Most often, they contained a request to prohibit the violation of old laws or to issue new ones. The king could grant the request of Parliament or reject it. However, during the XIV century. it was established that no law should be passed without the consent of the King and the Houses of Parliament. In the XV century. a rule was established that the petitions of Parliament should be clothed in the form of bills, which were called "bills". This is how the concept of law (statute) took shape as an act emanating from the king, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

During the XIV century. the competence of parliament in financial matters was gradually consolidated. The statute of 1340 proclaimed, without any reservations, the inadmissibility of levying direct taxes without the consent of Parliament, and the statutes of 1362 and 1371 extended this provision to indirect taxes. In the XV century. Parliament began to indicate the purpose of the subsidies provided to them and seek control over their spending.

In an effort to bring state administration under its control, parliament from the end of the 14th century. gradually introduced impeachment proceedings. It consisted in the initiation by the House of Commons before the House of Lords, as the highest court of the country, of accusations against one or another royal official of abuse of power. In addition, in the XV century. the right of parliament to directly declare criminal these or those abuses was affirmed. At the same time, a special act was issued, approved by the king and called the "bill of disgrace."

By the middle of the XIV century. There was a division of Parliament into two chambers - upper and lower, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. These names came into wide use later, in the 16th century. The upper house included representatives of the secular and ecclesiastical aristocracy, who were also members of the Great Royal Council. The lords were sent personalized invitations to sessions signed by the king. In theory, the monarch could not invite this or that magnate; in reality, the case when the heads of noble families were not invited to parliament became by the 15th century. rare. The system of case law prevailing in England gave reason to the lord, who once received such an invitation, to consider himself a permanent member of the upper house.

The number of lords was small. Even if all the invitees came to the session, and such in the XIV-XV centuries. almost never happened, rarely more than a hundred people gathered. The House of Lords usually met in the White Room of the Palace of Westminster.

The situation in the House of Commons was different. As a separate parliamentary structure, this chamber took shape gradually, during the second half of the 14th century. The name of the lower chamber comes from the word commons (communities). In the XIV century. it denoted a special social group that included chivalry and townspeople. Thus, communities began to be called that part of the free population, which had full rights, a certain prosperity and a good name. Gradually, the right of each citizen belonging to this category to elect and be elected to the lower house of parliament took shape (today we call such rights political rights). Towards the end of the century, the position of speaker arose, who was elected by deputies from among his ranks and represented the chamber (far from leading it) in negotiations with the lords and the king. The appearance of this figure is characteristic of the specifics of the lower chamber, which was, first of all, an assembly, i.e. collective organization. The deputies were elected locally according to the same principle that had been in force since the first Parliament of Montfort: two knights from each county and two representatives from the most important cities. The list of such cities did not remain unchanged; the number of members of the lower chamber changed accordingly. On average, it was in the middle of the XIV century. two hundred people (by the beginning of the 18th century there were already more than five hundred representatives of the communities). Members of the lower house - unlike the lords - received monetary allowance: the knights of the counties - four shillings, the townspeople - two shillings for each day of the session.

From 1330, the parliament met at least once a year (in fact, more often - up to four times during the year, when the political situation required it). Meetings, excluding travel time, holidays and other breaks, lasted an average of two to five weeks. Since the parliament was opened at the invitation of the king, its participants gathered in the place where the royal court was at the moment. As a rule, it was Westminster Abbey. The language of parliamentary documentation, especially the minutes of the joint sessions of the chambers, was French. Some records, mostly official or related to the affairs of the Church, were kept in Latin. In oral parliamentary speech, French was also mainly used, but from 1363 the speeches of deputies were sometimes delivered in English. In the XIV-XV centuries. in society, an idea is formed about the status of a deputy. This concept equally applied to members of both chambers and included a number of legal privileges, primarily parliamentary immunity.

Conclusion

All of the above allows us to assert that parliamentarism provided England with a stable reform of various areas of social and political life, the solution of many acute economic and political, including foreign policy, problems in the interests of social peace.

Thus, the emergence of a parliament in England was the fruit of a sharp struggle, first of the feudal elite for the restriction of royal power, and later of the middle and lower strata of the population against the despotism of the barons. So there was a compromise of power, which, improving and evolving, still exists. It is possible that the uniqueness of the English Parliament gave this state the opportunity to show superiority in its development, preparing a springboard for a constitutional monarchy in the future and the early formation of a nation state.

Also, we can conclude that the English Parliament was much more perfect than other class-representative bodies of European states.

The significance of English parliamentaryism for the further development of the history of England is extremely high. Parliament, being a legislative body, became the basis for the creation of a state in which all activities are subject to the norms and fundamental principles of law. It became an impetus for the development of democratic legal statehood.

In England, perhaps the earliest in the medieval world, the prerequisites for the formation of a rule of law state (i.e., a state in which the rights and freedoms of citizens are ensured and their protection) and civil society (i.e., a society consisting of free, independent and equal people). The basis for this, in my opinion, was the peculiarities of the British as a nation, firstly. And the creation of the English Parliament, secondly

The original functions of the English Parliament have been transformed over many centuries and have been repeatedly taken as a basis by many countries of the world.

By the beginning of the 20th century, England represented the most politically and legally free country, the most powerful state in the entire Western world, the center of a huge colonial empire, the existence of which also ensured political stability in the country.

Withlist of usedsources

1. Gutnova E.V. - The emergence of the English Parliament (From the history of English society and the state of the XIII century)

2. Dmitrichev F. M. Magna Carta: Cand. legal Sciences. - M., 1948.

3. Yesayan E. S. Magna Carta and its place in the history of English law: Cand. legal Sciences. -- Er., 1986.

4. History of the state and law of foreign countries. / Ed. Batyra K.I. 2003

5. Kovalevsky M. M. The social system of England at the end of the Middle Ages. - M., 1880.

6. O.A. Zhidkov, N.A. Krashennikova "History of the state and law of foreign countries" - M, 1991

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In 1214-1215 a political crisis began in England, the war with France ended in the defeat of John and his allies.

1. Gutnova E.V. - The emergence of the English Parliament (From the history of English society and the state of the XIII century)

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Portal for the student. Self-training

Norman conquest

Formation of a centralized state

Formation of Parliament: King and Barons

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COURSE WORK

ON THE TOPIC: ORIGIN AND STATEMENT OF PARLIAMENT IN ENGLAND

In 1214-1215 a political crisis began in England, the war with France ended in the defeat of John and his allies.

1. Gutnova E.V. - The emergence of the English Parliament (From the history of English society and the state of the XIII century)

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