deliberately violated the provisions of the Charter, in
order to raise money to waste in his foolish foreign wars or on his
court circle of French favorites.

Finally (1258), a body of armed barons, led by Simon de Montfort, Earl
of Leicester, forced the King to summon a Parliament at Oxford. There
a scheme of reform, called the "Provisions of Oxford," was adopted
(S209). By these Provisions, which Henry swore to observe, the
government was practically taken out of the King's hands,--at least as
far as he had power to do mischief,--and entrusted to certain councils
or committees of state.

A few years later, Henry refused to abide by the Provisions of Oxford,
and civil war broke out. De Montfort, Earl of Leicester, gained a
decisive victory at Lewes, and captured the King. The Earl then
summoned a National Council, made up of those who favored his policy
of reform (S213). This was the famous Parliamnet of 1265. To it De
Montfort summoned: (1) a small number of barons; (2) a large number of
the higher clergy; (3) two knights, or country gentlemen, from each
shire; (4) two burghers, or citizens, from every town.

The knights of the shire had been summoned to Parliamnet before;[2]
but this was the first time that the towns had been invited to send
representatives. By that act the Earl set the example of giving the
people at large a fuller share in the government than they had yet
had. To De Montfort, therefore, justly belongs the glory of being
"the founder of the House of Commons." His work, however, was
defective (S213); and owing, perhaps, to his death shortly afterwards
at the battle of Evesham (1265), the regular and continuous
representation of the towns did not begin until thirty years later.

[2] They were first summoned by John in 1213.

Meanwhile, 1279-1290, three land laws of great importance were
enacted. The first limited the acquisition of landed property by the
Church;[3] the second encouraged the transmission of land by will to
the eldest son, thus keeping estates together instead of breaking them
up among several heirs;[1] the third made purchasers of estates the
direct feudal tenants of the King.[2] The object of these three laws
was to prevent landholders from evading their feudal obligations;
hency they decidedly strengthened the royal power.[3]

[3] Statute of Mortmain (1279): see S226; it was especially directed
against the acquisition of land by monasteries.
[1] Statute De Donis C