Unit IV parliament

TEXT 1 RISE OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT

The medieval kings were expected to meet all royal expenses private and public out of their own revenue. If extra resources were needed for some emergency, such as an expensive war, the Sovereign would seek to persuade his barons, in the Great Council, to grant an aid. During the thirteenth century several kings found that their private revenues and baronial aids were insufficient to meet the expenses of government. They therefore summoned to their Great Council not only their own tenants-in-chief but also representatives of counties, cities and towns, primarily in order to get their assent to extraordinary taxation. In this way the Great Council came to include those who were summoned by name (the tenants-in-chief) and those who were representatives of communities (the commons). The two parts, together with the Sovereign, eventually became known as “Parliament” (the first official use of this term, which originally meant a meeting for parley or discussion, being in 1236).

The first reign during which the King is known to have summoned knights of the counties to a council was that of Richard 1 (1189—1199). In 1254 the knights were again summoned and the sheriffs were instructed that the knights were to be elected by the counties and were to represent them in the discussion of what aid should be given to the King “in his great emergency”. The knights were summoned again in 1261 but by this time civil war had broken out. The leader of the victorious baronial faction, Simon de Montfort, summoned a parliament in 1264, and to another in 1265 summoned not only “two discreet knights” but also two citizens to be elected by each city and borough. The 1265 Parliament, although it was summoned primarily to provide partisan support for Simon de Montfort, was the first to include representatives of the towns summoned for a general political purpose. Various other parliaments were held in the next 30 years, usually with no commons in attendance. But a meeting convoked by Edward I in 1295 to deal with a critical national emergency brought together all elements considered capable of giving help, and proved so similar to the broadly national gatherings of later centuries that it has been called the “Model Parliament”. There were summoned the lords lay and spiritual, two knights from each county, two citizens from each city and borough, and (for the first time) lesser clergy—making some 400 in all. “What touches all”, the writ of summons said, “should be approved by all”.

NOTES TO THE TEXT

Revenue - money that the government receives from tax.

Richard I, the Lion Heart, or Coer de Lion. King of England (1189-1199) Spent a lot of time fighting in the Crusades.

Borough - originally it was a fortified town; later, a town entitled to send a representative to Parliament. An area of local government abolished as such (except in Greater London) by the Local Government Act 1972.

Lay - not clerical ; not trained in a particular subject (Gr. laos = the people)

LANGUAGE PRACTICE AND COMPREHENSION CHECK.

TASK I Match the verbs from the right and the nouns from the left to get the phrases used in the text, make up your own sentences with them.

1. To grant/ to give

2. To meet

3. To persuade

4. To get

5. To summon

6. To hold

7. To deal with

A) One’s assent

B) Barons

C) Expenses

D) Emergency

E) Parliament

F) Aid

G) Barons/knight

TASK II Provide events for the following years:

1189-1199 –

1236 –

1254 –

1261 –

1264 –

1265 –

1295 –

TASK III Make up sentences which would start with the following:

1. Great Council…

2. Richard I…

3. Simon de Montfort…

4. Edward I…

5. Model Parliament…

TASK IV Compare the old and the modern meanings of the word Parliament.

1) - A solemn conference of all the estates of the kingdom, summoned together by the authority of the Crown, to consider the affairs of the realm. The constituent parts of the Parliament are the Sovereign and the three estates of the realm, i e, the Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal, who sit together with the Sovereign, in one House, and the Commons, who sit by themselves, in another.

(Mozley & Whiteley’s Law Dictionary)

2) The main law-making body of the UK – a combination of the sovereign, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

(Martin Cutts MAKING SENSE of ENGLISH in the LAW)

3. Elected group of representatives who form the legislative body which votes the laws of a country (in the UK formed of the House of Commons and House of Lords)

(P.H.Collin DICTIONARY OF LAW)

TASK V a) Match the derivatives and their meanings:.

1) to revoke, 2) to invoke, 3) to evoke, 4) to convoke, 5) to provoke

1. to be the sudden cause of (a usu. unpleasant feeling or action);

2. to call together for a meeting;

3. to call or bring into use or operation: (to …voke the authority of the court; to …voke the Fifth Amendment);

4. to annul by taking back: (to …voke an offer);

e) to produce or to call up (a memory or feeling).

b) Use the above verbs in the following sentences:

1. Indeed, a refusal by Australian courts to subscribe to that general change in allegiance would … political conflict between them and the other branches of government.

2. Were statutes made by the King alone, with the assent of his subjects, or by the King, Lords, and Commons exercising a shared legislative power? This issue … continuing debate, which contributed to civil war in the 1640s, and was not finally resolved until 1689.

3. “The multitude constituted from the King, nobles, and wise men of the kingdom rules as much or more than the King alone, and on this account the King … Parliament for conducting difficult affairs.”

4. The King could confidently assume that if he complied with the common law his actions would be reasonable, except in very unusual circumstances when his absolute prerogatives might need to be … .

5. The due process clause has been successfully … to defeat retroactive invasion or destruction of property rights in a few cases.

6. The people entrusted their power to their representatives in the House of Commons, but the trust would be … , and the power revert to the people, if it were grossly abused.

7. Given the Supreme Court’s importance to the U.S. system of government, it was perhaps inevitable that the Court would … great controversy.

8. Unlike the dissent to United States participation in World War I, which … several prosecutions, the dissent to United States action in Vietnam was subjected to little legal attack.

9. The king could bestow privileges on the people he favored and, being the king, he could … those privileges at any time.

10. No one who is wise gives punishment so that past deeds may be … , but so that future deeds may be prevented.

11. Congress must abide by its delegation of authority until that delegation is legislatively altered or … .

TASK VI Find those passages in the text which express the following:

1. In the middle ages the monarchs had to pay for everything out of their own pocket.

2. The Sovereign sought landlords’ consent to collect more money from his people.

3. The consent of town leaders and burgesses was necessary to raise taxes.

4. The kings were not able to cover all governmental expenditures from their own income and landlords’ supplies.

TASK VII Comment on the last sentence of the text, agree or disagree with it: “What touches all should be approved by all”.

* TEXT 2 FORMATION OF TWO HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

The meetings of the early parliaments usually took place wherever was convenient to the ruling monarch. When the meeting was in London it was generally opened in the “Painted Chamber” of the King's palace adjoining the West Minster (that is to say Westminster Abbey, the rebuilding of which had been begun by Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest). The monarch sat on the throne at one end, surrounded by the great officers of state and with his tenants-in-chief ranged according to rank on benches at right angles to the throne. The representatives of the commons stood or knelt at the far end. After they had heard the King's requests, the lords and commons withdrew to separate sittings to deliberate upon them; they then reassembled in one body to report their decisions through designated spokesmen (the first reference to a Speaker in the Rolls of Parliament is in 1377).

At the end of the thirteenth century Parliament consisted of the King, bishops, abbots, temporal peers (earls and barons), representatives of the lower clergy, knights of the counties, citizens and burgesses, but, by the middle of the fourteenth century, a significant change in its composition had occurred. The greater barons, bishops and abbots had been drawn by community of interests into a single body. The knights regularly deliberated with citizens and burgesses. The minor clergy, finding their more appropriate place in the convocations (ecclesiastical assemblages) of Canterbury and York, from about 1330 dropped out altogether. The eventual result was two houses—one, the House of Lords, consisting of persons who attended in response to individual summonses, and the other, the House of Commons bringing together all members who, elected in counties, cities and boroughs, attended in a representative capacity.

NOTES TO THE TEXT

The Painted Chamber - a hall in Westminster with battle-pieces on the walls

The Rolls of Parliament - the Archives of Parliament

Burgesses - representatives from boroughs

Convocation - an organization of church officials

TASK I Complete the following statements according to the text:

1. It was the Monarch who decided…

2. Lords and Commons met separately to debate…

3. Their elected spokesmen announced…

4. The membership of Parliament had drastically changed by…

5. It is in 1377…

6. In the late thirteenth century Parliament included…

7. Finally the two Houses and the King constituted …

TASK II Work in pairs. Put 5 questions to each paragraph. Ask them your partner. Answer your partner’s 5 questions.

TASK III a) Use the verbs in brackets in their proper forms; b) Translate the text: