POLITICAL HISTORY 



of short duration, for in the next year they were pardoned at the intercession 

 of the queen and their lands restored. 



The year 1295 is one of the most important in English history, for it 

 may be accepted as fixing finally the right of shire and town representation, 10 * 

 although there were for some years afterwards various anomalies which only 

 illustrate the growth of the new system. To a Parliament summoned to 

 meet at Westminster in lago, 10 * when two or three knights were summoned 

 from each county probably to grant the king more money, Staffordshire had 

 sent two representatives, William de Stafford and William de Mere, but from 

 the model Parliament of 1295 must be dated the first regular members of 

 Parliament as we understand them to-day. 



To this came earls, barons, two knights chosen in the court of each 

 shire by writs sent to the sheriff of the shire, and two citizens from every 

 city or borough, chosen, like the knights, in the county courts. The arch- 

 bishops and bishops brought the heads of their chapters, their archdeacons, 

 one proctor for the clergy of each cathedral, and two for the clergy of each 

 diocese. 105 To this 'inauguration of the representative system' 106 Staffordshire 

 sent four members, two for the county, Henry de Creswall and Richard 

 Caverswall, and two for the borough of Stafford, 107 William Reyner and John 

 Beton. 



The Parliament of 1296 was constituted in the same manner as its 

 famous predecessor, but the returns are wholly lost, and in that of 1297, 

 when two knights from each county were summoned, but no representatives 

 from the cities and boroughs, the returns for Staffordshire are missing. 



In 1298 the model of 1295 was reverted to, but though Stafford county 

 sent William de Stafford and Henry Mauveysin, the borough made no return, 

 and so for the next two or three Parliaments the borough of Stafford is some- 

 times represented and sometimes not. However, in 1304-5 the county for 

 the first time sent six members altogether, two for the county, two for Lich- 

 field borough, and two for Stafford borough. 



The borough representation, however, in Staffordshire, as all over Eng- 

 land, was irregular. In 1307 the county only was represented, whereas in 

 1311, 1312, and 1313 the county, Lichfield, and Stafford sent two members 

 each, while in 1315 Lichfield drops out again, as in the next year did Staf- 

 ford borough. 108 



Edward I, the great general, statesman, and lawyer, died 7 July, 1307, 

 and on the accession of his worthless son we enter upon an era of cruelty, 

 luxury, factions, foreign wars, social rebellion, and religious divisions. In the 

 same year we find the king forbidding the holding of a tournament at Staf- 

 ford, and the sheriff ordered to make a proclamation that no one is to hold a 

 tournament without the king's special licence. 10 ' The reason in this instance 

 is not given, but such displays were sometimes forbidden as tending to disturb 

 the king's peace. 



105 Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 235. 



104 Close, 1 8 Edw. I, pt. vi, m. 8 d. To this Parliament thirty -seven English counties sent two members 

 each, and this county representation was maintained until 1545. Lane Poole, Historical Atlas, notes on 

 map xxiii. 



104 Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 132. 1M Ibid. 133. 



107 Parl. Accts. and Papers, Ixii (l), 6. In the same Parliament Worcestershire was represented by no less 

 than sixteen members, Derbyshire by four, and Salop by six. 



103 Ibid. Ixii (i). 109 Rymer, FoeJera (orig. ed.), iii, 76. 



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