422 Outlines of European History Growth of powers of Parliament House of Lords and House of Commons acts of himself or his officials of which Parliament complained before it would agree to let him raise the taxes. Instead of fol- lowing the king about and meeting wherever he might happen to be, the parliament from the time of Edward I began to hold its sessions in the city of Westminster, now a part of London, where it still continues to meet. Under Edward's successor, Edward II, Parliament solemnly declared in 1322 that important matters relating to the king and his heirs, the state of the realm and of the people should be con- sidered and determined upon by the king " with the assent of the prelates, earls and barons, and the commonalty (that is, com- mons) of the realm." Five years later Parliament showed its power by deposing the inefficient king, Edward II, and declared his son, Edward III, the rightful ruler of England. The new king, who w^as carrying on an expensive war with France, needed much money and consequently summoned Par- liament every year, and, in order to encourage its members to grant him money, he gratified Parliament by asking their advice and listening to their petitions. He passed no new law without adding " by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and of the commons." At this time the separation of the two houses of Parliament took place, and ever since the " lords spiritual and temporal " — that is, the bishops and higher nobles — have sat by themselves in the House of Lords, and a House of Commons, including the country gentlemen (knights) and the representatives elected by the more important towns, have met by themselves. Parliament thus made up is really a modern, not a medieval, institution, and we shall hear much of it later. Section 71. Wales and Scotland Extent of the The English kings who preceded Edward I had ruled over Enfland's «% a portion of the island of Great Britain. To the west realms before of ^heir kingdom lay the mountainous district of Wales, in- Edward I ^ ■' ..,-r.. i-ii. (1272-1307) habited by that remnant of the original Britons which the
