two knights from each shire or county, and two citizens from each borough or town. This was the beginning of our modern Parliament, in which there are representatives of all classes of the people. But in Earl Simon’s time, and for many years after, bishops, barons, knights, and burgesses, all sat in the same room and voted together; whereas now, they sit in two rooms, or chambers, and vote separately.
5. Death of De Montfort, A.D. 1265.—Not long did Earl Simon hold the reins of power. Simon’s sons gave offence, and the barons were jealous of him. Prince Edward, who saw how things were tending, managed to escape from his keepers, and rallying his own and his father’s friends around him, was soon at the head of a large force. Simon was not prepared for an attack, and had to take refuge with the Welsh prince Llewellyn. Edward defeated Simon’s son at Kenilworth, and then marching with young Simon’s banners in front of his army, he was able to come very close upon the Karl before he was aware of the danger. From a church tower at Evesham, in Worcestershire, Simon saw the enemy approaching. “Commend your souls to God,” he said to his small force of undisciplined Welsh, “for our bodies are the prince’s.” In the battle that followed, Sir Simon the Righteous was slain, and his body sadly mutilated. In another year the civil war was over, and then the peace of Kenilworth gave back to the barons their estates, and restored order in the land. Henry III. died in 1272, after a long reign, in which much harm, and some little good was done. He will be remembered by Westminster Abbey, the rebuilding of which he began, and by the fact that in his reign was the first English parliament.
CHAPTER VIII.
STRUGGLE WITH WALES AND SCOTLAND.
1. Edward I.—After the death of Earl Simon and the defeat of the barons, Prince Edward went to the Crusades, and did not return until nearly two years after his father’s death. Edward was
