![undefined](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Montfort_Evesham.jpg) *13th-century depiction of the mutilation of Montfort's body after the [Battle of Evesham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evesham "Battle of Evesham") in [Worcestershire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcestershire "Worcestershire") in 1265* Although the peasant and city workers' revolts were mostly unsuccessful, changing economic conditions and the increased value of scarcer labor gradually improved the lot of the poor in European society. And there had been some governmental changes as well, even before the plague, that paved the way for improvements. As we saw in the previous chapter, the *Magna Carta* had set some expectations for decreasing the excesses of monarchy, but the hoped-for liberalization didn't amount to much. In the 1220s, though , knights began to be consulted on taxation in some counties and by 1254 knights from every shire (county) were elected to be sent to Westminster to consent to a tax (and help collect it). In the 1260s, the baron Simon de Montfort, an opponent of King Henry III in the [Second Barons' War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Barons%27_War "Second Barons' War"), began convening councils of elected representatives. This innovation culminated in Montfort's first Parliament in 1265, which brought together all the earls and barons and also two knights from every shire and two burgesses (wealthy citizens) from each major city and borough. ![Below a piece of text is seen a king on a throne on a podium. On either side is seen a king and a bishop in front of the podium and clerks behind it. In front of this sit several lay and ecclesiastical lords, and more clerks, in a square on a chequered floor.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Medieval_parliament_edward.Jpg) *Edward I presiding over Parliament.* Montfort captured King Henry III and was de facto ruler of England in 1264 and 1265, but Henry's son Edward I (Longshanks) led the army that crushed the barons' rebellion. When he became king in 1272, however, Edward saw the benefits of the idea of having a Parliament to ratify his edicts, and summoned the burgesses and knights to Westminster in 1275. By 1290 (when Parliament voted to expel the Jews from England, and offered King Edward the largest tax ever in return for an edict), the representative body was meeting regularly. And in 1295, what became known later as the Model Parliament was called by Edward on the principle, *Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet* ("what touches all, should be approved of all"). ----- Next: [[13.10 - Commons]] Back: [[13.8 - Peasant Revolts]]