Baron's War and the Community of the Realm, 1258-65

Abstract

The Community of the Realm composed by the reformer barons during the reform movement between 1258 and 1265 was regarded by William Stubbs as the expression of the collective nation of England. Since then several types of explanations have appeared to describe the image of the community of the realm in late thirteenth century England. This paper surveyed the meanings and usages of the phrase appearing in published documents in this period, for example king's letters and writs, baronial provisions and documented agreements between the king and the barons.
As a matter of fact the phrase as a governing body which consisted of the king and the baronial council of fifteen magnates did exist during the first phase of the reform movement between 1258 and 1260. Then, the unity of the baronial community was collapsed internally in 1260. After Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, seized the reins of the government in 1263, he gave a new meaning to the phrase and used it as his supporters body in which some earls, barons, many shire knights and some burgesses were included. Though he died in August 1265 in the battle of Evesham, his usage of the phrase was reused nine years later by the next king, Edward I, in 1275. The new king used the phrase as the body of the representatives of counties and boroughs sitting in the parliament together with earls and barons, i. e. all the supporters of the united government under the King.