The children of Henry Ill., by his wife Eleanor of Provence, were 1, Edward, who succeeded him; 2, Margaret, born in October 1240, married to Alexander III. of Scotland, at York, on the 20th of Decem ber 1251, died ou the 26th of February 1275; 3, Beatrice, born at Bordeaux on the 25th of June 1242, married to John de Dreux, duke of Brittany and earl of Richmond, at London iu 1260, died in 1273; 4, Edmund, surnamed Crouchback (probably from the crouch or cross which ho were upon his back, as having made the voyage to Jerusa lem), born on the 16th of January 1245, created earl of Chester in 1253, earl of Leicester in 1204, earl of Lancaster iu 1267, died in 1295; 5, Catherine, born on the 25th of November 1253, died in 1258; and four sons, Richard, John, William, and Henry, who died in infancy.
The reign of Henry HI. is especially memorable in the history of the constitution as affording ua the first distinct example of a parlia ment constituted as at present, of representatives from the counties, cities, and boroughs, as well as of the barons and higher clergy, or great tenants of the crown, lay and ecclesiastical. The assembly iu question met at London, on the 22nd of January 1205, having been summoned in the name of King Henry, while he was in the hands of De Montfort, a few weeks before: hence thia great leader of the barons has been regarded as the introducer of the principle of popular repre sentation into the English constitution, and the founder of the House of Commons. The fact simply is however that the writs for his
parliament of 1265 are the earliest extant directing the return of knights of the shire and representatives of cities and boroughs. There is nothing either in the writs themselves, or, what is more important, in the notices of any of the contemporary historians, from which it could be gathered that what took place was an innovation. Moreover, county representation, as at leaet an occasional usage, may certainly be distinctly traced to a date half a century earlier than this.
Our statute law also begins with this reign, the earliest enactment on the statute-book being that entitled the 'Proviaiona of Merton,' paned in the 20th year'of Henry III., 1235-36. Only two of the statutes passed in this reign however are extant on the rolls in the Tower, namely, 'Magna Charts.' and the Charta de Forests,' and even these are only found in charters of inspeximus, or confirmation, of the next reign. The Charta de Foresta ' was first made a distinct charter in the 2nd of Henry III. (1217). For an enumeration of the repeated confirmations, both of that and of the great charter which were obtained in this reign, and which form the principal legislation of the period, the reader is referred to the 'Introduction to the Statutes at Large' in the edition of the Record Commissioners. Bracton's law treatise entitled De Consuetudinibua et Legibus Anglicanis ' is assigned to the reign of Henry Ill.