Parliament (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The English parliament first arose in an attempt by the barons and other lords in England to 
enforce the Magna Carta. King John's son Henry decided to test the Charter's backbone, and 
declared his power to tax without consulting his lords. The lords promptly overthrew Henry, as was 
their right under the Charter.
Instead of crowning a new King, however, the barons expanded the council of 
lords outlined in the Charter, including representatives from other classes of English nobility and society 
(but not, of course, peasants or other commoners). The lords, who spoke Norman French as their court language, 
called their new council "parliament", using the French word "parler" ("to talk"). The new parliament lasted only 
a year, when Henry's son Edward raised an army and overthrew the barons. However, after the climactic battle restoring 
royal power to England, Edward's position was still precarious, and he had no choice but to cede the power of taxation 
to Parliament, and to agree that only Parliament could repeal laws that it enacted. This was obviously a watershed in 
political history. The Magna Carta had established the theory of limiting kings' power and protecting the rights of 
the governed; the barons' brief rebellion a few decades later established the mechanism by which the theory in the 
Magna Carta was to be implemented.