Richardson, Oliver Huntington: The national movement in the reign of Henry III. and its culmination in the barons' war: erster Theil (Heidelberg, 1897)

12 THE BARONS' WAR CHAP.I

of the Conqueror's separation of church and state had
proved disastrous to the royal prerogative, so now
the fruit of his separation of manors was fully ripe.
Already in numerous rebellions the barons had been
forced to combine with one another ; they were now
compelled to court the assistance of the native English.1
The extent to which the constitution had developed
may be partly measured by the fact that the rebellion
against John was largely the work of the ministerial
nobility, and that their objections to foreign service
were couched in terms2 which a modern lawyer would
call "special pleading," and which plainly show the
decay of feudal spirit. The language, no less than
the terms of the Great Charter, is a valuable witness to
the growth of the constitutional power of the baronage.
Already—and Normandy only eleven years lost — a
foreigner could scarcely appreciate, much less admin-
ister, the laws of England.3
Under Henry II. and Richard, the crown had over-
strained its power; for this, as well as for his own
misdeeds, John paid the penalty. At best, the Angevin
system of administration had been the work of the
deus ex machina; it lacked utterly that vitality and
* organic unity which only a constitution expressive of

1 Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV., p. 71. Taswell-Langmead, Eng.
Const. Hist., p. 58, n. 2.

2 Walt. Cov., II., p. 217. Sel. Chart., pp. 277, 278. Dicentes se
propter terras quas in Anglia tenent non debere regem extra regnum
sequi nee ips'um euntum scutagio juvare. Cf. Had. Cogges., p. 872;
Sel. Chart., p. 277, and Stubbs' Const. Hist., I., p. 563, n. 3.

3 Vide Matthew Paris, III., p. 252, and infra, p. 69.