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

PART I INTRODUCTION: PRIMARY FORCES

17

ground for constitutional resistance to tyranny. As
the winning of Magna Charta had been the first-fruits
of English nationality, so in the evil days which fol-
lowed the death of Stephen Langton the maintenance
of its inviolability seemed to be the only pledge of
continued national existence. As the administration
of church and state fell more and more into the hands
of aliens; as the folly and faithlessness of the king
himself became more and more apparent; and as the
peculiar character of governmental ills required the
application of peculiar remedies, the "Struggle for
the Charters" developed into a struggle for the prin-
ciples which they implicitly contained, and for the logi-
cal extension of those principles as the sole guarantee
for freedom and national existence. And so, in the
course of time, the patriots of England raised the
cry for the Provisions of Oxford as their fathers had
done for the Great Charter, and their fathers' fathers
for the laws of good king Edward. Although the
chief importance of the Barons' War must always
rest in its wonderful constitutional developments, yet
to the men of the day the contest was not primarily
a struggle for an ingenious political device, but to
secure the right of native Englishmen to the enjoy-
ment and fostering of their native heritage. The
constitution was but a means to this end; the de-
velopment of the constitution was necessarily based
on Anglo-Saxon forces, and it naturally grew into
the representative system. Through Magna Charta
the barons had promised to the people their rights ;

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