ABSTRACT
PART II T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N A L AND A D M I N I S T R A T I V E
ACTION O F T H E BARONIAL OPPOSITION
Against the great strength of the household system there stood a baronial opposition resting on a principle which was in direct contradiction to that upon which the household system worked. It was a clash of opposing theories; a conflict in which both sides could claim to rest upon conservatism, though actually both contained revolutionary ideas. Ever since the Conquest baronial opposition to the monarchy had existed in England. There had been a number of barons who, acting upon the principle of baronial privilege or upon an exaggerated view of their own position and functions, had withstood the king and his policy by force and sought to substitute for the royal a baronial policy. For the first century after the Conquest the opposition of the barons was based upon feudal theories. Their object was to obtain more local independence in development of the separatist tendencies of feudalism. The strong centralised organisation built up by Henry II ended all hopes of ultimate success in this direction. The main motive of the baronial opposition altered. Under the stress of circumstances they were compelled to surrender their ideas of feudal local independence and to concentrate their efforts upon obtaining a voice in the new central organisation which was developing. From the time of Magna Carta the purely feudal policy was no longer the main motive. Baronial opposition demanded a wider definition. From a demand for local independence it was expanding to an insistent demand for complete or part control of the central administration. The barons in the reign of Edward II were still under the influence of the new baronial opposition, the principle and action of which was first exemplified
the thirteenth century had produced necessitated certain changes in the machinery, but fundamentally the underlying principle of the opposition was the same. This new baronial opposition was still based upon feudalism. The aims of the policy were not constitutional, they were to a considerable extent personal, which was but another way of stating that they were oligarchical. Nor was the baronial opposition of Edward II the last phase of this particular policy. It continued until the Wars of the Roses. The barons had by that time obtained power to use the council and all other administrative organs for their own ends. The organisation of government was directed to baronial objects1.
