The
Provisions of Oxford were installed in 1258 by a group of barons led by
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of LeicesterSimon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , was a French-English nobleman, notable as the principal leader of the baronial opposition to King Henry III of England. After the rebellion of 1263 and 1264, de Montfort became de facto ruler of England and called the first directly elected parliament in...
; these documents are often regarded as England's first written constitution (although the importance of earlier law codes such as that of King
Ethelbert of KentÆthelberht was King of Kent from about 580 or 590 until his death. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the monk Bede lists Aethelberht as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
should not be ignored). The provisions forced King
Henry III of EnglandHenry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
to accept a new form of government in which power was placed in the hands of a council of 15 members who were to supervise ministerial appointments, local administration and the custody of royal castles.
The
Provisions of Oxford were installed in 1258 by a group of barons led by
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of LeicesterSimon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , was a French-English nobleman, notable as the principal leader of the baronial opposition to King Henry III of England. After the rebellion of 1263 and 1264, de Montfort became de facto ruler of England and called the first directly elected parliament in...
; these documents are often regarded as England's first written constitution (although the importance of earlier law codes such as that of King
Ethelbert of KentÆthelberht was King of Kent from about 580 or 590 until his death. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the monk Bede lists Aethelberht as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
should not be ignored). The provisions forced King
Henry III of EnglandHenry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
to accept a new form of government in which power was placed in the hands of a council of 15 members who were to supervise ministerial appointments, local administration and the custody of royal castles. Parliament, meanwhile, which was to meet three times a year, would monitor the performance of this council. Its significance was that, for the first time, the English Crown was forced to recognize the rights and powers of
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
.
A written confirmation of the agreement was sent to the
sheriffA sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
s of all the counties of England in Latin, French and, significantly, in Middle English. The use of the English language was symbolic of the
Anglicisation of the government of England and an
antidoteAn antidote is a substance which can counteract a form of poisoning. The term ultimately derives from the Greek αντιδιδοναι antididonai, "given against"....
to the
FrancizationFrancization or Gallicization is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.- Francization of the language :...
which had taken place in the decades immediately before (see entry on
Henry III of EnglandHenry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
). The Provisions were the first English government document to be published in English since the Norman Conquest two hundred years before.
The Provisions of Oxford were replaced the next year in 1259 by the
Provisions of WestminsterThe Provisions of Westminster of 1259 were part of a series of legislative constitutional reforms which arose out of power struggles between Henry III of England and his barons...
. These Provisions were overthrown by Henry, helped by a
papal bullA Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it....
, in 1261, which seeded the start of the
Second Barons' WarThe Second Barons' War was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, against the Royalist forces led by Prince Edward .-Causes:...
(1263-1267), which the King won. In 1266 it was annulled for the last time by the
Dictum of KenilworthThe Dictum of Kenilworth, issued 31 October 1266, was a pronouncement designed to reconcile the rebels of the Barons' War with the royal government of England. After the baronial victory at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, Simon de Montfort took control of royal government, but at the Battle of Evesham...
.
The availability of a broader collection of writs transferred business to the Common Law Courts in London, and aroused so much resentment that in 1258 the Provisions of Oxford provided that no further expansion of the writ system would be allowed.
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