Provisions of Oxford

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The Provisions of Oxford were installed in 1258 by a group of barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester; these documents are often regarded as England's first written constitution. The provisions forced King Henry III of England 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 Parliament.

A written confirmation of the agreement was sent to the sheriffs 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 antidote to the Francization which had taken place in the decades immediately before (see entry on Henry III of England). The Provisions were the first English government document to be published in English since the Norman Conquest two hundred years before.^[1]

The Provisions of Oxford were replaced the next year in 1259 by the Provisions of Westminster. These Provisions were overthrown by Henry, helped by a papal bull, in 1261, which seeded the start of the Second Barons' War (1263-1267), which the King won. In 1266 it was annulled for the last time by the Dictum of Kenilworth.

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.