MAGNA CARTA brought to an end the period of absolutism and prepared the way for the control by Parliament of the taxing power. The barons, standing for the moment as the champions of the nation, had wrung from John the first concession. It really was not as great a concession, in so far as the power to tax was concerned, as eager advocates of popular rights have maintained. But it was the protest by the most influential body in the kingdom and in effect by the nation itself against unrestrained use of power by a royal tyrant. [The reign of Henry III, 1216-1272] The long reign of Henry III, stormy and contradictory to itself, accomplished one clear step forward. From one cause or another it became customary for the National Council, which in this reign first attained to the title of Parliament, to grant money to the king. Another step, of vast importance in the later history of parliamentary taxation, but in Henry’s time probably not of intimate connection with it, was the summons of the lesser tenants and subsequently of the townsmen into the councils of Parliament. There is no sure record that in Henry III’s reign a Parliament so constituted voted taxes, yet it is apparent that this differentiation in the national legislative body was the preliminary of the vesting of the taxing power in the House of Commons. [Reissue of the Charter with omissions] John died in the midst of his reverses the 19th October, 1216. The major part of his vassals were in the field against him, and worse than all, Louis, the heir to France, with French soldiers at his back, was in England at the bidding of the English baronage. Nine days after John’s death, his son Henry, a nine-year-old lad, was crowned King of England with small ceremony. After a lapse of two weeks, on the 11th November, a body of barons gathered at Bristol. There were four or five earls, including Pembroke, Chester, and Derby; eleven bishops, Hubert de Burgh, one or two other ministers, and some of the military leaders. Only one of the executors of the Charter figured at the meeting and this was William of Aumâle. For the most part they were of the party least disaffected by John; the rabid opponents of the old King were in the body of supporters around Louis of France. The Council proceeded to appoint William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke _Rector regis et regni_, being unwilling to elect a relative of the young King to this responsible position. The next day they reissued the Charter by common consent in the King’s name, with the important omission of Chapters Twelve and Fourteen.