York, statute of
York, statute of, 1322. Immediately after the execution of Thomas of Lancaster, Edward II summoned a parliament at York and by this statute (16 Edw. II stat. 1) repealed the Ordinances of 1311 which had limited his authority. It added that matters concerning the king, the realm, and the people should be debated in Parliament with the assent of magnates and the community of the realm. Stubbs argued that this was a powerful affirmation that the Commons must be present at Parliaments, that Edward was using the Commons to balance the power of the magnates, and that the statute ‘embodied in a very remarkable way the spirit of the constitution’. Later historians have been more cautious, pointing out that the statute declared what had been the custom, not a novelty, that ‘the community of the realm’ did not necessarily mean the Commons, and warning against seeing the statute as a great leap forward in parliamentary influence.
J. A. Cannon
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York, statute of