Edward next prepared to attack France. In great need of money, he
demanded a large sum from the clergy, and seized a quantity of wool in
the hands of the merchants. The barons, alarmed at these arbitrary
measures, insisted on the King's confirming all previous charters of
liberties, including the Great Charter (SS135, 160, 199). This
confirmation expressly forbade that the Crown should take the people's
money or goods except by the consent of Parliament. Thus out of the
war England gained the one thing it needed to give the finishing touch
to the building up of Parliamentary power (SS213, 217); namely, a
solemn acknowledgement by the King that the nation alone had the right
to levy taxes.[1] (See Summary of Constitutional History in the
Appendix, p. xi, S12.)
[1] Professor Stubbs says in his works (i.e. "Constitutional History
of England," and "Select Charters"), that the Confirmation of the
Charters "established the principle that for all taxation, direct and
indirect, the consent of the nation must be asked, and made it clear
that all transgressions of that principle, whether within the latter
of the law or beyond it, were evasions of the spirit of the
Constitution." See also J. Rowley's "Rise of the English People."