The economy of England in the Middle Ages, from the Norman invasion in 1066, to the death of Henry VII in 1509, was fundamentally agricultural, though even before the invasion the market economy was important to producers.
The 12th and 13th centuries saw a huge development of the English economy.This was driven by the growth in the population from around 1.5 million at the time of the creation of the Domesday Book in 1086 to between 4 and 5 million in 1300.[5] England remained a agricultural economy, with the rights of major landowners and the duties of serfs increasingly enshrined in English law.[6] More land, much of it at the expense of the royal forests, was brought into production to feed the growing population or to produce wool for export to Europe. Mining increased in England, with the silver boom of the 12th century helping to fuel a fast-expanding currency.
Economic growth began to falter by the end of the 13th century, owing to a combination of over-population, land shortages and depleted soils. The loss of life in the Great Famine of 1315–17 shook the English economy severely and population growth ceased; the first outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 then killed around half the English population
In 1215, King John agreed to Magna Carta which stated the right of the barons to consult with and advise the king in his Great Council.
The first known official use of the term Parliament was in 1236. It described the consultative meetings of the English monarch with a large group of his nobles (the earls and barons), and prelates (the bishops and abbots). The word Parliament means an event arranged to talk and discuss things, from the French word “parler”.
In 1332, under the reign of Edward III, the representatives of the counties (knights of the shire) and of the towns (burgesses) always sat together in one chamber and were known as the House of Commons, separating from the Upper House (the King and his nobles) after 1341.
