The History of Impeachment can be traced almost as far back as when the "first government was created." Impeachments have know to be existent in Ancient Greece. However their form of impeachment was much different from that of ours. It was called eisangelia. The modern impeachment system would not originate until the fourteenth century in the English governing system. This would become the official beginning of The Process for Impeachment.
The form of government used in England during the 14th century,was very different than the present United States Government. The country of England was ruled by a single person know was the King. He was the supreme ruler of the land and everybody had to do what he said, if they didn't, they might be sent to jail. Unlike the U.S. Government where a ton of people run the country, in England only one person ran the show, the King. Many times the subjects, or the people he ruled over, would feel a lack of freedom. They would have to do what the King said, no questions asked. The King could take what ever he wanted from his subjects if he needed to, and was constantly under control of the military. Most of the time the King was far more rich than any of the other subjects, who were very poor and uneducated at the time. Although some the the King's loyalist subjects were also powerful and had a lot of money, most of the time they would had been chosen by the King to carry out his immediate orders and help him rule, originally a leader in his military, and has close friendly relations with the King's family for generations.
This was a government formed on a basis that a single ruler, the King, was in charge, this was called monarchy. His loyalist subjects would being to act together and form the King's Parliament. They were like a small meeting committee that would make decisions for the King, lowering the amount of stress from leading his nation. The impeachment process that the King and his ministers of Parliament had, was much more generic than that which is used today. Basically if the King or a majority of his ministers believe that one of their companions was a traitor then he would be kicked out of the Parliament, and if they were really bad, then maybe they would be hanged instead of jailed.
Constitutional Convention
While the Constitution was under construction in September of 1787 debates upon the forms to be used to remove someone from his or her government post were being worked on. James Madison the founder of the Constitution (a three branch self governing system) had included a segment in the Constitution where if a President or other official were to use bribery or commit treason against the nation then and only then would he or she be removed from office. Delegates like George Mason thought that the conditions were limited to the number of acts the Senate could use to overthrow a president for his or her unreasonable crimes. Mason wanted the term "Maladministration", meaning bad administration, to be added to the section. However Madison and other delegates didn't comply to the idea and opposed his suggestion. Mason then came up with another idea that would borrow a term used in the British law. This term "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" fits nicely in the Constitution although sometimes its meaning is misunderstood.
To learn more about High Crimes and Misdemeanors click on the link below.