CHAP. sor, and should issue new writs ordering the attendance of the same knights. They were called "to treat on the same subjects, and to convince "themselves that the king intended nothing " which was not for the honour and common advantage of the realm." 138 This This appears to me to have been a real parliament, and was followed by the celebrated assembly of 1265.

Their qualifications.

66

But in this stage of the inquiry a question occurs, which, if we judge only from the reasoning that has been expended upon it, must be of very difficult solution. Were the knights of the shire the representatives of the tenants of the crown only, or of the whole body of freeholders? Many distinguished antiquaries have maintained that to ease the lesser barons from the burden of personal attendance, they were permitted to send their representatives: and thence have inferred that the other landholders of the county were totally excluded from all share in the election. But when we consider the language of the ancient writs, this theory will appear extremely improbable. Some ambiguity might perhaps arise from the expression of free tenants, which was occasionally used to designate both the tenants of the crown by military service, and all other tenants by free service.139 But

138 Brady, ii. No. 203. 139. The distinction between them was accurately made by Fitz-Peter the justiciary. He orders the earls and barons to collect the fortieth for the crusade from their tenants-from their military tenants a full fortieth, per ser

II.

can we believe that, if the exclusion did actually CHAP. exist, it would never have been alluded to? The writs themselves seem to prescribe the opposite practice. They never mention the tenants in chief. They require no other qualification in the candidate, than that he should be a lawful and discreet knight, nor in the electors than that they should be suitors of the county. They ordain that the election should be made in a full court, which, we know, comprehended all the free tenants without distinction, 140 and vest the persons elected with the power of binding by their votes not merely the tenants of the crown but all individuals owing suit to the county. In absence then of all authority to the contrary, it cannot be thought rash to assert, that the election belonged formerly, as it did in after ages, to the freeholders at large, whether they held of the king, or of a mesne lord, or by military, or any other free service.

tatives of

30. But if we occasionally discover the Represenknights of the shire among the members of cities and boroughs.

vitium militare tenentes-from their free tenants a fortieth after the deduction of their rent; si fuerent libere tenentes-and then calls it a collection from the earls, barons, knights, and free tenants. Hoved. 471. Where it appears that by the word milites, he meant military tenants, by libere tenentes, all others holding by free service.

140 Thus the great charter was to be published in a full court, and we are told that the full court consisted of the barons, knights, and all the freeholders of the same county (Brad. ii. App. No. 145) exactly in the words of Fitz-Peter. In pleno comitatu tuo convocatis baronibus, militibus, et omnibus libere tenentibus.

II.

CHAP. the great councils, we have no sufficient reason to believe that they were accompanied by the deputies of the cities and boroughs. Among the writs which were issued during the reigns of John and his son, and of which many have been preserved, there exists no vestige of a summons directing the return of citizens and burgesses more ancient than the administration of Leicester. We may safely pronounce it an innovation: but an innovation which the course of events must otherwise have introduced within a few years. During the lapse of two centuries the cities and boroughs had silently grown out of their original insignificance, and had begun to command attention from their constant increase in wealth and population. Taking advantage of the poverty of their lords, the inhabitants had successively purchased for themselves the most valuable privileges. In lieu of individual services. they now paid a common rent their guilds were incorporated by charter: they had acquired the right of holding fairs, of demanding tolls, of choosing their chief magistrates, and of enacting their own laws. They were able to supply both men and money: and it became the obvious policy of the crown to attach them to its interests, by lightening their burdens, and attending to their petitions. Formerly, whenever the king obtained an aid from his tenants in chief, he imposed a tallage on his boroughs, which was levied at discretion by a capitation.

II.

tax on personal property.141 Though the inha- CHAP. bitants did not dispute this right of the crown, they bore with impatience the grievances, which on such occasions they experienced from the despotism of the royal officers: and frequently offered in place of the tallage a considerable sum, under the name of a gift; which, if it were accepted, was assessed and paid by their own magistrates.112 This was in reality to indulge them with the liberty of taxing themselves and when the innovation had been once introduced, it was obviously more convenient in itself, and more consistent with the national customs, that the new privilege should be exercised by deputies assembled together, instead of being intrusted to the discordant judgment of so many separate communities. This did not escape

141 Thus Henry III., in his 21st year, obtained a thirtieth from the tenants of the crown and the freeholders of the counties (Brady, ii. App. No. 159): and at the same time exacted a tallage from the cities, boroughs, and demesne lands of the crown. Sicut civitates, burgos, et dominica nostra talliari fecimus. Brad. i. 95.

142 This distinction was made as early as the reign of Henry II. Plurimum interest si donum vel auxilium civitatis per singula capita commorantium in ea a justiciariis constituator: vel si cives summam aliquam quæ principe digna videatur justiciariis efferant, et ab eis suscipiatur. Apud Brad. i. 178. Thus when Henry III. in his 39th year demanded a tallage of 3000 marks of the citizens of London, they offered a gift of 2000, maintaining at the same time that they were not subject to tallage. But it was proved from the records in the chancery and the exchequer that they had been talliated in the years 1214, 1223, 1242, 1245, 1249, 1258: and the next day they thought proper to submit. See the original writ in Brady, i. 178.

II.

CHAP. the discernment of Leicester: and if the improvement was abandoned after his fall,143 (probably on account of the disgrace attached to his memory) its utility was appreciated by the succeeding monarch, who before the close of his reign regularly called to parliament the representatives of the cities and boroughs as well as those of the counties.

Representatives of

4o. From the multitude of abbots and priors the inferior summoned by Leicester in 1264, some writers clergy. have inferred that he wished to secure a majority among the members by the introduction of his partisans from the monastic orders.144 The truth is, that there was nothing unusual in the num¬ ber. Originally indeed the obligation of attending at the great councils was confined to those ecclesiastics, who held their lands by barony: 145 but they formed only a small portion of the regular and secular clergy, while the rest, though inferior in wealth and dignity, enjoyed the ad

143 According to Hody (Hist. of Convocations, p. 369) the burgesses attended at the parliament of 1269. He depends on the authority of Wikes, who indeed tells us that Henry summoned the most powerful men from the cities and boroughs to attend at the translation of the body of Edward the Confessor: as formerly on his return from France in 1243, he had summoned four deputies from each city and borough to meet him on the road in their best clothes and on valuable horses (Paris, 534). But this was merely to do him honour on a particular occasion. Wikes then adds, that when the ceremony of the translation was over, a parliament was held by the nobles, an expression which seems to exclude the citizens and burgesses. Wikes, 88, 89.

144 Brady, i. 139. Henry, viii. 94.

145 Leg, Sax. 324.