illam teneat immediate de capitali domino, et oneretur statim de servitio quantum pertinet sive pertinere debet eidem domino pro particula illa, secundum quantitatem terrae seu tenementi venditi; et sic in hoc casu decidat capitali domino ipsa pars servitii capienda per manum feoffatoris, ex quo feoffatus debet eidem capitali domino, juxta quantitatem terrae seu tenementi venditi, de particula illa servitii sic debiti esse intendens et respondens. Et sciendum quod per praedictas venditiones sive emptiones terrarum seu tenementorum, seu partis alicujus eorundem, nullo modo possunt terrae seu tenementa illa, in parte vel in toto, ad manum mortuam devenire, arte vel ingenio contra formam statuti super hoc dudum editi, etc. Et sciendum quod istud statutum locum tenet de terris venditis tenendis in feodo simpliciter tantum, etc.; et quod se extendit ad tempus futurum; et incipiet locum tenere ad festum Sancti Andreae proximo futurum, etc.—(Statutes of the Realm, i. 106.)

These writs make the third and penultimate step in the process towards the settled constitution of parliament which was completed in 1295. In 1290, the representatives of the Commons had been summoned after the work of legislation, and even the plan of taxation, had been determined and the bishops had joined in the grant after the writs for the collection of the lay grant were issued. In 1294, however, the clergy are regularly assembled in the persons of their representatives; they are treated with separately, but in an orderly way; and that done, the knights of the shire are summoned to meet the magnates at a later parliament, and the writs for the collection of the grant are dated on the day of meeting. The further steps of uniting the clergy by their representatives under the praemunientes clause, and the Commons by the borough members as well as by the knights of the shire, with the assembled magnates, are taken in 1295.

The war for the recovery of Gascony was determined on in the Whitsuntide parliament or court at Westminster (June 6, 1294). On the 14th, the king summoned the military force of the kingdom to muster at Portsmouth on the 1st of September;

a term afterwards postponed to the 30th. On the 19th of August the king summoned the whole clergy of the realm, not in provinces as heretofore, but to one assembly at Westminster on the 21st of September (No. I): the chapters being represented by one, and the parochial clergy by two proctors from each diocese. The assembly met, and the king demanded a half of the goods of the clergy: after much discussion and complaint, he seems to have obtained the concession, at least from a portion of the body. He had already seized the treasures of the churches, and the wool of the merchants, and was proceeding in a most arbitrary manner. At this juncture a rebellion of the Welsh stopped the expedition to Gascony; but the king found himself obliged to summon the parliament for a money grant. The writs were issued on the 8th of October (No. II); the next day another writ, summoning two additional knights from each shire, was sent to the sheriffs, but no representatives of the towns were summoned. The day of meeting was the 12th of November. The parliament, without the clergy, met on that day, and the business was speedily despatched, for, on the same 12th of November, the king appointed the commissioners to collect the tenth granted by the earls, barons, knights, and all others of the kingdom. The historian, Matthew of Westminster, adds that a sixth was exacted from the towns. About the same time a writ was issued exempting from the payment of the tenth the goods of those of the clergy who had granted the 'half' in the assembly on S. Matthew's day.

No. I. Summons of the Clergy.

REX archiepiscopo Eboracensi, Angliae primati, salutem. Qualiter rex Franciae nos de terra nostra Vasconiae malitiose decepit, et inde fraudulenter ejecit, eam nequiter detinendo, paternitatem vestram credimus non latere. Cum igitur ad terram illam recuperandam a manibus dicti regis vestrum consilium et auxilium, sicut et ceterorum praelatorum ac cleri de regno nostro quos communiter negotium istud tangit, nobis quam plurimum prospexerimus profutura, ob quod apud Westmonasterium in festo Sancti Matthaei Apostoli et Evangelistae proximo futuro personaliter esse disposuimus, Deo dante, ad

tractandum una vobiscum et ceteris praelatis ac clero ejusdem regni et ad ordinandum tunc ibidem super statu dictae terrae nostrae Vasconiae et remedio in hoc contra hujusmodi malitiam adhibendo; vobis mandamus, in fide et dilectione in quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungentes, quod dictis die et loco personaliter intersitis, vocantes prius decanum et capitulum ecclesiae vestrae, archidiaconos totumque clerum vestrae diocesis, facientesque quod iidem decanus et archidiaconi in propriis personis suis, et dictum capitulum per unum, idemque clerus per duos procuratores idoneos plenam et sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis capitulo et clero habentes, una vobiscum intersint modis omnibus tunc ibidem ad tractandum, ordinandum et faciendum, pro ipsis capitulo et clero ac eorundem nomine, quod de vestro et aliorum praelatorum, decani, archidiaconorum, procuratorum, praedictorum communi consilio providebitur in praemissis. T. R. apud Portesmuthe, XIX. die Augusti.

A similar summons was directed to the rest of the bishops severally, and to sixty-seven abbots.-(Report on the Dignity of a Peer, App. i. p. 59.)

No. II. Summons of the Knights of the Shire.

REX Vicecomiti Norhumbriae salutem. Quia cum comitibus, baronibus, et ceteris magnatibus de regno nostro, super quibusdam negotiis arduis nos et idem regnum nostrum contingentibus in crastino Sancti Martini proximo futuro apud Westmonasterium colloquium habere volumus et tractatum; tibi praecipimus quod eligi facias duos milites de discretioribus et ad laborandum potentioribus de comitatu praedicto, et eos ad nos usque Westmonasterium venire facias: ita quod sint ibi in crastino praedicto cum plena potestate pro se et tota communitate comitatus praedicti, ad consulendum et consentiendum pro se et communitate illa hiis quae comites, barones, et proceres praedicti concorditer ordinaverint in praemissis; et ita quod pro defectu potestatis hujusmodi idem negotium infectum non remaneat. Et habeas ibi hoc breve. T. Rege apud Westmonasterium VIII. die Octobris.

REX Vicecomiti Norhumbriae, salutem. Cum nuper tibi praeceperimus quod duos milites de discretioribus et ad laborandum potentioribus ejusdem comitatus de consensu ejusdem eligi, et eos ad nos usque Westmonasterium in crastino Sancti Martini proximo futuro cum plena potestate pro se et tota communitate

ejusdem comitatus venire faceres, ad consulendum et consentiendum pro se et communitate illa hiis quae comites, barones et proceres de regno nostro in dicto crastino ordinabunt, tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod, praeter illos duos milites, eligi facias alios duos milites legales et ad laborandum potentes, et eos una cum dictis duobus militibus usque Westmonasterium venire facias; ita quod in dicto crastino sint ibidem ad audiendum et faciendum quod eis tunc ibidem plenius injungemus. Et hoc nullo modo omittas. Et habeas ibi hoc breve. T. Rege apud Westmonasterium, IXo die Octobris. (Report on the Dignity of a Peer, App. i. p. 60.)

A.D. 1295.

GREAT COUNCIL AND PARLIAMENT.

The king found himself early in 1295 in very difficult circumstances at war with France, waging an unsuccessful struggle with the Welsh, and anticipating the breach with Scotland which occurred in the course of the year. It was not until June that he was able to take measures for holding a parliament. On the 24th of that month he issued writs of summons to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, chiefs of orders, earls, barons, judges, deans sworn of the council, and other clerks of the council. They were directed to meet at Westminster on the 1st of August. The object of the gathering was to discuss the proposals for mediation with France made by two papal legates. The debate lasted two days, and the legates left England with powers to treat for a truce. No representatives of the Commons were summoned to this assembly, which, although it is styled in the Rolls of Parliament a Parliament, and seems to have transacted the usual legal business of the terminal sessions of parliament, was more properly a Great Council. No attempt was made in it to raise money, but it was probably arranged that a grant should be asked for in the Michaelmas session. With this view writs were issued on the 30th of September and on the 1st of October for an assembly which should have the power of taxing the whole nation for the war with France.

The first writ issued is, according to ancient precedent (above,

He is

p. 130), addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury. directed to attend on the Sunday after Martinmas at Westminster, and is premonished to cause the prior of his cathedral and the archdeacons of the diocese to present themselves in person, and the chapter of the cathedral by one, the parochial clergy by two, sufficient proctors. The machinery of representation of the clergy, which had the year before been used to create a distinct assembly, is now consolidated with that of the parliament. The Archbishop of York has a similar summons, to assemble his clergy, not at York but at Westminster; and the several bishops receive their writs direct from the Crown, as in the former summons to parliament, not through the archbishop as in the case of the provincial convocations; the same day the abbots and priors are summoned. On the 1st of October the writs are issued to the baronage. On the 3rd of October the writs to the sheriffs are dated; and by these each sheriff is directed to return two knights elected by the counties, and two citizens or burghers for each city or borough within his shire.

By these writs of summons a perfect representation of the three estates was secured, and a parliament constituted on the model of which every succeeding assembly bearing that name was formed.

At the session in November the aid demanded was discussed by the three bodies separately. The baronage and knights of the shire gave an eleventh, the cities and boroughs a seventh. With the clergy there were difficulties. The Archbishop of Canterbury offered a tenth, the king demanded a third, or at least a fourth. The archbishop however held out, and the king, after debating the matter for nearly a month, accepted a tenth on the 8th of December. This is perhaps the first case in which we find the three several interests taxing themselves in different proportions; for the statement of Matthew of Westminster, that in 1294 the towns were taxed a sixth penny, is not borne out by the records of the kingdom, which mention only the tenth. This is not conclusive of course against his assertion; but it is difficult to see how the tax of the sixth penny