may be made thereof. Let it be made. Let John have a writ to summon four knights to elect twelve to make a recognition thereof on the coming of the justices. The assize of novel disseisin between William Torell, plaintiff, and the abbot of Stratford concerning a certain dike thrown down in Little Thurrock to the damage of the free tenement of William Torell in the same town is postponed till the week after Hilary's day, because of the recognitors; of whom some excused themselves, and some came, etc. and Hugh of Boyton and five others made default. And the abbot comes and says that a certain law was made in the time of King Henry the father, concerning the marshes, and he prays that it may be observed. Therefore the sheriff is commanded to provide such recognitors as know the law of the marsh, and who know the truth, to say whether the throwing down of that dike is to William's damage, or not. The assize of mort d'ancestor between Alice, daughter of Duke, by William, her attorney, and Alan, brother of Alan, and John, son of Alan, regarding half a messuage with appurtenances in the town of St. Botolph is postponed till the fortnight after Trinity, because some of the recognitors excused themselves, and some came; and the same day is given to them. Master Roger Gernun, Robert, son of Mussa, William Res, and Hamo, son of Hereward, are attached; and let the sheriff appoint six lawful men of the town of St. Botolph who are discreet and who know the truth of the matter and none of whom is related to the aforesaid parties, to be there at the same time. The assize of darrein presentement to the church of Weston, between William de Colville, petitioner, and the prior of Lewes, concerning the church of Weston, [is postponed] sine die, because William de Colville did not keep the appointed day, and the writ did not mention his wife, who had the inheritance. Wherefore William is in mercy, and also his pledges Roger of the Wood and John Langvillun. Sarah Delaware complains that Geoffrey de Tichesie exacted from her more service than it had been recognized in the king's court was due to him. And Geoffrey comes and declares that there was never any plea between them in the king's court touching the services; and it was testified by the record of the justices that the plea was in the county court. Let it be again in the county court. III. WRITS OF SUMMONS TO PARLIAMENT. From the earliest period of the Norman rule, the greater tenants-in-chief were summoned, from time to time, by formal writs, to perform their due military service to the king or to give him their counsel in matters of government. The performance of this latter function gave rise to the more or less regular meeting of Parliament, to which the barons and prelates were still summoned by special writs. When a larger representation of the nation was desired by the king, during the thirteenth century, writs were sent to the sheriffs ordering them to send up to the Parliament representatives of the county and town communites. The following writs represent respectively a summons to the great nobles before the admission of the commons, and to each of the three estates for the "model parliament" of 1295: I. A WRIT OF SUMMONS TO THE LORDS, SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL, TO A PARLIAMENT, 26 HENRY III. (1242). Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, ii, 7. Latin. The King to the venerable father in Christ W., archbishop of York, greeting. We command and require you, as you love us and our honor, and your own equally, and in the faith by which you are held to us, that laying aside all other business, you be with us at London, fifteen days after St. Hilary's day, to discuss with us, along with the rest of our magnates whom we have similarly caused to be convoked, our arduous affairs and those things which more specially touch our state and that of our whole kingdom; and that you in no way fail to perform this. Witness the king at Windsor, Dec. 14th. In the same way it is written to all the bishops, abbots, earls and barons. 2. SUMMONS OF A BISHOP TO PARLIAMENT, 1295 Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, ii, 67. Latin. The King to the venerable father in Christ Robert, by the same grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, greeting. As a most just law, established by the careful providence of sacred princes, exhorts and decrees that what affects all, by all should be approved, so also, very evidently should common danger be met by means provided in common. You know sufficiently well, and it is now, as we believe, divulged through all regions of the world, how the king of France fraudulently and craftily deprives us of our land of Gascony, by withholding it unjustly from us. Now, however, not satisfied with the before-mentioned fraud and injustice, having gathered together for the conquest of our kingdom a very great fleet, and an abounding multitude of warriors, with which he has made a hostile attack on our kingdom and the inhabitants of the same kingdom, he now proposes to destroy the English language altogether from the earth, if his power should correspond to the detestable proposition of the contemplated injustice, which God forbid. Because, therefore, darts seen beforehand do less injury, and your interest especially, as that of the rest of the citizens of the same realm, is concerned in this affair, we command you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which you are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin, in the approaching winter, you be present in person at Westminster; citing beforehand the dean and chapter of your church, the archdeacons and all the clergy of your diocese, causing the same dean and archdeacons in their own persons, and the said chapter by one suitable proctor, and the said clergy by two, to be present along with you, having full and sufficient power from the same chapter and clergy, to consider, ordain and provide, along with us and with the rest of the prelates and principal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, how the dangers and threatened evils of this kind are to be met. Witness the king at Wangham, the thirtieth day of September. Identical summons were sent out to the two archbishops and eighteen bishops, and, with the omission of the last paragraph, to seventy abbots. 3. SUMMONS OF A BARON TO PARLIAMENT, 1295. Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, ii, 68. The king to his beloved and faithful relative, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, greeting. Because we wish to have a consultation and meeting with you and with the rest of the principal men of our kingdom, as to provision for remedies against the dangers which in these days are threatening our whole kingdom, we command you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which you are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin's, in the approaching winter, you be present in person at Westminster, for considering, ordaining and doing along with us and with the prelates, and the rest of the principal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, as may be necessary for meeting dangers of this kind. Witness the king at Canterbury, the first of October. Similar summons were sent to seven earls and forty-one barons. 4. SUMMONS OF REPRESENTATIVES OF SHIRES AND TOWNS TO PARLIAMENT, 1295. Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, ii, 66. The king to the sheriff of Northamptonshire. Since we intend to have a consultation and meeting with the earls, barons and other principal men of our kingdom with regard to providing remedies against the dangers which are in these days threatening the same kingdom, and on that account have commanded them to be with us on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin, in the approaching winter, at Westminster, to consider, ordain, and do as may be necessary for the avoidance of these dangers, we strictly require you to cause two knights from the aforesaid county, two citizens from each city in the same county, and two burgesses from each borough, of those who are especially discreet and capable of laboring, to be elected without delay, and to cause them to come to us at the aforesaid time and place. Moreover, the said knights are to have full and sufficient power for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid county, and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and the communities of the aforesaid cities and boroughs separately, then and there for doing what shall then be ordained according to the common counsel in the premises, so that the aforesaid business shall not remain unfinished in any way for defect of this power. And you shall have there the names of the knights, citizens and burgesses and this writ. Witness the king at Canterbury, on the third day of October. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. Stubbs, William: Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. Clarendon Press. Fifth Edition just completed. This book covers the whole period of English Constitutional History to the close of the Middle Ages. It remains above all comparison the most learned, most detailed, and most moderate work on the subject. But these very qualities make it rather a work for reference than for continuous study or reading. Taswell-Langmead, Thomas Pitt: English Constitutional History. I vol., 875 pp. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Fourth Edition, 1890. This is the best single volume work covering the whole period of English Constitutional History. That portion which precedes the Norman Conquest is, however, distinctly inferior to the remaining part of the work, being inadequate in amount and largely incorrect in substance. It is unfortunately quite expensive, the price being $5.50. Medley, D. J. : A Student's Manual of English Constitutional History. 1 vol., 583 pp. Oxford and London, 1894. This is a most excellent work, including the most recent investigations and conclusions in the field of English Constitutional History in its widest extension. Its arrangement, however, being by subjects, not chronologically, makes it rather a study of the elements of the constitution from an historical standpoint, than a history of constitutional development in any proper sense, and makes it unsuited for use as a text-book on the subject. Pollock and Maitland: History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. 2 vols. Cambridge, England, 1895. Although this work professes to exclude all matters of a purely constitutional nature, it necessarily includes much of the organization of jurisdiction, of the distinction of political classes in the community, and of other matters on the borderland between the government and law, and with Prof. Maitland's Domesday and Beyond is of the utmost interest and value on all those subjects of which it does treat. Stubbs, William: Select Charters and other Illustrations of English Constitutional History. This is an extremely full collection of documents of constitutional significance, (untranslated), from the earliest times to the close of the reign of Edward I. Prothero, G. W.: Select Statutes and other Constitutional Documents Illustrative of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. I vol. Oxford, 1894. There is no collection of constitutional documents of the period between the accession of Edward II. and that of Elizabeth, excepting as they are to be found in Rymer's Foedera, the Statutes of the Realm, and such general bodies of records. But from 1558 to 1660 an almost continuous series of such documents is published in this work and that which follows, viz.: Gardiner, S. R.: The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1628-1660. I vol. Oxford, 1889. OF THE UNIVERSITY |