Angliae Archiepiscopi Episcopi et majores Abbates et quidam Magnates regni Papalo mandatum à Domino Legato explicanduÌ„ audituri c. Comes vero Ricardus alii Magnates Crucesignati ibidem existentes c. Anno 1242. 26 H. 3. scripsit Rex Anglorum omnibus regni sui Magnatibus Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus Comitibus Baronibus without mentioning any Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons districtè praecipiens ut omnes Generaliter Londinum die Martis ante Purificationem beatae Virginis convenirent de arduis negotiis regni dilationem non capientibus cum summa deliberatione tractaturi Imminente vero Purificatione beatae Mariae totius Angliae Nobilitas tam Praelatorum quam Comitum et Baronum secundum Regium praeceptum est Londini congregatum c. Responderunt Magnates cum magna cordium amaritudine c. There being no mention of any Commons Knights Citizens or Burgesses therein though writ in the margin Convocatur Generale Parliamentum Londini c. Postea verò ne oblivio tenorem responsionis Baronum deleret in scriptum taliter sunt haec redacta Cum Dominus Eboracensis Archiepiscopus et omnes Episcopi Angliae Abbates et Priores per se vel per Procuratores suos necnon et omnes Comiteg et ferè omnes Barones Angliae ad mandatum Domini Regis convenissent apud Westm. c. Anno Dom. 1242. regni Henrici 3. Regis 26. audituri Domini Regis voluntatem et negotium pro quo ipsos mandaverat Et idem Dominus Rex c. per eosdem solennes nuncios omnes Magnates de Regno suo rogasset de consilio ei dando et auxilio faciendo c. tandem dicti Episcopi Abbates et Priores Comites et Barones magno inter eos tractatu praehabito in primis Domino Regi per praedictos Magnates dederunt consilium c. Et cum dicti Magnates nuncii istud Domino Regi nunciassent responsum redeuntes ad Barnagium dixerunt quod in parte sufficiens dederunt Domino Regi responsum Anno 1244. 28 H. 3. convenerunt Regia submonitione convocati Londinum Magnates totius Regni Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Priores Comites Barones without Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons In quo Concilio petiit Rex ore proprio in praesentia Magnatum auxilium sibi fieri pecuniare c. Recedentesque Magnates de refectorio convenerunt Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Priores seorsim per se super hoc diligenter tractaruri Tandem requisiti ex parte eorum Comites Barones si vellent suis Consiliis unanimiter consentire in responfione et provisione super hiis facienda Qui responderunt quod sine commnni universitate nihil facerent Whereupon the Spiritual and Temporal Lords appointing a Committee agreed in an Answer and Ordinance there being no mention of any but of these Magnatum Magnates Magnatibus et Praelatis in all the passages of this Parliamentary Council which are large and notable a The same year Convenientibus autem iterum Magnatibus cum Praelatis generaliter Londini a die purificationis beatae Mariae in tres Septimanas Concilium super praedictis negotiis et tractatum habuerunt diligentem where they granting the King an ayde to marrie his daughter of xx 8. upon every Knights fee upon condition to ratifie the Great Charter cum novisset Martinus Nuncius Domini Papae quod Magnates Angliae Regiae contributioni generaliter consensissent inhiabat avidius ad negotium suum ad quod missus fuerat consummandum c. After which the same year Rex edicto publicè proposito summonitione generaliter facta fecit notificare per totam Angliam ut quilibet Baro tenens de Rege in capite haberet prompta parata Regali praecepto omnia servitia militaria quae ei debentur tam Episcopi et Abbates quam Laici Barones Congregata igitur universitate totius Angliae Nobilium apud Novum Castrum super fluvium Thynam tractatum est diligenter super tam arduo negotio concerning the differences and an accord between Alexander King of Scots and King Henry Concilio habito circa Assumptionem beatae Mariae diligentissimo where peace was concluded between the Kings and ratified by the Charter of the King of Scots and the Seals of his Prelates Earls and Barons The same year in crastino Omnium Animarum convenientes Magnates Angliae Rex cùm instantissimè ne dicâ—…m impudentissimè auxilium pecuniare ab eis iterum postularet toties laesi et illusi contradixerunt ei unanimiter et uno ore in facie Anno 1246. 30 H. 3. Rex missis literis suis totius Regni Magnates convocavit ut Londini die qua cantatur Letare Hierusalem de statu regni generaliter convenirent tractaturi On which day Edicto Regio convocata convenit ad Parliamentum generalissimum totius Regni Anglicani totalis Nobilitas Londini videlicet Praelatorum tam Abbatum Priorum quà m Episcoporum Comitum quoque Baronum without any mention or intimation of Knights Citixens Burgesses Commoners ut de statu Regni jam vacillante efficaciter prout exigit urgens necessitas consulerent Convenientibus igitur ad Parliamentum memoratum totius Regni Magnatibus in primis aggressus est Dominus Rex ore proprio Episcopos per se posteà verò Comites Barones deinde autem Abbates Priores videlicet super his pro quibus miserat nuncios suos solennes ad Concilium Lugdunense Then shewing them the Oppressions and grievances of the Church and Realm of England by the Pope drawn into Articles which they all consented unto the Bishops by themselves the Abbâ—…s by themselves the Earls Nobles and Barons by themselves in their own names and in the name of all the Clergy and people of England and the King by himself writ several Letters to the Pope and Cardinals for their redress The King in the mean time sending forth Prohibitions under his Seal to all the Bishops not to pay any tax or tallage to the Pope Contra provisionem per Magnates nostros tam Praelatos quà m Comites Barones factam in Concilio nostro Londinensi c. After which die Translationis beati Thomae Martyris habitum est Magnum Concilium inter Regem et regni Magnates apud Wintoniam where receiving the Popes answer to their messengers sent to the Council of Lyons touching their grievances and his carriage towards them Haec autem cum audisset Dominus Rex cum Magnatibus suis commotus est vehementer et meritò c. Anno 1247. 31 H. 3. urgente mandato Papali redivivo de importabili contributione c. fecit Dominus Rex Magnates suos necnon et Angliae Archidiaconos but no Knights Citizens or Burgesses per scripta suâ—… Regia Londinum convocari Quo cum pervenissent die praefixo Episcopi
settlement of our 3. Kingdoms reduced to the brink of utter ruine by their dangerous 〈◊〉 Innovations and Usurpations over their fellow-Members â—…cers and Kings and restore our Parliaments to their antient Constitution Rights Privileges without any injurious Incroachments upon the Peoples Liberties or one House upon the other I shall 〈◊〉 God for it and by his assistance proceed to publish the remaining Sections for the benifit of Posterity In the mean time I hope this Fragment will demerit thy thanks too and thy servent Prayers for thy friend The unfeined unmercinary Servant of his Native Country in his generation William Prynn Lincolns-Inne Jan. 7. 1659. THE SECOND PART OF A Brief Register Kalendar and Survey of the several Kindes Forms of PARLIAMENTARY WRITS HAving already presented the world with the First Part of my Brief Register Kalendar and Survey of the several kinds forms of Parliamentary Writs in 3. distinct Sections with Special General Choise useful Annotations on and Observations from them relating principally to the Members and Assistants of the LORDS HOUSE I shall now proceed in this Second Part by Gods assistance to communicate to this present age and Posteritie in several Sections the manifold varieties forms of Writs issued to Sheriffs of Shires and particular Corporations made Counties within themselves Wardens of the Cinqueports Mayors of Towns Burroughs and Officers of the Ports for electing Knights Citizens Burgesses Barons of the Ports and other Members to serve in our Great Councils Parliaments or attend upon or appear before them as Assistants or otherwise upon Extraordinarie Occasions with the different Forms of Writs for Proroguing Adjourning Superseding Parliaments or Councils after the first Writs of Summons issued to Spiritual and Temporal Lords of all ranks the Kings Counsil Sheriffs and other Officers with extraordinarie Writs directed to the King Nobles Officers and others of Scotland and to some Lords Officers and others in Ireland as likewise to Merchants Masters Owners of Ships and other private persons to appear at or before the Parliament or Kings Counsil in England upon urgent occasions relating to the respective Lands affairs defences of Scotland or Ireland or to the Guarding of the Seas Merchandize trade and the like with sundrie kinds of Writs issued to the Arch-bishops Bishops Convocations Clergy of England besides other rare Writs relating to our Parliamentarie affairs and proceedings not hitherto published or insisted on by any Writers of our Parliaments though most worthie the knowledg of all Noble-men States-men Parliament-men Lawyers Gentlemen of qualitie Antiquaries Historians hitherto for the most part totally unacquainted with them or the majoritie of them almost quite buried in the grave of oblivion many of our Records being now overspread with dust cobwebs and eaten up with rust cankers moths worms in their over-much neglected Cells for want of industrie care in those who should preserve and reduce them into better order for the publike benefit of the present and succeeding ages A Work fit to be speedily executed promoted and no longer deferred by those whom it most concerns and by persons in highest Authoritie as worthy their superintendent eye and countenance being the richest Treasures of the whole English Nation SECTION IV. Of the several varieties forms of Writs for electing Knights Citizens and Burgesses for Parliaments and great Councils issued to the Sheriffs of Counties intermixed with some of their ancientest Retorns by Sheriffs and some writs of Prorogation and Resummons with special usefull Annotations on and Observations from them after most of these VVrits recitals VVHen and in what Kings Reign Writs for electing Knights Citizens and Burgesses to serve in our great Councils Parliaments were first issued and they upon the peoples free choice admitted into them as Members is a great yet undecided Countroversie amongst Antiquaries and Writers of our English Parliaments Some conceit that there were Knights Citizens Burgesses and Commons in the Reigns of our Saxon Kings before the Conquest summoned as Members to their grand Councils and included together with the Nobles under the name of Sapientes and the like for proof whereof they much insist upon the pretended ancient Treatise stiled Modus tenendi Parliamentum which in truth is but a late absurd Imposture though cried up by Sir Edw. Cook who over doted on it for a most ancient Record beyond all exceptions relying upon it as an undoubted Oracle Others refer their original to the Parliamentarie Council held at Salisbury in the sixteenth year of King Henry the 1. to which opinion Polydor Virgil Holingshed Speed in their Histories Anno 1216. Justice Dodderidg Mr. Cambden Mr. Agar and Joseph Holland in their Treatises of the c Antiquity of the Parliaments of England Sir Walter Raleigh and others incline as most probable Which I have at large refuted in My Plea for the Lords p. 165. to 183. by unanswerable evidences Sir Rob Cotton and Mr. Selden two of our learnedest most judicious Antiquaries do rather incline that the writs for electing Knights Citizens and Burgesses began but about the later end of King Henry the 3. and that the first Writ of this kinde now extant is that in Cl. 49 H. 3. before which time I conceive it can hardly be made good by Historie or Records that anie Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons elected by the people or others were called to our Great Councils or Parliaments as Members of them That which induceth me to adhere to this opinion are not onely the Histories and Records I have elswhere cited during the reigns of King Henry the 1. King Stephen Henry the 2. Richard 1. King Iohn and Henry the 3. of all the Parliamentarie Councils held under them before this year which make no mention of anie such Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons summoned to or present in them as Members but only of the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Nobles and Great men of the Realm but these memorable Writs entred in the Clause Roll of 48 H. 3. which assure us that there was a Parliamentarie Council summoned held this year by the King his Prelates Lords Nobles Barons and a Tenth granted him by the Prelates Lords ordained how to be levied expended for the common benefit of the Realm Church of England by their unanimous Counsil and advice without the least mention at all of anie Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons called to or acting in it in anie kinde Claus. 48 H. 3. m. 5. dorso Rex Johanni de Balliolo salutem Cum jam sedata turbatione nuper habita in Regno nostro Pax inter Nos et Barones nostros divina cooperante gratia ordinata sit ac firmata Et quaedam ardua negocia Nos et Regnum nostrum tangentia Vobiscum communicanda habeamus quae sine praesentia vestra aliorum Fidelium nostrorum nequeunt expediri Vobis de Consilio Baronum nostrorum mandamus in fide et homagio quibus Nobis tenemini
Burgensium levandis sued to them or the Sheriffs aâ—…ter most Parliaments ended by many Burgesses of Boroughs as well as by Knights of Shires and Citizens of Cities as I shall if God say Amen demonstrate at large in its due place and shall hereno further insist upon 4ly That of late times some of these antient long-discontinued Boroughs have been revived and new Writs or Warrants for electing Burgesses sent unto them sometimes upon their own Petitions now and then upon some Courtiers Petition to the King in hopes by Letters from the Court and Feasting or Bribing the Burgesses to be elected and retorned Burgesses for the revived Boroughs sometimes by motion or order of some Members of the Commons House who had a design to bring in some Burgesses and made sure of the Burgesses Voyces before hand the Burgesses being now very willing to have their Boroughs revived because many times instead of giving wages to their Burgesses for their service in Parliament as of old they receive not only thanks Feasts but Rewards and Boons if not underhand Bribes for their Voyces from their elected Burgesses who assure them before their choyce they will neither expect nor exact any expences from them which many of them scarce deserve since they do neither them nor their Country any service at all in Parl. promoting only their own private interests or ends or their friends Finally though I shall readily subscribe to Mr. Littletons opinions Section 194. That the antient Towns called Boroughs be the most antient Towns that be within England For the Towns that now be Cities or Counties in old time were Boroughs and called Boroughs for of such old Towns called Boroughs come the Burgesses of the Parliament to the Parliament when the King hath summoned his Parliament which I shall further clear in the next Sections yet I can by no means assent to Mr. William Lambard of Lincolns Inne his Judgement though a learned Antiquary or some others inferences thence who thus argues Now as those written Authorities do undoubtedly confirm Our assertion of this manner of Parliament so is there also an unwritten Law or Prescription that doth no less infallibly uphold the same For it is well known that ln everie quarter of the Realmâ—… a great many of Boroughs do send their Burgesses to the Parliament which are neverthelesse so antient and so long since decayed and gone to nought that it cannot be shewed that they have been of any reputation at any time since the Conquest and much lesse that they haue obtained the Privileges by the Grant of any King succeeding the same so that the interest which they have in Parliament groweth by an antient usage before the Conquest whereof they cannot shew any begining Which thing is also confirmed by contrarie usage in the self same thing For it is likewise known that they of antient Demesn do prescribe in not sending to the Parliament For which reason also they are neither Contributors to the Wages of Knights there neither are they bound to sundry Acts of Parliament though the same be generally penned and do make no exception of them But there is no antient Demesn saving that only which is described in the Book of Domesday under the Title of Terra Regis which of necessity must be such as either was in the hands of the Conqueror himself who made the Book or of Edw. the Confessor that was before him And so again if they of Antient Demesne have ever since the Conquest prescribed not to send Burgesses to Parliament then no doubt there was a Parliament before the Conquest to the vhich they of other places did send their Burgesses To which I answer that this Argument is fallacious and no waies conclusive For 1. these antient decayod Burroughs that now in many places send Burgesses to the Parliament were in no such great reputation at all at or before the Conquest as is insâ—…uated for ought appears by the Book of Dooms-day or any other Record or Historie but as mean and inconsiderable as now they are 2ly There is no Historie or Record that any of these Boroughs whether decayed or not decayed yea though much enlarged enrichd since the Conquest did ever send Burgesses to any one Parliament either before or after the Conquest till 49 H. 3. And I challenge all the Antiquaries in England to demonstrate the contrarie by History or Records 3ly It is irrefragable by the forementioned returns of Sheriffs that all or most of those poor or decayed Boroughs in Cornwall Devonshire Wiltshire Southampton Sussex and some other Counties did in 26 E. 1. and some years after send no Burgesses at all to our Parliament as Camelford Foway Grantpount St. Germins St. Ives St. Maries or Maws St. Michael Portlow Saltash Trebonny Tregony in Cornwall Bearalston in Devon Christchurch Newport Newtown Stockbridge Whitechurch Yermouth in the Countie of Southampton Midhurst and Horsham in Sussex Crickland Henden Old Sarum Heytesbury Westbury Wotton Basset in Wiltshire with others in other Counties as the precedent Table clearly demonstrates all or most of them being enabled to send Burgesses to Parliament since the reign of Edw. the 1. and not before much less by prescription before the Conquest as M. Lambard and others conceit and that percliance not by any special Charters of our Kings creating them Boroughs or Corporations but by private directions of the King and Counsil to the Sheriffs of Counties wherein they were to issue out Precepts to them to elect and retorn Burgesses when they saw any just cause not by antient usage or prescription before the Conquest which none of these Boroughs ever yet pretended or insisted on for ought I can find upon my best inquiry after their Original 3ly The antientest writs for Knights wages extant are those of 28 E. 1. Rot. Claus. dors 3 12 cl 29 E. 1. dors 17. 32 E. 1. dors 3. and no Records Histories or Law-books I have seen derive their original higher than the Reign of King Edward the first The first Statute concerning them is that of 12 R. 2. c. 12. on which the writ in the Register is grounded which enacts only That the levying of the expences of Knights shall be as hath been used before this time the next Statute of 11 H. 4. c. 1. enacts That Knights of Shires unduly retorned shall lose their wages of the Parliament of old time accustomed not at or before the Conquest accustomed The first printed case concerning them in our Lawbooks is but in M. 12 H. 4. f. 3. a. Fitzh Avowry 52. Br. 42. and the first Petitions in Parliament concerning them are those of 28 51 E. 3. Yea no man can prove there were any Knights for Counties elected and sent to Parliaments by the Kings Writs before 49 H. 3. Therefore the prescription to be discharged from contributing to their wages cannot be extended higher than 49 H. 3. not to the Reign of the Conqueror or before the Conquest
nisi ab inceptis celerius desisterit omnes qui versus quempiam ante relaxationem interdicti hostiliter arma gesserunt praeter ipsum solum anathematis vinculo innodaret Sicque ab inceptis Regem revocans Archiepiscopus non prius abe recessit donec Diem conipetentem ad Curiam Regis veniendi et ibidem Iuri parendi Baronibus impetrasset The 8. of September following the Archbishop Bishops Abbots Priors and Barons of the Realm assembling together at Pauls the Archbishop calling some of the Barons to him apart from the rest secretly acquainted them with the Kings forecited Oath taken at his absolution and produced before them the Charter of Liberties granted by King Henry the first by which they might if they would reduce their long lost Liberties to their pristine estate At which the Barons greatly rejoycing juraverunt omnes in praesentia Archiepiscopi quod viso tempore congruo pro hiis libertatibus si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem Archiepiscopus autem promisit eis fidelissimum auxilium suum pro posse suo Et sic confoederatione facta inter eos Colloquium solutum est The King hereupon as I conjecture issued out the precedent writ the 3. of November following whereon it bears date to all the Sheriffs of England consisting of 3. distinct parts sutable to that time and occasion The first is to new summon Omnes Milites all who held of him by Knight-service with those Souldiers not knights or knights of Shires in their respective Bailiwicks they had formerly summoned by some such writ as this to repair to Oxford to come to the Kings person ad Nos without naming any certain place 15 daies after All Souls day cum armis with their arms the usual form and clause in precedent and subsequent writs of Summons of an Army and forces to aid the King not to a Parliament or Great Council of State and that to defend and assist him against the precedent confederacy of the Archbishop Bishops Abbots Priors and Barons then newly entred into at London against whom he had raised a great Army by like Writs but a few Monethâ—… before to reduce these Rebels to obedience which Armie the Archbishop caused him to dissolve as Matthew Paris relates The 2. Clause is Corpora vero Baronum singulariter sine armis to summon and bring to the King the Bodies of the Barons in their respective Counties apart one from another without arms as in the said writ not two or more of them together with their arms and armed attendants to prevent all dangers tumults insurrections and intended rebellions if they should come armed to his Court being now thus summoned to appear before him not to treat and advise with him and the rest of the Prelates Earls and Nobles of any urgent affairs concerning the King or Realm of which there is no mention at all in this writ in relation to the Barons as there is in all Writs of Summons to Parliaments or Great Councils issued to them extant in our Records But rather according to the Archbishops engagement to the King at Nottingham a little before this writ to submit themselves to the Iustice of his Court and a legal trial concerning the crimes he should there object against them upon their appearance on the day prefixed in the writ the same I conceive the King and Archbishop had formerly agreed upon at Notingham And that this was the reason why they were to appear without armour is evident by the like Summons hertofore to Earl Godwin and his Sons to appear in the Kings Court to answer the Kings charge against them attended only with 〈◊〉 men without any force or arms by the subsequent Statutes of 7 E. 1. Rastal Armour 1 2 E. 3. c 3. expresly resolving that in all Assemblies which should be made within the Realm of England for ever every man should come without all force and armour well and peaceably And that no man Great or Small of whatsoever condition he be except the Kings Servants in his presence and his Ministers and their Assistants in executing his precepts or their Office or upon a cry made for arms to keep the peace in such places where such acts happen should be so hardy to come before the King or his Iustices or other his Ministers doing their office with force and arms nor bring no force in â—…ffray of Peace Which was but the antient Common and Statute Law of England The 3. Clause of the Writ which only hath some resemblance of a writ of Summons is to summon not two but quatuor Discretos Milites de Comitatu tuo being more than we read summoned in succeeding Rolls out of every County as Knights of Shires to our Parliament and those not to come to any Parliament or Great Council at any certain place of which there is no mention at all in this Writ but ad Nos to the King himself at the time there specified and that only Ad loquendum Nobiscum de negotiis regni nostri not ad tractandum Nobiscum et cum Praelatis Proceribus or Magnatibus or aliis or caeteris fidelibus regni nostri de arduis et urgentissimis negotiis Nos et statum Regni nostri contingentibus or ad faciendum et consentiendum hiis quae tunc ibidem de Communi Consilio regni nostri Deo propitio contigerit ordinari the usual Clauses in all Writs of Summons of Barons or Knights of Counties to Parliaments and Great Parliamentary Councils Therefore certainly this Writ was no Summons of Knights of Shires to a Parliament or Great Council the rather because there is no clause in it for electing these 4. knights nor yet of any Citizens or Burgesses as is usual in the Writs for electing Knights of Counties and because no Writs of Summons ever prescribed the Summons of Barous and Knights together like this Upon all which considerations I conceive this ad loquendum Nobiscum de negotiis regni nostri for which these 4. Knights were summoned was the very same or the like business for which Matthew Paris relates the King some few Moneths before sent Letters to the Sherifs of every County throughout England to cause Quatuor legales homines the same with those this Writ stiles Quatuor Discretos Milites out of every of their Counties to come to St. Albanes the 8. of August following to inquire of and inform the King what dammages and losses any of the Bishops had sustained by the King and his Officers during the Interdict and their banishments and what was due to every one of them that so he might satisfie them according to his premised Oath as Chart. 16 Iohann Regis m. 9. n. 67. the next year after this compared with Pat. 15 Iohan. Regis nu 3. De Interdicto relaxando c. clearly intimate if not resolve This I am fully perswaded was the true scope nature and intention of this Writ which hath
sequentibus habuerunt diligentem Tractatum Rex Magnates quomodo conterrerent Wallensium tam intollerabilem cum irruptionibus suis crebris insolentiam Submonetur igitur generaliter tota Angliae militia ut omnes qui tenentur ad servitia militaria Domâ—…no Regi sint prompti parati sequi Regem profecturum in Walliam cum equis armis die Lunae ante nativitatem B. Johannis Baptistae apud Cestriam c. Eodemque tempore cum instanter constanter respondissent Magnates Regni communiter Regi qui cum magna instantia in memorato Parliamento urgenter pecuniam insinitam sibi dari postulasset pro negotio Apuliae expediendo aliis arduis promovendis quod nullo modo potuerunt sine eorum irrestaurabili subversione toties inaniter substantiolas suas usque ad exinanitionem effundere c. Cum constanter praecisè respondissent quasi uno ore Magnates Regni in Parliamento Regi cum urgenter ab eis postulasset auxilium pecuniare quòd nec voluerunt nec potuerunt amplius sustinere tales extortiones Rex iratus ad alia se conuertit aslutiae argumenta c. Duravit adhuc praelibati Parliamenti altercatio inter Regem Regni Magnates usque diem Dominicam proximam post ascensionem multiplicabantur contra Regem variae diatim querimoniae c. Et quia nesciebant adhuc Magnates quomodo suum Prothea tenere voluissent quia arduum fuerat negotium difficile dilatum est Parliamentum usque ad festum sancti Barnabae apud Oxoniam diligen ter celebrandum Interim Optimates Angliae fibi praecaventes providentes consoederati sunt c. Instante vero festo sancti Barnabae Apostoli Magnates et Nobiles terrae ad Parliamentum quod Oxoniae tenendum suit properabant praeceperuntque omnibus qui eisdem servitium militare debuerant quatenus cum ipsis venirent parati veluti ad corpora sua contra hostiles insoltus defensuri c. Parliamento autem incipiente solidabatur Magnatum propositum Confilium Immutabile c. In all the debates and transactions of this Parliament recited at large in our Historians there is no mention of any Knights Citizens Burgesses Commons but only of Comites Magnates Barones Nobiles who acted and spake all who are stiled Universitas Regni and the Statutes and Ordinances they made at Oxford Statuta Baronum to which the Londiners and others assented Cirea festum sancti Leonardi tale iniit Consilium Universitas Baronagii quod tunc Londinierat Anno 1259. 42 H. 3 Fuit Rex ad Natale domini Londini ubi magna sollicitudine tractatum est inter Nobiles Regni quomodo conservato suo salubri proposito satisfacerent defiderio Regis Richardi de Alemannia c. Proposuerunt igitur Magnates accipere juramentum ab ipso Rege Aleman antequam applicuisset ne Regno Angliae quomodolibet noceret vel provisionem communem impediret Comes autem Legriae Simon non sine multoram admiratione in partibus adhuc transmarinis morabatur Unde in magna parte suit Consilium Baronagii mutilatum c. In crastino autem intraverunt Magnates Angliae capitulum Cantuariense where King Richard took a solemne Oath before them which they prescribed and administred to him In octavis purificationis congregati sunt Nobiles Angliae Londini prous inter se prius condixerant c. over against which is printed in the Margin Parliamentum Londini habitum After which the Historian informs us William de Hortuna was sent into Scotland Negotia enim ardua sed secreta Regi Reginae as Scotioe Magnatibus sibi injuncta fuerunt ex parte Regis Reginae Magnatium Angliae Quicum illoâ—… veniret Regem Scotiae Reginam Regni Magnates ibi ad parliameutum in vâ—…nit prout desideravit congregatos c. By which it is evident That in this Age the King Queen and Nobles of England and Scotland constituted and made up the Parliaments of both kingdoms without any elected Knights of Shires Citizens or Burgesses introduced in succeeding times The same year circa Kalend. Apr. ex praecepto et consilio Domini Regis Angliae et totius Baronagii arripuerunt iter transmarinum ad Parliamentum magnum Regis Francorum tenendum in Francia pro pluribus arduis negotiis Regna Franciae Angliae de resignatione Normanniae et literas credentiae c. Magnates vero Angliae statutis quae inceperant salubriter intendebant ad malas consuetudines injurias et corruptelas amodo delendas omnino assidui et confederati Anno 1265. 49 H. 3. after the battel of Evesham wherein the Barons were slaine and routed on the Nativity of our Ladie Septemb. 8. Rex potestati Regiae restitutus de consilio filii victoris Wintoniam Parliamentum convocavit ubi consilio inito Civitatem Londinensem ob suam rebellionem privavit suis privilegiis libertatibus antiquis Capitaneos etiam factionis contra Regem juxta voluntatem ejus plectendos jubet carceri mancipari Rex et Regni Proceres writes Matthew Westminster apud Winton ordinarunt quod ditiores civitatis Londinensis in carcerem truderentur quod Cives antiquis libertatibus privarentur et quod stipites et cathenae quibus Civitas fuerat roborata de medio tollerentur pro eo quod Simoni de Monteforti Comiti Leicestriae in regis contemptum et etiam damnum regni fortiter adhaeserunt quo totum factumest By all these Historical passages in Matthew Paris Rishanger his Continuer and Mat. Westminster it is most apparent beyond contradiction that as there were many writs of summons under K. Henry 3. to Parliamentarie Councils issued to the Spiritual and Temporal Lords before 49 H. 3. not extant in the Clause Rolls or other Records so there were no Knights of Shires Citizens Burgesses or Commons elected or summoned by writ or Charter to these Great Councils or Parliaments during all the reign of King Henry the 〈◊〉 until the Parliament held at London in Octabis Sancti Hillarii the 49. year of his reign when they were first elected summoned by writ for ought appears by Historie or Record there being none but the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Nobles Barons Spiritual and Temporal Lords of the Realm summoned to consulting acting debating ordering enacting Lawes or Ordinances or granting refusing aydes subsidies or expostulating with the King or Pope in any of them as all these transcribed passages evidence with the Records of Claus. 18 H. 3. m. 10. Vic. Lincoln Claus. 19 H. 3 m. 20. cited in my Epistle before the first part of this Brief Register Kalendar and Survey and those of 48 H. 3. here cited p. 4. to 10. To which I shall superadde for further confirmation of this truth Claus. 18 H. 3 m. 27. Rex Majori et Civibus suis Dublin c. where the King reciting the death of the Earl Marshal slain in