Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT IN MEDIEVAL SOCIETY -•
asked and voicing their opinions in court, and saw little to distinguish the court in the
comfort of Paris or Westminster from the same body of men in the field in Egypt or
northern France.
The lord's curia, his court, was part debating chamber and part law court, not only
making decisions regarding the running ot the lord's demesne but also hearing and
deciding upon disputes arising in the lord's lands. These courts ran at all levels from
the individual manor right up to the curui regis, the king's court, and all performed
much the same function but on a larger or smaller scale.
In the curia regit the king gathered together many of his direct vassals, the magnates
and senior churchmen, to advise him on key decisions concerning the realm, in
particular the raising of taxation and finance, and also to rule on cases brought before
them, which predominantly concerned disputes over property. Such gatherings were
not always passive and increasingly the magnates and clergy came to the curia with
their own agenda to set before the king.
In the 14th century these councils started to be known as parlementd, recognizing
this greater element of discussion and debate. One of the earliest uses ot the term is in
the Provisions of Oxford, the list of changes imposed upon Henry III of England by
Simon de Montfort and several magnates of the so-called Reform movement.
It instructed that the king was to meet with his magnate and senior churchmen three
times ayear to discuss 'the common needs of the realm'. The summons to the parliament
of 1295 issued by Edward I to the Earl of Cornwall sums up the concept quite well.
It reads:
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, 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.
This summons, issued to one of the realm's magnates by name, might be fairly typical
but the parliament that the earl was being summoned to was not. For only the second
time the great magnates and churchmen who normally attended such meetings were
to be joined by representatives of the commons. Each town and city was to select two
of their citizens or burgesses, whilst the counties were to be represented by two knights
elected, who should be able to speak for the freeholders of their county.
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