The Constitutional History of England

Constitutional Historywith him-archbishops, bishops and abbots, earls, thanes orknights ; often we are put off with some such word asproceyes,which has a very uncertain sound. The archbishops, bishopsand abbots attend by virtue of their official wisdom, but thetheory seems always to gain ground that they are there becausethey hold baronies of the king-at any rate they becometenants in chief and so for them there is certainly a place.As to the other persons who come, so far as there is any legaltheory, it must be that they are the tenants in chief. Probablyit is fully acknowledged that the king may lawfully insist onthe presence of every tenant in chief-probably it is the generalopinion that every military tenant in chief has a right to bethere. But we ought to remember that attendance at courtis no coveted privilege. We must be careful not to introducethe notions of modern times in which a seat in parliament iseagerly desired. This would render a good deal of historyunintelligible. For the smaller men attendance at court is aburden of which they are very ready to relieve themselves orbe relieved, and this is true, be the court in question thehundred court, or the county court, or the king's court.What seems to us from the modern point of view a valuablepolitical right, seemed to those who had it an onerous obligation.The great baron again had no particular desire to beabout his lord's court; if, as was too often the case, he wasnot very faithful to Iiis lord, his lord's court was the very lastplace in which he would wish to be. In point of fact wedo not hear from the Norman reigns any assertion of anindividual's right to attend the court. The king insists onbringing around him the most powerful of his tenants inchief, and such meetings are to him a source of strength. AsMr Dicey has pointed out in his Essay on the Privy Councilit is the strong king who habitually brings his magnatesround him. He thus keeps his eye upon them, and itstrengthens his hands in dealing with the refractory that hismeasures are taken with the counsel and consent of theirpeers.Under the Norman kings counsel and consent may havebeen little more than formality, and the king may haveexercised the power of summoning only such of his tenantsThe Curia Regisin chief as he pleased-still such few legislative acts as wehave from this period are done with the counsel and consentof the great. Thus the ordinance which removed the bishopsfrom the secular courts and recognized their spiritual jurisdictionwas made with the counsel of the archbishops, bishops,abbots, and all the princes of the kingdom. But anythingthat could be called legislation was seemingly very rare. Theright of the council to join in taxation was perhaps admittedin theory. Henry the First speaks of an aid which had beengranted to him by his barons : but there is nothing to showthat any such consent was asked when the Danegeld waslevied as repeatedly it was, and the king exercised the powerof tallaging his demesne lands of his own free will. A courtof this nature was again the highest court of judicature, forthe great cases and the great men. It was in such courts thatthe king nominated bishops until the right of canonical electionwas conceded by Henry I, and even then the election took placein the royal court. The ceremony of conferring earldoms andknighthood and receiving homage were performed there;questions of general policy, of peace and war,of royal marriagesand so forth seem to have been debated.But a smaller body collects round the king, a body ofadministrators selected from the ranks of the baronage andof the clergy. At its head stands the chief-justiciar, the king'sright-hand man, his viceroy when the king is, as often he is,in his foreign dominions. There is also the king's chancellor,the head of a body of clerks who do all the secretagal work ;there are the great officers of the royal household and otherswhom the king has chosen. Under Henry I this body becomesorganic ; the orderly routine of administration begins even tobe a check on the king's power ; Stephen discovers this whenhe quarrels with the ministerial body. This body when it sitsfor financial purposes constitutes the Exchequer (Scaccaritlm),so called from the chequered cloth which lies on the table,convenient for the counting of money. Also it forms acouncil and court of law for the king, it is curia Regis, theking's court,and its members arejustitiarii, justiciars or justicesof this court. Under Henry I they are sent into the countiesto collect taxes and to hold pleas; they are then justitiarii