Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/459

 THE CASTLE, AND 'THE PROVISIONS OF OXFiUtl)." ^:,1 those on the Great Roll of the Pipe, conceniiiig J)ovci Bridgenorth, and Nottingham, or those relating to the Jin<'-'s houses at Clarendon, Marlborough, and Woodstock. And, indeed, after the Empress j[atilda had made lier escape from Oxford, and Stephen was dead, Henry the Second, upon whom the possession of the castle devolved, preferred living in his residence at Woodstock, where he is supposed to have been attracted by the charms of the fair, ancl perhaps the fabled, inhabitant of its sylvan bowers, and upon this place he made a considerable outlay. Yet, like his })redecessors, he held a council at Oxford in 1177 (as Henry the First did, in the New Hall, 1133), when his j^oungest son John was created King of Ireland. When this latter Prince ascended the throne, he ordered the fosse surrounding the castle, and the bretasches to be repaired, (Rot. Glaus. 6 John) ; and he held councils here in the fifth, eighth, and fifteenth years of his reign. Gon- siderable discussion has arisen respecting the constitution of the last two councils, but it will hardly be necessary to pursue the inquir}'- as to the points in dispute, since the difficulties respecting the one held in the eighth year of John's reign, relate chiefly to a nice definition of the title Magnates, namely, — whether the word was to be understood in an enlarged sense, as including all the tenants-in-chief of the Grown by military service, or simply those who held by barony. The investigation that the wording of the writ has received, is by no means unimportant, since its true inter- pretation determines the composition of our early constitu- tional assemblies. And if the appellation of Magnates admits of the extended signification it has obtained, it will show that not only military tenants included all the tcnants-in-chief by military service, but sometimes Knights of the Shire, and such as became Magnates by sxibinfeudation, or as holding lands as escheats of the Grown. The convocation, therefore, of these increasing numbers, would be jealously regarded by the nobility ; and on the other hand, the nobility themselves were now growing so formidable and hostile to John, that it became his policy to introduce into the Gouncil men, who, in addition to their own natural popularity, would be able to neutralise the power of his opponents. The council held in the fifteenth of John's reign, was called together under more distinctly recognised qualifications, as 3 c