Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large, 1763.djvu/14

x we find the Traces of it for some Time effaced by the Revolution effected under William the Norman.

While the feudal System which he introduced, or rather, perhaps, extended was preserved in its full Vigour, we find no express Mention of the Commons. But the great Opposition the succeeding Kings met with from the enormous Power of the Barons, and the Struggles between regal and aristocratical Tyranny, occasioned the Decline of that System; and, with other concurring Circumstances, gradually made Way for the Restoration of the Commons into the Great Council. As the greater Baronies escheated, they were, in order to lessen the Influence of the Nobility, portioned out into lesser Tenures, in Capite ; and these Tenants were called the Lesser Barons; who had a Right of attending the Parliament. Their Number, according to Gilbert, was at one Time three thousand: Their Attendance consequently becoming inconvenient, if not impossible, two Knights were at length summoned from each County, in the Room of these Lesser Barons.

The first Summons of these Knights, extant on Record, is the 49th of Henry III. And it doth not appear that the Citizens and BurgeiTes, who were, at that time, the true Commons of the Realm, were regularly summoned at this Time. All we find is, that the Cities of York and Lincoln, and other Boroughs of England, were written to, and required to send two of the most discreet Men, &c.

The first regular Summons we meet with, directed to the Sheriff, for the Election of Citizens and Burgesses, is in the 23d of Edward 1. . The Commons had by this