Law Courts 199
vation of the peace attended to. By the Provisions of
Oxford, 1258, four knights from each county were chosen
to keep the pleas of the crown;1 but, in their case, this
function was to be interpreted broadly: they were expected
to do almost anything in the way of detecting criminals
and preparing cases for the itinerant justices. Equally
broad powers, but with more detailed instructions on the
use of the posse comitatus and the pursuit of criminals, were
given to the custodians of the peace appointed in 1264.*
Such was the increasing need of knights that as early as
1224 the king began issuing writs for what is known as
"distraint of knighthoodJJ;3 they were to compel all
whose land brought an income of twenty pounds a year,
whether they held from the king or others, who "ought
to be knights and are not/' to receive the insignia of
knighthood within a specified time. The evident disin-
clination to become knights is striking testimony to the
many duties of the class. In the early years of Edward
I., knights were, upon several occasions, put to uses simi-
lar to those just mentioned. In the famous Statute of
Winchester,4 1285, Edward repeated, with important
additions, the assizes of arms and watch and ward; and
in the elaborate arrangements for keeping the peace, in
the local "constables chosen" and "justices assigned,"
there was an advance in the royal attempts to devise an
effective local government controlled by, and in harmony
with, the central.
The decline of the sheriff's power kept pace with the
increasing local use of knights. The Statute of Marl-
borough, 1267, exempted from the sheriff's tourn all above
the degree of knights unless they were specially summoned.
Many boroughs were allowed their own view of frank-
pledge, thus taking an important duty from the tourn.
Edward II. continued the use of the new local guardians
of the peace, with some enlargement of function on the
* A. and S., p. 57. 2 Stubbs, Select Charters, pp. 399, 400.
3 W. and N., pp. 96, 97; A. and S.} pp. 70, 71.
4 A. andS., pp. 76-79,