338 The Period of Constitution Making

they grew slowly through the adaptation of means to
immediate ends, that there was a careful preservation of
the valuable things of the past and a spirit of caution
and compromise which allowed to each of several con-
tending interests its due consideration, and that physical
environment and many things which can be ascribed to
nothing but pure chance played important parts.

It has been shown that the great council was mainly
feudal; but unlike the feudal courts of other lords it
might at times contain menjwho

chief, for the king was more than suzerain. This sum-
moning of others was particularly marked in the reign of
Henry II. , a king whose rule was so vigorous and all-
embracing that he needed a variety of counsel. From
the beginning, the wilj^of th^^n&jggas^an.,element in
determining his court^s_ffl^^-up. The class of king's
vasiiSFl^^ diverse within itself; while
it contained all of the very great landholders, there were
also within it many small holders. Probably from the
time of the Conqueror, there was some recognised cleavage
between those who held much land of the king and those
who held little. In the reign of Henry L, the great ten-
ants-in-chief, who led their own vassals to the feudal
host, received a special form of^ummons^tp the host,
and there was proBably"aTca5responding difference in the
form of summons to court^service; at any rate there was
such""' a*33^enS"lnTHenry II /s reign. Hence arose the
distinctions between the ^^or^barons and the minor
borons, of whom we begin to h.ear_in the twelfth century. I
Attendance in the king's court was not regarded as a
privilege, but as a burden in most instances. This was
especially true of the minor barons who were less able to
1 Baron was not a title of dignity, but a term applying to all who held
land of the king on the basis of military service. Only the major barons
held baronies (a barony normally equalled 13^ knight's fees). On the
original meaning of baron, see Maitland, C. H. E., p. 65. Finally the
wo«t became solely applied to major barons; but vagueness in its use
lasted long. "The bar ones of one clause of the great charter seem to be
the bar ones major es of another.'* See also J. H. Round, "Barons" and
"Knights" in the Great Charter in Magna Carta Commemoration Essays,