341
the Mngfs no
would make a
being Introduced.
The change as a of III/s wn-
tiguoi^djmajDjdaiQr .money the inertasing"
brought before the barons; they vitally
in the money and in of the business,
and the SJ^^g^ctivity and responsibility of the assembly^
graduallyBegoTiaias of political and honour.
Late in Edward II.'s reign, the had first spoken
of themselves as of the this is perhaps the
first indication thaFTionour being to the
old burden of suit of court J If a received
summons, he to at the meeting,
He by no means always got it, but the of the
fourteenth century was away
And if he continued to receive throughout his
life, it raised the presumption that, after his death, Ms
heir would receive them, for it an, age when all valu-
able rights were likely to hereditary.3 But the
conditions of Edward IIL's reign did not last;
of political prestige connected with to a
council were not deep-seated, throughout the fifteenth
century the old feeling that attendance a burden
often uppermost. Yet the fuller of the old
king's court was being metamorphosed into an
which peers attended on the of a hereditary
without reference to tenure,3 The change
'ennobled* for ever and ever, are not when they a
writ which tells them that, leaving their and affairs* they- roust
journey and labour in the king's service, and all this ^ at their own cost.
Thus for many years one great constitutional question can remain^ in
suspense. It is not raised, no one wishes to it. So long as the
does not impose taxes or issue statutes without the of the baron-
age, the baron hopes that the king will mind Ms own business (and it is
his business to govern the realm) and allow other folk to mind theirs, "—
Introduction to Memoranda de Parliamenio, pp. bnocvi., ixxxvil
1 Pike, Constitutional History of ike of LofdSj p. 109.
3 This was not regarded as a binding rale at any time in the middle
ages. See Pollard, Evolution of Parliament, p. 99.
s When in later times baronies came to be alienated, tthe question
whether the right to sit in the House of Lords wait with the land to the