36o The Period of Constitution Making
The king to the sheriff of Oxford, greeting. We command
you that all the knights of your bailiwick, who have been
summoned to be with us at Oxford fifteen days after All
Saints' Day, you cause to come with their arms; likewise
the barons in person, but without arms; and you are to cause
to come to us there at the same time four discreet knights of
your county to speak with us about the affairs of our king-
dom. Witness myself at Witney, the seventh day of Novem-
ber.
In the same way it is written to all the sheriffs.
The unarmed barons referred to would evidently con-
stitute a great council. We cannot be sure that this
assembly met; but whether it did or not its summons is
of more significance than that of the August meeting,
for here all the counties of England were to be represented
by knights, the business sounds public and important,
and county representatives and the great council would
have been meeting at the same time and place.1 There
are other less interesting cases of concentration in the
last four years of John's reign. It was a recognized
method of doing business which the king used when it
stilted his convenience.
The method was not forgotten during Henry Ill's
minority,2 and in 1227 is the earliest known general con-
centration of popularly elected knights of the shire.
For a year or two there had been friction between sheriffs
and people, especially over the article of Magna Carta
the summer the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have taken the ini-
tiative in ordering local inquests on the same subject. Probably from
July 21 to August 4 was too short a time to get such a meeting together,
and of course John was not overly zealous. The summoning writs of this
assembly are not extant, and a chronicler's account, based apparently
upon a writ which he had before him, is brief and somewhat dubious. This
has caused considerable discussion in recent years about what was actually
intended. See H. W. C. Davis, English Historical Review, xx., 289, 290;
G. J. Turner, ibid,, xxi, 297-299; A. B. White, American Historical Re-
view, xvii, 12-16, D. Pasquet, Essai sur les Origines de la Chambre des
Communes, pp. 46-52.
*For further discussion, see American Historical Review, xxii, 87-90;
325-329.
In 1225 the Cinque Ports appeared before the great council in London
by two instructed representatives each.