An Early Election to Parliament.
2. These groups of peasantry were the representatives of their respective townships, the rural communes into which the whole realm was divided; and each had a species of chieftain or head-man in the person of an individual who, though it was evident that he belonged to the same rank in society, gave directions to the rest. Interspersed among the churls, though not confounded with them, were also very many well-clad persons, possessing an appearance of rustic respectability, who were also subjected to some kind of organization, being collected into sets of twelve men each, who were busily employed in confabulation among themselves. These were "the sworn centenary deputies" or jurors, the sworn men who answered for or represented the several hundreds.
3. A third class of members of the shire court could be equally distinguished, proudly known by their gilt spurs and blazoned tabards as the provincial knighthood, and who, though thus honored, appeared to mix freely and affably in converse with the rest of the commons of the shire.
4. A flourish of trumpets announced the approach of the high-sheriff, Sir Giles de Argentein, surrounded by his escort of javelin-men, tall yeomen, all arrayed in a uniform suit of livery, and accompanied, among others, by four knights, the coroners, who took cognizance of all pleas that concerned the king's rights within the county, and who, though they yielded precedence to the sheriff, were evidently considered to be almost of equal importance with him. "My masters," said the sheriff to the assembled crowd, "even now hath the port-joye [B] of the chancery delivered to me certain most important writs of our sovereign lord the king, containing his Grace's high commands." At this time the chancellor, who might be designated as principal secretary of state for all departments, was the great medium of communication between king and subject: whatever the sovereign had to ask or tell was usually asked or told by, or under, the directions of this high functionary.
5. Now, although the gracious declarations which the chancellor was charged to deliver were much diversified in their form, yet, somehow or other, they all conveyed the same intent. Whether directing the preservation of peace or preparing for the prosecution of a war, whether announcing a royal birth or a royal death, the knighthood of the king's son or the marriage of the king's daughter, the mandates of our ancient kings invariably conclude with a request or a demand for money's worth or money.
6. The present instance offered no exception to the general rule. King Edward, greeting his loving subjects, expatiated upon the miseries which the realm was likely to sustain by the invasion of the wicked, barbarous, and perfidious Scots. Church and state, he alleged, were in equal danger, and "inasmuch as that which concerneth all ought to be determined by the advice of all concerned, we have determined," continued the writ, "to hold our Parliament at Westminster in eight days from the feast of St. Hilary." The effect of the announcement was magical. Parliament! Even before the second syllable of the word had been uttered, visions of aids and subsidies rose before the appalled multitude, grim shadows of assessors and collectors floated in the ambient air.
7. Sir Gilbert Hastings instinctively plucked his purse out of his sleeve; drawing the strings together, he twisted, and tied them in the course of half a minute of nervous agitation into a Gordian knot, which apparently defied any attempt to undo it, except by means practiced by the son of Ammon. The Abbot of Oseney forthwith guided his steed to the right about, and rode away from the meeting as fast as his horse could trot, turning the deafest of all deaf ears to the monitions which he received to stay.
8. The sheriff and the other functionaries alone preserved a tranquil but not a cheerful gravity, as Sir Giles commanded his clerk to read the whole of the writ, by which he was commanded "to cause two knights to be elected for the shire; and from every city within his bailiwick two citizens; and from every borough two burgesses—all of them of the more discreet and wiser sort; and to cause them to come before the king in this Parliament at the before-mentioned day and place, with full powers from their respective communities to perform and consent to such matters as by common counsel shall then and there be ordained; and this you will in no wise omit, as you will answer at your peril."