of land, the national militia had not been
involved in feudal meshes: the obligation of service remained still
personal, not territorial.

In 1205 John, fearing an invasion of the Kingdom, called to arms all the
militia sworn and equipped under the Assize, _i.e._, all the freemen of
the realm. Short-shrift was to be given to any who disobeyed the
summons: "_Qui vero ad summonitionem non venerit habeatur pro capitali
inimico domini regis et regni_" (He who does not come in response to the
summons shall be regarded as a capital enemy of the king and kingdom.)
The penalty was to be the peculiarly appropriate one of reduction to
perpetual servitude. The disobedient and disloyal subject who made the
great refusal would _ipso facto_ divest himself of the distinguishing
mark of his freedom.[10]

Henry III in 1223 and 1231 made similar levies. In 1252, in a notable
writ for enforcing Watch and Ward and the Assize of Arms, he extended
the obligation of service to villans and lowered the age limit to
fifteen. Edward I reaffirmed these new departures in his well-known
Statute of Winchester (1285), in which it is enacted that "every man
have in his house harness for to keep the peace after the ancient
assize, that is to say, every man between fifteen years of age and sixty
years." Further, he enlarged the armoury of the militiaman by including
among his weapons the axe and the bow.[11]

The long, aggressive wars of Edward I in Wales and Scotland, and the
still longer struggles of the fourteenth century in France, could not,
of course, be waged by means of the national militia. Even the feudal
levy was unsuited to their requirements. They were waged mainly by means
of hired professional armies. Parliament--a new factor in the
Constitution--took pains in these circumstances to limit by statute the
liabilities of the old national forces. An Act of 1328 decreed that no
one should be compelled to go beyond the bounds of his own county,
except when necessity or a sudden irruption of foreign foes into the
realm required it.[12] Another Act, 1352, provided that the militia
should not be compelled to go beyond the realm in any circumstances
whatsoever without the consent of Parliament.[13] Both these Acts were
confirmed by Henry IV in 1402.[14] But the old obligation of universal
service for home defence remained intact. It was, in fact, enforced by
Edward IV in 1464, when, on his own authority, he ordered the Sheriffs
to proclaim that "