in the enterprise. As the
Barons were so powerful, the Sovereign never made war or undertook any
other great enterprise without first convoking and consulting them, as
their co-operation was necessary to his success. In fact, such was their
position in the realm, that no change in the laws or government, nor any
great act of administration, could be accomplished without their advice
and consent. Hence they formed with the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the
sole and supreme legislative council of the Sovereign. Independently of
the necessity for their advice and co-operation in national enterprises,
the Sovereign was desirous of convoking the Barons to his councils at
stated periods, as a badge of fealty, and to remind them of their
allegiance to Royalty; which in the autocratic retirement of their
castles, and the solitude of their manors, they were prone to forget.
Whensoever any of the Barons rebelled against the royal authority, the
Sovereign assembled the other Barons to assist him in suppressing the
mutiny. If on the other hand any Baron should be unable to repel the
encroachments of a neighbor, he appealed to the Sovereign as the supreme
liege for help to resist and punish the aggression, which with the aid of
other chieftains was generally granted. The Sovereign therefore stood in
the same relation to the Barons of the whole realm, as they individually
to their vassals, the feudal theory being, that all land was held
ultimately from the Sovereign in return for military and other services,
failing which it reverted to the Crown.

The Barons, as may be supposed, exercised unlimited power within their
domains, as the Sovereign never interposed in questions between the Lord
and his vassals, so long as the chief rendered the services required by
the Crown. Hence the power of each Baron was absolute within his
dominions; and from his acts there was no appeal, much less redress. He
even affected Royalty by obliging his principal vassals to give
attendance upon him, in like manner as he and the other Barons paid court
to the King, and by establishing Courts and Judges of his own to
administer justice to his vassals. In short, every Barony was a
miniature Kingdom, with an army of retainers, a train of officials, and
other insignia of State grandeur corresponding with the wealth and power
of the chief. To maintain this condition, the Baron was under the
necessity of raising a large revenue from his Barony; and as a gre