bserved, were seldom called in
England before the reign of this prince, nor even then were always
composed after the same manner: neither does it appear from the writers
who lived nearest to that age, that the people had any representative at
all, beside the barons and other nobles, who did not sit in those
assemblies by virtue of their birth or creation, but of the lands or
baronies they held. So that the present constitution of the English
Parliament hath, by many degrees and alterations, been modelled to the
frame it is now in; which alterations I shall observe in the succeeding
reigns as exactly as I can discover them by a diligent search into the
histories of the several ages, without engaging in the controverted
points of law about this matter, which would rather perplex the reader
than inform him.

1116.

But to return, Louis the Gross King of France, a valiant and active
prince, in the flower of his age, succeeding to that crown that Robert
was deprived of, Normandy, grew jealous of the neighbourhood and power
of King Henry, and begun early to entertain designs either of subduing
that duchy to himself, or at least of making a considerable party
against the King in favour of William son of Robert, whom for that end
he had taken into his protection. Pursuant to these intentions, he soon
found an occasion for a quarrel: expostulating with Henry, that he had
broken his promise by not doing homage for the Duchy of Normandy, as
well as by neglecting to raze the castle of Gisors,[22] which was built
on the French side of the river Epte, the common boundary between both
dominions.

[Footnote 22: Father Daniel says that for some years past it had been
agreed that Gisors "should be sequestered in the hands of a lord called
Pagan or Payen, who was to receive into it neither English or Norman,
nor French troops; and in case it should fall into the hands of either
of the two kings, it was stipulated, that the walls should be razed
within the space of forty days" ("Hist. of France," i. 369). [W.S.J.]
]

But an incident soon offered, which gave King Henry a pretext for
retaliating almost in the same manner: for it happened that upon some
offence taken against his nephew Theobald Count of Blois by the French
King, Louis in great rage sent an army to invade and ravage the earl's
territories. Theobald defended himself for a while with much valour; but
at length in danger to be overpowered, requested aid of his uncle the
K