uthority of the whole
Parliament, and should attend, on a summons, the person of the king in
all his motions. But so powerful were these barons, that this
regulation was also submitted to; the whole government was overthrown,
or fixed on new foundations; and the monarchy was totally subverted,
without its being possible for the king to strike a single stroke in
defence of the constitution against the newly-elected oligarchy.

[MN 1259.] The report that the King of the Romans intended to pay a
visit to England gave alarm to the ruling barons, who dreaded lest the
extensive influence and established authority of that prince would be
employed to restore the prerogatives of his family, and overturn their
plan of government [c]. They sent over the Bishop of Worcester, who
met him at St. Omars; asked him, in the name of the barons, the reason
of his journey, and how long he intended to stay in England; and
insisted that, before he entered the kingdom, he should swear to
observe the regulations established at Oxford. On Richard's refusal
to take this oath, they prepared to resist him as a public enemy; they
fitted out a fleet, assembled an army, and exciting the inveterate
prejudices of the people against foreigners, from whom they had
suffered so many oppressions, spread the report that Richard, attended
by a number of strangers, meant to restore by force the authority of
his exiled brothers, and to violate all the securities provided for
public liberty. The King of the Romans was at last obliged to submit
to the terms required of him [d].
[FN [c] M. Paris, p. 661. [d] Ibid. p. 661, 662. Chron. T. Wykes, p.
53.]

But the barons, in proportion to their continuance in power, began
gradually to lose that popularity which had assisted them in obtaining
it; and men repined that regulations, which were occasionally
established for the reformation of the state, were likely to become
perpetual, and to subvert entirely the ancient constitution. They
were apprehensive lest the power of the nobles, always oppressive,
should now exert itself without control, by removing the counterpoise
of the crown; and their fears were increased by some new edicts of the
barons, which were plainly calculated to procure to themselves an
impunity in all their violences. They appointed that the circuits of
the itinerant justices, the sole check on their arbitrary conduct,
should be held only once in seven years; and men easily saw that a
remed