itutional tradition and summoned two burgesses from each town to
the Parliament of 1265. Time had indeed to pass before the large and
statesmanlike conception of the great patriot could meet with full
acceptance. Through the earlier part of Edward's reign we find a few
instances of the presence of representatives from the towns, but their
scanty numbers and the irregularity of their attendance show that they were
summoned rather to afford financial information to the Great Council than
as representatives in it of an Estate of the Realm. But every year pleaded
stronger and stronger for their inclusion, and in the Parliament of 1295
that of 1265 found itself at last reproduced. "It was from me that he
learnt it," Earl Simon had cried, as he recognized the military skill of
Edward's onset at Evesham; "it was from me that he learnt it," his spirit
might have exclaimed as he saw the king gathering at last two burgesses
"from every city, borough, and leading town" within his realm to sit side
by side with the knights, nobles, and barons of the Great Council. To the
Crown the change was from the first an advantageous one. The grants of
subsidies by the burgesses in Parliament proved more profitable than the
previous extortions of the Exchequer. The proportions of their grant
generally exceeded that of the other estates. Their representatives too
proved far more compliant with the royal will than the barons or knights of
the shire; only on one occasion during Edward's reign did the burgesses
waver from their general support of the Crown.

[Sidenote: Reluctance to attend]

It was easy indeed to control them, for the selection of boroughs to be
represented remained wholly in the king's hands, and their numbers could be
increased or diminished at the king's pleasure. The determination was left
to the sheriff, and at a hint from the royal Council a sheriff of Wilts
would cut down the number of represented boroughs in his shire from eleven
to three, or a sheriff of Bucks declare he could find but a single borough,
that of Wycombe, within the bounds of his county. Nor was this exercise of
the prerogative hampered by any anxiety on the part of the towns to claim
representative privileges. It was hard to suspect that a power before which
the Crown would have to bow lay in the ranks of soberly-clad traders,
summoned only to assess the contributions of their boroughs, and whose
attendance was as difficult to secure as it seemed burthens