hard I.'s reign London imitated the French
communes in styling the chief officer a mayor; in 1208 Winchester also
had a mayor, and the title soon became no rarity. The chartered right to
choose two or more citizens to keep the pleas of the crown gave to many
boroughs the control of their coroners, who occupied the position of the
London justiciar of earlier days, subject to those considerable
modifications which Henry II.'s systematization of the criminal law had
introduced. Burgesses who had gone for criminal and civil justice to
their own court in disputes between themselves, or between themselves
and strangers who were in their town, secured confirmation of this right
by charter, not to exclude the justices in eyre, but to exempt
themselves from the necessity of pleading in a distant court. The
burgess, whether plaintiff or defendant, was a privileged person, and
could claim in this respect a "benefit" somewhat similar to the benefit
of clergy. In permitting the boroughs to answer through their own
officers for his dues, the king handed over to the boroughs the farming
of his rents and a large number of rights which would eventually prove
to be sources of great profit.

No records exist showing the nature of municipal proceedings at the time
of the first purchase of charters. Certain it is that the communities in
the 12th century became alive to the possibilities of their new
position, that trade received a new impulse, and the vague
constitutional powers of the borough court acquired a new need for
definition. At first the selection of officers who were to treat with
the exchequer and to keep the royal pleas was almost certainly
restricted to a few rich persons who could find the necessary
securities. Nominated probably in one of the smaller judicial
assemblies, the choice was announced at the great Michaelmas assembly of
the whole community, and it is not till the next century that we hear of
any attempt of the "vulgus" to make a different selection from that of
the magnates. The "vulgus" were able to take effective action by means
of the several craft organizations, and first found the necessity to do
so when taxation was heavy or when questions of trade legislation were
mooted (see GILDS). The taxation of the boroughs in the reign of Henry
II. was assessed by the king's justices, who fixed the sums due _per
capita_; but if the borough made an offer of a gift, the assessment was
made by the burgesses. In the first