d; but whether they could attend
without a summons is not manifest. 3. That the summons was usually
directed to the higher barons, and to such of a second class as the king
pleased, many being omitted for different reasons, though all had a
right to it. 4. That on occasions when money was not to be demanded, but
alterations made in the law, some of these second barons, or tenants in
chief, were at least occasionally summoned, but whether by strict right
or usage does not fully appear. 5. That the irregularity of passing many
of them over when councils were held for the purpose of levying money,
led to the provision in the Great Charter of John by which the king
promises that they shall all be summoned through the sheriff on such
occasions; but the promise does not extend to any other subject of
parliamentary deliberation. 6. That even this concession, though but the
recognition of a known right, appeared so dangerous to some in the
government that it was withdrawn in the first charter of Henry III.

The charter of John, as has just been observed, while it removes all
doubt, if any could have been entertained, as to the right of every
military tenant _in capite_ to be summoned through the sheriff, when an
aid or scutage was to be demanded, will not of itself establish their
right of attending parliament on other occasions. We cannot absolutely
assume any to have been, in a general sense, members of the legislature
except the prelates and the _majores barones_. But who were these, and
how distinguished? For distinguished they must now have become, and that
by no new provision, since none is made. The right of personal summons
did not constitute them, for it is on _majores barones_, as already a
determinate rank, that the right is conferred. The extent of property
afforded no definite criterion; at least some baronies, which appear to
have been of the first class, comprehended very few knights' fees: yet
it seems probable that this was the original ground of distinction.[462]

The charter, as renewed in the first year of Henry III., does not only
omit the clause prohibiting the imposition of aids and scutages without
consent, and providing for the summons of all tenants _in capite_ before
either could be levied, but gives the following reason for suspending
this and other articles of king John's charter:--"Quia vero quaedam
capitula in priori carta continebantur, quae gravia et dubitabilia
videbantur, _sicut de scutagiis e