World History

7.

Summons to a Great Council.

November 7, 1213. (Latin text in Stubbs, Select Charters, ninth edition, p. 282. Translation by the editor.)

The king to the sheriff of Oxford, greeting. We command you that all the knights of your bailiwick, who have been summoned to be with us at Oxford fifteen days after All Saints’ Day, you cause to come with their arms; likewise the barons, but without arms; and you are to cause to come to us there at the same time four discreet men of your county to speak with us about the affairs of our kingdom. Witness myself at Witney, the seventh day of November;

In the same way it is written to all the sheriffs.