World History

15.

Writ Summoning Three Knights of the Shire.

1261. (Latin text in Stubbs, Select Charters, ninth edition, pp. 394, 395. Translation by the editor.)

The king to the sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, greeting. Inasmuch as on the authority of the bishop of Worcester, the earls of Leicester and Gloucester, and certain other magnates of our kingdom, three knights from each of our counties have been summoned to be before them at St. Albans at the coming feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, to treat with them concerning the common interests of our kingdom; and since we and our aforesaid magnates should meet the same day at Windsor to treat of peace between us and them; we command you that, on our behalf, you firmly enjoin upon those knights of your bailiwick, who have been called before them for the aforesaid day, that, every excuse set aside, they come to us at Windsor on that day; and you are also strictly to forbid them to go anywhere on that day except to us; indeed, you are to use every means to make them come before us at that time, to have a conference with us on the said matters; so that, as a result of this occasion, they may see and understand that we are not proposing to undertake anything except what we know will redound to the honor and commonweal of our kingdom. Witness the king at Windsor, the eleventh day of September.