[1] Hume, Appendix 2,

[2] Crabbe's History of the English Law, 236.

[3] Coke says, "The king of England is armed with divers councils,
one whereof is called commune concilium, (the common council,)
and that is the court of parliament and so it is legally called in
writs and judicial proceedings comanche concilium regni
Anglicae, (the common council of the kingdom of England.) And
another is called magnum concilium, (great council;) this is
sometimes applied to the upper house of parliament, and
sometimes, out of parliament time, to the peers of the realm, lords
of parliament, who are called magnum concilium regis, (the great
council of the king;) [4] Thirdly, (as every man knoweth,) the king
hath a privy council for matters of state. * * The fourth council of
the king are his judges for law matters." 1 Coke's Institutes, 110 a.

[4] The Great Charter of Henry III., (1216 and 1225,) confirmed by
Edward I., (1297,) makes no provision whatever for, or mention
of, a parliament, unless the provision, (Ch. 37,) that "Escuage, (a
military contribution,) from henceforth shall be taken like as it was
wont to be in the time of King Henry our grandfather," mean that a
parliament shall be summoned for that purpose.

[5]The Magna Carta of John, (Ch. 17 and 18,) defines those who
were entitled to be summoned to parliament, to wit, "The
Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and Great Barons of the
Realm, * * and all others who hold of us in chief." Those who held
land of the king in chief included none below the rank of knights.