Note 27 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES (continued 2)

even William Rufus, in all his pride and self-confidence, knew that it did not depend wholly on himself to send either native or adopted Englishmen on such an errand. He had learned enough of English constitutional law not to think of venturing on a foreign war without the constitutional sanction of his kingdom. In a Gemot [sic] at Winchester, seemingly the Easter Gemot of the third year of his reign, he laid his schemes before the assembled Witan [sic], and obtained their consent to a war with the Duke of the Normans.27