Note (56) — Chapter II
Reading edition
The share of the Witan in early times in the appointment of Bishops, Ealdormen, and other great officers, need hardly be dwelled upon. For a debate in a Witenagemót of Eadward the Confessor on a question of peace or war, see Norman Conquest, ii. 90. For the like under Henry the Third, see the account in Matthew Paris, in the year 1242 which will be found in Stubbs, 359. The state of the case under Edward the Third is discussed by Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 184. See also May, ii. 86. But the most remarkable passage of all is one in the great poetical manifesto which I have several times quoted: it is there (Political Songs, 96) made one of the charges against Henry the Third that he wished to keep the appointment of the great officers of state in his own hands. The passage is long, but it is well worth quoting at length.
“Rex cum suis voluit ita liber esse; Et sic esse debuit, fuitque necesse Aut esse desineret rex, privatus jure Regis, nisi faceret quidquid vellet; curæ Non esse magnatibus regni quos præferret Suis comitatibus, vel quibus conferret Castrorum custodiam, vel quem exhibere Populo justitiam vellet, et habere Regni cancellarium thesaurariumque. Suum ad arbitrium voluit quemcumque, Et consiliarios de quacumque gente, Et ministros varios se præcipiente, Non intromittentibus se de factis regis Angliæ baronibus, vim habente legis Principis imperio, et quod imperaret Suomet arbitrio singulos ligaret.”