“The king that tries without advice to seek his people’s weal Must often fail, he cannot know the wants and woes they feel. The Parliament must tell the king how he may serve them best, And he must see their wants fulfilled and injuries redressed. A king should seek his people’s good and not his own sweet will, Nor think himself a slave because men hold him back from ill. For they that keep the king from sin serve him the best of all, Making him free that else would be to sin a wretched thrall. True king is he, and truly free, who rules himself aright, And chooses freely what he knows will ease his people’s plight. Think not it is the king’s goodwill that makes the law to be, For law is steadfast, and a king has no stability. No! law stands high above the king, for law is that true light Without whose ray the king would stray and wander from the right. When a king strays he ought to be called back into the way By those he rules, who lawfully his will may disobey Until he seeks the path, but when his wandering is o’er, They ought to help and succour him and love him as before.” (Translated by F. York Powell.) [43] “The new form of government bears evidence of its origin; it is intended rather to fetter the king than to extend or develop the action of the community at large. The baronial council clearly regards itself as competent to act on behalf of all the estates of the realm, and the expedient of reducing the national deliberations to three sessions of select committees, betrays a desire to abridge the frequent and somewhat irksome duty of attendance in parliament rather than to share the central legislative and deliberative power with the whole body of the people. It must however be remembered that the scheme makes a very indistinct claim to the character of a final arrangement.”--Stubbs. [44] A board of twenty-four--half chosen by the king and half by the barons--had laid a body of resolutions before the Oxford Parliament, and the first of these resolutions declared that all castles and estates alienated from the crown should be at once resumed. [45] “The first time, as far as we know, English was used in any public document.”--Blaauw, _The Barons’ War_. [46] “End, O Earl of Gloster, what thou hast begun! Save thou end it fitly, we are all undone. Play the man, we pray thee, as thou hast promised, Cherish steadfastly the cause of which thou wast the head. He that takes the Lord’s work up, and lays it down again, Shamed and cursed may he be, and all shall say Amen. Earl Simon, thou of Montfort, so powerful and brave, Bring up thy strong companies thy country now to save, Have thou no fear of menaces or terrors of the grave, Defend with might the nation’s cause, naught else thine own needs crave.”