But though the regulations of David still continued to be the groundwork of the Scottish constitution, certain modifications were introduced by William which tended still further to increase the power of the crown. In the fifteenth year of his reign, “on the Monday before the festival of St. Margaret” in 1180, in one of these great assemblies of the whole Frank-tenantry of the kingdom, lay and ecclesiastical, in which the germs of future parliaments are traceable, and which, on this occasion, was held at Stirling, it was agreed that, for the future, none were to hold ordinary courts of justice, or a court of ordeal, whether “of battle, iron, or water,” except in the presence of the sheriff, or of one of his serjeants; though, if the official, after due summons, failed to attend, the court might be held in his absence. At the same time, the four great pleas, which had been removed from the jurisdiction of burgh provosts and baron baillies in the reign of David, were reserved absolutely for the crown.[514] Seventeen years later, in 1197, perhaps in consequence of abuses in the exercise of authority, these minor courts were further regulated by an ordinance passed in a similar “Parliament” held at Perth, and attended by “the Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Thanes, and Community of the Realm;” in which the great barons were pledged to give no support to law-breakers, whether their own followers or others, and to take no money for remission of judgment after sentence had been duly passed; all failing in their duty, in either of these points, being condemned to forfeit for ever their right to hold a court.[515] The regulations of David about the great royal _moots_, and about the sheriffs’ courts, were also modified at some period of William’s reign; and it was ordered that two great assemblies were to be held yearly at Edinburgh and Peebles, at which every freeholder was bound to attend, unless prevented by sickness, or other sufficient cause. In every province the sheriff was to hold a court every forty days--in this particular following the Norman, or Frank, rather than the Saxon custom; but bishops, abbots, earls, and probably the greater barons who enjoyed “the rights and custom of an earl,” were now excused from personal attendance, appearing by their Seneschals or Stewards, and only being bound to attend in person upon the court of the royal justiciary, or of his deputy.[516] Henceforth the privilege of a “Regality” was confined to the greater barons or clergy, upon whom it was conferred by royal favour; a sure sign of the progress of order, and of the royal authority. It may be remarked that a Regality in the feudal period was generally on some frontier; or was a district made over to some powerful noble to control, as he best might, by the strong hand; and in England, the sole provinces of this description were the _Palatinates_ of Chester and Durham, the former on the Welsh frontier, the latter upon the borders of that turbulent