(34) This letter, addressed in 1247 to Pope Innocent the Fourth, will be found in Matthew Paris (721, Wats). It is written in the name of “universitas cleri et populi per provinciam Cantuariensem constituti,” and it ends, “quia communitas nostra sigillum non habet, præsentes literas signo communitatis civitatis Londinensis vestræ sanctitati mittimus consignatas.” Another letter in the same form follows to the Cardinals. There are two earlier letters in 1245 and 1246 (Matthew Paris, 666, 700), the former from the “magnates et universitas regni Angliæ,” the other in the name of Richard Earl of Cornwall (afterwards King of the Romans), Simon Earl of Leicester, and other Earls, “et alii totius regni Angliæ Barones, proceres, et magnates, et nobiles portuum maris habitatores, necnon et clerus et populus universus.” The distinct mention of the Cinque Ports, whose representatives in Parliament are still called Barons—the “nobiles” of the letter—should be noticed. (35) The writer of the Gesta Stephani(3) distinctly attributes the election of Stephen to the citizens of London: “Majores igitur natu, consultuque quique provectiores, concilium coegere, deque regni statu, pro arbitrio suo, utilia in commune providentes, ad regem eligendum unanimiter conspiravere.” He then goes on with the details of the election. He is borne out by the Chronicle 1135: “Stephne de Blais com to Lundene and te Lundenisce folc him underfeng;” and by William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, i. 11: “A Londoniensibus et Wintoniensibus in Regem exceptus est.” So again when the Legate, Henry Bishop of Winchester, holds a council for the election of the Empress Matilda, the citizens of London were summoned, and it is distinctly said that they held the rank of nobles or barons: “Londonienses (qui sunt quasi optimates, pro magnitudine civitatis, in Anglia).” “Londonienses, qui præcipui habebantur in Anglia, sicut proceres” (Historia Novella, iii. 45, 46). All this is exactly like the earlier elections of Kings before the Conquest. (36) The words of the Charter 12-14 (Stubbs, 290) are: “Nullum scutagium vel auxilium ponatur in regno nostro, nisi per commune consilium regni nostri, nisi ad corpus nostrum redimendum, etc..... Et ad habendum commune consilium regni, de auxilio assidendo aliter quam in tribus casibus prædictis, vel de scutagio assidendo, summoneri faciemus archiepiscopos, episcopos, abbates, comites, et majores barones, sigillatim per litteras nostras; et præterea faciemus summoneri in generali, per vicecomites et ballivos nostros, omnes illos qui de nobis tenent in capite.” This is exactly like the entry in the Chronicle (1123), describing the summoning of a Witenagemót by Henry the First: “Da sone Þæræfter sende se kyng hise write ofer eal Englalande, and bed hise biscopes and hise abbates and hise Þeignes ealle Þet hi scolden cumen to his gewitenemot on Candelmesse deig to Gleawceastre him togeanes; and hi swa diden.”