Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/239

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MAGNA CHARTA.
193

We will moreover grant, that all other cities, and boroughs, and towns, and ports, have, in all reſpects, their liberties and free cuſtoms.

And as for coming to the common council of the kingdom, and for aſſeſſing aids (except in the three cafes aforeſaid) and as for the aſſeſſing of eſcuage, we will cauſe to be ſummoned the archbiſhops, biſhops, abbots, earls, and the greater barons, each in particular by our letters; and moreover, we will cauſe to be ſummoned in general, by our ſheriffs, and bailiffs, all that hold of us in chief, at a certain day; to wit, forty days after at leaſt, and at a certain place, and in our ſaid letters we will expreſs the cauſe of the ſummons. And when the ſummons ſhall be ſo made, buſineſs ſhall go on at the day aſſigned, by the advice of ſuch as are preſent, though all that are ſummoned do not appear.

We will not allow for the future, that any take aid of his free-men, but only to ranſom his perſon, to make his eldeſt ſon a knight, and to marry

his