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NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND 479 queror had been enabled to determine how much property there was in the land available for purposes of taxation. Another way of achieving the same end would be to sum- mon these men of the localities to one central meeting-place, instead of having the royal officials go to them, change from The idea of a general assembly and representa- local r .epre- . . 1 1 r -t* 111 sentation to tive body was already laminar through the a national church synods and councils and the feudal court assembl y attended by vassals and tenants-in-chief. Also in England the vills or townships had long been accustomed to send six men each to represent them at the court of the hundred, and the hundred in its turn sent twelve men to the shire court. All that remained to be done, therefore, was that the shires — and also the towns which had recently grown up — should send representatives to a national assembly. The first known instance of the shires' being asked to send repre- sentatives was in the reign of John in 12 13, two years before Magna Carta, when the king summoned four men from each shire "to confer with us about the affairs of our realm." Some time was to elapse, however, before this develop- ment toward a representative national assembly was com- pleted, and meantime we must pause to consider Magna Carta itself. While England had submitted much more docilely than Henry's Continental fiefs to the legal methods and the constructive enactments of his strong govern- The tyranny ment, it would not endure the illegal and capri- of J ohn cious despotism of John, who was selfish, treacherous, un- just, and oppressive. Moreover, John was unsuccessful and lost most of the French possessions which Henry and Richard had held, and then was worsted in his quarrel with Innocent III and became the vassal of the pope. Therefore, toward the close of his reign the feudal nobility of England banded together — by feudal theory they were entitled to take up arms against their lord if he exceeded his powers over them — and forced the king to promise, by signing the Great Charter, to reform all the abuses in his govern- ment of which they complained.