to Barnabas-day, to be held without fail at Oxford. In the mean time, the chief men of England, namely, the earls of Glouceſter, Leiceſter, and Hereford, the earl marſhal, and other eminent men, out of a provident precaution for themſelves, aſſociated; and becauſe they were vehemently afraid of the treachery of the foreigners, and much ſuſpected the little plots of the King, they came armed with a good retinue to Oxford.
There the great men, in the very beginning of the parliament, confirmed their former purpoſe, and immutable reſolution to have the charter of the liberties of England faithfully kept and obſerved, which the King had often granted and ſworn, and had cauſed all the biſhops of England to excommunicate, in a horrible manner, all the breakers of it, and he himſelf was one of the excommunicators. They demanded likewiſe to have a juſticiary that ſhould do equal juſtice, and ſome other public things, which were for the common profit of the King and realm, and tended to the peace and Honour of them both. And they frequently, and urgently aſked and adviſed the King to follow their counſels, and the neceſſaty proviſions they had drawn up; ſwearing with pledging their faiths, and giving one another their
