238 Readings in European History it is our duty to guarantee, we shall have respite till the usual term of crusaders ; excepting those things about which the suit has been begun or the inquisition made by our writ before our assumption of the cross. When, however, we shall return from our journey, or if by chance we desist from the journey, we will immediately show full justice in regard to them. . . . 6 1. Since, moreover, for the sake of God, and for the improvement of our kingdom, and for the better quieting of the hostility sprung up lately between us and our barons, we have made all these concessions; wishing them to enjoy these in a complete and firm stability forever, we make and concede to them the security described below ; that is to say, that they shall elect twenty-five barons of the kingdom, whom- soever they will, who ought with all their power to observe, hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties which we have conceded to them, and by this our present charter confirmed to them; . . . 63. ... It has been sworn, moreover, as well on our part as on the part of the barons, that all these things spoken of above shall be observed in good faith and without any evil intent. Witness the above-named and many others. Given by our hand in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign. VI. WRITS OF SUMMONS TO THE MODEL PARLIAMENT ('295) SUMMONS TO A BISHOP By the following writs of summons Edward I secured a perfect representation of the three estates in an assem- bly which should have the power of taxing the whole nation for the war with France ; in short, a parliament was constituted " on the model of which every succeeding assembly bearing that name was formed " (Stubbs).
