not in conformity with the regulations of the
committee; the governors of the castles to keep them faithfully for
the use of the King, and to restore them to him or his heirs, and no
others, on the receipt of an order from the council; and at the
expiration of twelve years to surrender them loyally on the demand of
the King. Having thus secured to themselves the sovereign authority,
and divested Henry of the power of resistance, the committee began the
work of reform by ordaining: 1. That four knights should be chosen by
the freeholders of each county to ascertain and lay before the
parliament the trespasses, excesses, and injuries committed within the
county under the royal administration; 2. That a new high sheriff
should be annually appointed for each county by the votes of the
freeholders; 3. That all sheriffs, and the treasurer, chancellor, and
justiciary should annually give in their accounts; 4. And that
parliaments should meet thrice in the year, in the beginning of the
months of February, June, and October. They were, however, careful
that these assemblies should consist entirely of their own partisans.
Under the pretext of exonerating the other members from the trouble
and expense of such frequent journeys, twelve persons were appointed
as representatives of the commonalty, that is, the whole body of
earls, barons, and tenants of the Crown; and it was enacted that
whatever these twelve should determine, in conjunction with the
council of state, should be considered as the act of the whole body.

These innovations did not, however, pass without opposition. Henry,
the son of the King of the Romans, Aymar, Guy and William,
half-brothers to the King, and the Earl of Warenne, members of the
committee, though they were unable to prevent, considerably retarded,
the measures of the reformers, and nourished in the friends of the
monarch a spirit of resistance which might ultimately prove fatal to
the projects of Leicester and his associates. It was resolved to
silence them by intimidation. They were required to swear obedience to
the ordinances of the majority of the members; proposals were made to
resume all grants of the crown, from which the three brothers derived
their support; and several charges of extortion and trespass were made
in the king's courts not only against them, but also against the
fourth brother, Geoffrey de Valence. Fearing for their liberty or
lives, they all retired secretly from Oxford, and fled