e and subordination.

The king himself often sat in his court, which always attended his
person:[**] he there heard causes and pronounced judgment;[***] and
though he was assisted by the advice of the other members, it is not to
be imagined that a decision could easily be obtained, contrary to his
inclination or opinion. In his absence the chief justiciary presided,
who was the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of viceroy, on
whom depended all the civil affairs of the kingdom.[****] The other
chief officers of the crown, the constable, mareschal, seneschal
chamberlain, treasurer, and chancellor,[*****] were members, together
with such feudal barons as thought proper to attend, and the barons of
the exchequer, who at first were also feudal barons appointed by the
king.[******] This court, which was sometimes called the king's court,
sometimes the court of exchequer, judged in all causes, civil and
criminal, and comprehended the whole business which is now shared out
among four courts the chancery, the king's bench, the common pleas, and
the exchequer.[*******]

Such an accumulation of powers was itself a great source of authority,
and rendered the jurisdiction of the court formidable to all the
subjects; but the turn which judicial trials took soon after the
conquest, served still more to increase its authority, and to augment
the royal prerogatives. William, among the other violent changes
which he attempted and effected, had introduced the Norman law into
England,[********] had ordered all the pleadings to be in that tongue,
and had interwoven with the English jurisprudence all the maxims and
principles which the Normans, more advanced in cultivation and naturally
litigious, were accustomed to observe in the distribution of justice.

[** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 103.]

[*** Bracton, lib. iii. cap. 9, sect. 1; cap. 10,
sect. 1.]

[**** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Justiciarii.]

[***** Madox, Hist. Exch. p. 27, 29, 83, 38, 41,
54. The Normans introduced the practice of sealing charters;
and the chancellor's office was to keep the great seal.
Ingulph. Dugd. p. 33, 34.]

[****** Madox, Hist, of the Exch. p. 134, 135.
Gerv. Dorob. p, 1387,]

[******* Madox. Hist. of the Exch. p. 56, 70.]

[******** Dial, de Scac. p. 30, apud Madox, Hist,
of the Exch.]

Law now became a science, which at first fell entirely into the hands of
the Normans; and