the time of Richard II., when, the practice of feoffments to uses having
been introduced, without any legal remedy to secure the cestui que use,
or usufructuary, against his feoffees, the court of chancery undertook
to enforce this species of contract by process of its own.[355]

Such was the nature of the king's ordinary council in itself, as the
organ of his executive sovereignty, and such the jurisdiction which it
habitually exercised. But it is also to be considered in its relation
to the parliament, during whose session, either singly or in conjunction
with the lords' house, it was particularly conspicuous. The great
officers of state, whether peers or not, the judges, the king's
serjeant, and attorney-general, were, from the earliest times, as the
latter still continue to be, summoned by special writs to the upper
house. But while the writ of a peer runs ad tractandum nobiscum et cum
caeteris praelatis, magnatibus et proceribus, that directed to one of the
judges is only ad tractandum nobiscum et cum caeteris de consilio nostro;
and the seats of the latter are upon the woolsacks at one extremity of
the house.

In the reigns of Edward I. and II. the council appear to have been the
regular advisers of the king in passing laws to which the houses of
parliament had assented. The preambles of most statutes during this
period express their concurrence. Thus the statute Westm. I. is said to
be the act of the king by his council, and by the assent of archbishops,
bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, and all the commonalty of the
realm being hither summoned. The statute of escheators, 29 E. I., is
said to be agreed by the council, enumerating their names, all whom
appear to be judges or public officers. Still more striking conclusions
are to be drawn from the petitions addressed to the council by both
houses of parliament. In the eighth of Edward II. there are four
petitions from the commons to the king and his council, one from the
lords alone, and one in which both appear to have joined. Later
parliaments of the same reign present us with several more instances of
the like nature. Thus in 18 E. II. a petition begins, "To our lord the
king, and to his council, the archbishops, bishops, prelates, earls,
barons, and others of the commonalty of England, show," &c.[356]

But from the beginning of Edward III.'s reign it seems that the council
and the lords' house in parliament were often blended together into one
assembly