POLITICAL HISTORY 



In 1327 the county of Surrey had chosen not to be represented. 

 It was the first year of Edward III. Parliament was called to meet at 

 Lincoln, and its business was chiefly to provide money for a Scotch war 

 and to take measures against the Scots overrunning the northern counties. 

 The sheriff of Surrey endorsed the writ to the effect that no County 

 Court was to be held between the day on which he received the writ and 

 the day fixed for the meeting of the Parliament and that therefore he 

 held no election. 1 It seems conclusive evidence that elections were held 

 at the ordinary meetings of the County Court. But in fact Lincoln 

 was a long way off, and expenses there and back would be heavy. The 

 Scots were still further off, and for long after this time the south of 

 England could not find much interest in a Scotch war. In geographical 

 proximity to the seat of Parliament Surrey was as a rule much better 

 off than many counties. Parliaments usually met at Westminster, and 

 though sometimes they went far afield to York, Gloucester, Leicester 

 and once even to Carlisle the more common places besides Westminster 

 were London and Winchester and once Windsor, all near Surrey. 



The reluctance to be represented was marked in the towns. The 

 dropping out from the list of parliamentary boroughs of Kingston and 

 Farnham may be ascribed to this general feeling. Boroughs were 

 assessed more highly than counties for extraordinary taxation, paying 

 tenths instead of fifteenths, and their methods of election were as we 

 have seen still more unsatisfactory than those of counties. 



If the county of Surrey was not compelled often to send her 

 representatives far afield, the reason that the court was in her neighbour- 

 hood was not altogether a benefit. A mediaeval king lived and travelled 

 at the expense of the lieges. Purveyance meant that supplies could be 

 bought up compulsorily for the king's service at a rate not fixed by the 

 sellers, and carts could be impressed for the carriage of the royal house- 

 hold goods when the court changed its quarters. Later under the Tudors 

 220 carts were required, and when the court moved within or upon the 

 borders of the county Surrey usually had to provide from 80 to no of 

 them. John and Henry III. were continually at Guildford. John, by 

 nature and circumstances restless, never stayed very long in one place, but 

 was at Guildford more often than at most other royal houses in England. 

 He kept the Christmas feast of 1200 there with his newly captured 

 second wife Isabella d'Angouleme, and he was there nineteen times in 

 eleven different years. Henry III. made extensive additions to the castle 

 as a royal palace, erecting no doubt the buildings which remain as ruins 

 south-west of the keep. The keep itself was the prison for Surrey and 

 Sussex. Henry's sons were brought up at Guildford for some time as 

 children. These buildings were badly in want of repair in Richard II. 's 



1 ' Nullus fait comitatus ante diem in brevi isto contentum tenendus, et ideo electio militum nee 

 breve istud ballivis civitatum et burgorum pro brevitate temporis fieri non potuerunt. Et ideo de 

 executione istius brevis nihil actum est ad presens' (Returns Printed by Order of House of Commons, 1878). 

 The sheriff's Latin is curious but his meaning is clear, that elections were held at the regular not special 

 meetings of the comitatus. 



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