Obligation To Attend Parliament
The privilege attached to this heavy burden was the right, indeed the obligation, to attend the king in his feudal court, the precursor of parliament, termed the Council de Baronage. It was a standard part of the feudal contract that every tenant was under the obligation to attend his overlord's court to advise and support him, receiving in return his protection from outside hostile forces. Thus the sub-tenants of a tenant-in-chief, the lord of the manor within the jurisdiction of whose manor they lived, were obliged to attend the manorial court or court-baron. The baron had no feudal superior but the king, and thus the king's court was the appropriate place for attendance by the barons, collectively forming the baronage.
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