ABSTRACT
IN the year 1399 the Commons seem to have asserted some claim to a share in the private and personal business disposed of by the Lords, but were sharply told by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the King's command, that they were merely petitioners, and that the King and Lords held the right of judgment in Parliament, unless it were in statutes, grants and subsidies, or other matters affecting the common good (ou tiels choses a faire pur commune profit du royalme), when the King wished to have their advice and assent.1
