Page "History of the Peerage" Paragraph 12

The manner of summoning barons to the Council was influential in the development of the Peerage.

Ecclesiastical dignitaries and the greater barons were summoned by a writ of summons issued directly from the King, while lesser barons were summoned through the local sheriffs.

Such a system existed as early as 1164, when Henry II withheld a personal summons to Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, after engaging with him in a conflict with over the rights of the Church, instead subjecting him to a summons through a sheriff.

For the rest of the twelfth century, the dividing line between barons summoned by writs personally addressed to them and barons summoned through the sheriffs became well-defined, but the Crown sometimes arbitrarily subjected the greater barons to summons through sheriffs.

In the Magna Carta, King John declared, " we will cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, severally by our letters.

" He also agreed that the lesser barons would be " summoned generally, through our sheriffs and bailiffs.