These were set down at the parliament held at Oxford, June 1258. There was agreement between Henry III and the barons to reform royal powers in 1258 and to cut through bureaucracy - esp. regarding writs in common law which were stifled by *chancery and its standardised procedures. A council was established responsible to the barons in parliament. It was also felt that centralised bureaucracy gave the king undue power to interfere in the process ofjustice (e.g. forbidding writs to be issued against family or friends), which clearly breached both spirit and letter of clause 40 of *Magna Carta. It was a technical matter, but with profound implications for justice and access to it. -
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.