PRIVY COUNCIL. The privy council, like all the British institutions of central government, excepting the House of Com mons, is descended from the court of the Norman kings. This curia regis, composed of the king's tenants-in-chief, the household officials, and anyone else whom the king chose to summon, per formed all the functions of central government without differ entiating between them. According to feudal theory, tenants owed suit to their lord's court; but every great lord had also his household officials, his chancellor, his treasurer, his chamberlain and his steward to transact his daily business. Thus, too, the curia regis expanded or contracted according to the nature of the business under consideration. The ordinary routine would be carried out by the officials, assisted by such barons as happened to be at court ; for more important business the king would secure the attendance of a greater number of his tenants-in chief ; and on really vital matters the household officials would tend to become a numerically insignificant technical element in a large feudal assembly.
As time went by the larger and smaller gatherings came to be distinguished adjectivally; later, these adjectives developed a technical significance, until at last, although still remaining for a time merely different manifestations of a one and indivisible body, the larger assembly developed into the great council and the parliament, the smaller into the king's council. In early days the presence of many barons at conciliar meetings was the mark of a strong king; later, as the barons came to realize that attend ance was not merely a tiresome incident of feudal tenure but a source of political power, that obligation became a privilege. Thus, in the later middle ages there developed a struggle between king and greater barons for the control of the king's council. Was it to be feudal or expert? In the end the barons failed to secure their greater demands—exclusive membership and the control of appointment and dismissal—because they were unable to discover a means of adequately reconciling the principle of the right of all to attend with the actuality of a small assembly, because, though collectively anxious to control and individually willing to be appointed, they could never be relied upon for constant attendance, and because, with the passing of the feudal organization of society, baronial counsel ceased to be expert advice on matters of government. But the struggle was not en tirely without fruit. A conciliar oath was instituted, member ship became more determinate, and methods were devised, how ever primitive and clumsy, for enforcing responsibility.
By the time of Henry VII. this council had become the instru ment of the Crown. It was composed of an inner ring of coun sellors proper, who took the conciliar oath and sat at the council board, and of an outer ring of technical experts and dignitaries (later, in the reign of Henry VIII., known as ordinary counsel
lors), who, though they might occasionally be called upon for advice, were not members of the board, did not take the conciliar oath, but merely that of their respective offices, and performed the technical and routine work of the central and provincial courts of the council. It was the policy of the Tudors to rule the country paternally by the prerogative exercised through the medium of the council.