But the necessity of holding their election in the County Court rendered any restriction of the electoral body physically impossible.

The court was composed of the whole body of freeholders, and no sheriff could distinguish the "aye, aye" of the yeoman from the "aye, aye" of the lesser baron.

From the first moment therefore of their attendance we find the knights regarded not as mere representatives of the baronage but as knights of the shire, and by this silent revolution the whole body of the rural freeholders were admitted to a share in the government of the realm.
[Sidenote: Boroughs and the Crown] The financial difficulties of the Crown led to a far more radical revolution in the admission into the Great Council of representatives from the boroughs.

The presence of knights from each shire was the recognition of an older right, but no right of attendance or share in the national "counsel and assent" could be pleaded for the burgesses of the towns.

On the other hand the rapid developement of their wealth made them every day more important as elements in the national taxation.