It is no wonder, therefore, that a petition which advances two falsehoods, should contain one historical mistake, which indeed amounts only to an inaccurate and exaggerated expression; no strange matter in ignorant burgesses of that age.

Accordingly, St.Albans continued still to belong to the abbot.

It never held of the crown, call after the dissolution of the monasteries.
But the assurance of these petition *ers is remarkable.

They wanted to shake off the authority of their abbot, and to hold of the king; but were unwilling to pay any services even to the crown; upon which they framed this idle petition, which later writers have made the foundation of so many inferences and conclusions.

From the tenor of the petition it appears, that there was a close connection between holding of the crown and being represented in parliament.