The central legislative and judicial institutions are the King in Parliament and the King in Council. The King's will is transferred in action principally through the Great Seal held by the Chancellor, hence the records of Chancery. His government is financed through various offices, principally those of the Exchequer. His peace is maintained through the common law courts, King's Bench and Common Pleas foremost amongst them. The defects in justice are remedied through the equity courts arising out of his Council, particularly Chancery. His peace is further maintained through the Commissions of the Peace issued to Justices. These branches of government are highly integrated, of great antiquity and sophistication. They were largely established by-the end of the thirteenth century. Though they were developed, elaborated and modified, they remained recognizably the same until the nineteenth century. The law here administered was the common law of England, including statute, plus the system known as equity. This law was enforced by officers from the village constable at the lowest level, up through the High Constable, the Justice of the Peace and Sheriff, up to the most powerful men in the land, the Chief Justice of England, the Chancellor and the King. The records which this system created survive from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries and are the most majestic and continuous set of governmental archives in the western world. They provide an immense amount of material concerning the integration of every parish in England into a highly centralized and bureaucratic nation state from an early period. Yet the records are so vast and complex that only a tiny fraction of them have as yet been used by either local or national historians.