ground of the heire who was a woman disadvantaged by a whispering of wilfulnesse and customary government like an Empresse which was too high a saile for an English bottome wherein so precious a treasure as the subjects liberties was to be shipped Thus provided Steven stepped up to the English Throne and with protestations of good government entered and made up the match both for Crown and Scepter the people waving the title both of Empresse and heire the pretensions of the E. of Bloys elder brother to Steven gave way to the common law and liberties of the subject to fasten root and gather recompence after the violence of the Norman blasts was out of breath thus making way over hedge and ditch of all Oathes till the King was quietly setled in the Throne Quietly said I that I must retract for he never had quiet during his life though generally was victorious and did as much as a King could doe that had the passions of a man and Souldier to give the subjects content The true cause whereof was an errour in the tying of the knot wherein he neither became theirs nor they his For the fealty that was sworn to him was but conditionall and eousque and yet the Kings promises were absolute and better observed then the peoples were possibly because his engagements were more For besides his protestations the King pledged his brother the Legate to the people and morgaged himselfe to his brother and to boot gave both to the Clergy and Barons liberty to build and hold Castles for their private security the issue whereof may mind that too much countersecurity from the King to the people is like so many Covenants in marriage that make room for jealousie and are but seeds of an unquiet life and thus it befell this Kings reigne His first troubles are brought in by Historians as if they dropped from Heaven yet probably came immediately from without viz. from beyond Sea where the Empresse was for as the Kings engagements were in their first heate on the one side so was also the Empresses choler on the other side and therefore might make the first assault and the Kings first successe therein falling out prosperously for him conceited him that he was strong enough to encounter his own Covenant although in truth he invaded but the skirts thereof I meane that collaterall security of Castles for by experience he now feeles that they are blocks in his way he must therefore have them into his own power But the Clergy are loth to forgoe their pawn till they had their full bargaine for now they were working hard for investures of the Mitred Clergy under the patronage of a Legate that had the King in bonds acted their parts so well as they ingaged the Nobility for their liberty of Castles in which atchivement the King was taken prisoner The Empresse betakes her selfe to the Clergy and by the Legates meanes procures a kind of election to be Queen but she sicke of the womans humour and thinking too much of the Empresse and too little of the Queen and forgetting that the English Crown would not fit an Empresse unlesse she could fit her head first to it choked her owne title by prerogative and so let the Crown slip through her hands which fell upon the head of Steven againe who maintained it by his Sword after by composition and then died a King and thus like a vapour mounted up by the Clergy tossed by tempests for a time and at length falling gave way to the Crown to have its free course to the Empresses son by Geoffery Plantagenet This was Henry the second Henry 2d. the most accomplished for wisdome courage and power of all his predecessors and one that wanted nothing but purpose to have undone what the foregoing Princes had done in the setling of the liberties of the people for the subjects were tired with the unquiet former times and the Clergy in distraction through the Schisme in the Popedome between Victor the fourth and Alexander the third and very unfitting all were to dispute the point of prerogative with so mighty a Prince And it was the wisdome of God to order his affaires so as that he was not very fit to dispute with the people in that case for his title to the Crown was not very excellent being neither heire to the last King that reigned nor to the last of that title I mean to Henry the first but sonne onely to the Empresse who was now alive and by descent was to be preferred before all other His title therefore is clearly by compact and agreement made between the Lords King Steven and himselfe all being then ready to try the right by the Sword to that to which none of them had any right at all at that time but by the favour of the people Nor did the King ever after dispute the strength of this title although before he died his mothers death conveyed over to him what right of descent soever was consistent with the Law of the Crown nor did occasion favour him thereto for as its never seen that any man is honoured by God with many advantages without proportionable imployment for the same so it befell with this King His great Territories in France brought jealousie in the reare and it strife and contention with France enough to turn his thoughts from waxing wanton against his own people and therefore his wisdome taught him to preferre peace at home to the chiefe of his prerogative to become somewhat popular and yet to loose nothing of a King thereby his way was to keepe the Church men down that had during his predecessors time grown whether more obstinate against the King or insolent over the people is hard to judge and in this he had the people to friend and might have prevailed much more then he did but that the people feared the threats of Rome more then he and himselfe if not guilty of Beckets death more the conceit of fame then there was cause these concurring with unnaturall troubles from most unthankfull sonnes made that spirit of his to faile that formerly knew no peere as it s often seen that the most generous spirits are sooner quelled with shame and griefe then with feare of any danger whatsoever Towards his Lay-subjects he was more regardant for the setling of Laws and executing of justice so as some have thought him the first wombe of our English laws others more truly the first Mecoenas since the conquest that brought on the spring time of a setled Common-weale and thereof left this faire testimony by his putting forth that Primrose of English laws under the name of Glanvill letting all men know that thenceforth England would no more vale it selfe in an unknown law but explaine it selfe unto the World to be a regular government such was the Kings Idea yet was he touched with so much of the common infirmity of Kings as shewed him to be a man especially in his old
present and interpose their liking or disliking of the proposition si displicuit sententia fremitu aspernatur si placuit frameas concutiunt and some hints I meet with that this course continued here in England for some presidents runne in magna servorum Dei frequentia as that of Ina Ll. Sax. Lamb. p. 1. Concil Brit. 219. Ingulfus commune consilium seniorum populorum totius regni another Councell by him holden The councell of Winton An. 855. is said to be in the presence of the great men aliorumque fidelium infinita multitudine And it will appeare that it continued thus after the Norman times what power the vulgar had to controll the vote of the wise men I finde not fremitu aspernabantur its said and probably it was a touch of the rudenesse of those times for it was not from any positive Law of the Nation but a fundamentall Law in nature that wise men should make Lawes and that the supreame judicature should rest in the Wittagenmot was never an honour bestowed upon it by the Saxons but an endowment from the light of reason which can never be taken away from them by that headlesse conceit provoco ad populum but that body must be as monstrous as the Anthrophagi whose heads are too nigh their belly to be wise CHAP. XXI Of the Councell of Lords THis in the first condition was a meeting only of the Lords for direction in emergent cases concerning the government and good of the Common-weale and for the promoting of administration of justice these the Historian cals Minora because they were to serve onely the present passions of State Afterwards when they had gotten a King into their number they had so much the more worke as might concerne due correspondency between him and the people and of themselves towards both This worke was not small especially in those times of the growth of Kings but much greater by the accesse of Prelates into their number with whom came also a glut of Church affaires that continually increased according as the Prelates ambition swelled so as this Councell might seem to rule the Church alone in those daies when as few motions that any way concerned Church-men but were resolved into the Prelaticall cognisance as the minora Ecclesiae and thus under the colour of the minora Ecclesiae and the minora Reipublicae this mixt Councell of Lords came by degrees to intermeddle too farre in the magnalia Regni Mag. cent 8. cap. 9. An. 712. Concil Brit. p. 189. An. 694. For by this meanes the worshipping of Images and the masse was obtruded upon the Saxons by the Roman Bishop and his Legate and the Archbishop of Canterbury and decreed that no Temporall or Lay person shall possesse any Ecclesiasticall possessions That elections of Ecclesiasticall persons and officers shall be by Bishops That the possessions of Church-men shall be free from all Lay service and taxes And in one summe they did any thing that bound not the whole body of the Free men In which had these Lords reflected more upon the office and lesse upon the person and not at all upon their private interest they doubtlesse had been a blessing to their generations and a Golden Scepter in the hand of a righteous King but contrarily missing their way they became a Sword in the Kings hand against the subjects a snare to the Kingdome and had not the Wittagenmot in their meeting allayed those distempers the Saxon government had been little other then a Common-weale reversed CHAP. XXII Of the manner of the Saxon Government in time of warre AS the condition of States or Kingdoms are diversly considered in warre and peace so also must their government be for however warre in it selfe be but a feaverish distemper in a Common-weale yet in some cases it is as necessary as a kindly ague in due season is for the preservation of the body which many times takes distemper rather from the excellency of its constitution then from the abundance of humours Nor did the temper of the Saxon Common-weale ever shine more then in warre whiles it set a law upon that which ordinarily is master of all misrule and confusion and so fought by rule rather then by passion Their chiefe in the first times was chosen by the Freemen in the field Tacitus Ll. Edw. cap. 35 either at the Wittagenmot or the Folkmot according to the extent of his command being carried upon a sheild born upon their sholders like as now Knights of the shire are This Emblem they entertained him with to declare their trust in him and the worke that was expected from him His first Title was Heretock afterwards he was called Duke or Duce the latter whereof turned to a bare Title in the conclusion but the former maintained its owne honour so long as the name lasted After his election all sware to be at his Order and not to forsake him this was a tricke of imbased times Tacitus for though the Lacedemonian Law was positive that none should flie or breake his ranke but get the victory or die yet were they neither bound by oath or penalty shame in those times being accompted worse then death by those brave minds But times growing more old grew also more base-spirited and could not be drawn into the field holden in ranke by oathes or honour and this occasioned that Law of Ina the Saxon King that in such case a Countrey Gentleman should be fined 120 shillings if he were landed Ll. Sax. Lamb. Cantab. 10. but if otherwise 60 shillings and the Yeoman 30 shillings and afterwards the penalty was increased to the forfeiture of all the estate of the delinquent Concil Brit. p. 528. An. 1009. In their warres they went forth by bodies collectively as they were united by the law of pledges this made them sticke close together for the honour of their families and friends Tacitus and rendered their encounters mortall and to the worsted party commonly fatall for once beaten in the field they could hardly recover either by rallying or gathering a new Army Probable it is that the Lords might have their villaines to follow them in the battaile but the strength consisted of the free men and though many were bound by tenure to follow their Lords to the wars and many were voluntiers yet it seems all were bound upon call under perill of fine and were bound to keepe Armes for the preservation of the Kingdome Ll. Edw. cap. 35. their Lords and their own persons and these they might neither paune nor sell but leave them to descend to their heires and in default of them to their Lord and in default of him to their chiefe pledge and for want of such to the King They mustered their armes once every yeere both in Towns and Hundreds viz. the morrow after Candlemas and such whose bodies were unfit for service were to finde sufficient men for service in their stead They were strict in their
Lindenbr tit 36. three Summons went forth in the Hundred court and if default were made complaint thereof ensued in the County court and thence issued forth a distringas and if the defendant still persisted in declining his appearance the distresse was forfeited and a summons issued upon the Land if then the defendant would not appeare or upon appearance would not give pledges to abide judgement his whole land was seized for the benefit of the King the Lord of the Hundred and complainant because he had offended against all three But if the party appeared in former times he answered forthwith and judgement passed without delay as hath been said unlesse in urgent cases where the matter was raw and then it was adjourned and pledges given by the defendant to the full value Ll. Edgar c. 7. after the custome of the Athenians and if the defendant made default at the day his pledges were forfeited But in after times for better and more advised proceeding the defendant was admitted to his Essoines yet with a proviso Miror cap. 5. Sec. 1. that no Essoine should be allowed for above fifteene daies and this was the direction of King Alfred In the answer of the defendant he either traversed the matter in fact Miror cap 3. Sec. 16. or confessed and justified or confessed and submitted The first put the matter to the judgement of the free men the second to the judgement of the Judge the third to the discretion of the complainant whereby the defendant generally found mercy and in case of trespasse rendred lesse dammage I finde no footsteps in those times of Dilatory pleas or demurrer or other delays unlesse in case of infancy for the Saxons knew no other age of ability to doe or suffer Lindenbr gloss Miror cap. 5. Sec. 1. but the age above one and twenty yeeres and in Alfreds time a Judge suffered death for passing sentence of death upon one under that age albeit the Canonists had in those daies brought into custome other ages of ability in matters concerning marriage although it may well be thought that it requireth no lesse maturity to manage the affaires of a married life then to discerne the nature and difference of manners especially in case of crimes which are contrary to the very light of nature CHAP. XXXVII Of the severall manners of extraordinary triall by Torture Ordeale Compurgators and Battaile EVidence of the matter in fact upon triall of causes in the Saxon judicatory sometimes consisted in the pregnant testimony of the fact it selfe Torture and sometimes in the testimony of some circumstances The first was an unquestionable ground of conviction the second was too weake to command the Verdict although sometimes it perswaded it and therefore those incompassionate times found out a tricke of extorted confession by torture of the party following the principles of passion therein rather then sober judgement for circumstances are sufficient to irritate the hearts of those that are passionate and where jelousie is once entered there 's no place for sparing be the matter never so untrue yet I doe not finde any Law amongst the Saxons to patronise this fashion of conviction albeit it seemeth it was practised for Alfred the King punished one of his Judges with death for passing sentence upon an extorted confession by torture before the Coroner Miror cap. 5 Sec. 1. Cragius and possibly it might be gained from the Lacedemonians although little to the praise of their Greekish wisdome in that particular Seeing that in all reason it must be supposed that feare and griefe will enforce flattery upon the tormentor as well as selfe love draw forth flattery to the benefactor A second sort of evidence was that of Ordeale Ordeale being also grounded upon a preconceit or suspition the manner hereof was divers The thing seemeth to be the birth of the braine of some Church-man who had read of the accursed water The first mention that I finde thereof was at the Councell of Ments An. 813. An. 895. and afterwards in the Councell of Triers but not a footstep thereof in this Kingdome till by Aethelstan it was advanced into the degree of a Law Ll. Aethelst Can. 23. An. 928. after which time it continued in use well nigh three hundred yeeres A strange monument of Gods indulgency to an ignorant age thus turning extraordinary to ordinary for the clearing of innocency and which is no lesse wonderfull allowing in those times unto men under nature such a power over themselves as to adventure against nature Doubtlesse that man or woman was of a daring spirit that first tried the tricke if he had not a miraculous faith in that promise Cum ambulaveris per ignem Isa 43.2 c. and it shewed mettall in them that followed the example but the next age grew dull and men being weary of such bane touches the Clergy that cryed it up their successors cried it down and so devoured their own birth without any difficulty other then a bare injunction of a King that had power to command onely such as would obey Spicil Selden But where fame was yet more slight Compurgators and springing rather from want of charity and misapprehension then promising circumstances men were wont to be contented with a voier Dire or the oath of the party suspected and the concurrant testimony of other men the first attesting his own innocency the other contesting their consciences of the truth of the former testimony and therefore were and still are called compurgators their number was more or lesse and of greater or lesse value according as the offence or the party suspected was of greater or lesse concernment Ll. Edm. c. 16. This manner of triall was of ancient use and both it and that of Ordeale under the directory of the Clergy yet this was the ancienter by three hundred yeeres and first brought into this Nation by the Councell at Berghamsted under Bertwald Archbishop of Canterbury An. 647. And it was performed sometimes more solemnly by solemn receiving of the Eucharist Ll. Canut cap. 5. especially if the party suspected was of the sacred Function Battaile One manner of triall yet remaines which was used both in triall of matters of crime and title and it is the triall by battaile which was in criminall matters with sharpe weapons but in titulary matters with blunt weapons No defendant could refuse battaile offered but such as were too excellent as the King or too sacred as the Clergy or too weake as women maimed persons and children or too inscient as Idiots and Lunaticks or too mean as villains And as these were not necessitated to answer in battaile so was no free man compelled to answer them by battaile Miror cap. 2. Sec. 13. This way was an old way as may appeare by the conclusion of appeales and seemeth more satisfactory then that of Ordeale because this rested upon the consciences both of
them irrecoverably Thus favourites instead of Cement between Prince and people becomming rocks of offence bring ruine sometimes to all but alwaies to themselves The King foresaw the storme and thought it safest first to cry truce with the people and come to agreement with them by common consent Prerog Reg. 17 Edw. 2. for the extent of his prerogative in certaine particular cases questionable and this summed up become a Statute for future times to be a ne plus ultra between the King and people Stat. de Homag The like agreement likewise was concerning services of tenants to their Lords and an oath framed to vindicate them from all incroachments Stat. Templar And something was done to calme the Clergy for the demolishing of the Templer Knights but the wound was incurable words are not believed if actions doe not succeed nor will oaths now made to bind Kings Bishops Councellors of State Sheriffs Majors Bailiffs or Judges to justice nor directions for regulating of Courts nor Ordinances against false moneys and weights nor all of them settle the people but they adhere to the Queen burning with jealousie against the King and both her selfe and the Lords with rage against the Spencers The King flies and being forsaken of the people the Lords the Clergy his own sonne and the wife of his own bosome and of God himselfe as the most absolute abject that ever swayed Scepter lost the same and being made a monument of Gods revenge upon inordinate desires in a King and of the English people being enraged not long surviving his demise he died a death meet to be forever blotted out of the thoughts of all subjects but to be had in everlasting remembrance of all Kings For if a Kingdome or Parliament misleads the King at the worst he is but misled by his Councell but if he be drawn aside by favourites he must thanke his own lust in the one he hath but the least share in the burthen in the other he must beare the whole CHAP. LXV Of the condition of the Nobility of England till the time of Edward the third NOw was prerogative mounted up to the highest pitch or endeavoured so to be either through the weaknesse or power of these Kings of whom the first and last had little to ground upon but their own will and the other I meane Edward the first had more wisdome and power but was otherwaies distracted by forraine and more urgent imployments so as the worke fainted before it came to its full period The contest was between the King and Barons who till those daies were rather the great and richer sort of men then Peeres although they also were of the number I am not so sharpe sighted as to reach the utmost intentions of the Lords but their pretences are of such publique nature as its plaine that if their private interest was wrapped up therein they were inseparable and I shall never quarrell the Lords aime at private respects whenas its plaine the publique was so importantly concerned and yet I will not justifie all that I finde written concerning their words and Actions M Paris An. 1217. The speech of the E. of Cornwall to his elder brother and King Henry the third I will neither render up my Castle nor depart the Kingdome but by the judgement of the Peeres and of Simon the E. of Leicester to the same King That he lied and were he not a King the Earle would make him repent his word and of the Lords that they would drive the King out of his Kingdome and elect another and of the E. Marshall to Edward the first that he would neither goe into Gascoine nor hang such other doe savour of passion especially that of the E. of Leicester and the Lords and may seem harsh and unmannerly and yet may admit of some alay if the generall rudenesse of the time the Kings injurious provocations and the passions of colerick men be weighed together Yet will not all these trench upon the cause nor render the state of the Lords too high or disproportionable to their place in the policy of the kingdome of England as things then stood I say it was not disproportionable for where the degree of a King was mounting up to such a pitch as to be above law the Lords exceeded not their places in pressing him with their councels to conforme to the laws and in maintaining that trust that was reposed in them in keeping off such sinister councels and invasions as might violate the laws and liberties or hinder the currant of justice concerning which I shall shortly state the case and leave it to the censure of others The government of the people of this Nation in their originall was Democraticall mixt with an Aristocracy if any credit be to be given to that little light of History that is left unto us from those ancient times Afterwards when they swarmed from their hive in forraine parts and came over hither they came in a warlike manner under one conducter whom they called a King whose power whatever in the warre yet in time of peace was not of that heigth as to rule alone I meane that whereas the Lords formerly had the principall executory power of lawes setled in them they never were absolutely devested of that power by the accesse of a King nor was the King ever possessed of all that power nor was it ever given to him but the Lords did ever hold that power the King concurring with them and in case the King would not concurre the people generally sided with the Lords and so in conclusion the King suffered in the quarrell From this ground did arise from time to time the wanderings of the people in electing and deposing their Kings during the Saxon times Nor did nor could the Norman Williams shake off this copartnership but were many times as well as other ensuing Princes perswaded against their own minds and plotted desires Nor can it otherwaies be supposed where Councels are setled for whereto serve they if notwithstanding them the King may go the way of his inordinate desire If the Lords then did appeare against these Kings whereof we treat in cases where they appeared against the laws and liberties of the people it was neither new nor so heinous as it s noised for them who are equally if not more intrusted with the Common-wealth then the King by how much the Councellors are trusted more then the councelled to be true for the maintenance of their trust in case the King shall desert his But the greater question is concerning the manner by threats and warre It s as probable I grant that the Lords used the one as the other for it was the common vice of the times to be rugged yet if we shall adde to what hath been already said first that Knight service was for the defence of the kingdome principally Secondly that the greatest power of Knight service rested with the Lords not onely in
about these times and therewith ended both the worke and common use of the ancient iters and yet all these later courts joyntly considered have not the like comprehensive power that the iters had for they had the power of hearing and determining all causes both of the Crown and Common-pleas albeit in a different manner that is to say in the first times promiscuously united into one and the same person but soon after the Norman times and more clearly in the time of Henry the second that power was divided into severall persons some sitting upon the Common pleas others upon the Crown pleas The Judges of these journying courts were specially assigned by the King as in the case of the Gaole-delivery or setled by the Law upon the Judges of both benches at Westminster as in case of oyer and terminer Westm 2. ca. 29 and of the Assizes or Nisi prius saving that in the last case they were associated with Knights in the Counties for the taking of Assizes Ibid. c. 30. Now concerning the Courts that were setled some were setled or annexed to the Kings personall residence as the Chancellours Court for in these times it began to have a judiciary power of eminent stature and growing out of the decayes of the great chiefe Justice of England Then also the Kings bench was annexed by the same Law unto the Kings Court or personall residence Fleta Artic. sup cart cap. 15. as it anciently ever had that honour although it seems the endeavours were to make it like the Common pleas in that particular Another and last court that was setled in this manner was the Marshals court which in the originall onely concerned the Kings houshold but afterwards compassed in a distance of the neighbouring places 5 E. 4 fo 129. because the Kings attendants were many in those times when as the Courts of justice continually attended on his person and this precinct was called the Vierge and all cases of debt and covenant where both parties were of the Houshold Artic. sup cart cap. 3. and of trespasses vi armis where one of them was of the houshold were handled in the court of the Verge or the Marshals court And inquests of death within the same shall be taken by the Coroner of the County with the Coroner of the houshold Other Courts were rurall and affixed also to some certaine place either of the County or Town or other particular place That of the County suffered in these times great diminution even almost to destruction by a Law restraining the power thereof onely to trespasses of 40 s. value or under Stat. Gouc cap. 8. for though formerly the Kings justices incroached upon the County courts and contracted suits before themselves which by the ancient law they ought not yet it was ever illegall and the County courts held their right till this law was made which kept under those inferiour Courts and made them of lesse account then formerly Neverthelesse the Kings Justicies or Writ to the Sheriffs oftentimes inableth the inferiour Court to have cognisance of cases of greater value Lastly a rule was set to the smaller Courts of Corporations West 1. cap. 23. Faires and Markets viz. that no person should be sued in any of them which was not a debter or pledge there CHAP. LXIX Of Coroners Sheriffs and Crown pleas Coroners Westm 1. ca. 10 COreners shall be chosen in the county from the wisest greatest and chiefe men of the country Of these Officers formerly hath been spoken as touching their election qualification and worke this Law brought in no change of any former Law but onely of a former custome gained by these degenerating times which brought men into place that were farre unfit who otherwise of poore and mean condition maintained themselves by bribery and extortion and being found guilty had not sufficient to give recompence This law therefore revives the first law and hold these men to their worke of taking inquests and appeales by indenture between themselves and the Sheriff and these were to be certified at the next comming of the Justices Sheriffs Artic. sup cart cap. 9. The Free holders in every county if they will shall elect their own Sheriff unlesse the Sheriffwicke be holden in see This was indeed the ancient custome as the Officers of the Kingdome were eligible by the Common-councell of the Kingdome Miror cap. 1. Sec. 3. Stat. de vic 9 E. 2. so were also the Officers of the County chosen by the County But within a few yeeres in the time of Edward the second comes another law that the Sheriffs shall be appointed by the Chancellor Treasurer Barons of the Exchequer and the Justices which Law was made in favour of the people as by the file of that Statute doth more fully appeare for though at the first blush it may seem a priviledge lost by the free men that these great men should have the election of the Sheriff yet it proved a great advantage to the common quiet of the people in those times of parties and was so apprehended Otherwise as the case stood in those daies of Edward the second it was no time for him to gaine upon the peoples liberties Nor had the Statute of Articuli super cartas whereof we now treat been penned with these words if they will and questionlesse in these daies we now live in if the people had but a little taste of this seeming liberty of electing Sheriffs in the County court as formerly it was used it would be soon perceived that the election of these chiefe Officers were better disposed in some other hand if rightly pursued Homicide by mis-fortune shall not be adjudged murther Chancemedly Marlbr cap. 25. That the Saxons made difference between homicide by misfortune and that which was done felleo animo or with a spirit of gall formerly hath been shewed now what it was that altered the case I cannot say unlesse the violence cruelty and oppression of the times formerly all kind of manslaughter was finable I mean in the Norman times and so might more rationally be ranked into one degree but now the punishment began to change from forfeiture of estate and losse of member to death and forfaiture of estate and therefore it was more necessary to make the difference in the penalty seeing in the fine formerly a difference was observed and this difference to assert by a Law that might limit the invenomed spirits of the Judges of those daies Robbery Robbery punished with death This crime hitherto was punished by fine and losse of member at the utmost but is now made capitall punished with death One example whereof and the first that story maketh mention of we finde of an Irish Nobleman in the daies of Henry the third who suffered death for piracy and it was a law that then though rigorous yet seasonably was contrived to retard the beginnings and hasten the conclusion of a civill warre in a