Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	prince_n	4,223	5	5.4898	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55555	A treatise of the antiquity, authority, vses and jurisdiction of the ancient Courts of Leet, or view of franck-pledge and of subordination of government derived from the institution of Moses, the first legislator and the first imitation of him in this island of Great Britaine, by King Alfred and continued ever since : together with additions and alterations of the moderne lawes and statutes inquirable at those courts, untill this present yeare, 1641 : with a large explication of the old oath of allegeance annexed.	Powell, Robert, fl. 1636-1652.	1641 (1641)	Wing P3066; ESTC R40659	102,251	241

in the multitude of counsellors there is safetic Prov. 11.14 Every purpose is established by counsell and with good advice make warre Prov. 30.18 Moses had Iethro and Aaron Ioshua the sonne of Nun his successor Caleb and Eleazar the high priest for his privie counsellors David had his succession of counsellors Samuell the prophet Ionathan whose love to him was wonderfull Abiathar the priest and Nathan also a prophet with many others To return to our owne nation king Ine had his Cinredus whom hee calls his father Hedda and Erkenwald his bishops with many others Alfred had his Plegmund Archbishop of Canterbury Werefridus Bishop of Worcester and others Athelstane edicted his lawes Ex prudenti Vlfhelmae Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum consilio by the counsell of his Archb. and other Bishops and so successively the kings of England ever had as before their privie counsell such and so many as the prince shall think good who doe consult daily or when neede is of the weighty matters of the Realme to give therein to their prince the best advice they can The prince doth participate to them all or so many of them as he shall thinke fit such legations and messages as come from forraigne princes such letters or occurrents as be sent to himselfe or his secretaries every Counsellor hath a particular oath of faith and secrecy administred to him before hee bee admitted a privie counsellor To shew the extraordinary regard and royall use of the kings counsell The regard ● the Privie counsell Let us looke backe upon the case of 5. Hen. 4. upon an agreement for an exchange had for the Castle of Barwick between the king and the Earl of Northumberland wherein the king promised to deliver the Earle lands and tenements to the value of that Castle by these words per avise assent des estates de son Realme son Parliament c. By the advice and assent of the estates of his Realm So as the Parliament be before the feast of S. Luke or otherwise by the assent of his great Counsell and other estates of his Realme whom the king shall assemble before the said Feast in case there be no parliament before c. as by the instrument thereof dated at Lichfield 27. Aug. 5. Hen. 4. remaining in the Tower may appeare To this counsell the Oracles of the Common law the grave and reverend Judges Leges loquentes Reipublicae God grant in all Successions they may be so have had their resort from time to time in all ages for advice and directions in their proceedings aswell in criminall causes as in matters of right and propertie as it was observed by the learned Lord Chancellor I will touch but two which are cited by that honourable Judge in cases of propertie Thomas Vghtred Knight brought a Forme-don against a poore man and his wife They came and yeelded to the demandant which seemed suspicious to the Court the matter being examined judgement was stayed because it was suspicious And Thorp said that in like case of Giles Blacket it was spoken of in Parliament And faith he wee were commanded that when any like case should come we should not goe to judgement without good advice wherefore sue to the councell and as they will have ●s to doe we will and otherwise not in this case 2. Greene and Thorpe were sent by the Judges to the Kings Councell where there were twentie foure Bishops and Earls to demand their advice touching the amendment of a writ upon the Statute of 14. Ed. 3. cap. 6. which was an Act made for amending of Records defective by misprision of Clerks By the advice and assent of this Councell is that great and common Councel solemnly called The forme of the writ of Summons to the Sheriffe followeth in these words Rex viz. S. c. Quia sie avisamento assensu Concilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos Statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus quoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram W. c. teneri ordinavimus Et ibidem cum praelatis Magnatibus et Proceribus dicti Regni nostri colloquium habere et tractare Tibi c. wherein these things are worthy observation 1 That this great Court is assembled by the power of the King expressed in his writ under his great Seale with Teste meipso 2 This power is extended with the advice and assent of his Right Honourable privie councell His grace favour and providence by calling a Parliament to parlee and treat with his Lords spirituall and temporall as also with his commons who by their Knights Citizens and Burgesses as their respective proxies elected by and with the popular suffrage of the Freemen of every Countie Citie Towne or Borough do make up the body of that great court and doe there meet to yeeld and consent unto such matters as shall be there treated and established 4 The subject of a treatie or parliament That is certaine difficult and urgent occasions concerning his Majestie his royall state and the defence of his kingdome and Church This high court consisteth of two honses The higher or upper where the King and his Barony or Nobilitie spirituall and temporal do take their place And the lower house where the Knights Citizens and Burgesses are assembled for the Commons consisting when M. Crompton wrote his jurisdiction of Courts of 439. persons The King had the only power to appoint it his gracious favour is to give life and beginning to it by his owne personall accesse in most Royall state And as sinis coronal opus hee crowneth and perfecteth all the Acts of this great assembly with his Royall assent without which no bill can passe nor law be made Though there bee no written Acts of parliament extant before the raigne of Henry the third yet some have sollicitously laboured to draw the Antiquitie of this thrice excellent court of Parliament from King Arthurs time to king Ine Offa Ethelred Alfred and others before the Conquer our with a successorie continuance untill this Present age and collected and inferred that the words used by K. Inas in the proem of his laws exhortatione c. Omnium Aldermannorum mcor'um seniorum sapientum Regni mei And the like words of Offa and other kings in the time of the heptarchie and that the words of Conventus sapientum used by King Edward the sonne of Alfred the words of Conventus omnium Nobilinm sapientum used by King Athelftane cum consilio sapientum used by king Edgar Haec instituerunt Rex sapientes mentioned of King Ethelred and the like of other Kings should include the Lords and Commons of the parliament whether this most eminent Court were in those ancient dayes assembled and exercized in that manner as now it is dubium est dubitare liceat doubtfullnesse is a fluctuation of the minde which in historicall matters of indifferencie that concerne

King in an unsteady and unsetled course of Government In the ninth yeare of his Raigne Anno 1224 He granted to the Nobility and Commons such Lawes and liberties as had bin used long time before And caused Charters to be made one called Magna Charta the other Charta forestae which he sent into every County The praeamble of Magna Charta doth set forth The two Charters granted 9. Henry 3. That to the honour of Almighty God the advancement of holy Church and the amendment of the Realme The King of his meere and free-will did give and grant to all arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Earles Barons and to all of his Realme the liberties following to bee kept within his Kingdome of England for ever which grant containeth in all 37. Chapters In the twenty ninth the greatest liberty of the Subject was granted Nullus liber h● me c. viz. No Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold or liberties or free customes or be out-lawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed Nor wee will not passe upon him nor condemne him but by the Law of the Land wee will sell to no man we will not deny nor deferre Iustice or right Here every word is a sentence grande in grano a weighty matter as I may terme it in the continent of a graine Herein is contained that eximium quoddam our Nationall liberty before cited And an epitome of so much of lex terra in the generality as concernes the Kingly office of Protection Grant of a Fifteenth In the 37. and last ch The Clergie Earles Barons Knights Free holders and others his Subjects did give unto the King in respect of both those Charters the fifteenth of all their moveables And the King did grant unto them on the other part that neither he nor his heires should procure or do any thing whereby the liberties of that Charter should be infringed or broken This grant of Magna Charta though it carries the forme of a meere Charter ex mero motu spontane a voluntate as it was the use at that time and long time after yet is it a Paliamentary grant and Statute and is called the great Charter though little in it selfe in respect of the weighty matter comprised in it in few words It is the fountaine of all the fundament all lawes of the Realme and the only basis and ground cell which supports the superstructure of all the Lawes and liberties of the Subjects And it is but a confirmation or restitution of those not written Lawes before mentioned Would any man thinke it possible that this Magna Charta could ever bee violated by the same hand that made it The King was young milde and gracious but easie of Nature a sin not in it selfe but by accident He was happy in his Vnkle the Earle of Pembroke the guide of his infancy but unhappy in Hubert de Burgo his Iusticiary and others Those liberties redeemed with the price of a fifteenth the Subjects had not long injoyed and little fruit of future freedome more than for the present like a glimmering sunne-shine in an unconstant calme had this common people by this grant Eft-soones the Clouds returne malum in malum ingruit The young King having newly attained the Age of twentie one yeares by the evill Counsell of his Chiefe Iustice Hubert at a meeting at OXFORD in the twelfth yeare of his Raigne did by open Proclamation frustrate and cancell his former Charters made in the ninth yeare of His Raigne under pretence that hee was under the power or ward of others So it followed that whosoever would injoy the liberties before granted must purchase their Charters under the Kings new Seale at such a price as the Iusticiar should award This was greevously taken by the Lords and COMMONS in so much as the same yeare the BARONS supplicated the King to restore the Charters which hee cancelled at Oxford or else they would recover them by the sword It was most disloyall in them to be assertores libertatum and to enter into competition with the King with Comminations of the sword Bracton who wrote long before left better Counsell behind him in such things as concerne the Act of the King Si ab eo petatur cum breve non currat contraipsum if any thing be requirable from him sithence he is lyable to no action Locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet He is to be supplicated that he would reforme and amend his doing which if hee doe not Satis ei sufficit ad paenam quod Deum expectet ultorem It is punishment enough to him to expect the Lords revenge Observe what followed in this Kings time whilst he gave over the raines of his rule to young unseasoned giddy braines some of them alyens and strangers the gravest Counsellors being discountenanced the Barons falling into factious ruptures and the repining Commons into discontented rebellions The whole Monarchy languished all things were disordered and out of frame Almighty God looking downe from Heaven upon the vacillation and incertitude of this Vicegerencie under him upon earth exerciseth his owne supremacy addresseth one of his greatest Messengers of indignation famine which raged with that violence Claus An. 42. Henry 3. That the King was inforced to direct writs to all the Sheriffes of Shires ad pauperes mortuos sepeliendos famis inedja deficientes And it is observed fames praecessit sequutus est gladius tam terribilis ut nemo inermis securè possit provincias pervagare The Civill brandishments of the sword followed every where the fury of the Famine In this Nationall distresse silent leges Nay vix legibus tempus aut locus Scarce was there time or place left for clayme of liberties or execution of laws Sure it is the King and Commons had but little ease whilst his absolute power was participated not deligated to his great ones To recount the various troubles and turmoyles of his long and unsetled raigne were the work of a sad and sorry Hystory Afterwards it pleased God who hath ever a particular and tender care of Princesper quem reges regnant Principes dominantur towards the latter end of his Raigne to restore the King to his right and his tyred Subjects to their naturall obedience Hee had the happinesse to call a successefull Parliament at Marleborough 18. of Novem. 52. of his Raigne 1267. and therin amongst many notable Lawes enacted He solemnly confirmed the former Charters in all their Articles and strictly injoyned the observation of them to be inquired before the Iustices of Eire in their Circuits and before the Sheriffes in their Counties when need should be The King seeing his former errors now began to ballance his Government with Praemio paena reward and reprehension and himselfe with an equall hand to hold the scale He laboureth to reforme all that was amisse The seats of judgment and Counsell he supplyed

nations may manifestly appeare by that which followes King Alfred who began to raigne in this Island Anno Christi 872. the best lettered Prince that was in those times began his lawes with Loquutus est Dominus ad Mosem hos sermones dicens Ego sum Dominus Deus tuus c. And so recites the 10. Commandements given by Almighty God upon Mount Sinai And then proceeds with the most materiall lawes mentioned in the 21.22 and 23 Chap. of Exodus which hee thought to be most apt and competible for the government of his kingdome closing it up with Haec easunt jura quae rerum omnium praepotens Deus ipse Mosi custodienda proposuit c. And then concludes with Has ego Aluredus Rex Sanctiones in unum collegi a●que easdem literis mandavi Quarum bonam certe partem Majores nostri religiosè coluerunt Multa etiam mihi digna v. dentur quae a nobis hac etiam aetate pari religione obscrventur Nonnullatamen torum ex consulto Patrum partim antiquanda partim renovanda curavimus c. I King Alfred have collected these lawes into one body and have caused them to be written whereof truly a good part our Ancestors did religiously regard or obey And many of them doe seeme worthy unto mee That they should be with the like religion in this age or time observed yet some of them by the advice of our grave men our Fathers wee have taken care partly to antiquate and partly to revive or renew Which in the language of succeeding times was as much as if he had said Some of them by the advice of our Parliament wee have thought good partly to repeale and partly to coptinue After this the good young King doubtlesse Non sine consulto Patrum doth proceed and culles out and confirmes certaine lawes and sanctions of King Inas Offa the King of the Mercians and Ethelbert the first King that ever received Baptisme here in England The first division of this kingdome by Alfred into Counties Hundreds and Tythings THis blessed Prince the division of his kingdome being confounded by meanes of the then late distracted Heptarchy having made league with Guthrunus the Dane and thereby possessed himselfe of the entierty of the Realme and being sole Monarch thereof did in imitation of Iethro his Counsell to Moses subdivide and distribute the government of the land into severall partes And did first reduce it into Satrapias which we now cal shires or Counties Centurias now called hundreds Decurias now lalled tythings which at that time in the infancy of of this sub rdination consisted only often men But in succeeding ages grew more populous and are not confined in number of persons though it still retaine the same appellation Of those ten persons proscribed to their decurie or tythings Every one was to be a fidejussor or pledge one for another And if any one received losse the rest were to make recompence for it Hence it was that nine of them were called ingenui fidejussores which we in the title of our Leets call Franciplegii And the Tenth was called Decurio which continues in the west-terne parts by the name of tething man in other places called vadem primarium et praecipium in Kent called Borsholder that is to say a cheife pledge in Yorkshire called Tenteutale The appointment of Officers and making Lawes for the better ordering of the Kingdome THis mirrour of Princes having thus ordered his Kingdome did set over every Shire a Senator and a Greve which the Normans afterwards called Comes and Vicecomes and our later ages an Earle and Sheriffe Over every Century an officer called a Constable and every Decury a chiefe pledge or tethingman And did decree that every man of free condition liber homo should bee of a certaine Handred or Tything out of which hee was not to remove without securitie After hee had thus ordained a law for the locall setling of his Subjects that they might bee knowne and called to account by the certaintie of their abode upon all occasions of suspicion or accusation for any crime or misdemeanour Then he provided good and wholesome lawes for the better avoiding of rapines thefts murthers or any crimes whatsoever as also for the securing of the persons and estates of his Subjects and for the better rule and governement of them in the place of their resiance amongst which I finde one Law cited by that noble and ever memorable Antiquarie Cambd. 〈◊〉 fo 57. Quod si quis delicti alicujus insimularetur statim ex centuria decima exhiberet qui eum vadarentur● Sin istiusmodi vadem non repereret legum severitatem horreret Si quis verò reus ante vadationem velpost transfugeret Omnes ex Centuria decima Regis mulctam incurrerent If a man were accused of any offence hee should presently out of the Hundred and tything tender such as should be pledges or baile for him but if hee could not finde such baile hee should then dread the severity of the Law which I conceive to be according to the moderne law Imprisonment But if any person accused either before pledges or after should flye away all the men and inhabitants of the tything and hundred should incur the Kings mulct that is be amerced to be in misericordiam Regis at the Kings mercy The fruit and effect of this law is worth observation what good redounded to the Common weale in those times For saith the Author Hoc commento pacem infudit provinciae ut per publicos aggeres ubi semitae per quadrivium finduntur armillas aureas juberet suspendi Quae viantium aviditatem rideret dum non esset qui eas abriperet By this devise he made such peace in the whole Country that he caused certaine golden bracelets to be hanged upon publike batches or hillocks at every crosse way which might as it were deride the aviditie of passengers sithence there were none that durst take them away It is no doubt but this Law or Ordinance doth not only in part retaine a vigor and being at the common Law but hath given light to many statutes to win force of great consequence As to that of the Statute of Winton 23 Adward 1. inquirable at Leets by which it was enacted That cries should be solemnly made in all Counties Hundreds Markets Faires and all other places where great resort of people is so that none should excuse himselfe of ignorance that from thence forth every country be so well kept that immediately upon such robberies and felonies committed fresh suite be made from towne to towne and from countrey to countrey c. And after that the felony or robberie be done the countrey shall have no longer space than fortie dayes within which it shall behoove them to agree for the robberie or offence or else that they will ans wer for the bodies of the offenders But albeit the Statute be generall and no mention made