Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	crown_n	king_n	richard_n	3,753	5	8.8517	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26173	Jus Anglorum ab antiquo, or, A confutation of an impotent libel against the government by king, lords, and commons under pretence of answering Mr. Petyt, and the author of Jani Anglorum facies nova : with a speech, according to the answerer's principles, made for the Parliament at Oxford.	Atwood, William, d. 1705?; Brady, Robert, 1627?-1700. Full and clear answer to a book.; Petyt, William, 1636-1707. Antient right of the Commons of England asserted.; Atwood, William, d. 1705? Jani Anglorum facies nova.	1681 (1681)	Wing A4175; ESTC R9859	138,988	352

acquir'd the Crown by Election these things shew it to have been as factious as those which are condemned But we must have Recourse to the History to know how he became King here England since it had been reduced to a Monarchy by the Conduct and Magnanimity of the great King Alfred found that benefit of being under One Head that before Succession was setled when a King dyed the People voluntarily pitch'd upon some One to whom they might pay their Allegiance and from whom they might expect Protection when a King quitted his mortal Dominion to be Assessor with the Principa●ities and Powers in the highest Orb. The Question was not whether they should have a King or no but who should be the man The Confessor through some foolish Vow which was void in it's self having denyed Marriage-rights to his Queen they had none of his Issue to set their Hopes upon and perhaps they were loth to fall again before a Family which they had formerly disobliged and therefore would not think upon Edgar Etheling who was Heir to him that wore the Crown next before the Confessor But that Monarch of their Choice and as 't was believ'd the Elect of Heaven was in such esteem with them that the greatest Worth and the clearest Stream of Royal Blood would have signified little in respect of the Deference they paid to his sanctified Judgment and therefore his Recommendation in such a superstitious Age was to them a kind of Divine Revelation The Norman Prince Abrev. Chron. Rad. de diceto fo 479. Subregulus Haroldus Godwini filius quem Rex ante suum decessum elegerat à t tius Angliae Primatibus ad regale culmen electus William pretended a direct Gift of the Crown from him but there is Authority which tells us That upon his Nomination the chief● men of all England chose Harold Whether this illustrious Son of the great Earl Godwin was design'd by the Confessor or no is left in Dispute but that he arriv'd to his high Trust by a general Election of those who were able to keep under M. S. ex bib Domini Wild defuncti or satisfie the rest is certain and yet an ancient Author calls him Conqueror Heraldus Strenius Dux Conquestor Angliae If Harold has made an absolute Conquest which no man pretends that I find and William had conquer'd him perhaps there would have been a Devolution of a Conquerours Right upon him who subdued Harold but there was only a Competition between these two Princes for that Dignity and Authority which Election had vested in Harold 'T was this that William fought for not for the Lives Liberties and Fortunes of the People And William himself upon his Death-bed being ask'd to whom he would devise his Kingdom makes Answer that he would not pretend to dispose of it and gives this Reason which argues that he thought he had no Right so to do Non enim tantum decus haereditario jure possedi For Comb. Brit. f. 104. I possess'd not this Honour as a Right of Inheritance which here must be meant as what I had an absolute Property in and Disposal of Sed diro inflictu multâ effusione sanguinis humani perjuro Regi Haroldo abstuli interfectis vel fugatis fautoribus ejus dominatui meo subegi But by a direful Conflict and much effusion of humane Blood I took it from perjur'd King Harold and brought it under my Dominion through the Deaths or Flight of his Abettors With this agrees Lex Noricorum in the Confirmation of St. Edwards Laws William the Bastard through God's Permission subduing Harold Regnum Anglorum victoriosè adeptus est Got the Kingdom of England by his Victory but the Victory was over Harold not the whole Kingdom I wonder our Antagonist brought not this to prove that William the Bastard got all the Lands of the Kingdom as he granted all the Lands of whole Counties under the word Comitatus but as 't will appear that the Proceedings of this Prince to his being crowned prove his Election so his Transactions with Harold shew that he laboured only to have that Power which he said Harold maintain'd by Perjury Suppose therefore Harold had not oppos'd and without more Turmoils William had been crown'd had he in this Case been a Conquerour in the Sense contended for And what makes the Difference between his having it of Harold freely or by Force in relation to the whole Kingdom Surely he would never have endeavoured to come in by Treaty to a limited Dominion when with those Advantages that were on his side he might expect by turning ●ut Harold to jump into the absolute Disposal of the whole Land But immediately after St. Edward's Death he sent an Ambassador to demand a Resignation from Harold to which he urged his Obligation by Oath the Gift of his Kinsman the Confessor was likewise pretended But Harold argued for the Invalidity both of his own Oath and the others Bequest because they were Selden's Review of the History of Tithes p. 439. absque generali Sena●s populi conventu edicto That ●s no Act of the Common-Council of the Kingdom which Council is represented by this Author under the Form of the Roman Councils at those times when besides the Senator's Votes there was the Jussus populi And this is in other words of the same Import exprest by Matthew Paris Sine Baronagii sui Communi assensu Upon Harold's denying the Norman● demand Appeal is made to the Pope● and there was one then in the Papal Se●● whose Ambition made him court all occasions of becoming the Vmpire of th● Affairs of Christendom Vid. Dr. Stillingfleet's Answer to Cressy's Apol. p. 347. ad 353. and this was tha● great Asserter of Clerical Exemption● from the Civil Power Gregory the Seventh The Pope like God himself who by his Prophets often anointed and designed Kings sends one of his Ministring Spirits a Nuncio I take it with a consecrated Banner as an Evidence o● Right and an Earnest of Victory and encouraged him to fight the Lord's Battels not expecting that commendable Ingratitude in the religious maintaining those ancient Rights of the Crown o● England for which he afterwards upbraided his Royal Son Whether Superstition or the hopes o● engaging the Pope's secular Influence and Interest to his side occasion'd William to refer his Pretence of Right to the Pope's Decision I shall not judge but with these Colours of a Title he lands ●n England and some say committed no Acts of Hostility till his Claim was again deny'd by the daring but unhappy Harold who was a man of Spirit fit for Empire and was likely to have kept ●t much longer had not Fortune raised up against him three great Enemies at once his Brother Tosto Norwegian Harold and the aspiring William against whom possibly his arm was weakened with the Reflection upon his own Vow to William to assist him in his ambitious Design and what he

who have not read this Charter from falling upon this easie way of answering the Doctor 's whole Book and therefore they castrate the Charter and leave out all the provision for the Liberties and free Customs of the several integral parts of the Kingdom as if their imaginary General Council had swallowed up the Liberties and Freedoms of all them who held not of the King Nota A Tenure in Capite is when the Land is not holden of the King as of any Honor Castle or Mannor c. But of the King as of the Crown as of his Crown or in Chief and this some would rather have effected than that the Commons of England should be thought to have had any Right affirm'd by so ancient a Law Spelman's 2 part of the Glossary Tit. Parliamentum and that this was apprehended when the marvellous Discoveries worthy to be inquired into under Title Parliament Bless'd the World may well be gather'd from the printing only as much of that part of the Charter which is now in Debate If but one had an hand in it as in the Publisher's own Judgment he thought would fit his Purpose concealing the rest In that Glossary there is no more than this Spelm. Gloss. Col. 452. Nullum Scutagium vel Auxilium ponam in regno nostro nisi per Commune Concilium Regni nostri 1. Nisi ad corpus nostrum redimendum 2. Ad primogenitum filium nostrum Militem faciendum 3. ad primogenitam filiam nostram semel maritandam ad hoc non fiat nisi rationabile auxilium Nota the Omission here Et ad habendum Commune Consilium Regni de auxiliis assidendis aliter quam in tribus Casibus praedictis et de Scutagiis assidendis summoneri faciemus Archiepiscopos Abbates Comites Majores Barones sigillatim per literas nostras praeterea faciemus summoneri in generali per Vicecomites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in Capite tenent de nobis ad certum diem s●ilicet ad terminum quadraginta dierum ad minus ad certum locum in omnibus literis submonitionis illius causam summonitionis illius exponemus Et sic factâ summonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatum secundum Concilium eorum qui praesentes fuerint quamvis non omnes summoniti venerint By the partial citation of this shred or end of the Charter 't is a clear case that Et ad habendum Commune Concilium Regni is there in express words appropriated to Tenants in Capite whatever may have been reserv'd to others in the general provision for all their Liberties and free Customes and the Publisher hath so dexterously and effectually patched the Fragments together that the Reader must be forced according to those curious Appearances to assent to the Publisher and Doctor 's fallacious Assertions that none but the Tenants in Capite made the Commune Concilium Regni the City of London and all other Cities Burroughs Ports and Towns or Parishes whose Rights are there reserved being clearly left out in the Glossary whereas 't will be very difficult to one that reads the whole together not to think that admitting ad habendum Commune Consilium Regni be there appropriated to the Kings Tenants in Chief yet the Aid and Escuage they are impower'd to assess must be such as concern'd them onely A reservation for the Liberties and free Customs of all the parts of the Kingdom following immediately upon mention of the Common Council of the Kingdom which undoubtedly had of Right and Custom a larger Power than barely the granting of Taxes But if Et ad habendum Commune Concilium Regni de auxiliis assidendis aliter quam in tribus casibus praedictis ought to be joyn'd to the Liberties and free Customs of the whole Nation reserved by King John's Charter then that darling Notion of a Parliament of the King's Tenants only no more to be prov'd than that we had Parliaments of Women as well as others falls to the ground Vid. Jan. p. 239. And by the Dr's good favour there was no need of proving that amongst the other Customs of the Cities Burroughs Against Jan. p. 4. c. this of enjoying a Right of being of or constituting the Common Council of the Kingdom was one of them any otherwise than from the express words of the Charter nor could I justly be blam'd for not going first to prove that such were Members before my saying that if they were so before and at the making of the Charter their Right is preserv'd to them by it and is confirm'd by the Charter of H. 3. c. 9. Since in all mens Logick but the Dr's the Argument is to be laid down before it can be made good and the thing to be prov'd here is but the minor of a Syllogism Which Argument being founded upon Fact which the Dr. would have to be the onely Controversie between us p. 1. I may wave for a while and yet there 's no doubt but I prove a Right if I shew that amongst other Liberties and free Customs all parts of the Kingdom here enumerated were by the Words of King John's Charter to enjoy a Right ad habendum Commune Concilium Regni The Dr. agrees So Matth. Paris Against Jan. c. p. 62. that King John's Charter and that which H. 3. granted in the 9th of his Reign were alike in all things Wherefore if I can shew the likeness I hope 't will qualifie and abate our Author 's great Wrath for my proving from thence a provision for a more General Council than one made up of Tenants onely For p. 63. being like 't is not necessary that the Words should be the very same but the Sense and if we are sure by Record that we have the right words we are certain if Records may explain Matthew Paris that the likeness he meant consisted in the Sense Since therefore in the Great Charter granted 9 H. 3. as I find also one in Secundo there is in a Chapter intire by it self The hand-writing of E MS. peues Dom. Petyt as the Lord Cook cites it Scutagium de caetero capiatur sicut capi consuevit tempore H. avi nostri and no other provision is in any part of the Charter made for the Great Council of the Nation than what is contain'd under the Liberties and free Customs of every particular Place and yet this wholly agrees with and expresses the Sense of King John's Et de Scutagiis assidendis must be disjoyned from ad habendum Commune Concilium Regni aliter quam in tribus casibus praedictis And if so then the Tenants in Capite who are under that Division have no express provision there made for their Summons to the Great Council of the Nation but are with others left for that to the antient Law as it was in the time of H. 2. whose Laws both Charters that were in

is Argument sufficient to prove it for mark the weighty reason H. the Third after this was granted and Edw. 1st taxed their Demeasns through England though not the whole Kingdom by Advice and Consent of their Privy-Councils only until the Stat ' de Tallagio non concedendo That is as Tallage is confest to be a Publick Tax because some of King John's Successors Tax't their Demeans without publick consent Therefore 't was provided in King John's time by way of Prophesy that no publick Tax Aid or Escuage should be raised without publick consent So that what was done after was a moral cause or occasion of what preceded 'T will be said that the thing that the Doctor went to prove was that the Common-Council mentioned in the Charter was the Great and Common-Council of the Kingdom to all intents and purposes Not that the King was restrained from levying a publick Tax without the consent of the Great Council But surely when he goes to give the reason why the Charter must be taken in such a sense we are to expect the proof of that not of something else quitting the thing to be proved If I can understand his dark meaning he was proving that Nullum Scutagium c. intended to restrain the King from levying publick Taxes without publick Consent That is to explain what he very obscurely drives at the restraint was only from Taxing the whole Kingdom not from Taxing his Tenants in Chief And the reason of this Article p. 118. viz. as taken in this sense is that several times after this Charter was granted Hen. 3. and Edw. 1. Taxed their Demeasns through England though not the whole Kingdom by Advice and Consent of their Privy-Councils only until the Statute De tallagio non concedendo was made 34 E. 1. And both Richard the First and King John had Taxed the whole Kingdom without common Assent before the grant of Magna Charta And when he has made good the Premises in this Argument for the meaning of the Article which will be ad graecas Calendas then he may conclude that this Article intended to restrain the King Na. he should have added only Nullum Scutagium c. only from levying of publick Taxes without publick Consent not to provide about Escuage or Tallage which none but his immediate Tenants were liable to And from hence when prov'd we might with some more colour and coherence raise the Consequence that the Common-Council mentioned in King John's Charter was the Great and Common-Council of the Kingdom to all intents and purposes But how that should appear from the mention of Aid and Escuage only will be a Question ' T is by him observ'd of Richard the First Accepit de unaquâque carucatâ terrae totius Angliae sex solidos But what proof is there from the word accepit or the collecting of a Tax ex praecepto Regis that he took it without publick consent Bracton Lib. 1. cap. 16. I am sure Bracton as good an Author as the Historian whom he Vouches tells us Carvage and such this was could never be raised but Consensu communi totius regni But if the King in his Privy-Council might Tax the Kingdom its self till the making King John's Charter and was restrain'd then I wonder our Reverend Author has made the Constitution of the House of Lords that is according to him the whole great Council to have been no earlier than the 49th of H. 3. And unless such a Council as is mentioned in that Charter were Constituted before Nay sometimes he Argues that it was not before p. 56. how comes it to pass that the Clerus and Populus which were of the Kings Council for making Laws and giving Taxes were not till 17. Jo. confin'd to such of them as were of the Privy-Council as well as Communitas populi after Magnates was meant of such people as were Magnates and Milites p. 110. liberè tenentes besides Barons were the Tenents in Capite 112. who by their Acts oblig'd all that held of them by Knights Service 113. that is all the Milites but not the liberè tenentes We are taught that in the 6 of King John Tenents in Capite only Against Jani c. p. 125 126 127. provided that every nine Knights should find a tenth for the defence of the Kingdom and that they who were to find them were all Tenents in Military Service Though the Record shews that besides the Miles vel Serviens Alius terram tenens was Charged with this And he vouchsafes not to take notice of my Argument that every Knight being bound by his tenure to find a man if this had not extended to all that had to the value of a Knights Fee Jani c. p. 225. though not held by Knights Service it would have been an abatement of the Services due and a weakning of the Kingdom Besides admit that Tenents in Capite only laid this Charge and only Tenents by Knights Service were bound by it here is such a Commune Concilium of Tenents as I say King John's Charter Exhibits and no Charge laid by them upon others Whereas he should have prov'd that they did oblige others without their consent But suppose Tenents only were Charged why might not the Charge have been laid by Omnes fideles in my sense as we find Omnes de Regno taxing Knights Fees only The Doctor in his Margin gives us an admirable nota p. 119. that Liberi were Tenants in Military Service or Gentlemen Rustici Socagers possessors or Freeholders in Socages only which is as much as to say that Freeholders were not Freemen unless they held in Military Service and yet a Tenement or Possession neither added to Glos. p. 10. or detracted from the person of any man if free or bond before But surely Mr. Professor has some colourable proof for his remark here For that let others judge Hoveden acquaints us with the manner of collecting a Carvage in the ninth of Richard the First which was that in every County the King appointed one Clergyman and one Knight who with the Sheriff of the County to which they were sent Galls M●lites and lawful Knights chose and sworn to execute this business faithfully Fecerunt venire coram se senescalos Baronum istius comitatûs de qualibet villâ Dominum vel Ballivum villae prepositum cum quatuor legalibus hominibus villae sivae liberis sive rusticis who were to swear how many Plough Lands there were in every Town If here liberi and rustici are not meant for two denominations of the same sort of men that is ordinary Freeholders I will leave him to fight it out with Hoveden since he himself is directly contrary to the old Mun● Hoveden shews us that these Socagers were legales homines such as chose Juries and serv'd on Juries themselves Against Mr. Petyt p. 36. c. but our new light

he was Leige-man to and received Laws from the French Monarch Though the Crown of England has always been imperial subject to none upon Earth yet he that wore it unless he were so free that he could go with his Land Potuit ire cum terrâ quo voluit whither he would which to be sure is inconsistent with this Feudal Law he could not quit his Dependance SECT 4. The Notion of the Feudal Right considered and the Right of Tenants in free and common Socage to come in the●● own Persons to the great Councils shewn from thence BUT since the mention of Jus feodale as advanc'd in the second part of the Glos. ascribed to Sir H. Spelman occasions a little Consideration of the Feudal Law I out of a Zeal to clear his Reputation from the Charge of things false or frivolous and having at present no other Authority for his being the Author of it than ones who has an excellent Faculty of Storying except against what is there said to be ex ipso jure feodali as none of his 'T is there taken for granted to be the very Right of Feuds deriv'd from the Feudal Law that the Superiour Lord of the Feud should give Law jus dicere to them that are under him and 't is evident this is not meant of an ordinary Jurisdiction because by virtue of this 't is fancy'd that the Lords represented their Tenants in the Extraordinary at the great Councils and by the same reason the Assertion of a Judge censur'd in Parliament is justifiable viz. That the King is the only Representative But I must observe that this must be from Either 1. The general Law which guides the Feuds in all places where Feudal Law is received Or 2. The particular Feudal Law of England 1. Our Author evidently takes this in the first Sense being to prove what was the Feudal Law here New Glos p. 4. he cites the foreign Feudists who acquaint us with the Law of Feuds amongst them but this first Sense is not supposable in that this Law upon that account would be as much the Law of Nations as the Law for the Advantage of Embassadors wherever they come And this could not generally prevail but from the Authority of Catholick Reason that should require it but that I do not find since the Lord may have the Vtile Dominium which the Feudists speak of as incident to Feuds without the despotick Power and the end or nature of them being answer'd from whence will the Argument be brought that it ought to be so I will grant that it is not a Feud unless there be Utile Dominium for that distinguishes it from an Alodium which sometimes may yield no profit to any Superiour But those who well knew the Nature of Feuds teach us that 't was the Infancy of Feuds when they wholly depended on the Lord and could not stand without being supported by his pleasure then indeed which was before Feuds were spread into many Nations cragius de Feudis fol. 20. Nec servientibus aliud jus erat in his proediis quam precarium quod qui habet non tam diu quam ipse vult sed quamdiu is qui concedit patitur eo frui This indeed agrees with that Law which is supposed to have obtained even till the 49 H. 3. Whereas from hence Feudal Tenure advanc'd to an Estate for Life Solet usus fructus constitui in personam tantum Cujacius de feudis Tom. 4. fo 464. and all this before the year 650 from which time to Charles the Great who began to reign in the Year 800 unless one were particularly assigned by the Gift the Lands descended Craglus fol. 21. by right of Inheritance to all the Sons It s state of Maturity was when it descended to one but still there was an Inheritance by the Law of Feuds before the time of William the First and above 450 years before the 49th of H. 3. And I would rather believe Cujacius for the Jus Feodale or the Nature of it than what we find under the Title Parliament in the Glossary Cujacius defines a Feud Cujacius de feudis fo 464. Tom. 4. Jus praedio alieno in perpetuum utendi fruendi quod pro beneficio Dominus dat eâ lege ut qui accipit sibi fidem militiae munus aliudve servitium exhibeat An Usufructuary Right in another's Land which the Lord gives for a Benefice upon condition that the Grantee should be faithful and true to him and perform Military or other Service This is a perpetual Right therefore not to be disposed of by the Lord's Will or the Law which he should give 'T is indeed Vsufructuary because the Lord has the Forfeiture and Escheat according to the Laws setled in any particular place For I take it that in one place they differ'd from another And in Confutation of this Conjecture that ex ipso jure Feodali the Lord jus dicit take this as the general Law of Feuds 't is enough that in any place where the Feudal Law was received 't was otherwise Choppinus de Juridic Andeg Choppinus sayes that amongst the French a Feud implies not juridica potestas nil commune cum juridica potestate Which if as Jurisdiction is often used to signifie a Power inferious to Jus dicere it is but a Judicial Power it follows that the Lord could not have the greater where he had not so much as the less And farther Feuds have in all Countries been guided by the Law of Property their Common Law Thus sayes Cujacius Nos quoque jus feudorum quo Italia utitur sequimur non inviti nisi siqua in re pugnet cum legibus aut moribus nostris We also willingly follow the Law of Feuds which Italy uses unless in any thing it fights with our Laws or Customes And this is to be observed that the end of raising Feuds has often prevailed to introduce a Custome without any express Law and beyond the Foreign Law of Feuds 1. Without express Law and thus to preserve the Head of a Barony that was never to be divided whereas any other part was often so in which the Common Law prevail'd from the end of raising the Feud which requir'd the Preservation of that entire though the other part of the Barony might be divided Bracton and Fleta suppose the Barony to descend to several as well Males as Females Bracton lib. 2. fo 76. Primogenitus vel primogenita habeat electionem propter suam Eisneciam says Bracton Fleta lib. 5. fo 313. whose words only I repeat Let the first born Male or Female have Election by reason of the elder Share And with this agrees a Record in King John's Reign Thomas de Scoteney petit versus Willielm Scoteney Capitale Mesuag quod habere debet in Steinton cum pertinentiis sicut illud quod pertinet ad Eisneciam suam de Baronia quae fuit Lamberti Scoteny Thomas de Scoteny

our Lord the King and live in the said Kingdom And there they ought to take 〈◊〉 for the Indemnity of the Crown of this Kingdom by Common-Council And there Provision is to be made to repress the Insolence of Malefactors for the good of the Kingdom For it was enacted that there all People and Counties should meet every year once a year to wit in the beginning of the Kalends of May and there to confederate and consolidate themselves Sicut Conjurati fratres with an inviolable Oath and Faith as sworn Brethren to defend the Kingdom against Foreigners and against Enemies together with their Lord the King and to keep his Lands and Honours with all Faithfulness and that they will be faithful to him as to their Lord both within and without the Realm of Britain So ought all the Princes and Earls to do and also to swear before the Bishops of the Kingdom in the Folkmote and also all the Peers of the Kingdom and the Knights and all the Freemen of the whole Kingdom of Britain ought as is aforesaid to swear Fealty to their Lord the King in full Folkmote before the Bishops of the Kingdom 〈…〉 Free-men of the whole 〈◊〉 ought according to their Faculties and ●ossessions and according to their Fee and according to their Tenements to have Arms and to keep them always in Readiness for the Defence of the Kingdom and the Service of their Lords to be performed and fulfilled according to the precept of their Lord the King Here is not that Provision against Exactions which was afterwards necessary but every other point of William's Grand Charter is fully express'd They were to be sworn Brethren for the preservation of the Rights of the Crown for the keeping the Peace and the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom which secured the Interests of private-men to the Liberi homines totius Monarchiae there answers the Folkmote or Vocatio Congregatio populorum gentium omnium or universi qui sub protectione pace Domini Reges degunt These surely were more than Tenants by Knights Service for they are distinguish'd into Principes Comites Proceres Milites liberi homines universi totius regni And 't is not to be argued that they were Tenants by Knights Service because they were to defend the Kingdom with Arms according to their real and personal Estates For I take it none ever heard of a Tenant by Knights Service of a Chatell If our Disputant were as conversant in Antiquity as he pretends or as faithful as he ought to be and have left off his Designs he would have taken notice of the Assize of Arms in Henry the Second's time which confirms my Sense of the former Laws Quicunque habet foedum unius militis habeat loricam cassidem clypeum lanceam omnis miles habeat tot loricas cassides Hoveden clypeos et lanceas quot habuerit foeda Militum in Dominico suo quicunque liber laicus habuerit in Catallo vel in redditu ad valentiam 16 Marcarum habeat loricam et cassidem et clypeum et lanceam quicunque liber laicus habuerit in Catallo ad valentiam 10 Marcarum habeat halbergellum et capelet ferri et lanceam Et omnes Burgenses et tota communia liberorum hominum habeant Wanbais et capelet ferri et lanceam et unusquisque juret quod infra festum Sancti Hillarii haec arma habebit et domino Regi scilicet Henrico filio Matildis Imperatricis fidem portabit et haec Arma in suo servitio tenebit secundum praeceptum suum et ad fidem Domini Regis et Regni sui Whoever has one Knights Fee let him have an Habergeon and Buckler and Lance and let every Knight have so many Habergeons and Bucklers and Lances as he has Knights Fees in his Demeasn or under him Whatever Free Lay-man has in Chatells to the value of fifteen Marks let him have an Habergeon and Buckler and Lance. Whatever Free Lay-man has in Chatells to the value of 10 Marks let him have an Halbert and Capelet of Iron and let all Inhabitants of Towns Cities Burroughs and all the Commonalty of Free-men have a Wanbais and Capelet of Iron and a Lance and let every one swear that within the Feast of St. Hillary he will have these Arms and will bear Faith to their Leige King to wit to Henry the Son of Matildis the Empress and will hold these Arms in his Service according to his Precept and for the Defence of their Lord the King and his Kingdom Good Mr. Dr. Were all those who were to bear Arms in the King's Service his Tenants by Knights Service Agreeable to this one of the Enquirers upon the Statute of Winchester 34 Ed. 1. is If they have Weapons in their Houses according to the Quality of their Lands and Goods for maintenance of the Peace according to the Statute Our Author p. 1. who has an admirable Faculty of rescuing these sacred things from groundless and designing Interpretations would make the solemn Assembly in the Folkmote In Folcmoto semel quotannis sub initio Kalendarum Maii tanquam in annuo Parliamento convenere Regni Principes tam Episcopi quam Magistratus Liberi homines no more than an ordinary County Court and is pleased to put a Slight upon the Authority of the true Sir Henry Spelman who rightly takes it for a Great Council And the new convincing Reason for the former Sense Glos. tit Geniotum is because the Court where Causes were determined before the King's Provost or Officer New Glos. p. 19. is called Folkmote too but pray why is not this the great Folkmote And why may we not from hence take the Platform of the Great Councils in these Times and consequently of such as King William confirmed together with the Laws of the Confessor Was an ordinary County Court in time of War or Danger to act as a Council in providing for the Safety of the Crown and other things for the profit of the Kingdom And were the Bishops of such a spiritual Nature that they could animate the whole Kingdom as the Soul does the Body and be all at the same time in each distinct County of England Jani Angl. facies nova p. 34. This clears beyond Exception the Charter of Henry the First which provides for the Assembly of the Counties and Hundreds If he had look'd but a little farther de Heretoc he would have found a Folkmote that was held twice a year when this was but once and the Sciremote distinct from that The first was the Sheriffs Tourn the other the County Court and that observed by him might have been either the monthly Sciremote or that Folkmote that was held twice a year Ita vero bis Folkmote singulis annis semper celebrari debet per universos Comitatus c. But to convince him more fully of the Absurdity of his Confidence He

some of his Favourites who were Pledges for William's Performances Sure I am as far as my Authors can assure me after this Classick Writer has blasted their Credit I will not say with a contagious Breath he promis'd as largely to the rest of the Nation as he did to the People of Kent If the men of Kent had their Representatives at least at the Electing him to Rule over them and were not subjected to him as a Conquerour nor were their Lands parcell'd out by him though we are taught è Cathedra that he took away from the English their Estates and gave them to his Normans So that according to his Reasoning the Flemmings Against Mr. Petyt p. 35. Anjovins Brittains Poictorins and People of other Nations who made up a great part of his Army and came with him under considerable men their Leaders came out of stark love and kindness They though Adventurers with him being content he should gratifie onely his Normans Nay he divided all the Lands of the Kingdom amongst his great Followers even the Lands of those Normans who had Estates here before But if I say the men of Kent enjoyed their Right as abovesaid what Reason beyond what I have assign'd is there to think that it was otherwise with the rest in general some of which were Adventurers with him but all equally sharers in the extent of his Promise to maintain rectam legem Though he and some of his Successors chose Succession as the most honourable Title yet that he had none but Election is evident in that he was not Heir to the Confessor Domesday in Surry Acstede Goda mater Heraldi tenuit IRE In another place there called Soror Regis Edwardi but rather Harold was who was Son to Goda that King's Sister Nor could the Confessor and Harold lawfully set the Crown upon his Head without the Consent of the Kingdom Nor yet could he gain a Title by Conquest over those who vielded upon the Terms of enjoying their Laws and Liberties and who unless those Terms had been granted had both Right and Spirit too to have kept him from Reigning over them Abating the factious conspiring to set him up against Edgar Etheling who though he was not as now the Law is actual King before Coronation yet ought to have been crowned the People had sufficient inducement to chuse William 1. Because he was a Prince of a less Potent Nation and therefore would make an Accession to England and give them footing upon the Continent from whence they might spread the glory of those Arms which were reproach'd with that necessity of Self-defence which makes even Cowards Valiant 2. He was a Prince who had governed his own Country with great Prudence and Moderation Brevis Relatio Willielmi ad finem Syl. Taylor p. 188. nor would attempt upon that acquisition to which many Circumstances invited him without the Consent of his Senate there 3. Harold being dead they knew not any man so likely to defend them from those Enemies which threatned and molested them from abroad or that could better secure them from the Tyranny of many Masters at home and the Distractions which in all probability would arise from their Feuds and Competitions for the Crown which every one that could draw the Mobile 〈◊〉 him would be catching at till it was plac'd and setled Thus I think 't is made evident that William the first his Title was by Election and that the Election according to the infallible Rule was factious since how unanimous soever they might be at the crowning him Feuds and Factions wearied them into the Agreement more than the Force of his Arms but I shall not give him this Author 's obliging Epithetes 'T will be said perhaps if the Election be void then he is let into a Title by Conquest yet how can that be when the very Conquest or rather Acquisition whatever it were was by this means he being received upon Terms Foedus pepigit Besides if there were no Election then the People never yielded were never conquered And there was no more a Conquest of the whole Nation than an Election by the whole The actual yielding of some and tacit Concurrence of others made his Title SECT 3. That he makes a Title to the French King from the Acquisition of his Feudal Tenant the Norman Duke upon his Notion of the Feudal Law BY the Law of Feuds as he receives the Supposititious Sir Henry Spelman for so out of Reverence to his Memory I take leave to call the Second Part of the Glossary till 't is reconcil'd to Truth or till our Author who goes upon the same grounds makes them good Superior quisque Dominus Regulus agit in suos subditos Against Mr. Petyt p. 104. in rebus ad feodum suum pertinentibus ex ipso jure feodali jus dicit Every Superiour Lord Acts like a little King over those that are under him Little it seems for the number of his Subjects not the extent of his Power over them and in things belonging to the Feud gives Law even by the very Feudal Right that is to say is absolute In another place Consentire quisque videtur in personâ Domini sui Capitalis prout bodie per Procuratores Comitatûs vel Burgi 2 Glos. tit part quos in Parliamentis Knights and Burgesses appellamus Every Inferiour seems to consent in the person of his Lord as at this day we do by the Representatives of the County or Burrough which we in our Parliaments call Knights and Burgesses What no Citizens amongst them Truly I should think by the Comparison that a Legislative Power was delegated to the Lords of the Feud as there is it seems to the Representatatives of only the Counties and Burroughs but that it is Ex ipso jure feodali Further our State-Quack has it Glos. p. 7. As all their Estates arose from his Beneficence What if some purchas'd theirs So they depended on his Will Originally That is the Feudal Tenants ib. p. 4. all Vassals held their Lands at the Will of the Lord and whether they were Delinquents or not he might at his Pleasure take them from him When this rigid Law expir'd he does not vouchsafe to inform us however he yields the Substance of all in acknowledging that the superiour Lords gave Law or were absolute and represented or govern'd the Tenants in the Legislature till the 49. H. 3. To assume William was Feudal Tenant to the King of France and according to the Feudal Law long after his time King John was summoned to the French Court to answer for the Death of Arthur of Britain who was another Feudatory to the French King William himself was not only subject to the Feudal Law but thereby was as much under his Superiour Lords despotick Power in relation to what he got as the most inferiour Tenant William depended upon that King's Will his Dominion was forfeitable without any default