Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	king_n	realm_n	4,820	5	8.3321	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41308	Patriarcha, or, The natural power of Kings by the learned Sir Robert Filmer.	Filmer, Robert, Sir, d. 1653.	1680 (1680)	Wing F922; ESTC R29832	53,082	156

the 12th Chapter of the Statute of Glocester was Signed under the Great Seal and sent to the Justices of the Bench after the manner of a Writ Patent with a certain Writ closed dated by the Kings Hand at Westminster requiring that they should do and Execute all and every thing contained in it although the same do not accord with the Statute of Glocester in all things The Statute of Rutland is the Kings Letters to his Treasurer and Barons of his Exchequer and to his Chamberlain The Statute of Circumspecte Agis runs The King to his Iudges sendeth Greeting There are many other Statutes of the same Form and some of them which run only in the Majestique Terms of The King Commands or The King Wills or Our Lord the King hath established or Our Lord the King hath ordained or His Especial Grace hath granted Without mention of Consent of the Commons or People insomuch that some Statutes rather resemble Proclamations than Acts of Parliament And indeed some of them were no other than meer Proclamations as the Provisions of Merton made by the King at an Assembly of the Prelates and Nobility for the Coronation of the King and his Queen Eleanor which begins Provisum est in Curia Domini Regis apud Merton Also a Provision was made 19. Hen. 3. de Assisa ultimae Praesentationis which was continued and allowed for Law until Tit. West 2. an 13. Ed. 1. cap. 5. which provides the contrary in express words This Provision begins Provisum fuit coram Dom. Rege Archiepiscopis Episcopis Baronibus quod c. It seems Originally the difference was not great between a Proclamation and a Statute this latter the King made by Common Council of the Kingdom In the former he had but the advice only of his great Council of the Peers or of his Privy Council only For that the King had a great Council besides his Parliament appears by a Record of 5. Hen. 4. about an Exchange between the King and the Earl of Northumberland Whereby the King promiseth to deliver to the Earl Lands to the value by the advice of Parliament or otherwise by the Advice of his Grand Council and other Estates of the Realm which the King will Assemble in case the Parliament do not meet We may find what Judgment in later times Parliaments have had of Proclamations by the Statute of 31. of Hen. Cap. 8. in these Words Forasmuch as the King by the advice of his Council hath set forth Proclamations which obstinate Persons have contemned not considering what a King by his Royal Power may do Considering that sudden Causes and Occasions fortune many times which do require speedy Remedies and that by abiding for a Parliament in the mean time might happen great prejudice to ensue to the Realm And weighing also that his Majesty which by the Kingly and Regal Power given him by God may do many things in such Cases should not be driven to extend the Liberties and Supremity of his Regal Power and Dignity by willfulness of froward Subjects It is therefore thought fit that the King with the Advice of his Honourable Council should set forth Proclamations for the good of the People and defence of his Royal Dignity as necessity shall require This Opinion of a House of Parliament was confirmed afterwards by a Second Parliament and the Statute made Proclamations of as great validity as if they had been made in Parliament This Law continued until the Government of the State came to be under a Protector during the Minority of Edward the Sixth and in his first year it was Repealed I find also that a Parliament in the 11th year of Henry the Seventh did so great Reverence to the Actions or Ordinances of the King that by Statute they provided a Remedy or Means to levy a Benevolence granted to the King although by a Statute made not long before all Benevolences were Damned and Annulled for ever Mr. Fuller in his Arguments against the proceedings of the High-Commission Court affirms that the Statute of 2. H. 4. cap. 15. which giveth Power to Ordinaries to Imprison and set Fines on Subjects was made without the Assent of the Commons because they are not mentioned in the Act. If this Argument be good we shall find very many Statutes of the same kind for the Assent of the Commons was seldom mentioned in the Elder Parliaments The most usual Title of Parliaments in Edward the 3d Rich. 2. the three Henries 4. 5. 6. in Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. days was The King and his Parliament with the Assent of the Prelates Earles and Barons and at the Petition or at the special Instance of the Commons doth Ordain The same Mr. Fuller saith that the Statute made against Lollards was without the Assent of the Commons as appears by their Petition in these Words The Commons beseech that whereas a Statute was made in the last Parliament c. which was never Assented nor Granted by the Commons but that which was done therein was done without their Assent 17. How far the Kings Council hath directed and swayed in Parliament hath in part appeared by what hath been already produced For further Evidence we may add the Statute of Westminster The first which saith These be the Acts of King Edward 1. made at His First Parliament General by His Council and by the assent of Bishops Abbots Priors Earles Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm c. The Statute of Bygamy saith In presence of certain Reverend Fathers Bishops of England and others of the Kings Council for as much as all the King's Council as well Iustices as others did agree that they should be put in Writing and observed The Statute of Acton Burnell saith The King for Himself and by His Council hath Ordained and Established In Articuli super Chartas when the Great Charter was confirmed at the Request of his Prelates Earls and Barons we find these Passages 1. Nevertheless the King and His Council do not intend by reason of this Statute to diminish the Kings Right c. 2. And notwithstanding all these things before-mentioned or any part of them both the King and his Council and all they that were present at the making of this Ordinance will and intend that the Right and Prerogative of his Crown shall be saved to him in all things Here we may see in the same Parliament the Charter of the Liberties of the Subjects confirmed and a saving of the Kings Prerogative Those times neither stumbled at the Name nor conceived any such Antipathy between the Terms as should make them incompatible The Statute of Escheators hath this Title At the Parliament of our Soveraign Lord the King by his Council it was agreed and also by the King himself commanded And the Ordinance of Inquest goeth thus It is agreed and Ordained by the King himself and all his Council The Statute made at York 9. Ed. 3. saith Whereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses desired

called The Assembly of the Wise termed in Latine Conventum Magnatum or Praesentia Regis Procerumque Prelaterumque collectorum The Meeting of the Nobility or the Presence of the King Prelates and Peers Assembled or in General Magnum Concilium or Commune Concilium and many of our Kings in elder times made use of such great Assemblies for to Consult of important Affaires of State all which Meetings in a General sense may be termed Parliaments Great are the Advantages which both the King and People may receive by a well-ordered Parliament there is nothing more expresseth the Majesty and Supreme Power of a King than such an Assembly wherein all his People acknowledge him for Soveraign Lord and make all their Addresses to him by humble Petition and Supplication and by their Consent and Approbation do strengthen all the Laws which the King at their Request and by their Advice and Ministry shall ordain Thus they facilitate the Government of the King by making the Laws unquestionable either to the Subordinate Magistrates or refractory Multitude The benefit which accrews to the Subject by Parliaments is That by their Prayers and Petitions Kings are drawn many times to redress their Just grievances and are overcome by their importunity to grant many things which otherwise they would not yield unto for the Voice of a Multitude is easilier heard Many Vexations of the People are without the knowledge of the King who in Parliament seeth and heareth his People himself whereas at other times he commonly useth the Eyes and Ears of other men Against the Antiquity of Parliaments we need not dispute since the more ancient they be the more they make for the Honour of Monarchy yet there be certain Circumstances touching the Forms of Parliaments which are fit to be considered First we are to rememember that until about the time of the Conquest there could be no Parliaments assembled of the General States of the whole Kingdom of England because till those days we cannot learn it was entirely united into one Kingdom but it was either divided into several Kingdoms or Governed by several Laws When Iulius Caesar landed he found 4 Kings in Kent and the British Names of Dammonii Durotriges Belgae Attrebatii Trinobantes Iceni Silures and the rest are plentiful Testimonies of the several Kingdoms of Brittains when the Romans left us The Saxons divided us into 7 Kingdoms when these Saxons were united all into a Monarchy they had always the Danes their Companions or their Masters in the Empire till Edward the Confessors Days since whose time the Kingdom of England hath continued United as now it doth But for a Thousand years before we cannot find it was entirely setled during the Time of any one Kings Reign As under the Mercian Law The West Saxons were confined to the Saxon Laws Essex Norfolk Suffolk and some other Places were vexed with Danish Laws The Northumbrians also had their Laws apart And until Edward the Confessors Reign who was next but one before the Conquerour the Laws of the Kingdom were so several and Uncertain that he was forced to Cull a few of the most indifferent and best of them which were from him called St. Edwards Laws Yet some say that Eadgar made those Laws and that the Confessor did but restore and mend them Alfred also gathered out of Mulmutius laws such as he translated into the Saxon Tongue Thus during the time of the Saxons the Laws were so variable that there is little or no likelihood to find any constant Form of Parliaments of the whole Kingdom 13 A second Point considerable is whether in such Parliaments as was in the Saxon's times the Nobility and Clergy only were of those Assemblies or whether the Commons were also called some are of Opinion that though none of the Saxon Laws do mention the Commons yet it may be gathered by the word Wisemen the Commons are intended to be of those Assemblies and they bring as they conceive probable arguments to prove it from the Antiquity of some Burroughs that do yet send Burgesses and from the Proscription of those in Antient Demesne not to send Burgesses to Parliament If it be true that the West-Saxons had a Custom to assemble Burgesses out of some of their Towns yet it may be doubted whether other Kingdoms had the same usage but sure it is that during the Heptarchy the People could not Elect any Knights of the Shire because England was not then divided into Shires On the contrary there be of our Historians who do affirm that Henry the First caused the Commons first to be Assembled by Knights and Burgesses of their own Appointment for before his Time only certain of the Nobility and Prelates of the Realm were called to Consultation about the most Important Affairs of State If this Assertion be true it seems a meer matter of Grace of this King and proves not any Natural Right of the People Originally to be admitted to chuse their Knights and Burgesses of Parliament though it had been more for the Honour of Parliaments if a King whose Title to the Crown had been better had been Author of the Form of it because he made use of it for his unjust Ends. For thereby he secured himself against his Competitor and Elder Brother by taking the Oaths of the Nobility in Parliament and getting the Crown to be setled upon his Children And as the King made use of the People so they by Colour of Parliament served their own turns for after the Establishment of Parliaments by strong hand and by the Sword they drew from him the Great Charter which he granted the rather to flatter the Nobility and People as Sir Walter Raleigh in his Dialogue of Parliaments doth affirm in these words The great Charter was not Originally granted Legally and Freely for Henry the First did but Vsurp the Kingdom and therefore the better to assure himself against Robert his Elder Brother he flattered the Nobility and People with their Charters yea King John that Confirmed them had the like respect for Arthur Duke of Brittain was the undoubted Heir of the Crown upon whom King John Vsurped and so to conclude these Charters had their Original from Kings de facto but not de jure the Great Charter had first an obscure Birth by Vsurpation and was Secondly fostered and shewed to the World by Rebellion 15. A third consideration must be that in the former Parliaments instituted and continued since King Henry the First 's time is not to be found the Usage of any Natural Liberty of the People for all those Liberties that are claimed in Parliament are the liberties of Grace from the King and not the Liberties of Nature to the People for if the liberty were Natural it would give Power to the Multitude to assemble themselves When and Where they please to bestow Soveraignty and by Pactions to limit and direct the Exercise of it Whereas the Liberties of Favour and Grace which are Claimed