of the wars in France and the losse of Rochett he was them enforced to consent to the Lords in all they demanded in the tenth of his reigne he fined the City of London at 50000. marks because they had received Lewis of France in the 11. year in the Parliament at Oxford he revoked the great Charter being granted when he was under age and governed by the Earle of Pembroke and the Bishop of Winchester in this 11. year the Earles of Cornewall and Chester Marshall Edward Earle of Pembroke Gilbert Earle of Gloucester Warren Hereford Ferrars and Warwick and others rebelled against the King and constrained him to yeeld unto them in what they demaunded for their particular interest which rebellion being appeased he sayled into France and in his 15. year he had a 15th of the temporality and a disme and a half of the spirituality and withall escuage of every Knights fee. COUNS. But what say you to the Parliament of Westminster in the 16th of the King where notwithstanding the wars of France and his great charge in repulsing the Welsh rebels he was flatly denyed the Subsidy demanded IUST I confesse my Lord that the house excused themselves by reason of their poverty and the Lords taking of Armes in the next year it was manifest that the house was practised aganst the King And was it not so my good Lord think you in our two last Parliaments for in the first even those whom his Majesty trusted most betrayed him in the union and in the second there were other of the great ones ran counter But your Lordship spake of dangers of Parliaments in this my Lord there was a denyall but there was no danger at all but to returne where I left what got the Lords by practizing the house at that time I say that those that brake this staffe upon the King were overturned with the counterbuffe for he resumed all those lands which he had given in his minority he called all his exacting officers to accompt he found them all faulty he examined the corruption of other Magistrates and from all these he drew sufficient money to satisfie his present necessity whereby he not onely spared his people but highly contented them with an act of so great Iustice Yea Hubert Earle of Kent the chief Iustice whom he had most trusted and most advanced was found as false to the King as any one of the rest And for conclusion in the end of that year at the assembly of the States at Lambeth the King had the fortieth part of every mans goods given him freely toward his debts for the people who the same year had refused to give the King any thing when they saw he had squeased those spunges of the Common-wealth they willingly yeelded to give him satisfaction COUNS. But I pray you what became of this Hubert whom the King had favoured above all men betraying his Majesty as he did IUST There were many that perswaded the King to put him to death but he could not be drawn to consent but the King seized upon his estate which was great yet in the end he left him a sufficient portion and gave him his life because he had done great service in former times For this Majesty though he tooke advantage of his vice yet he forgot not to have consideration of his vertue And upon this occasion it was that the King betrayed by those whom he most trusted entertained strangers and gave them their offices and the charge of his Castles and strong places in England COUNS. But the drawing in of those strangers was the cause that Marshall Earle of Pembroke moved war against the King JUST It is true my good Lord but he was soon after slain in Ireland and his whole masculine race ten yeares extinguished though there were five Sons of them and Marshal being dead who was the mover and ring-leader of that war the King pardoned the rest of the Lords that had assisted Marshall COUNS. What reason had the King so to doe JUST Because he was perswaded that they loved his person and only hated those corrupt Counsellors that then bare the greatest sway under him as also because they were the best men of war he had whom if he destroyed having war with the French he had wanted Commanders to have served him COUNS. But what reason had the Lords to take armes JUST Because the King entertained the Poictovins were not they the Kings vassals also Should the Spaniards rebell because the Spanish King trusts to the Neapolitans Fortagues Millanoies and other Nations his vassals seeing those that are governed by the Vice-royes and deputies are in policy to be well entertained to be employed who would otherwise devise how to free themselves whereas being trusted and imployed by their Prince they entertain themselves with the hopes that other the Kings vassals do if the King had called in the Spaniards or other Nations not his Subjects the Nobilitie of England had reason of grief COUNS. But what people did ever serve the King of England more faithfully then the Gascoynes did even to the last of the conquest of that Duchie IUST Your Lordship sayes well and I am of that opinion that if it had pleased the Queen of Eng. to have drawn some of the chief of the Irish Nobilitie into Eng. and by exchange to have made them good free-holders in Eng. she had saved above 2. millions of pounds which were consumed in times of those Rebellions For what held the great Gascoigne firme to the Crown of England of whom the Duke of Espernon married the Inheritrix but his Earldome of Kendall in England whereof the Duke of Espernon in right of his Wife beares the Title to this day And to the same end I take it hath Iames our Soveraign Lord given Lands to divers of the Nobilitie of Scotland And if I were worthy to advise your Lordship I should think that your Lordship should do the King great service to put him in mind to prohibite all the Scottish Nation to alienate and sell away their inheritance here for they selling they not only give cause to the English to complain that the Treasure of England is transported into Scotland but his Majestie is thereby also frustrated of making both Nations one and of assuring the service and obedience of the Scots in future COUNS. You say well for though those of Scotland that are advanced and enriched by the Kings Majesties will no doubt serve him faithfully yet how their heires and successors having no inheritance to lose in England may be seduced is uncertain But let us go on with our Parliament And what say you to the denyall in the 26th year of his reigne even when the King was invited to come into France by the Earle of March who had married his Mother and who promised to assist the King in the conquest of many places lost IUST It is true my good Lord that a subsidie was then denied and the reasons are
Lords A contrained consent is the consent of a Captive and not of a King and therefore there was nothing done their either legally or royally For if it be not properly a Parliament where the subject is not free certainely it can be none where the King is bound for all Kingly rule was taken from the King and twelve Peeres appointed and as some Writers have it 24. Peeres to governe the Realme and therefore the assembly made by Iack Straw and other rebels may aswell be called a Parliament as that of Oxford Principis nomen habere non est esse princeps for thereby was the K. driven not only to compound all quarrels with the French but to have meanes to be revenged on the rebell Lords but he quitted his right to Normandy Anjou and Mayne COUNS. But Sir what needed this extremity seeing the Lords required but the confirmation of the former Charter which was not prejudiciall to the King to grant JUST Yes my good Lord but they insulted upon the King and would not suffer him to enter into his own Castles they put down the Purveyor of the meat for the maintenance of his house as if the King had been a bankrupt and gave order that without ready money he should not take up a Chicken And though there is nothing against the royalty of a King in these Charters the Kings of England being Kings of freemen and not of slaves yet it is so contrary to the nature of a King to be forced even to those things which may be to his advantage as the King had some reason to seek the dispensation of his oath from the Pope and to draw in strangers for his own defence yea jure salvo coronae nostrae is intended inclusively in all oathes and promises exacted from a Soveraigne COUNS. But you cannot be ignorant how dangerous a thing it is to call in other Nations both for the spoil they make as also because they have often held the possession of the best places with which they have been trusted JUST It is true my good Lord that there is nothing so dangerous for a King as to be constrained and held as prisoner to his vassals for by that Edward the second and Richard the second lost their Kingdomes and their lives And for calling in of strangers was not King Edward the sixth driven to call in strangers against the Rebels in Norfolke Cornwall Oxfordshire and elsewhere Have not the Kings of Scotland been oftentimes constrained to entertain strangers against the Kings of England And the King of England at this time had he not bin diverse times assisted by the Kings of Scotland had bin endangered to have been expelled for ever COUNS. But yet you know those Kings were deposed by Parliament JUST Yea my good Lord being Prisoners being out of possession and being in their hands that were Princes of the blood and pretenders It is an old Countrey Proverbe that Might overcomes Right a weak title that weares a strong sword commonly prevailes against a strong title that weares but a weak one otherwise Philip the second had never been Duke of Portugal nor Duke of Millayne nor King of Naples Sicily But good Lord Errores non sunt trahendi in exemplum I speak of regall peaceable and lawfull Parliaments The King at this time was but a King is name for Glocester Leicester and Chichester made choise of other Nine to whom the rule of the Realme was committed and the Prince was forced to purchase his liberty from the Earle of Leicester by giving for his ransome the Countey Pallatine of Chester But my Lord let us judge of those occasions by their events what became of this proud Earle was he not soon after slain in Evesham was he not left naked in the field and left a shamfull spectacle his head being cut off from his shoulders his privie parts from his body and laid on each side of his nose And did not God extinguish his race after which in a lawfull Parliament at Westminster confirmed in a following Parliament of Westminster were not all the Lords that followed Leycester disinheried And when that fool Glocester after the death of Leycester whom he had formerly forsaken made himself the head of a second Rebellion and called in strangers for which not long before he had cried out against the King was not he in the end after that he had seen the slaughter of so many of the Barons the spoil of their Castles and Lordships constrained to submit himself as all the survivers did of which they that sped best payed their fines and ransomes the King reserving his younger Son the Earledomes of Leycester and Derby COUNS. Well Sir we have disputed this King to the grave though it be true that he out-lived all his enemies and brought them to confusion yet those examples did not terrifie their successors but the Earle Marshall and Hereford threatned King Edward the first with a new War IUST They did so but after the death of Hereford the Earle Marshall repented himself and to gain the Kings favour he made him heir of all his Lands But what is this to the Parliament for there was never King of this land had more given him for the time of his raign then Edward the Son of Henry the third had COUNS. How doth that appear JUST In this sort my good Lord in this Kings third year he had given him the fifteenth part of all goods In his sixt year a twentyeth In his twelfth year a twentyeth in his fourteenth year he had escuage to wit forty shillings of every Knights Fee in this eighteenth year he had the eleventh part of all moveable goods within the Kingdome in his nineteenth year the tenth part of all Church livings in England Scotland and Ireland for six years by agreement from the Pope in his three and twentieth year he raised a taxe upon Wool and fels and on a day caused all the religious houses to be searched and all the treasure in them to be seized and brought to his coffers excusing himself by laying the fault upon his Treasurer he had also in the end of the same year of all goods of all Burgesses and of the Commons the 10th part in the 25th year of the Parliament of St. Edmundsbury he had an 18th part of the goods of the Burgesses and of the people in generall the tenth part He had also the same year by putting the Clergie out of his protection a fifth part of their goods and in the same year he set a great taxe upon Woolls to wit from half a marke to 40s upon every sack whereupon the Earle Marshall and the Earle of Hereford refusing to attend the King into Flanders pretended the greevances of the people Put in the end the King having pardoned them and confirmed the great Charter he had the ninth penny of all goods from the Lords and Commons of the Clergie in the South he had the tenth penny and in
published that all men might plead it for their advantage but a Charter was left in deposito in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time and so to his successours Stephen Langthon who was ever a Traytor to the King produced this Charter and shewed it to the Barons thereby encouraging them to make war against the King Neither was it the old Charter simply the Barons sought to have confirmed but they presented unto the King other articles and orders tending to the alteration of the whole commonwealth which when the King refused to signe the Barons presently put themselves into the field and in rebellious and outragious fashion sent the King word except he confirmed them they would not desist from making war against him till he had satisfied them therein And in conclusion the King being betrayed of all his Nobility in effect was forced to grant the Charter of Magna Charta and Charta de Forestis at such time as he was invironed with an Army in the Meadowes of Staynes which harters being procured by force Pope Innocent afterward disavowed and threatned to curse the Barons if they submitted not themselves as they ought to their Soveraigne Lord which when the Lords refused to obey the King entertained an army of strangers for his own defence wherewith having mastered and beaten the Barons they called in Lewes of France a most unnaturall resolution to be their King Neither was Magna Charta a Law in the 19. of Henry the 2d but simply a Charter which hee confirmed in the 21. of his reigne and made it a Law in the 25. according to Littletons opinion Thus much for the beginning of the Great Cbarter which had first an obscure birth from usurpation and was secondly fostered and shewed to the world by rebellion JUST I cannot deny but that all your Lordship hath said is true but seeing the Charters were afterwards so many times confirmed by Parliament and made Lawes and that there is nothing in them unequall or prejudicial to the King doth not your Honour think it reason they should be observed COUNS. Yes and observed they are in all that the state of a King can permit for no man is destroyed but by the Lawes of the land no man disseized of his inheritance but by the Lawes of the land imprisoned they are by the prerogative where the King hath cause to suspect their loyalty for were it otherwise the King should never come to the knowledge of any conspiracy or Treason against his Person or state and being imprisoned yet doth not any man suffer death but by the Law of the land JUST But may it please your Lordship were not Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins imprisoned being no suspition of Treason there COUNS. They were but it cost them nothing JUST And what got the King by it for in the conclusion besides the murmure of the people Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins having greatly overshot themselves and repented them a fine of 5 or 600l. was laid on his Majesty for their offences for so much their diet cost his Majesty COUNS. I know who gave the advice sure I am that it was none of mine But thus I say if you consult your memory you shall find that those Kings which did in their own times comfirme the Magna Charta did not onely imprison but they caused of their Nobility and others to be slain without hearing or tryall JUST My good Lord if you will give me leave to speak freely I say that they are not well advised that perswade the King not to admit the Magna Charta with the former reservations For as the King can never lose a farthing by it as I shall prove anon So except England were as Naples is and kept by Garrisons of another Nation it is impossible for a King of England to greaten and inrich himself by any way so assuredly as by the love of his people For by one rebellion the King hath more losse then by a hundred years observance of Magna Charta For therein have our Kings been forced to compound with Roagues and Rebels and to pardon them yea the state of the King the Mouarchie the Nobility have been endangered by them COUNS. Well Sir let that passe why should not our Kings raise mony as the Kings of France do by their letters and Edicts onely for since the time of Lewes the 11. of whom it is said that he freed the French Kings of their wardship the French Kings have seldome assembled the states for any contribution JUST I will tell you why the strength of England doth consist of the people and Yeomanry the Pefants of France have no courage nor armes In France every Village and Burrough hath a castle which the French call Chasteau Villain every good City hath a good Cittadell the King hath the Regiments of his guards and his men at armes alwayes in pay yea the Nobility of France in whom the strength of France consists doe alwayes assist the King in those leavies because themselves being free they made the same leavies upon ther Tennants But my Lord if you marke it France was never free in effect from civill wars and lately it was endangered either to be conquered by the Spaniard or to be cantonized by the rebellious French themselves since that freedome of Wardship But my good Lord to leave this digression that wherein I would willingly satisfie your Lordship is that the Kings of England have never received losse by Parliament or prejudice COUNS. No Sir you shall find that the subjects in Parliament have decreed great things to the disadvantage and dishonour of our Kings in former times JUST My good Lord to avoid confusion I will make a short repitition of them all then your Lordship may object where you see cause And I doubt not but to give your Lordship satisfaction In the sixt year of Henry the 3d there was no dispute the house gave the King two shillings of every plough land within England and in the end of the same year he had escuage payed him to wit for every Knights fee two marks in silver In the fifth year of that King the Lords demaunded the confirmation of the Great Charter which the Kings Councell for that time present excused alleadging that those priviledges were exhorted by force during the Kings Minoritie and yet the King was pleased to send forth his writ to the Sheriffes of every Countrey requiring them to certifie what those liberties were and how used and in exchange of the Lords demaund because they pressed him so violently the King required all the castles and places which the Lords held of his and had held in the time of his Father with those Manors and Lordships which they had heretofore wrested from the Crown which at that time the King being provided of forces they durst not deny in the 14 year he had the 15. peny of all goods given him upon condition to confirme the Great Charter For by reason
delivered in English Histories and indeed the King not long before had spent much Treasure in aiding the Duke of Britain to no purpose for he drew over the King but to draw on good conditions for himself as the Earle of March his father in law now did As the English Barons did invite Lewes of France not long before as in elder times all the Kings and States had done and in late years the Leaguers of France entertained the Spaniards and the French Protestants and Netherlands Queen Elizabeth not with any purpose to greaten those that aide them but to purchase to themselves an advantageous peace But what say the Histories to this denyall They say with a world of payments there mentioned that the King had drawn the Nobility drie And besides that whereas not long before great summes of money were given and the same appointed to be kept in four Castles and not to be expended but by the advice of the Peeres it was beleeved that the same Treasure was yet unspent COUNS. Good Sir you have said enough judge you whether it were not a dishonour to the King to be so tyed as not to expend his Treasure but by other mens advice as it were by their licence IUST Surely my Lord the King was well advised to take the money upon any condition and they were fooles that propounded the restraint for it doth not appear that the King took any great heed to those overseers Kings are bound by their pietie and by no other obligation In Queen Maries time when it was thought that she was with Child it was propounded in Parliament that the rule of the Realme should be given to King Philip during the minoritie of the hoped Prince or Princesse and the King offered his assurance in great summes of money to relinquish the Government at such time as the Prince or Princesse should be of age At which motion when all else were silent in the House Lord Daâ—res who was none of the wisest asked who shall sue the Kings Bonds which ended the dispute for what other Bond is between a King and his vassals then the Bond of the Kings Faith But my good Lord the King notwithstanding the denyall at that time was with gifts from particular persons and otherwise supplyed for proceeding of his journey for that time into France he took with him 30 Caskes filled with Silver and Coyne which was a great Treasure in those dayes And lastly notwithstanding the first denyall in the Kings absence he had Escuage granted him to wit 20s of every Knights Fee COUNS. What say you then to the 28th year of that King in which when the King demanded reliefe the States would not consent except the the same former order had bin taken for the appointing of 4 overseers for the treasure as also that the Lord chief Iustice and the L. Chancelor should be chosen by the States with some Barons of the Exchequer and other officers JUST My good Lord admit the King had yeelded their demands then whatsoever had been ordained by those Magistrates to the dislike of the Common-wealth the people had been without remedie whereas while the King made them they had their appeal and other remedies But those demands vanished and in the end the King had escuage given him without any of their conditions It is an excellent vertue in a King to have patience and to give way to the furie of mens passions The Whale when he is strucken by the fisherman growes into that furie that he cannot be resisted but will overthrow all the Ships and Barkes that come into his way but when he hath tumbled a while he is drawn to the shore with a twin'd thred COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament in the 29th of that King IUST I say that the Commons being unable to pay the King relieves himself upon the richer sort and so it likewise happened in the 33. of that King in which he was relieved chiefly by the Citie of London But my good Lord in the Parliament in London in the 38th year he had given him the tenth of all the revenues of the Church for 3 years and three marks of every Knights Fee throughout the Kingdome upon his promise and oath upon the observing of Magna Charta but in the end of the same year the King being then in France he was denyed the aides which he required What is this to the danger of a Parliament especially at this time they had reason to refuse they had given so great a summe in the beginning of the same year And again because it was known that the King had but pretended war with the King of Castile with whom he had secretly contracted an alliance and concluded a Marriage betwixt his Son Edward and the Lady Elenor. These false fires do but fright Children and it commonly falls out that when the cause given is known to be false the necessitie pretended is thought to be fained Royall dealing hath evermore Royall successe and as the King was denyed in the eight and thirtieth year so was he denyed in the nine and thirtieth year because the Nobilitie and the people saw it plainely that the K. was abused by the Pope who as well in despite to Manfred bastard Son to the Emperour Frederick the second as to cozen the King and to waste him would needes bestow on the King the Kingdome of Sicily to recover which the King sent all the Treasure he could borrow or scrape to the Pope and withall gave him letters of credence for to take up what he could in Italy the King binding himself for the payment Now my good Lord the wisdome of Princes is seen in nothing more then in their enterprises So how unpleasing it was to the State of England to consume the Treasure of the Land and in the conquest of Sicily so far off and otherwise for that the English had lost Normandie under their noses and so many goodly parts of France of their own proper inheritances the reason of the denyall is as well to be considered as the denyall COUNS. Was not the King also denyed a Subsidie in the fortie first of his reigne IUST No my Lord for although the King required money as before for the impossible conquest of Sicily yet the House offered to give 52000 marks which whether he refused or accepted is uncertain and whilst the King dreamed of Sicily the Welsh invaded and spoyled the borders of England for in the Parliament of London when the King urged the House for the prosecuting the conquest of Sicily the Lords utterly disliking the attempt urged the prosecuting of the Welshmen which Parliament being proroged did again assemble at Oxford and was called the mad Parliament which was no other then an assembly of rebels for the royal assent of the King which gives life to all Lawes form'd by the three estates was not a royall assent when both the King and the Prince were constrained to yeeld to the
Lord rather to be commended as preparing against all danger of Innovation COUNS. It should be so but call your observation to accompt and you shall find it as I say for indeed such a jealousie hath been held ever since the time of the Civill wars over the Military greatness of our Nobles as made them have little will to bend their studies that wayes wherefore let every man provide according as he is rated in the Muster Book you understand me IUST Very well my Lord as what might be replyed in the perceiving so much I have ever to deal plainly and freely with your Lordship more fear'd at home popular violence then all the forreine that can be made for it can never be in the power of any forraigne Prince without a Papisticall party rather to disorder or endanger his Majesties Estate COUNS. By this it seems it is no lesse dangerous for a King to leave the power in the people then in the Nobility IUST My good Lord the wisdome of our own age is the foolishnesse of another the time present ought not to be preferr'd to the policy that was but the policy that was to the time present so that the power of the Nobility being now withered and the power of the people in the flower the care to content them would not be neglected the way to win them often practized or at least to defend them from oppression The motive of all dangers that ever this Monarchy hath undergone should be carefully heeded for this Maxime hath no posterne Potestas humana radicatur in voluntatibus hominum And now my Lord for King Edward it is true though he were not subject to force yet was he subject to necessity which because it was violent he gave way unto it Potestas saith Pithagoras juxta necessitatem habitat And it is true that at the request of the house he discharged and put from him those before named which done he had the greatest gift but one that ever he received in all his dayes to wit from every person man and woman above the age of fourteen years 4d of old mony which made many Millions of Groats worth 61. of our mony This he had in generall besides he had of every benificed Priest 12d And of the Nobility and Gentry I know not how much for it is not set down Now my good Lord what lost the King by satisfying the desires of the Parliament house for assoon as he had the money in purse he recalled the Lords and restored them and who durst call the King to accompt when the Assembly were dissolued Where the word of a King is there is power saith Ecclesiasticus who shall say unto him what doest thou saith the same Author for every purpose there is a time and judgement the King gave way to the time and his judgement perswaded him to yeeld to necessity Consularius nemo melior est quam tempus COUNS. But yet you see the king was forc'd to yeeld to their demaunds JUST Doth your Lordship remember the saying of Monsier de Lange that he that hath the profit of the war hath also the honour of the war whether it be by battaile or retreate the King you see had the profit of the Parliament and therefore the honour also what other end had the King then to supply his wants A wise man hath evermore respect unto his ends and the King also knew that it was the love that the people bare him that they urged the removing of those Lords there was no man among them that sought himself in that desire but they all sought the king as by the successe it appeared My good Lord hath it not been ordinary in England and in France to yeeld to the demaunds of rebels did not King Richard the second graunt pardon to the outragious rogues and murtherers that followed Iack Straw and Wat Tâ—ler after they had murthered his Chancellor his Treasurer Chief Iustice and others brake open his Exchequer and committed all manner of outrages and villanies and why did he do it but to avoid a greater danger I say the Kings have then yeelded to those that hated them and their estates to wit to pernicious rebels And yet without dishonour shall it be called dishonour for the King to yeeld to honest desires of his subjects No my Lord those that tell the King those tales fear their own dishonour and not the Kings for the honour of the King is supreame and being guarded by Iustice and piety it cannot receive neither wound nor stain COUNS. But Sir what cause have any about our King to fear a Parliament IUST The same cause that the Earle of Suffolke had in Richard the seconds time and the Treasurer Fartham with others for these great Officers being generally hated for abusing both the King and the Subject at the request of the States were discharged and others put in their roomes COUN And was not this a dishonour to the King IUST Certainly no for King Richard knew that his Grandfather had done the like and though the King was in his heart utterly against it yet had he the profit of this exchange for Suffolke was fined at 20000 markes and 1000l lands COUNS. Well Sir we will speak of those that fear the Parliament some other time but I pray you go on with that that happened in the troublesome raigne of Richard the second who succeeded the Grandfather being dead IUST That King my good Lord was one of the most unfortunate Princes that ever England had he was cruell extreame prodigall and wholly carryed away with his two Minions Suffolk and the Duke of Ireland by whose ill advice and others he was in danger to have lost his estate which in the end being led by men of the like temper he miserably lost But for his subsedies he had given him in his first year being under age two tenths and two fifteenes In which Parliament Alice Peirce who was removed in King Edwards time with Lancaster Latimer and Sturry were confiscate and banished in his second year at the Parliament at Glocester the King had a marke upon every sack of Wooll and 6d the pound upon wards In his third year at the Parliament at Winchester the Commons were spared and a subsedy given by the better sort the Dukes gave 20 markes and Earles 6 markes Bishoppes and Abbots with myters six markes every marke 35. 4d and every Knight Iustice Esquire Shrieve Person Vicar Chaplaine paid proportionably according to their estates COUNS. This me thinks was no great matter IUST It is true my Lord but a little mony went far in those dayes I my self once moved it in Parliament in the time of Queen Elizabeth who desired much to spare the Common people I did it by her Commandement but when we cast up the subsedy Books we found the summe but small when the 30l men were left out In the beginning of his fourth year a tenth with a fifteen were granted upon
still called Impost because it was imposed after the ordinary rate of payement had lasted many years But we do now a dayes understand those things to be impositions which are raised by the command of Princes without the advice of the Common-wealth though as I take it much of that which is now called custome was at the first imposed by Prerogative royall Now whether it be time or consent that makes them just I cannot define were they just because new and not justified yet by time or unjust because they want a generall consent yet is this rule of Aristotle verified in respect of his Majestie Minus timent homines in justum pati à principe quem cultorem Dei putant Yea my Lord they are also the more willingly borne because all the world knows they are no new Invention of the Kings And if those that advised his Majestie to impose them had raised his lands as it was offered them to 20000l more then it was and his wards to asmuch as aforesaid they had done him farre more acceptable service But they had their own ends in refusing the one and accepting the other If the land had been raised they could not have selected the best of it for themselves If the impositions had not been laid some of them could not have their silks other pieces in farme which indeed grieved the subject ten times more then that which his Majestie enjoyeth But certainly they made a great advantage that were the advisers for if any tumult had followed his Majesty ready way had been to have delivered them over to the people COUNS. But think you that the King would have delivered them if any troubles had followed IUST I know not my Lord it was Machiavels counsell to Caesar Borgia to doe it and King H the 8. delivered up Empson and Dudley yea the same King when the great Cardinall Woolsey who governed the King and all his estate had by requiring the sixt part of every mans goods for the King raised a rebellion the King I say disavowed him absolutely that had not the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk appeased the people the Cardinall had sung no more Masse for these are the words of our Story The King then came to Westminster to the Cardinals Palace and assembled there a great Councell in which he protested that his mind was never to aske any thing of his commons which might sound to the breach of his Laws Wherefore he then willed them to know by whose means they were so strictly given forth Now my Lord how the Cardinall would have shifted himself by saying I had the opinion of the Iudges had not the rebellion been appeased I greatly doubt COUNS. But good Sir you blanch my question and answer me by examples I aske you whether or no in any such tumult the people pretending against any one or two great Officers the King should deliver them or defend them IUST My good Lord the people have not stayed for the Kings delivery neither in England nor in France Your Lordship knows how the Chancellour Treasurer and Chief Iustice with many others at severall times have been used by the Rebels And the Marshals Constables and Treasurers in France have been cut in pieces in Charles the sixt his time Now to your Lordships question I say that where any man shall give a King perilous advice as may either cause a Rebellion or draw the peoples love from the King I say that a King shall be advised to banish him But if the King do absolutely command his servant to do any thing displeasing to the Common-wealth and to his own perill there is the King bond in honour to defend him But my good Lord for conclusion there is no man in England that will lay any invention ether grievous or against law upon the Kings Majesty and therefore your Lordships must share it amongst you COUNS. For my part I had no hand in it I think Ingram was be that propounded it to the Treasurer IUST Alas my good Lord every poor waiter in the Custome-house or every promooter might have done it there is no invention in these things To lay impositions and sell the Kings lands are poor and common devices It is true that Ingram and his fellows are odious men and therefore his Majesty pleas'd the people greatly to put him from the Coffership It is better for a Prince to use such a kind of men then to countenance them hangmen are necessary in a common wealth yet in the Netherlands none but a hangmans sonne will marry a hangmans daughter Now my Lord the last gathering which Henry the seventh made was in his twentieth year wherein he had another benevolence both of the Clergy and Laity a part of which taken of the poorer sort he ordained by his testament that it should be restored And for King Henry the eight although he was left in a most plentifull estate yet he wonderfully prest his people with great payments for in the beginning of his time it was infinite that he spent in Masking and Tilting Banquetting and other vanities before he was entred into the most consuming expence of the most fond and fruitlesse warre that ever King undertook In his fourth yeare he had one of the greatest subsedies that ever was granted for besides two fifteens and two dismes he used Davids Law of Capitation or head money and had of every Duke ten marks of every Earl five pounds of every Lord four pounds of every Knight four marks and every man rated at 8l in goods 4. marks and so after the rate yea every man that was valued but at 401 paid 12d and every man and woman above 15. yeares 4d He had also in his sixt yeare divers subsedies granted him In his fourteenth their was a tenth demanded of every mans goods but it was moderated In the Parliament following the Clergie gave the King the half of their spirituall livings for one yeare and of the Laity there was demanded 800000l which could not be leavied in England but it was a marvellous great gift that the king had given him at that time In the Kings seventeenth yeare was the Rebellion before spoken of wherein the King disavowed the Cardinall In his seventeenth yeare he had the tenth and fifteenth given by Parliament which were before that time paid to the Pope And before that also the moneys that the King borrowed in his fifteenth yeare were forgiven him by Parliament in his seventeenth yeare In his 35. yeare a subsedy was granted of 4d the pound of every man worth in goods from 20s to 5l from 5l to 10l and upwards of every pound 2s And all strangers denisens and others doubled this summe strangers not being inhabitants above 16. yeares 4d a head All that had Lands Fees and Annuities from 20. to 5. and so double as they did for goods And the Clergy gave 6d the pound In the thirty seventh yeare a Benevolence was taken not voluntary but rated by
not more honourable and more safe for the King that the Subject pay by perswasion then to have them constrained If they be contented to whip themselves for the King were it not better to give them the Rod into their hands then to commit them to the Executioner Certainly it is farre more happy for a Soveraigne Prince that a Subject open his purse willingly then that the same be opened by violence Besides that when impositions are laid by Parliament they are gathered by the authority of the Law which as aforesaid rejecteth all complaints and stoppeth every mutinous mouth It shall ever be my prayer that the King embrace the Councel of Honour and safety and let other Princes imbrace that of force COUNS. But good Sir it is his Prerogative which the King stands upon it is the Prerogative of the Kings that the Parliaments do all diminish IUST If your Lordship would pardon me I would say then that your Lordships objection against Parliaments is ridiculous In former Parliaments three things have been supposed dishonour of the King The first that the Subjects have conditioned with the King when the King hath needed them to have the great Charter confirmed The second that the Estates have made Treasurers for the necessary and profitable disbursing of those sums by them given to the end that the Kings to whom they were given should expend them for their own defence for the defence of the Common-wealth The third that these have prest the King to discharge some great Officers of the Crown and to elect others As touching the first my Lord I would fain learn what disadvantage the Kings of this Land have had by confirming the great Charter the breach of which have served onely men of your Lordships rank to assist their own passions and to punish and imprison at their own discretion the Kings poor Subjects Concerning their private hatred with the colour of the Kings service for the Kings Majestie take no mans inheritance as I have said before nor any mans life but the Law of the Land according to the Charter Neither doth his Majesty imprison any man matter of practice which concerns the preservation of his estate excepted but by the law of the land And yet he useth his prerogative as all the Kings of England have ever used to for the supream reason cause to practise many things without the advice of the law As insurrections and rebellions it useth the marshall and not the common law without any breach of the Charter the intent of the Charter considered truely Neither hath any Subject made complaint or been grieved in that the Kings of this land for their own safeties and preservation of their estates have used their Prerogatives the great Ensigne on which there is written soli Deo And my good Lord was not Buckingham in England and Byron in France condemned their Peers uncalled And withall was not Byron utterly contrary to the custome priviledges of the French denyed an advocate to assist his defence For where lawes forecast cannot provide remedies for future dangers Princes are forced to assist themselves by their Prerogatives But that which hath been ever grievous and the cause of many troubles very dangerous is that your Lordships abusing the reasons of state do punish and imprison the K. Subjects at your pleasure It is you my Lords that when Subjects have sometimes need of the Kings prerogative do then use the strength of the Law and when they require the law you afflict them with the prerogative and tread the great Charter which hath been confirmed by 16 Acts of Parliament under your feet as a torn parchment or waste paper COUNS. Good Sir which of us do in this sort break the great Charter perchance you mean that we have advised the King to lay the new impositious IUST No my Lord there is nothing in the great Charter against impositions and besides that necessity doth perswade them And if necessity do in somewhat excuse a private man à fortiori it may then excuse a Prince Again the Kings Majesty hath profit and increase of revenue by the impositions But there are of your Lordships contrarie to the direct Letter of the Charter that imprison the Kings Subjects and deny them the benefit of the Law to the Kings disprofit And what do you otherwise thereby if the impositions be in any sort grievous but Renovare dolores And with all digg out of the dust the long buried memorie of the Subjects former intentions with their Kings COUNS. What mean you by that IUST I will tell your Lordship when I dare in the mean time it is enough for me to put your Lordship in mind that all the Estates in the World in the offence of the people have either had profit or necessity to perswade them to adventure it of which if neither be urgent and yet the Subject exceedingly grieved your Lordship may conjecture that the House will be humble suitors for a redresse And if it be a Maxime in policy to please the people in all things indifferent and never suffer them to be beaten but for the Kings benefit for there are no blows forgotten with the smart but those then I say to make them Vassals to Vassals is but to batter down those mastering buildings erected by K Henry the 7. fortified by his Son by which the people the Gentry of England were brought to depend upon the King alone Yea my good Lord our late dear Soveraign Q. Eliz. kept them up to their advantage as wel repaired as ever Prince did Defend me spend me faith the Irish Churle COUNS. Then you think that this violent breach of the Charter will be the cause of seeking the conformation of it in the next Parliament which otherwise could never have bin moved IUST I know not my good Lord perchance not for if the House presse the King to graunt unto them all that is theirs by the Law they cannot in Iustice refuse the King all that is his by the Law And where will be the issue of such a contention I dare not divine but sure I am that it will tend to the prejudice both of the King and Subject COUNS. If they dispute not their own liberties why should they then the Kings liberties which we call his Prerogative IUST Among so many and so divers Spirits no man can foretell what may be propounded but howsoever if the matter be not slightly handled on the Kings behalf these disputes will soon dissolve for the King hath so little need of his Prerogative so great advantage by the Lawes as the fear of imparing the one to wit the Prerogative is so impossible and the burthen of the other to wit the Law so weighty as but by a branch of the Kings Prerogative namely of his remission and pardon the Subject is no way able to undergo it This my Lord is no matter of flourish that I have said but it is the truth
Commissioners which because one of the Aldermen refused to pay he was sent for a souldier into Scotland He had also another great subsedy of six shillings the pound of the Clergy and two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shillings the pound upon Lands In the second yeare of Edward the sixt the Parliament gave the King an aid of twelve pence the pound of goods of his Naturall subjects and two shillings the pound of strangers and this to continue for three yeares and by the statute of the second and third of Edward the sixt it may appear the same Parliament did also give a second aid as followeth to wit of every Ewe kept in severall pastures 3d of every weather kept as aforesaid 2d of every sheep kept in the Common 1d ob The House gave the King also 8d the pound of every woollen cloath made for the sale throughout England for three years In the third and fourt of the King by reason of the troublesome gathering of the poly money upon sheep and the tax upon cloath this act of subsedy was repeal'd and other relief given the King and in the seventh yeare he had a subsedy and two fifteens In the first yeare of Queen Mary tunnage and poundage were granted In the second yeare a subsedy was given to King Philip and to the Queen she had also a third subsedy in Annis 4. 5. Eliz. Reg Now my Lord for the Parliaments of the late Queens time in which there was nothing new neither head money nor sheep money nor escuage nor any of these kinds of payments was required but onely the ordinary subsedies and those as easily graunted as demanded I shall not need to trouble your Lordship with any of them neither can I inform your Lordship of all the passages and acts which have passed for they are not extant nor printed COUNS. No it were but time lost to speak of the latter and by those that are already remembred we may judge of the rest for those of the greatest importance are publick But I pray you deal freely with me what you think would be done for his Majesty If he should call a Parliament at this time or what would be required at his Majesties hands IUST The first thing that would be required would be the same that was required by the Commons in the thirteenth yeare of Hen. the eight to wit that if any man of the commons house should speak more largely then of duty he ought to do all such offences to be pardoned and that to be of record COUNS. So might every Companion speak of the King what they list IUST No my Lord the reverence which a Vassall oweth to his Soveraigne is alwaies intended for every speech howsoever it must import the good of the King and his estate and so long it may be easily pardoned otherwise not for in Queen Elizabeths time who gave freedome of speech in all Parliaments when Wentworth made those motions that were but supposed dangerous to the Queens estate he was imprisoned in the Tower notwithstanding the priviledge of the house and there died COUNS. What say you to the Scicilian vespers remembred in the last Parliament IUST I say he repented him heartily that used that speech and indeed besides that it was seditious this example held not The French in Scicily usurped that Kingdome they neither kept law nor faith they took away the inheritance of the Inhabitants they took from them their wives and ravished their daughters committing all other insolencies that could be imagined The Kings Majesty is the Naturall Lord of England his Vassals of Scotland obey the English Laws if they break them they are punished without respect Yea his Majesty put one of his Barons to a shamefull death for being consenting onely to the death of a Common Fencer And which of these ever did or durst commit any outrage in England but to say the truth the opinion of packing the last was the cause of the contention and disorder that happened COUNS. Why sir do you not think it best to compound a Parliament of the Kings servants and others that shall in all obey the Kings desires IUST Certainly no for it hath never succeeded well neither on the kings part nor on the subjects as by the Parliament before-remembred your Lordship may gather for from such a composition do arise all jealousies and all contentions It was practized in elder times to the great trouble of the kingdome and to the losse and ruine of many It was of latter time used by King Henry the eight but every way to his disadvantage When the King leaves himself to his people they assure themselves that they are trusted and beloved of their king and there was never any assembly so barborus as not to answer the love and trust of their King Henry the sixt when his estate was in effect utterly overthrown and utterly impoverished at the humble request of his Treasurer made the same known to the House Or other wise using the Treasurers own words He humbly desired the King to take his Staffe that he might save his wardship COUNS. But you know they will presently be in hand with those impositions which the King hath laid by his own Royall Prerogative IUST Perchance not my Lord but rather with those impositions that have been by some of your Lordships laid upon the King which did not some of your Lordships fear more then you do the impositions laid upon the Subjects you would never disswade his Majesty from a Parliament For no man doubted but that his Majesty was advised to lay those impositions by his Councell and for particular things on which they were laid the advice came from petty fellows though now great ones belonging to the Custome-House Now my Lord what prejudice hath his Majesty his Revenue being kept up if the impositions that were laid by the generall Councell of the Kingdome which takes off all grudging and complaint COUNS. Yea Sir but that which is done by the King with the advice of his private or privy Councell is done by the Kings absolute power IUST And by whose power it is done in parliament but by the Kings absolute power Mistake it not my Lord The three Estates do but advise as the privy Councell doth which advice if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings acceptation both the publick and private advices be but as empty Egg shels and what doth his Majesty lose if some of those things which concerns the poorer sort to be made free again and the Revenue kept up upon that which is superfluous Is it a losse to the King to be beloved of the Commons If it be revenue which the King seeks is it not better to take it of those that laugh then of those that cry Yea if all be conten to pay upon moderation change of the Species Is it