the Parliament of England to do this homage And escuage was first invented for them and the Scots as Ployden saith against whom War was made by the Kings of England as rebels not as enemies for that they were subject to England and were within the Sea And so those of Wales were subject to the King of England Vide Ploid fol. 129. B. though they were not parcel of the body of the Realm of England And hence was it that Henry the third upon the often revolts of the Welch endeavoured to assume the territory of Wales as forfeited to himself and conferred the same upon Edward the Longshank his Heir-apparent who took upon him the name of Prince of Wales yet could not obtain the possession or any profit thereby for the former Prince of Wales continued his government for which cause between him and the said Edward Wars did rage whereof the said Edward complaining to King Henry his Father An. 1257. fol. 914. who made him this answer as Mathew Paris reciteth it Quid ad me tuâ— terra ex dono meo est Exerce vires primitivas famam excita juvenilem de caetero timeant inimici c. What is your territory to me it is of my gift Advance your primitive forces stir up your juvenile renown and as for the residue let your enemies fear you c. which according to his Fathers Heroical incouragement he fortunately enterprised for as the Comaedian to that purpose Vt quisque filium suum vult esse Terent. ita est And not long after sundry Battails were fought between the said Edward both before and after he was King of England with Leolan the last Prince of the Welch blood and David his brother until both the said Prince and his said Brother were overcome by the said Edward after he was King of England who thereby first made a conquest of Wales and afterwards annexed it to the Crown of England The territory of Wales being thus united the said King Edward used means to obtain the peoples good will thereby to strengthen that which he had gotten by effusion of blood with the good will and affection of his subjects who promised their most harty and humble obedience if it would please the King to remain among them himself in person or else to appoint over them a governour that was of their own Nation and Countrey Whereupon the cunning King projecteth a pretty policy and sendeth his Queen being then great with child into Wales where she was delivered of a Son in the Castle of Carnarvon The King thereupon sent for all the Barons of Wales and remembred them of their submiss assurance tendred according to their former proffers if they should have a governour of their own countrey and who could not speak one word of English whose life and conversation no man was able to stain or blemish and required their offered obedience whereunto they yeilding the King presented unto them his said Son born at Carnarvon Castle whom thereupon the Barons unanimously embraced for their Prince and afterwards made their homage to him at Crester Anno. 29. Edw. 1. as Prince of Wales And though the Welch Nation do not willingly acknowledge the aforesaid conquest but refer it rather to this composition yet as Sir John Davis saith Edward the first made a conquest of the Dominion of Wales Davys vep fol. 41. B. as it is expressed in his charter or statute of Rutland where it is said Divina providentia terram Walliae cum incolis suis prius nobis jure feodali subjectam in proprietatis nostrae dominium convertit coronae Regis nostri annexit And thereupon according to the course and power of conquerours as the same Author saith he changed their Laws and customs as it is also expressed in the said charter or statute For as to the Laws and customs he saith Quasdam illarum de concilio procerum regni nostri delevimus Quasdam correximus etiam quasdam alias adjiciendas faciend as decrevimus c. Some of them by the council of the Peers of our Realm have we expunged some have we corrected and also some have we determined to be made and added and as another saith divided some parts thereof into shires and appointed Laws for the government of that people Yet though the King had gained the property of that Kingdom and that the Inhabitants of it de Alto Basso as it is recited in the said charter had submitted themselves to his will yet it appears that he did admit all those who would be ruled and governed by the common Law of England which he had established among them by the said charter to have Frank Tenement and Inheritance in their Lands for there he prescribeth a form of the writ de Assize de novel disseisin de mort Dauncaster de dower to be brought of Lands in Wales according to the course of the common Law of England and when they wanted a writ of form to supply the present case they used the writ Quod ei deforceat 2. E. 4.12 A. Thus was the Dominion of Wales united to the crown of England by the valour and wisdome of Edward the first and the principality of it hath constantly since appertained to the Eldest Sons of the Kings of England Ployd Com. fol. 126. B. as Ployden saith from all time that there hath been a Prince of Wales or as Sir John Doderidge to the eldest Son or the next succeeding Heir For Henry the third first made Edward the first his eldest Son Prince of Wales and gave to him the Dominion and dignity of it and also Edward the second after he was King of England created Edward the third in his life time Prince of Wales and the Lady Mary eldest Danghter of King Henry the eight Doderidge principality of Wales fol. 39. and afterwards Queen of England did carry the title of Princess of Wales Et Sic de Similibus Yet notwithstanding this conquest by Edward the first and general submission of the Welch were there divers insurrections fomented by them against the former established Government and especially one which happened in his Raign raised by Rice up Meredick who rebelled against the King upon which all the lands of the said Meredick were confiscated as forfeited and seised by the said King Doderidge Prince of Wales fol. 8 and nominally given by his successour Edward the third to Edward the black Prince Prince of Wales for his better maintenance and honourable support and though after the death of the Father they assisted Edward the second his son in his Wars against the Scots Herbert Hen. 6. and got victories for Edward the third and stood firm during all the differences in this realm to his Grandchild Richard the second yet when the unfortunate and fatal Wars happened between the two Houses of York and Lancaster the Welchmen fell from their fidelity to the Crown hoping upon that disasterous
mutation to regain their pristine liberty For as Sir John Baker Hist of England fol. 139. It was always a custom with that Nation at every change of the Princes of England to try conclusions hoping at one time or another to have a day of it and to change their yoke of bondage into Liberty as upon the aforesaid opportunity they began to lift up their hands and heads and under the aspiring command of Owen Glendoer waged a terrible War with Henry the fourth who through the combination and confederacy of the Earl of March and the Lord Firrcy swallowed in his ambitious mind all Wales and the Lands beyond Severn Westwards which were assigned to him for his part but the King being a skilful souldâ—er having ordered and disposed his Army suddenly marched towards the Lords having aâ—â—especial care that they should by no means join with the Welch and so encountering the Lords singly obteined an universal victory and the Welch thereupon abandoned Owen Glendoer who hirking in the Woods was there famished And after the Fate of Henry the fourth Henry the fifth his son knowing the fashion of the Welch Bakers Hist f. 241 that in time of change they would commonly cake advantage to make Inroads upon the borders caused forts and bulwarks in fit places to be erected and placed Garrisons in them for the preventing or repelling any such Incursions yet so prompt and captious were they continually upon the least opportunity to such insurrections Vt nullo modo induci potuerunt as Cambden saith ut servitutis jugum subirent nec ulla ratione res componi Funestissimum inter gentes odium restingui potuit donec Henricus 7. ab illis oriundus salutarem manum jacentibus Britannis perrexerit Henr. 8. eos in parem juris libertatisque conditionem atque nos ipsi Angli sumus acceperit that by no means they could be induced to undergo the yoke of servitude neither by any reason could matten be compounded and the moâ— mortal hatred between those two Nations be extinguished until Henry the Seventh descended of them had extended his soveraign hand to the forlorn Britans and Henry the Eight had received them into the equal condition of right and liberty even as we Englishmen are And indeed Heâ—â—y the Seventh was descended of Owen Tuder who is said to be descended of Cadwallader a Prince of Walâ— wherein the Welch prophecy seemed to them now to be fulfilled that one of the Princes of Wales should be Crowned with the Diadem of Brute which Prince Leolin before vainly aferibed unto himself who therefore was chearfully assisted by the Welchmen to the title of the Crown Herbert H. 8. f. 369 they being desirous according to the former pâ—oposition made by them to Edward the first to have a Prince of their own Nation to rule over them Yet were not the Welchmen fully satisfied with this union but expected a more entire union by laws for notwithstanding the Laws which were established in that Country by Edward the 1. there were 141 Lordships of Marchers which were then neither any part of Wales though formerly conquered out of Wales neither any part of that Shire of England who by the license of the Kings then Reigning Davis cep f. 61. B. had Royall signiories in their severalter itories 9. H. 6.12 152. 11. H. 4.40 and a kind of Palatine jurisdiction and a power to administer Justice to their tenants in every of their territories revoking their own Laws and customs at their pleasure that the writs of ordinary justice out of the Kings court were not for the most part current among them and substituted Officers at their pleasure Herb. H. 8. fo 369. who practised strange and discrepant customs and committed such rapins that nothing was almost safe nor quiet in those parts for by reason of the flight of the offendors from one Lordship to another they had escaped due and condign punishment whereupon the noblest and eldest of that Nation supplicating Henry the eight Herb. ibid. did crave to be received and adopted into the same Laws and priviledges which his other subjects of England enjoyed which moved the King to make the statute of 27. H. 8. c. 26. by which is ordained and enacted that the Principality and Dominion of Wales shall be incorporated united and annexed to the Realm of England altering in many parts the former jurisdiction and Government thereof bringing the same to the like administration of justice as was and yet is usual in England appointing that the Laws of England should take place there and all Welch Laws sinister customs and tenures not agreeing to the laws of England should be thenceforth ever abrogated and abolished and therefore whereas before there had been eight several Shires in Wales besides the County of Monmouth and that some other territories in Wales were then no Shire grounds by reason whereof the laws of England could have no currant passage therein by the said Act there were erected in Wales four other namely the several Shires of Radnor Brecknock Mountgomery and Denbigh by which means the Laws of England there also might be put into execution And further the said Lord Marchers grounds by the same Act were annexed and united partly to the Shires of England and partly to the Shires of Wales next adjoyning as thought then by reason of the vicinity of the place and otherwise most convenient to prevent the perpretating of the aforesaid enormities and odious offences by just and lawful punishments And to make the Union the more honourable and that the noblest of the Welch Nation might participaâ—e of the highest priviledges and chiefest dignities of England according to the Roman precedent it was also ordained that out of the said Shires of Wales there should be one Knight and out of every of the Shire Towns in Wales named in the said Act there be one Burgesse elected after the English manner which Knights and Burgesses so elected and duely upon summons of every Parliament in England returned should have place and voice in the Parliament of England as other the Burgesses and Knights of England used to have And though the said statute doth not make mention of the penalty given upon the Sheriffs false return for such Knights and Burgesses as shall be lawfully elected in Wales and not returned but that those were given by the statute of 23. H. 6. c. 15. against the Sheriffs of England yet shall the Knights and Burgesses of Wales so elected and not returned have the benefit of it by the statute of 27. H. 8. because that statute grants that the Countrey of Wales shall have enjoy inherit all rights priviledges laws within it's Dominions as other subjects of the King born in this Realm for the general words of the statute make all the laws of England aswel Common laws as Statute laws to be of effect in Wales and shall take place there and that the Welchmen shall
Communi omniâ—â— de Hibernia consensu enjoyned and established that Ireland should be Governed by the Laws of England Cok. Com. f. 1. a. 6. which he left in writing under his seal in the Exchequer of Dublin and which afterwards was confirmed by the Charter of Henry the third Davis rep f. 37. a 6. in the thirtieth year of his reign wherein is declared that for the common utility of the Lands in Ireland and the unity of those Lands that all the Laws and customs that are holden in the Kingdome of England be holden in Ireland and that the same Lands be subject to the same Laws and be ruled by them as King John when he was there did firmly enjoyn and therefore willed that all the writs of the common Law which run in England likewise run in Ireland and accordingly was it resolved Trin. 13. Edw. 1. Coram rege in Thesaurie in lenge placite that the same Laws ought to be in the Kingdome of Ireland as in the Kingdome of England and therefore as Sir John Davis saith every County Palatine as well in Ireland as in England was originally parcel of the Davis rep f. 6 7. B. same Realm and derived of the Crown and was alwaies governed by the Law of England and the Lands there were holden by services and tenures of which the common law took notice although the Lord had a several jurisdiction and a signiory separated from the Crown upon consideration of which Sir Edward Coke inferreth this conclusion Cok. Com. f. 14. B. that the unity of Laws is the best means for the unity of Countries as before hath been premised Yet many of the Irish soon after absolutely refused the English Laws preferring their Irish customs which they call their Brehon Law because the Irish call their Judges Brehons and therefore in the Parliament Anno 40. Ed. 3. Cok. ib. In the Parliament holden at Kilkenny in Ireland before Lionell Duke of Clarence being the Lieutenant of that Realm the Brehon Laws were declared to be no Law but a lewd custom which fot that reason were abolished Quia malus usus est abolendus And though that by that statute the Brehon Law which was the common Law of the Irish was declared to be no Law yet was it not absolutely abolished among the meer Irish Davis reports f. 39 but only prohibited and forbidden to be used among the English race and the meer Irish were left at large to be ruled by their barbarous customs as before And therefore for that by those customs bastards had their part with the legitimate women were altogether excluded from Dower that the daughters were not inheritable though their Fathers dyed without Males by the same statute it was Enacted that no compaternity Education of Infants or Marriages be made or had between the English and others in peace with the King with the meer Irish And though the statute made by King John in Ireland and the Ordinance and writ of King Henry the third were general yet is it manifest by all the antient Records of Ireland that the Common Law of England was onely put in execution in that part of Ireland which was reduced and devided into counties and possessed by the English Colonies Vid. Davis 39. a. o. and not in the Irish Counties and territories which were not reduced into Counties until the time of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth For King John made but twelve Counties but the other provinces and territories which are divided into 21. Counties at large being then inhabited for the most part by meer Irish were out of the limits of any Shire ground by the space of three hundred years after the making of the former twelve Counties for it was impossible that the common Law of England should be executed in those Counties or territories for the Common Law of England cannot be put in execution where the writ of the King doth not run but where there is a County and Sheriffe or other Ministers of the Law to serve and return the writs of the King and for this cause were the meer Irish out of the protection of the King because the Law of the King and his writs as Littleton saith Littl. Tom. f. 43. are the things by which a man is protected aided and therefore the meer Irish who had no the benefit of the Law until the time of Henry the eight where any mention is made of the Wars of Ireland are culled enemies the english rebels but by the 33. H. 8. c. 1. by which it is recited that because the King of England did not assume the name stile of King the Irish Inhabitants have not been so obedient to the King of England and his Laws as of right they ought to have been It was Enacted that King Henry the eight his Heirs and Successors shall be for ever Kings of Ireland and shall have the name stile and title of the King of that land with all the honors prerogatives and dignities appertayning to the State and Majesty of a King as united and annexed to the imperiall Crown After which royall union the said difference of the English rebells and Irish enemies is not to be found on Record but all those meer Irish were afterwards reputed and accepted subjects and Leigemen to the Kings and Queens of England and had the benefit and protection of the law of England And afterwards the Irish were more averse from Rebellions and more ready to forsake their Brehon laws and to be ruled by ours the stile and title of the King of Ireland being more pleasing acceptable to them then Lord of Ireland the one denoting a tyrannical arbitrary Government Tholos Syntag. li. 13. c. 1. the other a limited power according to law and equity For such Princes as arrogate to themselves the name of Lords seem to usurp an arbitrary and plenipotentiary power over their subjects which are Proprietors of nothing but at the will of their great Lord. And therefore did the wisest of the Boman Emperors refuse to take upon them that arrogant and absolute title Davis f. 40. B. it properly appertaining only to God but under a King the subjects are free men and have property in their Goods and Frank tenements and inheritance who doth not domineer over them according to his will and pleasure but ruleth them according to Law for as Bracton Non est Rex ubi dominatur voluntas Lib. 1. c. 4. fol. 9. non Lex And accordingly the Kings and Queens of England to the intent that the Laws of England might have a free course in and through all the Realm of Ireland as is expressed in the statute of 11. Eliz. c. 9. did they provide in several Parliaments to wit 3. 4. Ph. and Mary c. 3. and 11. Eliz. c. 9. that Commissions should be awarded to reduce into Shires and hundreds all the Irish Land which were not Shire ground before And
two discordant Nations as before he had done between Wales and England For which his heroick Acts the Fame of his vertue so wrought on the minds of the Scots that great contention intervening between them concerning the succession to the crown Alexander the King of Scots leaving no Heir there being twelve competitors Hollingshed who by several titles laid claim unto the crown all of them referred the decision of that royal case without any constraint and of their own good will as in the Reference is expressed to the final sentence of Edward the first who after six years discussion adjudged the case on Baliols side who indeed had the best title but upon promise to subject the crown of Scotland to him and to swear fealty and homage to him as his sovereign Lord and thereupon is Baliol crowned King of Scotland which being done King Baliol comes to Newcastle upon Tyne where King Edward then lay and there with the chief of the Nobility did swear fealty and do homage to him as their sovereign Lord except Bruce who was the next Heir to the crown King Edward thus became the sovereign Umpire and supreme Judge of Scotland to whom the Nobles as the King himself before had done appealed for Justice against the King And because King Edward would not permit King Baliol a Procurator but caused him to defend his cause himself in the Ordinary place in a rage at his return he defyeth King Edward renounceth his allegiance as illegally made without the Consent of the States Hollingshed For which King Balioll being summoned to appeare at Newcastle and refusing to come King Edward triumphantly with a mighty army invaded Scotland Barwick is first taken and afterwards the Castles of Dunbar Roxborrough Edinborrough Sterling and St. Johns and John Warren Earle of Sussex and Surrey is made Warden of all Scotland Sir Hugh Cressingham Treasurer and Bransly Chief Justice to take in his name the homages and fealties of all such at held Lands of the Crown and to be General Guardian of the whole Kingdom And notwithstanding Balioll in Parliament with the consent of the States of Scotland did tender his submission and did homage and swear fealty unto King Edward as his soveraign Lord yet is he for his former infidelity secured and sent into England but not long after though the Scots were without an head their King being in England and all their great men in captivity and subjection yet they wanted not an heart to shake off servitude and animated by one William Wallis a poor private Gentleman though nobly descended made an audacious and dangerous attempt who with a forlorn and desperate rabble like himself fell suddenly on the English Officers and slew Sir Hugh Cressingham with six thousand English recovered many Castles and regained the Town of Barwick And seconded by success so increased by ranging and rowling up and down many of the nobler sort resorting to him that within a short space his forces amounted to a copious and Warlike Army and was in a propinque possibility to have freed his countrey from subjection if the speedy succour of King Edward had not anticipated him who removing his Court to York and making that City his imperial Seat as the Roman Emperours heretofore did that with the more convenience he might quell the insulting Scots there raised an exquisite and choice Army and with three thousand men of Armes on barded horses and four thousand others armed on horse without bards and with an Army of foot answerable he encountred the confident Army of the Scots who on the onset made such terrible shouts that King Edwards Horse frighted therewith cast him off and brake two of his ribs yet neverthelesse he gets up again goes on and gains the victory In which battel Sexaginta Scotorum millia occisa fuerunt threescore thousand Scots were slain as William of Westminster numbers them among which there were two hundred Knights whereupon a Parliament being called at St. Andrews most of the great men of that Kingdome except Wallis who had escaped by flight prostrated their homage and fealty to King Edward as their supream head and King of which William of Westminster giveth this character Arma parant Scotus regno dolet esse remotus And King Edward the better to keep some in subjection and deter others from insurrection did confer most of the estates of the Earls and Barons of scotland with their titles that stood out on the English as a reward of their valour and vertue Hollingshed Ed. 3. And now it would seem that Scotland was quite conquer'd and subjected to the Crown of England they having no King nor Heir in Scotland but the King of England But as Cambden saith est Natio servitutis Impatientissimae Cambd. Brit. It is a Nation impatient of servitude and a breeder of stubborn and refractory spirits wich to their power would not stoop to the English Yoke for though they were twice overthrown by King Edward and thrice swore fealty unto him yet did they as many times falsify their faith which in military affaires is principally to be maintained Postremum est primumque tâ—eri Inter bella fidem And now again go about to contrive new commotions rejectiâ—â— Balioll their natural King for thâ— he received the Crown upon condition to subject the Crown of Scotland to the Crown of England fâ—â— which they recalled their allegianâ—â— that they had given to him and received Robert Bruce come of thâ— second branch for their King because as one of their own writer saith he had basely condiscendeâ— to enslave that Nation to whom their liberty had alwaies been 〈◊〉 dear In the History of the reformation of the Church of Scotland that they have willingly and chearfully undergone all hazard of life and means which if they should have suffered they had nothing lefâ— whereby they might be called menâ— and consequently armed with this resolution under their new head and King forced all the Wardens of Scotland to retire to Barwick whereof as soon as the King heard he sends the Earl of Pembroke and the Lord Clifford with a strong power to relieve the Wardens of Scotland whilst he prepares a potent Army to sollow making a vow that either alive or dead he would pour vengeâ—ince on the perfidious Scots In which expedition that magnaninous King falling into a sickness at Carlile adjured his son and all the Nobles about him upon their fealty that if he died in this journey they should carry his corps with them about Scotland and not suffer it to be interred until they had finally conquered the Scots As Matthew of Malmesbury Jussit corpus suumâ—ibi temauere insepultum dum tota Scotia esset finaliter acquisita An heroick resolution worthy the spirit of a conqueror but he that never stooped to enemy was forced to submit to Fate and he that was alwaies victorious was overcome by death Quae sola ultricibus armis Elatâ—s
according to it in the several Governments of Thomas Earl of Sussex Sir Henry Sidney and Sir John Perott not only the Irish territories in the confines of Lemster but also the entire provinces of Conagh and Vlster being out of all Shire ground before were divided and distinguished into several Counties and hundreds several Sheriffs Coroners and justices of peace and other Officers and Ministers of the Law of England have been from time to time constituted in those Counties by several patents and commissions under the great seal of England and by this means has the common Law of England been communicated to all persons and executed throughout all that Realm for many years passed and so continued unto the reign of the late King James who also by a special proclamation in the third year of his reign declared and published that he had received all the Natives of the Realm of Ireland into his royal protection c. By which it was clearly resolved that the common Law of England was established universally throughout the Realm of Ireland and that all persons and possessions within that Realm ought to be governed by the rules of that Law and that every subject shall inherit his Lands in Ireland by the just and honourable law of England in that manner and by the same law that the King inherited the Crown of Irelaud and by these degrees was the common law of England introduced and established in Ireland And in the same year of that King accordingly it was by the special order of the deputy of Ireland and the justices resolved and declared that because all the Irish counties and the Inhabitants of them were to be governed by the rules of the common law of England Vid. Davis re f. 51.52 the Irish customs were void in law not only for the inconvenience and unreasonableness of them but for that they were meer personal customes and could not alter the descent of inheritance For all the possessions of the Irish territories before the common law of England was established did run either in the custome and course of Tanistry whereby every Lordship or chiefty with the portion of land which did pass with it did go without partition to the tanist and not to the next Heir of the Lord or chieftye but to the elder and more worthy of that linage who oftentimes was removed and expelled by another who was more active and more strong then he Besides the wives of the signiory claimed to have a sole property in a certain portion of goods during the coverture with power to dispose of them without the assent of their husbands Or in the course and custom of Gavel kind whereby all the inferiour tenancies were partible among the males in this manner the Causeny or chief of that linage who was commonly most antient after the death of every tennant which had a competent portion of land did assemble all of that linage and having put all their possessions in Hotch Potch did make a new partition of all in which partition he did not assign to the Sons of those that dyed the portion that the Father had but he allotted to every one of that linage according to his Antiquity the more and greater part by whom also a new partition upon the death of every inferiour Tenant was made at his will and discretion And so by reason of those frequent partitions and translation of Tenants from one portion to another all the possessions were uncertain and the uncertainty of the possessions was the true cause that no civil habitation were erected no inclosure or improvement was made of Lands in the Irish counties where this custome was in use especially in Vlster which seemed throughout to be a Wilderness before the new Plantation made by the English Undertakers there Also by that custome bastards had their purparty with the English the women were utterly excluded from Dower the daughters were not Inheritable though their Father died without Issue male and therefore for the aforesaid inconveniences and unreasonableness of those customes were they utterly abolished As the customs of Gavel kind in North-Wales by Edward the first and Henry the 8. which were semblable to the customs of the Irish and therefore was it adjudged that the lands in Ireland should descend according to the course of the the common law that women shall be endowed that daughters shall be inheritable for defect of issue male and the property of such goods should be in the Irish Lords and not in the feme coverts according to the Irish usage which resolution of the Judges by Order of the Deputy was registred among the acts of the Council but this provision was added to it That if any of the meer Irish had possessed and enjoyed any portion of land by these customs before the commencement of the reign of the late King James that he shall not be disturbed in his possession but shall be continued and established in it but that after the commencement of his reign all land shall be adjudged to descend to the Heirs by the Common Law and shall hereefter be possessed and enjoyed accordingly And yet were not the laws of England fully and rotally established in Ireland one of the main triangles of the laws of England being yet excluded for as Sir Edw. Coke Cok. Gom. on Litt. 110. B. the laws of England are devided into common Law Customs and Statute law and though the common law of England was introduced and the Irish customes abolished in Ireland yet were not the Statutes made in the Parliament of England currant in that countrey for the Land of Ireland had Parliaments made Law and changed laws and those of that land were not obliged by the Statutes of England because they did not send Knights to it as Sir Edw. Coke observeth Cok. Com. f. 141. B. And though Sir Edward Poynings having both Martial and Civil power given him by the commission of Henry the seventh above the Earl of Kildare then Deputy of Ireland Bacon Hen. 7. f. 138. called a Parliament in Ireland wherein was made that memorable Act which at this day is called Poynings Law whereby all the Statutes of England were made to be of force in Ireland yet before they were not neither are any now in force in Ireland which were made in England since that time but have had Parliaments since holden there wherein they have made divers particular Laws concerning the Government of that Domiuion wherefore in this particular Ireland was still a Dominion divided and separated from England and the union between those two Nations in that respect not absolutely perfect and therefore did it seem a worthy Act in the late Protector to have ordained by the advice of his Council that thirty Knights and Burgesses out of Ireland should be elected to sit in the Parliament of England thereby to oblige those of that countrey to be subject and obedient to our statute as well as
no other way to make his victory permanent but by his valour But after the Norman conqueror had brought under his yoke and subjection the utmost parts of this Island and by his continual victories tamed the minds of his formidable enemies he like a Roman victor with all diligence laboured by imposition of Laws to reduce the English and the Normans into a peaceable and sociable union and accordingly propounded to himself an exact survey of all the antient Laws as the old Laws of the Saxons which where compounded of the British customs and their own which mention the Danish Law Danellage the Mercian Law Mercemlage and the West Saxon Westsaxonlage All these being considered by William the conquerour comparing them with the Laws â— Norway Ibid. which he most affected as Mr. Selden supposeth because by them a Bastard of a Concubine â—â— himself was had equal inheritance with the most legitimate son as Gerâ—â—se of Tilburyâ— in this dialogue de Seaccario saith Quasdam reprobarit quasdam autem approbans illis transmarinas Neustriae leges quae ad regni pacem tuendam efficacissimae videbantur addidit some he rejected and some he approving to them he added the forraign Norway Laws which seemed most efficacious for the preserving of the peace of the kingdom And such laws as he in writing allowed though by Roger Hovendon and Iugulphus they were called Leges Edwardi regis yet by Mathew Paris are they properly called Bonae approbatae antiquae regui leges the good and approved antient Laws of the Kingdom by denomination from the greater part And sometimes the Laws and customs of King William For clearly diverse Norman customs were in practise first mixt with them and to these times continue as Mr. Selden asserteth as that of Coverfeu which was constituted to prevent conspiracies combinations and robberies which were then very frequent and commonly contrived and practised in the night And therefore it was ordained that in all townes and villages a bell should be rung at eight of the Clock in the evening and that in every house they should then put out their fire and lights which bell was therfore called Coverfeu and then to go to bed which among many other was one of the laws much conducing to the preservation of peace By which so great a peace was setled in the Kingdom as by Henry of Huntington he is stiled the Author of peace whose words are these Pacis author tantus quod puella auro onusta regnum Angliae transire possit impune He was so great an Author of peace that a Virgin laden with gold might without danger passe through the Kingdome of England And seeing his people to be part Normans Bacon uses of the law fol. 31. and part Saxons the Normans he brought with him the Saxons he found here he bent himself to conjoin them by marriages in amity and for that purpose ordains that if those of his Nobles Knights and Gentlemen should die leaving their Heir within age a Male within one and twenty and a Female within fourteen years and unmarried then the King should have the bestowing of such in such a Family and to such persons as he should think meet which was commonly to his Normans which interest of marriage went still imployed and doth continue at this day in every tenure is called Knights service Then he also commanded all his laws to be written in French and all causes and matters of law to be prosecuted pleaded and dispatched in the French language as the Romans did in Latin that the English thereby might be invited to addict their minds to the knowledge of that Language That whereas they were made by Laws as it were one people so by this constitution they might be brought to be of one Language In this manner through the prowess and prudence of the Norman Conquerour were the English and the Normans so entirely united that they seemed one Nation and one people without any difference or distinction of respect and honour as Dido promised the Trojans Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur Which may more effectually be applied to him for he and his Progeny reigned over them so united for the space of five hundred years The next bordering Principality to England is Wales and therefore first in order by the English to be conquered according to the Roman Example as indeed it was A stout and hardy Nation Bellicosissima gens as Cambden and indeed the reliques of the auntient Britans who because they would not subject themselues to the Tyranny of the Saxous as the other English did were forced by their armes to retreat into the Western Region of that Island for refuge surrounded with the muniments of nature as mountaines and armes of the Sea which antiently was called Cambria as the people at this present Cambro-Britauni In so much as the Saxons were unable by their force to make way unto them and to overcome them And though by some of the Saxon Kings a ditch of a wonderfull work was framed which was called King Offa his ditch by which they divided that Country from England and called them Walshmen that is to say unto them strangers yet did they continually with fire and sword spoile and depopulate their fieldes and Cities And when the Heptarchy of the Saxons was devolved into a Monarchy could they onely by Athelstane that victorious King be made tributary nay William the Conqueror the terror of his time Cujus nomen as William of Westminster exterae remotae gentes timebant whose ruine and downfall the Welch also conspired And therfore as the said William saith though he raised a Copious army against the Welch with an intention to subject them to his sword as he had done the English yet did he meâ—â— with such martiall resistance that he was content to accept of their homage with faithfull hostages to pay him tribute though after upon their restless commotions he placed divers of his Norman Nobility upon the confines towards Wales and gave a power unto the persons thus placed to make such conquests on the Welch as they by their own strength could accomplish whereby divers of those parts were won by the Sword from the Welchmen which were planted with English Colonies and called Barons Marches Which though his Son William Rufus seconded yet was it a great glory for him only to conquer the Shire of Pembroke which was a very ancient Shire of Wales so as this parcel of this Island called Wales was no parcel of the Dominion of the Realm of England but was distinguished from the same and was as it were a Realm of it self not governed by the laws of England Ployd Com. 192. as the Books of the laws of this Realm do testifie yet nevertheless afterwards was the same Dominion of Wales holden in chief and in Fee of the Crown of England and the Prince thereof being then of their own Nation was compellable upon Summons to appeare in
have the benefic of the English laws for things done in Wales as the English shall have for things done in England and by a Quodei deforceat the Welch shall take advâ—ntage of all actions real aswel given by the common law as the statutes of this Realm Vide Com. Ployd Beckleys case Fo. 128. Fo. 129. and befides because the Welch use a speech nothing like or consonant to the Mother tongue used within this Realm that some rude and ignorant people did make a distinction and diversity between the subjects of this Realm and the subjects of the other whereby great division variance did grow between the said people as in the preamble of the said act is expressed therefore more naturally toconjoyn those dissonant Nations as well by Language as by Laws it was also by that statute enacted that none that use the Welch Language shall enjoy any office or fees within the Kings Dominions but shall forfeit them unles they use the English Language by which exception the Welchmen who before much gloried in the Antiquity and simplicity of their British Language were stirred on to bend their study and practice to the knowledge and pronunciation of the English Dialect To the propriety of which most of them within few years attained and at this day generally affect and use it with delight which hath been an instrumental means of a more amicable union between these two Nations And for the execution of the laws it was ordained that the County of Monmouth formerly being a shire of Wales should be governed from thenceforth in like manner by the same ludges as other shires of England were And for the other tâ— elue shires a speciall Iurisdiction and Officers were ordained yet in substance agreeable after the manner of the English laws And finally by that Statute Gavelkind and all other sinister customes of Wales were abolished but all customes which are reasonable and agreeable to any customes of England preserved For by the same Statute it is provided that a Commission shall issue to examine the Welch customs and that those that shall be found reasonable upon a Certificate of the said Commissioners shall be allowed Davis Rep. f. 40. And accordingly whereas there was a Custome in Denbigh that a Feme Covert with her husband might alien land by surrender and examination in Court Wray and Dyer were of opinion that it shall bind the feme and heirs of the feme as a fine though th feme after issue make such an alienation and die and the reason there given why the custome is not taken away is for that it is reasonable and agreeable to some customs in England for the assurance of purchasers for the title of the Act is for Laws and Justice to be ministred in like form as in this Realm Vide Dyer 363. pl. 26. In like manner was it holden 19. Eliz. Dyer f. 345. pl. 13. that whereas before the subjection of Wales to the Crown of England a man did hold lands of the Prince of Wales by service to go in his War it was no tenure of which the Common Law might take notice for the principality of Wales was not governed by the Common law but was a Dominion of it self and had their proper laws and customs and for that reason when that Countrey was reduced under the subjection of the Crown of England such tenure as was of the person of the Prince of Wales could not become a Capite â—enure of the King of England In this manner and by the means of the said Act of 27. H. 8. were the Welch Nation and the English more entirely united by lows then before of which union ensued a greater peace tranquility and civility and infinite good to the inhabitants of the Countrey of Wales and so continued during the Reign of Six succeeding Kings and Queens until the horrid and irreconcileable War broke out between the King and Parliament wherein the Welch upon changes being always Changelings in the beginning levied Forces in Defence of the Parliament against the KING in which War though a prosperous event succeeded the royal Brigades being totally vanquished and the King himself under the power of the Army yet assumed they unto themselves their ancient animosity and being possessed with a conceit that they were never conquered but by composition now adventured once more to make trial of their Brittish valour under the Commission of Prince Charles and under the command of Major General Rowland Laughorn Colonel Rice Powel and Colonel John Poyer who before had been Commanders for the Parliament and in a warlike and hostile manner possessed themselves of divers Garrisons and Towns against the Parliament and Laughorn being a General of great esteem in those parts raised an Army which in a small time increased to the number of 8000 Horse and Foot which by Colonel Horton who was sent by the Parliament to suppress that insurrection through the assistance of the Almighty was totally routed a great slaughter committed and three thousand prisoners taken with all their ammunition A happy Victory for the Parliament their Forces consisting meerly of three Thousand men and a disasterous commencement for the Welch who nevertheless persisted in their resolution For Laughorn and Powel escaping by flight got to Poyer into lembroke Castle who before kept that strong Hold for the Parliament and now having fortified it with a company of malignants with great courage maintained it against them so great was the danger and difficult the enterprise that Lieutenant General Cromwell himself was sent with some Regiments into Wales to impede the Welch as well from rallying collecting their fugitive and dispersed Forces as to dispossess them of the Towns Garrisons and Castles they had treacherously surprised who first resolved to besiage Chepstow Castle but hastning to Pembrook which was more considerable he left Colonel Eure there who within fifteen days took that Castle and slew Kemish to whom before it had been betrayed But Pembroke Castle was not so facile to be vanquished and by Poyer deemed impregnable who relying on the strength of the place refused all conditions â—he Cromwell not enduring the repulse with an assured confidence besieged it and through the accommodation of Sir Ceorge Ascue who furnished him with great Guns from the Seâ— and all things necessary for a siege forced Foyer and Laugâ—orn at the last being brought to extremist though it had been long stouth maintained by them to surrender and deliver up the Castle without conditions rendâ—ing themselves prisoners at mercy for which deliveries by order of Parliaments publick thanksgiving to God was Solemnized And why should I now expostulate the question with the Welch whether they ever were conquered by the English when as now the best and most knowing of them have ingeniously acknowledged that they were never conquered before Jamque habemus Confitentes victos But what may seem to be the cause why the insurrections of the Welch were so frequent but