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
the North the fift penny In the two and thirtyeth year he had a subsedy freely granted In the three and thirtyeth year he confirmed the great Charter of his own Royall disposition and the states to shew their thankfulnesse gave the King for one year the fift part of all the revenues of the land and of the Citizens the sixt part of their goods And in the same year the King used the inquisition called Trai le Baston By which all Justices and other Magistrates were grievously fined that had used extortion or bribery or had otherwise misdemeaned themselves to the great contentation of the people This Commission likewise did enquire of entruders barators and all other the like vermine whereby the King gathered a great masse of treasure with a great deal of love Now for the whole raigne of this King who governed England 35 years there was not any Parliament to his prejudice COUNS. But there was taking of armes by Marshall and Hereford JUST That 's true but why was that because the King notwithstanding all that was given him by Parliament did lay the greatest taxes that ever King did without their consent But what lost the King by those Lords one of them gave the King all his lands the other dyed in disgrace COUNS. But what say you to the Parliament in Edward the Seconds time his successor did not the house of Parliament banish Peirce Gaveston whom the King favoured JUST But what was this Gaveston but an Esquier of Gascoine formerly banisht the Realme by King Edward the first for corrupting the Prince Edward now raigning And the whole Kingdome fearing and detesting his venemous disposition they besought his Majestie to cast him off which the King performed by an act of his own and not by act of Parliament yea Gavestones own father in Law the Earle of Glocester was one of the chiefest of the Lords that procured it And yet finding the Kings affection to folow him so strongly they all consented to have him recalled After which when his credit so encreased that he dispised and set at naught all the ancient Nobility and not onely perswaded the King to all manner of outrages and riots but withall transported what he lifted of the Kings Treasure and Iewels the Lords urged his banishment the second time but neither was the first nor second banishment forced by Act of Parliament but by the forceable Lords his Enemies Lastly he being recalled by the King the Earle of Lancaster caused his head to be stricken off when those of his party had taken him prisoner By which presumptuous Act the Earle and the rest of his company committed Treason and murder Treason by raising an Army without warrant murder by taking away the life of the Kings Subject After which Gaveston being dead the Spencers got possession of the Kings favour though the younger of them was placed about the King by the Lords themselves COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament held at London about the sixt year of that King JUST I say that King was not bound to performe the acts of this Parliament because the Lords being too strong for the King inforced his consent for these be the words of our own History They wrested to much beyond the bounds of reason COUNS. What say you to the Parliaments of the White wands in the 13th of the King JUST I say the Lords that were so moved came with an Army and by strong hand surprized the King they constrained saith the story the rest of the Lords and compelled many of the Bishops to consent unto them yea it saith further that the King durst not but grant to all that they required to wit for the banishment of the Spencers Yea they were so insolent that they refused to lodge the Queen comming through Kent in the Castle of Leedes and sent her to provide her lodging where she could get it so late in the night for which notwithstanding some that kept her out were soon after taken and hang'd and therefore your Lordship cannot call this a Parliament for the reasons before alleadged But my Lord what became of these Lawgivers to the King even when they were greatest a Knight of the North called Andrew Herkeley assembled the Forces of the Countrey overthrew them and their Army slew the Earle of Hereford and other Barons took their generall Thomas Earle of Lancaster the Kings cozen germane at that time possessed of five Earledomes the Lords Clifford Talbort Moubray Maudiut Willington Warren Lord Darcy Withers Knevill Leybourne Bekes Lovell Fitz williams Watervild and divers other Barons Knights and Esquiers and soon after the Lord Percy and the Lord Warren took the Lords Baldsemere and the Lord Audley the Lord Teis Gifford Tucoet and many others that fled from the battaile the most of which past under the hands of the hangman for constraining the King under colour and name of a Parliament But this your good Lordship may judge to whom those tumultuous assemblies which our Histories falsely call Parliaments have been dangerous the King in the end ever prevailed and the Lords lost their lives and estates After which the Spencers in their banishment at York in the 15th of the King were restored to the honors and estates and therein the King had a subsedy given him the sixt penny of goods throughout England Ireland and Wales COUNS. Yet you see the Spencers were soon after dissolved IUST It is true my Lord but that is nothing to our subject of Parliament they may thank their own insolencie for they branded and dispised the Queen whom they ought to have honored as the Kings wife they were also exceeding greedy and built themselves upon other mens ruines they were ambitious and exceeding malicious whereupon that came that when Chamberlain Spencer was hang'd in Hereford a part of the 24th Psalm was written over his head Quid gloriaris in malitia potens COUNS. Well Sir you have all this while excused your self upon the strength and rebellions of the Lords but what say you now to King Edward the third in whose time and during the time of this victorious King no man durst take Armes or rebell the three estates did him the greatest affront that ever King received or endured therefore I conclude where I began that these Parliaments are dangerous for a King JUST To answer your Lordship in order may it please you first to call to mind what was given this great King by his subjects before the dispute betwixt him and the house happened which was in his latter dayes from his first year to his fift year there was nothing given the king by his Subjects in his eight year at the Parliament at London a tenth and a fifteenth was granted in his tenth year he ceased upon the Italians goods here in England to his own use with all the goods of the Monkes Cluniackes and others of the order of the Cistertians In the eleaventh year he had given him by Parliament a notable
Crown the ornaments thereof And it is an infalliable maxime that he that loves not his Majesties estate loves not his person COUNS. How came it then that the act was not executed IUST Because these against whom it was granted perswaded the King to the contrary as the Duke of Ireland Suffolk the chief Iustice Tresilian and others yea that which was lawfully done by the King and the great Councell of the kingdome was by the mastery which Ireland Suffolk and Tresilian had over the Kings affections broken and disavowed Those that devised to relieve the King not by any private invention but by generall Councell were by a private and partiall assembly adjudged traitors and the most honest Iudges of the land enforced to subscribe to that judgement In so much that Iudge Belknap plainly told the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk when he was constrained to set his hand plainly told these Lords that he wanted but a rope that he might therewith receive a reward for his subscription And in this Councell of Nottingham was hatched the ruine of those which governed the King of the Iudges by them constrained of the Lords that loved the King and sought a reformation and of the King himself for though the King found by all the Shrieves of the shires that the people would not fight against the Lords whom they thought to bee most faithfull unto the King when the Citizens of London made the same answer being at that time able to arme 50000. men and told the Major that they would never fight against the Kings friends and defenders of the Realme when the Lord Ralph Passet who was near the King told the King boldly that he would not adventure to have his head broken for the Duke of Irelands pleasure when the Lord of London told the Earle of Suffolk in the Kings presence that he was not worthy to live c. yet would the King in the defence of the destroyers of his estate lay ambushes to intrap the Lords when they came upon his faith yea when all was pacified and that the King by his Proclamation had clear'd the Lords and promised to produce Ireland Suffolk and the Archbishop of Yorke Tresiltan and Bramber to answer at the next Parliament these men confest that they durst not appear and when Suffolk fled to Callice and the Duke of Ireland to Chester the King caused an army to be leavied in Lancashire for the safe conduct of the Duke of Ireland to his presence when as the Duke being encountered by the Lords ranne like a coward from his company and fled into Holland After this was holden a Parliament which was called that wrought wonders In the Eleventh year of this King wherein the fornamed Lords the Duke of Ireland and the rest were condemned and confiscate the Chief Iustice hanged with many others the rest of the Iudges condemned and banisht and a 10. and a 15. given to the King COUNS. But good Sir the King was first besieged in the Tower of London and the Lords came to the Parliament and no man durst contradict them IUST Certainly in raising an army they committed treason and though it appear that they all loved the King for they did him no harm having him in their power yet our law doth construe all leavying of war without the Kings commission and all force raised to be intended for the death and destruction of the King not attending the sequell And it is so judged upon good reason for every unlawfull and ill action is supposed to be accompanied with an ill intent And besides those Lords used too great cruelty in procuring the sentence of death against divers of the Kings servants who were bound to follow and obey their Master and Soveraigne Lord in that he commanded COUNS. It is true and they were also greatly to blame to cause then so many seconds to be put to death seeing the principalls Ireland Suffolk and York had escaped them And what reason had they to seek to enform the State by strong hand was not the Kings estate as dear to himself as to them He that maketh a King know his errour mannerly and private and gives him the best advice he is discharged before God and his own conscience The Lords might have â—â—tired themselves when they saw they could not prevail and have left the King to his own wayes who had more to lose then they had IUST My Lord the taking of Arms cannot be excused in respect of the law but this might be said for the Lords that the King being under yeares and being wholly governed by their enemies and the enemies of the kingdome and because by those evil mens perswasions it was advised how the Lords should have been murthered at a feast in London they were excusable during the kings minority to stand upon their guard against their particular enemies But we will passe it over go on with our parliaments that followed whereof that of Cambridge in the Kings 12th year was the next therein the King had given him a 10th and a 15th after which being 20. yeares of age rechanged saith H. Kinghton his Treasurer his Chancellour the Iustices of either bench the Clerk of the privy seal and others and took the government into his own hands He also took the Admirals place from the Earl of Arundell and in his room he placed the Earl of Huntingdon in the yeare following which was the 13th year of the K. in the Parliament at Westminster there was given to the King upon every sack of wooll 14s and 6d in the gound upon other Merchandise COUNS. But by your leave the King was restrained this parliament that he might not dispose of but a third part of the money gathered IUST No my Lord by your favour But true it is that part of this mony was by the Kings consent assigned towards the wars but yet left in the Lord Treasurers hands and my Lord it would be a great ease and a great saving to his Majesty our Lord and Master if it pleased him to make his assignations upon some part of his revenewes by which he might have 1000l upon every 10000l and save himself a great deale of clamour For seeing of necessity the Navy must be maintained and that those poor men as well Carpenters as ship-keepers must be paid it were better for his Majesty to give an assignation to the Treasurer of his Navy for the receiving of so much as is called ordinary then to discontent those poor men who being made desperate beggars may perchance be corrupted by them that lye in wait to destroy the Kings estate And if his Majesty did the like in all other payements especially where the necessity of such as are to receive cannot possible give dayes his Majesty might then in a little rowle behold his receipts and expences he might quiet his heart when all necessaries were provided for and then dispose the rest at his pleasure And my good Lord
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
gathering of money from the subject under title of a free gift whereas a fift a sixt a tenth c. was set down and required But my good Lord though divers Shires have given to his Majestie some more some lesse what is this to the Kings debt COUNS. Wee know it well enough but we have many other projects IUST It is true my good Lord but your Lordship will find that when by these you have drawn many petty summes from the subjects and those sometimes spent as fast as they are gathered his Majesty being nothing enabled thereby when you shall be forced to demand your great aide the the Countrey will excuse it self in regard of their former payments COUNS. What mean you by the great aide JUST I mean the aide of Parliament COUNS. By Parliament I would fain know the man that durst perswade the King unto it for if it should succeed ill in what case were he JUST You say well for your self my Lord and perchance you that are lovers of your selves under pardon do follow the advice of the late Duke of Alva who was ever opposite to all resolutions in businesse of importance for if the things enterprised succeeded well the advice never came in question if ill whereto great undertakings are commonly subject he then made his advantage by remembring his Countrey Councell But my good Lord these reserved Polititians are not the best servants for he that is bound to adventure his life for his Master is also bound to adventure his advice Keep not back Councell saith Ecclesiasticus When it may do good COUNS. But Sir I speak it not in other respect then I think it dangerous for the King to assemble the three estates for thereby have our former Kings alwayes lost somewhat of their prerogatives And because that you shall not think that I speak it at randome I will begin with elder times wherein the first contention began betwixt the Kings of this land and their subjects in Parliament IUST Your Lordship shall do me a singular favour COUNS. You know that the Kings of England had no formal Parliament till about the 18. year of Hen. the first for in his 17 year for the marriage of his Daughter the King raised a tax upon every hide of land by the advice of his privy Councell alone But you may remember how the subjects soon after the establishment of this Parliament began to stand upon termes with the King and drew from him by strong hand and the sword the great Charter JUST Your Lordship sayes well they drew from the King the great Charter by the sword and hereof the Parliament cannot be accused but the Lords COUNS. You say well but it was after the establishment of the Parliament and by colour of it that they had so great daring for before that time they could not endure to hear of Sr. Edwards lawes but resisted the confirmation in all they could although by those lawes the Subjects of this Iland were no lesse free than any of all Europe JUST My good Lord the reason is manifest for while the Normans and other of the French that followed Conquerour made spoyle of the English they would not endure that any thing but the will of the Conquerour should stand for Law but after a difcent or two when themselves were become English and found themselves beaten with their own rods they then began to favour the difference between subjection and slavery and insist upon the Law Meum tuum and to be able to say unto themselves hoc sac vives yea that the conquering English in Ireland did the like your Lordship knowes it better than I. COUNS. I think you guesse aright And to the end the subject may know that being a faithfull servant to his Prince he might enjoy his own life and paying to his Prince what belongs to a Soveraigne the remainder was his own to dispose Henry the first to content his Vassals gave them the great Charter and the Charter of Forrests JUST What reason then had K. Iohn to deny the confirmation COUNS. He did not but he on the contrary confirmed both the Charters with additions required the Pope whom he had them made his superior to strengthen him with a golden Bul. JUST But your honour knowes that it was not long after that he repented himself COUNS. It is rrue and he had reason so to do for the Barons refused to follow him into France as they ought to have done and to say true this great Charter upon which you insist so much was not originally granted Regally aud freely for Henry the first did usurpe the Kingdome and therefore the better to assure himself against Robert his eldest Brother hee flattered the Nobility and people with those Charters Yea King Iohn that confirmed them had the like respect for Arthur Duke of Britain was the undoubted heir of the Crown upon whom Iohn usurped And so to conclude these Charters had their originall from Kings de facto but not de jure JUST But King Iohn confirmed the Charter after the death of his Nephew Arthur when he was then Rex de jure also COUNS. It is true for he durst do no other standing accursed whereby few or none obeyed him for his Nobility refused to follow him into Scotland and he had so grieved the people by pulling down all the Parke pales before harvest to the end his Deere might spoil the corn And by seizing the temporalities of so many Bishopricks into his hands and chiefly for practising the death of the Duke of Britain his Nephew as also having lost Normandy to the French so as the hearts of all men were turned from him IUST Nay by your favour my Lord King Iohn restored K. Edwards Laws after his absolution and wrote his letters in the 15. of his reigne to all Sheriffes countermanding all former oppressions yea this he did notwithstanding the Lords refused to follow him into France COUNS. Pardon me he did not restore King Edwards Lawes then nor yet confirmed the Charters but he promised upon his absolution to doe both but after his return out of France in his 16. year he denyed it because without such a promise he had not obtained restitution his promise being constrained and not voluntary IUST But what think you was hee not bound in honour to performe it COUNS. Certainly no for it was determined the case of King Francis the first of France that all promises by him made whilest he was in the hands of Charles the fift his enemy were void by reason the Judge of honour which tells us he durst doe no other JUST But King Iohn was not in prison COUNS. Yet for all that restraint is imprisonment yea fear it self is imprisonment and the King was subject to both I know there is nothing more Kingly in a King than the performance of his word but yet of a word freely and voluntarily given Neither was the Charter of Henry the first so
condition that for one whole year no subsedies should be demanded but this promise was as suddenly forgotten as made for in the end of that year the great subsedy of Poll mony was granted in the Parliament at Northampton COUNS. Yea but there followed the terrible Rebellion of Baker Straw and others Leister Wrais and others IUST That was not the fault of the Parliament my Lord it is manifest that the subsedy given was not the cause for it is plain that the bondmen of England began it because the were girevously prest by their Lords in their tenure of Villenage as also for the hatred they bate to the Lawyers and Atturneyes for the story of those times say that they destroyed the houses and Mannors of men of Law such Lawyers as they caught slew them and beheaded the Lord chief Iustice which commotion being once begun the head mony was by other Rebels pretended A fire is often kindled with a little straw which oftentimes takes hold of greater timber consumes the whole building And that this Rebellion was begun by the discontented slaves whereof there have been many in Elder times the like is manifest by the Charter of Manumission which the King granted in hec verba Rich. Dei gratid c. Sciatis quod de gratiâ nostrâ spirituali manumissimus c. to which seeing the King was constrained by force of armes he revoked the letters Pattents and made them voide the same revocation being strengthened by the Parliament ensuing in which the King had given him a subsedy upon Woolls called a Maletot In the same fourth year was the Lord Treasurer discharged of his Office and Hales Lord of St. Iohns chosen in his place in his fift year was the Treasurer again changed and the Staffe given to Segrave and the Lord Chancellour was also changed and the staffe given to the Lord Scroope Which Lord Scroope was again in the beginning of his sixt year turned off and the King after that he had for a while kept the Seal in his own hand gave it to the Bishop of London from whom it was soon after taken and bestowed on the Earle of Suffolke who they say had abused the King and converted the Kings Treasure to his own use To this the King condiscended and though saith Walsingham he deserved to loose his life and goods yet he had the favour to go at liberty upon good sureties and because the King was but young that the reliefe granted was committed to the trust of the Earle of Arundell for the furnishing of the Kings Navy against the French COUNS. Yet you see it was a dishonour to the King to have his beloved Chancellour removed IUST Truly no for the King had both his fine 1000l lands and asubsedy to boot And though for the present it pleased the King to fancy a man all the world hated the Kings passion overcomming his judgement yet it cannot be call'd a dishonour for the King is to believe the generall counsell of the Kingdome and to preser it before his affection especially when Suffolke was proved to be false even to the King for were it otherwise love and affection might be called a frenzie and a madnesse for it is the nature of humane passions that the love bred by fidelity doth change it self into hatred when the fidelity is first changed into falshood COUNS. But you see there were thirteen Lords chosen in the Parliament to have the oversight of the government under the King IUST No my Lord it was to have the oversight of those Officers which saith the story had imbezeled lewdly wasted and prodigally spent the Kings Treasure for to the Commission to those Lords or to any six of them joyn'd with the Kings Counsell was one of the most royall and most profitable that ever he did if he had bin constant to himself But my good Lord man is the cause of his own misery for I will repeat the substance of the commission granted by the King and confirmed by Parliament which whether it had bin profitable for the King to have prosecured your Lordship may judge The preamble hath these words Whereas our Sovereigne Lord the King perceiveth by the grievous complaints of the Lords and Commons of this Realme that the rents profits and revenues of this Realme by the singular and insufficient Councell and evill government as well of some his late great Officers and others c. are so much withdrawen wasted given granted alienated destroyed and evill dispended that he is so much impoverished and void of treasure and goods and the substance of the Crown so much diminished and destroyed that his estate may not honorably be sustained as appertaineth The King of his free will at the request of the Lords and Commons hath ordained William Archbishop of Canterbury and others with his Chancellour Treasurer keeper of his privy seal to survey and examine as well the estate and governance of his house c. as of all the rents and profits and revenues that to him appertaineth and to be due or ought to appertain and be due c. And all manner of gifts grants alienations and confirmations made by him of lands tenements rents c. bargained and sold to the prejudice of him and his Crown c. And of his jewels goods which were his Grandfathers at the time of his death c. and where they be become This is in effect the substance of the commission which your Lordship may read at large in the book of Statutes this commission being enacted in the tenth year of the Kings reigne Now if such a commission were in these dayes granted to the faithfull men that have no interest in the sales gifts nor purchases nor in the keeping of the jewells at the Queens death nor in the obtaining grants of the Kings best lands I cannot say what may be recovered and justly recovered and what say your Lordship was not this a noble act for the King if it had been followed to effect COUNS. I cannot tell whether it were or no for it gave power to the Commissiouers to examine all the grants IUST Why my Lord doth the King grant any thing that shames at the examination are not the Kings grants on record COUNS. But by your leave it is some dishonour to a King to have his judgement called in question IUST That is true my Lord but in this or whensoever the like shall be granted in the future the Kings judgement is not examined but their knavery that abused the King Nay by your favour the contrary is true that when a King will suffer himself to be eaten up by a company of petty fellows by himself raised therein both the judgement and courage is disputed And if your Lordship will disdain it at your own servants hands much more ought the great heart of a King to disdain it And surely my Lord it is a greater treason though it undercreep the law to tear from the
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
pleas'd notwithstanding that the great Officers should take an oath in Parliament to do Iustice. Now for the Parliament of Westminster in the 17th year of the King the King had three markes and a half for every sack of Wooll transported and in his 18th he had a 10th of the Clergie and a 15th of the Laity for one year His Majestie forbare after this to charge his Subjects with any more payments untill the 29th of his reigne when there was given the King by Parliament 50 for every sack of Wool transported for six yeares by which grant the King received a thousand markes a day a greater matter then a thousand pounds in these dayes and a 1000l a day amounts to 365000l a year which was one of the greatest presents that ever was given to a King of this land For besides the cheapenesse of all things in that age the Kings souldiers had but 3d. a day wages a man at armes 6d a Knight but 2s In the Parliament at Westminster in the 33th year he had 26s 8d for every sack of Wooll transported in the 42th year 3 dismes and 3 fifteens In his 45th year he had â—0000l of the Laity and because the Spiritualty disputed it and did not pay so much the King chang'd his Chancellour Treasurer Privy Seal being Bishops and placed Lay men in their roome COUNS. It seems that in those dayes the Kings were no longer in love with their great Chancellors then when they deserved well of them JUST No my Lord they were not and that was the reason they were well served and it was the custome then and in many ages after to change the Treasurer the Chancellour every 3 years and withall to hear all mens complaints against them COUNS. But by this often change the saying is verified that there is no inheritance in the favour of Kings He that keepeth the figge-tree saith Solomon shall eate the fruit thereof for reason it is that the servant live by the Master JUST My Lord you say well in both but had the subject an inheritance in the Princes favour where the Prince hath no inheritance in the Subjects fidelity then were Kings in more unhappy estate then common persons for the rest Solomon meaneth not that he that keepeth the figge tree should surfet though he meant he should eat he meant not he should break the branches in gathering the figs or eat the ripe and leave the rotten for the owner of the tree for what saith he in the following chapter he saith that he that maketh hast to be â—ich cannot be innocent And before that he saith that the end of an inheritance hastily gotten cannot be blessed Your Lordship hath heard of few or none great with Kings that have not used their power to oppresse that have not growne insolent and hatefull to the people yea insolent towards those Princes that advanced them COUNS. Yet you see that Princes can change their fancies IUST Yea my Lord when favorites change their faith when they forget that how familiar soever Kings make themselves with their Vassals yet they are Kings He that provoketh a King to anger saith Solomon sinneth against his own soul. And he further saith that pride goeth before distruction and a high mind before afall I say therefore that in discharging those Lucifers how dear soever they have been Kings make the world know that they have more of Iudgement then of passion yea they thereby offer a satisfactory sacrifice to all their people too great benefits of subjects to their king where the mind is blown up with their own deservings and to great benefits of Kings conferr'd upon their Subjects where the mind is not qualified with a great deal of modesty are equally dangerous Of this later and insolenter had King Richard the second delivered up to Iustice but three or four he had still held the love of the people and thereby his life and estate COUNS. Well I pray you go on with your Parliaments IUST The life of this great King Edward drawes to an end so do the Parliaments of this time wherein 50 years raigne he never received any affront for in his 49th year he had a disme and a fifteen granted him freely COUNS. But Sir it is an old saying that all is well that ends well Iudge you whether that in his 50th year in Parliament at Westminster he received not an affront when the house urged the King to remove and discharge from his presence the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Latimer his Chamberlaine Sir Richard Sturry and others whom the King favoured and trusted Nay they pressed the King to thrust a certain Lady out of Court which at that time bare the greatest sway therein IUST I will with patience answer your Lordship to the full and first your Lordship may remember by that which I even now said that never King had so many gifts as this King had from his subjects and it hath never grieved the subjects of England to give to their King but when they knew there was a devouring Lady that had her share in all things that passed and the Duke of Lancaster was as scraping as shee that the Chancellour did eat up the people as fast as either of them both It grieved the subjects to feed these Cormorants But my Lord there are two things by which the Kings of England have been prest to wit by their subjects and by their own necessities The Lords in former times were farre stronger more warlike better followed living in their Countries then now they are Your Lordship may remember in your reading that there were many Earles could bring into the field a thousand Barbed horses many a Baron 5. or 600. Barbed horses whereas now very few of them can furnish twenty fit to serve the King But to say the truth my Lord the Iustices of peace in England have oppos'd the injusticers of war in England the Kings writ runs over all and the great Seal of England with that of the next Constables will serve the turn to affront the greatest Lords in England that shall move against the King The force therefore by which our Kings in former times were troubled is vanisht away But the necessities remain The people therefore in these later ages are no lesse to be pleased then the Peeres for as the later are become lesse so by reason of the trayning through England the Commons have all the weapons in their hand COUNS. And was it not so ever IUST No my good Lord for the Noblemen had in their Armories to furnish some them a thousand some two thousand some three thousand men whereas now there are not many that can arme fifty COUNS. Can you blame them But I will onely answer for my self between you and me be it spoken I hold it not safe to mantain so great an Armory or Stable it might cause me or any other Nobleman to be suspected as the preparing of some Innovation IUST Why so my