custome of the House of Lords was that when any Bills or messages were sent to them the Lord Keeper and some of the Lords were to â—rise from their places and from thence to go unto the Barr and receive the said Bills or messages but contrarywise when any answer is to be delivered by the Lord Keeper in the name and behalf of the Lords the Commons sent were to stand at the Barr and the Lord Keeper is to receive the Bills or answer the messages with his head covered and all the Lords were to Keep their places with which the Lower House was satisfied and the same order hath been ever since observed accordingly Anno 39. Eliz. There being in former times a custom in the house of Commons to have a bill read before the house did arise the same could not now be done at that time because her Majesty and the upper House had adjourned the Parliament untill Saturday Sennight at Eight of the Clock in the Morning which being signified by their Speaker he said all the Members of the House might depart and so they did Eodem Anno. At the ending of the Parliament after they had given the Queen subsidies and prayed her assent to such laws as had passed both Houses she gave the Royall assent to 24 publick Acts and 19 private but refused 48 Bills which had passed both the Houses Anno 43. Eliz. John Crook Esq. Recorder of London being chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament disabling himself desired the Queen to command the House of Commons to choose another but his excuse received no allowance The Lord Chief Justice of the Queens bench and Common pleas together with the Lord Chief Baron and Attorney Generall were ordered to attend a Committee of Lords and Bishops Sr John Popham Lord Chief Justice Francis Gaudy one of the Justices of the Kings bench George Kingsmill one of the Common pleas Dr Carew and Dr Stanhop were constituted Receivers of petitions for Gascoigne and other lands beyond the Seas Sr Edmond Anderson Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common pleas Sr William Peryam Lord Chief Baron Thomas Walmisley one of the Justices of the Common pleas Dr Swale and Dr Hone. Tryers of petitions of England the Archbishop of Canterbury Marquis of Winchester Earls of Sussex Lord Marshall Lord Admirall and Steward of the Queens Houshold Earls of Nottingham and Hertford Bishops of London Durham and Winchester Lords Zouch and Cobham calling unto them the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer and the Queens Serjeants at Law Great fault was found by many of the House of the factouring and bribing of too many of the Justices of the Peace and it was by one of the members alleadged that the five bills â—arely passed against Swearing Drunkenness and for the making of good Ale would be as much worth to those kind of Justices of the Peace as a Subsidy and two Fifteens Mr Conisby Gentleman Usher of the House of Peers complained that forasmuch upon the breach of any Priviledge of that House he only was to be employed and not the Serjeant at Arms the House ordered a Committee to consider of Presidents and settle it a motion was made by the Lord Keeper and approved of by the Lords that the Ancient course of the House might be kept by certifying the Excuses for the absence of any of the Peers by the Peers and not by others The House being offended with Sr Walter Rawleigh for some words and crying to the Barr Mr Brown a Lawyer stood up and said Mr Speaker par in parem non habet Imperium we are as members of one body and we cannot Judge one another whereupon it being put to the question it was resolved in the negative that he should not stand at the Barr. The Speaker of the House of Commons at the ending of the Parliament of 44. Eliz. humbly desired of the Queen that certain Acts may be made Laws by her Royall assent which giveth life unto them Unto which the Lord Keeper answered that as touching her Majesties pioceeding in the making of Laws and giving her Royall assent that should be as God directed her Sacred Spirit and delivered her Majesties commandement that as to the Commons proceedings in the matter of her Prerogative she is persuaded that Subjects did never more dutifully observe and that she understood they did but obiter touch her Prerogative and no otherwise but by humble petition but she well perceived that private respects are privately masked under publique pretences Admonished the Justices of the Peace some whereof might probably be of the House of Commons that they should not deserve the Epithetes of prowling Justices Justices of Quarrells who counted Champerty good Conscience Sinning Justices who did suck and consume the good of this Commonwealth and likewise all those who did lye if not all the Year yet at the least Three Quarters of the Year in the City of London Anno 43. Eliz. One Mr Leigh of the House of Commons complained that whilst the Speaker of the House of Commons was presented to the Queen he was denyed entrance into the House of Peers which the Lords excused by saying it was the ignorance of some of the Grooms or attendance in the choosing of a Speaker Mr Knolls the Comptroller alleaged that it was not for the State of the Queen to permit a confused multitude to speak unto her when it might often happen that one or some might move or speak that which another or some or many would contradict or not allow The Queen being sate in her State in the House of Lords the House of Commons were sent for to present their Speaker who in a modest pretence of disability prayed her Majesty to command the House of Commons to choose one more able but had it not allowed And she in her grant of freedom of speech gave a caution not to do it in vain matters verbosities contentions or contradictions nor to make addresses unto her but only in matters of consequence and prohibited their retaining or priviledging desperate debtors upon pain of her displeasure and desired a Law might be made to that purpose Which done the Lord Keeper said for great and weighty causes her Highness's pleasure was that the Parliament should be adjourned untill the Fryday following At which time the House of Commons did appoint a Minister every morning before the House sate to officiate and use a set form of prayer specially ordained to desire Gods blessing upon their Councells and preserve the Queen their Sovereign The Ancient usage of not coming into the House of Commons with spurs was moved by the Speaker to be observed others moved that they might not come with Boots and Rapiers but nothing was done therein Sr Robert Wroth a Member of the House of Commons did in his own particular offer 100 l. per Annum to the Wars Sr Andrew Noel Sheriff of Rutlandshire having returned himself to be a Knight of the shire for that
other the Lords Marchers soon raise a powerful Army multitudes of the Counties of Hereford Worcester Salop and Chester coming to his aid took the Castle and City of Worcester had the Castle of Monmouth delivered unto him which he demolished surprized the Town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire whither young Simon de Montfort had brought up many of the Northern Barons of that Party to the number of 20 Banners took no less than Thirteen of the chief of them young Simon and others escaping into the Castle In the mean time the said Symon Earl of Leicester carrying the King along with him as his Prisoner upon Lammas day being the first day of August receiving intelligence that the Prince was at Worcester and not knowing that Kenilworth was taken marched towards Evesham about break of the day on purpose to meet with those Barons which his Son had brought out of the North of which the Prince being advertised advanced speedily after him and got betwixt him and Kenilworth Mortimer and the Earl of Gloucester so disposing the Forces which they commanded as that he was almost invironed Seeing himself therefore in that streight he forthwith drew out his men and prepared for Battell it being then the Nones of August and ascending the Hill discovered Prince Edward and his Army on the top thereof which was divided into three parts the first led by Himself the second by the Earl of Gloucester the third by Mortimer the business being so ordered that no other Colours appeared then the Banner of young Symon and the rest taken at Kenilworth which caused the Earl to suppose that many of them had been of his own Party but upon further View he understood the contrary for the Prince afterwards took down those Colours and instead of them erected his own and the Earl of Gloucesters Banners on the one side and Mortimers towards the West which unexpected sight caused such a Discouragement in the Army of the Barons as that the Welsh betook themselves to flight and the rest being over-powerd were totally routed so that few escaped the Slaughter Of those who were Slain and not taken Prisoners were as to the Principal Persons Symon de Monfort Earl of Leicester himself whose Head Hands and Feet being cut off were sent to the Lady Mortimer then at Wigmore Castle Henry de Montfort his Eldest Son Hugh le Dispencer then Justice of England Ralph Basset of Drayton Thomas de Astely Peter de Montfort William de Mandeville John de Beauchamp of Bedford Guy de Baliol and divers other persons of Quality with a multitude of the common Sort Of those that were wounded and taken Prisoners the Chief were Guy de Montfort a younger Son of the said Symon de Montfort John Fitz-John Humphry de Bohun the younger John de Vescy Peter de Monfort Junior and Nicholas de Segrave And it was said that when the Earl of Leicester discerned the Form of the Princes Battalia he swore by the Arm of St. James his usual Oath they have done discreetly but this they have learned of me let us therefore commend our Souls to God because our Bodies are theirs and encouraging his men told them they were to Fight for the Law of the Land yea the Cause of God and Justice and advising Hugh le Despencer Ralph Basset and some others to flie and reserve themselves for better times they refused so to do but rather chose to die with him Who although he was an Arch-Rebell and in that a Pest or Plague unto the Nation yet the deluded People could not think it enough to honour and follow him in his Life time but would in the Fame of his supposed Miracles have worshipped him for a Saint after his Death if the King had not prohibited them SECT IX Of the Proceedings of King Henry the Third after his Release and Restauration until his Death THE long imprisoned and sadly misused King thus happily released out of his Thraldome but yet with the Loss of some of his Own as well as too much of his Subjects Blood by a Wound casually received in the battle was now rid of his Jaylor whom he feared and hated as he said himself more than any man living and he that before was forced to write and speak as Montfort and the rebellious Barons would dictate unto him obey their Orders as soon as they were proposed declare his Son and Loyal Subjects Rebels and the Rebels his most faithful Councel could like a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler when he was at liberty and had escaped their Tyranny give them their proper Names and Titles call their whole business a Rebellion and made them glad to receive their Pardons under the Character of his Enemies as in the Pardons of John Fitz-John Basset and others and with the Victorious Prince the Redeemer of him and the Kingdom went to Winchester where a Parliament being convoked all who adhered to Simon de Montfort were disinherited and their Estates conferred upon others at the King's pleasure the Liberties of London forfeited and taken from them in which year that valiant Prince his Son as Mat. Paris hath recorded it fought a single Combat with Adam de Goâ—rdon the Out-law near Farneham where finding him in the Woods and personally engaging with him the fight continued so long and with such Animosity and Courage on both sides as they as well as the Spectators marvailing at each others extraordinary unwearied Valour the sturdy Out-law was at last content upon the Prince's offer to procure his Pardon to throw down his Arms and was restored to Favour and his former Estate And the King notwithstanding the Success at the Battle of Evesham and his Advantages gained thereby continuing his Endeavours to free his Kingdom from the Danger Damage and Disturbance of any further Rebellion having gathered together a formidable Army treated upon Hostages given with young Simon de Montfort for a Peace to be granted unto him as to his own particular and for the delivering up of the Castle of Kenilworth wherein he had despitefully behaved himself by cutting off the hand of one of his Courriers whom he had intercepted and sending it unto him in a ridiculous jeeâ—ing manner not only from himself but some of his Complices that were forfeited and disherited But they that were in the Castle denying to surrender it either to the King or Symon in regard that they were intrusted by the Countess of Leicester who was beyond the Seas and without her Order they would not do it In the mean time whilst the King besieged Killingworth Castle which held out half a year a great Party of those that were disherited growing desperate retired to the Isle of Ely which they did begin to fortifie and from thence making Incursions into the adjacent parts did great Mischief Which to repress â—aith Mathew Paris citantur Communium Communes ad â—os vallandos eorum egressum impediendum which in great numbers
incepit a quarto die Aprilis Anno. Regni dicti patris nostri 48 quando vexillis explicatis exivit cum exercitu suo ab Oxonia versus Northt duravit continue usque Sextum decimum diem Septembris Anno Regni dicti patris nostri xl nono quando apud Wyntouiam pacem suam post bellum de Evesham in presentia Baronum suorum qui ibidem convenerant firmari fecit clamari no Commons or Knights or Burgesses representing for them Provisium fuit etiam ne aliquis amittteret vitam vel membra pro Roberiis aut homicidiis aut aliis commissis sub specie guerrae per illos qui contradictum patrem nostrum erant a quarto die Junii Anno Regni ejusdem patris nostri xlvii quando illi vexillis explicatis primo per terram suam incedentes roberias homicidia incarceraciones tam personis Ecclesiasticis quam secularibus fecerunt usque ad predictum tempus quo ab Oxonia versus Northt cum exercitu suo recessit De aliis autem quae tempore illo sub specie guerrae non fiebant haberetur tempus illus velnd tempus pacis A tempore autem supradicto quo apud Winton pacem suam firmari fecit clamari curreret Lex pro ut tempore pacis currere consuevit Ita tamen quod illi qui fuerint apud Axeholm sive apud Kenill vel Insula Elyens vel apud Cestrefeld vel postmodum apud Suwerk observaretur plene pax sua prout eam habere deberent sive per dictum de Kenileworth sive per privilegia sua de pace sua sibi concessa De illis autem qui cum Com. Gloverniae in ultima turbatione fuerunt observaretur pax facta inter dictum patrem nostrum ipsum Com. Ita quod a tempore quo dicto Comes recessit a Wall versus London usque ad diem quo recessit a Civitate praedict non procederent Justic. contra ipsum vel eos qui erant in parte sua Et hoc de illis tantummodo intelligeretur De depredationibus autem utrobique factis tempore praedicto observaretur hoc quod pace inter dictum patrem nostrum ipsum Comitem facta continetur Et ideo vobis mandamus quod hec omnia in prefato Itinere diligenter observari faciatis T. R. apud Kickleton xix die Marc. 6. E. 1. He commanded the Sheriffs to distrain every man that had 20 l. per Annum in Land or a whole Knights Fee of the liâ—e value and hold of him in Capite milites esse debent ad arma militaria within such a Time a nobis suscipiend which was like a Nursery for military affairs for the continuance of those gallant necessaries for publique Defence in and by the obligations of their Tenures wherein a great part of our Fundamentall Laws Oaths of Allegeance Loyalty and Duties of Subjects do subsist And by an Inquisition taken in the same Year at Launceston in Cornwall by a Commission out of his Court of Exchecquer it was found by a Jury that Dominus ratione Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae habet privilegium quod nullus in Regno suo aliquo qui sit de Regno Angliae alieni homagium sine fidelitatem facere debeat vel aliquis hujusmodi homagium vel fidelitatem ab aliquo recepire debeat nisi facta mentione de fidelitate domino Regi debita eidem Dominus Regi observanda Episcopus Exon adfuit contrarium c. Et in contemptu c. Et le Evesque mis a respond And like a second Justitian did cause John le Breton one of the Justices of the King's-bench Or as others have written Bishop of Hereford to compile in his name a Book of the Laws and Customs of England wherein the King directring the Book to all the People which were under his protection par la Soufrance de Dieu saith for that peace could not be without Laws he had caused those which had been heretofore used in his Realm to be put in Writing which he Willed and Commanded should be Observed in all England and Ireland en toutz pointz Sauve a nous de repealer de eunoiter d' amander a toutz les faitz que nous verron que bon a nous serra par l'assent de nos Countes de nos Barons autres de nostre Conceil Sauve les usages a ceux que prescription de temps oul autrement use en taint que leur usages soyent mys discordants a droiture in which Book and the Droits de Roy there is no mention made of the Election and Summoning of Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament By his Edict or Proclamation prohibited the burning of Seacole in London and the Suburbs thereof for avoiding its noysom Smoak and without any Act of Parliament divided Wales into Shires and ordained Sheriffs there as was used in England caused some London Bakers not making their bread as they ought to be drawn upon Hurdles and 3 men for rescuing a prisoner arrested by an Officer to have their right hands cut off by the Wrists Fined without advice or assent of Parliament which might well be so understood to have been so upon the Act of Parliament in Anno 3 of his Reign ordained that such offenders should be ransomed and Punished at the Kings Will and Pleasure Sr Ralph Hengham Chief Justice of his Bench 7000 Marks Sr John Lovetot Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 3000 Marks Sr William Brompton 6000 Marks Sr Solomon Rochester or Roffey 4000 Marks Sr Richard Boyland as much Sr Thomas Sodenton 2000 Marks Sr William Saham 3000 Marks Roobert Littlebury Clark Master of the Rolls 1000 Marks Roger Leicester no less Henry Bray Escheator and Justice of the Jews 1000 Marks Sr Adam Stratton Chief Baron of the Exchequer 34000 Marks and Thomas de Weyland being the greatest delinquent and of the greatest substance could not be so easily excused but was Banished and had all his Goods and Estate Confiscate to the King only John de Metingham Elias de Beckingham two of the itinerant Judges to their eternall honour saith Henry Spelman appearing Guiltless and Righteous in that severe and Kingly examination and Justice purged his Courts of Justice and the Officers and clarks thereof from Bribery and extortion banished the usury of the Jews hanged 297. of them for abusing the Coyn and Money of the Kingdom curbed the pretended Independent power of the Clergy Clipped their Jurisdictions and upon their refusall to pay Tallage towards his Wars Seized many of their Temporallities put them out of the protection of his Laws and Justice and caused them to be excluded out of one of his Parliaments untill their Submission whom he had by wofull experience understood to have had too great an Influence upon some of the unquiet Nobility Made himself the Arbitrator and Umpire betwixt the many great Pretenders to
Power or were Elected by Them THe Laws of GOD Nature and Nations our Laws of England and the Records thereof no Strangers at all unto them but much in League and Friendship with them did never deny our Kings and Princes to make use of the Councels and Advice of such of their Subjects as were fit and able to give it Nor did any of our Kings by such applications unto their Subjects for their advice and councels either in general or particular common publick or private Councels or any of their Laws Grants Charters or Customs ever allow them any co-ordinate or equal Authority with Them or over any of their Actions in the giving of their Approbation Advice or Consent Or otherwise if we may believe as we ought those Records and Accounts which the World and its aged Companion TIME have from their Infancies left and recommended unto us no such Liberties Customs or Priviledges at all ever appearing to have been granted or of right appertaining unto them by any Warrant Foundation Law Act of Parliament Reason Prescription or Custom In the time of our Ancestors the Britains Qui Legibus Romanis not of the Senate but the Emperours Caesareis seu imperialibus paruerunt quamdiu sub Imperio Romano which Mr. Selden hath asserted to have continued 360 years or thereabouts from the time of Claudius the Emperour to that of Honorius and that Severus the Emperour kept his Court for several years at York where Papinian that great and famous Lawyer sate Praetor or Lord chief-Chief-Justice under him Which could not but introduce much of their Laws and Usages amongst us and the near succeeding Ages were so unwilling to part with them as they would never after be altogether Strangers unto them For King Aethelulph travelled with his Son Aelfred to Rome and Aelfred whilst he was there and likewise after his return and being King Librorum omnium notitiam habebat saith William of Malmsbury and was very learned as Asser Menevensis who was his Contemporary and privy to most of his Actions and Hoveden and Ingulsus have recorded it to Posterity Plurimam partem Romanae Bibliothecae Anglorum auribus dedit And Offa King of the Mercians had in the year of Christ 790. before the time of Aethelulph sounded erected and maintained in Rome a Schola Saxonica which could not be either constituted or continued without some Commerce with the Latian Language and Laws the one being likely to be an effectual means to convey the other and by a constant intercourse continue the course and knowledge of some part of these Laws and Customs in England Or in any of those Laws which Dunwallo Molmucius cujus Leges Molmucianae dicebantur ordained Or in those which Mercia Regina Britonum Uxor Gurtheli à qua Provincia Merciorum containing Gloucester shire and seven other Counties putatur denominata edit as an authentique Historian saith discretione justitia plenas quae Lex mercia dicebatur Of King Ethelbert Circa annum salutis 588 or 613. qui sub Heptarchia Saxonum as venerable Bede relates it decreta judieiorum inter subditos suos juxta exempla Romanorum Consilio sapientum constituit decreta judiciorum scribi fecit genti suae Et sub Saxonibus Danis quamvis pauciora Legum Romanorum vestigia reperiamus The learned Dr. Duck seconded by Dr. Langham in observationibus de antiquitatibus legibus Romanorum in Britannia exercitatissimus have not indiligently noted constabit tamen Reges eorum qui reliquis pietate virtute gloriae cupiditate praecelluerunt in judiciis jure dicundo inter subditos suos ad exempla Romanorum saepius se composuisse In the Laws of King Ina who about the year 712 after the Redemption of Mankind suesu instituto Cenradi Patris sui Heddae Erkenwaldi Episcoporum suorum omnium Senatorum suorum natu majorum sapientum populi sui in magna servorum Dei frequentia commanded ut justa judicia per omnem ditionem suam fundita stabilitaque sint at que ut nulli liceat in posterum Senatori sive alteri cuivis in ditione sua degenti sua antiquare judicia institutiones sive Leges genti suae condidit solempnes Of King Alured who about the year 871. prudentissimorum è suis consilio declaring that many of the Laws of his Ancestors quae sibi minus commoda videbantur ex consulto sapientum partim antiquanda partim innovanda curavit quaecunque in actis Inae gentilis sui Offae Merciorum Regis vel Ethelbert qui primus Anglorum sacrotinctus est Baptismato observatu digna deprehensus fuit ea collegit omnia reliqua plane omisit atque in istis discernendis prudentis simorum è suis consilio usus atque iis omnibus placuit editi eorum observationes Or in the League made betwixt King Alured and Guthrun the Dane or afterwards betwixt King Edward and Guthrum à sapientibus recitata sepius atque ad commodum Regni utilitatem aucta amplificata Or in or by any of the Books if they were extant and now to be seen said to have been collected and written by that great King viz. Breviarium quoddam collectum ex Legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britannorum Saxonorum Danorum 2o. Visi Saxonum Leges 3o. Instituta quaedam 4o. Contra judices iniquos 5o. Dicta sapientum 6o. Acta Magistratum 7o. Collectiones Chronicorum Or by the Laws of King Edward about the year 900. where iis omnibus qui Reip. praesunt etiam atque etiam mandavit ut omnibus quoad ejus facere poterint aequos se praebeant judices perinde ut in judiciali libro scriptum habetur nec quicquid formident jus commune audacter liberèque dicant ac litibus singulis dies quibus dijudicentur condictos statuit Of King Athelstan about the year 924. the Heptarchy being then reduced to its pristine estate of Monarchy Consilio Ulfhelmi Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum servorum Dei. Or in his Laws not long before made in a Councel held at Exeter where he was as they mention sapientibus stipatus Of King Edmond made in a Councel at London about the year 940. tam Ecclesiasticorum quam Laicorum cui interfuerunt Oda Wolstanus Archipraesul plurimique alii Episcopi Or in or by the first written Laws of the Britains about the same time in the Reign of their King Howel Dha stiled the Good the Bards and Druids men of great veneration power and esteem amongst them not before recommending to posterity or committing to writing any of their Laws Customs or Memorials qui convocati Episcopis Laicis doctissimis Leges antiquas correxit novas condidit Or in the Laws which King Eldred made about the year 948. in festo nativitatis beatae Mariae when universi magnates Regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi totius Regni quam
being crowded into King John's Charter were never either granted or confirmed by King Henry III. Edward I. or any of our succeeding Kings nor as Sir Henry Spelman repeating the same omissions saith is therein that of paying the Debts of the Deceased probably of those that died leaving their Heirs in Ward to the Jews and others although Matthew Paris so much mistakes as to affirm that those Charters of King John and his Son Henry III. were in nullo dissimiles Which well-interpreted could signifie no more than that King John in his great necessities and troubles pressing upon his Tenants in capite the great Lords and others by taxing them proportionably according to their Knights Fees they endeavoured by those Charters all that they could to restrain him from any such Assesments which should go further then a reasonable aid unless in the cases there excepted and aim'd at no more then that a Common-Councel which was not then called a Parliament should be summon'd not annually of all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Earls and greater Barons and all the Tenants in capite being those that were most concerned therein nor as our Parliaments now but only as to their aids and services as Tenants in capite were upon forty days notice to appear at the same time and place given in general by the King's Sheriffs and Bailiffs sic factâ submonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatam secundum consilium eorum qui prae sentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti venerint and could not be intended of our now House of Commons in Parliament many years after first of all and never before introduced or constituted that praefiction of Forty days probably first creating that opinion which can never arrive unto any more then that every summons of such a Councel or Meeting was to be upon so many days notice or warning which Mr. Pryn upon an exact observation of succeeding Parliaments hath found to be otherwise much of the boisterousness haughty and long after unquiet minds of some of those unruly Barons being to be attributed to the over-strained promises and obligations of William the Conquerour before he was so to his Normans and other Nations that adventured with him upon an agreement and Ordinance made in Normandy before his putting to Sea which the King of France had in the mean time upon charges and great allowances made unto him undertaken to guard and long after by the command of King Edward III. then warring in France in the 20th year of his Reign was by Sir Barth Burghersh and others sent from thence in the presence of the Keeper or Guardian of England and the whole Estate declared in Parliament as a matter of new discovery and designs of the French happened in the traverse and success of those wars which probably might make the Posterity of some of them although the Ancestors of most of them had been abundantly recompenced by large shares of the Conquest Gifts and Honours granted by the Conquerour to a more than competent satiety extended to the then lower Ranks of his Servants Souldiers or Followers as that to de Ferrariis the Head afterwards and chief of a greater Estate and Family in England than they had in Normandy and might be the occasion of that over-lofty answer of John de Warrennis Earl of Surrey in his answer to some of the Justices in Eyre in the Reign of King Edward I. when demanded by what warrant he did hold some of his Lands and Liberties he drawing out a rusty Sword which he did either wear or had brought with him for that purpose said By that which he helped William the Conquerour to subdue England so greatly to mistake themselves as to think which the Lineage of the famous Strongbow Earl of Pembroke and some eminent Families of Wales in the after-Conquest of Ireland never adventured to do that the Ancestors of them and others that left their lesser Estates in Nòrmandy to gain a greater in England to be added thereunto had not come as Subjects to their Duke and Leige-Lord but Fellow-sharers and Partners with him which they durst not ever after claim in his life-time or the life of any of his Successors before in the greatest advantages they had of them or the many Storms and Tempests of State which befel them but might be well content as the words of the Ordinance it self do express That they and their Progenies should acknowledge a Sovereignty unto the Conquerour their Duke and King and yield an Obedience unto him and his far-fam'd Posterity as their first and continued Benefactors And those their Liberties and Priviledges freely granted by those Charters and not otherwise to be claimed were so welcome and greatly to be esteemed by the then Subjects of England as they returned him their gratitude and thankfulness for them in a contribution of the fifteenth part of all their Moveables with an Attestation and Testimony of the Wiser more Noble and Powerful part of the Kingdom viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury Eleven other Bishops Nineteen Abbots Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice Ten Earls John Constable of Chester and Twenty-one Barons men of Might and great Estates amongst which there were of the contending and opposite Party Robert Fitz Walter who had been General of the Army raised and fighting against his Father the Earls of Warren Hereford Derby Warwick Chester and Albemarl the Barons of Vipont and Lisle William de Brewere and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford who afterwards fought against that King and helped to take him Prisoner That those Charters were given and granted unto them and other his Subjects the Free-men of his Kingdom of his own free will and accord And as to that of being not condemned without Answer or Tryal which in the infancy of the World was by the Creator of all Mankind recommended to its imitation as the most excellent Rule and Pattern of Justice in the Tryal and Sentence of Adam and Eve in Paradise are not to be found enacted or granted in King Edward the Confessor's Laws or the Charters or Laws of King Henry I. the people of England having no or little reason much to value or relie upon the aforesaid Charters of King John gained indirectly by force about two years after his as aforesaid constrained Resignation of his Kingdom of England and Dominion of Ireland to hold of the Pope and Church of Rome by an yearly Tribute being not much above Thirty years before and not then gone out of memory SECT V. Of the continued unhappy Iealousies Troubles and Discords betwixt the discontented and ambitious Barons and King Henry III. after the granting of his Magna Charta and Charta de Forestâ ALmost two years after which the King in a Parliament at Oxford declaring himself to be of full age and free to dispose of the affairs of the Kingdom cancelled and annulled the Charter of the Forests as granted in his
Non-age when he had no power of Himself or his Seal and therefore of no validity caused a Proclamation to be made that both the Clergy and Laity that would enjoy their Liberties should renew their Charters and have them confirmed under his new Seal paying for them according to the will of Hubert de Burgh his Chief-Justiciar upon whom was laid the blame of that matter and shortly after the King and his Brother Richard Earl of Cornwal being at discord about the Castle of Barkhamstead which the Earl claimed to belong to his Earldom and the Earl being threatned to be arrested fled to Marlborough where the discontented Lords joyning unto him did cause an Insurrection and required restitution to be made without delay of the Liberties of the Forests cancelled at Oxford otherwise he should be thereunto constrained by the Sword In anno 12o. of his Reign a Parliament was assembled at Northampton where an agreement was made and the Lands of the Earls of Britain and Bologne restored unto them In the 16th year of his Reign although he put out Hubert de Burgh chief-Chief-Justice of England in which Office much of the business of the Lord Treasurer were in those times concentered and severely called him to an account for Debts due to him and his Father Rents and Profits of all his demesne Lands since the death of William Marescal Earl of Pembroke in England Wales Ireland and Poicteau of the Liberties of Forests Warrens County-Courts and other places qualitèr custodiae sint vel alienatae de priis factis pro jure suo relaxando tam in terris quà m in Nobilibus of wasts made sine commodo ipsius Regis tam per guerram quam alio modo of Liberties given unto him Bishopricks and Custodies without Warrant quae pertinent ad Dominum Regem of wrongs and damages done to the Pope's Legates and Clarks contra voluntatem Domini Regis per auctoritatem ipsius Huberti tunc Iusticiarii qui nullum concilium voluit apponere ut illa corrigerentur quod facere tenebatur ratione officii sui de pace Regis qualiter sit custodita as well concerning homines terrae suae Angliae Hyberniae Gasconiae Pictaviae quà m alios extraneos de scutagiis carucagiis donis xeniis sive custodiarum exitibus spectantibus ad Coronam de maritagiis which he had by grant of King John the day that he dyed de aliis maritagis sibi traditis tempore suo de ipsis quae ipse Rex amisit per negligentiam ipsius Huberti And so fiercely prosecuted him as he caused him by force to be dragged from the Altar in the Sanctuary Imprisoned and as Sir Henry Spelman saith did afterwards charge Stephen Segrave with many of the like and displaced him Yet the Lords threatned not to come to his Councel unless he would reform his errors And in the 17th year of his Reign a Parliament was summon'd at Oxford whither they likewise refused to come because they were despised by Strangers whereupon it was decreed that they should be a second or third time summon'd to try if they would come After which those refractory Lords were summoned to come to a Parliament at Westminster whither they denyed also to come unless he would remove the Bishop of Winchester and the Poictovins from his Court otherwise by the Common-Councel of the Kingdom they sent him express word they would expel Him and his evil Councellors out of the Land and deal for the creation of a new King whereupon Pledges being required of the Nobility for security of their Allegiance no Act passed in that Parliament though divers Lords came thither as the Earls of Cornwal Lincoln Ferrers and others But in regard that the Earl-Marshal the Lord Gilbert Basset and others were not present Writs were sent to all that held by Knights-Service to repair to the King at Gloucester by a certain day whither the Earl-Marshal and his Associates refusing to come the King without the Judgment of their Peers caused them to be proclaimed Outlaws Anno 19o. of his Reign after two years troubles and misery a Parliament was assembled at Westminster where the King consented to call back the dis-herited Lords upon the Bishops threatning to excommunicate Him and his evil Councellors Anno 20o. Henry III. a Parliament was assembled at London which the King would have there to be holden but the Barons would not come unless it might be another place whereupon a place of more freedom was propounded where many things were proposed and order taken that all Sheriffs should be removed from their Offices upon complaint of corruption and others of more Integrity put in their rooms upon their Oaths not to take any gifts When the King offering to take away the great Seal of England from the Bishop of Chichester he refused to deliver it saying He received it by the Common-Councel of the Kingdom and without their assent he would not resign it A Parliament was held at London anno 21o. Henry III. wherein he required the Thirtieth part of the Movables as well of the Laity as Clergy But it was alledged that the people were unwilling to have it given to Aliens whereupon the King promiseth never more to injure the Nobility so that they would relieve him at the present for that his Treasure was exhausted To which they plainly answer That the same was done without their counsel neither ought they to be partakers of the punishment who were free from the fault Howsoever after four days consultation the King promising to use the counsel of his natural-born Subjects and freely granting the inviolable observation of their Liberties under pain of Excommunication had yielded to him the Thirtieth part of all their Movables reserving their ready Coyn Horse and Armour to be employ'd for the defence of the Commonwealth which was ordained to be collected by four Knights of every Shire who should upon their Oaths receive and deliver the same into some Abbey or Castle there to be reserved that if the King should not perform his promises it might be again restored upon condition often annexed That the King should leave the counsel of Aliens and only make use of his natural Subjects Yet although he caused the Earls Warren and Ferrers and John Fitz-Geffry to be sworn of his Councel that could not reach to a satisfaction of those that were not so willing as they ought to be satisfied when the King also in performance of his promise to the Bishops and Nobles had in that Parliament for the salvation of his Soul and exaltation of the Church being of full age re-confirm'd the great Charter of the Liberties of the Forests attested by twelve Bishops eight Earls and Symon de Montford and William Longspee twenty-six Barons and great Men notwithstanding they were granted during his minority complaints were made of the wast and profusion of his Treasure and great sums of money raised in his time and
that the Orders concluded in Parliament were not observed in the levying and disposing of the Subsidy and over-strict courses had been taken in the valuation of mens Estates William Valence the Queens Uncle was grown the only man with him and nothing was done without him the Earl of Provence his Father a poor Prince was invited to come into England to participate of the Treasure and Riches thereof Symon de Montfort a French man born banished out of France by Queen Blanch was entertained in England preferred secretly in marriage with the King's Sister Widow of William Earl of Pembroke the great Marshal made Earl of Leicester and Steward of England in the right of his Mother Amice Daughter of Blanchmains Earl of Leicester Which incensing many of the Nobility and in them not a few of the common people did begin to raise a Commotion wherein they procured Richard Earl of Cornwal Brother to the King and Heir-apparent the King having then no Child to head their Party and manage their Grievances which amongst many pretended were That he despised the counsel of his natural Subjects and followed that of the Pope's Legate as if he had been the Pope's Feudatory Upon which harsh Remonstrance the King having sent to sound the affections of the Londoners found them to be against him Summoned a Parliament in the 22d year of his Reign at London whither the Lords came armed both for their own Safety and to constrain him if he refused to the keeping of his promises and reformation of his courses wherein after many debatements the King taking his Oath to refer the business according to the order of certain grave men of the Kingdom Articles were drawn sealed and publickly set up under the Seals of the Legate and divers great Men But before any thing could be effected Symon Montfort working a Peace for himself with the Earls of Cornwal and Lincoln with whom he and the other Barons had been before displeased the Earl grew cold in the business which the other Lords perceiving nothing more was at that time done Symon Norman called Master of the King's Seal and said to be Governour of the affairs of the Kingdom had the Seal taken from him and some others whom the Nobility maligned displaced And in the same year an Assassinate attempting to kill the King as he was in Bed instigated thereunto by William de Marisco the Son of Jeffrey de Marisco was for the Fact drawn in pieces with Horses and afterwards hang'd and quarter'd And some years after the King having a Son born his Brother the Earl of Cornwal having likewise Issue did by permission of the State which before he could not obtain undertake the Cross and with him the Earl of Salisbury and many other Noblemen The Earl of March the Queen-Mother and certain Lords of Poicteau incited the King to make a War with France to which some of the English who claimed Estates therein were very willing but the matter being moved in Parliament a general opposition was made against it the great expences thereof and the ill suceess it lately had and it was vehemently urged That it was unlawful to break the Truce made with the King of France who was now too strong for them notwithstanding many of the Peers in the hopes of recovering their Estates so prevailed as an Aid demanded for the same was granted but so ill resented by others as all the King's supplies from the beginning of his Reign were particularly and opprobriously remembred as the Thirteenth Fifteenth Sixteenth Thirtieth and Fortieth part of all mens Movables besides Carucage Hydage Escuage Escheats Amerciaments and the like which would as they said be enough to fill his Coffers in which considerations also and reckonings with the Pope's continual exactions and the infinite charge of those who undertook the Holy War were not omitted besides it was declared how the Thirtieth lately levyed being ordered to be kept in certain Castles and not to be issued but by the allowance of some of the Peers was yet unspent the King no necessary occasion for it for the use of the Commonwealth for which it was granted and therefore resolutely denyed to grant any more whereupon he came himself to the Parliament and in a submissive manner craving their aid urged the Popes Letter to perswade them thereunto but by a vow made unto each other all that was said was not able to remove their resolutions insomuch as he was driven to get what he could of particular men by Gifts or Loans and took so great a care of his poorer Subjects at or about the same time as he did by his Writ in the 23d year of his Reign command William de Haverhul and Edward Fitz-Odo That upon Friday next after the Feast of St. Matthias being the Anniversary of Eleanor Queen of Scotland his Sister they should cause to be fed as many Poor as might be entertained in the greater Hall of Westminster and did in the same year by another Writ command the said William de Haverhull to feed 15000 Poor at St. Peters in London on the Feast-day of the Conversion of St. Peter and 4000 Poor upon Monday next after the Feast of St. Lucie the Virgin in the great Hall at Westminster And for quiet at home whilst he should be absent in France contracted a marriage betwixt his youngest Daughter Margaret and Alexander eldest Son of Alexander III. King of Scotland but his expedition in France not succeeding his Treasure consumed upon Strangers the English Nobility discontented and by the Poictovins deceiving his Trust in their not supplying him with money he was after more than a years stay the Lords of England leaving him constrained to make a dishonourable Truce with the King of France and to return having been relieved with much Provisions out of England and Impositions for Escuage a Parliament was in the 28th year of his Reign assembled at Westminster wherein his Wars the revolt of Wales and Scotland who joyned together and the present occasions of the necessary defence of the Kingdom being pressed nothing could be effected without the assurance of Reformation and the due execution of Laws whereupon he came again himself in person and pleaded his own necessities but that produced no more than a desire of theirs to have ordained that four of the most grave and discreet Peers should be chosen as Conservators of the Kingdom and sworn of the Kings Council both to see Justice observed and the Treasure issued and ever attend about him or at least three or two of them That the Lord Chief-Justiciar and Lord Chancellor should be chosen by the general voices of the States assembled or else be of the number of those four and that there might be two Justices of the Benches two Barons of the Exchequer and one Justice for the Jews and those likewise to be chosen by Parliament that as their Function was publick so should also be their Election At which time the
his to come into England but such only as the King and the Lords should like The Poictovins landing at Boloign had much-a-do to gain passage into their own Countreys by reason that Henry de Montfort Son to the Earl of Leicester whose power was very great in France had followed them thither Rumours were spread amongst the people in England that the Earl of Gloucester was attempted to have been poyson'd and one of his Servants executed upon no other proof but presumption and every one that would complain of the Poictovins wanted no encouragement Richard Gray whom the Lords had made Captain of the Castle of Dover intercepted as much as he could of what the Poictovins carried over and enriched himself thereby The new chief-Chief-Justice Hugh Bigod Brother to the Earl Marshal being chosen in the last Parliament by publick voice procured an order that four Knights in every Shire should enquire of the poor oppressed by great men and certifie the same to the Baronage under their hands and seals which were never found to have been certified And made an Order that no man should give any thing besides Provisions for Justice or to hinder the same and that both the corrupter and corrupted should be grievously punished Notwithstanding which pretended care the Lords enforceing the service of the King's Tenants which dwelt near unto them were as totidem Tyranni furnished the especial Fortresses of the Kingdom with Garrisons of their own sworn to the common State and took the like assurance of all Sheriffs Bailiffs Coroners and other publick Ministers with strict Commissions upon Oath to examine their behaviour And to make the King and his actions the more odious and their own more popular it was rumoured that the King's necessities must be repaired out of the Estates of his people and he must not want whilst they had it Whereupon the King to defend himself from such scandals was constrained to publish his Declaration to desire the people to give no credit to such false suggestions for that he was ready to defend all Rights and Customs due unto them Howsoever Montfort Gloucester and Spencer who had by the late constitution of the twenty-four Conservators drawn the entire managing of the Kingdom into their hands enforced the King to call a Parliament at London where the authority of the twenty-four Conservators was placed in themselves and order taken that three at the least should attend at the Court to dispose of the custody of Castles and other business of the Kingdom of the Chancellor Chief-Justiciar Treasurer and all other Officers great and small and bound the King to release to them their legal Obedience whensoever he infringed his Charter In the mean time the Earl of Cornwal King of the Romans being dispossest of that Kingdom or not well liking it returning into England the Barons send to know the cause of his coming and require of him an Oath before he should land not to prejudice their late established Orders of the Kingdom which he sternly refused saying He had no Peer in England being the Son and Brother of a King and was above their power and if they would have reformed the Kingdom they ought first to have sent for him and not so presumptuously have attempted a business of so high a nature The Lords upon return of such an answer sent to guard the Ports came strongly to the Coast prepared to encounter him and the King Queen and their Son Edmond in a more loving manner go to Dover to receive him but neither they nor the Earl of Cornwal were by them permitted to enter into the Castle for that it was the chief Fortress of the Kingdom But finding the Earl of Cornwal's Train small they suffered him to land and did upon his promise to take the propounded Oath bring him and the King into the Chapter-house at Canterbury where the Earl of Gloucester standing forth in the midst in the presence of the King called forth the Earl not by the name of King but Earl of Cornwal who in reverend manner coming forth took his Oath That he would be faithful and diligent with the Barons to reform the Kingdom by the counsel of wicked persons over-much disordered and to be an effectual Coadjutor to expel Rebels and disturbers of the same under pain of losing all the Lands which he held in England After which both parties strengthening themselves all they could the King for the assurance of the King of France ex praecepto consilio Domini Regis Angliae totius Baronagii sent the Earls of Gloucester Leicester Peter de Subaudia John Mansel and Robert Walerand to the Parliament of Paris de arduis negotiis Regna Angliae Franciae contingentibus carrying with them a resignation of the Dutchy of Normandy and the Earldoms of Anjou Poicteau Turaine and Mayne for which the King of France was to give him three hundred thousand pounds with a grant of all Guyen beyond the River of Garonna all the River of Xantoigne to the River of Charente and the Counties of Limosin and Quercy to him and his Successors dong his Homage and Fealty to the Crown of France as a Duke of Aquitain and a Peer of that Kingdom After whose return Montfort as he had incensed others so had he those that animated him against the King as Walter Bishop of Worcester and Robert Bishop of Lincoln who enjoyned him upon the remission of his sins to prosecute the cause unto death affirming that the peace of the Church of England would never be established but by the Sword But the people being oppressed and tired at length with those commotions part-takings and discords which by the provisions wrested from the King at Oxford and so many mischiefs and inconveniencies had harassed and almost ruined them and did help to increase rather than decrease those troubles and controversies which afflicted the Nation it having never been easie to bring those that were to be governed to rule with any modesty or moderation those that had enjoyed a governing power in authority established and appointed by God in a well-temper'd Monarchy and succession for many Ages or those that were to govern to obey the giddy and unjust dictates of those who were to obey them or to unite in any contenting harmony the various ambitions envies revenges hatreds partialities self-interests and designs of many or a multitude or such enforcements and contrivances to be lasting durable or pleasing and that all could not well rule or agree how to do it The King and Queen keeping their Christmas in the Tower of London cum suis consiliariis saith Matthew Paris elaboratum fuit tam à Regni Angliae pontificibus quam à Regni Franciae ut pax reformaretur inter Regem Angliae Barones ventumque est ad illud ut Rex Proceres se submiserunt ordinationi Regis Franciae in praemissis provisionibus Oxoniae nec non pro depraedationibus damnis utrobique
illatis who had been so good a friend to the rebellious Barons and so great a favourer of them as after his expulsion out of England whither they had invited him toaid and assist them against K. John and an agreement made with K. Henry III. his Son to restore unto him the Dutchy of Normandy and the other Provinces which he had from him in France as he denied to re-deliver them until the Liberties claimed by the English Barons his old Friends should be confirmed unto them by whose Quarrels with their Sovereigns he had gained many great advantages to the wrong and damage of the Crown of England And was all the while a very great enemy both to the King and his Father who notwithstanding was with the Prince his Son Richard Earl of Cornwal King of the Romans with others of the Loyal Nobility of the Kings part and the contending Rebellious Lords of the other side by mutual Oaths tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis in the 47th year of his Reign did undertake to perform and abide by his award so as it were made and pronounced betwixt that and the Feast of Pentecost then next ensuing unto which none of the Commons of England do appear to have been parties Whereupon the King of France taking upon him the said arbitration congregato in crastino sancti Vincentii Ambiomis populo penè innumerabili coram Episcopis Comitibus aliisque Francorum proceribus solemniter dedit sententiam pro Rege Angliae contra Barones Statutis Oxoniae provisionibus ordinationibus ac obligationibus penitus annullatis hoc excepto quod antiquas Chartas Regis Johannis Angliae universitati concessas per illam sententiam in nullo intendebat penitùs derogare And made his award accordingly in writing an exemplification or authentick Copy whereof is yet to be seen amongst the Records in His now Majesty's Treasury at Westminster Quae quidem exceptio Comitem Leicestriae coeteros qui habebunt sensus exercitatos saith Matthew Paris compulit in praeposito tenere firmitèr Statuta Oxoniae que fundata fuerant super illam Chartam Et eo tempore redierint à Francia qui Parliamento Regis Francia interfuerant Rex videlicet Angliae Henricus Regina Eleanora Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis Bonifacius Petrus Herefordensis Episcopus Johannes Mansel qui Baronibus saith that Monk of St. Albans mala quanta potuerunt non cessabant machinari Which exception could neither absolve them from their Oaths so solemnly taken to perform the award which the King of France had made or purge them from their former and after Rebellions against King Henry III. or their ill usage of him SECT VI. That the Exceptions mentioned in the King of France's award of the Charter granted by King John could not invalidate the whole award or justifie the provisions made at Oxford which was the principal matter referred unto him FOr that the contrivance of the twenty-four Conservators and what else was added thereunto by the aforesaid Provisions and constrained Ordinances made at Oxford was never any part of the Magna Charta or the Charta de Foresta enforced from King John but a security seperate and collateral thereunto framed and devised at the same time for the better observation and performance of those Charters which the preamble of that security of which Matthew Paris hath at large left unto posterity an exemplar may abundantly evidence in the words following viz. Cum autem pro Deo ad emendationem Regni nostri ad melius sopiendam discordiam inter nos Barones nostros haec omnia concessimus volentes ea integra firma stabilitate gaudere facimus concedimus eis securitatem subscriptam viz. quod Barones eligant viginti quinque Barones de Regno nostros quos voluerint c. and doth greatly differ both in the material and formal parts thereof from the provisions afterwards enforced at Oxford as by a just collation and comparison of that collateral security with those provisions may appear where care is taken but for twenty-four Conservators twelve to be chosen by the King and twelve by those factious Lords who would likewise engross to themselves and their party the nomination of the Chancellor Treasurer two chief-Chief-Justices two of the Justices of both the Benches and Barons of the Exchequer and have the making of the Chief-Justice of the Iews to which the King and his Son the Prince were sworn but to the Running-Mead unkingly shackles or security the King and those masterly Barons were only sworn and that not thought sufficient without some principal Castles of the Kings were to be put into hands of those Conservators and that upon complaint made to the King or his Chief-Justice if reformation were not made within a time limited the Conservators and the common people were to distrain gravere eum which would amount to a licensed Rebellion with a salvis personis only of the King and his Queen and Children all the great men of the Kingdom and the common people and as many as would being also to take their Oaths to be aiding and assisting to those Conservators in a kind or much resembling the late ASSOCIATION who were themselves to take their Oaths well and truly to execute their multiplied Kingships and clip as much as they could the more just Authority and Rights of their Sovereign But in those of Oxford there was so much kindness shewed to themselves and care taken of their own tender consciences as not to be sworn at all and must needs be an excellent contrivance for the invisible good of the Kingdom and a rare performance of their Homage Fealty and Oaths of Allegiance to take the power and authority from a King which should enable him to perform his Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta freely granted unto them and put it into their own hands to break those Charters and his Oaths and to protect and do Justice unto his people as oft as their malice ambitious envies avarice revenge interests designs corruptions or domineering passions of themselves and their Wives being not a few in number and their numerous adhaerents should incite or persuade them unto and were so confident of their over-ruling party no provision being at all made in those which were made at Oxford if any discords should arise in the election of the one twelve or the other or in the continuance of their agreements together shares or parts in the Government of their King and fellow-Subjects as believing that the power of the twelve Barons chosen by themselves would be either praedominant over the twelve which were to be named by the King or their newly-usurped authority would be so complaisant and well-pleasing unto all the twenty-four as flattery fear or interest would so quiet any to be supposed discords as they should not need to fall out at a Feast or divide disturb or destroy themselves by Factions the security given at Running-Mead ordaining only twenty-five
correction or explicacation mad therein So as that meeting and re-referrence proved to be only an essay for a pacification For that haughty Earl Montfort hated the King and endeavouring all he could his destruction so thwarted all his actions and domineer'd over him as the King told him openly That he feared him more than any Thunder or Tempest in the world Being not pleased with what had been proposed at that revisionary Treaty for what concerned his own particular interest and satisfaction would rather bleed and embroil the Nation than acquiesce in those excellent Laws and Liberties which the King had granted in his Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta which like two Jewels of inestimable price in her ears did help to bless secure and adorn our BRITANNIA whilst She sate upon Her Promontory viewing and guarding Her British-Seas and did therefore draw and entice as many as he could to go along with his envy malice ambition and designs With which Ordination Sentence and Award of the King of France against the Barons many were notwithstanding so well satisfied with the King and so ill with Symon Montfort's proud and insolent demeanour as they withdrew themselves from the rebellious part of the Barons and although some for a while staggered in their Opinions and Loyalty because though the King of France condemned the provisions made at Oxford yet he allowed King John's Charter whereby he left as they pretended the matter as he found it for that these Provisions as those Barons alledged were grounded upon that Charter But a better consideration made many to dispence with their ill-taken Oaths and return to their Loyalty as Henry Son of the Earl of Cornwall Roger de Clifford Roger de Leybourne Hamo L'Estrange and others And it is worthy a more than ordinary remarque that that King of France and his Councel upon view and hearing of so many Controversies and Tronsactions betwixt our King Henry III. and his rebellious Barons could not be strangers to the former and latter attempts ill-doings and designs of that Party of the English Baronage did so little approve thereof and of their Parliamentary Insolencies and Oxford Provisions as his Grand-child or Successor Philip le Bel King of France who reigned in the time of our Edward I. did within less than forty years after Pour oster saith l'Oyseau a very learned French Author de la suitte le Parlement qui lors estoit le conseil ordinaire des Roys voir leur faisoit Teste bien sauvent luy oster doucement la cognossance des affaires d'Estat to the no great happiness as it afterwards proved of the French Nation erigea un cour ordinaire le rendit sedentaire a Paris dont encore il a retenu ce teste de son ancienne institution qu'il verifie homologue les Edicts du Roy. And now the doors of Janus Temple flew quite open the Prince with Lewellin Prince of Wales Mortimer and others invade and enter upon the Lands of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and some of the opposite Nobility and the Earl of Leicester was as busie on the other side in seizing Gloucester and Worcester Whereupon the King doubting Montfort's approach to London being not yet ready for him works so as a mediation of Peace was assay'd upon condition that all the Castles of the King should be delivered to the keeping of the Barons the provisions of Oxford inviolably observed all strangers by a certain time should avoid the Kingdom except such as by a general consent should be held faithful and profitable for the same Here saith the Historian was a little pause which seemed but a breathing in order unto a greater rage The Prince fortifies victuals and garrisons Windsor Castle And the King to get time summoned a Parliament at London where he won many Lords to his party and with them Richard Earl of Cornwal his Brother King of Almaine Henry his Son William Valence with the rest of his Brethren marches to Oxford whither divers Lords of Scotland repair unto him as Iohn Comyn Iohn Baliol Lords of Galloway Robert Bruce and others with many English Barons Clifford Percy Basset c. from thence with all his Forces went to Northampton took Prisoner young Symon Montfort with fourteen other principal men thence to Nottingham spoiling the Possessions appertaining to the Barons in those parts The Earl of Leicester draws towards London to recover and make good that part of his greatest importance and seeks to secure Kent and the Ports which hastens the King to stop his proceedings and to succour the Castle of Rochester which he besieged whereby Success and Authority growing strong on the King's side the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester in behalf of themselves and their Party write unto the King humbly protesting their Loyalty alledge that they opposed only against such as were enemies to Him annd the Kingdom and had bely'd them unto which the King returned answer that Themselves were the perturbers of him and his State enemies to his Person and sought His and the Kingdoms destruction and therefore defy'd them the Prince and the Earl of Cornwal sending likewise their Letters of defyance unto them who doubting the hazard of a Battel send the Bishops of London and Worcester their former encouragers unto the King with an offer of 30000 Marks for damage done in those Wars so as the Provisions of Oxford might be observed Which not being condescended unto or thought fit to be allowed Montfort with his Partners seeing no other means but to put all to the hazard of a Battel made himself more ready than was expected placed on the side of an Hill near Lewis where the Battel was to be fought certain Ensigns without men which seemed afar off to be Squadrons ready to second his men whom he caused all to wear White Crosses both for their own notice and signification of the candour and innocency of his cause which he desired to have believed to be only for Justice And as Rebels first assaulting their King unexpectedly began to charge his Forces who were divided into three parts The first whereof was commanded by Prince Edward the King's Son William de Valence Earl of Pembroke and John Warren Earl of Surrey and Sussex the second by the King of Almaine and his Son Henry and the third by the King himself The Forces of the Barons ranged in four parts whereof the first was led by Henry de Montfort and the Earl of Hereford the second by Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford Iohn Fitz-John and William of Mount-Chency the third by the Londoners and Richard Segrave and the fourth by Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester himself and Thomas de Pelvesion And both sides fighting with as great manhood as fury the Prince and his Batalion cum tanto impetu in hostes irruil so beat and routed those that stood against him as he made them give back many
Nobis tenemini firmitèr injungentes quòd vos ipsi in propria persona vestra ad Nos sine omni dilatione accedatis Castrum praedictum nobis reddituri vel talem loco vestro mittatis plenam habeat potestatem reddendi Nobis Castrum praedictum in forma supradicta hoc sub poena praedicta mullatenùs omittatis Teste Rege apud Westm ' 60 die Aprilis per Com. Leic. Justic. P. de Monteforti R. de S ti Johanne alios de Consilio The first day of May in the Year aforesaid the said Henry de Borham not abstaining from the Office and business of a Judge whilst he continued under the sentence of Excommunication aforesaid the King commanded him not to intermeddle therein until he should be absolved as the Writ following signified Rex Henrico de Borham salutem Quia per Assertionem venerabilis Patris H. London Episc. intelleximus quòd meritis vestris exigentibus Excommunicationis sententia estis innodati per qued ab omnibus arctius vitari debetis nolumus quòd Placitis Nos sequentibus aut aliis quibuscunque placitis Nostris intendatis nec quod de aliquo quod ad Justic. pertinet vos intromittatis donec beneficium Absolutionis merueritis aliud à Nobis receperitis in mandatis Teste Rege apud Gloucester primo die Maii. per R. Com. Leic. Justic. omnes de Consilio tunc aqud Gloucester existentes The 5 th day of that May a Memorandum was entred upon the close Rolls of the Chancery in these words viz. Die Jovis prox post festum S ti Johannis ante portam Latinam hora prima Magister Thomas de Cantilup Cancellarius Regis tradiderit Rand ' de Sandwic custod ' de Garder Regis sigillum Domini Regis in praesentia ipsius Domini Regis assistentibus Hug. Le Despencer Justic. Angliae Petro de Monteforti custodiend ' usque ad reditum ipsius Thomae sub hac formâ viz. Quod idem Rad ' sigill in Garder ' Regis custodiat sub signo alicujus infrascript ' P. de Monteforti Rogero de S to Johanne Egidii de Argentin vel alicujus eorum Et quòd Signo signantis fracto signabit idem Rand ' brevia illa quae sunt de cursu in ipsius praesentia si abesse voluerit ea tamen quae sunt de praecepto non nisi in praesentia Signantis sigillabit de ejus assensu brevibus tà m de cursu quà m de praecepto sigillum Regis sub sigillo suo eodem sigillo Regis subsignato idem Rand ' tunc reportet in Garder ' praedict sic illud usque ad reditum ejusdem Thomae custodiet in Garder ' Regis ista facta fuerit apud Gloucester 5 o die Maii. The Prince having the Command of the Judaisme or Bank of the usuring Jewes as also the Mannor Town and Castle of Stamford assigned unto him and being about the 30 th day of May in the Year aforesaid escaped out of the Castle of Hereford where he had been long a Prisoner the King continuing a Prisoner to his Rebel-Barons to save his own life did command the Treasurer and Chamberlaines of the Exchequer that taking with them Thomas Cantelup his Chancellour they should collect for his use the Tallage or Tax lately laid upon the Judaisme and to remove Adam de Winton and Thomas de Cropp two of their Justices and put into that Office William Haselbeck and command the said Justice not to obey the Prince his Son and prohibit all the Jewes in England to do the like for that the Prince his Son Spreto concilio of the King and his faithful Barons subitò inopinatò had joyned himself to the Rebellious Party to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom Rex Thesau Camerariis suis salutem Quia Edwardus Filius Noster cum Judaismum vestrum sicut nostis ad tempus commisimus Nostro prorsus Magnatum fidelium Nostrorum spreto Consilio Subito ex inopinato jam recessit ad quosdam Rebelles Nostros se transferendo qui Nos gravare pacem Regni Nostri perturbare proponunt dictum Judaismum cepimus in manum Nostram ideò vobis mandamus quòd assumpto vobiscum Magistro Thom ' de Cantilupo Cancellario Nostro si adhuc London existit Talliagium nuper assessum super Judaismum praedict per Thomam de Ippegrave ad hoc assignatum per praedictum Filium Nostrum videri illud ad opus Nostrum colligi salvo custodiri fac donec aliud inde praecipimus Adam vero de Winton socium Roberti de Cropp ' ab Officio suo amoveatis loco suo Will ' de Haselbech substituatis ità quod iidem Will ' Robertus Officio Justiciariae Jud ' à modo intendant donec alitèr inde duxerimus ordinandi eisdem Justic. firmitèr injungatis ex parte Nostra nè praefato Filio Nostro vel suis in aliquo intendant quod ab omnibus Judaeis Angl. hoc idem scire faciant hoc non omittatis Teste Rege apud Herefordiam tricesimo die Maii. And the same day having been enforced to stile his Loyal Barons Rebels sent his Writs to the Sheriffs of Herefordshire Shropshire and Staffordshire to proclaim that no Faires and Markets should be kept within their Liberties and Baylewicks untill he should give further Order and that all Victuals to be sold should be brought to Hereford or wheresoever the King should be in these words Rex Vicecom ' Hereford salutem Praecipimus tibi firmitèr injungentes quòd per totam Ballivam tuam firmitèr inhibere fac ex parte Nostra nè aliquae Feriae vel Mercata de caetero teneantur in Balliva praedicta donec aliud inde mandavimus sed ubiquè proclamari fae ex parte Nostra quòd omnia Victualia venalia ad Nos usque Hereford veniant exindè Nos sequantur talitèr te habeas in hoc mandato Nostro exequendo quòd diligentiam tuam meritò commendare possimus T. ut supra Eodem modo mandatum est Vic. Salop. Staff And directed another Writ for the seizing of the Town and Castle of Stamford which was the Princess's as followeth viz. Rex Thomae de Blund Custodi terrarum Thomae de Ferrar ' salutem Quia Edwardus filius Noster cui villam de Stamford unà cum Castro ejusdem villae nuper commâ—sâ—â—us 〈◊〉 â—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostrum sicut nostis Nostro prorsus M 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostror ' spreto consilio Subito inopinato jam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebelles Nostros se transferendo qui Nos gravare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostri perturbare propo 〈…〉 vâ—bis Mandamus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd Villam praedictam sine dilatione capiatis in ma 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cam salvo custodiatis ità quòd de exitibus inde prove 〈…〉 Noâ—is respondeatis Teste ut supra The King being inforced to make
restored to them Besides they declared to the Legat That they had irreverently ejected out of the Kingdom the Bishops of Winchester London and Chester whereby the Councell of the Kingdom was in great part weakned willed that they might be restored to their Lands without Redemption that the Provisions of Oxford might be observed and that they might have Hostages delivered unto them into the Island to hold the same peaceably for five years to come until they might perceive how the King would perform his Promises But this Stubbornness so exasperated the King as the next year following with a mighty Army he did so beset the Isle as he shut them up and Prince Edward with Bridges made on boats entred the same in diverse places and constrained them to yeild And in the 52d year of his Raign devastavit saith Matthew Paris per totum Regnum de Comitatu in Comitatum qui stabilem contravenientibus intentarent ut videlicet si quid Possessiones alienas sive Ovium vel Boum vel aliquid usurparet injustè subiret Sententiam capitalem In the mean time the Earl of Gloucester with his Army marched to London where by the Citizens he was received But the Legat residing in the Tower so prevailed with him as he rendred himself to the King and was shortly after reconciled by the Mediation of the King of the Romans and the Lord Philip Basset upon the forfeiture of 12000 Marks if he should ever raise any Commotion Which being effected the King went with an Army into Wales against Lewellin their Prince for ayding Simon Montfort and the Earl of Gloucester against him but his Wrath being for 32000 l. Sterling appeased a Peace was concluded betwixt them and four Cantreds which had been taken from him by right of Warr restored Whereby those bloody long and ruining Controversies betwixt that unfortunate Prince King Henry the Third and a great ill disposed part of his Subjects led and managed by some of his overgrown Nobility and haereditary great Officers of his Crown and Estate which had in and from his Infant age to Fifty-Seven vexed and disquieted him and his Government were drawing towards an end And whilst â—e laboured to repress those Disorders which the Warrs had produced issued out his Writs to all the Sheriffs and Justices Itinerants to leavy 400â— with all speed out of the extract Rolls of Fines and Americaments to be paid into the Exchequer for the expences of William de Beverlaco Prince Edwards Chaplain sent to Rome about his Affairs And in the same year beholding with tears the Ruines of the burnt and deformed Church of Norwich after the Bishops Excommunication of all that had consented unto it And Trivet the Judg punishing the Offenders he fined the City in 3000 Marks of Silver towards the repairing of that Church and a Cup of Gold of the value of one hundred pounds In the 54 th year of his Raign Parliamentum tenuit apud Marleburgh in quo de Assensu Comitum Baronum no mention at all being made of the Commonalty as well high as low in the Record but is justly to be charged as a fault or mistake upon Mr. Pulton's Translation of our Statutes into English edita sunt statuta The Legat Ottobon signed with the Croysado both the King's Sons Edward and Edmond the Earl of Gloucester and divers other Noble men undertaking a War for the Recovery of the Holy Land Prince Edward in that long and Perillous Journey carrying with him his beloved Consort Elianor then young with Child and Mortgaging Gascony to the King of France for 30000 Marks who was also personally engaged in the same Expedition and left his aged Father the King broken with the cares and toyles of War and Imprisonment who after his Son Prince Edward's departure being in the Fifty-fifth year of his Raign having borrowed Moneys of his Brother Richard King of Almaine to help to set forward his Son Edward and falling desperately sick and past all hopes of Recovery assigned unto his said Brother all the Revenues of the Crown except Wardships Marriages Releifes Escheats of the Counties Eyres of the Justices and the Juries which he retained in his own hands to his own use A Nostre soustenance as the words of the Record are de Nostre Reyne e de Nos mesnees e a Nos de Nos dettes aleger And shortly after being doubtful of his Recovery from that sickness whilst Prince Edward his Son and Heir to the Crown was engaged in that so called Holy War Wrote his Letter of Advice unto him speedily to return into England upon his Fatherly Blessing notwithstanding his Vow and Engagement in that affair in such manner as might be most for his Honour in these words viz. Rex Edwardo Primogenito suo karissimo salutem paternam Benedictionem Tenore Literarum vestrarum Nobis super vestro Comitivae Vestrae statu prospero jocundo benedictus Deus transmissarum audito pleniùs intellecto laeti efficiebomur hilares in immensum ettam ante receptionem ipsarum Literarum tanta tam gravi infirmitate detinebamur quòd onmes singult existentes Physici alii de vita Nostra commâ—â—iter desperabant nec tempore quo later praesentium à Nobis recessit de Nostra Convaltscentia spes aliqua habebatur verùm tamen prout Altissimo de statu Nostro placuerit ordinare vos indè per Nostros Nuntios reddemus frequentiùs certiores undè cùm vos in Haereditatem not by Election Regni Nostri tanquam Primogenitus Haeres Noster post Nos succedere debeatis vos post receptionem praesentium ad partes remotiores nullatenùs transferatis antè qùam de statu Nostro certitudinem habueritis pleniorem tùm quia si Papa crearetur mandaret charissimo fratri nostro Regi Alem illustri Avunculo vestro cui custodia Regni praedicti de concilio vestro commissa fuit oporteat ipsum pro statu sui Regni Alem ' ad Curiam Romanam modis omnibus personaliter accedere ità quòd ad depressionem quorundam male volorum infra Regnum Nostrum existentium sicut nostis intendere non posset ut expediret tà m quia si occasione mortis Nostrae quod absit vos oporteat ad propria remeare causa Regiminis Regni praedicti recipiendi cum Rege Franciae qui ad partes Franciae in brevi reversurus est ut dicitur honestè redire poteritis decentèr super quibus omnibus tale concilum habeatis quale vobis honori Vestro ac ipsi Regno paci tranquillitati ejusdem Magis videritis expedire hoc sub obtentu paternae Benedictionis nullatenùs omittatis ut vobis de voluntate Nostra constet in praemissis consulimus bonâ fide quòd ad propria redeatis sine morâ quià vestris Regni praedicti Negotiis ad votum ordinatis dispositis poteritis cum
de Ayer in com' Norf ' the Office of Marshal of Ireland in Fee with the Cantred within which the Town of Kildman was Scituate was Warden of the Marches of Wales Sheriff of Lincolnshire and Governour of the Castles of Oswastre and Shrawardine had the Mannor of Hengham in com' Norf ' with the Advowsons of the Church thereof in Anno 16th of King John executed the Office of Sheriff of Lincolnshire for three parts of that Year and likewise in the 17th in which he was associated with John fitz Robert of the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk as also in the Custody of the Castles of Norwich Oxford and Dorchester was Sheriff of Warwickshire and Governour of the Castle of Worcester in the time of the Barons Wars in the first Year of the Raign of King Henry the third made Sheriff of Hantshire and Governour of the Castle of Devizes in com' Wilts ' had a Grant of all the Lands of William de St. John who in the 49th Year of Henry the third took part with the rebellious Barons William de Percy descended from Manfred a Dane coming out of Denmark with the fierce and famous Rollo into Normandy and thence with William the Conqueror into England and much beloved by him had granted unto him by him vast Possessions in the Realm as appeareth by the General Survey in Dooms-day Book viz. Ambledune in Hanshire divers Lordships in Lincolnshire and in Yorkshire eighty-six whereof Topoline in the North Riding was one and Spofford in the West Riding another Camois a Baron against King Henry the Third was in Anno 26th of his Raign for that half Year Sheriff of the Counties of Surrey and Sussex and from that time until the one half Year of the 30th of his Raign seized of the Mannor of Wodeton in the County of Surrey Ditton in com' Cantabr ' Burwel in com' Oxon ' Torpel in com' Northamp ' and of divers Knights Fees in other Counties D'Eynill was in 41. and 44. Henry the third Justice or Warden of all the Forrests beyond Trent in Anno 47. Governour of the Castle of York and in 48. of the Castle of Scarborough from Michaelmas 48. was Sheriff of Yorkshire until the Battle of Evesham where he was against the King Monchensey was one of the rebellious Barons at the Battle of Lewes had great Possessions in the Counties of Essex Norfolk Glou ' Kent and Northampton The Lord Lovetot one of the rebellious Barons was in the last half Year of 39th Henry the third Sheriff of the Counties of Nottingham and Derby and Governour of Bolsaver Castle Henry Hastings sideing with the Barons was in the 48. Year of the Raign of Henry the third made Governour of the Castle of Scarborough in com' Eborum and of the Castle of Winchester Bobert de Roos had great Possessions amongst others the Castle and Barony of Helmesley or Hamlake in Yorkshire the Castle and Barony of Warke in Northumberland and the Barony of Trusbut being of the part of the rebellious Barons was for some time Governour of Hereford Castle when Prince Edward was there detained Prisoner in 42. Henry the third answered for four Knights Fees and an half and an eighth part in Lincolnshire fifty-two Thirds a twelfth and a twentieth in Yorkshire ten for his Barony of Trusbut four and a fourth and third part of Warter Adam de Novo Mercato descended from Bernard de Newmarch one of the followers of William the Conqueror subdued to himself three Cantreds being the most part if not the whole of the Country of Brecknock in Wales had in 8th Henry the third the Barony of Bayeux and in the 47th and 48th divers Lands in the County of Lincolne and the Mannor of Wilmaresly Campshall Thorne Bentley and Archley in com' Ebor ' Colvile was seized in the Raign of King Henry the third against whom he took Arms of the Castle of Bitham in the County of Lincolne and of his Purparty of fifteen Knights Fees in the said County Roger Bertram had the Castle and Barony of Mitford with thirty-three Mannors belonging unto it in the County of Northumberland and was in rebellion against King Henry the third Robert de Nevil a great Baron and Lord of Raby in the Bishoprick of Durham was Sheriff of Norfolke in 2d Henry the second Captain General of the King's Forces beyond Trent in 47. Henry the third Sheriff of the County of York Governour of the Castle thereof and of the strong Castle of the Devises in the County of Wilts and in 48th Henry the third Warden of all the Forrests beyond Trent and Governour of the Castle of York was against the King at the Battle of Lewes Fitz Alan of Clun from whom the Earles of Arundel descended enjoyed a great Estate and was against the King at the Battle of Lewes Robert de Vipont one of the rebellious Barons of King Henry the third had by the Grant of King John the Castles of Appleby and Burgh in the County of Cumberland together with the Baylewick or Shrievalty of the County of Westmorland to him and the Heirs of his then Wife unto which Barony belonged the said Mannors of Appleby and Burgh under Stanemore Flaxbridge-Park Forrests and Chases of Winefell and Mallerstang Brougham Castle with fifty-seven Mannors more in the County of Cumberland and Westmoreland in the first second and sixth Year of the Raign of King Henry the third was Sheriff of Cumberland and Governour of Caerlisle in the tenth one of the Justices itinerant in the County of York and in the eleventh one of the Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas Henry de Neuburgh in Normandy a younger Son of Roger de Bellomont Earl of Mellent had the Castle and Borough of Warwick bestowed upon him by William the Conqueror with the large Possessions of Turketill de VVarwick who had the Reputation of Earl of VVarwick although he was but in the nature of a Lieutenant to the Earl of Mercia had Wedgenock Park with the Castle of Warwick Mannors of Tamworth Claverdon and Manton Mauduit in com' Warr ' the Mannors of Gretham and Cotes-more in com' Rotel ' with some Lands in the County of Worcester the Mannor of Chadworth in com' Glou ' in 12. or 13. Regis Johannis Henry Earl of Warwick certified one hundred and two Knights Fees with a third part of a Knights Fee and had by the Gift of that King the Seigneury of Gowerland in Wales which an Ancestor of his is long before said to have Conquered was Owner of the Castle Mannor and Priory of Kenilworth in com' Warwick gave to Geoffry de Clinton the Sherivalty of the County of Warwick to him and his Heirs to be holden of him and his Heirs and in Anno 25. Henry the third Earl Thomas gave a Fine of a hundred and eighty Marks to the King over and above his Scutage that he might be discharged from his Attendance upon him in his
which the Honor of Peverell did consist in Derbyshire fourteen and six in Leicestershire Roger de Montgomery Earl of Shrewsbury had in the Reigns of VVilliam the Conqueror and his Son VVilliam Rufus besides great Possessions in Normandy in VViltshire three Lordships in Surrey four in Hantshire nine in Middlesex eight in Cambridgeshire eleven in Hartfordshire one in Gloucestershire one in Worcestershire two in Warwickshire eleven in Staffordshire thirty in Sussex seventy-seven with the City of Chichester and Castle of Arundell and in Shropshire very many near all that County with the Castle and Town of Shrewsbury Odo Earl of Albermarle and Holderness had shortly after the Conquest given him by William the Conqueror the large Territory of Holderness with fifteen Mannors or Lordships in other Counties that would bear Wheat because he alledged that of Holderness would bear only Oates and had in the Raign of King Henry the Third the Barony of Skipton in Craven with sixteen Knight-Fees a Moyety of the Forrest of Allerdale Caldebec with the Mannor of Cockermouth in the County of Cumberland the Bond Service of the Tenants in Freston a Member of Brustwick in Holderness and in the right of Isabell his Wife the Castle of Carisbrooke and Isle of Wight Robert de Stafford was shortly after the Conquest seized of two Lordships in Suffolk one in Worcestershire one in Northamptonshire twenty in Lincolneshire twenty-six in Warwickshire with eighty-one in Staffordshire Walter de Eureux had shortly after the Conquest two Lordships in Dorsetshire three in Somersetshire one in Surrey one in Middlesex two in Hantshire two in Hartfordshire two in Buckinghamshire and thirty-one besides the Mannors of Saresbury and Ambresbury in Wiltshire and as Sheriff of that County received in Rent one hundred and thirty Hogs thirty-two Bacons two bushels and sixteen gallons of Wheat and as much in Barley bushells and eight gallons of Oates thirty-two gallons of Honey or sixteen Shillings four hundred and forty-eight Hens one thousand and sixty Eggs one hundred Cheeses fifty-two Lambs two hundred Fleeces of Wool having likewise one hundred and sixty-two Acres of arable Lands and amongst the Reves Lands to the value of Forty Pounds per Annum Baldwin de Molis second Son to Gilbert Crispin Earl of Beton Son of Godfrey Earl of Eu natural Son of Richard Duke of Normandy great Grand-Father to William the Conqueror was one of the principal Persons of the Laity that won much Fame at the Conquest and Marrying Aldreda a Neice of the Conqueror had shortly after the Castle of Exeter granted unto him and besides Mola and Sappo had given unto him Werne in Dorsetshire Apely Portlock and Mundeford in Somersetshire one hundred and fifty-nine Lordships in Devonshire and nineteen Houses in Exeter To whose eldest Son Richard was also given the whole Honor and Barony of Okehampton with the Shrievalty of the County of Devon Geffry Mandeville had given him by the Conqueror in Barkshire four Mannors in Sussex twenty-six in Middlesex seven in Surrey one in Oxfordshire three in Cambridgeshire nine in Hertfordshire nineteen in Northamptonshire seven in Warwickshire two in Essex forty with Hurley and the Woods in Barkshire Alan Sirnamed Rufus or Fergaint Son of an Earl of Britany in France had given him by William the Conqueror the Northern part of the County of York called Richmond which with what he had in Yorkshire made one hundred and sixty-six Lordships besides the Castle of Richmond one called the Devises in Wiltshire in Essex eight in Hartfordshire two in Cambridgeshire sixty-three with ten Burgages in Cambridge in Herefordshire twelve Mannors in Northamptonshire one in Nottinghamshire seven in Norfolk eighty-one and in Lincolneshire one hundred and one Together with many others of the Norman Nobility and Adventurers who had great quantities of Lands and Possessions given unto them by that Conquerour of England And some of our English Nobility were so Great Magnanimous and Munificent as at the Coronation of King Edward the First when Alexander King of Scotland his Brother-in-Law came from thence to Westminster to be present and do him Homage Sir Edmond Earl of Kent the King's Brother the Earls of Cornewall Gloucester Pembroke and Earl Warren each of them by themselves Led on their Hands one hundred Knights disguise in their Armes and whame they weren alyght of theyr Horse they let them goo whedyr they wolde and they that cowd them take had them stylle at their own lyking The great Ancestors of whom as well as those that stood with or against King Henry the Third or were but as sad Spectators of those tragick Wars had in their Hospitalities and huge quantities of Lands holden of them as may appear by their Certificates of Knights Fees recorded in one part of the Book called the Red-Book of the Exchequer happily preserved from the Conflagration or great London Fire several Forrests Parks and Chases with multitudes of Castles in some of their Possessions had been the Procurers of many of their own and the common peoples Liberties and Priviledges in the often confirmed Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta with divers great Priviledges Fairs and Markets and had given unto them large Commons of Pasture and Estovers and by their Grants of Markets and Fairs and likewise by their very many Advowsons and Patronages of Churches of a great part of which they had been the Founders Builders and glebe Endowers had to their Spiritual Estates laid upon the Commonalty as great Obligations of Gratitude as they had in the before-recited Temporal Favors and Benefits besides their granting of Leases of part of their demesne Lands at small Rents with reservation of some Service in permitting their Charity and good Will in Copy-hold Lands to Tenants or Servants or their Widdows or Children which at the first was but at the Will of the Lord or for Life or Years to continue and breed into a custom of Inheritance Secundum consuetudinent manerii and enfranchised and made many of them Free-holders permitted many Copy-hold Fines incertain to be made certain where they had been anciently at the Will of the Lord and to be limited by the Chancery or Courts of Justice to the Rent of two Years improved Value and when they do in these later times demise any part of their demesne Lands to a Tenant for twenty-one Years now that the legal Usury or Interest for Money is but six per cent for ten Years purchase do take as many Landlords do now Money before hand at a chargeable Interest and next to the manifold reiterated Blessings of the God of Heaven and Earth together with the favours and benefits of the Elements and superior Regions and astral Influences by and under the divine Providence were as much Blest and Happy under their Kings Princes Bishops and Nobility as any Nation or common People of the World could be or expect to be in their Properties Liberties Protection and Priviledges whom those
conservandas quidem statim quid inventum fuit quod valdè cum Feudo convenit Genes ' 14. 4. 2. paralip 36. 13. Jerem. 52. 3. Xenophon Cyropaid ' l. 2. pr ' Nec tamen Feudum fuit sed Clientela res apud Turcas hodiè notissima qui non alio modo multos Reges principes sibi nexos cogunt de Germanorum moribus Predidit Tacitus lib. 1. 14. Quod principem defendere tueri praecipuum Comitum fuerit saramentum Et hi Exigunt principis sui liberalitate illum bellatorem Equum illam Cruentam victricemque frameant Feudum vetus feudum novum Vetus quod ab abscondentium aliquo Novum quod ipse ab aliquo adquisivit Caesar intelligitur apud Germanos in hoc feudo semper Exceptus 2. F. 56. apud Gallos Rex in Ligio pater non exceptus quia id datur ab eo qui Superiorem non agnoscit cui si insidiatur vasalli pater Domino subiectus crimen perduellionis Principibus comittit Vasallus Domino Reverentiam Honorem debet ejusque Commodo augere atque damna infecta avertere obligatus est In Feuda Concedendis Ordo hominum non attenditur nam Superiores ab inferioribus Feuda accipiunt Et per vicariam personam Insiurandum accipiunt inter politicos Caesar Reges Feuda dare possunt Duces Marchiones Principes Comites Barones Feuda dare possunt etiamsi Caesari aut Regi subjecti sunt Maiora sunt autem Regalia quae ad statum reipubl ' administrationem nec non summi Principis decus pertinent and à Cicerone are said to be Iura Majestatis à Livio Jura Imperij sunt autem majora Regalia Leges condere easque si dubia sint Interpretari Lib. 8. Sect. 1. C. Duces Principes Comites Barones Equites Nobiles Creare l. 5. de Dignat ' facere Notarios Doctores Comites Palatinos Spurios facere Legitimos Novel 89. 9. veniam oetatis indulgere constituere summum tribunal Justitiae à quo appellari non potest Jus vitae necis pardonare Jus Civitatis dare Monetam cudere plenissimam Tuitionem tribuere quam Sauvegard dicunt instituere Cursores publicos qui Celeriter dispositis Equis Epistolas ferunt nunc Postas vocant Bellum indicere Pacem cum hoste foedus cum Exteris pangere Academias vel Vniversitatem literarum condere Legatos mittere ad alios principes Magistratus creare eosque confirmare Jurisdictionem atque Imperium tà m merum quà m mixtum dare Comitia universorum Imperij aut reipub ' ordinum Indicere l. 1. pr ' F. Religionis Orthodoxae tuitio Concilia Synodos cogere Ecclesiae Ministros Instituere confirmare malè viventes removere indicere â—â—rias Habent etiam Regalia Minera quae sunt Commoda quae ex rebus publicis ratione Imperij capiuntur Armandia id est Potestas fabricandi arma armamentariorum cogendi viae publicae cum ratione Tuitionis contra Latrones tum ratione Refectionis tum ratione Jurisdictionis tum quoque ejus quod in illis nascitur Flumina publica navigabilia ex quibus fiunt navigabilia modo quo viae publicae ad regalia pertinent Portus vel Vectigal quod pro Ingressu in portum aut portus transitu pendunt Ripatica sive vectigalia pro riparum earumque munitione vectigalia quae hodiè Tollen Conveyen Licenten dicuntur quae praestantur pro mercibus exportandis importandis bona vacantia bona damnatorum ob Perduellionem aliudâ—e crimen ex quo hodiè publicatio eorum fit Angariae Parangariae id est Praestationes operarum Currum nec non navium quae ad usum publicum rusticis subiectis imperantur extraordinaria Collatio sive Contributio Argentariae id est auri Argentique fodinae quae in provincia sunt Piscatio in flumine publico nec non Venatio utriusque concedendi Potestas Decimae ex Carbonum lapidumque fodinis Salinarum reditus omnis Thesaurus vbique repertus Judaeos recipere Fodrum pro Exercitu principis Anergariae sive hospitium Militum Aulicorum condere Illustria Gymnasia condicere Dividitur Feudum in Ligium non Ligium illud est quando vasallus domino fidem adpromittit contra omnes nullo excepto mortali Non Ligium est si Excipiuntur nonnulli contra quos dominum adiuvare non cogitur De Jure Domini directi Dominus directus Jus ratione seudi tà m in re quà m ad rem sed amplius personam habet Vasallus operas praestare suis sumptibus debet si à Domino monitus fuerit ad Jus dominij Laudemium pertinet est honorarium quod principis dominio administris penditur All which Regalia and Prerogatives of our Kings and Soveraign Princes have been founded upon the feudal Laws attending the Monarchy of England And so greatly were our Kings and Princes in this our Monarchy of England sollicitously careful to maintain and conserve their Subjects Tenures of their Lands immediately or mediately holden of them and the Dependencies and Obedience of their Subjects unto them and therein their own as well as their Soveraigns Good and Preservation as King Henry the Second caused throughout the Kingdom a Certificate to be made not by the Hear-say or slight Information of the Neighbourhood or partialities of Juries but by the Tenants themselves in Capite or by Knight-Service whether Bishops Earls Barons and great or smaller Men by how many whole or parts of Knights Fees they held their Lands and by what other particular Services and what de veteri novo Feoffamento and caused those Certificates to be truly Recorded in the Court of Exchequer in a particular Book called the Red-Book which either as to its Original or several exact and authentick Copies thereof as Sir William Dugdale hath assured me were not burnt or lost in the dreadful Fire of London in Anno 1666. and those Tenures and Engagements of those Tenants were so heedfully taken Care of as our Kings ever since the Raign of King John had Escheators in every County the Lord Mayor of London being alwayes therein the Kings Escheator who amongst other particular Charges and Cares appertaining to their Offices have been Yearly appointed to look after them and the Bishops Earls and Barons especially since the Constitution and Election of the Court of Wards and Liveries by King Henry the Eighth were not without their Feodaries in the several Concernments of their private Estates as our Kings had in every County as to their more universal or greater which together with the respites of Homages which the Lord Treasurers Officer of the Remembrancer in the Court of Exchequer was to Record as appeareth by a Statute or Act of Parliament made in the 7th Year of the Raign of King James and our Learned and Loyal Littleton who was a Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas in the 14th Year
cujus est concedere etiam si omnino sit falsa propter rasuram vel quia forte signum appositum est adulterinum melius tutius est quod coram ipso Rege procedatur ad judicium But in several other places of those his learned labours plainly declareth that leges Anglicanae consuetudines were made and confirmed Regum Authoritate ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo sub lege quia lex facit Regem Attribuat igitur Rex legi quod lex attribuit ei viz. dominationem potestatem non est enim Rex ubi dominatur voluntas non lex Et quod sub lege esse debeat cum sit Dei Vicarius Omnis quidem sub eo ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Parem autem non habet in regno suo quia sic amitteret praeceptum cum Par in Parem non habet imperium Item nec multo fortius superiorem nec potentiorem habere debet quia fic esset inferior sibi Subjectis inferiores pares esse non possunt potentioribus Et Sciendum est quod ipse Dominus Rex qui ordinariam habet Jurisdictionem dignitatem potestatem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt habet omnia jura in manu sua quae ad Coronam Laicalem pertinent potestatem materialem gladium qui pertinet ad Regni gubernaculum habet etiam Justitiam Judicium quae sunt Jurisdictiones ut ex Jurisdictione sua sicut Dei Minister Vicarius Habet etiam quae sunt pacis ut populus sibi traditus in pace sileat quiescat habet etiam coertionem ut delinquentes puniat coerceat Si ab eo breve petatur cum breve non Currat contra ipsum locus erit Supplicatione quod factum suum Corrigat emendet quod quidem si non fecerit satis sufficit ei ad poenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem nemo quidem de factis suis praesumat disputare multo fortius contra factum suum venire And Stamford a Judge speaking of the opinion of Wilby delivered in Mich. 14. E. 3. that in King Henry the 3ds Reign he had seen a Writ which was Precipe Henrico Regi and it was said in Hilary Term 22. E. 3. that in the time of King H. 3. the King might be impleaded as any other Common Person but King E. 1. his Son ordained such as were grieved or to sue to the King by Petition howbeit saving the authority or reformation of those books he thought that the Law was never that a man should have any such Action against the King saith that Bracton in his 3d Book under the Title of contra quem competit Assisa concludes as to the King in the negative And so saith Stamford no Action lyeth against the King but the party damnified is to sue unto him by Petition And in one place Bracton discoursing where the King doth a wrong he saith nec poterit ei aliquis necessitatem imponere quod illam corrigat vel amendet speaking doubtfully not positively with a nisi sit qui dicat quod universitas Regni Baronagium suum hoc facere debeat possit in Curia ipsius Regis But he doth more clearly express himself afterwards when he saith Rex enim decipi potest cum sit homo Deus autem nunquam cum sit Deus and where any thing should be said to be injuria Domini Regis saith again that Superiorem non habeat nisi Deum satis erit illi pro paena quod Deum expectet ultorem quicquid dicitur de facto Regis eo quod est Rex proinde factum judicium disputari non debet nec factum a quoquam judicare nec revocari poterit cum sit justum si autem factum injustum fuerit perinde non est factum Regis cum non sit factum Regis quia injustum inde disputari poterit factum Judicari sed idem emendari non poterit nec revocari sine eo So as to rescue the words of that Learned Author from those wicked and absurd interpretations which the late Parliament-Rebells and Monarchy-Underminers would have put upon them It must either be thought that that worthy book of his hath in that particular Place and words so catcht at fallen under the fate of many Eminent Books or Manuscripts even amongst those of the venerable Fathers of the Church who have not in a long race or course of Time and contingences been able to escape the hands of Corruptors as the Books or works of the Excellent Origen did by the over-busy designs and rashness of Russinus the many Spurious Manuscripts of the Vatican Library and of other Popish Authors so acknowledged to be by Baronius and some other of their own Writers Or rather that the good man intended no more by the word Magister then an instructor or an Assistant as the Jews called their Doctors Rabbies or as Origen was called by way of Eminency the Master of the Eastern Churches and St. Cyprian called Tertullian so who was never his Master and our Famons Lawyer Littleton gave no less a name to Judge Newton his Predecessor And that he used the word Socii but as Aeneas is sayd to have done to his afflicted Trojans in their wandrings to seek new habitations when in his Oration to comfort them he saith O Socii neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum or as Julius Caesar did when he encouraged his Soldiers with the acceptable title of Commilitones Or as our laws and reasonable Customs have done in the titles and use of the Masters of Chancery Subordinate to the Lord Chancellors or Keepers of the great Seal of England who sit and say nothing or as in the acts of our Courts of Justice are done where they are recorded and said to have been done by the Chief-Justice Socios Suos or as in the case of an associate unto a Chief Justice or any of the Kings Justices Sitting by and under the Kings Commissions of Oyer Terminer where an equality co-ordination or Superiority so contra-distinct and opposite each unto other can never be Claimed or allowed And the Framers and Fancyers of that kind of Argument will gain little by it when the word Magister properly and truly signifies no more then a Doctor or Instructor not a Superior as Sr Henry Spellman hath given us the definition received meaning and acceptation of it when he saith in Jure Canonico vel Civili Magistri dicuntur in Theologia vel Artibus videtur tempore Clementis 5. Concilii viennensi Magistri Doctoris vocabula confundere aevo scilicet Edwardi 1. Usitatiorem tunc fuisse apud nostrates Magistri titulum reverendum hoc vocabulum semper de peritia venit in nomine cognoscitur quod sit moribus aestimandum And
small a reall dependance upon them or so great a part of their Kingdoms of England and Ireland converted into free and Common Soccage the tenures in Capite in Ireland being about that Time with the like exceptions converted into free and common Soccage as England disastrously also was the Isles of Man Wight Garnsey and Jarsey the two latter being parts of Normandy together with the American Plantations as Virginia Bermudas Barbados Jamaica and New England and many other our West Indian Plantations escaping that part of the greatest wound that could be given to our Ancient Monarchy And how dangerous and prejudicial a misconstruction of the Statutes de Usilus in possessionem transferendis might be both unto the King and his Subjects if he should be accompted to have been a trustee for the his people and it was a wonder that the late Lord Chief Justice Hale should in that Act turning all into Free and Common Soccage not take a Care to abolish the Releifs being a Duty long before the Conquest payable to his Majesties Royal Progenitors but leave them with an Exception of all Releifs and Herriots Fees Rents Escheats Dower of the 3d part Fines Forfeitures and such as are and have been usually paid in free and Common Soccage Maymed and mangled the Monarchy and Government as much if not more then Adonibezeg a King of Canaan did the Seventy Kings whom he had taken Prisoners and cut off their great Toes and Thumbs for no other advantage then to undermine the beautifull and goodly Structure of our Government built and supported by and upon these great Pillars and excellent fundamentalls which like an House built upon a Rock was able to resist any the winds and Storms for many Ages past leave us as a house built upon the Sands ready to drop into it's own Infallible ruines which could not be so Rebuilt or Reduced to it's former Strong and Goodly Structure by reserving to the King and his Successors the Reliefs and Herriots nor will arise to any recompence although it might be a great value together with the Excise of Ale Beer and Sider added thereunto which hath helpt to bring in or increase as the opinion of the Doctors of Physick have informed us that Epidemick now more then ever Praedominant Scorbutique Disease making rich the only false-dealing Brewers Alehouse-keepers and Impoverishing the Common People Consideratis Considerandis in his Majesties necessary and inevitable Expences more then ever was or can be easily or before-hand calculated And it may be hoped that it was neither intended by that no Phanatique preparer or framer of that undermining Act of our Monarchick Government or any Assenters or Advisers of it or his Majesty that gave the breath of life unto it and was as the Anima or Soul otherwise animating a liveless body did ever intend to abridge or deny himself the Sovereignty of our Brittish Seas or their tenures in Capite holden of none but himself and God the Antemurale or Walls thereof and with our Ships travelling in or out upon them as the Safety Strength Power Riches and Honour of the Nation or to be ranked or accompted as a tenure in Common Soccage free ab omnibus servitiis when it was never accompted to be any part or within the verge of the Court of Wards and Liveries The Seas belonging to our King of England's Sovereignty having been never under the Courts of Wards and Liveries or any of its Incidents or appurtenances or within its cognisance and this newly found out device or extraordinary way of Soccage or tenure by the Plow free ab omnibus servitiis was never nor can be fit for the Seas unless they that cunningly have been so fond of it can make it to be fit or proper or to any purpose or profit to adventure to Plow up the Seas with Plows drawn by Horses or Oxen and by that means of Plowing up the Seas make the Seas to yeild and deliver up all their Riches Plate Gold Silver and Jewells which misfortunes of Shipwrack have before 2000 Years if not more in the Epoche or age of our long continued Monarchy far exceeding the Gold of Ophir and the value of all the Lands of England if they were now to be sold the former admitting a greater Decay then the Latter Our Brittish Seas having always been in subordination to our Kings and Princes under the Separate Government of the Lord Admiralls Court of Admiralty Vice and Rere Admiralls Deptford-House and the Cares of the Cinque-Ports many other Sea-Ports Light-Houses and Maritime Laws c. Whereby our Kingdom hath been greatly enriched by its Trade and Marchandise carried further then the Roman Eagles ever Flew and as far as the four great quarters or parts of the Habitable World do extend or stretch themselves unto and the Sun ever shined upon And if it had not been upon the Design of blowing up or Disarming our Monarchy together with as much as they could of the Kings Regall Rights for the Defence of Himself they would not have attacqued the Militia or laboured to Destroy it when Glin Serjeant at Law a busy Enemy of our Monarchy and another Serjeant at Law whose name for his great parts and abilities I silence heartily wishing that he would before he Dye add repentance to his treasury and great stock of Learning in the employing of it Otherwise then it should have been in that so called long and Hypocriticall Wars Rebellions False Doctrines together with his Misdoings in the drawing and forming the Act of Oblivion and Generall Pardon the greatest and largest in extent and gift that ever any of our Kings and Princes gave unto the greatest and most in number of their Subjects wherein he acquitted these numberless Offenders that never pardoned any of his or his Blessed Fathers Loyal Party any or but small things but retained every thing which they had taken from them by Plundering Taxes Sequestrations Decimations and spoil of Woods and Timber which should have been an assistance to the building of their burnt or demolished Houses or Castles and the building of Ships the wooden walls of our Seas and the Carriers out and the bringing home of our Merchandise In the Preamble whereof It was declared that whereas severall Treasons Murders and Crimes had been committed and done by Colour of Commissions or Power granted unto them by his Majestie or his two Houses of Parliament as if any Treason could in Law be committed by any Commission or Order of the King or his Royall Father the Blessed Martyr and the Framers of that Act of generall Pardon could not but remember that many that Assisted his Late Majesty came upon his Proclamation and setting up his Standard at Nottingham Castle under the obligation of their Tenures in Capite and the Duty of their Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and others for hire by great Sums of Money lent him by that Loyall and Prudent old Earl of Worcester Grandfather
unto the now Duke of Beaufort and by men leavyed and sent unto him from Wales in his Majesties March as far as Shrowsbury towards him the better to enjoy and be near the great assistance which he promised and performed without which and the Ancient and Legall aid and help of his tenures in Capite and by Knight-service he could not have made any defence for Himself or his Loyal Subjects but might have been taken and Imprisoned by the Sheriffes of every shire or County thorough which he was to pass in his Journey to York with his eldest Son the Prince whom they would likewise have seised upon when he was by the Faction and their Hunters driven and pursued as it were thither for Refuge as a Partridge hunted upon the Mountains from his Parliament when he had no Provision of Arms Men or Money And the Rebell-Party of that Parliament had formed and beforehand made ready a great and powerfull Army without any manner of want of Money and a seduced party of his People to march against him And our Feudall Laws were so little despised unknown or unusuall in this Kingdom as our Magna-Charta and Charta de Foresta more then 30 times confirmed by Acts of Parliament and the Petition so called of Right will appear to have no other source or Fountain as to the most of the many parts thereof then the Feudall Laws And they must be little Conversant in the reading practice and usage thereof demonstrable in and through our Records and Authentique Annalls and Historians that will not confess and believe it when they shall so manifestly almost every where see the vestigia and tracks thereof and our Saxon Laws faithfully translated and rendred unto us by the labours and industry of our learned Lambard and Abraham Whelock Arabick professor in the University of Cambridge and the glossary of our Learned Sr Henry Spelman may aboundantly be found to declare that they had for the most part no other Progenitors And could not be understood to amount unto no less then the greatest and strongest Fortifications that any Kingdom could have though not so guarded by the Sea as our Islands of Great Brittain are and have been when Seventy Thousand Horsmen gravi Armatura or not meanly Armed should as the manner of those Times were without much disturbance to their other affairs be sodainly ready upon any Emergencies of Wars Intestine or Forreign without Pay or Wages under the greatest obligations Divine and Humane to defend their Kings themselves and their Estates which in more valiant and plain dealing Times did in no longer part of time commonly determine the fate or fortune of a Kingdom as to a great part of the Event or success of a War And was so necessary to the Defence of the King and People as our William the Conqueror that did not bring but found the Feudall Laws here in England may be thought to have been very willing to have strengthend his Conquests here when he distributed amongst his great Officers in the Army his Soldiers as much of his Conquered Lands as Ordericus Vitalis hath related it Seventy Thousand Knights Fees who in regard of their service for the defence of the King had a Privilege by the Kings Writ for them and their Tenants to be free ab omni Talagio from all Taxes which priviledge or acquittal saith Sr Edward Coke discontinued Of which our Feudall Laws the Brittains the more ancient Inhabitants of England as well as the Brittains in America in France now known by the name of the Duchy of Brittain cannot be believed to have been Ignorant when the Father of our Victorious Arthur King of Brittain was a Beneficiarius and held his Lands in Cornwall of the King in Capite unto whose Kingdom were appendant the large Dominions of Norway and the Islands ultra Scanriam Islandiam Ireland Curland Dacia Semeland Winland Finland Wareland Currelam Flanders omnes alias terras Insulas Orientalis Oceani usque Russiam Et iu Luppo etiam posuit orientalem metam Regni Brittania multas alias Insulas usque Scotiam usque in Septentrione quae sunt de appendicis Scaniae quae Noricena dicitur and that Kingdom of Brittain had so large an Extent and the King of Brittain such a directum Dominium therein that upon an exact Search and inquiry into the Memorialls Antiquities Annalls and Historians thereof it was evident that in the Times of Ely and Samuel after the Siege and Destruction of Troy Brute came into this Island called it by his name and divided his Kingdom to his 3 Sons Loegria now called England to his Eldest Albania since called Scotland came to the 2 and Cambria or Wales unto his 3 Son Camber after whom was Arthurus Rex Britonium famosissimus Who subdued a great part of France and those his Noble Acts were not unknown unto some of the Roman Poets and Historians and the Laws used here in his Time may with great reason be understood to have been the same which the English or Saxons our later Ancestors Fletibus Precibus with supplications washed in Tears obtained of the Norman Conqueror to be left unto them as King Edward the Confessors Laws for his Justice and Holiness reputed to have been a Saint and together with the Mercenlage or Laws made by Mercia a Queen of Mercia or the Borders or Confines of Wales ought to be esteemed the same aggregate Laws which K. William the Conqueror of the Brittains Saxons and Normans after they had began to Intermarrie and were become as it were Populus unus Gens una were certified by the greatest most universall and most Solemn Jury and verdict that ever was Impannelled or made use of in England and under the strictest and severest Charge not by Judges delegate but by the King himself and a Conquering King that had omnia Jura et terras in manu sua which he did Consilio Baronum suorum in Anno quarto Regni sui cause to be Summoned through all the Shires Counties of England of out of the Nobiles sapientes et in Lege cendites ut eorum Leges et Jura et Consuetudines ab ipsis audiret Whereupon in singulis totius patriae Comitatibus a Jury of 12 men qualified as aforesaid Jure Jurando coram ipso Rege before the King himself no ordinary Judge but the Highest under God quo ad possent recto tramite incidentes neither turning on the Right hand nor the Left legum suarum Consuetudinum suarum patefacerent neither omitting or adding any thing by fraud or praevarication yet the King seeming better to approve of his Norway and Danish Laws which in many things affinitate Saxonum seemed to be the same with the Norway Laws except in some small difference in the heightning of the Fines and Forfeitures which when the King had heard read unto him maxime appreciutus est proecepit ut Obsequerentur per
Nerves Sinews and Ligaments of the Crown and head of our body Politick and in the doing thereof also might have bereaved the Nation of the ancient and honourable assistance of the House of Peers in Parliament which of Ancient and long time Immemoriall have been as they should ought to be the firm strong pillars supports of our Monarchick Government had not the Earls of Oxford and Strafford Magnanimously as a Prologue to its Restauration come to the House then called the House of Commons in Parliament wherein that great Monck that Unus homo nobis qui cunctando restituit rem was then admitted a member guarded with his own so warily conducted Army out of Scotland before his Majesties happy Restauration and the way had been prepared for it and calling him unto the Door of that house demanded as Peers their Rights and priviledges to have their house of Peers doors opened which upon his Majesties Blessed Father's murther that so misnamed house of Commons in Parliament had shut up and Voted to be Useless and Dangerous which he instantly of himself Ordered to be opened without any Act Order or Vote of Parliament into which they went and sat untill they gained more of their Loyall Party to help to fill their House again which by Degrees was shortly after especially after his Majesties Landing and Coming to London Replenished and Restored as their King and Sovereign was And the Nation had notwithstanding by that Framer of that aforesaid ever to be deplored Act of Parliament been deprived of that only part of our Parliament Subordinate unto their King from the beginning of our very ancient Monarchy and as it ought ever to be till the 49th Year of K. Henry the 3. when he was a Prisoner unto Simon Montfort and his Army of Rebells and not before When some Commons were in that Rebellion Elected to be as a part of Parliament and to sit in a Seperate Lower House ad faciendum consentiendum iis which the King and Lords should think fit or necessary to Ordain had it not been rescued and prevented by the Care of the Lord Viscount Stafford and the Barons of Abergavenny and Dudley awakened by the Book a little before Printed and Published entituled Tenenda non Tollenda who caused a Proviso to be inserted in the said Act of Parliament that nothing therein contained should be extended or prejudiciall to the Rights and Priviledges and Honours of the Peers in Parliament or any that held by Grand Serjeanty c. And having by their good will left as few Spears or Swords as they could in our Israel to help to protect or defend it could notwithstanding readily find the way to that Ingratefull River Lethe and Sin of unthankfullness which God and all good men do not only Abhorr but the most fierce and Savage Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air do detest and could not be fully satisfied untill they could add unto the Kings evil Bargain the taking away of the Royal Pourveyance which amounted unto no Smaller a damage unto him then Ninety or One Hundred Thousand Pounds per Ann. it being in the 35th Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Estimated in the Saving of the houshold expences 25000 l. per Ann. communibus Annis in the 3. Year of the Reign of King James 40000 l. per Ann. And in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr at the most not above 50000 l. per Ann. Communibus Annis But whether more or less is not to be found in the receipt or Yearly Income of the Moyety of the dayly ceasing pretended Recompence by the Excise arising unto no more then one Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds deducting the no little charges in the Collection thereof and in taking away of that 50 l. per Ann. for the Royall Pourveyance brought upon the King no less a Damage then One Hundred Thousand Pounds per Ann. And cannot by the most Foolish of the People Lunaticks out of their Intervalls Ideots very small Infants and Children only excepted be with any manner of Colour or Shadow of reason believed to be any thing near a Compensation singly for the Pourveyance and a great deal less for that inestimable Jewell of the Crown the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service the later a principall part of the support of the Sovereignty and the former of the Crown For that the Power Might and Majesty that resideth therein is unvaluable and not to be Ballanced by any thing that is not as much the Pourveyance being in the Fourth Year of the Reign of King James held to be such an Inseparable adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall Dignity and some few Years after believed by the Incomparable Sr Francis Bacon Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support both in Law and Politiques in other Nations as well as our own hath told us is such a Sacra Sacrorum as Baldus and Individua as Cynus termeth them which Jurisconsultorum Communi quodam decreto by an uncontroverted opinion of all Lawyers nec cedi nec distrahi nec abalienari a Summo Principe cannot as Bodin saith be granted or released nor by any manner of way aliened or witholden from the Sovereign Prince nec ulla quidem temporis dinternitate praescribi posse nor by any length of time prescribed against him and therefore by Besoldus called Imperii Majestatis Jura bona Regni conjuncta incorporate seu Coronae unita quae princeps alienare non potest the Rights and Empire of Majesty and the goods and part of the Crown so Incorporate and annexed unto it as the Prince cannot alien which for the Subjects to attempt would not be much different from an endeavour to restrain a Prince by Law against the Law of God bonos more 's which by the opinion of the Learned Bacon the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Hutton would be Void and of none Effect for the presents and good will of Inferiors to their Superiors is one of the most ancient and Noble Customs which mankind hath ever practised and began so with the Beginning and Youth of the world as we find the Patriarch Jacob sending his Sons to his then unknown Son Joseph besides the Mony which he gave them to buy Corn a Present of the best Fruits of the Country a little Balm a little Honey Spices Mirrh Nutts and Almonds The Persians in their Kings Progresses did munera offerre neque vilia neque exilia neque nimis pretiosa nec magnifica bring them Presents neither Pretious nor Contemptible from which etiam Agricolae Opifices Workmen and Plowmen were not freed in the bringing Wine Oxen Fruits and Cheeses and the first Fruits of what the Earth brought forth quae non tributa sed doni loco consebantur which were not accompted to be given as tributes but oblations and free Gifts which made the poor Persian Synetas when he met with Artaxerxes and his
faceret And that greatly learned man could not but acknowledge that there were afterwards resumptions of Crown-Lands in the Reign of King Henry the 2. the alienation of some of the Crown-Lands severely charged upon King Richard the 2d Anno. 33. H 6. by an Act of Parliament and in the reign of King Edward the 4th at the request and upon the Petition of the Commons and were much more needfull then those that had been before in the Reign of King Henry the 2. made Leoline Prince of Wales to come and do him Homage and Baliel King of Scotland attending in our Pâ—rliament to arise from his State placed by the Kings and Stand at the Bar of the House of Peers whilst a cause was pleaded against him And it might not be improbable that that League betwixt that King and the aforesaid Christian Princes might be entred not amongst the Common Rolls and records of England but of Gascoigne where it was most proper and that some Vestigia of his great Actions might be there found of it as well as that of the 22th Year of his Reign of a Summons of divers English Barons to come to his great Councell or Parliament in England and it could not be unknown to that great man of learning that as Authors and Writers have learned and Writ one out of another so have many Wrote that singly and alone which many of the Contemporaries have either not been Informed of or did not think fit to Mention the dreadfull plagues of Egipt and the most remarkable that ever were in so short a Time inflicted by God upon any Nation of the Earth since the universall Deluge destroying all but the Righteous Noah his Family the several Kinds of Creatures perserved with him the passage of Moses thorough the Red-Sea in his conduct of the People of Israel into the land of Canaan were not to be thrown out of the belief of Christians all others Venerating the Sacred Scriptures because Plato or Pythagoras travailing into Egypt in the inquest of learning have given us no particular accompts thereof and it will ever be as truly said as it hath been that Bernardus non videt omnia the ancient institution rites ceremonies of the most Honourable Garter is not to be suspected because our Law and Statute books have not made such Discoveries Recherches or a worthy and most elaborate Record thereof as the learned and Judicious Mr Elias Ashmole hath lately done or our Glauviles Book de legibus Consuetudinibus Angliae is not to fall under the question whether he was the Lord Chief Justice of England that Wrote it because there hath not been so much heed taken of him as ought to be by our Common-Law Year-Books or Memorialls of Cases adjudged in our Courts of Justice and later Law Books when the learned Pancirollo in his Book de deperditis Ac etiam de novis repertis and the exquisitely learned Salmuthius in his Comment or Annotations thereupon or the learned Pasquier in his Recherches and our ever to be honored Mr Selden in his rescuing from the Injuries of Time those many before hidden truths which he in his history of Tithes Jauus Anglorum Analett Brittanniae Titles of honor de Synedriis Judeorum uâ—or Jus naturae Gentium Historia Ead mei cum multis aliis and those very many discoveries of learning and Truth which the world must ever confess ought to be attributed to his walking in unknown paths nullius ante trita pede have very Justly escaped any such suspicions and that long and Eminent Treaty for Peace at Nimiguen for divers Years last past managed by most of the Monarchs of Europe and their concerns wherein the care and mediation of our King in the charge of his Plenipotentiaries have not wanted gratefull Testimonialls of the many very much concerned Kings and Princes in the putting a stop to the Warrs effusion of Blood and devastation of so great a part of Christendom is not or ought to be placed amongst the non liquets or Doubtings of after Ages because which by some Incuria or neglect of our Recording of it amongst our Archives which the more is to be pittied is not much unlikely to happen it is not to be met with amongst our Records or Historians When the so much Deservedly admired speculations and Experiments of the excelently Learned Sr Francis Bacon Lord Verulam in his Philosophy more then Aristotle and many others had made those Discoveries of des Cartes Depths and Investigations of our Sr Kenelme Digby into the most abstruse parts of Learning and that great addition now every where allowed to be true to that most necessary and usefull Art or Faculty of Physick of the circulation of the Blood in the Bodies of men first Discovered and made apparent by our late Learned Doctor Harvey though the Egiptian Arabian and Grecian Doctors and the greatly Famed Galen and Hypocrates had in all their labors knowledge and Practice not so much as taken notice of it were never the worse but rather much the better that former ages and men in the length of Art and the short Curriculum of their lives often intermitted with Sickness and the Cares and Troubles of the World had no sooner communicated it neither ought the Truth and value of our allways highly to be esteemed Seldens Labours in the vindication of our Kings Sovereignty in our Brittish Seas suffer any abate because no Englishman before had undertaken it or of his learned Observations and Comments upon Sr John Fortescues Book de laudibus Legum Angliae because he did not mention or had Discovered that that over-tossed and turmoiled worthy and learned Chancellor was after the Expulsion of the 3 Henrys 4. 5. 6th of the House of Lancaster under the later of whom he had Faithfully served from the Inheritance of the Crown of England by King Edward the Fourth with his better Title enforced publickly to beg his Pardon and with much ado and by Writing and delivering unto him a Book contradicting the Title of those former Kings and asserting that of his own which appeareth in that Act of Parliament in the 13th Year of that King for the Reversall of his Attainder And those disturbers and misuses of our Fundamental Laws might do well to sit down and consider that our uncontrolled every where in England venerable Littleton can certify us that if a man hold Land of his Lord by Fealty only for all manner of service it behoveth that he ought to do some service to his Lord for if the Tenant ought to do no manner of service to his Lord or his Heirs then by long Continuance of time it would grow out of memory whether the Land were holden of the Lord or his Heirs and thereupon the Lord may loose his Escheat of the Land or some other Forfeiture so it is reason that the Lord and his Heirs have some service done unto them to prove
the Crown of Scotland amongst which was Erick King of Norway and received the homage of the King thereof and in his Claim to the Superiority strongly Asserted it when the Pope had by his Letter unto him mediated on the behalf of the King of Scotland and claimed that Kingdom And was so watchfull over his own Rights and what belonged to his Crown and Dignity as upon an appeal from John Baliol King of Scotland and his Parliament to the Parliament and Court of the K. of England unto which when he was Summoned personally to appear before him appearing sate with him in Parliament was Suffered no longer to sit by him but untill the Cause came to be heard when he was cited by an Officer to leave his Seat and Commanded to stand at the Barr appointed for pleading which he having no mind to do craved leave to answer by his procurator but was denied and as a Feudatory made to arise and descend to the Barr and defend his own Cause before him as his Superiour Which by the Ancient feudall Fundamentall Laws of England without the assistance of any other of our Laws concerning Treason might have excused and Justified our excellently virtuous Queen Elizabeth in her unwilling Tryall Condemning Beheading and putting to Death Mary Queen of Scotland her Feudatory not only for Usurping the Arms and Title of the Crown of England but plotting after her flying for Refuge unto her and her Kingdom of Scotlands Superior for Resuge to bereave her of her Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereof by her intended Marriage of the Duke of Norfolk for which he was likewise condemned and Executed for Treason In the same Year by his Writ commanded to be arrested Susurrones publicos predicatores contra personam Regis In the 7th year of his reign upon occasion of false rumours sent his Commissioners into severall Counties of the Kingdom ad inquirendum qui dicebant Regem inhibuisse ne quis blada sua meteret vel prata sua falcaret quod omnes tales sine dilatione in prisona custodiantur douec authores suos invenerint tunc liberent authores in prisona custodiant donec pro deliberatione corum mandatum habuerint Speciale In the 13th Year of his Reign for a fine of 20 Marks paid by W. gave him a respite de se militem faciendo Et a pres il fut amerce per les Justices itinerant parceo q'il ne leur monstre son Charter In the 10th Year of his Reign granted authority to Signify his assent to a future Abbot And in the same year impowred Edmond Earl of Cornwall to admitt in his name the Mayor of Oxon when the commonalty of the town should present him and the like for the Mayor and Sheriffs of London In the 12th Year of his Reign granted to the Citizens of London power to make Sheriffs of London and Middlesex In the 13th Year of his Reign directed his Writts to the Sheriffs in the words ensuing cum de consuetudine regni qui habent 20 libratas terrae vel feodum militis valens 20 libratas terrae vel feodum militis valens 20 libratas per annum distringerentur ad arma militaria suscipiendum nos ob servitium c. in Wallia a communitate regni nostri volumus quod non habentes tantas libratas terrae non distringantur Ordained that in Parliament certain Bishops Lords and Other their Assistants should be named of that Honourable Assembly of Parliament at the very beginning thereof which for many Ages after hath been duly observed to be receivers and tryers of the Petitions Complaints and Desires of his People to be exhibited therin whether properly to be there determined or in the Courts of Justice in Westminster-Hall or other inferior Courts In the 14th and 16 Years of his Reign made his cousin Edmund Earl of Cornwall custos regni Spared not in his Court of Kings-bench Robert the Son of William de Glanvile and Reginald the Clark of the said William for delivering at Norwich a Panell of the Kings Writs which the King 's Coroner ought to have brought Banished his Son Prince Edward from his Court Presence for 6 Months for giving reproachfull words to a great Officer of his Court or Houshold Caused the Prior of the Holy Trinity in London and Bogo de Clare a man of great power and reputation to be arrested at his suit by Peter de Chanet Steward of his houshold and Walter de Fancourt Marshall of the King for citing Edmond Earle of Cornewall to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury as he was passing thorough Westminster-Hall to the Parliament whereupon the Prior and Bogo after some pleadings in the said case submitting themselves uuto the King's Grace Will and Pleasure were committed to the Tower of London there to remain during his Will and Pleasure and being afterwards Bailed the said Bogo paid to the King a Fine of 2000 Marks and gave security to the Earl for 1000. which by the interposition of the Bishop of Durham and others of the King's Councell was afterwards remitted unto 100 l. and the Prior was left to the Judgment and process of the Court of Exchecquer In the 20th Year of his Reign praecepit singulis vice Comitibus per Angliam Justic. Cestr. quod proclamari facerent quod omnes qui habent 40. libratas terrae in feodo haereditate sumerent militaria arma In that and the Year following seized the Lands of those that would not take that Degree and made speciall respites to some during their lives Caused his Justices to certify into the Exchecquer at the return out of their Circuits by particular Rolls under their own Names the Fines and amerciaments set imposed and forfeited upon Actions of trespass rescous deceit attaints non est factum or salse Pleas untrue avowries appeals of Murder felony manslaughter meyheim Contempts and attachments upon process out of any of his Courts of Justice abuse of the Law Fictitious actions and vexatious Suits Non-suits in Actions reall and personall or when but part was found for the Plaintiff or Defendant which were in those Days as much for the advance and well ordering of Justice as they were for the Kings profit who took such a care not to have it neglected as by his Writ without an Act of Parliament he prefixt his Justices certain times for the causing the said Monies to be levied when their own then little Wages or Salaries were to be paid out of it which made them to be so exact therein as there was no fault deserving a Just Punishment could escape the Eyes and Ears apprensions and Watch of his regulated Justices insomuch as Offenders were Fined or amerced pro falso clamore or quia non invenerunt pleg for Deceipts Sheriffs for not returning of Writs Jurors for not appearing or pro falsa appretiatione or giving verdicts before
they were sworn Fined such as threatned or abused them and sometimes the Common People that had occasion to attend his Courts of Justice pro garrulitate or irreverent Behaviour kept his Courts of Justice within their Centers and Limits of Jurisdiction held them to their just and legal forms of Pleadings in verbis Curia and was severe against any of the Pleaders Counters or Officers pro Seductione Curiae as the Language of the Records of those times did import for any Deceits or Collusion misleading or abusing the eyes and ears of his Judges and the Clients as well as the faithless Officers and Ministers of his Courts of Justice or in the Circuits of the Judges itinerant and therein was something less severe then the Law and Usages were in the Reign of his Great Grandfathe Henry 2. when William Fillius Nigelli a judge itinerant being in misericordia of the King pro defalt qui postea venit cognovit quod emendavit rotulos Sine Sociis suis ideo in miser Did not leave the grand Jurors so much Arbitrary Power as too many now please themselves to mind more where to have good Meat and Wine untill some seldom Indictments more for Malice then Love of Justice or a care of their Oaths be brought unto them but ordained their Charges not to be given in fine orations or speeches as soon gone out of their Memory as come in but to put in Writing in distinct articles of enquiry whereunto they were upon Oath to answer negatively or affirmatively whereby the offences against the Laws Conspiracies Treasons Dangers and Disturbances of the Nation were in the Embrio's stisled and as soon Discovered as hatched But the troubles and injuries forced upon the Crown his Father and Himself by the wicked attempts of Simon Montfort and his Rebellious partners putting him in mind to make his business to give a stop to growing mischiefs and prevent as much as was possible any thing of the like nature for the future did find it necessary for the good of himself and the Kingdom as the judicious Sr Henry Spelman hath recorded it to lessen those high powers authorities and priviledges which the Chief Justices of England had before that time exercised and claimed as appurtenances to that great Office as it were to be Vicarias Regis Pro Rex locum tenens Regis Custos regnii regni Guardianus in absentiae Regis tanto etiam prae aliis omnibus emicuit Justiciariis ut eisdem suo brevi more regio imperaret restraine ejus phtestatem cancellis circumscriptis arctioribus adeo ut se sejunctum a rerum fastigio priscae amplitudinis forensi solummodo negotio judiciis exercendis eum abdicavit did by his Writ constitute the said Chief Justice and all that were to succeed him in that Office and place under the form and declaration only concerning the affairs and business wherein he was to Officiate and be imployed in his Court of King's-bench rs by his Writ appeareth in these Words Quia volumus quod sitis Capitalis Justiciarius noster ad placita coram nobis tenenda vobis mandamus quod Officio illo intendatis Tmeipso apud Westm c. And in all probability praeteritorum memor By sad misfortunes warn'd learnt to beware How dang'rous innovations ever are Well considering that if that contrived Writ of Elections gained by a rebellious force and imprisonment from his father almost 30 Years before could have created in or to the Knights Citizens or Burgesses to be elected or brought into our King's greatest councels of the highest and most important concernments of the weal publick of the Nation Any such Rights or Priviledge as some of their Successors or Factious flatterers have since arrogated yet so long a Discontinuance of a Priviledge not at all executed or vested in them after a forfeiture incurred by the Cities of London Bristoll Gloucester and the most of the Counties Cities or Boroughs which had taken Arms against their King instead of their aid and assistance not very fully pardoned by any the Compositions or agreement made by King Henry the 3d his Father by the dictum de Kenilworth after his Victory gained of them at the Battle of Evesham And that notwithstanding he might have taken in again his own just Rights and debarred them fâ—om an after Invading or disturbing of him therein and that neither his Fatheâ—s Charters nor his own Confirmation of all the Peoples Liberties and priviledges either in Words expressed in his Father 's Magna Charta or Charta de Forestae or any way to be implyed within the verge or meaning thereof could bind him to Continue such a kind of Election of a separate part of the Vulgar or Common People as Simon Montfort and his Rebellious Complices had Traiterously devised and that such an attack of the Regall Government by the hoped for advantages of some or intermedling ambition of others in matters wherein they had little or no understanding or whereby they sought only to accomplish their own evil Designs making them ever afterwards more industrious then they should be to associate the creeping Ivy with the Royall Oke which by its clipping Kindness and drawing to it self its Sap and nourishment might at length Canker enervate and destroy it Yet willing to show them that he would as little as he could recede from what had been granted as privileges and Liberties to his Subjects and probably to pacify their then too much accustomed fears and jealousies and allure them into a course of obedience to those Laws provisions which should be made by the Privity and approbation of a Select number of the more wise and discreet part of his Common People and give them experience of an Adage or worthy saying of his own in many or some of his rescripts quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet in some speciall cases but not either by the laws of God Nature or Nations or our laws always adjudged to be Requisite or necessary And at the same time to lessen as Mr Prynne Sr William Dugdale and other weighty Authors have well observed the Strength and power of a part of his ungovernable Baronage by counter-ballancing in some sort their over-great power in his great councells or Parliaments by Requiring and making use therein of the service of the Knight Citizens and Burgesses fairly to be elected according to the intention of his writs and Royall mandates and acting according to the commissions or procurations which their Counties Cities or Boroughs should lawfully give or trust them withall But so little approved of Popular elections and that which had been imposed upon his Father as he was unwilling to adventure upon any thing like it untill he had rectified many things which he bâ—â—ieved had been much of the causes of the Distempers in the Body Politick and was to be warily done by a care and retrogradation as much as might be before he
patroum Item ibidem Anno Domini nongentesimo vicisimo Sexto Rex Angliae Adolstanus denirit Regem Scotiae Cententium iterim sub se permisit Regno Item Edradus frater Adolstani Rex Angliae dericit Sates norhambro qui se submiserunt ei fidelitatem Juraverunt Item ibidem Edgarus Rex Angliae superavit Renadum filium Alpini Regem Scotorum Et ex tunc factus est Rex quatuor regnium scilicet Angliae Scotiae Daciae Norwegiae Item sovetus Edwardas regum Scotiae dedit Malcolmo filio Regis Cumbrorum de se tenendum Item Willielmus Bastard Anno regni sui Sexto vicit Malcolmum Regem Scotiae accepit ab eo Sacramentum fidelitatis Caused special Commissioners from Scotland to attend him and the Lords of England in Parliament about setling the peace and Military affairs in Scotland where it was assented to by the King that a Parliament should be called in Scotland by the Kings Writ out of his Chancery there in which Parliament the commonalty of that Kingdom should elect Ten Persons for themselves to come to the King and his Parliament at London pro tota communitate terrae Scotiae the Scots Commissioners Petitioning the King that those ten Persons might have their Costs and expences to be leavied by two or three lawful men specially to be elected by the Commons by the view and advice of the Guardian and Chamberlain of Scotland which the King granted with an order that duo legales homines citra mare Scotiae duo legales homines ultra mare Scotiae eligentur ad hujusmodi expensas assidendas levandas per visum concilium custodis regni Scotiae Camerarii wherein as Mr Pryn well observeth they were not to be as sitting Voting Members but as Proxies and Commissioners to Treat with the King and English Parliament concerning Scottish affairs only And so great Regard was had to the words and Testimony of this great Prince as it was in his time not denyed to be law that Ordinatio Meaning an award or something acknowledged in the King's presence per ipsum Regem affirmat Majorem vim hahere debet quam finis in Curia sua coram Justiciariis suis levatus Agreeable to which was the Opinion of the Judges also in his time in these words videtur concilio Regis quod Dominus Rex a quo omnes ministri sibi Subiecti habeant recordum est Superlativum Magis arduum recordum super omnes ministros suos processus recordum praecellens not at all disagreeing with the great reverence and Regard which the good Subjects of this Kingdom have never failed to give unto the hands and great Seals of their King's and Princes which by many inspeximus's have made a record that was so Obliterate and Unintelligible as it was no Record before and given a New life and Resurrection to many a Custome Right and Liberty which otherwise would have been lost and buried in the Rubbidge of time Commanded the Sheriffs of Lincoln to leavy the expences of the Knights of that Shire in eundo morando redeundo de mandato suo venientibus prout aliis in casu consimili consuevit Punished by his Justices of his Bench William de Brewse a great and powerfull Baron for giving Reproachfull words to Roger de Hengham a Baron of the Exchecquer after he had there given a judgement against him and followed him as he was going from the Court and reviled him with gross and bitter words who in those times were frequently in their records said and understood to be de concilio Regis and ordered that the said William de Brewse should go without his sword a very great dishonour to a Baron bareheaded a banco ipsius Domini Regis ubi placitr tenentur in aula Westmonaster per medium aulae praedictae cum curia plena fuerit usque ad Scaccarium ibidem veniam petat a praefato Rogero ut gratiam sibi faciat de dedecore transgressione sibi fact postea pro contemptu facto Domino Regi curiae suae Commirtatur turri London ibidem moraturus ad voluntatem Domini Regis Was so carefull of his Superiority and Jurisdictions as he would not suffer either it or his Justice to be sullied in the administration or execution thereof as in the case betwixt the Pryor and Bishop of Durham in the 34th Year of his Reign he caused an Information to be brought in his Court of King's Bench against the Bishop for that he had Imprisoned his Officers or Messengers for bringing Writs into his Liberty and that the Bishop had said that nullam deliberationem de eisdem faceret sed dixit quod caeteros per ipsos castigaret ne de caetero litteras Domini Regis infra Episcopatum suum portarent in laesionem Episcopatus ejusdem in the entring up of which Information Plea and Judgement thereupon the record saith quia idem Episcopus cum libertatem praedictam a Corona exeuntem dependentem per factum Regis in hoc minister Domini Regis est adea quae ad Regale pertinet infra eandem libertatem loco ipsius Regis modo debito conservanda exequenda ita quod omnibus singulis ibidem justitiam exhibere ipsi Regi ut Domino suo mandatis parere debeat prout tenetur licet proficua expletia inde provenientia ad usum proprium per factum praedictum percipiatur Wherein the Judges and Sages of the Law as in those ancient times they did frequently in matters of great Concernments have given us the reason of their Judgement in these words Cumpotestas Regia per totum regnum tam infra libertates praedictas quam extra se extendant videtur Curiae toti concilio Domini Regis quod hujusmodi imprisonamenta facta de his qui capti fuerunt occasione quod brevia Domini Regis infra libertatem praedictam tulerint simul cum advocatione acceptatione facti etiam dictis quae idem Episcopus dixit de castigatione illorum qui brevia Regis ex tunc infra libertatem suam portarent manifeste perpetrata fuerunt Et propterea ad inobedientiam exhaereditationem Coronae ad dimunitionem dominii potestatis Regalis ideo consideratum est quod idem Episcopus libertatem praedictam cujus occasione temerariam sibi assumpsit audaciam praedictae gravamina injurias excessus praedictos perpetrandi dicendi toto tempore suo amittat cum in eo quo quis deliquit sit de jure puniendus eadem libertas capiatur in manus Domini Regis nihilominus corpus praedicti Episcopi Capiatur And that often distressed prudent Prince was so Unwilling to forsake the old Paths of Truth and the good ways and Rules of the English in their great Councels for Extraordinary affairs wherin a long and very Ancient Gray headed series
to provide remedy hath ordained In Ca. 3. where a cui in vita shall be granted and a Wife or he in reversion received the King hath ordained Ca. 6. Where a Tenant Voucheth and the Vouchee denyeth the Warranty the King hath ordained Ca. 9. Entituled in what case the Writ of Mesne is to be pursued it is said in the perclose that for certain causes Remedies are not in certain things provided God willing there shall be at another time Ca. 10. Providing at what time Writs shall be delivered for suits depending before Justices in Eyre the parties may make Generall Attorneys it is said the King hath ordained Ca. 14. Concerning Process to be made in wast our Lord the King from henceforth to remove this error hath ordained Ca. 24. For the granting of Writs of Nuysance quod permittatis in consimili casu where the King ordaineth for which by no ground or colour of reason it is otherwise to be understood that whensoever from thenceforth it should fortune that in Chancery which is no body's Court but the Kings a like Writ is found and in another case falling under the like Law a like remedy is not found the Clerks of the Chancery shall agree in making the Writ or the Plaintiffs may adjourn it untill the next Parliament and let the cases be written in which they cannot agree and let them referr themselves untill the next Parliament by consent of men learned in the Law which could not in those times be understood as of the Members of the House of Commons none of them being then chosen or Summoned to give their consent in Parliament Ca. 25. In the Act of Parliament entituled of what things an Assize shall be certified It is said that forasmuch as there is no Writ in the Chancery whereby Plaintiffs can have so speedy remedy by a Writ of Novell Disseisin our Lord the King willing that Justice may be speedily ministred and that delays in Pleas may be taken away or abridged granteth c. And our Lord the King to whom false exceptions be odious hath ordained c. The like words of the King 's granting and ordaining are to be understood in the Chapters immediately following viz Ca. 26. 27. 28. 29. and 30. In that of 13. E. 1. ca. 30. The two Knights of the Shire are changed by length of time or some other causes into those which are now called Associates and are indeed but the enrolling Clarks which by that Statute are allowed the Justices in their Circuits as they have used to have in times past Were not Knights of the Shire Elected for an House of Commons in 29. E. 1. ca. 5. the King willeth that the Chancellor and Justices of his Bench shall follow his Court so that he may at all Times have some near unto him which be learned in the Laws and be able to order all such matters as shall come unto the Court at all Times when need shall require And the like that the King ordained and willed is to be understood in the chapters or articles 31. 32 33. In that of 32. where it is mentioned and so the Statute is defrauded it is said our Lord the King hath ordained and granted Ca. 39. Concerning the manner of Writs to be delivered to the Sheriffs to be executed it is said that our Lord the King hath provided and ordained c. And the King hath commanded that Sheriffs shall be punished by the Justices for false Retornes once or twice if need be Ca. 41. entituled contra formam collationis which was of great concernment in their lands and estates and also as they then thought in matters of provision for the souls of their parents Ancestors and near relations it is said our Lord the King hath Ordained In ca. 42. appointing the several fees of Marshall Chamberlains in fee Porters of Justices in Eyre c. which was of great Importance to many it is mentioned that our Lord the King hath caused to be enquired by an enquest what the said Officers of fee used to have in times past and hath ordained and commanded that a Marshall in fee c. which was then Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk a man of great power and authority it is in like manner Ordained Ca. 43. That Hospitalers and Templers which were a part of the People then of great Estates Power and Authority in the Kingdom shall draw no man in suite c. it is said to have been prohibited and the King also prohibiteth Ca. 44. Setling the Fees of Porters bearing Virges before the Justices c. it is said be it provided and ordained and the King chargeth his Justices In the Statute of Winchester made in Anno. 13. E. 1. that fresh suit shall be made after Felons from Town to Town our Lord the King to abate the Power of Felons hath established a pain in that case Ca. 2. Where the County shall answer for the Robbery where the Felon shall not be taken which though it was an excellent Law and ever since put in execution might upon the first impression seem to bear hard upon the People that they not committing the Crimes should be responsable in their Purses and Estates for it the preamble saith likewise our Lord the King hath Established Ca. 3. Respiting that Act until Easter then next nsuing it is mentioned that forasmuch as the King will not that his People should be suddenly impoverished by reason of the penalty which seemeth very hard to many the King granteth that they shall not incurr immediately but it should be respited untill Easter next following within which time he may see how the Country will order themselves whether such felonys do cease After which time let them all be assured that the aforesaid Penalties shall run generally that is to say the People in the Country shall be answerable for Felonies Robberies done amongst them In an Act of Parliament at what time the gates of great Towns shall be shut and Night-Watches begin and end it is said the King commanded For the breadth of High-ways leading from one Market-Town to another it is said and further it is Commanded In the Act of Parliament that every man should have Armour in his house according to his ability it is said and further it is commanded and the Justices assigned shall present in every Parliament unto the King such defaults as they shall find and the King shall provide remedy therein In the Statutes of Merchants made in the same year wherein the form of a Statute Merchant is appointed it is recited that the King and his Councel at his Parliament holden at Acton Burnell in the 11th year of his Reign hath ordained In the Statute of Circumspecte Agatis the King only saith Use your self circumspectly concerning the Bishop of Norwich and his Clergy In the Statute of Quia Emptores terrarum made in the 18th of his Reign it is said our Lord the King in his Parliament at the
to his people that they shall have Election of their Sheriff in every Shire where the Shrievalty is not of Fee if they list which would have been very prejudicial both to the King and his people as to the collecting of his revenue and Executing his Justice by his Mandates Writs and Process if the confirmation allowance or disallowance thereof had not been by Law lodged in the King and his Supream authority What persons shall be returned in every Jury the King Willeth and Commandeth For a remedy against Conspirators False Enformers and Embracers of Juries the King hath provided a remedy Against Mainteynors of Suits it is said the King willeth but it may not be understood hereby that any person shall be prohibited to have Councel of Pleaders or of Learned Men in the Law for his Fee or of his Parents or next Friends What distress shall be taken for the Kings debts and how it shall be used the King willeth What sort of Persons the Commons of shires shall chuse for their Sheriffs forasmuch as the King hath granted it is said the King willeth That Baylewicks and Hundreds shall not be let too dear to charge the people with contribution In summons and attachments in plea of land the writ shall contain 15 daies it is in like manner to be understood In like manner against false retornes of writs The King willeth that the Statute of Winchester shall be read 4 times in the year and put in execution The King willeth that Escheators shall commit no wast in Wards lands In an act of Parliament declaring in what cases the owner shall have his lands delivered out of the King's hands with the issues it is said the King willeth In an Act of Parliament that vessels of gold shall be assayed it is said to have been ordained and that notwithstanding all those things before-mentioned or any point of them both the King and his Councell and all that were present at the making of that Ordinance meaning the Judges and Assistants of that Honourable Court will and intend that the right and prerogative of his Crown shall be saved to him in all things In the Statute de Escatoribus 29. E. 1. at the Parliament of our Lord the King at Lincoln in his Councell it was agreed and also commanded by the King Himself and this order shall be held from henceforth in the Chancery notwithstanding a certain ordinance lately made by our Lord the King concerning lands and tenements taken into his hands by his officers and not to be delivered but by the King himself and as it is conteined in a Certain dividenda or indenture made betwixt the King himself and his Chancelor whereof one part remaineth in the Custody of the Chancelor In the new Statute of Quo Warranto made Anno 30. E. 1. it is recited that the King himself in the 6 year of his Reign providing for the wealth of his Realm and the more full administration of Justice as to the Office of a King belongeth the more discreet men of the Realm as well high as of low degree being called thither it is provided and ordained but in the writs framed to enquire by what warrant the Liberties were granted to the people they are said to be in Parliamento nostro per nos concilium nostrum 31. E. 1. In an ordinance for Measures it is said that by the consent of the whole Realm of England the King's measure was made In the Statute of 33. E. 1. Touching protections granted by the King it is said to have been provided In the ordinance or definition of Conspirators made in the aforesaid Year it is declared that this ordinance and final definition of Conspirators was made and aworded by the King and his Councell in Parliament In the Statute of Champerty made in the 33d year of the Reign of the aforesaid King it is recited that whereas in our Statute it was contained and provided by a common accord the writ framed thereupon mentioneth that law to be the Kings Ordinance In the Ordinance for enquests made in Parliament the same year it is said to have been agreed and ordained by the King and all his Councell In the ordinatio Forestae made in the year aforesaid whereas certain people have by great men made request to our Lord the King that they may be acquitted of their charge and the demand of the Foresters our Lord the King answered that when he had granted Pour lieu he was pleased it should stand as it was granted albeit the thing was sued and demanded in an evill point Nevertheless he willeth and intendeth that all his demeasne lands which have been of the Crown or returned unto it by Escheat or otherwise shall have free chase and free warren and in right of them that have lands and tenements disafforested for the said Pourlieus and such as demand to have Common within the bounds of forests the intent and will of our Sovereign Lord the King is c. And if any that were disafforested would rather be in the Forest it pleaseth the King very well and our Lord the King willeth and commandeth the Justices of the Forest c. In Anno 34. of his Reign there being an Ordinance for measuring of Land In the same Year the King by his Letters-Patents with the Teste meipso certifying the Statute de Conjunctim Feoffatis declared that it was no new thing that among divers establishments of Laws which he had ordained in his time upon the great and heinous mischiefs that happen in Writs of Novel disseisin chiefly above others he as if he neither did know or believe any co-ordination or that he was to be tutored by a Conservatorship had devised a more speedy remedy then was before and willeth and granteth that that Statute shall take his effect the morrow after the feast of St Peter ad Vincula next coming In the Statute for Amortising of Lands tempore E. 1. the King commandeth c. In Ca. 4. Which seemeth to be about the 27th Year of that Kings Reign in the confirmation of all our Laws Liberties and Customes it is said that the King willeth and granteth if any Statutes have been made or any customes brought in contrary thereunto that such Statutes and Customes shall be void for evermore And for the more assurance of this thing we will and grant that all Archbishops and Bishops for ever shall twice in the year cause to be openly read in their Cathedralls the said Charters and denounce curses against the willing infringers thereof and the Archbishops Bishops c. have voluntarily Sworn to observe the tenor thereof In the ordinatio pro Statu Hiberniae made by him at Nottingham by the assent of his Councel there being in Ca. 6. in what cases the Justices of Ireland may grant pardon of Felony c. and where not there is an exception so always that there
be no pardon or protection granted of those Felonies which shall be hereafter committed without the Special Commandment of us our selves In the Ordinatio Forestae made in the 34th Year of his Reign the King ordained The like in Ca. 2. That an Officer dying or being absent another shall be put in his place That no Forester should be put in any Assize or Jury the King willeth The like touching the punishment of Officers surcharging the Forest. The like for Grounds disafforested Touching Commons in Forests and that the Justices of the Forest in the presence of the King's Treasurer and by his assent may take fines and amerciaments it is said the King willeth In the Statute de Asportatis Religiosorum it being recited that it came to the knowlege of our Lord the King by the grievous Complaints of the honourable persons Lords and other Noblemen of this Realm that Monasteries and other Religious Houses founded by the King and his Royal Progenitors and by the said Noblemen and their Ancestors and endowed with great portions of Lands that the Abbots and Priors especially certain aliens Priors c. have letten the said lands and laid great impositions and tallages thereupon our Lord the King by the Councell of his Earles Barons great men and other Nobles of his Kingdom no Commons in his Parliament hath ordained and enacted That Religious persons shall send nothing to their Superiors beyond the Seas That no Impositions shall be Taxed by Priors Aliens it is said moreover our aforesaid Lord the King doth inhibit it By whom the Common Seal of the Abbys shall be kept and how used it is said and further our Lord the King hath ordained and established And though the publication and open notice of the ordinances and Statutes aforesaid were in suspence for certain causes since the last Parliament until this present Parliament holden at Caerlisle the Octaves of St Hilary in the 35 Year of the Reign of the said King to the intent they might proceed with greater deliberation and advice our Lord the King after full conference and debate had with the Earls Barons Noblemen and other great men of his Kingdom no Commons touching the premisses by their whole consent and agreement hath ordained and enacted that the ordinances and Statutes aforesaid under the manner form and conditions aforesaid from the 1st day of May next ensuing shall be inviolably observed for ever and the offenders of them shall be punished as is aforesaid And so well did he and the Lawyers of that age understand the Originall Benefit and use of the Feudall Laws the Ancient Honour Glory and Safety of the English Nation their Kings Princes and People as he did as the Learned and Judicious Dr. Brady hath asserted in and by the right of the Feudal Laws and their original grant of the Fees without assent or advice of Parliament give license to their Tenants to Talliate Tax and take Scutage for ayd of performing the Knight or Military Service incident or chargeable upon their Lands and likewise to Tenants otherwise employed by the King in Capite though not in the Army to charge their Tenants with Scutage warranted by the Writ following in the 10th Year of his Reign directed to the Sheriff of Worcester in these words Rex Vicecomiti Wigorn. salutem Quia dilectus fidelis noster Hugo le dispencer per praeceptum nostrum fuit cum dilecto consanguineo fideli nostro Edmundo Com. Cornub. qui moam traxit in Anglia pro conservatione pacis nostrae Anno regni nostri decimo nobis tunc existentibus in Guerra nostra Walliae Tibi praecipimus quod eidem Hugoni facias habere scutagium suum in feodis militum quae de eo tenentur in balliva tua videlicet quadraginta solidos de Scuto pro exercitu nostro praedicto hoc nuâ—latenus omittas T. Edmundo Comite Cornubiae Consanguine Regis apud Westm. 13 die Aprilis Et Consimiles literae diriguntur vicecomitibus Leicest Eborum Lincoln Suff. Wilts South Surr. Buck. Essex North. Oxon Berk. Norff. Staff Rotel Justic. Cestr. And a Writ on the behalf of Henry de Lacy Earl of Lincoln directed the Sheriff of York in the Words Quia delectus fidelis noster Henry de Lacy Comes Lincoln non sine magnis sumptibus expensis ad Communem utilitatem regni nostri in obsequium nostrum per praeceptum nostrum in partibus Franciae pro reformatione patis inter nos Regem Franciae tempore quo Eramus in Guerra nostra Scociae Anno videlicet Segni nostri 31. Quod quidem obsequium loco servitii sui quod tunc nobis fecisse debuerat Acceptamus tibi praecipimus quod eidem Comiti haberi facias scutagium suum de feodis militum quae de eo teneantur in balliva cua videlicet Quadraginta solidos de scuto pro Exercitu nostro praedicto Et hoc nullatenus omittas Teste Rege apud Westm. 6. die Aprilis Consimiles literas habet idem Comes direct Vicecomitibus Warr. Bedford Buck. Somerset Dorset Glouc. Norff. Suff. Hereford Leic. Lenc Notting Derby Northampton Midd. Cantabr Oxon. Berk. Another on the behalf of Henry de Percy in the form ensuing videlicet Rexvicecomiti Eborum salutem Quia dilectus fidelis noster Henricus de Percy fuit nobiscum per praeceptum nostrum in exercitu nostro Scotiae Anno Regni nostri 31. Tibi praecipimus quod eidem Henrico haberi facias Scutagium suum de feodis militum que de eo tenentur in balliva tua videlicet quadraginta solides de Scuto pro Exercitu nostro praedicto hoc nullatenus omitas teste Rege c. Consimiles literas habet idem Henricus Vicecomitibus Lincoln Derb. Notting Cant. Hunt Norff. Suff. Salop. Stafford Consimiles literas habent Executores testamenti Johannis de Watrenna quondam Comitis Surr. defuncti probably the same man that being called to an account Quo Warranto he held many of his Liberties is said over Sturdily to have drawn out or unsheathed an old broad Rusty Sword and shewing unto the Justices Itinerants instead of his Plea answered by this which helped William the Conqueror to Subdue England which so much incensed the King as he afterwards as some of our English Annalists have reported at his return home caused him to be Besieged in his Castle at Rigate untill in a better obedience to his Laws he had put in a more Loyall and Legall Plea Had the like letters de Habend Scutag de feod militum quae de ipso Comite tenebantur die quo obiit in guerra Regis speciale direct Vicecomitibus Surr. Sussex Essex Hereff. Buck. Lincoln Northampton Ebor. by writ of privy seal Consimiles literas habuit prior de Coventry qui finem fecit c. direct Vicecomitibus Warr. Liec Northt Glouc. Wigorn. Abissa Shafton qui fecit finem c. Habet Scutagium suum But
if aids and Scutage were assessed by Parliament the military Tenants were to be the only Collectors thereof 35. E. 1. In the Statute Ne rector prosternat arbores in Caemiterio it is said that because we do understand that Controversies do oftentimes grow between Parsons of Churches and their Parishioners concerning Trees growing in the Church-yards both of them pretending that they do belong unto themselves we have thought it good rather to decide the controversy by writing then by Statute and declaring them to be parts of the goods of the Church the King did Prohibit the Parsons of rhe Church that they do not presume unadvisedly to fell them but when the Chancel or the body of the Church wanted necessary reparations in which cases the Parsons of their Charity shall do well to relieve the Parishioners with bestowing upon them the same Trees which he will not command to be done but will commend it when it is done So happy and ready was the obedience better Wisdom of the Subjects of this Kingdom in the ancient and former Ages when an agreement made before the King or his word was adjudged to have the power force of a Fine any one of his Writs or Edicts wanted not the operation and efficacy in many things of an Act of Parliament or Statute and so degenerate and unhappy are our present times as to suffer our interest and wrangling peevish disputes to disobey or lay aside not only the King's mandates and edicts in the ordinary and necessary course of his Government but in extraordinary and his Supream power in Parliament Who was as well furnished with Common as he was with Civil Lawyers which as a militia togata were as strong and impregnable forts and bulwarks to help to guard his Crown and Dignity namely Henry de Bracton John de Breton the sincere and upright John de Metingham Elias de Beckingham together with Accursius Doctor utriusque Juris Civil and Canon Gilbert de Thorneton first his Attorney general afterwards Chief Justice ad placita cor am Rege Gilbert de Rowbery Roger Brabazon and William Howard a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas cum multis in legibus eruditis side dignis as to this day it appeareth in the steddy and unarbitrary pleadings and Records of his glorious Reign In whose Time it was not denied to be Law and Right Reason that that verificatio patriae Contra Chartam Regis non est admittenda And did in the making of his Laws but imitate his great Ancestors For King Ina who Reigned in Anno Domini 712. Conredi patris sui Heddae Ercenwaldi Episcoporum suorum omnium senatorum suorum natu majorum sapientum populi sui in magna servorum Dei frequentia who in his making of his Laws did believe it necessary in his Imprimis to use the word precipimus King Alured who began his Reign in Anno Domini 871. made his Laws with a Proposuimus esto and in those which were published by Johannes Brompâ—on with a Praecipimus King Aethelstan who Reigned in the Year 930. made his Laws prudenti Ulfhelmi Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum suorum concilio with a Signif 〈…〉 Decrevimus Statuimus omnibus clare significat and saith Brompton Mandat praepositis suis and declared many of his Laws with a Volo diximus Ediximus Placuit nobis King Edmund that began his Reign in Anno 940. made his Laws solemni Paschatis Festo frequentem Londini tam Ecclesiasticorum quam Laicorum coetum celebravit cui inter fuerunt Odo Wolstanus Archipraesul plurimique alii Episcopi with an Ego Edmundus Rex omnibus qui in ditione ac potestate mea sunt clare significo Decrevimus Edwardus Rex saith Brompton made his Laws with a mandit Praecipit omnibus praefectis amicis ut justa judicia judicent injudiciali libro stant quod unum quodque placitum terminum habeat King Edgar who began his Reign in Anno 959. made his Laws frequenti senatu with a Sancivit Porro autem has populo who were not then understood to be Law-makers quas servet proponimus leges publici juris beneficio quisque fruitor and like his Predecessors made them short and imperative and his Canons in Ecclesiastical Affairs with a Docemus King Ethelredus who began his Reign in Anno Domini 979 made his Laws sapientum concilio habito Woodstoci Merciae quae legibus Anglorum gubernatur solely imperatively with an Esto Canutus Anglorum Dacorum Norweglorum beginning his Reign here in England in Anno Domini 1016 made his Ecclesiastical Laws solely and imperatively with an Imperimus sapientum concilio ad natale Domini And his humanae politica sapientum concilio with an Omnibus observari praecipio Edocemus Esto and touching his Dominions of Mercia with an Haec eadem in Mercia pro suis vendicat praeterea praecipimus and an Esto Satisfacto poenas dependito Compensato Castigetur Exterminetur in potestatem detur Plectitor Mulctator mando Invitus cogatur Habetor omnibus singulis in Dei nomine obtestor praecipio Gulielmus Rex Anglorum cum Principibus suis constituit post conquisitionem Angliae quâ—dam decreta with a Volumus firmiter praecipimus Statuimus Decretum est Interdicimus Prohibimus when the English had in the 4th Year of his Reign fletibus precibus by the assistance of his Norman Subjects also obtained of him a confirmation of King Edward the Confessors Laws and to be governed by them it is said to have been concilio Baronum after an enquiry throughout all England and Certificate returned per universae Angliae consulatus Anglos nobiles sapientes suâ— lege eruditos what those Laws and Customs were Et cum Rex quae audisset cum aliis sui regni legibus maxime appretiatus est praecepit ut observaretur per totum regnum And they that will peruse the laborious Collections of my ever honoured friend Mr Edward Falconbergh one of the Deputy Chamberlains of the Exchecquer the truest lover and carefullest preserver of the Records entrusted to his Charge that ever come into that place the very ancient Gervasius Tilburiensis Mr Agard Scipio le Squier many other learned men in the revolution of more then in that Office 600 Years last past not excepted of the proceedings upon the very many Quo Warranto's brought before the Justices Itinerant in their several Circuits throughout all the parts of the Kingdom in the Reign of King Edward the first as well High as Low Lords Spiritual and Temporal Abbots and Priors Great or Small therein sparing not his own Brother Edmond Earl of Kent may have premisses enough to conclude that that Stout and Magnanimous Prince did as our Common English saying is lay about him and had a mind to let his friends the Kings and Princes at the
made out of the Chancery for a new Election if none had been before made by the Dean and Chapter of the Diocess or afterwards for the Kings allowance of an Election to be made by the Dean and Chapter and a restitution thereupon of the Temporalities And Fitz-Herbert a learned Judge hath informed us that if a Dean and Chapter should elect a Bishop without the Kings assent and after make a Certificate thereof to the King he may assent thereunto or refuse to do it if he please and if he do assent thereunto a speciall writ is to be made to some Person to take his Fealty and to restore unto him his Temporalities in the form aforesaid And our Kings have not only done it in the Election of Coroners and Verdurers but in matters of an higher nature viz. the Election of Members of the Commons in Parliament in the Case of Sr Thomas Camois Banneret which saith Mr Elsing did not as a Baron antiently use to serve as a Member in the house of Commons in Parliament as appeareth by the Kings writ directed to the Sheriff of Surrey for a new Election in the Stead of the said Sr Thomas Camois wherein the reason is expressed in these words Nos animadvertentes quod hujusmodi Banneretti ante haec tempora in milites Comitatus ratione alicujus Parliamenti minime consueverunt eligi And was afterwards as a Baron summoned into the House of Peers in Parliament and the Kings servants have likewise had exemtions as when James Barners was discharged quia de retinentia Regis familiaris unus militum Camerae Regis The servants of the Queen and Prince enjoying also the like Priviledges For the same year there appeareth to have been an exemtion and discharge of Thomas Morvill Quia est de retinentia Charissimae Dominae matris nostrae Johannae Principissae Walliae A Verdurer being Chosen in a forrest beyond Trent and the King upon a Suggestion made in Chancery that he had not Lands and Tenements Sufficient within the Limits of the Forrest nor was resident therein having Caused another de à ssensu Comitatus to be elected did upon better Information by the Justice of that Forrest that he had Lands and Tenements sufficient and was fit for the place supersede the later Writ and Commanded that he that was formerly elected should be permitted to execute the said Office In the first year of the Reign of King Edward the 1st the King being Informed that one Matteville having been elected Coroner of Essex de assensu Comitatus officium praedictum explere non potuit sent his Writ to the Sheriff of Essex to elect per assensum Comitatus one that should be able to execute that office with a Command to Certifie the name of the party to be so elected which a King that is sui Juris and not governed by those he should govern might surely better do then a private man who is never denyed the refusall of one elected that is not fit for the ends and purposes for which he was Chosen as if a Carpenter should by a mistake of a friend or servant be hired or employed to do the work or business of a Farrier or a Farrier of an Apothecary And it should be no otherwise when all the Laws of the World where right reason and morality have any Influence or any thing to do have ordained and allowed a retorn or attempt to be given of Writs Proces Mandates or Precepts well or evill executed unto those that had authority to grant them and how they had been observed and obeyed which was the only reason end and design of such retornes and attempts to be given thereof In the yearly nomination and appointment of Sheriffs of the Counties of England and Wales the Judges of the severall Circuits do elect six whom they think fit to be Sheriffs for every County which upon Consideration had by the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the great seal of England Lord Treasurer diverse of the Lords of the Kings Privy-Counsell some Officers of his Household and the aforesaid Justices being reduced to three for every County their names are to be presented to the King who Chooseth One for every County who is afterwards Sworn and made Sheriffs by his Letters-Patents the former being discharged and not seldom upon better Information given to the King altered and another named by him the Mayor and Sheriffs of London and the Mayor of Oxford being elected according to their Charters are to be Yearly presented and Sworn before his Barons of the Exchecquer before they can Execute or Intermeddle in their Offices and a Sheriff hath some hundred years ago been amerced and in misericordia quia retornavit elegit alios quam milites in brevi de Assiza And with the same reason and rule of Justice it hath been done in the undue and Illegall Elections of some Members of the House of Commons in Parliament upon Complaint made by remedies provided in the 36th year of the Reign of King Edward the third as may be evidenced by the view and consideration of the Records ensuing in these words viz Rex Vicecomiti Lanc. salutem quia super Electione facta de militibus pro Communitate Com. praedict pro ultimo Parliamento nostro in Com. praedict venientibus maxima alteratio facta existit nos ea de Causa volentes super electione praedicta plemius certiorari tibi praecipimus quod habita in pleno Com. tuo super electione praedict Cum militibus allis probis hominibus de Communitate dict Com. de Liberatione Informatione diligentibus utrum viz. Edwardus Laurence Mathaeus de Risheton qui in brevi nostro de Parliamento praedicto tibi directo retornati fuerunt pro militibus dicti Com. electi fuerint an alii si per deliberationem Informationem hujusmodi inveneris ipsos de Communi assensu totius Com. pro militibus dicti Com. electos fuisse tunc habere facias eisdem Edwardo Matheo decem octo libras duodecem Solid pro expensis suis veniendi ad Parliamentum praedict ibidem morando ex inde ad propria redeundo viz. pro quadraginta septem diebus utroque praedictorum Edwardi Laurentii Capiente per diem quatuor solidos si alii pro militibus ejusdem Com. electi fuerint tunc nos de nominibus eorum sub sigillo tuo in Cancellaria nostra reddas certiores hoc breve nobis remittens Teste Rege Decimo Septimo die Novembris per ipsum Regem But it seems that took no effect for Mr Pryn in his Marginall note saith that they made no retorn as they ought to have done so early did the design of a factious popularity to provide for themselves begin to take root by the calling of an intended Elected part of the Common People of England into the great Councell thereof as the Tenor of the
Subjoyned Writ will manifest in the form ensuing viz. Rex dilectis fidelibus suis Godfr Foliambe sociis suis Custodibus pacis nostrae in Com. Lancastr Salutem cum nuper pro eo quod super Electionem recitando usque redder et nobis Certiores ac jam intellexerimus quod praedicti Edwardus Laurentius qui locum tenentes dict vic existunt retornum brevium nostrorum Com. praedict faciunt breve nostrum praedictum penes se retinent executionem aliquam inde hactenus facere non Curarunt nihilominus vadia illa indies levari faciant in nostri deceptionem manifestam nos volentes hujusmodi deceptioni obviare vobis mandamus quod prox Sessione vestra vocatis Coram vobis militibus allis probis hominibus ejusdem Com. aliis quos noveritis evocando diligentem Informationem inquisitionem super praemissis capiatis de eo quod in hac parte inveneritis nos in Cancellaria nostra sub Sigillis vestris aut alicujus vestrum distincte aperte sine dilatione reddatis Certiores hoc breve nobis remittentes T. R. apud Westm. per ipsum Regem Et mandatum est vic Lanc. quod levationi dictorum vadiorum Supersedeat quousque aliud inde de Rege habuerit in mandatis T. ut supra per ipsum Regem Upon which Mr Pryn observeth that the King in that age not the House of Commons examined and determined all disputable and undue Elections Complained of and ordered that the Knights whose elections were unduly made should not receive their wages or expences untill the Legality of their elections were examined and that the King may cause the Elections to be examined by speciall Writts to the Sheriffs or Justices of the Peace in his default to Enquire and Certify the legality of their elections by the Testimony of their Electors or Assenters out of the whole County and untill full Examination Supersede the Levying of their Wages and in his Plea for the House of Lords and Peers saith that the Statute made in the 8th year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th and the 11th of King Henry the 6th upon the Petitions and Complaint of the Commons in Parliament to the King and Lords which Inflicted Penalties upon the Sheriffs for making undue Elections and retorns which formerly were Arbitrary at the discretion of the King and to be Tryed not by the Commons alone without Oath upon Information as now but by the Justices Assigned to take Assizes and that by enquest and due examination therein if the Sheriff be found Guilty he shall forfeit one hundred pounds to the King and the Knights unduly retorned shall lose their Wages not to be turned out saith Mr Pryn by a Committee for Privileges of the House of Commons and that the Statutes of 1. H. 5. ca. 1. 6. H. ca. 4. 8. H. 6. ca. 7. 22. H. 6. ca. 15. touching the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament do not alter the Law or Impower the House of Commons to determine the Legality of any Elections but leave them as before to the King by the advice of the Lords to redress as these Law-books viz. Dier 113. 168. Plowden 118. to 131. Old Book of Entries 446. 447. have resolved and are not to follow any late Arbitrary Precedents but the ancient usage and Law of our Parliaments and solid reason which will not Justify those late Innovations or extravagancies for when men are saith the Learned Sr Robort Filmer Assembled by an humane power the authority that doth assemble them Can also limit and direct the execution of that Power SECT XX. Of the small Numbers of Knights of the Shires and Burgesses which were Elected and came in the Reign of King Edward the first upon his aforesaid Writs of Election and how their Numbers now amounting unto very many more were after increased by the corruption of Sheriffs and the ambition of such as desired to be Elected FOr Mr. Pryn in his indefatigable and most exact searches of the Summons and Elections of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and the return of the Sheriff thereupon which he himself as well as others might have then thought unnecessary and superfluous yet are now of great use for the discovery of long hidden truths hath in all the Reigns of King Edward 1. Edward the 2. Edward the 3. Richard 2. Henry 4. King H. 5. 6. and Edward the 4th found no more then 170. Boroughs Cities and Ports either Summoned by Sheriffs or their precepts or Writs to elect or return or actually electing returning Knights Citizens Burgesses and Barons of the Cinque ports to attend in Parliament that of those 170. Glastonbury in Somersetshire Overton in Hantshire St Edmondsbury in Suffolk Hoden and Richmond in Yorkshire had only one precept issued unto them Odiham 2 precepts Alton and Basingstake in Hantshire 4 precepts to elect and send Burgesses to Parliament upon neither of which they returned any Burgesses as the Sheriffes returns of ballivi libertatis nullum dederunt responsum or nihil inde fecerunt will attest whereupon they never had any more precepts of that nature sent unto them before the end of King Edward 4's Reign Christchurch only excepted which of late Years hath elected and returned Burgesses So that in truth 20 of those 170. Namely Newbury in Barkshire Freminton Modbury South Molton in Devonshire Bromyard Ledbury Ros in Herefordshire Dunster Langeport Monteacute Stoke Cursey Matchet Ware in Somersetshire Alesford in the County of Southamton Oreford in Suffolk Gatton in Surrey Alverton Malton and Pontefract in Yorkshire elected and returned Burgesses but once for one single Parliament and no more Mere in Wiltshire and Rippon in Yorkshire upon two several precepts made only one election Five more of those antient Boroughs as Lidford in Cornewall Bradnesham Okehamtam in Devonshire Andover in Hampshire Woodstoke in Oxfordshire and that 3 of 5 Severall Precepts the Sheriffs returned quod ballivi nullum dederunt responsum Farneham in Surrey Grantham in Lincolnshire and Beverley in Yorkshire upon five precepts did but twice elect during the Reigns of the aforesaid Kings and 4 more to wit Cheping-Norton and Dodington in Oxfordshire Mulliborne port in Somersetshiee and Coventry in Warwickshire made in all the times aforesaid but 3 elections Poole in Dorsetshire Webley in Herefordshire Witney in Oxfordshire and Aixbrugh in Somersetshire upon 5 precepts had but 4 elections and returns in all those Reigns St Albans in Hartfordshire Kingston upon Thames in Surrey Wich in the County of Wigorn and Heytesbury in Wiltshire made in all that time but 5 returns and elections of Burgesses Five others viz. Honyton and Plymouth in Devonshire Chard in Somersetshlre Seaford in Sussex and Wotton Basset in Wiltshire but 7. Preston in Lancashire Stamford in Lincolnshire Hyndon and Westbury in Wiltshire but 6. Stortford in Hartfordshire only 8. and Lancaster 13. during the Reigns of the
all the returns of the Writs of Election for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses from the 21st Year of the Reign of King E. 1. during the residue of his Reign for before no Manucaptors or pledges for Knights or Burgesses elected to come to Parliament were given in for those Knights that were elected in Anno 49. H 3. for the County of York and from thence during the Reign of King E. 2. E. 3. R. 2. H. 4. and 5. and thence until after the 33. of King Henry 6. and had after their Elections actuall and formall Indentures or instruments of procuration mutually Signed and Sealed by the Sheriff and the Electors or Assentors and Elected which were with the Writs of Election returned and filed amongst the records of the King in his Chancery having their procurations or powers inserted in the perclose of the indenture made betwixt the Sheriff and the Electors some being named instead of many Dante 's Concedentes eisdem the parties Elected plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se communitate praedict ad faciend consentiend iis quae tunc ibidem de communi concilio regni Domini Regis favente Domino ordinari contigerint super negotiis in dicto brevi specificat and notwithstanding their election and one part of the Indenture with the procuration therein returned with the Writ to the King in his Chancery were not accompted members of the House of Commons in Parliament untill their admittance by the Kings Allowance and Authority as it was upon a great debate adjudged in the 35 Elizabeth in the House of Commons in Parliament in the Case of Fits-Herbert in which the two eminent Lawyers Anderson and Coke afterwards successively Lord Chief Justices of the Court of Common Pleas were as Members personally present and in a Parliament holden in the 18 Year of the Reign of King Edward 3. the King was angry that the Convocation of the Clergy appeared not and charged the Archbishop of Canterbury to punish them for their defaults and said he would do the like to the Parliament In the 5 year of the Reign of King Richard 2. Members Elected were by an Act of Parliament to appear upon Summons or be amerced or otherwise punished according as of old times hath been used to be done in the said case unless they may reasonably and honestly excuse them to the King and in 1st and 2d Philip and Mary 39 of the Members of the House of Commons saith Sr Edward Coke whereof Mr Edmond Plowdon the famous Lawyer was one who pleaded that he was continually present at that Parliament and traversed that he did not from thence depart in contempt of the King and Queen and of the said Court had an Information exhibited against them by the aforesaid King and Queen for not appearing in Parliament according as they were Summoned cannot be admitted in the House of Commons in Parliament before they shall have taken the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy before the Lord Steward of the King's Houshold or his Deputy under a forfeiture or penalty nor depart from the Parliament without License and when admitted are Petitioners for License to choose and present their Speaker to the King who in their behalf prayeth to be allowed access to his Majesty freedom of speech and from Arrest of themselves and their menial servants during the time of their attendance have Wages allowed them by the King to be paid by their Commonalties in eundo morando redeundo according to longer or shorter distances or abode their Speaker being by the King also allowed Five Pounds per diem besides other perquisites appertaining to his place are but Petitioners have receivers and tryers of their petitions assigned by the King or by the Lord Chancelour de per liu and days were seldom prefixt and limited for exhibiting of them which were many times rejected with a non est petitio Parliamenti endorsed for that it was more proper for inferior Courts and sometimes for their hast or Importance of the King's Affairs were ordered to be answered in Chancery are no Court of Judicature or Record were not accustomed to draw or frame Acts of Parliament which they assent unto but leave them to be formed by the Judges and the King 's learned Councel at Law and not seldom after Parliaments ended most of the former Acts of Parliament being drawn and framed upon petitions or specifying to be at the request of the Lords and Commons or of the Commons only or that the King Willed Commanded Prohibited Provided or Ordained can make no proxies and are but a grand enquest of the Kingdom are not Authorized to give or administer any Oath never did or are to do it but are to send such Witnesses as are to be sworn to take their Oaths in the House of Peers and the Members of the House of Commons or their Speaker Jointly or severally cannot administer an Oath unto any of their fellow Members or any of the Commons whom they would represent for that would be to administer it unto themselves which Juries and men Impanelled in Enquests are never permitted to do but are to receive their Oaths from a Superior Authority and none but the King or such as have been Commissionated by him are impowred to give Oaths which hath allways put a necessity upon the House of Commons when any Witnesses are to be examined before them to produce and send them first to be sworn and take their Oaths in the House of Lords and they cannot adjourn or prorogue without the King 's special order and command nor were ever Summoned by themselves legally to come to Parliament without the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but as to their Meeting and Continuance were to follow their King in his House of Lords as the Moon and the Stars those Common people of the Sky do the Sun could not punish heretofore an offence or delinquency against themselves or any of their Members without an Order first obtained from the King or his Lord Chancellor have sometimes Petitioned the Lords in Parliament to intercede with the King to remit his displeasure conceived against them in the times of Henry the 4 few Petitions were directed to the King and his Councel some were to the King alone and some to the Lords alone and some to the Commons only saith Mr. Elsing and if they were Petitions of Grace the Commons only wrote thereupon soit baile as Seigneurs per les a Roy or soit per le a Roy per les Seimurs the other were sent up to the Lords without any directions the Judges the Kings Learned Councel in the Law prepared all answers to the Petitions of the Commons all Petitions directed to the King were to be considered by the Judges and his Councel at Law and by them prepared for the Lords if need were by the Commons who sometimes Petitioned
quibusdam Magnatibus aliis de Concilio suo super dictis negotiis in brevi specificat eis ibidem plenius exponend tractaturi suumque concilium impensuri ulteriusque facturi quod ibidem de communi concilio assensu contigerit ordinari and that the Sheriff as likewise the Sheriffs of all the other Counties of England were commanded to certify the names of the Merchants sic eligendorum with a severe admonition in the latter end of the said Writ of Summons viz. sciens procerto quod fi dicti Mercatores de discretioribus ditioribus ut praedicitur eligendi ad dictos diem locum non habueris te ab ofsicio tuo amovere teque tanquam expeditionem negotionum nostrorum praedictorum impedieras de impeditione hujusmodi culpabilem invenire absque difficultate aliqua faciemus Teste Edwardo Duce Cornubiae Domino de Cestria filio nostro charissimo Custode Angliae apud Kennington Et Eodem Anno Strangers have been sometimes admitted into the House of Peers after a Summons to be Receivers and Tryers of Petitions but did not sit The Commons at the beginning of every Parliament are sent for out of the House of Commons to come to the Bar of the House of Lords where the Lord Chancellor if he be present or in his absence one of the Lord Chief Justices or an Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and sometimes the Lord Treasurer and in 9. H. 6. Linwood a Doctor of Law in the sickness of a Lord Chancellor declared in the behalf of the King or his Lieutenant the cause at large of the Summons of Parliament commanded them to elect and present their speaker the Writs of Summons making sometimes a short mention thereof and many times none at all In 17th E. 3. the cause of Summons was begun to be declared by the Chancellor but pursued by Sr Bartholomew Burghurst concerning the Kings Actions in France 15. E. 3. The King denied the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to come into the Parliament-House untill he had answered certain Articles objected against him in the Exchequer and then also refused him entrance untill at the last at the intercession of the Lords he was admitted In Anno 16 of his Reign Prince Edward his son Duke of Cornewall and Custos regni with others of the Councell summoned a Parliament in his fathers name to grant him an aid being then in his Wars beyond the Seas The King in the 18th year of his Reign sent his Writs of Summons to a Parliament to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom with these words nobiscum si praesentes fuerimus ibidem seu cum deputandis a nobis si abesse nos contigerit Eodem Anno Writs were issued for the Electing of two Knights for every County without mention of any Citizens Burgesses and in some no manucaptors for the Elected retorned and were to appear at London but before the day appointed come another Writ came to appear at Sarum Eodem Anno The King being offended at the small appearance of the parliament on Monday commanded it to be adjourned untill the next day The Receivers and Tryers being named because the prelates and other grandees were not come on Tuesday the parliament was adjourned untill the Thursday on which day the cause of Summons was declared 20. E. 3. On Fryday the Commons delivered in their petitions which were considered by the Lords upon Saturday Sunday and Monday next following and on that Monday they were Dissolved In the 21st Year of his Reign he declared in his Writs to Summon that parliament that he did call them not to give him Money or Supplies but only to enquire after wrongs done to the people Eodem Anno the Commons having long continued together desire an answer to their Bill leur deliverance Anno 24. E. 3. The King sending his Writs to Elect 2 Knights of every County and 2 Burgesses of every City and Borough caused a Clause to be inserted that none should be placitatores querolarum manutentores aut ex hujusmodi quaestu vincentes In 26. E. 3. the King issued out Writs to the Sheriffs of every County in England to elect one Knight for every County to come to the parliament and sent his Writs to the Mayors and Bailiffs of Burgess Towns not to the Sheriffs as at other time to retorn 1 Citizen for every City and 1 Burgess for every Borough except London whose Sheriffs were commanded to Elect 2 Citizens giving the reason why no more then 1 for other places ut Homines ab ista occupatione Audumpnalo quo nirus possimus retrahomus Anno 27. E. 3. Sent hrs Writs to the Sheriff to Elect de assensu Com. only 1 Knight and to the Sheriffs of London the Mayor and Bayliffs of all other Boroughs that used to send Burgesses to Parliament to Elect and retorn 2 Citizens and Burgesses apiece for the Statute of the Staple made in the same year ca. 3. hath these words viz. Whereas good deliberation had with the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and great men of the Country that is to say of every County one for all the Countys and of the Commons of Cities and Boroughs Anno 28. E. 3. the cause of Summons was first declared before the names of the Receivers and Tryers were published Eodem Anno the King issued his Writs to all the Sheriffs of England to cause 2 Knights of every Shire to come to the Parliament at Lincoln to confirm the perambulation of the Forrests and particularly enjoyned to Summon the Knights Elected the last Parliament but if dead or unable to come to Elect others in their places and the Sheriff for Oxford and Barkshire receiving only a mandate to elect Knights for Oxfordshire did notwithstanding retorn two for Berkshire in this manner Et quia Com. Berks. est in ballia mea licet perambulatio in eodem facta fuit observata pro eo quod in isto brevi continetur quod colloquium in Parliamento tractandum erit Super aliis negotiis praefatum Regem tangentibus Ideo gratis elegerunt duos milites quorum nomina c. Anno 29. E. 3. the Chief Justice declared that the Kings pleasure was that the Cause of Summons should be declared by Mounsieur Walter de Manny and so it was yet the Chief Justice managed the Parliament business in the House of Peers as Speaker for presently after Mounsieur de Manny's discourse he called the Commons to advise thereof and make ready their Petitions In the 34 year of his Reign sent his Writs to all the Sheriffs to cause to appear in Parliament all Collectors of the Tenths and Fifteenths granted to him in Parliament for paying his Forces by Land and Sea for the Kingdoms defence to be restored again to the payers in case no such expences should be made and all Arrayers of Souldiers to give an account of all Moneys received and disbursed
by them for that the Soldiers and Mariners were not paid And to appoint one honest man out of every County to come along with them to see and examine their accounts 37. E. 3. The cause of the Summons was first declared before the names of the Receivers and Tryers were published according to the use at this day and of all Parliaments since 29. E. 3. And it is said in the end of the shewing the cause of the Summons Et outre le dit Roy volt que si nul se sent greever mett avent son petition en ce Parlement ci ne avoir convenable report sur ce ad assignee ascuns de ses Clercks en le Chancellarie Recevoirs des ditzpetitions In eodem Anno Proclamation was made in Westminster Hall by the Kings command that all the Prelates Lords and Commons who were come to the Parliament should withdraw themselves to the painted Chamber and afterwards on the sâ—m◠〈◊〉 there being in the same chamber the Chancellor Treasurer 〈◊〉 some of the Prelates Lords and Commons Sr Henry Greeâ— the Kings Chief Justice told them in English much of the French Language being then made use of in the Parliament-Rolls and Petitions that the King was ready to begin the Parliament but that many of the Prelates Lords and Commons who were Summoned were not yet come wherefore he willeth that they should depart and take their ease untill Monday Anno 40. E. 3. The Lord Chancellor concluded his speech touching the Summons The Kings will is que chescun que ce sont grievez mett devant sa petition a ces sont assignez per lui de ces recevoir aussi de les triers Six days were not seldom allowed for receiving and trying petitions which were sometimes prolonged two or three days ex gratia Regis and the reason supposed for such short prefixions was because the sitting of Parliaments in former times continued not many days Toriton a Town in Devonshire was exempted from sending of Burgesses to Parliament and so was Colchester in 6. R. 2. in respect of new making the walls and fortifying that Town for Five Years In divers Writs of Summons of King Edward 3. He denied to accept of proxies ea vice 6. 27. And 39. E. 3. Proxies were absolutely denied ista vice 6. R. 2. And 11. R. 2. The like with a clause in every of those Writs of Summons legitimo cessante impedimento Anno 45. E. 3. Ista vice being omitted a clause was added Scientes quod propter arduitatem negotiorum Procuratores seu excusationem aliquam legittimo cessante impedimento pro vobis admittere nolumus and thereupon the Lords that could not come obtained the Kings License and made their proxies and although at other times they did make Proxies without the Kings License yet in such cases an Affidavit was made of their sickness or some other Lawfull impediment as in 3. 6. 26. And 28. H. 8. The antient form and way of such Licenses in 22d E. 3. being in French and under the Kings Privy-Seal as Mr Elsing hath declared and therein the Abbot of Selby's Servant was so carefull as he procured a Constat or Testimoniall under the Kings Privy-seal of his allowance of the said procuration and another was granted to the said Abbot in 2. H. 4. under the signet only Eodem Anno The Parliament having granted the King an ayd of 22 s. and 3 d. out of every parish in England supposing it would fully amount to Fifty Thousand Pounds but the King and his Councell after the Parliament dismissed finding upon an examination that the rate upon every parish would fall short of the summ of mony proposed for that supply did by his Writs command the Sheriffs of every County to Summon only one Knight for every County and one Citizen and Burgess for every City and Borough that had served in the said Parliament for the avoiding of troubles and expences to appear at a Councell to be holden at Winchester to advise how to raise the intended summ of money Anno 46. E. 3. An ordinance being made that neither Lawyer or Sheriff should be returned Knights of the shire the Writs received an addition touching the Sheriff only which continues to this day viz. Nolumus autem quod tu vel aliquis alius Vicecomes shall be Elected but the King willeth that Knights and Serjeants of the best esteem of the County be hereafter returned Knights in the Parliament Eodem Anno There was no Judges Summoned to the Parliament In Anno 50. Some particular Knights were specially commanded by the King to continue in London 7 days longer then others after the Parliament ended to dispatch some publique affairs ordained by Parliament and had wages allowed for those 7 days to be paid by their Countries Some being sent from Ireland to attend the Parliament a Writ was sent by the King to James Boteler Justice of Ireland to leavy their expences upon the Commonalty of that Kingdom which varied from those for England After the bill which in the usuall language and meaning of those times signified no more then a petition delivered the Chancellour willed the Commons to sue out their Writs for their fees according to the custom after which the Bishops did arise and take their leaves of the King and so the Parliament ended Anno 51. E. 3. the Prince of Wales representing the King in Parliament Sate in the Chair of State in Parliaments after the cause of Summons declared by the Lord Chancellour or by any others whom the King appointeth he concludes his speech with the Kings Commandment to the House of Commons to choose their Speaker who being attended by all the House of Commons and presented by them unto sitting in his Chair of Estate environed by the Lords Spirituall and Temporall hath after his allowance and at his retorn and not before one of the Kings maces with the Royall armes thereupon allowed to be carried before him at all time dureing the Parliament with one of the Kings Serjeants at armes to bear it before him and to attend him during the time of his Speakership Anno 1. Richardi 2. The Parliament beginning the 13th of October was from time to time continued untill the 28th of November then next ensuing and the petitions read before the King who after answers given fist bonement remercier les Prelats Seigneurs Countes de leur bones graundez diligences faitz entouz l'Esploit de dites besognes requestes y faitzpur commun profit de leur bien liberal done au liu grantez en defens De tout le Roialme commandant as Chivaliers de Contes Citizens des Citeos Burgeys des Burghs quils facent leur suites pour briefs avoir pour leurs gages de Parlement en manere accustumes Et leur donast congie de departir In a Parliament of 5. R. 〈◊〉 there were severall adjournments and the Knights and
8th who being a Member of the House of Commons and Imprisoned the House of Commons made an address to the King for his release when they could not do it by their own power Mr Speaker said I am to deliver unto you her Majesties commandement that for the better and more speedy dispatch of causes we should sit in the afternoon and that about this day sennight her Majesties pleasure is this Parliament shall be ended At a conference with the Lords their Lordships told the Commons they would not have their Judgment prejudicated and in that conference of the House of Commons stiled themselves the Lower House There was saith Justice Hussey a whole Alphabet of paenall Laws in the time of King Henry the 7th Mr Mountague said The praerogative Royall is now in Question which the law hath over allowed and Maintained Serjeant Heale speaking somewhat that displeased the Generality of the House they all made an humming and when he began to speak again they did the like whereupon the Speaker stood up and said It is a great disorder that this should be used for it is the antient use of this House for every man to be Silent when any one Speaketh and he that is Speaking should be Suffered to deliver his mind without interruption Sr Edward Hobby upon the debate of a bill brought in for the peoples more diligent repair to Church whether the Church-Wardens were the more proper to certifie the defalters said that when her Majestie did give us leave to chuse our Speaker She gave us leave to chuse one out of our own number Mr Onslow the Clark of the House of Commons in Parliament being Sick the House gave his man leave to officiate for him every Members contributing 12d apeice for his support In the case of Belgrave depending in the Court of Star-Chamber upon an Information brought by Sir Edward Coke her Majesties then Artorney General prosecuted by the Earl of Huntington for wearing his Livery to make himself a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament after several Motions Debates and Disputes in the House of Commons a Conference was concluded to be had with the Lords thereupon the rather for that it had been said that the Lords in Parliament were reported to have directed the said Bill to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber one of their House being concerned therein and a day appointed by the Lords accordingly which failing and revived again by a motion of one of the Members of the house of Commons in their own House and the matters limitted whereupon it should consist first touching the offence committed by Mr. Belgrave whether it was an Infringement of the Liberty of the House of Commons and for the first that the Commons would do nothing therein until a Conference with them for the 2d to know the reasons of their Lordships appointment of the Information and to bring it to some end Mr. Speaker at another day certifying a message from the Lords concerning some other matters Sir Edward Hobby said We attended the Lords that morning which was appointed touching the Information against Mr. Belgrave who in the end concluded that forasmuch as it concerneth them as the House of Commons Priviledges they desired some time to consult and they would send us word of their Resolutions and some days after a Copy of the Information against Belgrave was sent to the House of Peers unto them under the hand of the Clerk of the Star Chamber by them and Sir Edward Hobby with some Bills but nothing appeareth to have been done touching the said Information against Belgrave In the mean time a servant of Mr. Huddleston a Knight of the Shire for Cumberland being arrested in London upon a Writ of Execution the Plaintiff and Serjeants denying to release him because it was after Judgment they were upon complaint to the House committed to Prison the Serjeant released paying the Serjeant at Arms Fees and the Plaintiff paying them as well as his own was ordered to remain three days in the Serjeants Custody For a like Judgment was cited to have been given by the House of Commons in the case of the Baron of Wilton in that Parliament Upon Thursday December the 7th Sir Edward Hobby shewed that the Parliament was now in the wain and near ending and an order was taken touching the Information delivered to this house viz. the House of Commons in Mr. Belgraves case but nothing done therein and as it seemeth by not taking out the Process no Prosecution of the Cause is intended against the said Mr. Belgrave he thought it fit because the chief Scope of the said Information seemeth to be touching a dishonour offered to this House that it would please the House that it might be put to the question being the original and first horrid fashion of their afterward altogether course or manner of voting and making their own pretended Liberties whether he hath offended this House yea or no If he hath he desireth to be censured by you and if he hath not it will be a good motive to this Honourable House here present who are Judges in this Court and yet he might have remembred what long and learned debates and disputes there had lately been amongst themselves whether the Custom of that House was or had been in cases of grievance to proceed by Bill or Petition to the Queen and it was resolved that it was the most proper and dutiful way to proceed by Petition which was done accordingly in clearing the Gentleman of that offence when it came before them which had then no higher esteem in Sir Edward Hobbyes opinion than to be previous to an after disquisition which that Law and the Queens Writ and the Election of that part of the people that brought them thither neither did or could give them any greater authority than ad faciendum consentiendum to do and perform that which the King and Lords in Parliament should ordain to be done and performed and when all should be rightly considered was an offence too often by more than one or once since practised to procure a Membership indirectly in an House of Commons in Parliament committed by Mr. Belgrave that should as little have been countenanced as there was any just or legal Warrant for it wherein Mr. Comptroller said I know the Gentleman to be an honest Gentleman and a great Servant to his Prince and Countrey I think it very fit to clear him I wish it may be put to the Question I will be ready to vouch your sentence for his offence when it comes there but if any other matter appears upon opening the Cause with that we have nothing to do Mr. Secretary Cecil who had not long before said in the same House he was sorry to see such disorder and little do you know how for disorder this Parliament is taxed I am sorry I said not slandered I hoped that as this Parliament began gravely and with Judgment
that nothing was done upon their Petitions and therefore prayed that they might be answered before the Parliament ended It appeareth by divers Answers to Petitions in Parliament that the Kings Councel unto whom they were committed did but report what they thought fit to be done for Answer prout Anno 15. E. 3. n. 17. where it is said our Lord the King caused the same Answers to be given to the said Petitions the which together with the Petitions were reported in full Parliament Eodem Anno it was answered Our Lord the King commanded Answers to be made the which put into writing were reported before our Lord the King and the Prelates and other Grandees Anno 17. E. 3. It seemeth to the Councel that it be done Anno 18. E. 3. Divers Petitions of the Commons being exhibited a Memorandum was entred viz. Unto which Petitions it was answered by the King and the Grandees as to the second Article Soit cestipetition granted To the third Article il plaist au Roy c. To the eight Article il plaist au Roy au Son conseil quae se soit To the eleventh il plaist au Roy c. To the 12th Article Soient les Statutes sur ceo faites tenus c. Anno eodem the Answer was It is assented by our Lord the King the Earls Barons Justices and other Sages of the Law that the things above written be done in convenable manner according to the prayer of the Commons in a long Petition of theirs against provisions from Rome whereunto the Bishops durst not assent Eodem Anno the Commons exhibited their Petitions which were answered drawn into a Statute sealed and delivered unto them Sedentibus before the Parliament ended in the same Parliament also the Parliament exhibited their Petitions which were answered sealed and delivered unto them sitting the Parliament which was not usual for the Statutes were most commonly made after the end of the Parliament The Answer to one of the Clergies Petitions in this Parliament was accord est pur assent du conceil Unto which may be added those of the 20th year of the Raign of King Edward the third which concerned the Pope to which Answers the Praelates who were of that Committee not daring to agree the opinion of the temporal Lords and the Judges were only reported viz. It seemeth to the Earls Barons and other Sages Lay-men of the Kings Councel c. Anno 21. E. 3. il Semble a conseil qu'il faut faire pour grand bien si plaist au Roy as grandes du terre Eodem Anno It seemeth unto the King the Praelates and the Grandees that the Custom stand in force the Commons having petitioned that the Custom of the Cloth made in England might be taken away Anno 25. E. 3. It seemeth to the Councel that such enquires cease if it please the King Eodem Anno It seemeth to the Councel that the Laws heretofore ordained ought to suffice for that this Petition is against the Law of the Land as well as against the holy Church It seemeth to the Councel that it ought not to be granted the Petition being that no Capias Excommunicat should issue before a Scire facias to the party Et al. hujusmodi c. Eodem Anno It was answered It is not the interest of our Lord the King nor of the Grantz Anno 28. E. 3. n. 33. It seemeth to the Lords and to the Grands that the Petition is reasonable Eodem Anno It is answered Let the Common Law used stand for the Lords will not change it Anno 30. E. 3. The Petition of the Commons touching Chaplains Wages had two answers The Archbishops and Bishops at the motion of the King and Grandees have ordained c. And therefore the King and the Grandees have ordained c. Those two Answers are recited almost ad verbum the Prelates first and then the Temporal Lords considered of the Answer Anno 47 E. 3. It was answered The King and the Lords have yet no will to change the Common Law Eodem Anno The Commons do require that every mans Petition be answered Anno 2. R. 2. apud Glocester le Roy del assent des Praelats Dukes Countz Barons de les Commons de son Royalme ad ordeigne c. The Commons having petitioned that all manner of Merchants might have free Traffick here And the like Answer was made to their Petition in Anno 3 R. 2 n. 37. 38. In 16. R. 2. Upon a Petition of Robert de Mull and his Wife touching the discharge of a Fine the King answered Soyent au Roy car ceo nest petition du Parlement In Anno 20. R. 2. Robert Mull petitioned the Commons stiling them by the title of honourable and Sage Commons in Parliament praying them to be discharged of a Fine to the King imposed upon him and supplicating them to make Relation thereof to the Parliament and alledging that his Bill or Petition had been put upon the file the last Parliament which doth prove that there was no standing Committees then appointed by the Commons in Parliament 2 H. 4. The King by Advice of the Lords in Parliament hath committed this Petition to his Councel Eodem Anno upon a Petition of the Commons for removing of Stanks and Milks generally it was answered It seemeth to the King and to the Lords that this Petition sounds in disherison of the King and of the Lords and others wherefore let the Statutes before made be held and kept Eodem Anno It is assented and accorded by the King and Lords c. Anno 2. H. 5. The King by the assent of all the Lords granteth c. Touching the Petition for taking of Tithe of great Wood contrary to the Statute of 4 E. 3. whereupon the Judges were of sundry opinions It was answered because the matter of the Petitioners demands required great and mature deliberation the King therefore would that it be adjourned and remitted to the next Parliament and that the Clerk of the Parliament cause this Article to be brought before the King and the Lords at the beginning of the next Parliament for declaration thereof to be made In the 2d year of the Raign of King Henry the sixth the King by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons granted the contents of their Petition in all points Divers other Answers given do prove Debates to have been in Parliament upon Petitions betwixt the Lords and the Kings Councel And saith Mr. Noy that grand and very Attorney General to King Charle 〈…〉 the Martyr who unhappily died before his Royal 〈◊〉 had so much need as he had afterwards of his great abilities or who ever was the careful Examiner of many of the Parliament Rolls and Compiler of that Manuscript which is honoured with his name there can be no question made of those or the
Petition They pray that the Customs of the Merchants cease and they make their own conduct To which was answered le Roys ' avisera and thereupon will answer in convenable manner Anno 13. E. 3. they pray that a Justice of the one Bench or the other may come twice a year into the Counties beyond Trent To which the King answered as touching this point l' Roys ' avisera Which amounted not to a denyal for the Judges went Circuit thither afterwards Anno 37. E. 3. They pray that none be impeached for making Leases for Life in time of Pestilence nor hereafter for Lands holden in Capite without Licence of Alienation To which the King answered This requires a great deliberation and therefore the King will advise therein with his good Councel how this right may be saved and the Grands and Commons of this Land eased Anno 45. E. 3. they Petition for the free passage of Woolls To which was answered Estoit sur avisement Anno 50. E. 3. They pray that a Fine levied by Infants and Feme Coverts may be reversed within three years after they come to years or their Husbands Death To which the King answered le Roys ' avisera tanque al procheine Parliament de changer le loy devant used And it was the observation of Mr. Noy that faithful and learned Attorney of his late Majesty that in the Raign of King E. 3. in whose time the Answers of le Roys ' avisera first began by reason of his being continually in War beyond the Seas the King or his Councel had no leisure or at least no will to answer so in time s' avisera became as bad as a denyal and no other Answers given to such Petitions shewed that the King was not pleased to grant them The Commons alledging that notwithstanding the Statute made concerning Lands seized into the Kings hands by his Escheators the Lands after Enquest taken and before it can be returned into Chancery are granted to Patentees and before the Tenant can be admitted to traverse the Lands are many times wasted do pray that none be outed by reason of such Enquests until they be returned into the Chancery and the Occupiers warned by Scire facias to answer at a day to come when if they do not appear and traverse and find Sureties to answer the profits and commit no wast if it be found for the King and that if any Patent be granted or any thing done to the contrary the Chancellor do presently repeal the same and restore the Complaint to his possession without warning the Patentee or other occupier as well for the time past as the time to come The Answer unto which was The King willeth and Commands upon great pain that the Escheators hereafter do duly return all their Enquests in the Term and upon the pain heretofore ordained by the Statutes And further it is accorded by the Lords of the Realm if it please the King that before such Enquests be returned into the Chancery the King shall not hereafter make any Patent of such Lands in debate unto any c. And that the King of his abundant grace will abstain one month after such return within which time the party may traverse the Office and that the King will not make any Patent of such Lands unto any Stranger and if after any be made it shall be void But touching that which is demanded of Patentees made hereafter le Roys ' avisera It being observed by that worthy Observator that as he conceived the first part was answered by the Kings Councel and by them reported to the Lords who added the rest of the Answer if it please the King And yet the said Answer is vacated upon the Roll being Crossed all over with a Pen and the reason thereof given in the margent with a contrary hand to that of the Roll which sheweth that it was done after the Parliament was ended and after the said Roll was ingrossed viz. Quia dominus noster Rex noluit istam responsionem affirmare sed verius illam negavit pro magna parte dicens soit usez come devant en temps de ses nobles progenitors Roys d Angle terre out ad estre use Et ideo cancellatur damnatur And there can be no question but this answer in the affirmative was allowed at the least not denyed at the time of the Royal assent and that afterwards when the Statute was to be drawn up the King taking advantage of the words si plest au Roy did deny it and so the Roll was vacated And the Councel which ought to be intended the Kings Privy Councel for the Lords were the Kings great Councel and they or any Committee of them assisted by the Judges whilst the Parliament was in being were at the dissolution or proroguing thereof all gone out of their former power or employ and nothing ought to debar a King from advising with his Privy Councel by whose Advice as the Writs of Summons do import his greater Councel was called to assist them as well as himself in the time of Parliament or after it was ended and whether the one or the other had just cause to advise the King not to grant that Petition for it omitted the finding of Sureties to commit no Wast and to answer the Issues to the King which the Commons offered in their Petition and the Lords if the King so pleased that no Patent be made to any stranger of the Lands in debate which the Commons never desired But the Councel were the willinger to let it pass because it was in the Kings Power to deny it afterwards as he did whereas had it been the practice of those times the Councel would rather have kept back the Answer and not suffered it to have been read at the time of giving the Royal Assent In the fame Parliament after the said Petition was granted and the Assent cancelled as aforesaid the Commons delivered openly in Parliament a great Roll or Schedule and another Bill annexed to the said Roll containing about 41 Articles one of which remains Cancelled and Blotted out And in a Petition do pray the King their Leige Lord and the continual Councellors about him which can be no otherwise understood than of his constant privy Councel that of all the said Articles comprised in the said Roll and Schedule or Bill which are in the file of other Bills in this Parliament good Execution and true Justice be done for the profit of the King our Lord and his whole Realm of England Whereupon after it was said by the Chancellor of England on the Kings behalf to the Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses there present that they sue forth their Writs for their Wages the Praelates and Lords arose and took their leaves of the King their Lord and so departed that present Parliament And after the Parliament ended the Commons delivered unto the Lords two great Bills for
be done for the shortness of time Eodem Anno Pray the Commons that where a man is attainted at the Suit of the Party for Trespass done against the Peer and the Trespasser taken and let by the Marshal and his Marshals to Mainprise or at large they be charged with the Damages To which the King answered To put an Issue to this Article in manner as they pray it would be to make a new Law the which the King is not advised yet to do The Commons do pray That the Issues and Amerciaments of the Green Wax be certainly expressed in the Estreats and that the Sheriffs be allowed in their Accompts for the Hundreds granted from the Crown which Petitions were referred to the next Parliament for that the King had no leisure or no intent to make Statutes thereof at any time The Roll of the Parliament of 34 E. 3. is lost In the 17th year of the said Kings Raign the Commons do pray the King to desire the Parliament to consider how he might gain the Arrears of the first year and be put in a way for to gain the second year of the said Aid with less grievance to the People But the Lords and Commons were so exasperated by the Excommunication threatened by the Archbishop of Canterbury against them all because the King would not admit him into the Parliament and that they required a Declaration to be first made and agreed upon that the Peers of the Land whether Officers or not be not bound to answer the Kings Suit but in Parliament and it was a whole week before the King would agree unto it All which time the Archbishop demanded entrance standing upon his right as primus Par Angliae and required to be admitted upon pain of Excommunication At the last the said Declaration being first agreed upon by a special Committee of the Lords the King granted it and presently upon the same day the Archbishop was admitted who demanded Tryal by his Peers But as touching the Aid for the King the Lords and Commons incensed by the Clergy flatly answered that if the conditions of the grant in Anno 14. were not performed they would pay none After which the Laity and the Clergy exhibited their Petitions as the manner then was severally but petitioning the one for the other as they never did since or before except in Anno 25. E. 1. when the Popish Clergy had put that great and Victorious King also to the like plunge and their Petitions being answered by the Kings Councel who were the standing Committee for that purpose but the Lords and Commons disliked thereof and obtained a Special Committee of themselves to consider of the same which being reported and well liked a Statute was made thereupon by a Committee of the Grands and Commons which being read before the King and Sealed with his great Seal and delivered to the Grands and Commons divers of the Kings Councel as the Treasurer some of the Justices of both Benches the Steward of his House and the Chamberlain were sworn upon the Cross of Canterbury to observe the same as much as to them belonged but yet the said Councellors Treasurer and Justices made their Protestation that they assented not to the making of the said Statute nor to the form thereof neither could they keep the same if they were contrary to the Laws and Usages of the Realm which they were sworn to observe which disorderly Parliament ending in May and the King intending not to suffer the said Statute to be put in Execution summoned his great Councel to meet at London in July following to Repeal the same but there were so many of the Praelates called thereunto although the Archbishop was omitted that he could not effect his desire therein wherefore he summoned another great Councel to meet at Westminster about Michaelmas following whereby the Assent of the Earls Barons and other wise men not warning any Praelates the said Statute was repealed In which Statute so Repealed there will appear to have been many inconveniences both to the King and his People if it had continued in force The 2d Chapter whereof touching Tryal by Peers swerved very much from the true meaning of Magna Charta cap. 26. Nullus liber homo c. For that appointeth his Tryal to be by his Peers but restrains it not unto any place whereas this limits the Tryals of the Peers of the Land to be in Parliament only which would be very inconvenient to the King to wait for a Parliament for every Offence and very troublesom to the Commons to be so often troubled thither and no way beneficial for the Temporal Lords for they whether in Parliament or out of Parliament were ever to be tried per Nobiles Pares The 4th Chapter had Clauses that the King should place New Officers when they fall but by accord of the Grands which shall be nearest in the Country which is directly against the dignity of the King to be thus limited in the choice of his Officers and prove as inconvenient to the Subject if those Grands should not be men of Merit That the King shall take all Offices except the Judges c. into his hands the 3d day of every Parliament and the Officers be put to answer every complaint and if they be attainted shall be judged by the Peers in Parliament and the King shall cause Execution to be pronounced and be done accordingly without dclay which is altogether unjust and against all Right and Reason and against the Law to put any man out of his place before Judgment and Conviction and against the Right and Dignity of the Crown to bind the King to Execute the judgment of the Peers And it is observable that it was not in the Petition but was added afterwards by the Committee who drew up the Answer to the same and so was the 4th Clause penned by the said Committee much more beneficial for the Subjects than was in the Petitions or Answers Which particulars well considered no man can blame the King for his dissimulation at that time and his Repeal of that Statute In the Parliament of 18 E. 3. where the King having summoned a former Parliament in the year before and therein pacified the Lords and Commons so well as they all agreed that the said Statute made in the 15th year of his Raign should be Repealed and taken away and loose the name of a Statute for as much as it is prejudicial and contrary to the Laws and Usages of the Realm and to the Rights and Praerogatives of the King But for that some Articles were comprised in the said Statute which were reasonable and according to the Law and Reason It was accorded by our Lord the King and his Commons that of such Articles and others accorded in this present Parliament a new Statute be made by the advice of the Justices and other Sages and held for ever And no Statute being made the Commons prayed
the King to have the Answers to their Petitions in writing in manner of a Patent under the great Seal of England for every County City and good Town one Patent for the comfort of the People which the King granted by the advice of the Praelates and Grands most of which were the Judges Officers of State and Privy Councellors of the King which Patent was sealed and entred in the Patent Roll under which was written la Charter ensealer pour les Communs After which the King summoned three Parliaments in 20 21 and 22. But no Statute was made in either of them The next Statute was made in Anno 25 E. 3. in which year the King had two Parliaments and Statutes made but mention nothing by whom they were made only the Commons do pray that the Petitions reasonably prayed by the Commons be granted confirmed and sealed before the departure of the Parliament And in the same Parliament n. 43. The Commons praying that the Statute made the last Parliament touching Reservations be published and put in Execution Unto which the King answered Let the Statute be viewed and recited before the Councel and if need be in any point let it be better declared and amended as the Statute of the King and the Realm be kept By which it appeareth that the Councel penned the Statutes Anno 27. E. 3. The King summoned a great Councel whither many Commons were sent and it was agreed that the Ordinances of the said Councel should be recited in the next Parliament Anno 28. E. 3. n. 16. The Commons prayed that the Ordinances of the Staple and all the other Ordinances made at the last great Councel which they have seen with great deliberation be affirmed in this Parliament and held for a Statute to endure for ever Unto which the King and Lords agreed with one mind so always that if any thing be to be put out let it be done in Parliament when need shall be and not in any other manner And accordingly there is an Addition at the end of the first Chapter against Provisors as in the Statute Roll and Print but not in rot Concilii Anno 27. nor yet in the Parliament Roll de Anno 28. E. 3. That whole Addition seeming to be added by the Councel alone and yet shewed to the Parliament for their consent before the said Statute was published And it is observable by that of 27 E. 3. n. 43. and this of 28 E. 3. n. 16. That the Statutes were most usually made long after the Parliament ended although in the Parliaments of 14 15. and 18 E. 3. they were engrossed and sealed in the time of Parliament sedente curia Statutes were made when some of our Kings were beyond Sea which happened often in the Raigns of E. 3. and H. 5. Anno 25. E. 1. a Parliament was held at London when the King was in Flanders by his Son Edward and the Statute made therein was put into the form of a Charter or Patent Anno 13. E. 3. were two Parliaments whilst the King was beyond the Seas but no Petitions or Statutes in either Anno 14. E. 3. a Parliament was holden in the Kings absence beyond the Seas by his Son Edward Duke of Cornwal Guardian of England but no Petition of the Commons nor Statute Anno 23. E. 3. a Parliament was held in the Kings absence by Lyonell the Kings Son Guardian of England and divers Petitions of the Commons were then answered but no Statute made thereof Anno 51. E. 3. the King could not be present at the beginning of the Parliament but granted a Commission to Richard Prince of Wales to begin the same Et ad faciendum ea quae pro nobis et per nos facienda fuerint And yet the Lords went to the King lying sick at Sheene the day before the Parliament ended where he gave his Royal Assent unto the Answers made unto the Petitions and commanded them to be read the next day in full Parliament but yet no Statute was made thereon notwithstanding the Commission for the Commission was but for matters to be done in Parliament as the words Ibidem facienda fuerint do import Anno 8. H 5. a Parliament was held in England by Humfrey Duke of Gloucester the King being then beyond the Seas wherein the Commons petitioned n. 16. That whereas it had been told them by divers Lords in this Parliament that the Petitions to be delivered to the Duke of Gloucester Guardian of England shall not be ingrossed before they be first sent beyond the Seas to our Soveraign Lord the King to have therein his Royal Assent and Advice wherefore may it please the said Lord Duke to ordain by authority of this present arliament That all the Petitions delivered by the Commons to the said Duke in the Parliament be answered and determined within this Realm of England during the said Parliament and if any Petition remain not answered and determined during the said Parliament that they be held for void and of none effect and that this Ordinance be of force and hold place in every Parliament to be held in the Realm in time to come To which was answered Soit avise per le Roy. Howsoever it may be conceived that all the Petitions with the Answers were sent to the King for his Advice and Assent which of them should be in the Statute and which not for in that Statute consisting of three Chapters which was made that year there are only two of the answers to their Petitions determined that is made into the said Statute viz. pet n. 4. in the 2d cap. and pet n. 7. in the 3 cap. The Commons did not Petition for any thing contained in the 5th cap. neither is there any thing recorded thereof in that Parliament Roll although one other of the Commons Petitions n. 15. for Women Aliens the Widows of Englishmen to have Dower was granted absolutely and the Petition n. 8. against Retail of sweet Wines altogether and the Petition n. 9. That Gascoign Wine should not be sold for above 6 d. the Gallon were granted with be it as is desired if it please the King Yet neitheir of these Petitions are in the Statute The usual time for making the Statutes was after the the end of every Parliament yea after the Parliament Roll was engrossed Anno 3. R. 2. The Temporal Lords met in the great Councel after the Parliament was ended where the Clerk read unto them the Enrolment of the Ordinance in that Parliament touching the power of the Justices of the Peace At which time it is probable the Statute was made and that Ordinance quite altered Anno 11 H. 4. n. 28. and 63. The Petitions and their Answers agreed on in Parliament are entred in the Roll with the rest which past into the Statute of that year and in the margent was written with another hand Respectuatur per dominum Principem concilium and neither of those are in the
recorded but the manner and form of the agreement and by whom in particular is most usually omitted yet necessary to be understood for such was the practice and usage of that age In cases which require no new Law those Acts were seldom entred it was thought sufficient if they were on the file prout Fitz Herberts Abridg. tit Parliament Anno 33. H. 6. n. 17. Neither did those necessarily require the Common Assent of Parliament for the Petitions granted Authoritate Parliamenti do not prove the Common Assent unless they were exhibited by the Commons otherwise they were such only as were delivered to the Receivers of Petitions appointed by the King at the beginning of every Parliament and they were answered by the Tryers then also appointed for the same amongst whom none of the House of Commons were ever appointed and those answers or the matters themselves being heard before the Lords in Parliament as Petitions of great weight and difficulty alwaies were for such alwaies had the additions of Authoritate Parliamenti the first of them beginning tempore Richardi 2. And whether those words be added or omitted yet such Answers ever did and will bind so as they be not contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land There needed no publication of Ordinances touching the Chancery when the Chancellor was present nor concerning the Courts of Justice when the Judges were present in Parliament neither touching the grievances of the Kings Ministers and other Officers for some of them were ever present in Parliament And the Commons were so careful to have their Parliament Rolls engrossed as in 2d Henry 4. n. 26. divers days before the end of the Parliament they did by their Speaker beseech the King that the business done and to be done in this Parliament be enacted and engrossed before the departure of the Justices whilst they have them in their memory Unto which it was answered that the Clerk of the Parliament should do his endeavour to enact and engross the Substance of the Parliament by advice of the Justices and after shew it to the King and Lords in Parliament to have their advice By which it appeareth that the Parliament Roll was not drawn up by the Clerk alone ex officio but with the advice of the Justices and although it was here said that it should be afterwards shewed unto the King and Lords to be approved of by them yet it is not to be thought that the King and Lords did usually examine the same but the Judges advice was usually had therein how else could the Commons require the same to be ingrossed whilst it remained in the Judges memory The Parliament Roll of 11. E. 3. For the creation of his Son Prince Edward Duke of Cornwal and annexing Lands thereunto is lost But in Anno 5. H. 4. The Commons exhibiting their Bill in Parliament in the behalf of the Prince to be made Duke of Cornwal did recite that grant of King E. 3. to have been made by the Kings Letters Patents and pray that the Lands which were annexed might not be aliened and that which had been aliened reseised Annis 7. 8. H. 4. n. 65. The Speaker in the name of the Commons prayed the King and the Lords in Parliament that certain of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whom it pleased them to appoint and a certain number of the Commons whose names he had written in a Schedule or any 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. or 6. of them might be at the Enacting and Ingrossing of the Rolls of Parliament and that his Prayer and Petition might be enacted of Record in the Roll of Parliament which request the King graciously assented unto Anno 1. H. 4. n. 45. The Commons agreed that the King might moderate the Statute against Provisors Anno 2. H. 4. n. 45. They complain to the King that the same was otherwise entred in the Parliament Roll than was agreed on by them and that it might be examined which the King granted but upon Protestation that it should not be drawn into Example Whereupon the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Justices and Councellors of the King being severally examined in full Parliament in the presence of the King and all the Commons testified that the said moderation was duly and justly entred and Enacted in the Parliament Roll in manner as it was spoken and agreed on by the said Lords and Commons the which entring and enacting so made the King remembred to be well and truly done as it was agreed on in the last Parliament So careful were the Commons of the Parliament Rolls the only Treasury of those publick Ordinances and yet never petitioned touching the Roll of Statutes nor to be present when they were made for they knew full well that that did belong meerly to the King and his Councel But only did put his Majesty in mind in Anno 2. H. 5. n. 10. That the Statute ought not to be drawn up contrary to the meaning of the Petitions which were then granted and afterwards to prevent that inconvenience they themselves framed their Bills in form of a Statute which order continueth to this day Anno 12. E. 2. The Petition of Hugh Audly and Margery his Wife concerning the Lands of the Earl of Cornwal exemplified was exhibited in the Parliament at York at Michaelmas and answered in the next Parliament at Easter following Some had Writs out of the Chancery for the setling and confirming of what was granted to them by Parliament prout Anno 16. R. 2. For livery to be made to Awbrey de Vere of the Lands entailed unto him The Act of Parliament of 28 E. 1. being granted and published with a saving to the Right and Praerogative of the Crown was afterwards upon the murmuring of some of the Lords and Commons against that Proviso republished without it Statutes were not Enrolled until the King had allowed thereof and commanded it to be ingrossed sealed and kept Things perpetual were made into a Statute and temporary into an Ordinance or signified by Letters Patents In the Parliament of 15 E. 3. A Statute was in a manner extorted from that glorious King and a special Committee appointed to pen it against which the Kings Councel protested and the King by his Proclamation or Declaration revoked the same for that he assented not but dissimuled which remains upon record to this day to that Kings great dishonor if not rightly understood Which that great Attorney General Mr. Noy undertook to clear in this manner The Commons having granted the year before a very large Subsidy to the King toward the French Wars to be paid in two years under divers conditions and the Statute drawn up by a special Committee of Lords and Commons who took great care that the King should be duly answered the said grant and the Subjects enjoy his Majesties graces in those conditions expressed and the King going into France with full confidence to receive the said money accordingly but
deny but be above it And would make the King by some scattered or distorted parts of that Answer mangled and torn from the whole context and purpose of it to give away those undoubted Rights of his Crown for which and the preservation of the Liberties of his People he died a Martyr the Author and his Party endeavouring all they can to translate the Assent of the Commons required in the Levying of Money into that of the power of pardoning and jumbling the Words and Sense of that Royal Answer cements and puts together others of their own to fortifie and make out their unjust purposes omitting every thing that might be understood against them or give any disturbance thereunto And with this resolution the Author proceedeth to do as well as he can and saith that After the enumeration of which and other his Prerogatives his said Majesty adds thus Again as if it related to the matter of pardoning which it doth not at all but only and properly to the Levying of Money wherein that Misinterpreter can afford to leave out his said Majesties Parenthesis which is the Sinews as well of Peace as War that the Prince may not make use of this high and perpetual Power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and of Publick Necessity which clearly evidenceth that his late Majesty thereby only intended that part of his Answer to relate to the levying of Money for the gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the detriment of his People Whither being come our Man of Art or putter of his Matters together finds some words which will not at all serve is turn inclosed in a Royal Parenthesis of his late Majestâ— viz. An excellent Conserver of Liberty but never intended for any share in Government or the choosing of them that should govern but looked like a deep and dangerous Ditch which might Sowse him over head and ears if not drown him and spoil all his inventions and therefore well bethinks himself retires a little begins at An excellent Conserver of Liberty makes that plural adds c. which is not in the Original fetches his feeze and leaps quite over all the rest of the Parenthesis as being a Noli me tangere dangerous words and of evil consequence and having got over goeth on untill he came to some just and considerable expostulations of his late Majesty and then as if he had been in some Lincolnshire Fens and Marshes is again enforced to leap until he come to Therefore the Power legally placed in both Houses is more than sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny But not liking the subsequent words of his late Majesty viz. And without the Power which is now asked from Us we shall not be able to discharge that Trust which is the end of Monarchy since that would be a total subversion of the Fundamental Laws and that excellent Constitution of this Kingdom which hath made this Nation for many years both famous and happy to a great degree of envy is glad to take his leave with an c. and meddle no more with such Edge-Tools wherewith that Royal Answer was abundantly furnished But looks back and betakes himself to an Argument framed out of some Melancholick or Feverish Fears and Jealousies that until the Commons of England have right done unto them against that Plea of Pardon they may justly apprehend that the whole Justice of the Kingdom in the Case of the five Lords may be obstructed and deseated by Pardons of a like nature As if the pardoning of one must of Necessity amount to many or all in offences of a different nature committed at several times by several persons which is yet to be learned and the Justice of the Nation which hath been safe and flourished for many Ages notwithstanding some necessary Pardons granted by our Princes can be obstructed or defeated in a well constituted Government under our Kings and Laws so it may everlastingly be wondred upon what such jealousies should now be founded or by what Law or Reason to be satisfied if it shall thus be suffered to run wild or mad For Canutus in his Laws ordained that there should be in all Punishments a moderata misericordia and that there should be a misericordia in judicio exhibenda which all our Laws as well those in the Saxon and Danish times as since have ever intended and it was wont to be a parcel of good Divinity that Gods Mercy is over all his Works who not seldom qualifies and abates the Rigour of his Justice When Trissilian Chief Justice and Brambre Major of London were by Judgment of the Parliament of the Eleventh of King Richard the second Hanged and Executed the Duke of Ireland banished some others not so much punished and many of their Complices pardoned the People that did not know how soon they might want Pardons for themselves did not afflict themselves or their Soveraign with Complaints and Murmurings that all were not Hanged and put to the extremities of Punishment nor was Richard Earl of Arundel one of the fierce Appellants in that Matter vexed at the pardoning of others when he in a Revolution and Storm of State was within ten years after glad to make use of a Pardon for himself King James was assured by his Councel that he might pardon Sir Walter Rawleigh the Lord Cobham Sir Griffin Markham with many others then guilty of Treason and the Earl of Somerset and his Lady for the Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury without any commotion in the Brains of the rest of his Subjects some of whom were much disturbed that he after caused Sir Walter Rawleigh to be executed for a second Offence upon the Score of the former not at all pardoned but reprieved or only respited And therefore whilest we cry out and wonder quantum mutantur tempora may seek and never find what ever was or can be any necessary cause or consequence that the five Lords accused of High Treason and a design of killing the King will be sure to have a Pardon if that the Pardon of the Earl of Danby whose design must be understood by all men rather to preserve him shall be allowed Nor doth an Impeachment of the House of Commons virtually or ever can from the first Constitution of it be proved or appear to be the voice of every particular Subject of the Kingdom for if we may believe Mr. William Pryn one of their greatest Champions and the Records of the Nation and Parliaments the Commons in Parliament do not or ever did Represent or are Procurators for the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and their numerous Tenants and ancient Baronies that hold in Capite nor for the many Tenants that should be of the Kings ancient Demesne and Revenues nor for the Clergy the multitude of Copy-holders heretofore as much as the fourth part of the Kingdom neither the great number of Lease-holders Cottagers c. that are not Free-holders
Citizens or Tradesmen nor can all the Members of the Body Politick be equally wounded in their Estates or concernments by the vain imaginations causless fears and jealousies and bugbears of other seditious or fanciful Mens own making And to men that have not yet proceeded so far in the School of Revelation as to be sure of the Spirit of Prophesie it may prove a matter of ill consequence that the universality of the People should have occasion ministred and continued to them to be apprehensive of utmost dangers from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection And a Wonder next a Miracle from whence the Premisses to such a trembling and timorous conclusion can be fetched or how a People whose valiant and wiser Fore-fathers were never heretofore scared with such panick fears nor wont to be affrighted with such Phantasmes should now suspect they can have no Protection from the Crown when some of them do at the same time labour all they can to hinder it Or how it should happen in the long Rebellious Parliament that after Mr. Chaloner a Linnen Draper of London was hanged for Plotting a Surprize of the City of London and reducing it to the Kings obedience honest Mr. Abbot the Scrivener should be pardoned without any such discontent and murmuring of the People or that Oliver Cromwel should not be debarred of his Power of Pardoning in his Instrument of Government and be allowed to Pardon the Lord Mordant for a supposed Treason against his usurped Authority and our King deriving his Authority legally vested in Him and His Royal Ancestors for more than one thousand years before may not adventure to do it without the utter undoing and ruine of his Subjects in their Properties Lives and Estates by His pardoning of some Capital Offenders Or why it should not be as lawful and conveninent for the King to grant Pardons to some other Men as to Doctor Oates or Mr. Bedlow When no Histories Jewish Pagan or Christian can shew us a People unless in Cases of intollerable Villanies Petitioning their Kings that they would not Pardon when all are not like to be Saints or Faultless and it will ever be better to leave it to the Hearts of Kings and God that directs them than to believe Tyranny to be a Blessing and Petition for it And the most exact search that can be made when it findeth the Commons petitioning in Parliament to the King or House of Peers that they may be present at some Tryals there upon their Impeachments cannot meet with any one President where they ever desired or were granted such a reasonless Request pursued and set on by other Mens Designs to have one Mans Tryal had before another and by strugling and wrestling for it expose the King and Kingdom to an utter destruction And therefore in those their fond importunities might do well to tarry until they they can find some Reason why the Lords Spiritual may not Vote or Sit as Judges or Peers in Parliament in the Case of the five Lords as well as of the Earl of Danby Or any President that it is or hath been according to Parliamentary proceedings to have any such Vote or Request made by the Commons in Parliament Who neither were or should be so omnipotent in the opinion of Hobart and Hutton and other the learned Judges of England as to make a Punishment before a Law or Laws with a Retrospect which God himself did never allow but should rather believe that Laws enacted contrary to the Laws of God and Morality or that no Aids or Help are to be given to the King pro bono Publico or that there should be no Customs or Prescription or that the King should be governed by His People would be so far from gaining an Obedience to such Laws or Acts of Parliament as to render them to be ipso facto null and of none effect When the King hath been as careful to distribute Justice as his Mercy without violence to his Laws and well inform'd Conscience hath sometimes perswaded him to Pardon to do Justice or to cause it to be done in a legal and due manner and is so appropriate to the Office and Power of a King so annext appendant and a part of it as none but His Delegates are to intermeddle or put any limits thereunto and if it should not be so solely inherent in Him would be either in abeyance or no where For the House of Commons are not sworn to do Justice and if they were would in such a case be both Judges and Parties and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are not as to particular proceedings sworn but meerly consultive So as Justice can vest in none but the King who is by his Coronation-Oath only sworn to do it if His Right of Inheritance and greater Concernments than any of his Subjects did not abundantly ingage and prompt Him thereunto and is therefore so every way and at all times obliged to do Justice and Protect the Lives Estates Peace and Liberty of His Subjects as he is with all convenient speed and hast to Try or bring to Judgment a Subject accused of Treason by the Houses of Lords and Commons both or either of them in His Court of Kings-Bench before the Justices thereof or by special Commission by a Lord High Steward in or without the time of Parliament And the King may acquit which amounteth to a Remission or Pardon by a more Supream Authority than any of His Judges some particular Cases wherein Appeals are or may be brought only excepted do ordinarily by an authority derived from no other not to be debarred by probabilities or possibilities or by consequences not always to be foreseen or avoided For a Man pardoned for Man-slaughter may be so unhappy as in the like manner afterwards to be the death of five or ten more 20000 Rebells pardoned at a time as in the Insurrections of Wat Tyler Jack Cade c. may be guilty of the like Offence twenty or forty years after The Lord Mayor of London that hath an allowance of Tolls and Profits to take a care of the City and wholsomness of Food might be as they are too much careless and undo them in their Health and well being The Judges may as those in the Raign of King Edward the First and Thorp in the Raign of King Edward the Third be guilty of Mildemeanours yet that is not to bereave us of that good which better Men may do us in their administration of Justice our Kings have granted Priviledges to certain Cities and Towns not to pay Subsidies and granted Pardons as their Mercies and right reason inclined them in the course of their several Raigns for many Ages last past yet have not acquitted or left unpunished all the Offenders ever since there being a greater likelyhood that they would not be so easie in pardoning where they were to gain so much by Attainders Fines and Forfeitures And therefore panick and
expresly prohibited cannot be supposed to be the concern or interest of all the People deserving or requiring satisfaction or especially provided for by Law to have satisfaction unless it could by any probability or soundness of Judgment be concluded that all the People of England besides Wives Children or near Kindred and Relations the necessity of publick Justice and deterring Examples are or should be concerned in such a never to be fancied Appeal of the People And it will be very hard to prove that one or a few are all the People of England or if they could be so imagined are to be more concerned than the King who is sworn to do Justice unless they would claim and prove a Soveraignty and to be sworn to do Justice which though they had once by a villanous Rebellion attacked until Oliver Cromwel their Man of Sin cheated them of it for God would never allow them any such power or priviledge or any Title to the Jesuits Doctrine which some of our Protestant Dissenters their modern Proselites have learned of them that the King although he be singulis major is minor universis And it is no denial of Justice in the House of Peers to deny the receiving of an Impeachment from the House of Commons when they cannot understand any just cause or reason to receive it and the Records Rolls Petitions and Orders of Parliament will inform those that will be at the pains to be rightly and truly directed by them that Petitions in Parliament have been adjourned modified or denied and that in the Common or Inferior Courts of Justice Writs and Process may sometimes be denied superseded or altered according to the Rules of Justice or the circumstances thereof And our Records can witness that Plaintiffs have petitioned Courts of Justice recedere a brevi impetrare aliud And it cannot be said that the King doth denegare Justitiam when he would bind them unto their ancient legal well experimented forms of seeking it in the pursuing their Rights and Remedies hinders them in nothing but seeking to hurt others and destroy themselves For Justice no otherwise denied should not be termed Arbitrary until there can be some solid reason proof or evidence for it When it is rather to be believed that if the Factious Vulgar Rabble might have their Wills they would never be content or leave their fooling until they may obtain an unbounded liberty of tumbling and tossing the Government into as many several Forms and Methods as there be days in the year and no smaller variety of Religions And by the Feudal Laws which are the only Fundamental Laws of our Government and English Monarchy those many parts of the Tenants that held of their Mesne Lords in Capite could not with any safety to their Oaths and Estates Authorise any of their Elected Members of the House of Commons in Parliament to accuse or charge any of the Baronage of England in the House of Peers in Parliament although every Tenant in his Oath of Vassalage to his Mesne Lord doth except his Allegiance to the King and would be guilty of Misprision of Treason if he should conceal it by the space of twenty and four hours and if any of the Elected would or should avoid such Misprision of Treason in the not performance of his Duty and Oath of Allegiance it would require a particular Commission to his own Elected Members and is not to have it done by way of a general Representation when there is not to be discerned in the Kings Writ or in the Sureties or Manucaptors matters or things to be performed or in the Indentures betwixt the Sheriff and the Electors and Elected any word of Representation or any thing more than ad faciendum consentiendum iis to assent and obey do and perform such things as the King by the Advice of the Lords in Parliament shall ordain and if they would make themselves to be such Representers were to have a particular and express Commission to charge or impeach any one of themselves or of the House of Peers with Treason or any other high Misdemeanours And they must be little conversant with our Records that have not understood that the Commons have many times received just denials to their Petitions and that some have not seldom wanted the foundations of Reason or Justice That many of their Petitions have adopted the Concerns and Interests of others that were either Strangers unto them or were the Designs of some of the grand Nobility who thought them as necessary to their purposes as Wind Tide and Sails are to the speeding of a Ship into the Port or Landing-places of their Designs For upon their exhibiting in a Parliament in the 28 year of the Raign of King Henry the Sixth abundance of Articles of High Treason and Misdemeanours against William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk one whereof was that he had sold the Realm of England to the French King who was preparing to invade it When they did require the King and House of Lords that the Duke whom not long before they had recommended to the King to be rewarded for special services might be committed Prisoner to the Tower of London the Lords and Justices upon consultation thought it not reasonable unless some special Matter was objected against him Whereupon the said Duke not putting himself upon his Peerage but with protestation of his innocency only submitting himself to the Kings mercy who acquitting him from the Treason and many of the Misdemeanours and for some of them by the advice of the Lords only banished him for five years And that thereupon when the Viscount Beaumont in the behalf of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal required that it might be Inrolled that the Judgment was by the Kings own Rule not by their Assent and that neither they nor their Heirs should by this Example be barred of their Peerage No Protestation appears to have been made by any of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for or on the behalf of the Commons Or by the Commons for themselves So as a different manner of doing Justice can neither truly or rationally be said to be an absolute denial of Justice and was never believed to be so by the Predecessors of the House of Commons in Parliament in our former Kings Raigns when some hundreds of their Petitions in Parliament have been answered There is a Law already provided or let the old Law stand or the King will provide a covenable or fitting remedy And is not likely if it were as it is not to be any Arbitrary Power or any temptation or inducement thereunto to produce any Rule or incouragement to the exercise of an Arbitrary Power in the Inferiour Courts when there is none so weak in his Intellect but may understand that different Courts have several Boundaries Methods and Forms of Proceedings and that the Kings extraordinary great Court and Councel in His House of Peers although very just and
Ancient Form of Government who ought better to assert them and that the Coronation-Oaths of all our many Kings and Princes swearing to maintain the Laws of King Edward the Confessor which have for those many Ages past so highly satisfied and contented the Common People and good Subjects of England do enjoin no other than our Kings and Princes strict observation of the Feudal Laws and their Subjects Obedience unto him and them by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and his and their Protection of them in the performance thereof and from no other Laws or Customs than the Feudal Laws have our Parliaments themselves derived their original as Eginard Secretary unto Charles the Great or Charlemain who Raigned in the year after our blessed Saviours Incarnation 768. consisting of Lords Spiritual and Temporal if not long before had their more fixt beginning How then can so grave and learned a Professor of our Laws and after an eminent Administrator of the Laws and Justice of the Kingdom so either declare to the World that he hath not at all been acquainted with our Feudal Laws but gained a great Estate out of a small in a Government and Laws he knew no Original thereof and make many things to be grievances of the People which are but the Kings Just Rights and Authority and the Peoples Duty and their grievances in doing or suffering their Duties to be done as if disobedience which in our Nation hath too often hapned were a Franchise of the Land and a Right to be Petitioned for by the People But howsoever Mr. Will. Pryn being better awake could be so kind a Friend unto the truth as to give us notice that the Abridger of the Parl. Records left out much of what he should have mentioned viz. The Prelates Dukes Earls Barons Commons Citizens Burgesses Merchants of England in the Parliament Petitioned the King not only for a Pardon in general and of Fines and Amerciaments before the Justices of Peace not yet Levyed in special but they likewise subjoin a memorable request saith Mr. Pryn omitted by the Abridger that in time to come the said Prelates Earles Barons Commons Citizens and Burgesses of the Realm of England may not henceforth be charged molested nor grieved to make any Common Aid or sustein any charge unless it be by Common Assent of the Prelates Dukes Lords and Barons and other People of the Commons of the Realm of England as a Benevolence or Aid given to their King in his want of Money wh 〈…〉 h King Henry the 3d. sometimes had when he went from Aboey to Abbey declaring his Necessities and King Richard the Third that Murthered his Brothers Sons to Usurp the Crown flattered the People they should no more be troubled with when it was never 〈…〉 ked before the Raign of King Henry 3d or 〈◊〉 by any of our Kings or Princes until the urgent Necessities of our blessed Martyr for the preservation of his People caused him once to do it Or such as the imprisoning of some few wealthy Men as obstinately refused to lend him 〈…〉 e and small Sums of Money because they would force him to call such a Reforming and Ruining Parliament as that which not long before hapned in Anno 1641. Or such as their heavily complained of Charges levied upon the People by the Lord Lieutenants or Deputy Lieutenants in some seldom Musters or Military Affairs which a small acquaintance with our Feudal Laws might have persuaded the Gentlemen of the misnamed Petition of Right to have been lawful or that some imprisoned were not delivered upon Writs of Habeas Corpus when there were other just Causes to detain them at least for some small time of Advice And if they will adventure to be tryed by Magna Charta will be no great gainers by it for Magna Charta well examined notwithstanding the dissolution of the Tenures in Capite is yet God be thanked holden in Capite and loudly proclaims our Feudal Laws to be both the King and the Peoples Rights and disdains to furnish any contrivances against their Kings who were the only free givers and granters thereof And the Statute of 28 E 3. And all or the most of our Acts of Parliament do and may ever declare the usefulness of our Feudal Laws and that Reverend great Judge might have spared the complaints of Free-quartering of Land-Soldiers and Marriners or of punishing Offenders by Martial Law and will hardly find any to commend him or any Lawyer for their proficiency in their amassing together so many needless complaints And that in full Parliament The King then lying sick at Sheene whereof he died and divers of the Lords and Commons in Parliament coming unto him with Petitions to know his pleasure and what he would have done therein nor no Imposition put upon the Woolls Woolfels and Leather having as they might think as great an opportunity and advantage as the three great Barons Bobun Clare and Bigod had when they forced the Statute aforesaid de Tallagio non concedendo upon King Edward the first and would not suffer him to insert his Salvo Jure Regis or any the Annaent Custom of Wooll half a Mark and of three hundred Woolfels half a Mark and of one Last of Skins one Mark of Custom only according to the Statute made in the 14th year of his Raign saving unto the King the Subsidy granted unto him the last Parliament for a certain time and not yet Levied Unto which the King gave answer That as to that that no Charge be laid upon the People without common Assent The King is not at all willing to do it without great necessity and for the defence of the Realm and where he may do it with Reason For otherwise all Monarchies may be made Elective and the Will and great Example and Approbation of God disappointed where the Subjects and People will not be so careful of their own preservation as to help their King when his and their Enemy hath invaded the Kingdom and the People may as often as they please change or depose their Kings when they shall resolve to stand still and not help to aid him as the cursed and bitterly cursed Moroz did and be as wise to their own destruction as the Citizens of London were in the late general Conflagration of their City or a foolish fear of breaking Magna Charta which could never be proved to have been any cause of it they would to save and keep unpulled down or blown up ten houses and save some of their goods leave that raging and merciless Fire to burn twenty thousand houses in their City and Suburbs And it was no bad Answer also that that great and victorious King Edward the third as sick as he was made likewise unto that other part of their Petition that Impositions be not laid upon their Woolls without Assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and other People of the Commons of his Realm That there was a
amaze all the men of Law and Learning in the Kingdom of England how Sir Edward Coke that hath been attempted to be a man of so great knowledge and experience in the Law and entrusted with so many weighty Charges and Offices in our Laws as Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and afterwards of the Court of Kings Bench and so great a Collector and Remembrancer of the cases and judgments in the Law with their various forms and entries should have so often read in his so greatly beloved Book of Littleton the Chapters of Homage and Homage Auncestrel and Escuage assessed in our Parliaments could think it to be the Common Law of England and that by which it had for many Centuries past been Governed and not to be by its true and original Name and Nation as well here as in all the other parts of the Christian World the Feudal Law and what else where those Feudal Laws used in England which our Learned Sir Henry Spelman and Dr. Zouch Mr. of Alban-Hall in Oxford so largely directly mentioned to have their beneficial Use and Residence amongst us allowed and repeated by the very learned the Sieur du Fresne a Baron of France and other good Authors and Historians And if those premises cannot be enough to satisfy us Sir Edward Coke if he were alive might do well to instruct us what Law that Homage and Escuage appertained unto And if there were any other Laws that this Kingdom was governed by when and by whom they were introduced and of how long continuance for it may be hoped that our Sons of Novelty will not be so impudent as to offer to obtrude upon the World the Follies and Villanies of Wat Tiler and Jack Cade our late pretended Rebuplicans or their cheating Instrument maker Oliver Cromwel Or upon what other Laws than Feudal are our Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta supported and as often as thirty times in several of our Parliaments confirmed when all our many English Rebellions troubles of State and Commotions either at home at abroad have left it as a quiddam Sacrum more than the safe guarded vestal fire amongst the Romans or can shew us in any of our Records Annals or holy Writ wrested or misinterpreted that the Dernier Resort or Appeal hath been or ought to be in the people unless they can make themselves or any others believe that there was something or more revealed to them than was in the Scripture or Holy Prophets for there was no third Estate under our Kings to assist their Councels in Parliaments subordinate unto them put upon them nor intended to be by the 25 Conservators enforced upon King John in the Rebellious Parliament and Battle at Running Mede afterwards reduced to four or when their Captain General Robert Fitz-Walter was stiled Mariscallus Exercitus dei Ecclesiae Anglicanae neither in Anno 42. H. 3. being over-powered by some of his Rebellious Barons where those 25 Conservators were turned into 24 the one half to be nominated by the King the other by the contending party at the Parliament at Oxford or when that afterwards adjudged derogatory Parliament to Kingly Authority was referred by King Henry the third and the Rebellious Barons unto the Arbitration of the King of France or sworn to abide it none of the Rebellious party were entituled Estates or in that after Rebellion and detaining King Henry the 3 and prince Edward his Son about a year and a quarter they would not adventure to form or imitate a general Councel in that captive Kings name those few that came were not called or intended to be a 3 Estate in an House of Commons nor in any of the many Rescripts or Mandates which Symon Montfort and his partner Rebels made in their Captive Kings name nor in any Parliament after his Release or in the Parliament of King Edward the first when he was pleased to suffer some of the Commons Elected by his Writs to attend in the House of Commons in Parliament neither had they the boldness in all his long Raign of 35 years or in the 17 or 18 years of King Edward the second or the fifty one years of King Edward the third or in the Raign of King Richard the 2 until the Title of Estates crept in as aforesaid and Mr. Pryn made himself after the Creator of them in his misused rectifying And having as they thought turned the Tables the wrong way in calling our Feudal Laws the Common Laws which indeed they are should be and a long time have been have so far put them out of their Right place Order and Station as they think they have changed our Feudal Laws which are should be the only Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Government thereof into a quite contrary and too many of our Lawyers have been so willing to forget them as they had rather now of late make us believe if they could the tricks of Attorneys to be our Common Laws than our more Ancient Legal Rational and Fundamental Feudal Laws Insomuch that one that thinks himself no small one hath of late been pleased to say very considerately as he thought that the Study and Knowledge of Antiquities was but like the picking up of Old Iron in the London Streets or Kennels As if the Prophet Jeremy had either mistaken or lost the Commission which our Alwise and Omniscient God had given him when he advised us Stare super vias antiquas inquirere veritatem and such Lawyers of a late Edition might find themselves hard put to it to answer the question how or from whence proceeded or were derived our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which have for so many ages past been legally taken and enjoyned and do and ought yet to continue if not from an ancient Fundamental Feudal Laws from what other Laws of God or man were they derived or any the various Customs or Usages of either Heathen or Christian fixt or established by by any other rational Custom or Usage or unfixt and left only to the divers Interests Occasions and Contingencies of every mans particular Interest and Affairs and can never be ascertained how long they shall continue in one and the same mind and good liking and where the Systeem of these Laws Usages or Customs are or may be found or what Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy have been sworn unto or upon them Whether upon the Old Custom of England of wrastling or choosing King and Queen at the Epiphany or Twelft Night at Christmas And if they would be a 3 governing Estate may think themselves not a little beholding unto such as can either think or believe that they are or ought to be so in love with them as to trust them as formerly they had done and could tell their Brethren of Scotland that their promises were but conditional and did very lovingly alter order their man of sin Oliver Cromwel to beat subdue and after their Laws and Religion
Thames Arrested and carried Prisoner to the Tower of London and the Wind and Tyde of fear and self-preservation did then so impetuously drive Sir Edward Littleton the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England who some years before when he was a young Man made it a part of his Praise or Olympick Game to prove by Law that the King had no Law to destrain men esse Milites and Sir John Banckes Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas that they joyned with the then Illegal concurrent Votes of too many of the House of Peers that the Militia which was the Right and Power of the Sword and Jus divinum gladii and the totum aggregatum and support of the Government was in the People when our Learned Bracton hath truly informed us that in Rege qui recte regit necessaria sunt duo Arma videlicet Leges quibus utrumqne bellorum pacis recto possit gubernari utrumque enim istorum alterius indiget auxilio quo tam Res militaris possit esse in tuto quam ipsae Leges usu Armorum praesidio possent esse servatae si autem Arma defecerint contra hostes Rebelles Inimicos sic erit Regnum indefensum si autem Leges sic exterminabitur justitia nec erit qui justum faciet Following therein that opinion of Justinian the Emperour in his Institutes And did declare not like men that had taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy before they were admitted into that House that if any Person whatsoever wherein the King or his Command ought to have been excepted shall offer to arrest or detain the Person of any Member of that House without first acquainting their House or receiving further Order from that House that it is Lawful for any such Member or any Person to assist him and to stand upon his and their guard and defence and to make resistance according to the protestation taken to defend the Priviledges of Parliament which was neither to commit or maintain Treason or make that without the Kings Authority to be Treason that never was their intollerable haughty Priviledges so incompatible and inconsistent with Monarchy demanded by the Petition of the Lords and Commons in Parliament the 14th day of December 1641. can never be able to withstand the dint and force of the Law and Right Reason if a Quo Warranto should be brought against them Whereupon the King the 4th day of January 1641. coming into the House of Commons in Person no such Company attending with Pistols at the Door as was untruly reported and being sate in the Speakers Chair said he was sorry for the occasion of coming unto them Yesterday he had sent a Serjeant at Arms to apprehend some that were accused of High Treason whereunto he expected Obedience and not a Message and that he must declare unto them that in case of High Treason no Person hath a Priviledge And therefore he was come to know if any of these Persons accused were here for so long as those Persons accused for no slight crime but for Treason were there he could not expect that that House could be in the Right way which he heartily wishes and therefore he came to tell the House that he must have them wheresoever he can find them but since he sees the Birds are flown he doth expect from them that they should send them unto him as soon as they return thither But assures them in the word of a King he never did intend any force but shall proceed against them in a legal and fair way for he never meant any other which they might easily have done when they had his own Serjeant at Arms attending that Honse for no other than such like purposes The next day being the 5th day of January 1641. notwithstanding that Treason Felony and Breach of the Peace were always by the Laws of England and Customs of their Parliaments exempt and never accompted to be within the Circuit of any Parliament Priviledge for otherwise Parliaments and great Assemblies well Affected or ill Affected would be dangerous unto Kings they declare the Kings coming thither in Person to be an high breach of the Rights and Priviledge of Parliament and inconsistent with the Liberty and Freedom thereof and therefore adjourned their sitting to the Guildhall in London which they should not have done without the Kings Order that a special Committee of 24 should sit there also concerning the Irish Affairs of which number was Sir Ralph Hopton that after got out of their wicked errors and fought and won sundry glorious Battels for the King against those Parliament Rebels and some few more of that their Committee deserted their Party And the Writ sent by King Edward the first to the Justices of his Bench by Mr. Pulton stiled a Statute made in the 7th year of his Raign might have sufficiently informed them and all that were of the profession of the Law in the House of Commons in Parliament that in a Parliament at Westminster the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm have said that to the King it belongeth and his part is through his Royal Seignory streightly to defend force of Arms and all other force against his Peace at all times which shall please him and to punish them which shall do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of the Realm and therefore they are bound to aid him as their Soveraign Lord at all times when need shall be and therefore commanded the Justices to cause those things to be read before them in the said Bench and there Inrolled The before confederated national Covenant betwixt England and Scotland being by Ordinance of Parliament for so they were pleased to call their no Laws confirmed under a penalty that no man should enjoy any Office or Place in the Commonwealth of Engl. and Ireland that did not Attest and Swear it which the King prohibiting by his Proclamation sent unto London the bringer whereof was hanged the King certainly informed of the traiterous practices and other misdeameanors of the Lord Kimbolton and his aforesaid Associates did as privately as possible with the Prince Elector Palatine his Nephew and no extraordinary attendance go in person to the House of Commons to seize them because his Serjeants at Arms durst not adventure to do it who having notice of it by the Countess of Carlisles over-hearing his whispering to the Queen and suddenly sending them notice thereof were sure to be absent wherein he being disappointed did afterwards by his Attorney General exhibit Articles of High Treason and other Misdemeanors against them 1. That they had traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom and deprive the King of his Legal Power and place on Subjects an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power which shortly after proved wofully true and for many years after so continued 2. That they have endeavoured by many foul aspersions upon his Majesty