the Reign of King Henry the 3. bring an Assise or Action against him for it for as for our Industrious Speed setting forth in his History of England that Rhese ap Gruffith Prince of Wales coming out of Wales as far as Oxford to treat of a Peace with King Richard the First did take it in so high a scorn and indignation that the King came not in person to meet him as he returned home into his own Country without saluting the King though Earl John the Kings only Brother had with much honour conducted him from the Marches of Wales thither and that by that means the hopes of the expected peace vanished and came unto nothing hath observed that the meanest from whom love or service is expected will again expect regard And therefore the care of our Kings was not a little imployed in that way of imparting of their favours and increasing and cherishing the love and good will of their people when King Henry the Seventh whose troubles and tosses of fortune before he came unto the Crown had together with his learning and princely education made him a great Master in Policy and good Government and one of the wisest Kings that ever swaied the English Scepter did in his prudent Orders concerning his Court and Houshold and the State and Magnificence which he desired to be observed therein communicated unto me by my worthy and learned Friend William Dugdale Esquire Norroy King at Armes out of an ancient Manuscript sometimes in the custody of Charles de Somerset Knight Lord Herbert and Gower Chamberlain unto that King amongst many other Orders for the honour of the King and his House ordain that If any straunger shall come from any Noble-man or other the Gentilmen Huysshers ought to sette him in suche place convenient within the Kyngs Chamber as is mete for hym by the discrecion of the Chamberlain and Huyssher and to comaunde service for hym after his degree and the sayd Huyssher ought to speke to the Kings Almoigner Kerver and Sewer to reward hym from the Kings Board this is to say if the said Straunger happen to come whan the Kyng is at dynner Item The Gentilman Huyssher if there come any honourable personnes to the Kyng at any other tyme they ought to call with thaym the sayd personnes to the Seller Pantry and Buttry and there to commaund forth such brede mete and drynke as by his discretion shall be thought metely for thaym and this in no wise not to be with sayd in noon of thies Offices aforesayd It is to the Kings honor Item that no Gentilman Huyssher bee so hardy to take any commaundement upon him but that it may be with the Kings honor by hys discretion in these matiers to myspende the Kings vitail but where as it ought to be and if he doo he is nat worthy to occupy that rowme but for to abide the punishment of my Lord Chamberlain Item A Gentilman Huyssher ought to commaund Yeomen Huysshers and Yeomen to fetche bred ale and wine at afternoon for Lords and other Gentilmen being in the Kings Chamber whan the caas soâ— shall requyre Which and the like Magnificences of Hospitality in the Houses and Courts of our Kings and Princes supported by the Pourveyances without which the elder Kings of England before the Conquest could not have been able to susteyn the charge of their great and yearly solemn Festivals at Christmas Easter and Pentecost when ex more obsequii vinculo antiquissimo as that great and learned Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman hath observed by duty and antient custome the Lords and Barons of England did never fail to come to the Kings Palace where the Magna Concilia wittena gemotes conventus sapientum now called Parliaments were at those times to be holden and kept cum ad Curiam personam ejus exornandum tum ad consulendum de negotiis regni statuendumque prout fuerat necessarium providere de rebus illis Rex solebat corona redimitus profastu Regio se in omnibus exhibere for the honor of the King and his Court who then with his Crown upon his head and other Princely habiliments did use to shew himself unto the people and advise what was necessary to be done for the good of the Kingdom And was such an attendant upon the Grandeur and Honour of their Monarchy as it began with it and continued here amongst us till the Councill of some foolish and factious Shrubs had by a fire kindled in our then unhappy Kingdome overturned our Cedars of Libanon and made an accursed and wicked Bramble their Protector and was so necessary to the Government and Authority of our Kings and the encrease and preservation of the love and obedience of the people as we find it neither repined nor murmured at in the Reign of King Alfred who being of an almost unimitable piety and prudence and to whom this Nation ows a gratefull memory for his division of the Kingdom into Shires and Hundreds and for many a Politique Constitution did now almost 800 years ago keep a most Princely and magnificent House and a numerous company of Servants gave enterteynment of diet and lodging to many of the sons of his Nobility who were therein trayned up to all manner of Courtly and honourable exercises had three Cohorts or Bands of Life-guards every Cohort according to the ancient computation consisting if they were Horse of 132 and of Foot of a great many more the first Company attending in or about his Court or House night and day for a moneth and returning aftewards home to their own occasions tarried there by the space of two moneths the second Cohort doing likewise as the first and the third as the second by their turns and courses and had a good allowance of money and victualls in the House or Court of the King who had his ministros nobiles qui in curio Regio vicissim commorabantur in pluribus ministrantes ministeriis noble and great Officers in his Court which attended in their courses and took so much care also for them as in his last Will and Testament he gave cuilibet Armigerorum suorum to every one of his Esquires 100 marks Or that King Hardi Canutus caused his Tables to be spread four times every day and plentiously furnished with Cates and commanded that his Courtiers Servants and Guests should rather have superfluities then want any thing That William Rufus when he had built Westminster Hall 270 foot in length and 74 in breadth thought it not large enough for a Dyning Room King Richard the Second kept a most Royall Christmas where was every day spent 26 or 28 Oxen 300 Sheep with Fowl beyond number and to his Houshold came every day to meat ten thousand people as appeared by the Messes told out from the Kitchin unto three hundred Servitors and was able about two years before when the Times began to be
so Essential to government as they spared no cost in their Epulis or Caresses of the people and was for many Ages past congeniall and connatural to the English Nation who are abundantly taken with it and justly accompted to be such an handmaid to Piety as Geffery Earl of Essex and Eustace his Wife did in the Reign of King Henry the second grant to the Nunnery of Clarkenwell totam decimam totius victus procurationis provisions saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman illorum domus suae familiae suae the Tithe or Tenths of all the victuals and provisions of their house and family And Maud of Mandevill Countesse of Essex and Hertford in the beginning of the Reign of King H. 3. confirming the said Grant doth it in more express words viz. ubicunque fuerimus de panibus potibus carnibus etiam de piscibus wheresoever they should be of bread drink flâ—sh and fish And was such an effect of the magnificence grandeur of the minds of the English Nobility as Roger Earl of Warwick in the 23. year of the Reign of King Henry the first did grant unto Richard the Son of Jvo his Cook afterwards taking the Sirname of Woodlow from their residence at Woodlow in the County of Warwick besides the Mannor of Woodlow with divers Lands and Priviledges thereunto belonging and a Yard land in Cotes in the County aforesaid given by the said Earle to him and his heirs the Office of Master Cook in his Kitchin to him and his Heirs which his Father theretofore held with all Fees of his Kitchen belonging to the Master Cook both in Liveries and Horses as the Esquires of his Houshold then had of which Alan the Son of that Richard being also in the said Office in the house of William Earl of Warwick Son of the said Earl Roger who it seems could produce no Charter in writing thereof obtained a grant and confirmation of the said William Earl of Warwick of the said Mannor Lands and Office for which the said Alan gave unto the Earl ten shillings in money twelve Geâ—se and a Fikin of Wine And a late experience if antiquity had been altogether silent of the benefits which do come by it hath sufficiently declared unto us the no dull operation or impulse of it in that since the happy Restoration of King Charles the second and the Kingly Goveâ—nment a Gentleman high born and of a great â—xtraction retiring into a Country where some part of his Estate doth lye about one hundred miles from London did by an Housekeeping and Hospitality becoming him and his great Ancestors so winne the hearts and love of the people though they were of a different Judgement and profession of Religion which usually begeâ—s more animosities and ill will then it should do as he became their darling whilst he was with them and their sorrow and cause of tolling their Bells backwards as a signe of some disaster when he had occasion for a little while to leave them And a Gentleman or Faber fortunâ— suae one that but lately had made his fortunes in as remote a Country from London and of some new fangled opinions in Religion distastfull enough to many in his Neighbourhood did only by a charity of giving unto some numbers of poor people of the place wherein he lived Beef and Pottage at his door twice or thrice every week in the year so gain the love of the people as they that would not otherwise have shewed him any love or favour did not deny him either of them When as too many can lay aside and neglect the care of obliging and gaining the hearts and affections of their Neighbours and Tenants and making any shift to furnish and provide the excess and sinfull superfluities both of the belly and the back will not let the belly want it nor the back be without it And those that have no mind or will to pay or make the King any recompence for his Pourveyance or Compositions can without any grudging see the Pourveyance of the City of London that Queen that sitteth like the afterwards unhappy City of Tire upon many waters covereth all our Island and her Citizens by seeking to buy as cheap as they can and to adulterate as much as they can and sell as dear as they doe all their wares commodities can make a costly enhance of all manner of houshold provisions and extending their desires and attempts for that purpose to the remotest parts of the Kingdome do by ingrossings combinations and other unlawfull Artifices of Trade bring the fatness of the Flock and the delicacies of Sea and Land to feed and furnish out the Luxuries of her own Inhabitants and such as have a will to be infected with it and make the whole Island to be too little to maintain her vice and avarice insomuch as Salmons which at Monmouth being above 100 miles distant from London were wont to be sold there for ten groats a piece are now before hand bespoke and bought up by some Londoners or their Agents for ten shillings a piece and the Towns-men that did before eâ—joy a priviledge that all the Salmons brought to that Market should be first brought to the Kings Bord and no Forreigner suffered to buy any untill the Town were first served can now see themselves bereaved of their Prae-emption as well as the King is whose Progenitors did at the first bestow it upon them In Lincolnshire above 70 or 80 miles from London do so ingross and precontract for all wild fowl Ducks and Mallards as the Gentry of that Country where they are bred and should have some cheapness plenty of them are resolving to be Petitioners to the Justices of Peace at the next Quarter-Sessions that the Heglers and men of London may not be suffered to raise the pâ—ices of their Wild-fowl nor carry them out of the Countâ—y untill it be first served And as if all were not enough to enrich themselves and undo others can upon any accident or occasion or but a supposiâ—â—on of things which may happen make and dresse up their pretences and supposed causes of pâ—ices to be raâ—sed and eâ—hanced to the great oppression and burden of all that are to buy of them and but upon a late likelihood of Warres betwixt us and the Netherland united Belgick Provinces whilst we are Masters of the Seas and not under any probability of having our Seas disquieted or Trade interrupted have so greatly before hand raised the rates and prices of Sea-coal Sprats Salt and the most part of transmarine Commodities as they that shall believe that those and many more of their exactions which they will put and enforce upon the people by reason of a probability of that Warre will without any just cause or reason for it in a short time amount unto more then six hundred thousand pounds may well be understood neither to prejudice the truth or their judgements in it
Winter and Sommer at less then 20 shiâ—lings a Chaldron and it was by the Statute of 32 H. 8 cap. 8. ordained That none do sell Phesants or Partriches unto any but unto the Officers of the King Queen or Princes Houses upon the forfeiture of 6 s. 8 d. for every Phesant and 4 s. 4 d. for every Partrich and did by their Charters or allowances of Prescription grant Free-warren and divers other Franchises unto divers Lords of Manors yet matters must be so ordered as the King though he buy with ready mony must be sure to pay dearer for his Butter Cheese Coals Beer Ale Billet Tallwood Faggots Grocery-ware Rabbets Phesants and Partriches then any of his Subjects Took away by the Statute of 5 Eliz. the severity of the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. enjoyning small wages to Labourers and Artificers and ordained That the Justices in every County should by their discretion according to the dearth or plenty of victuals yearly at the Sessions held at Easteâ— assesse how much every Mason Carpenter Tyler other Crafts men Workmen and Labourers should have by the day or year and limit proportions of Wages according to plenty or scarcity and by an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of King James did amongst other things give a further power to the Justices of every County to limit and regulate the wages and hire of Labourers and Artificers according to plenty and scarcity that Act of Parliament being since expired for want of continuance yet the King in all his occasions and affairs for Workmen and Artificers shall be sure to pay them rates and wages at the highest Did by the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. cap. 6. provide That Butchers Fishmongers Brewers Bakers Poulterers and other Sellers of Victuals should sell them at reasonable prices and be content with moderate gains And by the Statute of 13 R. 2. ca. 8. That all Majors Bayliffs Stewards of Franchises and all others that have the order and survey of victualls in Cities Boroughs and Market Towns where victuals shall be sold in the Realm should enquire of the same And if any sell any victuals in other manner he should pay the treble of the value which he so received to the party damnified or in default thereof to any other that will pursue for the same By the Statute of 25 Hen. 8. cap. 2. when but a year before Beef and Pork was by Act of Parliament ordained to be sold at an half penny the pound and Mutton and Veal at an half penny farthing the pound and less in Counties and places that may sell it cheaper and complaint was made in Parliament that the prices of victuals were many times enhaunced and raised by the greedy avarice of the owners of such victuals or by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same more then upon any reasonable or just ground or cause ordained that the prices of Butter Cheese Capons Hens Chickens and other victualâ— necessary for mans sustenance should from time to time as the case should requireâ— be set and taxed at reasonable prices how they should be sold in gross or by retail by the Lord Chancellor of England Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings most honourable Privy Councel Lord Privy Seal Lord Steward the Chamberlain and all other the Lords of the Kings Councel Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings most honourable House Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Kings Justices of either Bench the Chancellor Chamberlains under Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer or any seaven of them whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Councel or the Lord Privy Seal to be one and commanded the Justices of Peace and Lords of Leets to take a care that the prices and rates of victuals be reasonable Yet the King must not have so much favour and kindness as the Tinientes or Magistrates in the Canarâ—es or other parts of the Spanish Dominions who by reason of their power and authority in the correction and rating of the prices of victuals can have their provisions freely and of gift presented unto them or at small and reasonable rates and prices or as the Lords of Leets the Justices of Assise Justices of Peace Mayors Magistrates of Cities and Corporations might have theirs if they would but put in execution the Laws which are entrusted to their care and charges Nor can have any thing at reasonable rates but is enforced to pay dearer for the provisions of his house then any of his Subjects when as they that could receive his Majesties very large and unexampled Act of Oblivion can only afford him in their Market rates an Act of Oblivion for his protection and care of them and for his many favours and helps in all their occasions and necessities and for forgiving them many Millions of monies sterling or the value thereof and as unto too many of them are willing that our King and Head should in the rates of his victuals and houshold provisions bear the burden of their follies and irregularities Of which the plenty or scarcity of money cannot be any principal or efficient cause as may be verified by an instance or example lately happened in Spain where the calling down of money to the half value to aswage the afflictions of a Famine was so farre from the hoped for effect of abating the prices of victuals and houshold Provisions as they are now well assured that the covetousness of the Sellers and tricks of Trade have added more to the heightning of those rates and prices then any want or abundance of mony And it would therefore well become that part of the People of England who by their intemperance and carelesness as iâ— they were that Nation which dwelt without care against whom the Prophet Jeremy denounced Gods heavy wrath and judgements have brought and reduced themselves and their Estates into a languishing and perishing condition and turned their backs upon the honor of Hospitality to take into their more then ordinary consideration that Sir Anthony Brown a Privy Councellor â—â—to King Henry Eighth did not deviate either from truth or prudence when he said that others apprehension of the Kings greatness did contribute as much to our welfare as our welfare it self or Sir John Russel a vâ—ry valiant as well as wise Statesman Comptroler of the Houshold of King Henry the Eighth and afterwards Earl of Bedford when he declared that the Courts of Princes being those Epitomes through which â—trangers look into Kingdomes should be royally set out with utensils and with attendance who might possess all comers with reverence there and fear elsewhere Or that the learned and reverend Sir James Dier Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-pleas in the 25 th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth committed an error when in the sage and discreet rules left behind him in a Manuscript for the preservation of the Common-wealth he advised that
the pattern of private Housekeepers and the narrow and unbeseeming Customes of their smaller Estates and Families That the wast of honor and the more then ordinary Fragments left in the Kings House as the remainders of the Dyet provided for him and his servants for the food and sustenance of the Poor and such as will be glad of it are but the requisites and appurtenances to the Majesty and Honor of a King that Sir Richard Weston afterwards Earle of Portland and Lord High Treasurer of England Sir John Woâ—stenholme Knight Sir William Pâ—tâ— and others commissioned by King James to make a Reiglement and Espaâ—gne in his house-keeping being men of known and great experience in the management of their own Estates could not then find any such things as have been since laid to the charge of the Kings Officers and Servants in his House that the pretensions not long after of better husbandry in the Kings House by some niggardly contrivances and serving some of the Tables with half a Goose instead of a whole came to no more at the last then the obtaining of the pretenders self ends and an Annuity of 500l per annum for thâ— lives of the pretender his wife and the longer liver of them that the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Housholds yearly Fee of 100 l. the Treasurer of the Housholds yearly Fee of 123l 14s and the Cofferers yearly Fee of 100l measured and proportioned to the antient and former cheapness and means of livelihood would have even then been very deficient for the support of such persons of Honor and Quality if they had not had at the same time some seldome falling expectations of other favours and rewards from a Princely Master and a present liberal allowance for their Tables which although it doth now stand the King by the enhance of his rates and prices in a great deal more then it did formerly yet unto those that received those allowances for their Tables and Dyet it is no more then formerly for if an estimate were taken how much it would cost the King to make and encrease the Salaries and wages of his Servants and Officers of all ranks and sorts which in all the several Offices and Places and Dependencies about the persons of the King and Queen are above one thousand all or most of whom did when the Tables and Diets were allowed intercommune one with another and were with many also of their Servants fed with the Kings Victuals and Houshold Provisions to be according unto the rates of wages Salaries and as much as they are now taken and given in private Families and all were to be paid in money and nothing in dyet the Kings Treasury Purse or Estate would soon be brought to understand that such increased Allowances or other Allowances Pensions Wages and Salaries which must according to the rise and enhance of all manner of things conducing to the support and livelihood of such Servants be now necessarily paid and given over and above the antient Fees and Salaries would arise and amount unto more then all the charge of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them whether it were thirty and five thousand pounds a year or fifty thousand pounds per annum which was laid and charged upon the Counties or more then the King is unjustly supposed to be deceived or cheated by his servants or those which do direct the affairs of his Houshold when it cannot escape every private mans Judgement and experience in house-keeping that he that doth give his servants forty shillings per annum Salary and as much more to be added unto it in certain Fees and Profits well known and calculated to amount unto no more then another forty shillings per annum doth give his servant but four pounds per annum in the totall and is not at all cozened therein and that it would otherwise be no Honour to the King but a diminution of Majesty and a temptation or necessity enforced upon his servants to deceive him if the Serjeant of the Ewrie and the Serjeant of the Bakehouse to mention but a few of many should have but their antient and bare Salaries of 11 l. 8 s. 1 d. per annum and want their antiently allowed Avails and Perquisites That such short and now far too little Wages and Salaries to be given to the Kings Servants in their several honourable and worshipfull Stations would be unworthy for them to receive and dishonorable for the King to give And that the no inconsiderable summe of money which was yearly and usually saved by the venditions of the over-plus of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and imployed in the buying of Linnen and Utensils for the service of the House the now yearly allowances for Diet to eight principall great Officers and to seaven of the next principall Officers and what his Majesty payeth yearly to others for Board-wages and what is enhanced and laid upon him by unreasonable rates and prices now that his Officers are constrained to buy with ready money and to pay a barbarous Interest and Brocage to provide it compared with what he now spends in his private allowances for his own and the Queens Diet and some other few yet allowed Tables will make a most certain and lamentable demonstration that the King and his Honor were gainers by the Pourveyance os Compositions for them and very great loosers by the taking of them away And that he did meet with a very ill Bargain by the Exchange of his Pourveyance or Compositions for them for a supposed recompence of Fifty thousand pounds per annum intended him out of the Moiety of the Excise of Ale Beer Perry c. But if the abuses committed by the Servants and Officers of the King within the house were so great or any thing at all as is pretended for as to the Pourveyors and those that act without dores the Law hath sufficiently provided they may certainly be rectified and brought under a reformation without the abolishing or totall taking away of the right use of them or that which cannot be spared or by any means be abandoned but may be dealt with as we do by our Wines Victuals or Apparel which as necessaries of life are in their right use to be kept and reteyned notwithstanding any misusage of them Or if the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were so much diverted from the use intended by them yet that will not be any reason for the quitting of them without a due exchange or recompence for that if they were all of them as is meerly fained or fanciâ—d mispent or misimployed yet those that do mispend them and they that have the benefit of them not that I would be an Advocate to justifie the selling of the Kings meat or houshold provisions unto any in the Neighbourhood or any accursed cheatings of the King which I wish might be punished as Felony are neither Enemies or Strangers to the Nation but the Kings Subjects and
his Crown Lands turned from small and easie old-fashion'd Reserved Rents upon Leases for Lives or years into Estates of Inheritance and very many Liberties as Fishings Free-Warrens Court-Leets Court-Barons Eschetes Felons Fugitives and Outlaws Goods Deodands Forfeitures Waiss Estraies Fines Amerciaments retorn and execution of Writs and in some Manors a liberty of receiving to their own use Fines for licenses of concord or agreement upon the making of Conveyances and Post-Fines upon Fines leavied in the Kings Courts Profits of the year day and wast and all Fines Issues Amerciaments returned set or imposed upon any of their Tenants in any of the Kings Courts or by any Justices of Assize or of the Peace With many other Franchises Liberties and Participations of his Regality which they do now enjoy tanquam Reguli as little Kings in their several Estates and Dominions in many of them more by claim and prescription allowed by the favour and indulgence of the King and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of of this Nation unto them and their Posterities then by any any Grants they can shew for it very much exceeding in yearly profit and conâ—ent the small charges which they have used to have been at for the Pourveyance or Provisions for the Kings Houshold Take his Fee-farme Rents which do amount unto above threescore thousand pounds per annum but according to their first and primitive small reservation though the Lands thereof be now improved and raised in some a ten and in others a twelve to one moâ—e then they were then accompted to be either in the intentions of the Donors or Donees and many other his Fee-Farmes of some casuall Profits and Revenues granted to Cities and Corporations which do now ten to one exceed what they were when they were first granted Grant and confirme to the Vulgus or Common people many great immunities and Priviledges as Assart Lands and permit them to enjoy in his own Lands and Revenue large Common of Pasture and Common of Estovers and Turbary in his Forrests and Chaces and protect from oppression in that which are holden of their Mesne Lords their Copihold Lands Customes and Estates which being at first but temporarily permitted and allowed patientia charitate in quoddam jus transierunt are now by an accustomed and continued charity taken to be a kind of Tenant Right and Inheritance Grants and permits many Charters of Liberties Privileges and Freedoms to the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England and Wales and to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London all Issues Fines and Amerciaments retâ—rned and imposed upon them in any of the Kings Cours freedome from payment of Tolls and Lastage in their way of an universall and diffused Trade in all places of England and for a small Fee Farme Rent of Fifty pounds per annum for the Kings Tolls at Queen-Hithe Billingsgate and other places in the City of London accepted in the Reign of King Henry the Third suffers them to have and receive in specie or mony towards their own Pourveyance as much as would goe a good way in his Allows the Tenants in antient Demesn their Exemptions from the payment of Toll for their Houshold Provisions which in the opinion of Sir Edward Coke was at the first in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings houshold Provisions and suffers the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colleges and Halls therein Colleges of Winchester and Eaton and the Reâ—ients in the Cinque Ports and Rumney Marsh to enjoy a Freedom from Subsidies Who together with all the people of England may by the Accompt of benefits received by and from him and his Royall Progenitors and Predecessors know better how to value them if they had not received them and if he should but retire himself into himself and withdraw his bounties from us Or take his Customes and Imposts inward and outward Reliefs Ayds Subsidies Fifteens Tenths and First-fruits Profits of his Seals Pâ—ae-fines Post-fines Licences and Pardons for alienation of Lands Fines upon Foâ—medons and reall Actions at the full value and rate which the Law will allow and the rise of money might perswade him unto or take all occasions to invade or clip the peoples Liberties and Privileges as they do his Or seise and take advantage of the forfeitures of our sufficiently misused Fairs and Markets which without the many inconveniences of Barrage Billets peages or Tolls taken at many places as they pass thither as the people of France and our Fashion makers are tormented with do yield and save the people yearly in that which otherwise would be lost some hundred of thousands pounds per annum or should withdraw his favours and countenance from the Trade which our Merchants have into forreign Parts since the Reign of Queen Mary by the benefits and blessings of the Leagues and Alliances of him his Royall Progenitors made with forreign Princes continued with a great yearly charge of Embassadours Ordinary and Extraordinary sent and received and render it to be no no more then it was in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the difference of the gain of forreign Trade and Merchandize betwixt the little which was then and that which is now by reason of the East-Indie Turkie Muscovie Ligorne and East-land Trades and our many flourishing American Plantations would appear to be some millions sterling money in a year And were notwithstanding never so gratefull to our King for it as the English Merchants of Calais were whilst King Edward the Third caused the Staple of Wool to be kept there who so ordered the matter as the King spent nothing upon Souldiers in defence of the Town which was wont to cost him eight thousand pounds per annum and the Mayor of that Town could in Anno 51 of the Reign of that King furnish the Captain of the Town upon any Rode to be made with one hundred Bill-men and two hundred Archers of Merchants and their Servants without any wages Or if the Peoples Liberties acquired by the munificence and Indulgence of our Kings since the making and confirming of our Magna Charta in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third now 437 years ago when they took it to be for their good as well as the Kings to give him a Fifteenth part of all their Moveables not by a conniving and unequall but a more real and impartiall Taxation in recompence and as a thankfull Retribution for their Liberties then granted and confirmed which are now as many again or do farre exâ—ed them were buâ— justly valueâ— or if the benefits accrewed unto forreign Merchants or those of our own Nation by the Charâ—a Mercatoria granted by King Edward the First in the 31 year of his Reign to the Meâ—chants Strangers and confirmed by Act of Paâ—liament in Anno 27 Ed. 3. for the releasing of an antient Custome and Duty to the Kings
of England of permitting their Officers and Servants to take what the King pleased out of Forreign Commodities and Merchandize brought into England upon payment of such rates as he pleased which amount unto no small yearly profit for an Exchange and grant by the Merchants Strangers of three pence per pound now called the Petit Customes of all forreign Merchandises imported except Wines for every Sack of Wool forty pence for every 300 Wolfels forty pence and for every last of Leather to be exported half a mark over and above the Duties payable by Denizens were but rightly estimated Or the benefits which the Subiects of England have had and received by the Act of Parliament made in Anno 14 Ed. 3. granting that all Merchants Denizens and Aliens may freely and safely come into the Realme of England which before they could not or durst not adventure to do without speciall licence and safe conduct under the great or some part of the Seal of England with their Goods and Merchandize and safely tarry and return paying the Subsidies and Customes reasonably due together with the ease and benefit but to the great loss and damage of the Crown which the Merchants of England as well as those of forreign Parts have by the loss of Calais since Queen Maries time and the remove of the Staple from thence whither all Goods Exported out of England were to be first brought a Custome Inward the second time paid and for so much which may be believed to be the greatest part as was again from thence Exported into other Countries the Customes a third time paid which made the Customes and Subsidies only for Goods Exported in the later end of the Reign of King Edward the Third and during the Reigns of King Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Fifth and the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth as appeareth by the Records of the Exchequer to amount unto threescore or threescore and ten thousand pounds per annum which according to the valuation of mony at this day saith Sir John Davies the ounce of Silver being raised from twenty pence unto five shillings would amount unto two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum And the difference betwixt the payment of Customes and Subsidies then paid three times over for one and the same thing and the payment of it but once as is now used with many other great benefits beyond a valuation not here particularized And consider how unworthy it would be for the Natives and People of England after many Knights Fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their Forefathers and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the sixty thousand Knights Fees and more reckoned by antient Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at twenty pounds per annum as they were reckoned in anno primo Edwardi secundi they would amount unto two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if but at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least â—mprovement would amount unto three Millions per annum besides great quantities of other Lands being twice or thrice as much more in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royall Progenitors freely granted and given unto otheâ—s of them and their Heirs to be holden in Socage to endeavour to extinguish the right use of them and forget their Obligations to their Prince and Common Parent and his Royall Progenitors And in too many of their Actions and business cozen or beg all they can from him and in stead of saying Domine quid retribuam Lord what shall I render unto thee for all thy benefits make it the greatest of their care imployment and business not only to take but keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparralleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and to to forget all their evil designes and offences intended or committed against him and his blessed Father and to pardon and give them as much as fifteen or sixteen millions sterling in the Arrears of his own Revenue and two or three hundred millions Sterling at least for the forfeiture of theirs And might have remembred how they promised him their lives and fortunes and to be his Tenants in Corde and with what a Princely and Fatherly affection he told their Representatives that he was sorry to see so many of his good people come to see him at Whitehall and had no meat to feed or entertain them and how ashamed and unwilling they are in their ordinary and daily Actions and Affairs to come behind or be upon the score one to another in their reciprocations retributions and retorns of gratitudes and take it to be a disparagement not to out-vie or undo one another therein how willingly they can part with their money to their children at School to make Oblations or Presents to their School-masters at their Intermissions or Breaking up of School at Christmas Easter or Whitsontyde a course newly invented by School-masters to better their Allowances and Incomes and chargeable enough to the Parents as may appear by the Offerings at a Christmas made unto some Capital School-Masters which have singly amounted unto five or six hundred pounds which with the Beds and Furniture and silver Spoons to be brought thither by the Boarders and left behind them at their departure do make as great or a greater charge to many Parents then what they were ever rated for the Pourveyance And how accustomed and willing an expence all people are desirous to put themselves unto pro honestate domus for the good and content of any Inne Tavern or Alehouse to make them some recompence for but coming into those houses upon any occasion or necessity of business And can notwithstanding so readily finde the way to that unchristian River of Lethe and sinne of unthankfulness which God and all good men do abhorre and the most fierce and savage of the Beasts of the field Fowls of the Ayr do scorn to be guilty of and make it their business to desire the King to foregoe his Pourveyance and take a seeming recompence of fifty thousand pounds per annum for it of the moyty of the Excise to be raised out of the Moans and Laments of the multitude which are the labouring and poorer sort of the people to free richer and better able from their heretofore small Payments or Contributions in Cattle and other Provisions for the Royall Pourveyance now that England enjoyeth a greater plenty then ever it did by some hundred thousand Acres of Fenne Lands drained many Forests and Chases deafforrested mâ—ny Parks converted unto Tillage or Pasture great quantities of other Lands inclosed and as much or more of Abby and Religious Lands retorned into Lay-hands fewer Taxes and publique Assessments by one to ten then are in the Kingdomes and Dominions of Spain France Empire of
part in the residue he being now enforced to purchase the victuals and food for Himself and his houshold at a far greater rate then any of his Subjects 20000 l. 0 s. 0 d. Besides what may be added for the tricks pilferings of inferiour Servants of the houshold and their taking indirect courses and advantages to make up or recruit their Losses and the damage which the King may susteyn by having such his servants Metamorphosed and turned into hunger-starved Ratts which will be nibling and gnawing at every thing which they can come at and may be catched but are not to be destroyed by drowning or poisoning And the loss and diminution of the Honour of the King in his Royal Houshold which is and ought to be inestimable and as much beyond a valuation As the Honor of a Sovereign Prince is and ought to be above and beyond that of the vulgar or any private person Which may bring us to this conclusion That although Fifty thousand pounds per annum were in the granting of a Moyety of the Excise to the King his Heirs or Successors intended to be allowed for the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which did cost the Kingdome yearly and Communibus Annis but Twenty five thousand and twelve pounds or thereabout in the 35 year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and in the third year of the Reign of King James not much above Forty thousand pounds per annum and in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr at the most but fifty thousand pounds per annum 〈◊〉 whether more or less is not to be found in the Receipt or yearly Income of that Revenue of the moyty of the Excise For that the totall of the clear yearly profit of the moyety of the Excise allowed unto the King for the Exchange of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service and the Pourveyance or Compositions for them doth not amount unto the charges of the Collection deducted above One hundred and twenty thousand pounds per annum Is likely to be lesse by reason of an universall poverty of those which should pay it making a large accompt of many desperate Arrears and of the Farmers in many places letting it three or four times over to others under them and so very much racking and oppressing of the people if but half of what is complained of be true as many private Families do to avoid the gripes of the Excise-men and the knavery of the Common Brewers set up Brewhouses for their own occasions And will be too little for the exchange or purchase only of such a principall flower and support of the Crown and an eminent part of the Royall Prerogative as the Tenures in Capite and Knight-service are which in yearly revenue yielded him above One hundred thousand pounds per annum And for that the Power Might and Majesty of a King being unvaluable is not to be ballanced by any thing which is not as much So as the damages and losses susteyned by the want of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them besides what shall be paid more then formerly for the charges of the Stable impressing of Workmen for the Kings occasions by the Master◠of the Works the King now paying every Workman eighteen pence or two shillings per diem when it was before but twelve pence and the charges more then formerly in the Pourveyance for the Navy Ship-Timber Ammunition and carriage thereof c. and many other losses not here enumerated will be no less then the sum of One hundred seven thousand and fifteen pounds five shillings And a too certain Totall of that which is here valued and brought to accompt besides the unvaluable honour and power of the King loss and ruine of his Servants and what indirect courses may intice them unto Which needs not be doubted when as by an exact and carefull accompt given unto the Lords in Parliament in or about the third year of the Reign of King James by Sir Robert Banister Knight then one of the Officers of his Houshold of what was yearly saved to the King by the Compositions for the Pourveyance over and above the yearly value of what it cost the Countries when the rates were both in the Country and City of London not by a third part and in many things a half and more so much heightned as now they are and a project of purchasing the Pourveyance from the Crown for Fifty thousand pounds per annum was in agitation there appeared to have been yearly saved by the Compositions and Commissions for Pourveyance the sum of Thirty four thousand eight hundred forty six pounds ten shillings and six pence and in the Office for the Stable Two thousand six hundred ninety and eight pounds which made a Totall of Thirty seven thousand five hundred forty and four pounds ten shillings and six pence and probably might be the reason that that unhappily after accomplished designe did then vanish into nothing 1. Nor will the yearly damage losses of the people in the totall arrive unto a lesse when they shall finde the moyety of the Excise not amounting to One hundred and thirty thousand pounds per annum in the utmost extent and income of it without deductions or defalcations to the Officers imployed by his Majesty therein to be doubled and made as much again upon them by the fraud and oppression of the Brewers little malt put into their Beer and ill boyling of it and lesser measures sold by the Inkeepers and Alehouse-keepers And yet the Brewers being paid the Excise of Beer and Ale by the housekeepers and Retailers as much as they do pay to the King and a great deal more by reason of the Excise of three Barrels of Beer and two of Ale in every twenty allowed them will not think it enough to cozen and abuse the people whose good and evil and profit and loss is included in that of the Kings unless they do also by false Gaugings concealed Brewings and other ill Artifices use all the wayes and means which they can to make themselves great gainers by deceiving the King as well as the people and will like too many of their fellow Citizens the great Tax-Improvers and Advantage-catchers of the Kingdom be sure to be as little loosers by it as the Fox would if a monthly Assessement should be set upon him for his subterranean Boroughes and dark Labirinths or the griping Usurer the biting Broker and the knavish Informer would be if an yearly Imposition or Tax should be layd upon their ungodly and oppressive gains and Imployments 2. Neither will the peoples loss damage be lessened when there shall be a scarcity of Food Provisions at the Markets in regard that the Kings Officers and Pourveyors for his Houshold shall now be constrained to buy his Houshold provisions in great quantities at the Markets or Shops in London or in the Counties adjacent which were wont to be served in kind by the several Counties
fallen upon the Orphans or fatherless Children of that part of the People and their Estates when the Wolves shall be made the Keepers of the Lambs and every indigent or wastfull father in Law shall be a Guardian to those whose Estates he makes it his business to spend and ruine or to transferre upon his own Children and the charge and trouble of Petitions at the Councell Board or more tedious Suits in Chancery to be relieved against them the pay of more Life-guards or a small standing Army to keep the People within the bounds of their duty and secure good Subjects from the mischief intended by the bad frequent Musters of the Trained Bands more then formerly and of an Army to be hired upon an occasion of an Invasion or the transferring the sedem belli or miseries of warre into an Enemies Country much whereof would not have needed to be if the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service those stronger Towers and Forts of our David those Horsemen and Charriots of our Israel and alwayes ready Garrisons composed of the best and worthiest men of our Nation not hirelings taken out of the Vulgus nor unlettered unskilfull and uncivilized nor rude or debauched part of the people but of those who would fight tanquam pro aris focis as they and their worthy Ancestors ever used to do for the good and honour of their King and Country and the preservation of their own Families as being obliged unto it by the strongest tyes and obligations of law and gratitude which ever were or could be laid upon the fortunes Estates Souls and Bodies of men that would have a care but of either of them Or to put in the Ballance against the benefits which they had in the preservation of their Woods recording their discents and titles to their Lands and many a Deed and Evidence which would otherwise have been lost or not easie to be found and the help and ayd which their heirs in their infancies have never failed of in all their Suits and Concernments And the seldome abuses of some naughty Pourveyors and the complaints thereby do not any thing neer amount unto the immense gains of the people of some millions sterling per annum in their vast improvements of their Lands and Estates by the rack and rise of rents enhaunce of Servants and Labourers wages and all commodities in all parts of the Kingdome before and since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions for the Pourveyance were made and agreed upon may seem but a very small yearly Retribution to the King or his Royall Progenitors for permitting so much as shall be reasonable of it And the People of England might better allow him those small and legall advantages which are and will be as much for publique good as his own then they do themselves in many of their own affairs one with another in many of their particular private ends advantages wherein the will and bequests oâ— the dead their Hospitalls Legacies or Gifts to charitable uses are not nor have been so well managed as they ought to be As may be instanced in those multitudes of charitable Legacies or Gifts in lands originally cut out and proportioned to the maintenance of certain numbers of poor or for some particular uses which by the increase and improvement of Rents before and since the dissolution of the Abbies Religious Houses and Hospitals did very much surmount the proportions which were at the first allowed or intended for them And with more Reason and Justice then the City of London and many of their Guilds and Fraternities do now enjoy divers Lands which were given for Lamps and other superstitious uses for which they compounded by order of the Councell Board with King Edward the Sixth for twenty thousand pounds and more then that which that and many other Cities and Towns do take and receive for Tolls which being many times only granted for years or upon some temporary occasions are since kept and retained as rights besides many Gifts and Charitable Uses since the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses amounting to a very great yearly value which by the improvement and rise of Rents beyond the proportion of the Gifts or the intention of the Givers have been either conveyed by Jâ—yntures or leases to wives or children or much of the overplus which came by the improvement or concealed Charitable Uses converted by the Governours of many a City and Town Corporate to the maintenance of themselves the Worship of the Corporation and many a comfortable Feast and Meeting for the pretended good of the 〈◊〉 people thereof who are but seldome if at all the better for it Some of which not to mention any of greater bulk or value may appear in a few instances instead of a multitude of that kind dispeâ—sed in the Kingdom as two Closes of Land or Meadow Ground lying in the Parish of Shoreditch in the County of Middlesex given by Simon Burton Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London in the year 1579. unto St. Thomas Hospital upon condition that the Governors of the said Hospitall should yearly give unto 30 poor Persons of the said Parish on the 21 22 or 23 dayes of December for ever the summe of eight pence a piece Mr. William Hanbury Citizen and White-baker of London did by a Surrender in the year 1595. give unto Elizabeth Spearing certain Copihold Lands in Stebuâ—heath and Ratcliffe in the said County to pay the Parson and Church-wardens of the said Parish for ever to the use of the poor People there two and fifty shillings yearly which by consent of the Parish is by twelve pence every Wednesday weekly bestowed upon the Poor abroad And Mrs. Alice Hanbury Widow by her will did in the same year give unto Mr. George Spearing a Tenement in the said Parish wherein William Bridges a Taylor then dwelled upon condition that the said George Spearing his Heirs and Assignes should yearly pay to the Churchwardens of the said Parish and their Successors to the use of the poor and impotent People thirteen shillings and four pence And that whether the King be enough recompenced or not at all recompenced for his Pourveyance it would be none of the best bargains for the Subjects of England or their Posterity to exchange or take away so great and nâ—â—â—ssary a part of his Prerogative or support of Majesty as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were which in the Parliament in the 4 th year of the Reign of King James were held to be such an inseperable Adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall dignity as not to be aliened and some few years after believed by that incomparable Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support of the Kings Table a good help and justly due unto him And the Learned both in Law and Politiquâ—s in other Nations as well as our own have told us that such Sacra
when he came down out of the Mount from his conference with him to be abated or lessened but shewed his care of it in the severe punishment of the gain-saying of Corah Dathan Abiram and their saying that Moses took too much upon him and is and ever hath been so essentiall very necessary to the preservation of Authority and Government and the Subjects and People under it as Saul when he had incurred the displeasure of God and his Prophet Samuel desired him not to dishonour him before the People And David when he heard how shamefully his Embassadours had been abused by the King of Ammon ordered them to stay at Jericho untill their beards were grown out The Romans who being at the first but Bubulci and Opiliones a rude Company oâ— Shepheards Herdsmen and were looked upon as such a base and rude Rabble as the Sabines their Neighbours scorned to marry or be allyed with them did afterwards in their growing greatness which like a torrent arising from a small assembly of waters did afterwards overrun and subdue the greatest part of the habitable World hold their Consuls in such veneration as they had as Cicero saith magnum nomen magnam speciem magnam majestatem as well as magnâ—m potestatem as great an outward respect and veneration as they had authority and were so jealous and watchfull over it as their Consul Fabius would rather lay aside the honour due unto his Father from a Sonne of which that Nation were extraordinary obseâ—vers then abate any thing of it and commanded his aged Father Fabius the renowned rescuer and preserver of Rome in a publique Assembly to alight from his Horse and do him the honour due unto his present Magistracy which the good old man though many of the people did at the present dislike it did so approve of as he alighted from his horse and embracing his Son said Euge fili sapis qui intelligis quibus imperes quam magnum magistratum susceperis my good Son you have done wisely in understanding over whom you command and how great a Magistracy you have taken upon you And our Offa King of the Mercians in An. Dom. 760 an Ancestor of our Sovereign took such a care of the Honour and Rights due unto Majesty and to preserve it to his Posterity as he ordained that even in times of Peace himself and his Successors in the Crown should as they passed through any City have Trumpets sounded before them to shew that the Person of the King saith the Leiger Book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honour in all which did either see or hear him Neither will it be any honour for Christians to be out-done by the Heathen in that or other their respects and observances to their Kings when the Romans did not seldome at their publique charge erect costly Statues and Memorialls of their gâ—atitude to their Emperours make chargeable Sacrifices ad aras in aedibus honoris virtutis in their Temples of Honour and Virtue could yearly throw money into the deep Lake or Gulfe of Curtius in Rome where they were like never to meet with it again pro voto salute Imperatoris as Offerings for the health and happiness of their Emperouâ—s and all the City and Senate Calendis Januarii velut publico suo parenti Imperatori strenas largiebant did give New years-gifts to the Emperour as their publick Parent bring them into the Capitol though he was absent and make their Pensitationes or Composition for Pourveyance for their Emperours to be a Canon unalâ—erable Or by the Magnesians and Smirnaeans who upon a misfortune in Warre hapned to Seleucus King of Syria could make a League with each other and cause it to be engraven in Marble pillars which to our dayes hath escaped the Iron Teeth of time majestatem Seleuci tueri conservare to preserve and defend the Honor and Majesty of Seleucus which was not their Sovereign or Prince but their Friend and Ally Nor any thing to perswade us that our Forefathers were not well advised when in their care to preserve the honor of their King and Country they were troubled and angry in the Reign of King H. 3. that at a publick Feast in Westminster-Hall the Popes Legate was placed at the Kings Table in the place where the King should have sate or when the Baronage or Commonalty of England did in a Parliament holden at Lincoln in the Reign of King Edward the First by their Letters to their then domineering demy-God the Pope who was averse unto it stoutly assert their Kings superiority over the Kingdome of Scotland and refuse that he should send any Commissioners to Rome to debate the matter before the Pope in Judgement which would tend to the disherison of the Crown of England the Kingly Dignity and prejudice of the Liberties Customes and Laws of their Forefathers to the observation and defence of which they were ex debito prestiti juramenti astricti bound by Oath and would not permit tam insolita praejudicialia such unusuall and prejudiciall things to be done against the King or by him if he should consent unto it Or when the Pope intending to cite King Edward the Third to his Court at Rome in Anno 40 of his Reign to do homage to the See of Rome for England and Ireland and to pay him the Tribute granted by King John the whole Estates in Parliament did by common consent declare unto the King that if the Pope should attempt any thing against him by process or other matter the King with all his Subjects should with all their force resist him And in Anno 42 of King Ed. 3. advised him to refuse an offer of peace made unto him by David le Bruse King of Scotland though the Warâ—es and frequent incursions of that Nation were alwayes sufficiently troublesome chargeable so that he might enjoy to him in Fee the whole Realm of Scotland without any subjection and declared that they could not assent unto any such Peace to the disherison of the King and his Crown and the great danger of themselves Or that William Walworth he gallant Mayor of London whose fame for it will live as long as that City shall be extant was to be blamed when he could not endure the insolency of the Rebel Wat Tyler in suffering a Knight whom the King had sent to him to stand bare before him but made his Dagger in the midst of his Rout and Army teach his proud heart better manners Or Richard Earl of Arundelâ—nd â—nd Surrey did more then was necessary when as he perceiving before hand the after accomplished wicked designe and ambition of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and titular King of Leon and Castile did before the downfall of that unhappy Prince King Richard the Second complain in Parliament that he did sometimes go arme in arme with the King and make
and necessity that they dined with Duke Humphrey upon a Traditional mistake that the Monument of Humphrey Duke of Glocester was in the middle Isle of St. Pauls Church in London when it appears by the Armes engraven therein to be a Beuchamp Earl of Warwick And that the King of England Scotland France and Ireland should be necessitated to make a small Room in White hall a place to eat his meat in and be contented with ten dishes of meat for the first and second Courses for him and his Royall Consort at Dinner when most of the Nobility have as much or more and the richest part of the Gentry and most of the rich Merchants and Tradesmen of London do not think such a proportion in their ordinary way of Diet to be more then sufficient And might remember that the Royall Pourveyance is and hath been as well due to a Prince in his Palace as in the Field or his Tents and more deserved by a Prince in the time of Peace and protecting us in the blessings enjoyed by it then it is or can be in the time of Warre when every man is willing enough to offer it to a marching Army that doth but hope and endeavour to defend them And that God was so displeased with the refusers of it as he resolved that an Ammonite or Moabite should never enter into his holy and blessed Congregation because they met not the children of Israel with bread and water in the way when they came forth out of Egypt That it was reckoned as a crime upon the People of Israel that they shewed not kindness to the house of Zerubbaal namely Gideon according to all the goodness which he shewed unto Israel That it was not only Solomons stately Throne of Ivory over-laid with the best Gold adorned with the Images of golden Lions that supported it nor the Forty thousand stalles of horses for his Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen and the Tributes and Presents sent from many of the Nations round about him but his Royall Pourveyance and Provision for his Houshold the meat of his Table sitting of his Servants the manner of their sitting at meat and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel which among many other necessary Circumstances of State and Emanations of Power and Majesty joyned with the other parts of his Regall Magnificence raised the wonder in the Queen of Sheba and took away her spirits from her That to overburden our Head or heap necessities upon him may bring us within the blame and censure of the Judicious Bodin a man not meanly learned in Politiques who decrying all unbecoming Parsimonies in a King or his Family delivers his opinion that sine Majestatis ipsius contemptu fieri non potest ea res enim peregrinos ad principem aspernandum subditos ad deficiendum excitare consuevit that to lessen the number of a Kings Servants or Attendants cannot be done without a contempt or diminution of Majesty it self which may cause Strangers to despise him and his own Subjects to rebell against him That our Ancestors the Germans did well understand what a benefit the Common people had by the Princes Honour and Reputation when they were so zealous of it and ipsa plerunque fama belli profligant many times found it to be a cause of lessening or preventing Warres And St. Hicrom was not mistaken when he concluded that ubi honor non est ibi contemptus ubi contemptus ibi frequens injuria ubi indignatio ibi quies nulla where there is not honour there is contempt and where there is contempt there are Injuries and where anger and wrath are there is no manner of quiet That it must needs be a Prognostick of a most certain ruine to the Nation to be so addicted to our pride and vanities as to take all we can from the head to bestow it upon the more ignoble and inferiour Members Or to be so infatuated and so farre fallen out with reason as to believe that they can enjoy either health or safety when the Head hath that taken from it which should procure it That our Ancestors who were so great Observers of their duties in the payment of their Tithes as to take more then an ordinary care to give and bequeath at their deaths a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Symbolum Animae as a Mortuary or Compensation pro substractiâ—ne decimâ—rum personâ—lium nec non oblationum for Tithes and Offerings the Pourveyance for those which served at the Altaâ— negligently or against their wills forgotten to such a value as their dextrarium ferro coopertum best horse carrying the Armes not Escutcheons of its Lords and Master or if the party deceasing were noâ— of so great an estate gave meliorem bovem his best Oxe and with such a solemnity as those or the like Mortuaries were led or driven before the Corps when it was carried to be interred or if not given in specie were sure to be redeemed with money of which Thomas de Bello Campo Earl of Warwick in anno 43 of the Reign of King Edward the Third was so mindfull as he did by his last Will and Testament give to every Church within his multitude of Manours his best Beast which should then be found in satisfaction of his Tithes forgotten to be paid would ever have made it their business to withdraw or hinder their Oblations and Duty of Pourveyance to God Almighties Vicegerent the Keeper of both Tables and the Protector of them or rejoyce in the Bargain which hath been made for the Kings acquittal of it or by plowing over the roots or by the filthy smoke and vapours of some particular private ugly Interests have rejoyced in blasting and destroying that Royall Oak of Hospitality which like the mighty Tree in Nebuchadnezars Vision reached unto Heaven and the sight thereof to the ends of all the Earth had fair leaves and much fruit yielding meat for many under which the Beasts of the field dwelt and upon whose branches the Fâ—wls of heaven had their habitation to the end they might make their own fiâ—es and waâ—me themselves by the withered and dead boughs and branches thereof Or that the People of England who were wont so much to reverence and love their Kings and to remember benefits and favours received from them as to give Lands and other Hereditaments in peâ—petuity to pray for the health of their Kings as amongst many others which may be instanced Ivo Tallebois post decessum Gulielmi Anglorum Regis donavit Deo sancto Nâ—cholao pro animabus ipsius Regis ac Regine Matildae uxoris ejus ad augmentum victus Monachorum sanctae Mariae de Spalding decimam Thelonei Salinarum de Spalding gave tâ—e Tenth of his Tolls and Salt-piâ—s to pray for the souls of William the Conqueror and Queen Matilda his Wife Mauserus Biset Sewer to King Henry the First gave likewise in
the Prince should often appear unto his People in Majesty and that the Courtiers should keep good houses And if they will do no more to do but as much as the Beasts and Birds being irrational creatures do by their bodies natural make it their greatest care to protect and preserve the Head of our Body Politique and the honor and dignity of it and keep it above water And now that by his gracious Government and return to us like the Sun to dispel the cold and uncomfortableness which the Winter of his absence had almost for ever fastned upon us Cum fixa manet reverentia patrum Firmatur seâ—ium juris priscamquè resumunt Canitiem leges when our Parliaments and our just and ancient Laws are again restored Claustrisque solutis Tristibus exsanguâ—s andent procedere leges and released from their former affrights and terrors Not endeavour to abridge or endanger the hopes of our future happiness by being to sparing unto him that was not so unto us Jam captae vindex patriae Ut sese pariter diffudit in omnia regni Membra vigor vivusquè redit color urbibus aegris and redeemed our happiness from its Captivity But rather imitate the Clergie of the Bishopricks of Gloucester Chester Oxford Peterborough and Bristol who in the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth finding those Bishopricks to be much impoverished by the Earl of Leicester and some other who in their vacancies had gotten away a great part of the Revenues thereof did by their Benevolences for some years after enable the Bishops thereof in some tolerable degree to maintain their Hospitalities And our long ago departed Ancestors who took it ill in the Reign of King John with whom they had so much and more then they should contended for their Liberties that Hubert Arch-bishop of Canterbury should keep a better House and Feast at Easter then the King And that Cardinal Woolsey in the Reign of King Henry the Eight should keep as great a state at Court as the King exercise as great an Authority in the Country for Pourveyance as the King and forbid Pourveyance to be made in his own Jurisdictions which made an addition to the Articles of High Treason or great Misdemeanors charged upon him by the Commons in Parliament brought up to the House of Peers by Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert afterward a learned Judge of the Court of Common pleas So that our King may not for want of his antient rights of Pourveyance or an Allowance or Compositions for them the later of which as a means to make so unquestionable a right and priviledge of the Crown of England to be alwayes gratefull and welcome to them was fiâ—st designed set on foot contrived by Sir David Brook Serjeant at Law unto King Henry the Eighth and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the Reign of Queen Mary and happily effected or brought to perfection in or about the 4 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth be necessitated to retrench or lay down his Royal Housekeeping and Hospitalities or deprived of his means of Charity and Magnificence which Jacob Almansor the learned Arabian King who lived in Anno 654. and conquered Spain was in his swarthy Dominions so carefull to preserve as after that he had given audience unto Suitors which were some dayes in every week he usually caused a publique cry to be made that all of them as well rich as poor should stay and take their refections and to that end furnished Tables for them with such abundance of provisions as became the house of so mighty a King And that if any forreign King or Prince should as Cecily Sister to the King of Sweden and Wife to the Marquess of Baden did by a far a long Voyage come from the North into England to visit our Queen Elizabeth and see the splendour of her Court which as to her Charity splendour and Hospitality though so over-sparing in other things and so unwilling to draw monyes out of her Subjects purses as she lost the fair hopes and opportunity of regaining Calais which was so much desired by her was very plentifully and magnificent and with the allowance of many more Tables then have been in the times of her Successors they may return into their Country as that Princess did with a wonder at it and not be constrained to say as was once said of the glory of the Temple of Jerusalem Who is left amongst you that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now and that returning into the former good wayes manners and custome of England we may not be damnati fatâ— populi but virtute renati And that to that end we shall do well to leave ouâ— new and untrodded By-wayes of Error made by the Raiser of Taxes and the Filchers of the Peoples Liberties in the Glory of anothers Kingdome now we have so wofully seen felt heard and understood so very many mischiefs and inconveniences already happened and if not speedily prevented are like to be a great deal more and hearken unto the voyce and dictates of the Laws of God and Nature the Laws of the Land and Nations Reason and Gratitude and let our Posterity know that the honor of our King and Country is dear unto us and that whatever becomes of our own Hospitalities we shall never be willing to let the Vestaâ— Fire of the British and English Hospitalities although most of our own are either extinguished or sunk into the Embers go out or be extinct in our King Palaces or to abjure or turn out of its course so great part of the Genius of the Nation but that we shall continue the duties of Praeemption and Pourveyance which are as old as the first Generations of Mankind and as antient as the duty of reverence of Children to their Parents Dent Fata Recessum FINIS Accompts inter Evidentia Comitis Oxon. Stows Survey of London Sieur Colberts Remonstrance of the benefit of the Trade to be driven by the French in the East-Indies Lessius de Just. Jur. lib. 2. cap. 21. n. 148. Cokes 4. part Institutes 12 Ed. 4. c. 8. 25 H. 8. cap. 2. Epist. Rom. 6. Speed Hist. of England Heylin hist. Ecclesiae Anglicanae domes reformatae Waler Max. lib. 8. cap. 5. Cicero in oratione pro Muroena Gervasius Tilburiensis Assisa panis cervisiae and a Statute for punishing the breach thereof by Pillory and Tumbrell Anno 51 H. 3. Rot. Fin. 11 E. 2. Cokes 1. part Institutes 70 Rot. parl 25 â— 3. m. 56. Inter Recorda in Recept Scaccarii inter Fines de tempore H. 3. Speed Hist. of Great Britain M. S. in custodia Gulielmi Dugdale Spelman Annotat. ad Concilia decreta leges Ecclesiastica 349. Asser Menevensis de gestis Alfredi 19. 23. Henry Huntingdon and William Malmesbury de gestis regum Angliae Speed History of England Stows Survey
of London Stows Survey of London Chronic Robert Fabian Heylin History of the Reformation of the Church of England Scrinia Ceciliana 198. 199. Spelman glossar in voce Forefang LL. Inae ca. altero ante penult Somners glossar ad Brompton alios veteres Angliae Historicos Genesis c. 41. Sir Francis Moores Reports 764. Camden 2. part Annalls of Queen Elizabeth Vide Act of Parliament or Declaration touching the Settlement of Ireland Craig de Feudis apud Scotos dieg 14. Parliament James 1. c. 8. Spelman Glossar in voce Borrow mealis 2 Parliament King James the 4 th Choppinus de Domainio Regum Franciae lib. 1.15 Tacitus de moribus Germanorum Radenicus de gestis Frederici lib. 2. ca. 5. Besoldus de AErario principis Bullinger de vectigalibus Zecchius de principat administrat Varenius de Regno Japan Genesis c. 14. Grotius Anonotat ad Genesin 1 Sam. 17. 1 Sam. 25. 1 Sam. 25. 2 Sam. 8. 1 Chron. 21. 2 Reg ca. 4. Isaiah 16. v. 1. Grotius Annot ad locum Nehemiah 4.17 Mr. Stephens Treatise of Synodals Procurations Somner Glossar in appendice ad Brompton aliâ—s veteres Historicos Angliae Skaeneus tit de Herezeldis in Quon Attach c. 15. Alciat lib. 1. Parerg. c. 45. Spelman Glossar in voce Heriotum Neostadius de Feudis Hollandicis Cowell interpret verborum Mich. 4. E. 1. coram Rege Somners Treatise of Gavelkind Cart. 17 H. 3. m. 6. in 2. parte Dugdales Monastic Anglic Rot. pat 27 30 H. 6. Ex antiquo Codice M.S. de customes de London in Bibliotheca Cl. viri Galfridi Palmer Milit. Baronetti Attorn Generalis Regis Caroli secundi Coke Comment in Artic super Chartas 542 543. Act of Parliament for Subsidies in 3 4 Car. primi Charles Loyseau traictè des Seigneuries Stows Survey of London 9 H. 3. Sir John Davies Treatise of Impositions Ad Cur. tent ibid. Anno 5 8 E. 3. Glos. in verb. usque ad hoc tempus C. Servitium 18. q. 2. Sir John Heywards History of King Edward the 6 th Heylins History of the Reformation of the Church of England Stows Survey of London Sir Francis Bacons letter to the Duke of Buckingham Baldus in proaemio seudorum in Consil. 274. lib. 3. Cynus in l. si viva matre de bonis matern Bodin de Repub lib. 1. Besoldus dissert politic Juridic de Juribus Majestatis ca. 9. Genesis c. 43. 1 Reg. ca. 10. v. 15. 25. Grotius Annotat ad vet testamentum AElianus Hist. variar lib. 1. Brissonius de regno Persiae lib. 1. Gervasius Tilburiensis 20 H. 3. Lois d' Orleans ouuertures de Parlement ca. 8 Exodus 22. v. 29. Deut. 24. v. 19 20 21. Stows Survey of London Heylin Ecclesia restaurata or History of the Reformation of the Church of England fol. 114. Levit. ca. 1. v. 2 3. Levit. 2 3. 25 Exod. 21 22 23 29 Deut. 15. 16. 1 Sam. 15. 2 Sam. 10. Plutarch Apothegm Speed Hist. of Britain Leiger Book of St. Albans Zonaras in 2 part Annal. Suetonius in vita August Cassiodorus lib. 6. Epist. 7. Rosinus de Antiquitat Rom. 54. Selden ad Marmora Arundeliana Mat. Paris 549. Walsingham Hist. Angl. 85. Rot. Parl. 40 E. 3. m. 78 9. Rot. Parl. 42 E. 3. m. 7. Rot. Parl. 17 R. 2. 16 R. 2. Coke 1. part 5. Reports 26 M. S. Francisci Junii fil Francisci Junii in diatrib de vocibus Lord Lady 20 H. 6. Vide Oath of the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings house Cantic 2. Deut. 23. v. 4. Judges 8. v. 35. 1 Reg. 10. 2 Chron. ca. 9. Bodin de Repub 6. Tacitus de moribus Germanorum ca. 13 14. Hieron Epist. In LL. Canuti 102. Dugdales Warwickshire illustrated 679. 680. Dugdales Warwickshire illustrated 317. Dant 4. Ex veteri libro M. S. Prioris de Spalding in Comitat. Lincoln in Bibliotheca Antonii Oldfeild Baronetti Spelman glossar 405. in voce Marletum Dugdales Warwickshire illustrated Pat. 27. 30. H. 6. Amos 1. v. 6. Isaiah 58. v. 6 7. Marsellaer de legatis Nehemiah 5.17 Hebrews 13. v. 1. 2. Selden hist. of Tithes 319 320. Spelman glossar in voce procuratio Selden hist. of Tithes 320. Dugdales Warwickshire illustrâ—ted 373. ex ipso autograph Spelman glossar in voce Mails Lambard Itinerar 212 Spelman glossar in voce Scot. Idem glossar in vocibus Ward-peny Brigbote Spelman glossar in voce Romescot voceâ— Rode-knight Spelman glossar in voâ— Scavage Vzzonius de mandatis principum cap. 7. §. 1. Jeremy 49. v. 31. David Lloid in vita Antonii Brown militis Idem in vita Johannis Russel militis Idem in vita Jacobi Dier militis Claudian aâ— quarto Consulat honor Claudian de Bello Geticoâ— Heylin hist. Ecclesiae Anglicanae reformatae Speed hist. of England David Lloid in vita Davidis Brook militis In the life of Almansor translated out of the Arabick by Robert Ashley J. C. Heylin hist. Ecclesiae Anglicanae reformatae Haggaiâ— Dan. 11. v. 20.