the number of their Confederates à Civibus accepta securitate they sent their Lettess to all the Earls Barons and Knights which yet adhered to the King exhorting and threatning them as they loved Themselves their Lives and Estates they should forsake a perjured King and joyn with them to obtain their Liberties otherwise they would take them for publick Enemies turn their Arms against them destroy their Castles burn their Houses and spoil their Lands and Estates The greatest part whereof upon those threatnings did so think it to be their safer way to forsake Him and their Loyalty as they joyned with them The King finding himself fere derelictum ab omnibus and but seven Knights ex omni multitudine Regia abiding by him timuit valdè lest the Barons in castra sua impetum facientes illa sine difficultate sibi subjugarent especially when they should find nothing to hinder them sent William Marescal Earl of Pembroke and others to treat with them being then at London for a Peace with an offer to grant the Laws and Liberties demanded and thereupon statuerunt Regi diem ad colloquium in pratum inter Stains Windleshores 15o. die Junii where Rex Magnates being met and treating concerning the Liberties and a lasting Peace there being with the King besides Pandulphus and Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury his double-dealing Friends and some few others in all but Twenty-five tandem cum in varia sorte tractassent the King vires suas Baronum viribus impares intelligens sine difficultate Leges Libertates coneessit Charta sua confirmavit data per manum suam in prato quod vocatur Running-Mead inter Stains Windleshores decimo quinto die Junii anno Regni sui decimo septimo Which as Matthew Paris a Monk of St. Albans living not only at the same time but being Historiographer unto King Henry III. his Son privy to many of his affairs and wrote in the 57th year of his Reign hath faithfully related those passages and proceedings was as to the preamble thereof the exact and full tenor thereof being with it truly mentioned in his Book in these words Intuitu Dei pro salute animae meae Antecessorum omnium Haeredum suorum ad honorem Dei exaltationem sanctae Ecclesiae emendationem Regni sui per concilium Stephani Archiepiscopi Cantuarensis who prepared them and had incited the Pope and Barons against him aliorum Episcoporum ibi nominat Pandulphi Domini Papae Subdiaconi familiaris Willielmi Marescali Comitis Pembrochiae Willielmi Comitis Sarisberiensis Willielmi Comitis Warrenniae c. aliorum fidelium mera spontanea voluntate pro Me Haeredibus meis Deo liberis hominibus Angliae habendas tenendas eis Haeredibus suis de Me Haeredibus meis which our Laws no other tenure being specified will interpret to be in capite And more at length as Matthew Paris hath recorded it with a salvis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus Templariis Hospitalariis Comitibus Baronibus Militibus omnibus aliis tà m Ecclesiasticis personis quà m Secularibus Libertatibus Liberis consuetudinibus quas prius habuerant which gave them a better security in their former Liberties than they could claim by the forced and indirect gaining of the latter and concluding in the perclose with his Testibus c. hath these words subjoyned Libertates vero de Foresta liberae consuetudines quas cum libertatibus praescriptis in una schedula pro sua capacitate continere nequiverimus in Charta subscripta continentur saith Matthew Paris In which not in the modern Language and stile of our Acts of Parliament but as Charters in the dictates of Regal Authority as that of William the Conquerour to the Citizens of London and that of dividing the Temporal and Spiritual Jurisdictions and those of King Henry I. King Stephen and Henry II. and all the Charters of Liberties and Priviledges granted by our Kings before and since to Cities Boroughs Corporations and Lords of Manors as the Charter of King Edward I. to the Citizens of London in the 6th year of his Reign and of King Edward III. in the 14th year of his Reign to all the people of England to be governed by the English Laws in case he should obtain his Right to the Kingdom of France and all our preceding Laws have used to be He granted away many of the ancient Rights of the Crown made and ordained new Laws as that amongst others of Communia placita nan sequantur Curiam nostram sed teneantur in certo loco and that of recovering the King's Debts c. Enlarged some abrogated others and gave unto the people greater Liberties and Immunities then the Laws of King Edward the Confessor and the Charter of King Henry I. put altogether had allowed them the Original whereof or the Magna Charta of King Henry III. remaining in the Library of the Archbishops of Canterbury at Lambeth at the time of the Imprisonment of that martyred great Anti-Papist William Laud Archbishop of that See and the ransacking of it preceding his Murder in the Reign of that Blessed Martyr King CHARLES I. by Hugh Peters Mr. Pryn and some others thereunto appointed by their Rebellious Masters the then miscalled Parliament was never after found and by it self in a distinct paragraph did follow as it were a Bond or Security given by King John in these words Cùm autem pro Deo ademendationem Regni nostri ad melius sapiendam discordiam inter nos Barones haec omnia concessimus volentes in integra firma stabilitate gauderi facimus concedimus securieatem subscriptam viz. That the Barons should elect Twenty-five Barons of the Realm who should be Conservators thereof pro totis viribur suis observare tenere facere observari pacem libertates quas eis concessimus and correct the King's defaults in Government Of which number Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford was one with a power that if the King or his Chief-Justiciar should trangress in any Articles of the Laws it should be lawful for any Four of them after Forty days notice given to Him or his Chief-Justiciar and no amendment to complain to the rest and joyning with Them and the People to distrain and compel him with a salvâ Personâ Regis only Reginae liberorum suorum Et isti 25o. Barones juraverunt in animabus suis Rege hoc disponente quod omni instantia his obsequerentur Regem cogerent si fortè rescipisci vellet tenere sequentes and the Earls of Gloucester Arundel and Warren with Thirty-four other Barons and great men juraverunt to obey the commands of the Twenty-five Barons and all that would might swear to assist them and the people cùm communia totius terrae might gravare eum cum eis and to that end those Conservators should have
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
themselves they with a parcel of conscience not of God did treat with the particular Lenders of the Money to King James and for ten l. or a very little in every hundred comed and took up their Privy Seals but were unwilling to trouble the King with the thoughtâ—s thereof to the damage of him and disherision of the Crown of England and being taken notice of and complained of a Commission was granted unto the Lord ottington Sir Henry Vane and Sir Charles Harbord the Kings Surveyor to enquire thereof and certify the King thereof wherein they were so kind hearted and the matters so managed as noâ—hing more was heard thereof but the City of London continueth in possession of the said Manors and Lands or have spent the same in assisting the late horrid Rebellion against him and together with it the CityOrphans Mony for which it hath been reported they are willing to pay them by composition after the rate of 6d per. ponnd caused a Bill to be exhibited by his Attorney General in his Court of Starr Chamber against John Earl of Clare and Mr. Selden for having only in their Custody two Books or Manuscripts directed unto him by Sir Robert Dudley an Englishman living in Florence and stiling himself a Titular Duke of that Countrey endeavouring to instruct him in the method of raising Money by a Tax upon all the Paper and Parchment to be used in England caused Sir Giles Allington to be fined in the High Commission Court for Incest and the Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven to be arraigned in the Court of Kings Bench for Sodomy whereupon after Tryal by his Peers he was Condemned and Beheaded suffered a great Arcanum Imperii in his Praerogative in taxing or requiring an Aid of Ship Money or for setting out a Navy of Ships when the Kingdom was in danger to be disputed in the Exchecquer Chamber by Lawyers and Judges which King Henry the fourth of France by a constant Rule in State Policy would never yeild to have done imitated by Queen Elizabeth who in some of her Charters or Letters Patents as unto Martin Forbisher a great Sea-Captain declared de qua disputari nolumus upon the case or question of 10 s. charged upon Mr. Hamdens Estate in Buckinghamshire of 4000 l. p. Annum wherein all that could be raked out of or by the Records of this Kingdom was put together by Mr. Oliver St. John and Mr. Robert Holborn theformer being after made Cheif Justice of the Court of Common Pleas by Hambden and the Rebel party and the later taking Arms for the King faithfully adhered unto him whereupon that cause coming to be heard all that could be argued for the not paying or paying of it of twelve Judges that carefully considered the Arguments and gave their opinions there were ten concurred in giving Judgment for the King and only two viz. Justice Hatton and Justice Crooke who having before under their hands concurred with all the other and suffered their subscriptions to be publickly inrolled in their several Courts at Westminster could find the way to be over-instrumental in setting our Troy Town all in Flames whilst that pious Prince being overburdened with his own more than common necessities did not omit any part of the Office of a Parens Patriae but taking more care for his People than for himself too many of whom proved basely and wickedly ingrateful called to accompt Lionel Cranfield whom he had made Earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer of England fined him in vast sums of money ordered him during his life never more to sit in the House of Peers in Parliament received a considerable part of his Fine and acquitted him of the residue And being desirous as his Father was to unite the Kingdom of Scotland in their Reformed Religion as the more happy Church of England was both as unto Episcopacy and its Liturgy that attempt so failed his expectation as a mutiny hapned in the Cathedral Church of Edenburgh and an old Wife sitting upon a Stool or Crock crying out that she smelt a Pape at her Arse threw it at the Ministers Head whereupon a great mutiny began and after that an Insurrection which to pacify the King raised a gallant Army of Gentry and Nobility with all manner of warlike provision and marched unto the Borders but found them so ill provided for defence as they appeared despicable yet the almost numberless Treacheries fatally encompassing that pious King persuading him not to beat or vanquish them when he might so easily have done it he returned home disbanding his Army and a close Favourite of Scotland was after sent to pacify them but left them far more unruly than before shortly after which Philip Nye a Factious Minister that should have been of the Church of England but was not with some other as wicked Persons were from England delegated to Scotland to make a Coâ—enant of Brotherly Rebellion against the King and accordingly the Scots being well assured that their Confederates in England would not hurt them marched into England with a ragged Army with Petitions to the King and Declarations of Brotherly Love unto too many of their Confederates seised by the cowardise or carelesness of the Inhabitants the Town of Newcastle upon Tine notwithstanding a small Army ill ordered was sent to defend it better than they did so as the Scotch Petitioning Army quartering there and in the Northern parts the King hastening thitherwards with Forces was persuaded to summon at Rippon a great Council of many of his Nobility whither too many of them that came being more affected to the Scotch Army that came like the Gibeonites with old Shoes and mouldy Bread were allowed to be free-quartered and a Parliament suddenly to be summoned at London whereby to raise money for the discharge of their Quarters Army charges in the mean time the Scotch their Commissioners with their Apostle Alexander Henderson have license to visit London where they are lamented feasted and visited and almost adored as much as St. Paul was amongst the Macedonians or the Brethren who cryed up their holy Covenant and Religion to be the best the Church of England with her Ceremonies Common Prayers and Potage not to be compared unto it the Parliament would help all and the Scots Commissioners were so popular and in request as they seemed for that time to govern both the City of London and Parliament and by their peace pride and plenty had generated Sedition and Faction and that combustible matter in England burst into a Fire which could not be quenched the Kings Privy Council could not please the five Members nor Kimboltons Ambition and Envy be satisfied without being made a great Officer of State but proved after to be a general of some associated Counties against the King God might be worshipped with a thriving Conscience and the people taken care for by plundering Sequestration Decimation Killing Slaying or Impoverishing the Common Wealth or Weal Publick Pym
pour contempt upon our Kings and Princes and not cause them to wander in the Wilderness where there is no way but offer up our daily Prayers unto God to send help to our Jacob in all his many difficulties Elenchus Capitum OR THE CONTENTS Of the Sections or Chapters § 1. THat our Kings of England in their voluntary summoning to their Great Councils and Parliaments some of the more Wise Noble and Better part of their Subjects to give their Advice and Consent in matters touching the publick good and extraordinary concernment did not thereby create or by any Assent express or tacite give unto them an Authority Coordination Equality or share in the Legislative power or were elected by them page 1 § 2. Of the Indignities Troubles and Necessities which were put upon King John in the enforcing of his Charters by the Pope and his then domineering Clergy of England joyned with the Disobedience and Rebellion of some of the Barons encouraged and assisted by them p. 7 § 3. Of the succeeding Iealousies Animosities Troubles and Contests betwixt King John and his over-jealous Barons after the granting of his Charters and his other transactions and agreements with them at their tumultuous meeting at Running Mede with the ill usages which he had before received of them during all the time of his Raign p. 26 § 4. The many Affronts Insolencies and ill Usages suffered by King Henry 3. until the granting of his Magna Charta Charta de Foresta p. 29 § 5. Of the continued unhappy Jealousies Troubles and Discords betwixt the Discontented and Ambitious Barons and King Henry 3. after the granting of his Magna Charta Charta de Foresta p. 36. § 6. 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 justify the provisions made at Oxford which was the principal matter referred unto him p. 58 § 7. Of the evil Actions and Proceedings of Symon de Montfort and his Rebellious partners in the name of the King whilst they kept him and his Son Prince Edward and divers of the Loyal Nobility Prisoners from the 14th of May in the 48th year of his Raign until his and their delivery by the more fortunate Battle at Evesham the â—th day of August in the 49th year of his tormented Raign p. 66 § 8. Of the Actions of the Prince after his Escape his success at the Battle of Evesham Release of the King his Father and restoring him to his Rights p. 98 § 9. Of the proceedings of King Henry 3. after his Release and Restauration until his death p. 100 § 10. That these new contrived Writs of Summons made by undue means upon such a disturbed occasion could neither obtain a proper or quiet sitting in Parliament or the pretended ends and purposes of the Framers thereof and that such an hasty and undigested constitution could never be intended to erect a third Estate in the Kingdom equal in power with the King and his great Councel the House of Peers or consistent with the pretended Conservatorships or to be coordinate with the King and his Great Councel of Peers or to be a Curb to any of them or themselves or upon any other design than to procure some money to wade through that their dangerous Success p. 108 § 11. Of the great Power Authority Command and Influence which the Praelates Barons and Nobility of England had in or about the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. when he was a Prisoner to Symon Montfort â—d these Writs of Election of some of the Commons to Parliament were first devised and sent to summon them And the great power and Estate which they afterwards had to create and contain an Influence upon them p. 122 § 12. That the aforesaid Writ of Summons made in that Kings name to elect a certain number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses the probos homines good honest men or Barons of the Cinque Ports to appear for or represent some part of the Commons of England in Parliament being enforced from King Henry 3. in the 48th and 49th year of his Raign when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and under the power of him and his party of Rebellious Barons was never before used in any Wittenagemots Mikel-gemots or great Councels of our Kings or Princes of England p. 147 § 13. That the Majores Barones Regni and Spiritual and Temporal Lords with their Assistants were until the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. and the constrained Writs issued out for the election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses whilst he was a Prisoner in the Camp or Army of his Rebellious Subjects the only great Councels of our Kngs. p. 151 § 14. That these enforced Writs of Summons to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal accompanied with that then newly devised Engine or Writ to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses to be present in Parliament were not in the usual and accustomed form for the summoning the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to the Parliament p. 204 § 15. That the Majores Barones or better sort of the Tenants in Capite Iustly and Legally by some of our Ancient Kings and Princes but not by any positive Law that of the enforced Charter from King John at Running Mede being not accounted to be such a Law were distinguished and separated from the Minores or lesser sort of the Tenants in Capite p. 207 § 16. That the General Councels or Courts mentioned before the Rebellious meeting of some of the English Baronage and the constraint put upon King John at Running Mede or before the 49th of Henry 3. were not the Magna Consilia or generale Consilium Colloquium or Communia Consilia now called Parliaments wherein some of the Commons as Tenants in Capite were admitted but only truly and properly Curiae Militum a Court summoning those that hold of the King in Capite to acknowledge Record and perform their Services do their Homage and pay their Releifs c. And the Writ of summons mentied in the Close Rolls of the 15th year of the Raign of King John was not then for the summoning of a great Councel or Parliament but for other purposes viz. Military Aids and Offices p. 218 § 17. That the Comites or Earls have in Parliament or out of Parliament Power to compel their Kings or Soveraign Princes to yield unto their â—onsults Votes or Advices will make them like the Spartan Ephori and amount to no more than a Conclusion without praemisses or any thing of Truth Law or Right Reason to support it p. 229. § 18. Of the methods and courses which King Edward the first held and took in the Reformation and Cure of the former State Diseases and Distempers p. 286. § 19. That the Sheriffs are by the Tenor and Command of the Writs for the Elections of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses of
his elder Brother Geffry's Son being at that time not able to carry it he would endeavour to obtain the Crown and therefore the safer way to prevent confusion was that the Land should rather make him King than he make himself and that the Election would be some tie upon him Or in or by the Books if extant which that King is said to have wrote entituled Leges pro Republicâ 2d Statuta Regalia 3d. in the Epistle which he wrote Ad Innocentium Papam contra Stephanum Langton Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem 4th Ad Stephanum Cantuariensem Episcopum 5th Ad Innocentium Papam contra Barones 6th Ad Londinenses pro Praetor 7th Super Charta Obligatoria Which if the devouring teeth of Time or corruptions of their Originals have not met with them might if perused be believed to make no opposition to that which should be in a well-ordered Regal Government Or in or by the Charter at Running Mead called Magna Charta Charta de Forestae wrested and enforced from him by a mighty Army of too many of the Barons of England with their innumerable adherents upon their Oaths solemnly taken upon the Altars never to desist until they had obtained a grant of their Laws and Liberties which they pretended to have been violated which saith Daniel the Historian might be wished to have been gained by those unruly Barons in a better manner Or by any of our Laws or any of the Charters or Liberties granted by any of our Kings or Princes before or after SECT II. Of the Indignities Troubles and Necessities which were put upon King JOHN in the enforcing of his Charters by the Pope and his then Domineering Clergy of England joyned with the Disobedience and Rebellion of some of the Barons encouraged and assisted by them THat unfortunate Prince so ill used by Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury in the beginning of his Reign and as bad by Philip King of France who had given the Honour of Knighthood unto Arthur the Son of King John's elder Brother and taken his Homage for Anjou Poicteau Touraine Maine and the Dutchy of Normandy with an endeavour to make it the most advantageous for himself in regard that King John had neglected to do his Homage for those Provinces being Members of the Crown of France And in the third year of his Reign imposing 3 s. upon every Plough-land for discharge of a Dowry of 30000 Marks to be given in marriage with his Niece Blanch the collecting whereof the Archbishop of York opposed in his Province for which and refusing to come upon summons to his Treaty in France seizing his Temporalities the Archbishop Interdicted the whole Province of York and Excommunicated the Sheriff Into which County the King with his Queen Isabel afterwards making their Progress in their Journey towards Scotland and exacting great Fines of Offenders in his Forests the Archbishop his Brother refused him Wine and the Honour of the Bells at Beverly A reconciliation was notwithstanding made betwixt them by the mediation of four Bishops and as many Barons with a great sum of money and a promise to reform excesses on both parts When the King upon Easter after his return from the North was again Crowned at Canterbury and with him his Queen by the Archbishop Hubert and there the Earls and Barons of England were summoned to be ready with Horse and Armour to pass the Seas with him presently after Whitsontide but they holding a Conference together at Leicester by a general consent sent him word that unless he would render them their Rights and Liberties they would not attend him out of the Kingdom whereupon he required of them security by the delivering up unto him the principal of their Castles and began with William de Albany for his Castle of Belvoir who delivered unto him his Son as a Pledge but not the Castle And the King with the King of France being after solicited by the Popes Legate obtained a Subsidy of the fortieth part of all their Subjects Revenues for one year by way of Alms to succour the Holy Lands for the levying whereof in England Geffery Fitz-Peter Justiciar in England sent out his Writs by way of request and perswasion not as of due or by co-action to avoid example Howsoever the King of France declared for Arthur to whom he married his youngest Daughter required King John to deliver up unto him all his Provinces in France and by a peremptory day summon'd him to appear personally at Paris to answer what should be laid to his charge and abide the Arrest of his Court which he refusing was by sentence adjudged to lose all which he did hold in France of that Crown who thus beset with the King of France on the one side and his Nephew Arthur and the Barons of Anjou on the other who laid siege to Mirabel defended by Eleanor Mother of King John who by her intermedling turbulent and unquiet spirit had done him no good with great expedition relieved it by defeating the whole Army carrying away Prisoners Earl Arthur Hugh le Brun all the Barons of Anjou and 200 Knights Whereupon Arthur being shortly after murdered in Prison and the deed laid to his charge with the cruel execution of many of his Prisoners it so exasperated the Nobility of Britain and Poicteau as they all took Arms against him and summon'd him to answer in the Court of Justice of the King of France which he denying was condemned to forfeit the Dutchy of Normandy which his Ancestors had held by the space of 300 years and of that and all his other Provinces in France became wholly dispossest And with that disastrous success returning into England charged the Earls and Barons with the reproach of his losses in France and fined them to pay the fourth part of all their Goods for refusing their aid to which the feudal Laws and their tenures had obliged them Neither spared he the Church or Commonwealth in the like Imposition of which Geffery Fitz-Peter Justiciar of England was Collector for the Laity and Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury for the Clergy Which being not enough to supply his occasions for War in France where great Estates of many of the English Nobility then lay a Parliament was convoked at Oxford wherein was granted two Marks and a half of every Knights Fâ—e for Military Aid the Clergy promising to do the like on their part In anno 8o. of his Reign another Imposition was laid of the 13 th part of all the moveables of the Clergy and Laity which was again opposed by the Archbishop of York who solemnly accursed the Receivers thereof within his Province and departed out of the Kingdom Unto which also was added a miserable breach betwixt Legiance and Authority for Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury being dead a great controversy happened betwixt the King and the Pope upon the Monks of Canterbury's who were sent about it to Rome election of Stephen Langton a Cardinal who
though an English-man born had been bred in France and an adhaerent to that King Being thus elected and consecrated by the Pope at Viterbium in Italy the election of the Bishop of Norwich whom the King had procured to be elected being made void and those Monks and the rest of the Agents sent home with the Popes Letters exhorting the King benignly to receive Stephen Langton and charging the Monks remaining at Canterbury by virtue of holy Obedience to obey the Archbishop in all Temporal and Spiritual matters With which the King being greatly displeased seized upon all which the Monks had who with their Prior hasted away to Flanders And writing a sharp Letter to the Pope concerning the wrong done unto him in making void the election of Gray Bishop of Norwich and advancing Stephen Langton a man unknown to him and which was more to his prejudice without his consent gave him to understand that he would stand for the liberties of his Crown to the death constantly affirming that he could not revoke the election of the Bishop of Norwich and that if he were not righted therein he would stop up his passages of his Subjects to Rome and if necessity required had in his Kingdom of England and other his Dominions Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates of so sufficient Learning as they needed not to beg Justice and Judgment of Strangers Unto which as angry a Letter being returned and two Monks who were staid at Dover having been sent from Rome to demand his assent for the election of Stephen Langton admonished him to endeavour to give him and the Church their Right and not to cast himself into those difficulties from whence he could not easily release himself since He in the end must overcome to whom all knees bow in Heaven Earth and Hell whose Vicegerency here below he exercised Neither was it safe for him to repugn God and the Church for which the glorious Martyr and Bishop Thomas Becket shed his Bloud especially since his Father and Brother late Kings of England have in the hands of the Legates of the Apostolick See abjured which the Records and Memorials of England do with great clearness contradict that as he pleased to call it Impious Custom And when he was informed how the King had proceeded against the Church of Canterbury sent his Mandates to the Bishops of Ely London and Worcester to exhort him to reform himself and if they found him contumacious to interdict the whole Kingdom and if that would not correct him would lay a severe hand on him Which they being ready to obey with tears beseeching him that he would call home the Archbishop and the Monks of Canterbury and avoid the scandal of interdiction The King in a great Passion against the Pope and Cardinal interrupting their Speech Swore that if they or any other should dare to put the Kingdom under Interdiction he would presently send all the Clergy of England to the Pope and confiscate their Goods and that if any of Rome should be found within any part of his Land he would cause their Eyes to be put out their Noses cut over fierce punishments long before usually and indifferently inflicted upon offending Criminals Laicks and Clergy by our Saxon and Norman Ancestors much before and sometimes since the time of our William the Conquerour and so sent home that by those marks they might be known of other Nations charging the Bishops moreover presently to avoid his presence as they would avoid their own danger Of which the Pope being certified by those Bishops the whole Kingdom was shortly after interdicted all Ecclesiastical Sacraments and Offices except Confession Extream Unction and Baptism of Children seized and Dead were put into the Earth without Priest or Prayer the King by his Sheriffs and Ministers commanded all Prelates and their Servants to depart the Kingdom confiscated all the Revenues of the Bishopricks Abbyes and Priories many of the Prelates getting into the Monasteries as places priviledged And not forgetting the Indignities Hardships Necessities and ill usages which had been undutifully put upon him by some of his Barons with the Domineering of the Pope his Legates and Clergy whilst like a Tennis-Ball he had been betwixt them tost from one hand Wall and Racket to another with the great oppressions which had been laid upon him by the Clergy of one part and some of his unruly Barons on the other the discords of the former more encouraging the latter by the Popes Excommunication and Interdicting his Kingdom did the better to prevent the revolt of his Subjects which might follow upon his breach with the Church send with a Military power to all the great men of the Kingdom to give Pledges for the assurance of their Fidelity wherein some of them gave satisfaction by sending their Sons Nephews or nearest of Kin amongst whom William de Brause a great Baron being sent unto his Lady too sharply giving an answer before her Husband could do it That the King should have none of her Son to keep that was so ill a keeper of his own Brothers Son Arthur but her Lord reprehending her for it returned his answer That he was ready if he had offended to satisfy the King without any Pledge according to the judgment of his Court and that of his Peers The King displeased with the Londoners removed his Exchequer to Northampton marched with an Army to make War against the King of Scotland and that business appeased in his return back caused all the Inclosures in his Forests to be laid open The Pope seeing that he would not yield proceeded to an Excommunication of his Person which did put him into a desperate rage against the Clergy who durst not execute the Popes Mandate for many days after which Excommunication of the King was accompanied with that of the Emperour Otho his Nephew and all the Estates of Germany and the Roman Empire were absolved from their Obedience and Fidelity But the King having gained great Treasure from the Iews made a Voyage into Ireland where receiving the Homage of many and reducing much of that Country to his obedience ordained the same to be governed by the Laws and Customs of England the contests whereof were not then fully settled making the Coin and Money thereof to be there Currant and leaving John Grey Bishop of Norwich to be Justiciar and there after three Months stay returned into Wales which had Rebelled reduced them to Obedience taking 28 of the Children of their best Families for Pledges Whence returning in the 13th year of his Reign he required and had of every Knight that attended not his Army in that Expedition two Marks and at Northampton received the Popes Agents Pandulphus and Durandus who were sent to make a Peace betwixt the Kingdom and Priesthood too many of whom in matters against the King were seldom at odds by whose exhortation and the consideration of the State of the Kingdom he consented that the Archbishop
and all the exiled Bishops and Monks of Canterbury should in peace return to their own but refused to make satisfaction for their Goods taken away They depart unsatisfied which made the Pope more Imperious to constrain him to do whatsoever he desired and to that end Absolved all his Subjects upon what occasion soever from all their obedience strictly forbidding them under pain of Excommunication Board Councel and Conference Who preparing to suppress an Insurrection of some of the Welsh had intelligence that if he proceeded therein he would either be killed or betrayed whereupon he returned to London required Pledges of the Nobility and had them Eustace de Vescy and Robert Fitz-Walter being accused of the Conspiracy fled the one into Scotland the other into France and the Pope pronouncing the Kings absolute Deposition from the Regal Government of the Kingdom wrote to the King of France a perfidious dangerous enemy of King John's That as he looked to have remission of his Sins he should take the charge upon him to expel him out of the Kingdom of England and possess the same to Him and his Heirs for ever and sent Letters to the Princes and great Men of other Nations That they should aid the King of France in the dejection of that contumacious King of England in revenge of the Injuries done to the Universal Church granting like remission of their Sins as if they undertook the Holy War The King of France thereupon making great preparations against him and with that Commission the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other exiled Bishops with Pandulphus the Popes Legate being sent unto him private instructions were given by the Pope to Pandulphus his juggling Legate at his returning into England out of the King of France's great Army prepared against him that if upon the Preparation and Forces gathered by the King of France for his dejection he could work the King of England to such conditions as he should propound Absolution and Restauration should be granted unto him Who thus distressed not only granted restitution and satisfaction of whatever had been taken from the Archbishop and Monks of Canterbury and the Bishops of London Bathe and Lincoln who were fled into France to the Archbishop but also laid down his Crown Scepter Sword and Ring the Ensigns of his Regality at the feet of Pandulphus as a Livery and Seizin of the Kingdom of England to the Pope and submitted himself to the judgment and mercy of the Church which being two days after or as some have written six restored unto him upon an agreement made at the receiving thereof upon his Oath Non sine dolore saith Matthew Paris tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis in praesentia Pandulphi se judicio sanctae Ecclesiae pariturum sexdecim cum eo Comites Barones ex potentioribus Regni in animam ipsius Regis juraverunt Quod si fortè facti paeniteret ipsi eum pro possibilitate compellerent And thereupon convenerunt decimo tertio die Maii apud Doveriam viz. die Lunae proximo ante Ascensionem Domini Rex Pandulphus cum Comitibus Baronibus turba multa nimis no House of Commons certainly ubi in pacis formam unanimitèr consenserunt And in the King's Name and under his Seal it was declared by the Title of Iohannes Dei Gratiâ not of the Pope or People and four of the Barons viz. William Earl of Salisbury his Brother Reginald Earl of Boloigne William Earl of Warren and William de Ferrariis juraver ant in animam suam i. e. Regis That they should bonâ side in every thing observe that Peace and Agreement And he did likewise solemnly and absolutely swear stare mandato Domini Papae to stand to the will and command of the Pope and his Legate or Legates aforesaid in all things for not doing whereof he was excommunicated by him and that he should not molest Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury William Bishop of London Eustace Bishop of Ely Giles Bishop of Hereford Iosceline Bishop of Bath Hubert Bishop of Lincoln the Prior and Monks of Canterbury Robert Fitz-Walter whose Castle of Baynard in or near London the King had before seized with all his other Lands and Estate proclaiming him a Traytor and Eustace de Vescy with all other Clarks and Laicks which had adhaered unto them but continue in a firm peace and good accord with them and should publickly take his Oath before the said L gate or his Delegate that he should not hurt or cause them to be molested in their Persons Lands Goods or Estates but should receive them into his grace and favour and pardon all their Offences not hinder the said Archbishops and Bishops in their jurisdictions and execution of their Office but they might fully execute their Authority as they ought and should grant to the Pope Archbishops and Bishops his Letters Patents thereof upon Oaths to be taken by the Bishops Earls and Barons and their Letters Patents given that they would firmly and truly hold and keep the said Peace and Agreement and if he by himself or others should infringe it they in the behalf of the Church should oppose the Violators of the said Peace and Agrement and he should lose the benefit of the Custody of their Churches in the vacancy thereof and if he could not perswade others to keep the last part of the Oath that is to say by himself or others should contradict or go against it they should put in execution the power of the Church and Apostolick Command and did by his Letters Patents further oblige himself to quit and renounce all his Rights and Patronage which he had in any of the Churches of England and the said Letters Patents should be transmitted and delivered to the said Archbishop and Bishops before their coming into England the said Archbishop and Bishops with a Salvo honore Dei Ecclesiae giving caution by their Oaths and Letters Patents that neither they nor any on their behalf should attempt or do any thing against his Person or Crown whilst he observed and secured unto them the Peace and Agreement as aforesaid And as to what was taken from them should make unto them full Restitution with Damages for all that had been done as well to Clerks as Laicks intermedling in those Affairs not only as to their Goods and Estates but all Liberties which should be preserved unto them and to the Archbishop and Bishop of Lincoln from the time of their Consecrations and to all others from the time of the aforesaid Discords nor should there be any hindrance to the living or dead by any of his grants or promises before made neither should he retain any thing by way of Service due unto him but only the Services which should hereafter be due unto him all Clerks and Laicks imprisoned upon that occasion should be restored to Liberty And the King should presently after Absolution given to him by him that should do it cause to be
his Castles of Killingworth Northampton Nottingham and Scarborough and the Castellanies or Governours sworn to obey them and after a general pardon granted to them and all their adhaerents mutual Oaths should be taken on both sides in solemn manner for the inviolable observing the Articles and the King's Letters Patents sent to all the Sheriffs of the Kingdom to cause all men of what degree soever within their several Shires to swear to observe those Laws and Liberties granted by his Charter and was compell'd so far to suffer those Conservators to proceed in their Conservatorships as in the same yearthey took their Oaths to perform those their new Offices the Earls of Arundel Gloucester and Warren with Hubert de Burgh and many Barons and great men took their Oaths also to obey and assist them But in the mean time Gloucester and Spencer being the chief of the Twenty-four Conservators did draw the entire managing of the Kingdom into their own hands compel the King to summon a great Councel at London where the authority of the Twenty-four Conservators was deliver'd over unto themselves and it was ordained that Three of them at the least should attend at the Court to dispose of the custody of the Castles and other business of the Kingdom with those of the Chancellor Justiciar and Treasurer and of all Offices great and small and bound the King to loose and renounce to them their legal Obedience whensoever he should infringe his Charters which might as unto a great part of them be certainly believed to have been the very spawn and breed of those long-after-reviv'd high and mighty Nineteen Propositions which were endeavour'd to have been enforced upon the late Blessed Martyr King CHARLES and of the late design'd Association in the Reign of His Son King CHARLES II. But that hoped pacification being made saith the Historian Jealousies and Discontents did again kindle and break out on both sides the one part to keep what they had undutifully gained and the other to get loose of what for fear he had too much yielded unto the King wanting none to enflame the perturbations and anguish of his mind to tell him that he was now a King without a Kingdom a Lord without Dominion and a Subject of his Subjects the Discords like a Wound or Sore ill-cur'd fester'd again and broke out SECT III. Of the succeeding Jealousies Animosities Troubles and Contests betwixt King John and his over-jealous Barons after the granting of his Charters and his other Transactions and Agreements with them at their tumultuous meeting at Running-Mead with the ill usages which he had before received of them during all the time of his Reign HE retir'd into the Isle of Wight whence by Agents sent to Rome he procured a definitive Sentence to condemn and nullifie what was done and the Pope's Excommunication of the Barons who kept about the City of London and under colour of Tournments and other Martial exercises invited as many other as they could to their assistance but did not seek to surprize his Person or intercept his Agents although they had strength to do it but only to enjoy those Liberties which they had spoiled and discredited by gaining them by violence wherein the fear of the power of an enraged Prince made them the more desperately careful to defend themselves and finish their designs whilst the King tarried three months in the Isle of Wight whence the Bishop of Worcester Chancellor of England Bishop of Norwich with others were sent with his Seal to procure Foreign Forces and to bring them to Dover whither after some small prizes taken by him and he returning his Agents abroad brought him an Army of Foreigners from Gascony Lovaine Poicteau and Brabant many of them being his French Subjects with whose help notwithstanding the loss of 40000 Men Women and Children who were drowned at Sea as they were bringing unto him by Hubert de Burgh from Calice He besieged and took Rochester Castle marched over most part of the Kingdom and within half a year got in all the Barons Castles even to the borders of Scotland and was Master of all England except the City of London which he would not adventure upon in regard of the Barons united Forces which lay near unto it marched to St. Albans where he proclaimed the Pope's Excommunication of the Barons who seeing Themselves and their Wives and Children like to be ruined and depriv'd of their Estates which were given away to strangers desperately fell into another extreme solicited Lewis the French King's Son to take upon him the Crown of England wherein they promised by a free Election to invest him and to send Pledges for the performance which Message being well received a Parliament was called at Lyons by Philip the Father of Lewis and the business resolved upon whilst Lewis besides the hop'd-for the title of Election by those trusty Conservators of the Peoples Liberties for their own particular Interest more than the Peoples supposed that he had another title from his Wife Blanch Daughter of the Sister of the prosecuted King In whose behalf the Pope wrote to the King of France not to invade the King of England but rather to defend him in regard he was a Vassal of the Roman Church and the Kingdom by reason of Dominion appertaining unto it whereunto the King of France answered probably by the advice of the contending English Baronage That the Kingdom of England never was nor is nor ever shall be the Patrimony of St. Peter That King John was never lawfull King thereof and if he were he had forfeited it by the Murder of his Nephew Arthur for which he was condemned in his Court and could not give it away without the consent of the Barons who were bound in an Oath to defend the same and if the Pope should maintain this errour it would be a pernicious example Wherewith the Pope's Agents departing unsatisfied Lewis sent his Commissioners to Rome to declare his Rights and justifie his undertaking sets forth from Callis with 600 Ships and 80 other Vessels and landed with his Army at Sandwich King Iohn being then at Dover who upon notice of his great power and distrusting his Mercenaries committed the keeping of Dover Castle to Hubert de Burgh forsook the Field and with it himself and retired first to Worcester and after to Gloucester whereby Lewis having subdued the whole County of Kent Dover excepted came to London where he was joyfully received of the Barons and upon his Oath taken to restore their Laws and recover their Rights had Homage and Fealty done unto him Guallo the Pope's Agent follow'd the King to Gloucester shews him the Pope's care of him pronounced Excommunication against Lewis and all that took part with him Notwithstanding which small comforts in so many and great extremeties pressing hard upon him most of his Mercenaries left him and either returned into their own Countreys with such spoils as they had gotten or betook
themselves to the service of their Countrey-men But he was not yet so forsaken for that he had power enough to infest though not to subdue his enemies and some faith was found amongst many of his Subjects that well executed their trusts Dover Castle with a small company held out against all the Force which Lewis could bring against it Windsor Castle did the like against the Barons Nottingham and Lincoln Castles made resolute resistance The most fertil places of the Kingdom as about Gloucester the Marches of Wales Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire Norfolk Suffolk Essex Kent and all about London were the stages of the War and the Ruins of the Kingdom were every where heard and felt which continuing all that Summer about the latter-end of October then next following that distressed King oppressed with as many sorrows as enemies and a grief conceived for the loss of his Carriages and other necessaries of War sunk in the Sands passing the Washes betwixt Lyn and Boston fell sick of a burning Feaver taken as some writers have recorded it by a surfeit of eating Peaches and drinking new Ale out of a Cup with the Venom prick'd out of a Toad put into it given him by a Monk at Swinsted Abbey in Lincolnshire who after leave given by the Abbot and assoiled or absolved from the doing thereof was content to poyson himself as he did and bringing the Cup unto the King sitting at meat said Wassail for never in all your lyfe drancke yee of so goode a Cuppe To whom the King said drincke Monch which he doing and the King having drunk a great draught did set down the Cup. The Monk retired into the Infirmatory where his Bowels brake assunder The King finding himself ill at ease and his Belly beginning to swell and being told that the Monk was dead commanded the Table to be taken away and a Truss to be provided for him of which vulgata fama Ranulphus Cestrensis Henry de Knighton the Book of St. Albans printed by Caxton in the year 1502. in his Chronicle and Mr. William Pryn in his late History of the Pope's Usurpations in England in the Reign of King John have given a probable account though many of the Monks and the then Romish Clergy fatned and grown great by the Pope's and their extravagant and never-to-be-proved Authority over Kings and Kingdoms were so unwilling to acknowledge it as they did all they could to stifle and over-cast with Lies the Truth of it Whence in great weakness he who was so little enclined to Paganism or the Religion of Miramolin King of Africk Morocco and Spain or guilty of sending Embassadors unto him after or before the surrender of his Kingdoms to the Pope with an offer to be his Tributary and of his Religion of which saith Mr. Pryn upon a most diligent search no vestigia or manner of evidence is to be found amongst the Records of this Kingdom it being a meer scandal and slanderous invective forged against him to make him odious was conveyed to Newark where after he had received the Eucharist and taken order for the succession of his Son Henry he departed this life and was buried at Worcester and such a care was taken by the Abbot of Swinsted for the safety of the poysoning Monk's Soul as five Monks until the dissolution of that Abbey which was 300 years after were from time to time stipended to sing a Requiem for it SECT IV. The many Affronts Insolencies and ill usages suffered by King Henry III. until the granting of his Magna Charta and Charta de Forestae WHich tragical end of King John although it much altered the state of the Kingdom yet not as to the miseries and troubles thereof for King Henry his Son being solemnly crowned as a King by Succession and not Election was committed to the care and tutelage of Marescal Earl of Pembroke as Good and Wise as he was Great a main Pillar of the Father and a Preserver of the Crown to his Son who with Guallo the Pope's Legate the Bishops of Winchester Bath and Worcester did work all means to bring the Barons to an accord excommunicated Lewis and his adhaerents and caused great satisfaction in the minds of some who before were disgusted with the insolency of the French and the more upon the confession of one of the Nobility of France who upon his death-bed touch'd with compunction revealed the intention of Lewis to enslave or extinguish the English Nation whom he thought not fit to be trusted in regard that they had forsaken their Sovereign Lord which wrought so great an aversion in the English as they who before were afraid for the shame of inconstancy and the danger of their Sons and Pledges carried into France and there remaining did now resolve to relinquish their Homage and sworn Fidelity and forsake him and made as much hast to send him out of England as they did to call him into it So as after a years trouble with his Wars and Depraedations and all the help the City of London could give him he was enforced to come to an accord quit the Kingdom take 15000 Marks for the charges of his Voyage abjure his claim to the Kingdom promise by Oath to procure as far as in him lay his Father to restore all such Provinces in France as appertained to the Crown of England and when he came to be King to resign them in a peaceable manner King Henry taking an Oath and for him the Legate and Protector to restore to the Barons and other his Subjects all their Rights and Heritages with their Liberties for which the Discords began between the late King and his People whereupon a general Pardon was granted and all Prisoners freed on both sides Lewis after so long abode with his Army in England being honourably attended to Dover departed the Kingdom and about Michaelmas after upon the death of his Father was received and crowned King of France and Guallo the Legate well paid for his Negotiation returning to Rome carried with him 12000 Marks a great sum of money in those times And no sooner had that provident Protector of the Kingdom the Earl of Pembroke quieted the many troubles of the Nation but as much wanted as greatly lamented by the People he dyed The Bishop of Winchester with many other great Councellors being made Protectors of the young King and his Kingdoms but the King of France being after requested to make restitution of what he had usurped answered That what he had gotten by the forfeiture of King John upon an accusation of murdering his Nephew Arthur right Heir to the Crown of England he would hold Howsoever Peace being made with Scotland to whose King the King's Sister being married Wales revolted and an Insurrection being made in Ireland did put the King to much trouble and charge who being come to some years of understanding was in a Parliament holden at London put in mind by the Archbishop of
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-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
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
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
praefato Rege Franciae redire versus Terram Sanctam in subsidium ejusdem prout MÃ gis noveritis convenire Teste Rege apud Westm ' 6 o die Februarii And tired with the many Troubles with which the Rebellious and unquiet Spirits of too many of his Subjects had from his Infancy never ceased to torment him exchanged his earthly Habitation for a better before his Son could hear of his Death or return to take possession of his Kingdom and Inheritance And although he against his Will left behind him the first Original or Draught of a Constitution or Design of an House or Convocation now called an House of Commons in Parliament which can claim no better an Extraction then it's Birth and first Procreation from a Force and Duress of Imprisonment put by a Rebellious Army upon their vanquished Soveraign whilst he was in dread of the life of Himself and his Son and his Brother and his Son for more than a year and a quarter and led about and made to say and do and yeild unto every thing which they would have him That afflicted Prince did not after the battle of Evesham during all the Time of his Raign which continued about Eight years after make use of that kind of Writs of Summons or of that Form for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to let in the Tide of the Vulgar with their Ignorance upon his highest and greatest Councel And those new-contrived Writs of Summons could not in all probability obtain a quiet Sitting or accommodate the pretended Ends and Purposes of the Framers thereof neither be intended to erect a third Estate nor agree with the constrained Conservatorships or other their Designs otherwise than to maintain those Rebellious Barons in the Powers that they had usurped SECT X. That those new contrived Writs of Summons made by undue Means upon such a disturbed Occasion could neither obtain a proper or quiet Sitting in Parliament or the pretended Ends and Purposes of the Framers thereof and that such an hasty and indigested Constitution could never be intended to erect a third Estate in the Kingdom equal in power with the KING and his great Councel the House of Peers or consistent with the pretended Conservatorships or to be co-ordinate with the KING and his great Councel of Peers or to be a curb to any of them or themselves or upon any other design then to procure some Money to wade through that their dangerous Success IN regard that very many of the Counties and a great part of England as most of the Northern much of Wales and the Marches thereof under the Influence and Power of Valence Earl of Pembroke Mortimer Clare Earl of Gloucester Clifford Le Strange and other Welsh Lords Marchers and of John Balioll and other of the Northern Barons joyned to the Power and Influence of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester after his forsaking of Montfort neither could or were like to come unto that so packed Parliament for Richard Earl of Cornewall had very many Borough Towns in that County Wales and its thirteen Shires and the largely priviledged Earldom of Chester sent no Knights or Burgesses to sit in the House of Commons in Parliament either then or before or since until by an Act of Parliament made in the later end of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth they were Authorised to be Elected for that Purpose Warren Earl of Surrey and Sussex was not in those Counties destitute of many Ferrers Earl of Darby falling off from Montfort could not but in the large extent of his Estate drew away very many of their well-Wishers Followers Friends Allies Tenants or Dependants and such as held of them by Knights Service and in Soccage or Burgage and many Knights Citizens and Burgesses to be so elected except those in London and Westminster if any did then appear to have been chosen as not dareing to come to that kind of New Parliament without a Convoy Although the Power of the Earl of Oxford one of their Associates in the County of Essex was then very great whilst they were almost daily and hourly haunted and tormented in their minds and Estates with Jealousies Fears and Dangers and the often sad and dolorous tidings of Devastations Slaughters Plunders and Sequestrations that misused King himself not being able to have any of his Servants or Subjects that he had sent for to come unto him without a Convoy to defend them from Spoil and Pillage And the exactest Search that hath been or can be made cannot find any formal or certain Sitting of a Parliament any Writs or Indentures returned any Session Act or thing done in that so newly framed Parliament when the minds of the Rebels themselves were so tormented and distracted with Fears and Cares to preserve themselves and their Royal Booty as they could neither be safe in keeping of him or restoring him to his Liberty for that the abused Lyon patient for a while against his Will once let loose might remember past Injuries and tear them in Peices and no Act or Memorial can be seen of any more than the Petition of two of the Knights Elected for the County of York and their Allowance of Wages where the Rebellious Party seemed to be most powerful no Burgesses of the many Towns and Boroughs in that large County at all it seems then Appearing or Petitioning by a Tax or Levy made upon that County which created the first President or Custom of giving Wages unto Knights of the Shires no other Knights of the Shires or Burgesses of Townes if there were or had been any Elected then demanding the like Allowance and that which was allowed the said Yorkshire Knights was partly for Expences supposed in their helping to guard the maritime parts to keep out Strangers or the Kings own Subjects in his several Provinces of France from coming from the parts beyond the Seas to assist him no Journal or Record of any Petitions made or Grievances exhibited Conferences Debates Decisions Acts Orders or Ordinances and that one that was made was only to engage and cozen as many as they could of the Bishops and Clergy into their own Design And therein none of the Commons or men of that Election do seem at all to trouble their Heads or be named as Actors or Consenters therein for it is expresly said to be provided Per Commun assentement du Roy des Prelaz des Contes des Barons de la tere a fermete en tesmoinaunce le Roy les hauz Hommes de la tere ont mis leur Seus neither doth there appear to to have been any Prorogation or Adiournment thereof And there was like to have been no small want of Money when Symon de Montfort and his Partners especially after the Earl of Gloucester's Sullennes and Departure from them to maintain and keep together so instable a People and so great a number for the guard of their Royal Prisoners and their own
Project Four Abbesses to help them to Cordials in that languishing State of Loyalty they then were in The Earls and Barons were then and long after Great and Noble by Descent Birth Extraction Lands Estate Alliance Command Power and Authority not a few of them by Consanguinity or Affinity deriving their Progeny from the lines of several of their Kings and Princes and much of their Honors and Support from their Bounty and Munificence as they were pleased to dispence them by their influence favors or bounty for great and heroick Actions and Services done for them and the Weal publick and their Authority could not be small either in the Fear or Force of it when at the time of the Norman Conquest all the Lands and Services thereunto belonging of the Kingdom were either the Kings in Demesne or in the Possession of those Great Men and Commanders unto whom he had granted them and that again distributed by them to their Servants Friends or Followers to hold by Knights Service Soccage Copy-hold Leases for Years or Villenage with some Services imposed as going in Person to War to defend them and their Soveraign Castle-guard Carre and Manuopara and the consented unto Reservations or willing Oblations of doing much of their works of Husbandry in the hopes of their Justice in their little Courts or petit Soveraignties Protection and Assistance against the injuries and oppression of wrong Doers and the Comfort of a large and free Hospitality and Charitable uses together with the Foundation and Endowments of many Abbies Priories and religious Houses which obliged both the secular and regular Clergy to love and honour them and the liberi homines or Freeholders were as unto many of them only such as had been manumissed and had from the condition of Servants or Villaines attained unto the degrees of libertini or ingenui or so fortunate as to have some small Parcells of Lands in Fee simple or Tail or for life by Gift Purchase Marriage or Copy-hold granted and given by them most of the Saxon race being so unhappy as to be content to become Tenants to the Conquerours of their own Lands whilst the Nobility and Great Men being more desirous of Service than Money or Rents granted the Service of Men or Tenants that held by Knights Fees or Service or parts thereof one unto another which in those times were in so high Esteem and of such a Value as Ten Knights Fees were reckoned a Satisfaction for a Release of the Claim of that great Office of High Steward of England in Fee by Roger Bygott Earl of Norfolk and his Heirs to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester Seven and a half whereof being paid King Henry the Third upon a Reference of the Controversy betwixt the said Earles unto him made his Award That the said Symon should Execute the said Office of High Steward and the said Roger should bring his Action for the other Two Knights Fees and a half and the English Nobility having all the great offices and places of Honour of the Kingdom and about the Persons of their Kings with their Influence Power and Authority in their great Councels or Parliaments and thereby the Opportunities of pleasing and displeasing hurting or helping whom they would were as to many of them and not a few of the common People like the righteous Job in his Prosperity when they came out to the Gates of the City the Eares that heard them blessed them the Eyes that saw them gave Witness unto them they delivered the Poor that cryed and the Fatherless and them that had none to help them the Blessing of those that were ready to perish came upon them they caused the Widdows hearts to sing for joy were Eyes to the blind Feet to the lame and Fathers to the poor brake the Jawes of the Wicked and pluckt the Spoyl out of their Mouths their Root was spread out by the Waters and the Dew lay all night upon their Branches they gave ear unto them waited and kept silence at their Councel And could not be slighted or taken to be Benefits of a small size or esteem but to be very great and worthy the seeking and obtaining when Threescore and Ten Thousand Knights Fees every one of which being then no small Estate either as to the extent of the Lands or the Value thereof as Ordericus Vitalis who lived in the time of the Conqueror hath numbred them or but about Thirty two Thousand as Mr. Selden believeth were given by William the Conqueror to his Nobility Great Men and Followers to be holden of him his Heirs and Successors in Capite and all the other Lands of the Kingdom except those large quantities which were King Edward the Confessor as appertaining to the Crown of England and what else he kept in his own Possession and Demesne and besides what he endowed and founded divers Abbys Monasteries Priories and Nunneries withal to hold of him and his Heirs and Successors in Capite and by Knights Service were again as unto a great part thereof distributed and granted by his Nobility great Men and Followers to their Dependants Servants Tenants and Friends to hold of them by Knight-Service Which drawing to it by the Feudal Laws part of the fundamental Laws of England and incorporated therein Wardships no Slavery Burden or Grievance if rightly used or understood but a Protection Comfort and Benefit as well publick as private Reliefs Education Protection and Marriage of their Heirs in their Minority which was the greatest Concernment of their Families did put and render the Commonalty under the Patronage and Tutelage of the Nobility and great Men Subordinate to the King their Soveraign and common Parent which many other Nations and the greatest Pretenders and Enjoyers of Liberties in the Christian World have not onely deemed but experimented to be an Happiness Insomuch as if it were to be tryed by the Suffrage and Experience of our English Ancestors if they could from the Dead be produced and heard to speak in the Affairs and Case of England and a due Consideration had of the Security had and long enjoyed by the Northern parts thereof by the Tenures by Cornage assisted by that of Knight-Service and Capite and the Residence of the Baronage of those Countryes against the dayly and nightly Incursions and Spoil of their then ill Neighbours the Picts and Scots which amounted unto as much or more than the costly Wall and Fortifications which the Romans built and provided against them together with the Safety and Guard which a great part of England hath been often defended by the Lords Marchers against the Hostilities and Unquietness of the Welch it 's former Owners would bring us in a verdict of O felices bona si sua nôrint Which must needs attract the Love good Will Fear Awe and Obedience of the People who so well understood their own conditions and that of the Nobility as to believe that to quarrel or be
Raign of King Richard the Second when the Dukes Earls and Barons were Created by Letters Patents of our Kings the Names of the Barons to be Summoned in Parliament were Written from the King 's own Mouth at his Direction and Command and in that agreeth with Mr. Elsing who saith It was ad libitum Regis for surely none but the King can Summon a Parliament and that was the reason that Henry the Fourth having taken King Richard the Second his Leige and Lord Prisoner the 20th day of August in the 21st Year of his Raign did cause the Writ of Summons for the Parliament wherein he obtained the Crown to bear Date the 19th day of the same Month for the Warrant was Per ipsum Regem Concilium and himself to be Summoned by the Name of Henry Duke of Lancaster SECT XIII That the Majores Barones regni and Spiritual and Temporal Lords with their Assistants were until the 49th Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third and the constrained Writs issued out for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses whilst he was a Prisoner in the Camp or Army of his Rebellious Subjects the only great Councel of our Kings FOr the Barons of England viz. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal with some other wise and selected Men which our Kings did anciently and upon Occasions call into that Assembly were the Great Council of the Kingdom and before and from the Conquest until a great part of the Raign of King Henry the Third in whose dayes saith Mr. Elsing it is thought the Writs for Election of Knights and Burgesses were framed made the Great Councel of the Kingdom and under the name of Barons not only the Earls but the Bishops also were comprehended for the Conqueror Summoned the Bishops to those great Councels as Barons and in the Writ of Summons made as aforesaid in the Captivity and Troubles of King Henry the Third we find the Bishops and Lords with some Abbots and Pryors to be the Councellors and the Commons only called to do perform and consent unto what should be ordained And Mr. Selden and Sir Henry Spelman have by divers Instances and warrantable Proofs declared unto us That the Bishops and Lords only were admitted into the Wittenagemots or great Councels which were wont in and after the Raigns of the Saxon Kings to be kept at the three great Festivals in the Year viz. Easter Whitsontide and Christmass when the Earls and Barons came to pay their Respects and Reverence to their Soveraign and give an Account of what was done or necessary to be known or done in their several Provinces and Charges and what was fit to be Consulted thereupon and were then accustomed to meet and Assist their Kings and Soveraigns with their Advice and Counsel Which was so constantly true as Antecessores Comitis Arundel solebant tenere manerium de Bylsington in com' Kanc. quod valet per Annum 30. l. per Serjeantiam essendi Pincernam Domini Regis in die Pentecostes Ela Comitissa Warwick tenuit manerium de Hoke Norton in com Oxon quod est de Baronia de Oyley de Domino Rege in capite per Serjeantiam scindendi coram domino Rege die Natalis Domini habere Cultellum domini Regis de quo scindit Roger de Britolio Farl of Heresord being in Armes and open Rebellion against King William the Conqueror taken Prisoner and Condemned to perpetual Imprisonment wherein though he frequently used many scornsul and contumelious words towards the King yet he was pleased at the Celebration of Faster in a solemn manner as then was usual to send to the said Earl Roger then in Prison his Royal Robes who so disdained the Favour that he forth with caused a great Fire to be made and the Mantle the inner Surcoate of Silk and the upper Garment lined with precious Furs to be Burnt which being made known to the King he became displeased and said Certainly he is a very proud Man who hath thus abused me but by the Brightness of God he shall never come out of Prison as long as I live which was fulfilled In Anno 1078 William Rufus tenuit curiam in natali domini apud London Rex Anglorum Willielmus cognomento Rufus gloriose curiam suam tenuit ad Natale apud Gloverniam ad Pascham apud Wintoniam apud Londonias ad Pentecosten Et hic Concessus Ordinum regni saith Sir John Spelman Sive totius regni Repraesentatio quod intelligere convenit ab Alfredo certis quidem vicibus ijs ordinariis non quasi ejusdem formae celebritatis esset cujus hodierna Comitia quae Parliamentum vulgò dicuntur sed ut quantum est in Anglia terrarum tunc aut unum omninò Regis erat aut Comitun ejus atque Baronum qui sub illis agros colerent eos Clientelari atque precario jure possederint ut qui toti ab nutu dominorum penderent ità quicquid ab isto tempore ab Rege Comitibus ejus atque Baronibus constitutum est toto regno sancitum erat velut ab ijs transactum quibus in caeteros suprema absoluta potestas esset adeoque reliquorum seu clientium mancipiorum jura includeret Episcopos quod attinet hi magnis hisce Concilijs nunquam non intersuerunt suisque suffragijs leges sanxerunt nam praetereà illud quod ob seculares fundos Barones vel ob ipsum sacerdotis honorem sacrosancti censebantur eâ infuper sapientiâ plerumque praestabant ut non tantùm suffi agia Procerum aequiparârint sed actis omnibus venerationem atque pondus addiderint ab hoc Regis instituto manavit uti videtur mos ille posteris Saxonibus non inusitatus ut concilia Episcoporum atque Magnatum tèr quotannis celebrarentur nempe ad Domini Natales Pascha atque Pentecosten ad consultandum de arduis regni negotijs neque id uno semper eodemque loco sed ubicunque res posceret licet ferè ubi Rex cum Aulicis ageret praesens And in our Parliaments as well Modern as Ancient had a deliberative Power as the most Learned Selden hath informed us in advising their Kings in Matters of State and giving their Assent in the making of Laws and a judicial subordinate Power to their Kings in giving of Judgment in Suits or Complaints brought before them in the House of Lords or that Magna Curia Universitas regni as Bracton stiles it and whither in his time Causes were for difficulty adjourned from the other Courts of the Kingdom unto which no Remedies could otherwise be given and saith Mr. Elsing All Judgments are given by the Lords as aforesaid and not by the Commons And that very ancient long experimented and well approved Custom appeareth not to have been discontinued or forgotten when in the Parliament holden in the first Year of the Raign of King Henry the
Fourth the Commons shewing to the King that Comme les Juggements du Parlement appurteignont seulement au Roy as Seigneurs nient as Commones si noun en case que sil plest au Roy de sa grace especile leur monstrer ses ditz Juggements pur ease d' eux que nul record soit fait en Parlement encontre les ditz Communes que sont ou serrent partyes as escunes Juggementz donez ou adonees ou apres en Parlement A quoi leur feust respondu per l' Ercevesque de Canterbire de commandement du Roy 〈…〉 ment mesmes les Commones sont Petitioners demandeurs que le Roy les Seigneurs de tout temps ont eves averont de droit les Juggementz en Parlement en manere come mesme les Comones ount Monstrez sauvez quen Statutz Affaires ou en Grauntez subsides ou tiel choses Affaires pur comon profit du Royalme le Roy voit avoir especialment leur Advys Assent que cel ordre de fait soit tenuz gardez en tout temps adveniz And the Earls and Temporal Barons were by vertue of their Tenures and Summons of Parliament since the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the Second said to be Conciliarij nati of the King and Kingdom and the Bishops to sit there then and long before by reason of their Baronies which no Member of the House of Commons is or can claim to be in our King 's great Councels or Parliament until the framing of that aforesaid novel Writ to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third and after his Release was discontinued and no more made use of until the 22d Year of the Raign of King Edward the First his Son and the Heirs by ancient Customes of that Court under and by the Kings Authority do exercise in Causes and Complaints brought before them a judicial and decisive Power And in the preceding Times and Ages until that new Writ of Elections was contrived and imposed upon that distressed and much injured Prince Certissimum est saith that learned and judicious Antiquary Sir henry Spelman that the Nobility and Barons which did hold immediately of the King in Capite judicijs praefuêre Aulae Regiae did usually sit and determine Causes or Controversies in the King's Court or Palace as the Barons of the Coife in the Exchequer who were heretofore Earls and Barons do at this day judge and determine of Matters touching the King's Revenues And as the Lords of Mannors in their Courts Barons do admit none to be Judges in those their little Courts but their Tenants who are Free-holders and do hold of them and being stiled and said to be of the Homage do subserviently manage the Affairs of their Lords therein who did very anciently use to act therein Concilio prudentum hominum militum suorum by their Presentments Advice and Judgements and are therein not much differing from the Customs and Laws of the Longobards where their Emperor commanded that Nullus Miles nobiscum saith Sir Henry Spelman Liber homo sine certâ convictâ culpâ suum beneficium perdat nisi secundum consuetudinem Antecessorum nostrorum et judicium Parium suorum In which saith Sir Henry Spelman Th 〈…〉 is an Idea of our Magna Charta the Free-holders in the Hundred Courts being thither also called Conformable to the League made by King Alfred with Guthrun the Dane wherein Homicide sive de crimine alio quod quatuor marcas excederet postularetur per duodecim ex paribus reliquos autem subditos per 11 Pares unumque ex Baronibus Regis fore judicandos And to the Laws of our King Henry the First wherein it was ordained That Unusquisque per Pares judicandus est si quis in Curia sua vel in quibuslibet agendorum locis placitum tractandum habet convocet Pares vicinos suos si inter compares vicinos sint querelae conveniant ad divisas terrarum suarum qui prior queremoniam fecerit prior rectum habeat si alias ire oporteat in Curiam domini sui eant si unum dominum habeant Soca sit ejus illic eos amicitia congreget aut sequestret judicium And may seem to be derived from the Laws and Customs of the Germans where by the Court of Peers are understood Causarum feudalium Judices à Caefare constituti qui sine provocatione cognoscebant to be Judges appointed by the Emperor to hear and determine without appeal Matters concerning their Lands and Territories where the like usage and term of Peers in their Judicatures Great Councels or Diets is at this day used the Princes of the Empire being Paribus cu 〈…〉 ae and such are those of our House of Peers in Parliament being the highest Court of the Kingdom of England where none were admitted or did administer Justice Nisi qui proximi essent à Rege ipsique arctioris fidei homagij vinculo conjuncti but such as were near unto the King and held of him in Capite which kind of Tenures howsoever they were most unhappily Dissolved by a late Act of Parliament in His now Majesties Raign for converting Tenures in Capite into free and common Socage were by an Exception and Proviso in the said Act of Parliament as to the Rights and Priviledges of the Peers in Parliament specially saved and reserved unto them who were heretofore Capitanei regni as Sir Henry Spelman saith Captains of the Kingdom and Peers obliged and bound unto their Kings by Homage and Fealty in that highest and most honourable Court of the Kingdom wherein the Judicative Power of Parliament under their King their Head and chief Resides which high and honourable Assembly reverencing and taking Care for their Head and Soveraign the only under God Protector of themselves the Church and all their worldly Concernments and Liberties Was so much used in France as saith Conringius Proceres temporibus Francorum temporibus antiquissimis Concilio interfuisse plurimis quidem testimonijs in proclivi est and cites a Book written per Theganum Chorepiscopum Trevirensem de gestis Ludovici Imper ' Ca. 6. ubi de Carolo Magno Imperatore legitur Cùm intellexisset appropinquare sibi diem obitus sui vocavit filium Ludovicum ad se Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus loco positis habuit grande colloquium cum ijs Aquisgravi eodem spectat procul dubiò Hinckmari who was a Bishop and Councellor of Charlesmaynes illud concilium Lodovico Baldo datum epistolam ut rempublicam administret ex Procerum aut Principum consensu nusquam Plebis mentione factâ unde epistolam illam claudens Ca. 10. Scribit de generalibus Ecclesiae Regni negotijs fine generali Procerum regni consensu concilio secretum dare concilium nefas etiam
sed sic eas accepi quemadmodum judicaverunt omnes Optimates Regni Anglorum to wit in a full Parliament which then consisted only of the King and his Nobility Anno Domini 944. King Edmond granted many large liberties and the Mannor of Glastonbury to the Abby thereof cum concilio consensu Optimatum suorum made it seems saith Mr. Pryns in Parliament and a clear evidence that the Nobles of that age were the Kings great Councel and Parliament without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses of which he found no mention in History or Charters Anno 948. there was a Parliament or Councel holden at London under King Edred Cùm universi Magnates Angliae per Regium edictum Summoniti tà m Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates quà m caeteri totius Angliae Proceres Optimates Londini convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni in which Parliament no Knights Citizens or Burgesses are said to have been present Anno 965 or 970. King Edgar with his Mother Clito his Successor the King of Scots both the Archbishops caeterisque Episcopis omnibus Regni proceribus Subscribed his Charter granted to the Abby of Glastonbury communi Episcoporum Abbatum Primorumque concilio generali assensu Pontificum Abbatum Optimatum suorum concilio omnium Primatum suorum without any Commons present assistants and attendants only excepted Anno 975. King Edgar and his Queen Elferus Prince of Mercia Ethelinus Duke of the East-Angles Elfwold his Kinsman Arch-Bishop Dunstan cum caeteris Episcopis Abbatibus Bricknotho Comite cum Nobilitate totius Regni held a Councel at Winchester without any Commons Anno 977. in the Councel of Calne under King Edward omnes Anglorum Optimates were present together with the Bishops and Clergy but no Knights or Burgesses for ought is Recorded Anno Christi 1009. by King Ethelreds Edict Universi Anglorum Optimates at Eanham acciti sunt convenire not the Commons A Parliament was Summoned by King Edward the Confessor concerning Earl Godwyn at Gloucester where Totius Regni Proceres etiam Northumbriae Comites tunc famosissimi Sywardus Leofricus omnisque Anglorum Nobilitas convenêre Et Anno 1052. at London Rex omnes Regni Magnates ad Parliamentum apud London tunc fuerunt Mr. Pryn declaring his Opinion That the former and ancient Parliaments consisted of our Kings and their Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses Summoned to Assist or Advise with them or to Assent unto what they Enacted or Ordained In the 25th Year of his Raign granted Lands and Liberties to Saint Peters Church at Westminster Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum And from the Conquest until that forced something like but not to be accounted a Parliament in the 49th Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third divers Learned good Authors Summae incorruptae fidei no diminishing or additional Record-makers have assured and given Posterity and after Ages such an exact Account of our Parliaments as will leave no ground or foundation of Truth or Reason for any to believe That an Elected part of the Commons were before that Imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign made or Summoned to be a part of our English great Councels or Parliaments The Charter of William the Conqueror to the Abby of Battel was made Assensu Lanfranci Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis Stigandi Episcopi Cicestrensis Concilio etiam Episcoporum Baronum suorum And that great Conqueror had in the 4th Year of his Raign Concilium Baronum suorum confirmavit Leges Edwardi Confessoris posteaque Decreta sua cum Principibus constituit In the 10th or 11th Year of his Raign Episcopi Comites Barones Regni Regiâ potestate ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis tractandis convocati fuerunt Separated the Courts Temporal from the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Communi concilio concilio Archiepiscoporum suorum caeterorum Episcoporum Abbatum omnium Regni sui and in the Register of Winchelsey Arch-Bishop of Canterbury it is Recorded That Rex Angliae Gulielmus Conquestor in concilio Archiepiscoporum Abbatum omnium Procerum Regni did forbid the Leges Episcopales to be used in any Hundred or other secular Courts And in the 21st Year of the Raign of King Edward the Third Mr. Selden saith There is mention made of a Great Councel holden under the said King William wherein all the Bishops of the Land Earls and Barons made an Ordinance touching the Exemption of the Abby of Bury from the Bishops of Norwich In that great and notable Pleading for three Dayes together at Pynnendon in Kent in the Raign of King William the Conqueror who as Mr. Selden repeats it out of the Leiger Book or Register of the Church of Rochester Anglorum regnum armis conquisivit suis ditionibus subiugavit in the great Controversy betwixt Lanfranc Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Odo Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent the Conquerors half Brother for many great Mannors Lands and Liberties of a great yearly Value which Lanfranc claimed to appertain to his Arch-Bishoprick of which that potent Norman Bishop and Earl had injustly disseized him the King commanded the whole County without any delay to Assemble together as well French as English and more especially such as were well Skilled and Learned in the ancient Laws and Customs of England as Gosfridus Episcopus Constantiensis qui in loco Regis fuit justitiam illam tenuit Elnothus Episcopus de Rovercestria Aegelricus Episcopus de Cicestria Vir antiquissimus legum terrae Sapientissimus qui ex praecepto Regis advectus suit ad ipsas antiquas legum Consuetudines discutiendas edocendas in una Quadrigâ Ricardus de Tonebregge Hugo de Monte Forti Gulielmus de Acres Haymo Vicecomes alij multi Barones Regis ipsius Archiepiscopi aliorum Episcoporum homines multi whose Decisions made by many Witnesses Evidences and Reasons being certified to the King Laudavit laudans cum consensu omnium Principum suorum confirmavit ut deinceps perseveraret firmitèr praecepit Upon a Rebellion of Rafe de Guader a Norman made Earl of Norfolk by the Conqueror Confederating with some discontented English whilst he was absent in Normandy upon Notice thereof given hasted into England where omnes ad Curiam suam Regni Proceres convocavit legitimos Heroes in fide probatos Unto which may be added That in the Agreement betwixt King William Rufus and Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Brother touching his Claim to the Kingdom of England being of great Concern to the People wherein the King assured to the Duke All that he could Claim from his Father except England it is said Pactum juramento confirmârunt duodecim Principes nomine Regis and 12. Barones nomine Ducis In the 2d Year
of King William the Second there was a great Councel De cunctis Regni principibus and another which had all the Peers of the Kingdom In the 7th Year of his Raign was a great Councel or Parliament so called at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire Episcopis Abbatibus cunctisque Regni Principibus coeuntibus and a Year or two after the same King De statu Regni acturus called thither by his Command his Bishops Abbots and Peers of the Kingdom Anno 1106. Robert Duke of Normandy coming into England and seeking to be reconciled to his Brother King Henry the First which could not at Northampton be effected Magnatibus regni ob hoc Londonium edicto Regis convocatis the King by fair Words and Promises so frustrated the Dukes designs as Omnium corda sibi inclinavit ut pro ipso contra quemlibet usque ad capitis expositionem dimicarent Dux in Normanniam iratus perrexit Rex ipsum secutus est usque in Herchebrai Castellum trahens secum omnes ferè Proceres Normanniae Andegaviae robur Angliae Britanniae ut ipsum debellaret The Emperour having sent Ambassadors unto him to request his Daughter Maud in Marriage Tenuit ità que Rex apud Westmonasterium in Pentecosten Curiam suam quâ nunquam tenuerat splendidiorem wherein the Marriage was concluded Anno Domini 1114. Rex Anglorum Henricus fecit omnes suae potestatis Magnates as if there were no need of Commons which were then believed to be included in them fidelitatem jurare Willielmo filio suo At the Coronation of which King who had usurped his said elder Brothers Kingdom and stood in fear of his better Title it was said That all the People of the Kingdom of England were present but the Laws and Charter then made were Per commune concilium Baronum suorum confirmed and that Charter was attested by Mauritio Londoniensi Episcopo Willielmo Wintoniensi electo Odoardo Herefordiensi Episcopo Henrico Comite Simone Comite Waltero Gifford Comite Robert de Monti forti Rogero Bigod aliis multis Et factae sunt tot Chartae quot sunt Comitatus in Anglia Rege jubente positae in Abbatiis singulorum Comitatuum ad Monumentum In the 3d. Year of his Raign the Peers of the Kingdome were called without any mention of the Commons and Orders were at another great Councel made Consensu Comitum Baronum Florentius Wigorniensis saith that Lagam Edwardi Regis reddidit cum illis emendationibus quibus eam Pater suus emendavit concilio Baronum suorum After whose Death King Stephen having Usurped the Crown of England which did not at all belong unto him and Fought stoutly to keep it Concilium congregavit de statu Reipublicae cum Proceribus suis tractare studuit Anno Domini 1153 Justitiâ de Caelo prospiciente diligentiâ Theobaldi Archiepiscopi Cantuar ' aliorum Episcoporum regni King Stephen having no Issue Facta est concordia betwixt him and Henry Duke of Normandy after King Henry the Second who was by King Stephen acknowledged In conventu Episcoporum allorum Optimatum wherein it was accorded That Duke Henry saith Mathew Paris should Succeed him in the Kingdom Stephen only enjoying it for his Life if he should have no Children ex concessione Ducis Henrici ità tamen confirmata est pax quòd ipse Rex Episcopi praesentes cum caeteris Optimatibus regni no Commons jurarent quòd Dux post mortem Regis si ipsum superviveret Regnum fine contradictione aliqua obtineret King Henry the Second in the 10th year of his Raign held a great Councel or Parliament at Clarendon where some of the Customes and Constitutions of the Kingdom were Recognized which was an Assembly only of Prelates and Peers Anno 1118. in a Peace or League made betwixt him and Philip King of France it was agreed That in any Matters of Difference afterwards ariseing betwixt them they should abide by the Award of three Bishops and three Barons to be Elected on the King of France his part and the like on the King of Englands Anno Gratiae 1272. Venit Oxenford in generali Concilio ibidem celebrato constituit Johannem filium suum Regem in Hybernia concessione confirmatione Alexandri summi Pontificis in eodem concilio venerunt ad Regem Resus filius Gryphini Regulus de South-Wales David filius Owini Regulus de North-Wales qui Sororem ejusdem Regis Angliae in uxorem duxerat Cadwallanus Regulus de Delmain Owanus de Kavillian Griffinus de Bromfeld Madacus filius Gerverog alii multi de Nobilioribus Gualliae omnes devenêrunt homines Regis Angliae patris fidelitatem ei contra omnes homines pacem sibi regno servandam juraverunt In eodem concilio dedit Dominus Rex Angliae praedicto Reso filio Griffini terram de Merionith David filio Owani terram de Ellismore Deditque Hugoni de Lasci ut supradictum est in Hybernia totam Midam cum-pertinentiis pro servitio centum militum de ipso Johanne filio suo Chartam suam ei inde fecit And being to return an Answer to the Popes Letter inviting him to take upon him the Croysado and succour the Holy Land assembled a Parliament at London ubi dominus Rex Patriarcha Jerusalem Episcopi Abbates Comites Barones Angliae but no Knights Citizens or Burgesses thereof saith Mr. Pryn Willielmus Rex Scotiae David frater ejus cum Comitibus Baronibus terrae suae convenerunt Anno Domini 1162. without leave of Parliament or People Fecit jurare fidelitatem Henrico filio suo de haereditate suâ inter omnes Magnates Regni Thomas Cancellarius primus fidelitatem juravit salvâ fide Regi patri quamdiù viveret regno praeesse vellet In the 22d Year of his Raign held a great Councel at Nottingham by Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons At Windsor Communi concilio with Bishops Earls and Barons And the like afterwards at Northampton King Richard the 1st held shortly after his Coronation upon the invitation of the King of France and his undertaking to do the like a great Councel or Parliament cum Comitibus Baronibus suis qui Crucem susceperant in generali Concilio constituti apud Londonias taking their Oaths for the recovery of the Holy Land hasting thither and passing into Normandy Elianor Regina mater Richardi Regis with whom he had left the care of the Kingdom and Alays Soror Phillippi Regis Franciae Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Norwich Durham Winchester Ely Salisbury Chester Geffry the Kings Brother elected Archbishop of York and John Earl of Morton the Kings Brother shortly after transfretârunt de Anglia in Normanniam per mandatum Domini Regis habito cum illis concilio Dominus Rex statuit Willielmum Episcopum Eliensem Cancellarium
suum Justitiarium Angliae Granted to Hugh Bishop of Durham Justitiam à fluvio Humbri usque ad terram Regis Scotiae made his Brothers John Earl of Morton and Geffry elect Archbishop of York to swear tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis that they would not come into England within three Years then ensuing nisi per licentiam illius but suddenly after released his Brother John of his Oath and gave him leave to return into England taking his Oath quòd fidelitèr ei serviret In Crastino Exaltationis Sanctâ— Crucis apud Pipewel Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum aliorum Magnatum suorum fretus concilio benignè concessit Galfrido fratri suo Archiepiscopatum Eborum circa dies istos iturus ad Terram sanctam per concilium Magnatum suorum Gerardum Archiepiscopum Auxisnem Richardum de Canvill c. Justiciarios constituit super totum navigium Angliae Normanniae Britanniae Pictaviae Et tradidit illis Chartam suam in hac forma Richardus Dei gratia Rex Anglorum omnibus hominibus suis per mare ad Terram sanctam ituris salitem Sciatis Nos de proborum concilio virorum has Justitias statuisse being certain severe Sea Laws illas Consuetudines ab omnibus observandas quòd singuli Justitiariis obedirent fecit Sacramento confirmari Eodem tempore in the Kings absence ad instanciam Comitis Johannis fratris ipsius Regis convenerunt apud Pontem de Leodune inter Radingum Windeleshores ad colloquium Magnates Angliae de magnis arduis Regis Regni negotiis tractatur ' in crastino autem tà m Archiepiscopus Rothomagensis quà m Eboracensis Episcopi omnes apud Radingum convenerunt colloquio interessent The Bishop of Roan being sent thither by the King to take and give him an account thereof Anno Domini 1290. Rex Anglorum Richardus ad natale Domini fuit in Normanniam apud Burum ibi tenuit solenne festum cum Primatibus terrae illius post natale habitum est Colloquium betwixt the Kings of France and England where the Expedition was agreed upon and a Peace made and sworn betwixt the two Kingdoms and the Comites Barones utriusque Regni none of the Commons did swear That they would remain faithful to both the Kings and make no Warr until fourty dayes after their return and the Archbishops and Bishops utriusque Regni juraverunt to denounce sentence of Excommunication against the Transgressors In which Warrs in the East for recovery of the Holy Land after many glorious Victories obtained against the Infidels King Richard being shipwrackt and with a small company escaping cast upon the Territories of the envious Duke of Austria his incensed Aemulator for that he had caused his Standard which he had set up before his at the taking of the Town of Joppa to be taken downe and thrown into a Jakes was discovered way-laid taken and delivered or sold to the Emperour of Germany for 60000l of Silver ad pondus Coloniensium And the Emperour to whom his Brother John who had in his Absence endeavoured to usurp his Kingdomes and with the King of France his Confederate offered great summs of Money whereof the latter would have paid 50000 Marks of Silver and the former 30000 to have him detained Prisoner detesting their Practises and shewing to King Richard their Letters after much Respects and Kindness to such a magnanimous Prisoner agreed to take for his Ransom 140 thousand Marks of the same kind of Money which he paid to the Duke of Austria without any thing to be paid for the Expenses of himself or any other but an Oath was first taken by the Bishops Dukes and Barons that as soon as the Money should be paid continuò liber proprium regrederetur ad regnum which being together with the Emperours Letter published in England by the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor suddenly after Exiit edictum à Justiciariis Regis ut omnes Episcopi Clerici Comites Barones Abbatiae Prioratus quartam partem Redituum suorum ad redemptionem Regis conferrent insuper ad illud Pietatis opus Calices aureos argenteos sustulerunt And upon his delivery by the Archbishops of Mentz and Cologne into the hands of Queen Elianor his Mother on the behalf of the Emperour gave Sureties or pledges until all the Money should be paid Walter Archbishop of Roan Savarick Bishop of Bath Baldwin de Wac alios multos filios Comitum Baronum suorum de pace servanda Imperatori Imperio suo omni terrae suae dominationis The Bishop of Norwich dimidium pretij de Calicibus sumpsit de rebus habitis Regi donavit and the Cistertian Monks being alwayes before by Priviledge freed from any Contributions Bona sua universa ad Regis redemptionem dederunt Anno gratiae 1200. King Richard being dead Rex Francorum Philippus Rex Anglorum Johannes inter Wailan Butavius castella ad colloquium convenerunt ubi convenit inter eosdem Reges cum concilio Principum utriusque Regni quòd Ludovicus filius Regis Francorum haeres duceret in uxorem filiam Aldefonsi Regis Castellae Neptem Regis Johannis Rex Anglorum pro hoc matrimonio contrahendo daret Ludovico cum nepte sua nomine Blanca in maritagio Civitatem Ebroicarum cum toto comitatu insuper 30000 marcarum Argenti Rex Johannes post completa negotia in partibus transmarinis transfretavit in Angliam veniens autem Londonias apud Westmonasterium Huberto Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Magnatibus Regni praesentibus Gaufridus Archiepiscopus Eborqcensis cum Rege pacificatus est quo tempore Rex Johannes significavit Willielmo Regi Scotorum ut veniret ad eum ad Lincolniam ut ibidem de jure suo sibi satisfaceret in Crastino sancti Eadmundi Ubi convenerunt Rex Anglorum Johannes Rex Scotorum Willielmus cum universa Nobilitate tà m Cleri quà m populi utriusque Regni whence he directed his Writ to the Barons and those which did hold of him in Capite to come unto him with Horse and Armes to Northampton die Dominiâ—â proximè ante Pentecosten in formâ sequente Rex c. Henrico c. Mandamus tibi quòd in fide quam Nobis debes ficut Nos corpus honorem Nostrum diligis omni occasione dilatione postpositis sis ad Nos apud Northampton die dominica proximè ante Pentecosten paratus Equis Armis aliis necessariis ad movendum cum corpore Nostro standum Nobiscum ad minus per duas quadragesimas ità quòd infra terminum illum à Nobis non recedas ut tibi in perpetuum in grates seire debeamus T. c. And in the same year Summoned the Peers but no Commons to a great Councel or Parliament not for Military Aid in these words Rex c. Episcopo Sarum Mandamus vobis
Writs or in that which Mr. Elsing hath left unto the World In formâ praedictâ subscribitur Abbatibus Prioribus subscriptis c. without any Christian Names or Additions formerly used Sub data apud Woodstock 14. die Decembris In formâ praedictâ mandatum est Comitibus aliis Subscriptis dat' apud Woodstock viz. Comiti Leicester Comiti Glou ' Comiti Norff ' Marescal ' Angliae Comiti Oxon ' Comiti Derby Rogero de sancto Johannis Hugo de Spencer Justiciar ' Angliae Nich ' de Segrave Johanni de Vescy Robert Basset G de Lucie Gilbert de Gaunt of which the Earls of Leicester Gloucester Norfolk Oxford and Derby were notoriously known to be in open Armes and Hostility against the King the whole number of the Temporal Lords therein named not amounting unto more than Twenty-Three with a Blanck left for the names of other Earls and Barons which have not been yet inserted or filled up And all the other which were in that constrained Writ of Summons particularly and expressly named were no other than H de le Spencer Justiciar ' Angliae John Fitz John Nicholaus de Segrave John de Vescy Rafe Basset de Drayton Henry de Hastings Geffery de Lucy Robert de Roos Adam de novo Mercato Walter de Câ—lvill and Robert Basset de Sapcott those which together with the then Bishops of London and Worcester Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and Steward of England H. de Boun Juvenis Peter de Monte forti S. de Monte forti Juvenes Baldwin Wake William le Blond William Marescallus Rafe de Gray Will ' Bardoff ' Richard de Tany or Tony Robert de â—â—teri Ponte made up the Number of the opposite Party to the King in the aforesaid Reference to the King of France And Mr. Selden hath observed That the Preambles sometimes so varied that some eminent Occasions of the calling of the Parliament were inserted in the Writs to the Spiritual Barons that were not in those to the Temporal and oftentimes no more than a general and a short Narrative of the Resolution of having a Parliament with much variation in the Writs of that nature with many Differences of slighter Moment sometimes against making of Proxies and at other times a Licence to make them and sometimes in all a Clause against coming attended with Armes and saith That until the middle of the Raign of King Richard the Second when Dukes Earles and Barons were created by Letters Patents of our Kings that the names of the Barons to be Summoned to Parliament were Written from the King's Mouth at his Direction and Command and in that agreeth with Mr. Eâ—sing who saith it was ad libitum Regis for surely none but the King can Summon a Parliament and that is the Reason that Henry the Fourth having taken King Richard the Second his Leige Lord Prisoner the Twentieth of August in the 21st Year of his Raign did cause the Writ of Summons for the Parliament wherein he obtained the Crown to bear Date the Nineteenth day of the same Month and the Warrant to be per ipsum Regem Concilium and himself to be Summoned by the name of Henry Duke of Lancaster And the Warrants have been divers sometimes per breve de privato sigillo but commonly per ipsum Regem or per ipsum Regem Concilium SECT XV. That the Majores Barones or better sort of the Tenants in Capite Justly and Legally by some of our Ancient Kings and Princes but not by any positive Law that of the enforced Charter from King John at Running Mede being not accounted to be such a Law were distinguished and separated from the Minores or lesser sort of the Tenants in Capite FOR it could be no design in the Framers or Contrivers of his Charter to make any distinction betwixt the Majores or Minores Barones of the Kingdom or to leave to Posterity a definition of either of them or a Rule for after Ages for that would have unpolitickly very much disturbed and distracted that rebellious Assembly at Running Mede or could be likely to obtain any more thereby as to their meeting in our Kings great Councels the word Parliament being not then in use amongst us than to have a Common Councel shortly called to settle the manner of Assessment of Aides upon Knights Fees and to that only end to Summon the Tenants in Capite which were not all of that sort being not the Majores or Magnates then and yet understood by our Nation to be the Barons long before and ever since at the good Will and Pleasure of our Kings usually Called and Summoned by them to their Great Councels upon urgent Occasions the Majores Barones being to be there present to advise thereupon Which for after Assemblies of that nature constantly to be holden would have been very Numerous Troublesom Chargeable and Dangerous if the Tenants in Capite had been Threescore Thousand as Ordericus Vitalis hath Recorded them or but Thirty Two Thousand as our great Selden hath more probably estimated them And although the Learned Sir Henry Spelman was enclined to believe that the distinction betwixt the greater and lesser Baronage had its Foundation in that Charter and the Learned Cambden from a very good Authority as he thought asserted That King Henry the Third Post Magnas perturbationes enormes vexationes inter ipsum Symonem de Monte forti ex tanta multitudine quae seditiofa turbulenta fuit Optimates quosque rescripto ad Comitia evocaverit yet Mr. Selden saith That in all that he hath met with since the making of that Charter he found no mention of any Interest which those other Tenants in Chief eo nomine had in our Kings Great Councels or Parliaments who doubtless were the Persons that were excluded from it and was perswaded to give little Credit unto the Author cited by Mr. Cambden but rather to conclude That not long after that grand Charter of King John like enough in that time some Law was made that induced the utter Exclusion of all Tenants in Chief from Parliaments besides the Ancient and Great Barons and Baronies which Mathew Paris saith King Henry the Third reckoned to be Two Hundred and Fifty and such other as the King should in like sort Summon and that there were Barons by Writ as well as Barons by Tenure cites a Testimony out of Mathew Paris who speaking of King Henry the Third saith That in the Twenty Nineth Year of his Raign Rex edicto publicè proposito de submonitione generaliter factâ fecit certificari per totam Angliam ut quilibet Baro tenens ex Rege in Capite haberet prompta parata Regali praecepto omnia servitia Militaria quae ei debentur tam Episcopi Abbates quà m Laici Barones Barons holding in Capite as if some held not so which must be such as were Barons by Writ only
ad loquendum or as King Henry the 3d. in the 36th Year of his Reign did call the Londoners to Westminster about taking upon them the Cross and attending him in those Wars representing in that particular only their own Estates or Qualities When in a Parliament holden by the Queen and her Councell in his absence in France in the 38th year of his Reign though Mathew Paris and Mr Daniel have given us no intimation of a Parliament then holden wherein do not appear to have been any Commons or House of Commons the Lords gave an aid by themselves the Clergy doing the like as is evidenced by the 2 following Records in these words viz. Rex dilecto fideli suo Willielmo de Oddinggeseles salutem Cum Venerabilis pater B. Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Episcopi provinc Cant. R. Com. Cornub. frater noster R. Com. Glouc. alii Com. Barones in quindena sci Hillarii jam praetoriti apud London coram dilecta Regina nostra Consilio nostro Commorante in Anglia constituti nobis promiserunt liberaliter benigni facere auxilium decens perutile viz. quidam prelati in propriis personis quidam in pecunia Comites vero Barones in propriis personis suis potenter contra Regem Castelliae qui terram nostram Vasconiae in manu forti in quindena Pasche proxime futur hostiliter est ingressurus vos ex toto corde requirimus quod sicut supradicti Commites Barones nobis promiserunt quod erunt London A die Paschae prox futur in tres septimanas parati bene muniti sine ulla dilatione versus Vasconiam ad nos personaliter movere vos ad dictas diem et locum modo consimili veniatis omni occasione dilatione postpositis ad tendendum versus portesmum cum praefatis Magnatibus ad transfretandi cum eisdem ad nos in Vasconiam et hoc in fide qua nobis tenemini vobis firmiter injungimus sicut honorem nostrum indempnitatem corporis nostri diligitis T. per Reginam 5. die Febr. Et mand est per Henr. 3 Regem in An. 38. regni sui Archiepiscopis et Episcopis totius Angliae quatenus cum festinatione omni convocent omnes Abbates et Priores suae Diocesis cujuscunque sint ordinis inducentes modis omnibus quod nobis in praesenti necessitate subveniant manu lar 〈…〉 lua ne per defectum ipsorum vel aliorum corporis incurramus periculum et terrae nostrae jacturam quod absit quia id verteretur in vestrum ipsorum opprobium sempiternum sic igitur vestra vigilet discretio circa praedictum auxilium tam a vobis deferendum quam a subditis vestris per quirendum quod futuris temporibus vobis ipsis simus non immerito obligati Proviso quod praefatum auxilium habeamus apud Westmonasterium in quindenam Pasche proxime futuram sine defectu hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum nec non indempnitatem corporis nostri diligitis non omitatis Dirigitur etiam litera ista Archiepiscopo Cantuar cum hac clausula quod ordinariam jurisdictionem exercetis vacante sede in Episcopatu Linc. vos requirimus affectuose quatenus officiariis vestris et Archiediacono ejusdem Episcopatus scribatis attente quod tempestive convocent omnes Abbates Priores ejusdem Episcopatus cujuscunque sine ordinis ad certos dies locum abducentes eos nudis omnibus quod in hoc necessitate vestrae concilium nobis faciant subventionem And the failing to perform Military services was afterwards by the Statutes of 6. E. 1. ca. 4. 13. E. 1. ca. 21. made so Penall and fixed upon them as after a Cessavit per Biennium in the performing of their service the King or Chief Lord might by writs ordained to be granted out of the Chancery demand and prosecute to recover the same and such Tenants after Judgments had against them were to be for ever barred to demand or enjoy the same and where either the King demands Escuage of his Tenants or the mean Lords demands Escuage of their Tenants it was to be assessed in Parliament and Proved or disproved by Certificate of the Marshall of the Kings Host who is enabled thereunto by his Roll kept for that purpose When in Parliament the members of the house of Commons either holding Lands in Capite or of mesne Lords by Knights Service were not upon denying to grant Subsidies or Aydes to the King to forfeit or lose their lands according to the aforesaid Acts of Parliament or otherwise And such kind of Courts for lands holden in Capite or by Knights service should not by the most ordinary and mean Capacities be understood to be one and the same with the great Court or Councell of Parliament which many times by the Power and Authority of the King in that his Highest Court corrects and rectifies the defaults of the other Our high Courts of Parliament having the Judges of the Land subordinate to their Prince whether they have lands holden in Capite or no land summoned by his writs to give their Councell and advice as to matters of Law and the ancient customs of the Kingdom wherein the King is attended with his great Ministers or Officers of State as the Lord Chancellor Treasurer Privy Seal great Chamberlain of England Lord Steward and Chamberlain of his houshold and Lord Admirall whether of the degree of Barronage or holding of him in Capite or not with other great solemn formalities becoming the honour and State thereof with which that most honourable assembly is accompanied greatly different from those lesser Courts or Councell of summoning and calling together those that were only proper or obliged to actions of war or to know how their services were performed when our Parliaments being summoned to treat and advise of matters concerning peace and the defence of the Church and de quibusdam arduis only and have sometimes no matters of war consulted thereon Those military Councells anciently summoned for service in war and defence being in a very different form from Parliamentary Councells as for further satisfaction may be manifested by the writs aforesaid And was no more then what every Earl and Baron had in their Courts and Jurisdidictions when they summoned the Tenants holding of them by Knights service to their Courts of honour or their honorary Possessions which were in our records frequently stiled as the honors of Eagle Eye Leicester Hedingham Penerel Arundel c. to which purpose they had their Escheators Feodares and Stewards to preside or officiate therein subordinate unto them when they called their Tenants together either to ayd ride or go along with them in the wars and service of their Prince and Country or to pay them their reliefs or ayds pairfile marier which the Law Interpreteth to be only the elder or to make the eldest Son a Knight or to do their
then untill after a long intervall of time in Anno. 22. E. 1. re-continued sub eadem fo 〈…〉 a which was in no other Tenour or to any other purpose then ad faciendum consentiendum iis to those matters or things which the King by the Councell and advice of the Peers viz. the Lords Spirituall and Temporall should ordain and although there have been ab ultima antiquitate great Councells or Parliaments Now although not formerly called Parliaments in this Nation or Kingdome yet they were not materially or formally the same and if it could be proved that the members thereof consisted of 3. Estates besides the King their Sovereign Lord before the 49th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. which all our Parliament Records do deny yet they that were admitted or came under the Elections illegally forced Writs and designs of Montfort and his rebellious partners by their then only newly contrived House of Commons can never entitle themselves to the same Origene Identity purpose and usage of our former Parliaments before that House of Commons in Parliament were admitted to consent unto and do what the King by the advice of his Lords Spiritualand Temporall therein should Ordain And there might be allways reason enough found that there should be a distinction betwixt the great Councells of Parliament which were not only for extraordinary emergencies touching the defence of the Kingdom and Church and redress of grievances in Civill affairs and contingencies and that which was for Military aids and services for saith our old and learned Bracton in Rege qui recte regit necessaria sunt duo haec Arma videlicet leges quibus utrumque tempus Bellorum pacis recte possit gubernare utrumque enim illorum alterius indiget auxilio quo tam militaris res possit esse in tuto quam ipsae leges usu Armorum praesidio possint esse servatae Si autem Arma defecerint contra hostes rebelles indomitos sic erit regnum indefensum sic autem leges sic exterminabitur Justicia nec erit qui rectum faciet Judicium And our Kings whose Royal Progenitors had heretofore all the Lands in England holden of them in Capite might in their greater concernments better deserve to keep their seperate and particular Military Courts for aids and services then those many of their Subjects do that would be unwilling not to be allowed to do it in their own Estates which had no other fountain or originall then the bounty and indulgence of their Kings and Princes and Bracton hath inform'd us that quod ille homagium suum facere debet obtentu reverentia quam debet domino suo adire debet dominum suum ubicunque inventus fuerit in regno vel alibi si possit commode adiri Et non tenetur dominus quaerere suum tenentem And in the homage Secundum quosdam there is to be salva fide debita domino Regi haeredibus suis. Et quod faciet servitium debitum domino suo haeredibus suis non debet homagium facere privatium sed in loco publico communi coram pluribus in Comitatu Hundredo vel Curia ut si forte tenens per malitiam homagium vellet dedicere possit dominus facilius probationem habere de homagio facto servitio recognito Which with the aid of tenures and feudall Laws and the homage services due from the Subjects to the Crown their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and our many and excellent Laws for self-preservation and publique safety did so firm and fix the Militia and Jus gladii in our Kings and Princes ordained and appointed by God for the execution of Justice Defence and Protection of the People their Religion Persons Lives Laws Liberties and Estates as they that would by perverted wrested and falsly concluded arguments overturn our Government and have Labour'd by all the Shifts and Falsities which the Devill and his Imps could contrive and furnish to Propagate their Designs and Principles of Wickedness and Confusion may find that all the Laws Records Annalls and Historians of the Kingdom do assert and prove the Jus gladii to appertain to none but our Kings and that the attempt to take it from them hath been ever accompted and punished as a Rebellion And that they are not Masters of their Wits or are Lunatiques without intervalls that can think their Industry and Pains well bestowed to go about to prove that there ought to be or ever was an Allegiance Oath or Homage made or taken to the People universally considered or was unto them due or could be by any right rule of Law Custom or Right Reason claimed by them or any way appropriate unto them Unto which well known and allways due Rights of our Kings and Princes were very subservient those great aids and support of the Kingdom the Knights fees and lands held of our King in Capite the strength and honour whereof could neither well be preserved called upon or certified unto our Kings in their Exchecquer as the book called the Red-book in that Court kept only for that purpose will inform us without an often Summoning those necessary and useful Courts or keeping them from a disuse which heretofore were wont to serve as Prognostiques or Indications or a feeling of the strength and pulse of the Kingdom by our Kings and Princes the careful Phisitians thereof the neglect whereof by the dissolution of the Abbies Monasteries and religious Houses and those large quantities of lands being no less then a fourth part of the Kingdom and the parcelling thereof into small quantities afterwards granted with a tenure in Soccage and our Kings granting of other great quantities of the Monastick Manors and lands to be holden in free and Common Soccage of the King as of his Manor of East Greenwitch together with the carlesness of the Court of Wards and Liveries and the Eascheators and Feodaries of the after ages so little minding their Duties and Oaths as if one parcell of lands were by a Jury found to be holden in Capite they were well content to suffer all the rest to pass with a per quae servitia ignorant and the carelesness in the levying of Fines and not suing out of Writs in such cases accustomed called per quae servicia which if the tenures in Capite and by Knight service had not been so ever to be lamented unhappily exchanged for a moyety after the Kings decease of a corrupt and unwholsome Drunken Excise those Terms in Capite with their Military aids and services the quondam strength and glory of our Kings and Nobility would have dwindled and shrunk into a consumption and Tabes of our heretofore Gigantine body politique and have for a great part by themselves without the so often murmuring and unwilling taxes and assessments been too weak or feeble to preserve their grandeur and protect and defend them and their peoples properties trades and
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
magnanimous and hardy Times wherein they disdained to tarry for the effects of Stratagems Bribery and Treacheries then little or not at all but now altogether or too much practised but universally and absolutely it being as unsafe for a King as his People and Kingdome to undertake to foretell the period of an Intestine Rebellion the power and malice of a Forreign Enemy or the sad and often Changes and events of War and to leave a King without the Power of a King and aid of his Subjects and be a King only for Forty Days and upon every Occasion or mischance of War arising from Forreign Princes or his Subjects either by Sea or Land be no longer a King then for so short a Time as if the Subjects Loyalty were to be put under such a limitation and if in that Time he cannot gain the Victory must run into an hole and hide himself in an hourly expectation of Death and a worse Destiny then that of the once mighty King Nebuchadonozers being changed into an Ox and put to grass untill the King of Kings not his Subjects or People should be pleased to restore him to his former shape and dignity which could never be understood to be the meaning of our William the Conqueror And if praxis be as it should be de Jure Gentium accompted to have been optimus legum Interpres our Tenures in Capite and by Knight service however our very learned Littleton a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas who is by Sr Edward Coke his Commentator believed to have written his book of Tenures in or about the 14th Year of King Edward the 4th and Sr Edward Coke without giving us any Record Authority or positive Law to warrant or build up their opinion for any such limitation yet it doth not appear but needeth some further Confirmation For the learned Sr Robert Cottons Collection out of the book of Doomesday hath taught us that Oxoniae Civitas tempore Regis Edwardi Confessoris geldebat nisi quando Londonium Eboracum Wintonia geldebant hoc erat dimidia marci argenti ad opus mil quando expeditio ibat per terram aut per mare serviebat haec Civitas quantum 5. hydae terrae Barnestaple vero Lydeford Totendis serviebant quantum ipsa Civitas Quando Rex ibat in expiditione Burgenses 20. ibant pro omnibus aliis vel 20. libras dabant Regi ut omnes essent liberi Omnes mansiones quae vocantur murales tempore Regis E. libera erant ab omni expeditione muri reparatione propterea vocantur murales Mansiones quia si quis fuerit Rex praeceperit murum reficerit Civitas Lodocestria tempore Regis Edwardi reddebat per Annum Regi 30. libras ad numerum de 20. merae 15. Sextarios mellis quando Rex ibat in Exercitu per terram de ipso Burgo 12. Burgenses ibant cum eo Si vero per mare in hostem eat mittebant ei 4. equos de eodem Burgo usque Londouium ad comportanda Arma vel alia quae opus essent for that great Conqueror as Sr Roger Twisden hath rightly and Judiciously observed had 3 things after that his Conquest in his purpose Cares and intention 1. ut prospicetur Regno de necessariis ad bellum 2. ut Satisfaceret Gallis periculorum suorum laborum Sociis Ita tamen ne Anglis ea occasione praeberetur Justa offensionis causa qua reddi possent ad insurrectionem seu rebellionem paratiores 3. ne Coloni utpote sine quibus Agricultura exerceri non poterit William Rufus and King Henry the First his Sons kept and established the same without any lessening or alteration as to the Time or ways King Stephen Henry the 2. and Richard the First did the like and King Richard the 1. wanted not an aid and money for his redemption out of his Captivity so did King John in his generall muster and array of all the Forces of England sub poena Culvertagii of Shame and Reproch like Deborahs Curse ye Meroz against the feared Invasion of the French King neither was it altered by King He. the 3. who mandavit vice Comitibus Wiggon Staff Salox Warr. quod venire fac ad ipsum Regem in exercitu suo usque Bery in Wallia desingulis duabus Hydis Terrae Com. suorum unum Hominem cum una bona securi c. habentem secum victualia pro â—s Diebus Edward the first did not understand himself to be manacled as unto Time and Wages when he told Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk Earl Marshall of England refusing to go with him to War into Flanders he should go or be hanged and afterwards seised the great Estates of Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England and Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and made them glad to accept his Pardon and in the 7th Year of his Reign the Praelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of this Realm did in Parliament Declare that they are bound to aid their King at all Seasons no Time or Manner at all limited King Edward the 2. left it as he found it and in hte 3. Year of the Reign of King Edward 3. it was in Parliament declared that uone shall by any Writing bebe bound to come Armed to the King for that every Subject is to be at his Commandment that in his busy Reign of gathering Triumphant Lawrells a Proclamation was made in singulis Com. Angliae quod omnes homines habentes literas Regis de pardon felon c. causa guerrae Scotiae ad Regem veniant and our Kings Richard the 2. Henry the 4th 5th and 6th Edward the 4th and Richard the 3. continued them nothing being ordered to enervate that Constitution or Law of William the Conqueror it was by an Act of Parliament made in the 11th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th ordained that none that shall attend upon the King and do him true Service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing by attending upon the King in his own Person and to him true and faithfull Allegiance or in any other place by his Commandment within the Land or without shall do and Perform And in the 19th Year of the said Kings Reign by an Act of Parliament it was ordained declared enacted by the advice of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall in Parliament assembled no Commons therein mentioned by Authority of the Same who shall forfeit that doth not attend the King being in his own Person in his Wars either within the Kingdom or without or depaâ—t from his said Service without the Kings Licence in Writing under his sign Manuall or Signet or Great or Privy Seal or generall Proclamation there having been no Repeal or limitation afterwards of that especiall Service either in the Reign of that King or of King Henry the 8th Edward the 6th Queen Mary Queen
Elizabeth King James and King Charles the 1. And our Annalls Historians and Records can appaâ—ently evidence that Queen Elizabeth in the designed Invasion of England by the King of Spain with a formidable Navy and Army in the Year 1588. did not by any of her Councells Judges Delegates or Lawyers great or small limit in the raising of Forces either by Land or Sea the Numbers Time of Continuance or Wages and it hath been a part of the Jus Gentium or Law of Nations not to contradict but allow the Seizing of Ships of Merchants and Strangers in the Potts or Havens of a Prince like to be Assailed and in Danger of War when every man ought to fight tanquam pro Aris Focis And that magnanimous great and wise Princess could not without that Power inhaerent in her Monarchy have aided with Men and Arms the great Henry King of France and the distressed Belgick Provinces checked the Papall Powers and Plots and Planted and Supported the Protestant Religion in most of the parts of Christendom holding by a steddy hand the Ballance thereof and so well understood her own Rights and the true methods of Government as she blaming some of the House of Commons for flying from their Houses near the Sea Coasts in the affright of the Spanish Invasion did Swear by the Almighty God that if she knew whom in particular she would punish and make them Examples of being the Deserters of their Prince and Countrey King James asked no leave of his Subjects in Parliament to Raise and Send Men and Arms into the Palatinate being his Son in Law 's Inheritance for the Defence thereof under the Command of Sr Horatio Vere and an Army for the same purpose also under the Command of Count Mansfelt a German Prince King Charles that blessed Martyr by a Company of accursed Rebells furnished to Sea 3. severall Armies and Navies in aid of the distressed Protestants at Rochell in France in whose Reign all the Judges of England subscribed to their Opinions that the King was to prevent a danger impending upon the Commonwealth might impose a Tax for the furnishing out of Ships and was to be the sole Judge thereof which had but a little before been inrolled in all the Courts of Justice in Westminster and in the Chancery as the opinion of all the Judges of England under their hands which in the leavying but of Ten Shillings being Cavilled at by Mr Hamden a man of 3 or 4000 l. per Annum one of the grand Sedition-Mongers who as a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament had by an Execrable Rebellion almost Ruined destroyed England Scotland and Ireland to pacify which that Pious Prince being willing to satisfie their scruples as much as the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom as he hoped might Allow and being a Principall part of the Monarchy the Arcana's whereof Queen Elizabeth believed not fit to be sacrâ—ficed unto Vulgar and Publick disputes and hammered upon the Anvills of Lawyers arguments tending unto more what could then should be sayd and therefore did in some of her grants or rescripts insert the words as King James afterwards did de quo disputari nolumus a maxima which the great Henry the Fourth of France in his Government strictly observed and which every Sea or Land Captain hath through many Ages and traverses of the world ever experimented to be necessary and usefull Insomuch as licence was given to frame a Case or question thereupon that never was before done in England through all its Changes of our Monarchs under the Brittish Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Races or in all the Empires and Kingdoms of the habitable World for amongst the Israelites there was an outward Court for the Common People there was a Sanctum Sanctorum there was no dispute suffer'd about their Urim and Thummim or the dreadfuly delivered Decalogue and the Ancilia and vestall fire at Rome were not to be pried into by the Common People neither would the vast Ottoman Empire suffer the secrets of Mahomets Pidgeon or the laying the Foundations of their Religion or Alcoran vast Empire to be disputed or exposed unto vulgar Capacities that would sooner mistake or abuse then assent unto truth or the most certified reason In the way unto which our fatality and ever to be lamented sad Consequences that followed the late long Parliament Rebellion Mr Oliver St John and Mr Rober Holborne two young Lawyers affecting a Contrariety to the approved sence and Interpretation of our most known and best old Laws and to Criticise and put doubtfull Interpretations upon the ever to be reverenced and wholsome Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom did to that end expend much Time in the search of all the Records of the Kingdom The first of which laboured to propagate his design of Ruining the Kings Power of taxing Ship Mony and leavying it in Case of necessity for the defence of his Kingdom and Subjects but Mr Holbornes better opinion after all could not but leave him an earnest Assertor of the Kings Rights and Power therein So as of the 12 Judges upon the debates of the Kings learned Councell and the Peoples Lawyer Mr St John and others dispute arguing Pro and Contra One against the Other Ten of the Judges giving their Judgements therein against the said Mr Hamden that that unhappy aforesaid Ten Shillings ought to be leavyed upon him Notwithstanding Justice Hattons and Justice Crokes dissenting opinions who did afterwards forsake that begun and after long continued paths of Rebellion And that good and great man that prepared the Act of Parliament for the Converting Tenures in Capite into free and Common Socage that took away the strength of our Israel and worse then the folly or ill managed love of old Pelias Daughters to make their aged Father young again whether misled by his friend Oliver St John or overmuch in love of the well poysed temper of his so much admired the Roman Pomponius Atticus needed not to have been so over Severe in the astringent penalties nailed and fastned upon that Act of Parliament and the breaking of that Socage Act by adding to that much better of the tenures in Capite no less then the affrightfull penalty of that of a Praemunire when it was not likely to be so great a Stranger to his memory that the Learned Judges of the Kingdom had at severall times in the Reigns of King James and King Charles the Martyr declared their well weighed opinions that the Tenures in Capite were so fundamentall a part of our Laws as no Act of Parliament could be able or have force to repeal change or take them away And that in all the Icarian attempts and high Flights of the long called Parliament Rebellion and even in their Hogen Mogen unparaleld Nineteen Propositions made unto their King which if granted had taken away from him all the Power of a King and a Father or to govern or defend
who had a great desire to unite the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in their Laws and Religion as well as they were in their neighbourhood and to have them to be in Subjection under one and the same King and Sovereign were after long and learned Conferences and disputes constrained to forsake that impossible to be atchieved Enterprize and our great Incendiary Mr John Pym could in the Year 1641. harangue in that unfortunately seditious Parliament that our Laws which he might or should have known as to a great part of them to have been composed and derived unto us from our German and Northern Progenitors Feudall Laws intermingled with the Civill and Cannon Laws with some municipall Laws Consuetudines non Malos in se as Gavel kind and the Rescripts Edicta mandata principum Responsa adjudicata Judicum prudentum not dissonant or contradicting each other the Laws of God an rules of Right Reason were the Peoples Birth-Right and our persecuted untill he was Murthered blessed Martyr King Charles the First did in the 3. Year of his Reign when he signed that which they stiled the Peoples Petition of Right declare unto them that his maxime is that the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liherties and may when all is done if well and truly weighed in the Ballance of Right reason and understanding and what hath hapned and may come to pass hereafter easily discern that in England there never was such a Confusion and overturning of our Laws and Ancient Monarchick Government through all the Successions of our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Kings as hath been in England since the beginning of that famously infamous Rebellious Parliament and their Undermining of our Laws and Libeties and turn all into an Anarchy that they might gain a power to enrich themselves by the spoil of 3 Kingdoms and ruining of as many as would not be as Wicked Rebells as they had been And that when his Majesty had Released unto them the arrears of his profits by his Tenures and Court of Wards and Liveries a Million and a half Sterling and in his pourveyances Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds It was hugely praejudiciall to the King and beneficiall unto his Subjects too many of whom had Rebelled against his Royall Father persecuted and Murthered him Hunted and would have extirped his Royall Posterity And that it can be no otherwise accompted to be then a most Barbarously Ingratefull and unworthy Act of the Nation and People of England after many Knights fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their forefather and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the Sixty Thousand Knights fees and more reckoned by some Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at 20l. per Ann. as they may be conjectured to have been accompted in Anno. 1 Edwardi 2. they would amount unto 200000l per Ann. and if each of them have since increased but unto 300l per Ann which may be thought to be now the least improvement might amount in yearly value unto 3 Millions Sterling and if that should be multiplyed 60 times more as Ordericus Vitalis reckonet it the Yearly value thereof might swell unto one Hundred Eighty and 3 Millions Sterling besides great quantities of other Lands freely granted in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royal progenitors unto others of them their heirs to be holden of them in Socage besides 200000l per An. or a very great Yeerly sums of Mony necessarily expended upon his Military Guards for the defence of himself his people against Sedition and Rebellion-mongers more then his Royal Father progenitors needed to have done if he had kept entire his said eminent and Legall Rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service to endeavour to extinguish the Right use of them and forget their great and very great obligations to their Prince and Common parent and Royall progenitors and take away from our Kings the means whereby they should protect and defend themselves and their Subjects from damage and Injuries forreign and domestique And those Tax improvers and Advantage Catchers can as if that were not sufficient make it as too many of their Actions and business to cozen and beg all they can from him and instead of never ceasing to give him thanks for breaking the barrs of an Hell of Arbitrary power and slavery wherein their Counterfeit Commonwealth's men by their perjuries and Hypocriticall Rebellion had brought them And their Cheating Man of Sin Oliver Cromwell had by his Instrument of his own making lockt and bolted them fast enough as he hoped with a Domine quid retribuam what shall we render for all his benefits make it the greatest of their care and Imployment not only to take and keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparalleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion to pardon and forget all their Treasons and offences committed against him and his blessed Father which in a small kind of Calculation may not unprobably be believed to amount unto Sixteen Millions Sterling in arreres of his own Revenue and 2 or 3 Hundred Millions Sterling at the least for the forfeitures which our Laws would have given him with some Mercy and Moderation to boot for so small a Recompence as during his life in the Moyety or one half of the Excise to his Heirs and Successors to be drawn out of the Groans Tears Complaints and sorrows of which the main part of the Common People who never did or are like to hold any Lands of our Kings in Capite or by Knight Service And should not have forgotten how they promised him 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 yet when he had bereaved himself of that grand and continuall part of the strength and support of his Crown Power and Dignity and those entire Rights of his Monarchick Government which our prudent second Fabius ever to be praised and remembred from Generation to Generation the late George Monke Duke of Albemarle for his military wary Conduct thorough almost insuperable Difficulties without hearkning to the Syren songs of those that pretended to be for a Common wealth or being tempted or deluded to restore his Majesty to a Cripled Monnarchy as the men of the Rebellious Rump or no Parliament with their Jugling Covenant or as many Faces as they should have occasion to impress or stamp upon it would have perswaded him to have done and that great Hero denyd to do And that ill advised framer of that Unhappy Act of Parliament to cut or take away the Arteries
and prudent King Edward the First when he did his Homage to the King of France for the Dutchy of Acquitaine carefully to except his ancient right to the Dutchy of Normandy and the French Kings denying his brave and victorious Grandchild Edward the 3. to do his Homage by proxy made him so Inquisitive into his own better Title unto that Kingdom as the French King paid dear for it and the English King at length the owner of that great and flourishing Kingdom When Fealty is conjoyned with the Oaths of Allgeance and Supremacy the true born only Legitimate Issue and Children of the Feudall Laws they will be like a 3 fold Cord not at all in Reason or Justice to be broken And in matters touching Inheritances Nobility Titles of Honour womens Dower of the 3 part of Lands and Tenements fees tenures in Capite and by Knight Service Rents Escheats Fines Felonies Forfeitures tryall by battell cum multis aliis c. our Laws being not only founded upon them but supported and guided by them It may be wondred it should be so unknown to our Common Lawyers whom a carefull reading of our Glanvil Bracton Britton and Fleta and a better acquaintance with their mother the Civill and Caesarean and Feudall Laws with a due inspection into the ever to be valued Records of the Kingdom might better instruct then the malecontent and ill affected Sr Edward Coke and some other of the later School or Edition of those which are called Common Saviors as not to believe with great assurance that that which they call so generally the Common Law is for the most part if not all the Feudall Law which they are pleased to call the Praerogativa Regis declared and acknowledged in Anno 17. E. 2. and likewise that of the view of Franck pledge the next Year ensuing and that it was therefore not unfitly wished by a Late Learned Author supposed to be a post-hume of Sr Henry Spelman that Some worthy Lawyer would diligently read the Feudall Laws and shew the severall heads from whence those of our Laws are derived wherein saith he the Lawyers beyond the Seas are diligent but ours are all for profit And An Act of Parliament in Anno 1662. made by King Charles the 2. for the Settlement of the Kingdom of Ireland wherein notwithstanding that it was in the â—3th Year of his Reign ordained that all lands and Tenements in England and Ireland should be holden of him his Heirs and Successors in Free and Common Socage there is a Proviso and Exception that all lands tenements and Hereditaments in Ireland setled or to be setled on the Soldiers who are out of said Act and not provided for shall be held of the King his Heirs and Successors by Knight Service in Capite and it is well known that our unruly Neighbours in Scotland that could never be satisfied with the Fat and plenty of our Land of Goshen untill the lean kine had eat up the fat and they had set our before happy Kingdom on fire with their Hypocriticall dissembling Illegall wicked Covenant did not in all the mischiefs and Miseries which they brought upon us and themselves in those their Rebellious Designs make it any part of their desires to change their ancient tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and Common Socage which by unhinging the Government would have set all the wild Beasts of the Forrests loose and at Liberty and made the otherwise unruly and never to be governed numerous vassalls so masterless as to tear in peices their Lords Lairds or Superiors and turn that Monarchy to do as well as it can amongst a herd of rudeness and Incivilities in their Plads and Blew Capps And the Hollandiae Zelandiae Frisiaeque principes terra marique potentes heretofore nullo externo usi milite ex veteri Longobardorum Consuitudine sub certa quadam feudalitiae necessitudinis lege hoc est mutuae inter dominicum patrocinum ac Fiduciariam Clientelam veluti pactionis nexu beneficiarii instituerentur qui Conceptis verbis interposita Juratae fidei religione pro beneficio accepto patrono suo militarem operam praeberent navarentque ut scilicet quoties usus posceret parati in armis essent id quod Jure Feudalistico proprium Feudatariorium munus atque officium est Et cum praediorum defectu in these Provinces which ingenio soli quod natura depressum ac uliginosium were naturally scituated cum incilibus passim fossis lacubusque ac paludibus intercussum haud sane faciles aditus ostentat confisa turbas Seditionum praemia converteret and therefore to untie those obligations betwixt the Lords and Tenants and enervate those strengths and promptitude to a confidence in their own Power Charles the 5th Emperour Edicto perpetuo Anno Domini 1518. officia haec militaria vulgo servitia dicta in universum abragavit vassallisque omnibus remisit Ea tamen lege ut fundi Clientelares functionibus publicis quibus hactenus Imunes fuissent in posterum non secus atque patrimoniales obnoxii existerent and having so farr inticed them out of their old into a much worse constitution with Taxes and the Spanish Inquisition managed by the Duke D'Alva in a most tyrannical arbitrary Goverment so desperated them as after a long time expended in Intercessions without any redress obteyned and those their discontents heightned and made use of by the Policies of their neighbours the English and French who had reason to fear the ambitious encrochments and evil designs of the King of Spain to oppress them that were his neighbours and by the assistance of his late Conquest of the West Indies with their Gold and Silver Mines endeavouring to make himself to be as it were the Atlas of the World and extend his Dominions to a Fifth Monarchy and a Ne plus ultra All which concurring and put together with the Conduct and Adventurous successfull care of the then Prince of Orange assisted by the united Seven Provinces whereof Holland Zealand and West Freisland were the greatest Incouragers of the other caused that faedus ultrajectinum which in a long series and continuance of Time of Years making those netherland Belgick Provinces to be a Campus Martius and field of Bloud hath with an intermission only of 12 Years Truce after that Centnry ended occasioned greater ruines effusion of blood then the Wars Joyned all together between Rome and Carthage and Caesar and Pompey in the Pharsalian Fields So long and fatall from the beginning to the ending hath been that unhappy project of the dissolving the Hollandish Zealand and West Freizland ancient Feud 〈◊〉 Laws by the altering their Tenures in Capite and by military service which howsoever they had so continued depressed during the heat and fury of that Spanish War been laid aside and intromitted saith Neostadius haec olim celeberrima Feudalis Curiae quam Oraculum Bataviae was wont to be called the Lords
ejusdem Comitatus venire faicas ad consulendum consentiendum pro Communitate illa his quae Comites Barones Proceres de Regno Nostro in dicto crastino ordinabunt the King being then in Gascoigny and not intending to be there present tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod praeter illos duos milites eligi facias alios duos milites legales ad labor andum potentes eos una cum dictis duobus militibus usque Westmonasterium venire facias it a quod dicto crastino sint ibidem ad audiendum faciendum quod eis tunc ibidem plenius injungemus hoc nullo modo omittatis haheas ibi hoc breve teste meipso apud Westm. nono die Octobris and caused more Knights of the Shires at that Time to be Elected then he had done before or after Eodem modo mandatum est singulis Vicecomitibus Angliae And to that end did afterwards without any Deviation from what might justly appertain unto himself in the well ordering and government of his councells and Subjects in the most legall manner send his writ of Summons to Gilbert de Thornton chief Justice of his Court of Kings bench in these words viz. Quia super quibusdam arduis negotiis nos et Regnum nostrum vos caeterosque de concilio nostro tangentibus quae sine vestra praesentia nolumus expedire vobis mandamus in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini fir miter injungentes quatenus sitis ad nos apud Westm. primo die mensis Augusti proximo futuro vel saltem infra tertium diem subsequentem ad ultimum tractatur vestrum concilium impensur hoc nullo modo omittatis teste meipso apud Album Monasterium 23. die Junii Anno regni nostri 23. Eodem modo mandatum est Justiciariis de utroque banco de Itinere Justic. assignatis Decanis juratis de Concilio Baronum de Scaccario aliis Clericis de concilio quorum nomina annotantur And the inferior Secular Clergy not being at all called with other of the Commons by that unauthorized Writ of Simon de Montfort in the 49th Year of the Reign of his then imprisoned Father King Henry the 3d did hold it to be as agreeable to Reason and his good Intentions for the One as the Other to make out his Writ of Summons in These Words Viz. Venerabili in Christo Patri eadem gratia Cantuarensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati salutem licet nuper mandaverimus quod die Dominico proxime post festum St. Martini quod jam instat apud Westm. personaliter interessetis quod praemoneretis Priorem Capitulum Ecclesiae vestrae Archidiaconum totum Clerum vestrae diocesis faceretisque quod iidem Prior Archidiaconus in propriis suis personis dictum Capitulum per unum idemque Clerus per duos procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero habentes una cum vobiscum interessent modis omnibus tunc ibidem ad tractandum ordinandum faciendum nobiscum cum caeteris praelatis Proceribus aliis incolis regni nostri qualiter periculis quae eidem regno nostro hiis diebus imminere videntur poterit obviari quia tamen pro navigio nostro congregando parando quod ad dicti regni defensionem hostium nostrorum impugnationem annuente Domino speramus maxime profecturum quodque per omnibus utile credimus festinari in partibus de Wynchelse moram tam diu facere nos oportebit quod dictis die loco Commode non poterimus interesse vohis mandamus in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungentes quod die Dominica proxima ante festum beati Andreae Apostoli proxime futurum ad quem diem dictum negotium ex causa predicta duximus prorogandum apund Westm. personaliter intersitis praemunientes praedictos Priorem Capitulum Archidiaconum Clerum facientesque quod tunc ibidem intersint ad tractandum ordinandum faciendum super praemissis prout in priori mandato nostro vobis inde directo plenius continetur Prorogationem autem hujusmodi de dioces Vestra quorum interest celeriter nuncietis Teste Rege apud Odymere 11 die Novembris Consimiles literae de verbo ad verbum diriguntur Episcopo Eli. Episcopo Norwic. Episcopo Winton c. But in that ballancing way of his great nobility by the vulgus or common people fastened so ill an example in process of time upon his Crown and successors as some of them have sadly since experimented it as in the event it hath too much resemblance with what that excellent Queen Elizabeth did by supporting that ingratefull Republick of the united provinces when she was forced to do it to preserve her self and the Protestant Religion as well at home as abroad against the Spanish tyranny and encroachments When he was not able at that time to foresee that the number of freeholders would be as they were afterwards almost 300 in 5 encreased and that such great quantities of Abby Priory Nunnery and Chantry lands and other profits and possessions given and dedicated to Religious uses which in the Reign of King Henry the 8th may be justly estimated to be a 3d part of the lands and revenues of the Kingdom should much of it fall to the share of the common people and make them more surly and haughty then they were and ought to be or that in the granting of those lands from the Crown from which much of it originally came a great part of the tenures in Capite and by Knights service should in those times be turned into free and Common Soccage or by the manumising or making free Multitudes of Copyholders which in former ages may be accompted to have been another third part if not more of the lands of the Kingdom Or that the Offices of Sheriffs which in his and the former Reigns of our Kings were commonly lodged and intrusted in the hands of the Nobility and great men of the Kingdom would so much be altered as to be most commonly placed in the lower rancks of the People whereby the ignorant vulgar Seditious or Factious and most numerous part of them should be suffered to take upon them to make their own indiscreet or purchased Elections when the Writs only commâ—nded and intended that the Sheriffs who were solely 〈◊〉 thereunto should without any Bribery Partiality 〈◊〉 Corruption make and Govern the Election and to be the Judges of the Fitness or Unfitness of the persons to be Elected to give their Assent in Parliament unto what should be there Ordained by their King by the Councel and Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Or that any of his Successors would for an Excise upon Ale Beer Coffee and Syder for want of a regall revenue which in many ages past had been by Princely indulgencies and necessities of
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
the Reign of King Henry the 3d included in the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Tenants and Knights Fees of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual not a few were not represented when with those and their dependancies they so over-powered King H. 3. in a Parliament at Oxford as to inforce him to yield unto those Provisions which afterwards proved to be the fatal Incentives of an ensuing bloody War and the Seminary of many Commotions and Contests betwixt some of our Succeeding Kings and their Subjects in their after Generations those only excepted being Tenants Paravail who held their Lands subordinately of the Tenants that were mean to those that held their Lands of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Majores Barones holding of the King in Capite with multitudes almost innumerable of Copy-holders Lease-holders Tenants at Will or Sufferance Villani or Bordarii le menu peuple et de busse condition were exempted by Order of Parliament as represented by them and no other and always used to be so the almost numberless Herd of Monks Fryers and Religious Persons and their Revenues Servants Tenants and Dependants were not nor could be represented but freed by the Kings Orders in Parliament from payment of the Commoners Wages that came to Parliament by two several necessary sorts of Priviledges and Immunities instead of many more which they claimed the Religious and Monastick People of the Nation with their very large Possessions and Revenues before the dissolution of them in the Reign of King Henry the 8th and King Edward the 6th being rationally to be accounted little less than a full 4th part of the Lands of the Kingdom the Secular Clergy always giving Subsidies apart by themselves being almost 10000 were represented by the Bishops or Convocation of the Clergy the Tenants in Antient demesne or of the great number of the Tenants of the Kings Annaent demesne proper and largely extended Royal Revenue that should be which before they were Granted or Aliened away by our Kings like Indulgent Common Parents to their almost every days craving Subjects and People or in Rewarding and Incouraging publick and great Services done or to be done for the Common-wealth or Publick good which were very large and diffusive through all the parts of the Nation and the Clerks of the Chancery Beneficiate as most of them Antiently were and the Judges Kings Council and Officers attending the Honourable House of Peers in the like condition and should be exempted although by length of Time Custom Indulgence or Permission they have been since the Original of the House of Commons in the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d. which was then no more than our Embrio and from thence discontinued until the 22d year of the Raign of King Edward the first charged and made contributary to publick Aids and Necessities and the largely Priviledged County Palatine of Lancaster having heretofore comprehended in it the three great Earldoms of Leicester Derby and Lincoln with their largely extended Revenues was not at the first represented but did forbear the sending of Members the remainder whereof is now a great part of the Kings Revenue the whole County Palatine of Chester with Wales and its Provinces had none until the Raign of King Henry the 8th nor the County Palatine of Durham and the Burrough of Newark upon Trent until some few years ago Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Pryors Religious Men and Women and all that have hundreds of their own as very many have by Grant from the Crown are by the Statute of 42 H. 3. exempted from coming to the Sheriffs Torn or County Court and so not intended to be Electors or Elected The Kings very large should be Demesne Lands and Crown Revenue and that of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the many other before mentioned exempted And the Records of the House of Peers in Parliament have often told us that many times when the Commons gave Subsidies they did it by the Assent of the Lords Spitual and Temporal And as a very Learned Divine of the Church of England there being many Pseudo-Protestant Divines that are not of it hath well remarked there is no Subject of the Kingdom of England represented in Parliament by the Commons thereof but as subordinate to the King and to join with him and the Lords in their As-Assent and Approbation not against him or either of them in our Kings and Soveraign Princes making of Laws for the good of the Kingdom For Repraesentare is no more than locum implore autoritate vel vicaria potestate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita iotis est exhibere vi quà dam juris praesentiam ejus qui revera non est Budaeus definit esse repraesentationem per figuram facere imaginario visu rem ipsam repraesentare locum implere loco sistere loco praesentis sistere repraesentatio quaedam imaginaria And being but Commissioners special Attorneys or Procurators of some part of the Lay-Commonalty and Freeholders not of the Copy-holders Lease-holders Villains or Bondmen Servants or Apprentices could not by their Indentures Letters of Attorney or Procurations with any reason truth understanding or propriety of speech be believed to represent for them that never delegated or authorised them or to Act beyond the purpose or design of those that Elected sent or imployed them nor can make it to be any thing more than an aenigma or Riddle with some hidden and inveloped sense or meaning not to be comprehended in the genuine obvious or proper meaning sense or construction of the word Repraesent for who can without a great weakness failing or Error in his Judgment think that they could by any tentering or straining of the word make all the several kinds of people that sent them in obedience to the direction of their Kings Writs or Orders to impower them whilst they sate in the House of Commons in Parliament to Sentence Condemn Fine Arrest Imprison Banish or Sequester any of those that they pretended to represent when the Praedecessors of those that would be Masters of such a Latitude did in Parliament in the 42d year of the Raign of King Edward the third when a Tax or Aid was proposed for the King being the first and only end for which they were elected and sent make it their request to the King to give them leave to go home to their several Countries and places to advise before hand with those that sent them Otherwise the Pledges or Sureties which every Member of the House of Commons being to give their County and place whom they would represent as their Procurators or Attorneys are to be well heeded and cautiously taken for pledges or security well watched in their doings and not left to trick and purchase to themselves by unlawful Encroachments an Arbitrary and Illegal Soveraignty which the Laws of the Land never allowed them and their Masters the Counties and places that sent them
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
of his Aerarium or Treasury without which no King or Prince can be safe or great and protect and defend himself and his people from Injuries and Contempt which put all together may give Gods appointed watchman of our Israel besides their more weighted and occasional business in Parliament scarcely time to slumber or sleep or enjoy his natural refreshments or divertisements without the addresses and Importunities of his almost always wanting and complayning Subjects which they that will be at leisure to peruse all the orders of himself and his privy Councel and treasury References upon Petitions in the Secretary of State and Master of the Requests Books and the Reports and Returns thereof with all that are contained in the patent close Rolls fine and liberate Rolls of every year besides the Writs Remedial granted out of the Chancery from which no man as our Laws say is to return sine Remedio those of the Common or Ordinary sort in every year amounting to no smaller a number than eighty Thousand in a year which by Law were anciently intended not to have been granted but by immediate Petitions to the King howsoever are now dispatched of Course as it hath long been by his Majesties not a few subordinate Officers very much to the ease and relief of his People who have so long enjoyed those benefits and accommodations as those Writs of Course without the trouble either of our Kings or their more especial Court of Parliaments as Anciently as King Canutus Raign who began his Raign in the year of our Lord 1016. and from thence so continued until the Raign of King John wherein a Writ of Novel diseisin is noted in the Margin of a Roll to be de cursu from whence the Cursistors in Chancery have taken and do yet keep their Name not a Cursitando as Fleta who wrote about the Raign of King Edward the 2d terms them Juvenes pedites little Lads who carried and fetcht Writs to and from the Great Seal but Clerici de Cursu mentioned in the Oath ordained to be given unto them in Parliament in Anno 18. E. 3. Insomuch as when Simon de Montfort that Married the Sister of King John and either his Father or himself had about that time been the destruction of the Protestant Albigenses and Waldenses in France did in the time of the Imprisonment of King H. 3. and his Son Prince Edward whom he and his Rebellious Partners had taken Prisoners in the Battle at Lewes take an especial care that in the absence of Thomas de Cantilupo the Kings Chancellor the Kings great Seal being committed to the Trust of Ralph de Sandwich Keeper of the Kings Wardrobe assisted by Hugh le Despencer Justiciar of England and Peter de Montfort two special Rebels to be kept until the return of the Chancellor and that the said Ralph should Seal brevia de Cursu but those which were de praecepto were to be Sealed in their presence And when that Rebellion was afterwards broken and Simon de Montfort and the most of his Rebel partners were slain at the more fortunate Battle at Evesham and the King restored to his Regality and Rights of government he and his Successors afterward did in all their Parliaments enjoy the power and authority of Monarchs in their great Councels or Assemblies of Parliament wherein by reason of their great and important affairs in War a in France Scotland and Wales they could not be able to be personally present but summoned and held their no long lasting Parliaments by their Lieutenants or Guardians of the Kingdom for the short continuance thereof § 31. That our great Councels or Parliaments except Anciently at the three great Festivals viz. Christmas Easter and Pentecost being ex more summoned and called upon extraordinary emergent occasions could not either at those Grand and Chargeable Festivals or upon Necessities of State or Publick Weal and preservation ex natura rei continue long but necessarily required Prorogations Adjournments Dissolutions or Endings FOR extraordinary occasions being not common or ordinary and the Summons or calling of fit and well capacited Persons to those venerable or great Councels of Parliament for purposed sometimes especily Limitted and Declared to be for Advice and Aid not in omnibus arduis only but in quibusdam arduis concerning the defence of the King his Kingdom and the Church always howsoever declared by the King himself or such as he appointed and there being other great and little Courts enough in the Kingdom to dispatch and administer Justice it could not but put our Kings and Princes in mind not to trouble their highest Court for small and trivial Affairs but to believe that Canutus an Ancient King of this Nation who began his Raign in Anno Domini 1001. had reason by an express Law to prohibit the troubling of him or his Parliament or greatest Councel with small matters when they might with more ease less delay expences and attendance be determined at home or in their proper Courts or Places in these words videlicet neme de injuria alterius Regi quaeritur nisi quidem in Centuria Justitiam consequi aut impetrare non potest Centuria autem Cominus quisque ut quidem par est intersit aut saltem debito absentiam luat supplicio and that Law might well be said to have been made by that King sapientum Concilio which might occasion the use of Receivers and Triers of Petitions constantly appointed by the King or his House or Councel of Peers until our late times of Rebellion and Confusion that great Councel or Court never being intended by our Kings or their Laws to be a standing often or continual Court for ordinary Affairs The wisdom of our Kings and their House of Peers having often rejected and not given any Remedies to Petitioners that might more properly be relieved in Inferiour Courts For King Offa in the year 787. after the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ had a 2d Session in his great Councel And therefore as all Parliaments have had very urgent and necessary causes of Calling and Summoning them by their Kings so they were to have their continuance and duration proportionable to the Business and Affairs for which their Advice Assent or Approbation were required and even in the Ecclesiastical Councels begun as early after the Incarnation of our blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ as the year 446. The many Secular Businesses as making of Laws and redressing of Grievances in and by the Presence and Assistance of our Kings and many of the Nobility continued until the Norman Conquerour who separated the Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdictions one from the other and the Attendance upon Parliaments were not a little troublesom and chargeable to the Spiritual and Temporal Baronage and therefore the Ancient Custom of our Saxon Kings was more easy and less burdensom unto the Prelates and Nobility when it required their constant and annal Attendance
upon their Soveraign at his Court at the three great Feasts of the year viz. Christmas Easter and Whitsontide as the excellently Learned Sir John Spelman hath informed us where the Bishops might give an accompt as in so many Parliaments which needed no Summons Prorogations or Adjournments for it was not to be doubted but that almost every man might understand when those Grand Feasts or Solemnities began or ended what had been done or was to be done in their several Diocesses and the Earls within their several Counties and Provinces of which Anciently they had a Subordinate Government and were to render accompts thereof When though not praecisely the very same in number as to the Festivals of the year wherein our Old King Alfred and many of our succeeding Kings and Princes used to be yearly attended by their Bishops Earls and Nobility whereby they might the better often understand the Circumvolutions and various Accidents in their Kingdom in every year might have some resemblance with that of the great Charles or Charlemain the hugely as Eginard who was his principal Secretary witnesseth powerful valiant and vertuous King of France which Kings Daughter Bertha our Saxon King Ethelbert is said to have married and at her Instance upon the preaching of Augustine the Monk to have converted himself and all his Subjects to the Christian Faith and Religion and celebrated with great Solemnity and Magnificence the great Festivals of Christmas and Easter which with the addition of another being the Feast of Pentiost was never omitted to be sumptuously kept by all our succeeding Kings until the latter end of the Raign of our K. H. the 3d. The French with great Solemnity holding their Parl. or great Coun at their 2 great Festivals of Christmas Easter Unless any other great Affairs caused them to summon those their great Councels at other times which coming after the Raign of 〈…〉 H. 3. to be 10 laid aside by reason of their many voyages into Normandy long lasting often Wars with France or Scotland troubles discords at home as Parliaments especially when after the 48th year of the Raign of King Henry the third the attendance upon Parliaments was much more troublesom to the Commons in Parliament after their admissions into that great assembly though they had their charges and expences in going tarrying and returning allowed them by King Edward the first which was first begun 〈◊〉 mon Montfort and his rebellious partners only in 〈◊〉 H. 3. When the King was their Prisoner in the 〈◊〉 two Knights of the Shire for the County of York wh 〈…〉 those that were afterwards permitted to be present by 〈◊〉 Edward 1. in the 22 year of his Raign and in the Raign of our succeeding Kings did esteem it to be a damage to to them in their other employments affairs and loss of time better becoming their capacities until the impressions and effassinations of Pride Fear Flattery Ambition and Self-Interest had within a small time after their aforesaid admission into Parliament incited or inticed them to be packt by Roger Mortimer Earl of March in the Raign of King E. 2. to Grant Aids to help to advance his wicked and accursed purposes as is expressed in one of the Articles and Charges against the said Earl in the 4th year of the Raign of King E. 3. or to set up for a Trade or Factory for themselves or their Friends or such as they could purchase as a lamentable experience hath of late years told us And we find no such Doings or Factorings before that or 49. of King Henry the 3d. For King Athelstone held a Parliament at Exeter and the succeeding Saxon and Danish Kings Summoned and held their Parliaments at several places and Dissolved and Met again as their occasions and the more weighty and extraordinary Affairs of the Kingdom required The Norman Conquerour and William Rufus and Henry the 1. other than at their aforesaid Grand Festivals did neither restrain themselves to certain times or places either as to the Summoning Continuing Proroguing or Adjourning of their more than common or ordinary business which requiring short Councels and an hasty Prosecution or putting into Actions what their deliberate Advices had resolved upon could necessarily produce no long continuances but were not seldom without Prorogations or Adjournments as Mr. Pryn and all our Ancient and Contemporary Writers and Historians have plentifully testified In the 9th year of the Raign of King Henry the 2d A Parliament was called at Westminster where by reason of the frowardness of the Archbishop Becket and his Suffragan Bishops the King was displeased and the Parliament ended In the 20th year of the Raign of that King he called a general Assembly of the Bishops and Nobility at Clarendon where John of Oxford the Kings Clerk was President of that Councel and a charge was given for the King that they should call to memory the Laws Ecclesiastical of his Grandfather King Henry the 1st and to reduce them to writing which was done the Archbishop and Bishops putting their Seals thereunto and taking much against the Arch-bishops will their Oaths to observe them In the 33th year of his Raign a Councel of Bishops Abbots Earls Barons both of the Clergy and Laity was holden at Gaynington sub Elemosinae titulo vitium rapacitatis included therein saith Walsingham requiring Aid towards the Wars of Jerusalem the Kings of England and France resolving to go thither in Person the King of England taking upon him and wearing the white Cross. A Parliament was called at Nottingham by King Richard the first after his return from his Captivity which continued but four days a Parliament in 7. Johannis a great Councel or Parliament was holden at London and Adjourned to Reading whither the King not coming at the day appointed it was three days after Adjourned to Wallingford In the Raign of King Henry the 3d. His Great Councels or Parliaments were many times Prorogued or Adjourned in whose Raign the Popes Nuncio Summoning the Praelates of England to give an Aid to the Pope they excused themselves and alledged that the King was sick and the Arch-bishops and Bishops were absent and that sine iis respondere non possunt nec debent whereupon the Nuncio endeavouring to adjourn that Convocation they refused to come again after Summons without the Kings License in 6 H. 3. a Parliament 7. a Parliament in 8. a 3. Anno 10. a 4th Anno 11. a 5th a Parliament in 16. another in 17. Anno 19. a Parliament Anno 21. a Parliament Anno 22. a Parliament Anno 25. a Parliament Anno 28. 2 Parliaments Anno 35. a Parliament 36. a Parliament 37. a Parliament in 38. another being called in Easter Term which by reason of the absence of some Lords who pretended they were not Summoned according to Magna Charta was Prorogued to Michaelmas following Anno 42. another Parliament at London
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
of a contrived Parliament to govern the King when that gentle fictitious modus is content to allow the King a Salvo dom Regi et ejus Consilio quod ipsi hujusmodi Ordinaciones of 6. 3. or 1. of the Committee Postquam scripta fuerint examinare emendare valeant si hoc facere sciant valeant Ita quod hoc fiat tunc ibidem in pleno Parliamento de assensu Parliamenti Et non retro Parliamentum which last clause saith Mr. Pryn quite spoils Altars and contradicts what the Community of twelve six or three had ordained And King Edward the confessor whom the many foregoing and after ages have justly and truly reported and esteemed to be neither Oliver Cromwel or the mistaken Sir Edward Coke with their several modi tenendi Parliamenta did not find either of them in his Recherches amongst all the Laws of the Mulumtians Mercian Saxon and Danish Laws and other ancient Customs used in England in his time when he was Monarch thereof and Vicarius Summi Regis ordained Laws concilio Baronum Angliae leges 68 Annos sopitas excitavit excitatas reparavit reparatas decoravit decoratas confirmavis confirmatas vero vocantur Leges Edwardi Regis non quod ipse primo eas adinvenisse dicitur sed cum praetermissa fuissent oblivioni penitus dedita a diebus avi sui Edgari qui 17 Annis regnavit ipse Edwardus quia Justa erant honesta a profunda Abyssu extravit as if he had pulled them out of some Holes Vauts or Cranyes eas revocavit ut suas observandas contradidit wherein there is nothing at all that may be subservient to the wildest kind of Interpretation of a modus tenendi Parliamentum which in the case of so great Rational and Fundamental general Councel as a Parliament could not be beleived to be omitted in the making and framing K. Edward the Confessors Laws nor can they be conceived or believed to be made at one time but at several times during his Raign and in these although there are extant a very great commendation of the usefulness of the Law of Friborghs or Tithings there is not a word or any thing to be understood of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament being a third Estate For it appears in Anno 1244 in a Parliament holden at London the King consulted with the Bishops apart the Earls and Barons apart and the Abbots and Priors apart about the Popes not performing his promise concerning his removal of the grievances of the Kingdom where were none of the Common people either as a third Estate or otherwise which was before his imprisonment in the 48th year of his Raign by some of his Rebellious Barons and in all his Raign before there is often mention of his Bishops Earls and Barons Magnates and Grand Conseil but nothing at all of Commons or a formed House of Commons until the 49th year of his Raign and not long before at a Parliament assembled totam Nobilitatem Angliae For before the 42 year of that Kings Raign Nobiles Angliae tam viri Ecclesiastici quam seculares met in a Parliament at London Ita quod nunquam tam populosa multitudo ibi antea visa fuit where the King informing them of his necessities and requiring an aid they not any Commons but the Lords Spiritual and Temporal began to be very querelous and remembring old grievances as they called them demanded the Justiciary Chancellor and Treasurer might be chosen by the Common Councel of the Kingdom which by the Records and Annalists was never understood to be any other than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament summoned to give their advice to the King as the greatest men of wisdom and Estates in whom that and the obedience of the Common people were Justly included the choice of which great Offices of State Sir Edward Cokes modus tenendi Parliamentum having not then peeped into the World to help to disturb it the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then alledged to appertain unto them not unto the Vulgar or Common people and had been Justly and anciently due unto them ab antiquo Justum consuetum which had no longer a date than the enforced Charter of King John at Running Mede and the collateral strange security at the same time given for the 25 Conservators of the Liberties of the people to maintain its antiquity than something less than 42 years before which propositions the King denying that Councel was dissolved without any Claim of the common peoples third Estateship or being an Essential or constituent part of the Parliament or to have votum decisivum therein There was no such Modus tenendi Senatum or Parliamentum then so stiled when the Roman Empire began its rise for shortly after though their Stile or Title was Senatus populusque Romanus yet their Historians tell us that they had their Patritii and Menenius Agrippa when the Rabble Vulgus or Common people had made an Insurrection or mutiny and gone tumultuously into the Mount Aventine knew better how to bring them again into their Wits by a pleasant well understood fable or Apologue of the head Members Belly and Paunch in their Bodies natural and our Republican 3 Estate men might read and understand that those Common peoples Votes or Dictates were able to reach no further than their Plebiscita and never could arrive unto a Senatus consultum that when Julius Caesar came into our Brittain before the Incarnation of our Redeemer and that Nation had planted Colonies here they left us no Modus tenendi Senatum neither did Agricola Governor here for the Roman Colonies who had taught our Nation the use of the Roman Gown and Civilities teach them the modus tenendi Parliamentum or Senatum which Sir Edward Coke dreamed of or inform them that the Common people were a third Estate or had an inhaerent Soveraignty in them In all the Laws of Dunwallo Mulumtius there was no mention of Law for a modus tenendi Parliamentum or in those of Mercia Regina Britonum or in the time of the Heptarchy of the Saxon Kings or of King Ethelbert who raigned here in the year after Christ 568. Neither in the Laws of King Ina who raigned in England about the year 712. Or in the Laws of King Alured who began his Raign in Anno 871. and ended in Anno 900. and declares that he had ordained collected and put them together Atque easdem literis mandavit quorum bonam certe partem Majores sui religiose coluerunt mulâ—a etiam sibi digna videntur quae sibi observari melius commoda videbantur ea consulto sapientum partim antiquanda partino Innovanda videbantur curavit At quoniam temeritatis videatur ex suis ipsius decretis quenquam literarum monumentis consignare tum etiam se quidem apud posteros Justitiae suae fidem quae se magni fecerit
visit to his Tomb. The King thus vanquished by Clemency and hopes to out-reason their detestible Rebellion with all the secresie imaginable retired out of Oxford with a too much over-trusted Groom of his Bed-chamber riding out as the man with Mr. Hudson an Orthodox Loyal Minister their Journey being designed for London where the King was informed that the City Train Bands were to muster the next day after he should reach thither unto whose Protection not of the Scotch Army then quartered at Newcastle upon Tine he intended to place the safety of his Person whilst he should Treat further with his Parliament Rebels who being sufficiently infected with their Parliamentary Rebellious never to be warranted Principles would have given him as little an assistance whereof the Rebels being informed before hand by their Colonel Rainsborough that granted the King his pass and did too well understand who was the treacherous Groom of the Bed-chamber mans Master when the Loyal Party were afraid what was become of the King the Rebels could answer they would shortly hear of him who coming near unto London finding himself disappointed by the Training put off was enforced to coast about betwixt Branford and Highgate and from thence resolve to take his way to the Scotish Army and cast himself into their Protection after that he had before met with so bad an effect of their contrary Loyalty whither being come they as if they had had no manner of Intelligence of it before write their Letters to their Brother Parliament Rebels of their great amazement to see the King come unto them and desire that he may be brought home to his Parliament over which they had such an influence as they almost governed them in honour and safety who fail not to do it in promises but would have him delivered to them and sent to an house of his own at Holmby in the County of Northampton where he should not want a guard of their own whereupon the Scotish Commanders having fallen into a deeper than ordinary consideration how they could with Honour Loyalty and gude Conscience deliver their Native King into the hands of his Enemies and going to voting two great Commanders that in muckle manner had been obliged to their King for many great favours and might have ballanced the Vote with a great deal of facility in the Negative were mightily suspected to have gone privately along with them that they were certain would make up the Majority for delivering of the King up to his Parliament Adversaries but took by all means an especial care for themselves to Vote against the delivering of the King into the hands of those that would love their own ends more than any of his Rights or their Duty and a bargain came so to be made as the King was put into the mercy of the English Parliament and 200000 l. Sterling which amounted unto something more than Judas Iscariots thirty pieces of Silver for betraying Jesus Christ. And as Mickel as the 200000 l. were above the Scotch Marks or 13 d. half-penny english none or very little of it could ever after find the way to the Pockets of the Scotch Plads or blew Caps and he had not been long at Holmby but he was in a Morning betimes fetcht out of his Bed by Cornet Joice a Fanatick Tayler with some Troops of Horse sent by Cromwel and Fairfax into their Army Quarters and tossed from place to place until after 25 Treaties Letters and Messages for Peace they had from Treachery to Treachery and Villany to Villany contrived his execrable Murder The 2d of June 1642. the Lords and Commons in Parliament did offer their humble Petition and Advice having nothing in their thoughts and desires as they pretended next unto the Honour and immediate service of God more than the faithful performance of their Duty to his Majesty and this Kingdom as the most necessary and effectual means thereof to grant and accept the 19 Propositions ensuing viz. 1. That the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy Council and all such great Officers and Ministers of State either at home or abroad or beyond the Seas may be put from your Privy Council and have no Offices or Employments excepting such as shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament and that the Persons put into their Places and Employment may be approved of by both Houses of Parliament and that Privy Councellors shall take an Oath for the due execution of their Places in such form as shall be agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament 2. That the great Affairs of the Kingdom may not be concluded or transacted by the advice of private men or by any unknown or unsworn Councellors Sir Robert Cotton a great Antiquary with a well furnished Library being often consulted with by King James and that Prince in special matters but that such matters as concern the publick and are proper for the High Court of Parliament which is his Majesties great and supream Court may be debated resolved and transacted only in Parliament which was contrary to the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Parliaments in this and all other the Kingdoms of the Christian World whereby the matters and business of Monarchy and the Regal Government were limited and restrained unto arduis non omnibus arduis sed quibusdam and not elsewhere and such as shall presume to do any thing to the contrary shall be reserved to the censure and judgment of Parliament and such other matters as are proper for his Majesties Privy Council shall be debated and concluded by such of the Nobility and others as shall from time to time be chosen for that place by approbation of both Houses of Parliament which would have Incorporated and Associated the House of Commons in Parliament with the House of Lords which never was nor ought to have been otherwise than inferiour unto the House of Peers in Parliament and therefore stiled the lower House of Parliament and that no publick Act concerning the Affairs of the Kingdom as are proper for his Majesties Privy Council may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the Major part of his Council Attested under their hands and that his Council may be limitted to a certain number not exceeding 25 nor under 15. And that if any Privy Councellors place happen to be void in the intervals of Parliament it shall not be supplied without the assent of the Major part of the Council which choice shall be confirmed at the next sitting of Parliament or else to be void 3. That the Lord High Steward of England Lord High Constable of England which by Marriages and Descent had been Incorporated in the Royal Line Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Earl Marshal Lord Admiral Warden of the Cinque Ports Governour of Ireland the Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Wards
amount unto no more than the breeding of Factions and dislike of his Majesties mild and tender hearted Government lampooning and scandalizing him robbing and pilfering his Royal Revenue whereby to encompass him with all manner of importunate necessities as if the cheating and misusing of Kings had been no small part of their Praerogative contrived a most abominable Association upon him and his Royal Brother his now Sacred Majesty to murder and ruine them as they were to come thorough a narrow Lane from Newmarket to London in the same Coach and being disappointed therein proceeded to infect as much as they could the Parliament that should have been his best and most wholsom Counsel to make and enter into an Association upon their Oaths without their King to exclude and banish his Royal Brother his now present Majesty and his Heirs and Successors from the Royal Succession for that he was suspected to be addicted to the Religion of the Church of Rome Which being by the King and major part of the House of Lords contradicted a Force and Insurrection was contrived and enough as they hoped listed and made ready to accomplish it but it being discovered by some that had been persuaded to assist therein and some of the Nobility being according to Law attainted of High Treason and forfeited they would not leave prosecuting of him with their Plots and Designs until God the Appointer of Kings had called him to his mercy from them that would have no mercy for him And having thus long abused their Kings with their Rebellions and brought a long lasting Series of mischief and miseries upon their seduced Followers could not rest satisfied if they should not give more Credit to their New Commonwealth-Mongers that would entitle them to the only power of summoning proroguing adjorning or dissolving of Parliaments and manackling of their Kings and Princes and did not think they had enough established it and themselves if they had not when for Loyalty or any such matter they were to eject any of their Fellow-Members caused them to receive their Sentence upon their Knees although they had committed no Offence neither supplicated for any pardon or had it And another being as willing as some others to adore his own fancy without any evidence of Truth Law or Right Reason in his Wringing Wresting and Torturing of Tropes Metaphors Allegories Improprieties of Words or Phrases beyond their Right or common use or what he had picked together out of some lying Manuscripts and abused Records by omissions of truths whereby to put his vain and groundless imaginations into some frame and method hath in his Book Printed and Published endeavoured to make the House of Commons to be an Essential and Constituent part of Parliament and to have a votum Decisivum therein and hath therein committed more dangerous errors than the late Author of the Theory of the Earth in his endeavouring to prove Noahs Flood to have been more from natural causes than the product of God Almighty's Will and Infinite Power declared by his more especial Servant Moses sufficiently confuted by the Reverend Father in God Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford And it must needs be said that he hath over-dangerously handled Joves Thunder-bolts and made himself as instrumental as he could to take the Soveraignty from the King and bestow it upon the People whom he and his Opiniotretees would suppose to be represented in Parliament whereas he should have only said it was a constituted part of the Parliament from the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d sub modo forma during that Kings Imprisonment under Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Rebel Associates and were neither in Authority or Degree the same with the more Honourable and better Estated House of Peers although in that then constituted House of Commons in Parliament there were to be four Knights out of every County in England to be Elected and sent thither few of them appearing and that more or less they might have claimed as they have lately done the summoning of the Peers and the Nobility of the Kingdom Electing the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and they representing all the People might more easily have continued and maintained their Post and Station of a never to be proved senseless and reasonless Soveraignty which was not to be seen heard or read in this Kingdom either in the time that it had been a Roman Colony or of the Great Arthur or the Saxon Heptarchy Norman Conquest and our many since succeeding Kings and Princes and is and hath ever been attended with so many possibilities of setting People together to kill destroy and ruin one another as hath no where in the habitable World but in our late English Frenzy and Infatuation and most egregious Hypocritical pretences of Religion whilst they for almost fifty years together imployed their Godless time in murdering of their Kings and Laws and the one half or more of their Fellow-Subjects Lives and Estates and that Author can never prove that there are two Supreams nor find any way to agree them which should be uppermost or which the lowermost And what pro Deus atque hominum fidem could those liberties be that they by a pretence of Reformation of grievances of their own making had usurped upon their King to mould themselves and their wicked fellow Complotters into a Republick as they would have it stiled when it proved to be nothing but a Society of Rapine plunder and villany whereof their Regicide Oliver Cromwell had afterwards cheated them and was almost as great a mistake in what a very learned Judge had said when he was Member of the House of Commons that the King was primarily a Trustee for the People yet it could not be so affirmed by any Truth Rule or Law of God or man as immediately from or by them but only as immediately from or by God commanded to take care of his People And a wrongfull misinterpretation hath been endeavoured to be put upon some part of our Reverend Mr. Hookers Book of Ecclesiastical Policy as if he had positively affirmed that the King was a Trustee for his People as he is doubtless for his protection when the late learned Dr. Sanderson Bishop of Lincoln hath affirmed unto me that he having heedfully perused the Book written with Mr. Hookers own hand could discover no such words therein So here is complexedly met and united a Systeme and a Mass of the Conspiracies Factions Seditions Treasons and abominable confusions put together and agitated sometimes at one time and after at others from the later end of the Raign of King Richard the first until the Raign of King Charles the 2d in the dream of the Election of our Kings and Princes in the Rebellion at Running Mede some Barons in the Raign of King Henry the third threatning to choose another King and enforcing of Conservators of the Liberties of the People in
INVESTIGATIO Jurium Antiquorum ET RATIONALIUM REGNI SIVE Monarchiae Angliae In Magnis suis Conciliis SEU PARLIAMENTIS ET Regiminis cum iisdem in suis Principiis optimi OR A Vindication of the Government of the Kingdom of England under our Kings and Monarchs appointed by God from the Opinion and Claim of those that without any Warrant or Ground of Law or Right Reason the Laws of God and Man Nature and Nations the Records Annals and Histories of the Kingdom would have it to be originally derived from the People or the King to be Co-ordinate with his Houses of Peers and Commons in Parliament Per Fabianum Philipps J. C. Socium Medii Templi London Jerom. c. 6. v. 16. State super vias Antiquas inquirite veritatem The FIRST TOME LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by Charles Broome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1686. VIRTUTE ET FIDE Robert Harley of Bramton Castle in the County of Hereford Esqr. To the Sacred Majesty of James the Second King of great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Dread Soveraign WHen the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy the greatest Tyes and Obligations that can be imposed upon the Generations of Mankind have so little prevailed as that the giddy and mad-headed Multitude prone to all wickedness and evil Examples have under an Hypocritical pretence of Holiness and Reformation of that which was good and needed it not introduced an abundance of unclean Spirits and brought forth that which was altogether like their Tutors and Masters of Impiety and with great impudence pertinacity secret and subtil contrivances after His late Majesties happy Restauration continued their Machinations and Rebellious Principles until his Death who notwithstanding his great Clemency and many Plots discovered by Gods mercy by the continual vigilancy of his Guards with all the care that could be taken was for a long time hardly preserved from Assassination which Villanies and Dangers consorted so well with their Ambitions and Envies Rapines Plunderings Sequestrations Decimations and pillaging of three Kingdoms especially of England besides the sad accompt to be made of the Massacre in Ireland destruction of many Thousands in England with their Families and Estates in the defence of your Majesties blessed Father the Martyr with that horrid ever to be abhorred Addition of his Murther and the long continued Miseries Calamities and Troubles put upon their Late Soveraign your Royal Brother your Majesty and the rest of the Royal â—rogeny as they or too many of them or their Seditious and Rebellious Party may not improbably an thought only to watch or enforce an opportunity of playing the same or a worse game of Rebellion over again and if they can to a more impious advantage bed plant a soveraignty inherent in the people whom they intend to govern as arbitrarily and wickedly as they had done before which a lamentable many years Experience hath taught the people to believe it to be abundantly Tyrannical and Slavish enough to those that were made so unhappy as to endure and Experiment it which to prevent is and should be certainly the duty of every good Subject and I over of his King and Countrey In order wherunto having made my Observations and Remarks from the Commencement of the grandest Rebellion that ever troubled and harassed England in the years 1640 1641. until his present year of the Lord 1685 now the 83 year and an half of my yet Deo gratias vividae senectutis many years before for the most part written and as well digested as many disturbances and worldly troubles would permit which could notwithstanding never alienate or withdraw my mind from those my first Enquiries or Observations And my careful and I hope industrious and impartial Recherches into the Original and true power of Parliaments will shew how the Incroachments of a miselected House of Commons therein have since the Raigns of Qu. Elizabeth and K. James made it their principal and only business by Petions Ingrateful Lurches and Artifices and catching Advantages of our Kings Princes necessarily enforced want of Money for the defence of themselves and their People to undermine and bring into an Anarchy or Insulting Poliarchy this your heretofore more flourishing Monarchy strongly built and founded upon the Feudal Laws derived unto your Majesty by and from your Royal Ancestors and Predecessors from the Brittish German Saxon Danish and Normans Feudal Laws and Customs the best Establishers and Supports of a truly not counterfeit Monarchick Regal Government and doubt not but that my Labours and Travel therein with what other Light and Confirmations may be justly added by such as will well Weigh and Consider it may truly Manifest and Prove the same and without the suspicion of an over-credulity well believe that the Reverend Judges and Sages of the Law whom our Kings have Commanded and Ordained to be greatly reverenced administring Justice under you to your people many of whom and the professors of the Law pleading before them were only Educated and practised as Lawyers in the time of the late misguided Parliament might have been easily mis-led by the Minores Gentium the Lawyers and Officers pleading or practising in the Courts of Justice by rejecting the Councel of the Prophet Jeremiah Stare super vias Antiquas inquirere Veritatem which his lamentations after their destruction might have taught them after sooner to have believed and not to have the original of your Majesties Government to be as Inscrutable as that of the River Nile or to forget their Common Parent or Original as in many things to make or render our Laws to have no Resemblance thereof but to be quite contrary thereunto or as some Children in the Stories or Tales of easily believing old Women changed in their Cradles all which should put every good Subject in mind neither to be ignorant of your Rights or negligent in the maintenance of them it being of no small concernment to your People to preserve yours with as much care as their own being comprehended therein and when he shall hear the Ship wherein his King is strugling with the rage and fury of the Winds and Seas and every minute like to be destroyed and swallowed up ought to make hast tenui sua Cymba and do all he can to relieve and preserve him of what Judgment and Disposition soever he be though not at all under those great obligations of the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and of the bonds of gratitude must exuere humanitatem that will not endeavour to rescue him and in these my feeble but true hearted endeavours found those that instead of saving the Ship were only careful to Sacrifice to their own designs and divert and steer her from the right Port of Monarchy whilst they laboured all they could to save her by bringing her only into the Curses rather than Blessings of an Anarchy or knavish self-enriching Poliarchy and
ruine all those that really and heartily wishout any other ends than that of duty and endless Loyalty came to help her and not by so many Plots and Conspacies against your Government and Monarchy and the lives of your Majesty and Royal Brother give a far greater disturbance thereunto than the unhappy severely punished Corah Dathan and Abiram did to the Government of Moses and Aaron who did but only murmure against them saying Ye do take too much upon you but did not plot or contrive Treasons Conspiracies or Rebellions against or to Assassinate or Murder them From all which disturbances and troubles that God will be pleased whilst you are on Earth enjoying a happy life amongst an unquiet as unto too many of them never to be contented people to free your Majesty your Heirs and Successors shall as it hath ever been be the prayers of Your Majesties always Constant and Obedient Subject FABIAN PHILIPPS THE PREFACE TO THE READERS THey that have read and duly considered though but with an ordinary compassion and sense of humanity the dismal Effects of Wars Rebellions and Discords in Kingdoms and Republicks and the little gain more than a Sacrifice to the Devil and the Ambition Revenge Self-Interest and the Ruine of Kingdoms Commonwealths Families and Estates might if there had been no other evidence have clearly and lamentably seen it in those once very famous Republicks of Athens and Sparta in the Peleponesian Wars ingaging most of the little Republicks of Achaia to run the adventure with them and did in the conclusion bring them all together under the Tyranny of the Ottoman Empire in those also of the Merciless Proscriptions of Sylla and Marius at Rome and the bloody Pharsalian Fields or Battels fought betwixt Julius Caesar and Pompey too nearly allied to have made such a quarrel or bustle to disturb so great a part of the World for Empire that of the Guelphes and Gibelines happening near about the time of our King John when the Pope so domineered over him as he constrained him to do homage unto him for England and Ireland and pay him a then great yearly Tribute that of our two great contending Families in England York and Lancaster under the several Badges or Liveries of the White Rose the Red to the destruction of many of the Nobility and Gentry taking their several parties that of the German Wars betwixt the Duke of Saxony and the Emperour Charles the 5th that of the Sicilian Vespers that of the King of Spain and the Netherlands or united Provinces of the Holy League in France and the cruel Massacre of so many thousand Protestants in Ireland and that our Incomparable late Rebellion of all the Rebellions the Devil had ever abused and Cheated a Nation withal the most hypocritical horrid and abominable and the just care that every pious and good man ought to have of his King and Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and the Blessings of God to attend his posterity might cause them to make as much hast as the dumb Son of King Craesus did to save the life of the King and therein prevent the Ruine of his Countrey And therefore I may hope that a Minimus Apostolorum one of the least Professors of the Law though of an ancient standing may be permitted without the reproach of Arrogance or scribling quiddities or Impertinences or troubling the World with the Idea's of Plato Aristotle Solon Licurgus or the unquiet Commonwealth of Rome until they were after the Experiments of divers sorts of Governments constrained to be more quiet and content with that of the Empire and Monarchy or Theocracy ordained by God be permitted to lay or bring before the Reverend Judges and Sages of the Laws of England and the Professors and Students of the Laws therein what may be found in the Records Annals and approved Authors and Historians concerning the ancient Feudal and Monarchick Government thereof without any Additions Omissions wtested Interpretations Forgeries Impostures or the fond and often abused credulity of Monkish and feigned lying Manuscripts may incite others to approve and like better of it than they have done that have to the hazard of their Estates in this World and the World to come done all that they could to pull in pieces that ancient Government upon which all our Laws reasonable Customs and Constitutions with Remedies for publick grievances have been built and founded which Sir Edward Coke hath before the dissolution of our Tenures in Capite the Ligaments of the Crown of England and the nerves sinews and strengths thereof when he was better pleased with his Soveraign not unjustly called the Quintessence of all Laws expended very near 1000 l. Sterling in my labours and travails therein and other matters concerning the Government without any penny profit or recompence either from or by the Stationers or any others more than an Employment as Deputy Comptroller of the Law Tax wherein I endeavoured all I could to serve his late Majesty and the Farmers thereof and may hope it was acceptable when his Majesty not long before his departure out of this World was by his principal Secretary of State Sir Leoline Ienkins Knight graciously pleased to declare that he had a particular regard for me and was sensible of the many Services which I had done unto the Crown which in the greatest of truth humility and modesty I might have said was done by me one of the smaller sort of the Atoms in his Kingdoms as an oblation of Duty when besides my no small loss and damage in the late horrid Rebellion I did adventure with the late learned George Bate Dr. of Physick and Mr. Nicholas Odeart sometimes Secretary to Sir Edward Nicholas principal Secretary to the murthered King did when the Rebels had refused to allow him in his own defence the assistance of his own or any other Councel learned in the Law at that they falsly called his Tryal when the Intercession of the French and Dutch Embassadors the Scots their Rebel partner Commissioners and some of the London factious Ministers could not prevail to rescue his sacred life did with great danger and hazard of our lives and Estates cause a small paper of Advice to be secretly delivered unto him not to acknowledge any jurisdiction to be in their highly wicked misnamed Court of Justice never before heard of or made use of in England or in any other Nation of the World And I did also after that wicked of wickedest sentence of death pronounced against my Soveraign Write and cause to be Printed and affixed upon the Posts and publick places in or about the Cities of London and Westminster a Protestation in the name of all the Loyal people of England against that most abominable sentence and did within a short time after Print and publish a Book in Justification and defence of him and the first as I believe that in print justly stiled him a Martyr for his people with some assurance
of such Assistance as his Majesties and the publick Records of the Kingdom unto which for more than 45 years I have been no Stranger and my own private Library could afford me wherein I cannot be without hope but something considerable may appear in my Labours that do not in his but walking together in the inquiries after our Fundamental Laws have not contradicted but concurred with each other in the Rescue and discovery of the truth of our Ancient and excellent Government and that which I have done might have been more exact if I had not by the no small disturbances of my own affairs and the common Falshoods and Delays of most of the Printers been greatly hindred so as I was in some part thereof to endure the disadvantage of writing as the Printing Press went and therein also could not escape several discouragements and can as Livy that grand Historian of the Roman Empire hath truly said of his Enterprise that it was res magna Ardua with great sincerity say with the learned Bracton perpetuae memoriae commendium postulans a Lectore ut diligenter legat bene consideret si quid super fluum aut perperam in hac opere invenerit illud corrigat aut emendet cum omnia habere in memoria Et in nullo peccare divinum sit potuis quam humanum And with the learned Dr. Barlow Bishop of Lincoln to the like purpose as unto what he wrote against the Church of Rome that if he had miscited or quoted added or omitted any thing or matter willingly against the truth Errors of misinterpretation or definition and of the Printers only excepted I shall be willing to reform any humane frailties or frrors of that kind that shall so appear unto any considerate impartial Reader that do not read it here and there a little runing over as the Irish do their Bogs or as some others do after dinner and in afternoons Nap or Slumber or by Indexes so as I may not prejudice that grand truth concerning the Just Rights of the Imperial Crown of England and the Doctrine of the reformed Church of England against all the Engines of Rebellion Falsities Cavillations and Impostures that have been made use of against it and all their Loyal and Learned Propugnators that have done so worthily in our Israel to defend them Wherein if any shall object and think I have been too copious and fewer words and more labour might have been spared they that have been conversant with Books or the learned or be themselves learned should know that a little may be enough to some when a great deal will not be so for others especially where the Arch Enemy of Mankind hath sown and planted Weeds such as Henbane and Night Shade in our G 〈…〉 dens amongst our wholsom Herbs and Flowers the Lillies of the Vallies and the Roses of Shaâ—on which will require much time and labour and more than a few words to eradicate or pull them up or a few most clear demonstrations to a numerous party the more is the pity that for the space of almost Fifty years last past have been strangely effascinated and infatuated and yet like well of it because they have enriched themselves by turning Religion into Rebellion and Rebellion into a part of that which never was any part of Religion extravagant Religion is now made Liberty and Liberty and Religion too much turned into Rebellion And our Laws and long approved good Monarchick Government having by a seditious party of Rebels abusing the Right power and use of Parliaments diverted our Antient Just and True Laws out of their proper course and channel wherein they had blessed both our Kings and their People I am not unlike to escape the rash or envious censure of some that either have not read throughly as they ought or misread or not understood our genuine proper and true Laws therefore should be content with the duty of those that have made it their endeavour either to vindicate the Rights of their King or relieve a too much neglected unvalued truth and be as much blamed as the Bishop Elect of Winchester was in the time of the troubles and Imprisonment of King Henry the 3d. by some of his overgrown Nobility when they wrote unto the Pope as bitterly as they could against him for maintaining the justice of his Kings cause and when it may be heard of or read by some of our long missed Lawyers that have for almost 50 years been suckled or nursed up in a contrary practice may take it to be a bet ter way and more agreeable to their genuine at least to their profit and humor of the present times to do as Demetrius the Silver smith did unto St. Pauls Doctrine rather cavil and say something against it to no purpose then any thing concerning truth or cogent Arguments yet it must be adventured with a melioraspero and that the errors and mistakes of too many of our men of Law and others may no longer as it were successively afflict our Nation that the subjects may learn understand and practise the duty of Allegeance and Supremacy and not be so much out of their wâ—es as to believe that there ever was a Treason committed by a King or Emperour against their people or that the Members of the House of Commons in 〈◊〉 proceeding beyond their Limits and the King 〈◊〉 â—oples Commission ought to be accompted the reasion of the People but that so many Advocates and Lawyers as England is and hath been abundantly replenished with should rather make it their business strongly upon all occasions to defend their â—ings Rights which every man would expect of his stipended Lawyer as the Advocates of other Kingdoms never failed to do Or can any man adventure to say or think that the All-knowing Never-erring God did not intend to keep his word but made one Vicegerent after that he had made or promised it unto another or ever made the Common People his Vicegerent or any King or Prince subject to their ignorances mutabilities and Passions to be Arraigned and Murdered when they pleased at the suit of the People for Treason committed against them or if any Nation Record or History did or could ever furnish out such an example when the Murder of our Prince did so stink and was more than ordinarily abhorred and detestable as besides many learned men in Forreign parts publickly writing and declaiming against it the Czars or Czar of that great Empire of Russia or Moscovia were so sensible of it as he banished and seized many of the English Merchants and their goods and effects to the ruin of many of them for no other cause than that as he said they had been Traytors unto their King and had Murdered him though they were then men of great Loyalty and were not then Resident in England and see and read Milton over much learned in the School of his Master the Devil and our infatuated Regicides
publishing in print in our own and some Forreign Nations a never to be believed or proved justification of the Murder of their most Pious Prince sub forma sigura judicii and no English men but the Learned and Loyal Dr George Bate and my self with our names subscribed and another without publickly vindicated his worth and innocency and not a Lawyer or man of the militia togata could find either a conscience or care calamum eâ—igere to defend the honour of their King and Countrey when they were bound by their Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy not to have omitted it when as Advocati they should as Linwood hath told them in the case of an ordinary Client tanquam Athletae in Campo justitio pugnare not stand still hearall our Neighbour Christians speak of such a villainous Murder with horror and detestation and the learned Zeiglerus a Forreigner besides Salmasius who had never taken our Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy have publickly declared against it And do hope that our learned Lawyers of England who were not before our now almost fifty years Parliamentary Rebellion willing to be outdone or believed to be less learned in omni scibili or matter of learning in the Laws of their own or other Nations witness our Great Selden and many others will not suffer our Laws which want nothing to illustrate their very antient original to be so lost and eclipsed as there will be nothing of our Fundamental Laws left to furnish their practice in the Temples and Courts of Justice than such fragments as the Attorneys Seminaries shall be pleased to furnish them withal when they have squeezed the profit into their own advantages of all manner of Champerties and Ambodextryes by clipping our venerable just and antient Laws into such parcels as may seem most for their wicked and reasonless advantages and should be more than praemunired and not to be reckoned much less peccant than the Clippers of Caesars Coin or Image or false Forreign Coin introduced into the Kingdom in their daring to attempt to vitiate or violate their Kings Laws and suffer Milton that understood no more of our Laws of England than that which he had purposely Metamorphosed to delude a silly part of the People or Rabsheka it defieâ— the Host of Israel and John Goodwin a factious Minister with his Flambeau or Torch in the Pulpit to intice all that could be so mad as to believe them that King Charles the Martyr was justly accused condemned and beheaded at the suit of a few infatuated Rebels and so many men of the long Robe not have Loyalty care or Conscience enough to hasten to the brook to find some stones to sling at and convince those or any of their Goliahs or hear a Judge deservedly displaced by his late Majesty King Charles the 2d declare in the Court of Kings Bench tell not us of old Records and Antiquities but of the Law or Practice in or since 1641. And a Bencher of an Inns of Court perswades himself that he had hit the mark when he had said that Antiquities were no more to be valued than old Iron picked up out of the Channel in London Streets and sold for a penny in the pound And Mr. Milton that would have all men have a liberty to be divorced from their Wives as much as himself was from true Learning and Reason having done all and more than he could to blast and disparage that most excellent Pious Prince King Charles the Martyr and make his ever to be accursed Murder to be according to the Laws of England could not forbear persecuting his Manes whilst he magnified the Populum Anglicanum when all men had abhorred it and Bedingfield and Chresheld had voluntarily laid down their Commissions and forsook their Offices and places of Judges and the greatest Rebellion did ride in its triumphant Chair shall the Gentlemen of the long Robe who might be very able to do and should be well acquainted with all manner of Learning be so little concerned in it as to leave two Doctors of Physick to do what they could themselves for there were a Lion in the way whilst Mr. Milton cryed out as Tully in another case O fortunate nate me Consulo Roma And it would be a pity that so many Learned People in England of several conditions should not rightly understand the Constitutions and Government thereof but be so much mistaken as to believe they are honest and Loyal enough if they can but get what they can from their King and sacrifice it to their humours when the fear of God and right understanding of our Laws may teach us that our Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy do signifie much more than the ordinary Oaths of the smaller sort of the common people who have as little wit as Estate and a great deal less of Religion and that our Laws from Age to Age have resided in our Kings who have always been accompted to be tanquam Lex viva Could there be so great a thirst after learning and honour and esteem for it gained could the Queen of Sheba travel so far to hear the Wisdom of Solomon and Pythagoras to hear Plato Philip of Macedon give his Gods thanks that he had found out such a Tutor as Aristotle for his Son Alexander have men of learning and richer Souls than ordinary been invited and gladly welcomed into other Cities and Countries as our King Alfred did Asser Menevensis Edward the First Accursius and our King James the First the generally learned Causabon Peter du Moulin and Gerardus Vossius and believed it to be a great part of their honour and glory to be the Incouragers of learning and vertue Tacitus saith that amongst the Romans the Sons of Nobility did dare operam Studiis liberalibus The Emperor Valence appointed for the publick Library at Constantinople seven Antiquaries to look after the Books four for the Greek and three for the Latine who were to have a publick allowance and must we that may stand upon our Fore-fathers Shoulders and may with great ease do rather greater than lesser matters not be ashamed to be Children of yesterday when they that have arrived but unto a small parcel of learning must in spight of their Teeth acknowledge that experience is commonly upon earth one of the most trustiest guides and neglected the Mistress of Fools when posterior dies should never fail to be discipulus prioris and it can portend no less than a sad fatality and ruin to a Nation to have learning put under no better a Character than that of a Fop or a grave thinking Coxcomb when a Knave though a Fool is believed to be a Man of Parts and Ingenuity and an honest man a simple fellow or an Ass fit only to be bang'd or rid upon and whilst we mourn and lament with the Prophet Jeremiah the forecasted ruin of our Jerusalem and with our long ago Gildas the Excidium Britanniae should cease to
the Parliament Cities and Burrough-Towns the only Iudges under the King who are fit and unfit to be Members in the House of Commons in Parliament and that the Freeholders and Burgesses more than by a just and impartial Assent and Information who were the fittest were not to be the Electors p. 371. § 20. Of the small numbers of Knights of the Shires and Burgesses which were Elected and came in the Raign of King Edward the first upon his aforesaid Writs of Election and how their numbers now amounting unto very many more were after encreased by the corruption of Sheriffs and the Ambition of such as desired to be Elected p. 382. § 21. Who made themselves Electors for the chusing of Knights of the Shires to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after the 21st year of the Raign of King Edward the first contrary to the Tenor of his aforesaid Writs of Summo 〈…〉 made in the 22 year of his Raign for the Election of Knights of the Shire and Burgesses to come to the Parliaments and great Councils of several of our Kings and Princes afterwards p. 387. § 22. Of the Actions and other Requisites by the Law to be done by those that are or shall be Elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend our King in their great Councils or Parliaments praecedent and praeparatory to their admission therein p. 388. § 23. That the Members of the House of Commons being Elected and come to the Parliament as aforesaid did not by vertue of those Writs of Election sit together with the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in one and the same Room or Place and that if any such thing were as it never was or is likely to be proved it cannot conclude or infer that they were or are co-ordinate or had or have an equal power in their Suffrages and Decisions p. 393. § 24. What the Clause in the Writs for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come unto the Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum do properly signifie and were intended by the said Writs of 〈◊〉 to be Members of the House of Cowmons in Parliament p. 398. § 25. Of the many variations and alterations of our Kings Writs of Summons to their great Councels or Parliaments excluding some and taking in others to be assistant in that high and Honourable Court with its Resummons Revisions drawing of Acts of Parliament or Statutes dy the Judges or the Kings learned Councel in the Laws and other Requisites therein necessarily used by the sole and individual authority of our Kings and Princes p. 411. § 26. What is meant by the word Representing or if all or how many of the people of England and Wales are or have been in the Elections of a part of the Commons to come to Parliament Represented p 548. § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed Delinquency whatsoever p. 573. § 28. Of the protection and priviledge granted unto the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament by our Soveraign Kings and â—rinces during their Attendance and Employments in their great Councils of Parliament according to the Tenor and purport of their Commissions p. 607. § 29. Neither they claim or ever were invested by any Charter or Grant of any of our Kings or Princes or otherwise of any such Priviledge or Liberty nor was or is in England any Law or Usage or Custom that a Parliament sitting cannot be Prorogued or Dissolved as long as any Petition therein exhibited remaineth unanswered or not determined p. 633. § 30. That in those Affairs peculiar only to so great and venerable an Assembly which should not be trivial or proper to lower and lesser Iurisdictions assigned for the determining of lesser matters for the publick ease and benefit our Kings and Princes have a greater burden and care upon them as Gods Vicegerents besides that of Parliaments to manage and take care of the Kingdom for the benefit and good of themselves and their people p. 637. § 31. That our Great Councils or Parliaments except anciently at the three great Festivals viz. Christmas Easter and Pentecost being ex more summoned and called upon extraordinary emergent occasions could not either at those grand and chargeable Festivals or upon necessities of State or Publick Weal and preservation ex natura rei continue long but necessarily required Prorogations Adjournments Dissolutions or endings p. 641. § 32. That Parliaments or Great Councels de quibusdam arduis concerning the defence of the Kingdom and Church of Enggland neither were or can be fixed to be once in every year or oftner they being always understood and believed to be by the Laws and Ancient and reasonable Customs of England ad libitum Regis who by our Laws Right Reason and all our Records and Annals is and should be the only Watchman of our Israel and the only Iudge of the necessity times and occasion of Summoning Parliaments p. 650. § 33. That all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament are not properly or by their original constitution intended or otherwise entituled or properly truly justly lawfully seized or to be stiled or termed Estates neither are to be so understood or believed to be and being to be no otherwise than subject to a Temporary Election and by the Authority of their Kings Writs paid their Wages and Charges by those that sent and elected them can have no Iust or Legal Right thereunto p. 656 § 34. A Series or accompt of the many Seditions Rebellions and Discords that have successively happened since the beginning of the Raign of King Henry 2. to our succeeding Kings and Princes until this present Age wherein we now live by mistaken and never to be warranted principles p. 717. A Vindication of the Antient and Present Establish'd Government of the Kingdom of ENGLAND under our Kings and Monarchs appointed by GOD from the Opinion and Claim of those that without any Warrant or ground of Law or Right Reason the Laws of God and Man Nature and Nations and the Records thereof would have it to be Originally deriv'd from the People Co-ordinate with the Houses of Peers and Commons in Parliament or by their Election SECT I. That our KINGS of ENGLAND in their voluntary Summoning to their Great Councels and PARLIAMENTS some of the more Wise Noble and better part of their Subjects to give their Advice and Consent in Matters touching the Publick Good and Extraordinary Concernment did not thereby Create Or by any Assent Express or Tacite give unto Them an Authority Co-ordination Equality or Share in the Legislative
of France until he were absolved and had confirmed unto them their Liberties whereupon the King much against his will was constrain'd to submit to the present pressure and necessity sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who were yet in France promising them present restitution and satisfaction under the Hands and Seals of 24 of his Earls and Barons undertaking for the performance thereof according to the form of his Charter and Agreement made and granted in that behalf and the better to prepare them to give him their assistance directed the ensuing Letter to meet them in these words Rex Venerabili in Christo Patri S. Dei gratiâ Cant ' Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinali omnibus suffraganeis suis Episcopis cum eo existentibus Johannes eadem gratiâ Rex Angliae c. mandamus vobis quòd cùm veneritis in Angliam scientes quòd jamdiù vos expectavimus adventum vestrum desideravimus unde in occursum vestrum mittimus fideles nostros Dominum H. Dublin ' Archiepiscopum J. Norwici Episcopum W. Com' Arundel Mattheum filium Herberti W. Archidiaconum Huntindon rogantes quatenùs ad nos venire festinetis sicut praedicti fideles nostri vobis dicent T. meipso apud Stoaks Episcopi primo die Julii Whereupon Pandulphus with the Archbishop and the rest of the exiled Clergy upon his confiscation of their Estates forthwith came over and found him at Winchester who went forth to meet them and on his knees with Tears received them beseeching them to have Compassion on him and the Kingdom of England and being thereupon Absolved with great Penitence Weeping and Compunction accompanied with the Tears of the many Beholders did Swear upon the Evangelists to Love Defend and Maintain Holy Church and the Ministers thereof to the utmost of his Power that he would renew the good Laws of his Predecessors especially those of King Edward abrogating such as were unjust would Judge all his Subjects according to the just Judgment of his Court which was then and for many Ages before composed only of the King and his Nobility Bishops and Lords Spiritual with his great Officers of State and such Assistants as he would please to call unto it and that presently upon Easter next following he would make plenary satisfaction for whatsoever had been taken from the Church Which done he went to Portsmouth with intention to pass over into France committing the Government of the Kingdom to the Bishop of Winchester and Jeffrey Fitz-Peter Justiciar a man of a Generous Spirit Learned in the Laws and Skilful in Government who were also to take the Councel of the Archbishop of Canterbury The Souldiers being numerous and wanting Money to attend him desired to be Supplied out of his Exchequer which he refusing to do or wanting it in a great rage with his private Family took Shipping and put forth to the Isle of Jersey but seeing none of his Nobles and others followed him according to their Tenures and Homage was forced having lost his opportunity of the Season to return into England where he gathered an Army with intention to Chastise the Lords who had so forsaken him having for the like Offence some years before taken by way of Fine a great sum of Money Quòd noluerunt eum sequi ad partes transmarinas ut haereditatem amissam recuperaret But the Archbishop of Canterbury followed him to Northampton urging him that it was against his Oath taken at his Absolution to proceed in that manner against any man without the Judgment of his Court to whom the King in great wrath replyed that he would not defer the business of the Kingdom for his pleasure seeing Lay Judgment appertained not to him and marched to Nottingham The Archbishop followed him and plainly told him that unless he would desist he would Excommunicate all such as should take Arms against any before the releasing of the Interdiction and would not leave him until he had obtained a convenient day for the Lords to come to his Court which shortly after they did And a Parliament was assembled at St. Pauls in London wherein the Archbishop of Canterbury produced the said Charter of King Henry I. whereby he granted the ancient Liberties of the Kingdom of England according to the Laws of King Edward with those emendations which his Father by the counsel of his Barons had ratified upon the reading whereof gaudio magno valdè saith Matthew Paris they greatly rejoyced and swore in the presence of the Archbishop that for those Liberties viso tempore congruo si necesse fuerit decertabunt usque ad mortem Archiepiscopus promisit eis fidelissimum auxilium suum pro posse suo sic confederatione facta inter eos colloquium solutum fuit The Pope advertised of those disturbances by his Bull directed Baronibus Angliae but not to those Bishops displaying the Banner of his supposed Authority which had encouraged and animated and caused them to persist therein stiling those Quaestiones novitèr suscitatas grave dispendium parituras did prohibit under the pain of Excommunication all Conspiracies and Insurrections from the time of the Discords inter Regnum Sacerdotium which had been quieted Apostolica autoritate admonished them Regem placare reconciliare exhibentes ei servitia consueta which They and their Predecessors had done unto Him and his Predecessors and if they had any thing to require of him they should not ask it insolenter sed cum reverentia preserving his Regal Honour and Authority that so they might the more easily obtain what they desired and assured them that he would desire the King that he should be kind to them and admit their just Petitions But the Barons persisting in their armed Violence and Rebellion against the King notwithstanding that weather-beaten Prince had for shelter taken upon him the Cross and War for the recovery of the Holy-Land then so called the Pope in July following sent his Bull to the universality of the Barons Bishops and Commonalty of England wherein reciting that the Barons had sent their Agents unto him and that he had commanded the Archbishops Bishops and Archdeacons ut conspirationes conjurationes praesumptas from the the time of the discords inter Regnum Sacerdotium that they should Apostolic à autoritate forbid them by Excommunication to proceed any farther therein and enjoyn the Barons to endeavour to pacifie the King and reconcile themselves unto him and if they had any thing to demand of him it should be done conservando sibi Regalem Honorem exhibendo servitia debita quibus ipse Rex non debebat absque Judicio spoliari And that he had commanded the King to be admonished and enjoyned as he would have remission of his sins graciously to give them a safe conduct and receive their just Petitions ita si quod fortè non posset inter eos concordia provenire
in curia sua per Pares eorum secundum Regni consuetudinem atque Leges mota deberet discordia Barones ipsi sua non expectata responsa should not presume contra Dominum suum arma movere temeritate nefaria seeing the King had taken upon him the Cross for the recovery of the Holy-Land so as it might seem quod conspirationem inhierint detestandam ut eum taliter de Regno possint ejicere violare their homage and fidelity sworn to the King quod quà m crudele sit actu horrendum auditu cum pernitiosi materia sit causa suis temporibus in audita manifestè cognoscit quicunque judicis utitur ratione and therefore as he ought to make peace for the King of England who was his Vassal and specially needed his protection commanded the Bishops and their Suffragans that unless the said Barons and their Adherents should within eight days after the receipt of his Bull or Letters omni cavillatione postposità surcease their doings they should excommunicate them omni appellatione remota interdict their Lands Churches and Estates and every Sunday publish and declare it nè igitur propter quosdam perversos universitatis sinceritas corrumpatur commanded and exhorted them in remissionem peccatorum injungentes quatenus praefato Regi adversus perversores hujusmodi they should give all fitting aid and favour scientes pro certo quòd si Rex ipse remissus esset aut tepidus in ea parte nos i. e. Papa Regnum Angliae non pateremur in tantam ignominiam deduci cùm sciamus per Dei gratiam possumus talem insolentiam castigare But the Quarrels going on more and more the King sent his Procurator or Agent to Rome and the discontented Barons theirs who did urge saith John Mauclerc the King 's trusty Agent in a Letter written from thence unto him that the Magnates Angliae scilicet Boreales ut praedicti Nuntii dicunt Papae omnes Barones Angliae instantèr supplicant quòd cùm ipse sit Dominus Angliae he should diligently admonish and if need should be compel him to observe the ancient Liberties grantted by Him and his Ancestors Charters and confirmed by his Oath and did likewise alledge quòd cùm ille à praedictis Baronibus inde requisitus fuisset in Epiphaniâ Domino apud London spreto proprio juramento non tantum libertates suas antiquas consuetas eis concedere contemptuously refused unless they would promise etiam per Chartas suas darent quod nunquam de caetero tales libertates from Him vel Successoribus suis exigerent quòd omnes Barones praeter Dominum Winthon Comitem Cestriae Willielmum Brewere hoc facere renuerent Supplicaverunt autem Domino Papae quòd ipse super his eis provideret cùm satis constet ei quòd ipsi audactèr pro libertate Ecclesiae ad mandatum suum would oppose the King quod he had granted an annum redditum Domino Papae Ecclesiae Romanae and exhibited and done alios honores ei Romanae Ecclesiae non sponte nec ex Devotione imò ex timore coactione who thus perplexed assayed all he could to pacifie Pope Innocent by his Letter written unto him complaining that the Barons of England who were devoted unto him before he had surrendred and subjected his Realm unto him had since for that very reason as they publickly alledged when it mentioned it to have been done Consilio Baronum suorum and many of the principal of them had been witnesses to that dishonourable Grant taken Arms against him as he expressed it in these words cum Comites Barones Angliae nobis devoti essent antequam nos nostram terram Dominio vestro subjicere curassemus extunc in nos specialiter ab hoc sicut publice dicunt violenter insurgent earnestly desired his protection aid and assistance and sent his Agents unto him to confirm his Charters granted to Queen Berengaria Widow of King Richard I. not to deliver or grant any new Charter of the Kingdom of England wherein Samuel Daniel may be understood to have been mistaken for Mr. Pryn in his late Historical Collections of that King's Reign and Matthew Paris do give no such account of it whereupon Nicholas Bishop of Tusculan being sent into England congregavit consilium in urbe Londinensi apud Sanctum Paulum ubi congregatis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus Comitibus Baronibus aliis ad interdicti negotium spectantibus Forty Thousand Marks were agreed to be paid to the Archbishops and Monks of Canterbury and the rest of the exiled Clergy and the Bishops of Winchester and Norwich Sureties for Thirteen Thousand Marks of it remaining unpaid The King being absolved the Interdict which had continued six years three months and fourteen days to the great damage and loss of the Church and Clergy was discharged and taken off The Barons notwithstanding that Clergy-pacification assembled themselves at St. Edmundsbury where they consulted of the late produced Charter of King Henry I. and swore upon the High-Altar That if the King refused to confirm and restore unto them their Liberties they would make war upon him until he had satisfied them therein agreed that after Christmas they would petition him for the same and in the mean time would provide themselves of Horse and Arms to be ready if he should start from his Oath made at his Absolution for the confirmation of those Liberties and compel him to satisfiee their demands After which time they came in a Military manner to the King lying at the New-Temple urgeing their desires with great vehemency who seeing their inclinations and resolution answered he would take consideration thereof until Easter following Howsoever these Lords continued their resolution mustered their Forces at Stamford wherein were said to have been 2000 Knights besides Esquires with those that served on foot and from thence marched towards Oxford From whence the King sending unto them the Archbishop of Canterbury William Marescal Earl of Pembroke to demand of them What were those Laws and Liberties which they required whereof a Schedule being shewed and by the Commissioners delivered to the King he after the reading thereof in great indignation asked Why the Barons likewise did not demand the Kingdom and swore that he never would grant those Liberties whereby to make himself a Servant Upon which answer returned those Barons seizing some of his Castles march'd towards Northampton which they besieged constituted Robert Fitz-Walter their General whom they stiled Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church took the Castle of Bedford whither the Londoners sent their private Messengers with offers to joyn with them and deliver up the City to be guarded by them unto which they repairing were joyfully received and had it delivered unto them ubi Baronibus favebans divites pauperis obloqui saith Matthew Paris metuebant from whence daily encreasing in
Canterbury in the behalf of the State of his Oath made and taken by others for him upon the Peace made with Lewis for confirmation of the Liberties of the Kingdom for which the War was begun with his Father without which the whole State would again fall assunder and they would have him to know it betimes to avoid those miserable inconveniencies which might happen William Brewere a Councellor urging it to have been acted by constraint and therefore not to be performed Notwithstanding which it was at that time being the 7th year of his Reign promised by the King to be ratified and a Commission was granted by Writs unto Twelve Knights in every Shire to examine What were the Laws and Liberties which the Kingdom enjoyed under his Grandfather and return the same by a certain day which saith the learned and judicious Sir Henry Spelman were never returned or could not be found In the mean time the Earls of Albemarl Chester and divers of the Nobility assemble together at Leicester with intent to remove from the King Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justiciar and other Officers that hindred their motion but the Archbishop of Canterbury by his Spiritual Power and the rest of the Nobility being careful to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom stood to the King and would not suffer them to proceed therein so as they were constrained to come in and submit themselves And the King in Parliament resumed such alienations as had been made of the Lands appertaining to the Crown by any of his Ancestors to the end he might live of his own and not be chargable to the People The next year after being the 8th year of his Reign another Parliament was holden at Westminster where the King required the Fiftieth part of all the movables both of the Clergy and Laity but Mat. Paris more probably saith the Fifteenth for the recovering of those parts in France which had been held from the Crown being one and the same which is said in Magna Charta to have been granted as a grateful acknowledgment for the grant of their Liberties which though it concerned the Estates of most of the Nobility that had Lands therein would not be yielded unto but upon confirmation of their Liberties atque his in hunc diem prosecutis Archiepiscopus concilio tota Episcoporum Comitum Priorum habita deliberatione Regi dedere responsum quod Regis petitionibus gratunter ad quiescerent si illas diu petitas libertates concedere voluisset annuit itaque Rex cupiditate ductus quod petebant Magnates Chartisque protinus conscriptis Regis sigillo munitis in the next year after for the Charters themselves bear date in the 9th year of his Reign And the several Charters or Copies thereof were sent to the Sheriffs of every County and Twelve Knights were out of every County chosen to divide the Old Forests from the New and lay open all such as had been afforested since the first Coronation of King Henry II. Although at the same time or a little before or after it some of the Nobility who had formerly crowned Lewis of France King and had been the cause of King John's death for which they were banished the Realm endeavouring to return into England and to set up again the French King's Interest and domineer over the King and his faithful Councellors by circumventing Pope Honorius Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice of England the Earl of Chester and seven other of the King's Councellors sent an Epistle to the Pope desiring him to assist the King and them and prevent those dangerous Plots and Designs And the King having sent also his Proctors to Rome upon the like occasion they returned him an account of a new Confederacy betwixt his discontented Barons and the French King to invade England and dispossess him of the Crown thereof adding thereunto quod Gallici praedicabant omnibus quod majores Angliae obsides offerebant de reddendo siâ—i terram â—um primo venire curaret ad illam adjicientes Si aâ—iquid in curia Romana contra voluntatem Regis Franciae attemptaretur incontmenter Rex transfretaret in Angliam Nor could any such authority accrue to them in or by those Charters called Magna Charta and Charta Forestae granted by King Henry III. his Son which were in very many things but the exmeplaria or patterns of that of King John in the like method and tenour containing very many Liberties and great Priviledges which were by King Henry III. as those Charters do declare of his own free accord granted and confirmed in the 9th year of his Reign to his Subjects and People of England Liberis hominibus Free-men or Free-holders for otherwise it would have comprehended those multitudes of Villains Bondmen and Bond-women which the Nation did then and long after employ and make use of and those very many men accounted by the Laws of England to be as dead men viz. Monks Fryers Priors and Abbots to be holden to Them and their Heirs of Him and his Heirs for ever But in those Charters or his confirmation of them in the 21st and 28th year of his Reign could not procure to be inserted or recorded those clauses which they had by their terrours gained from his Father in these words viz. Nullum scutagium vel auxilium ponam in Regno nostro nisi per commune consilium Regni nostri ad corpis nostrum redimendum ad primogenitum filium nostrum militem faciendum ad primogenitam filiam nostram semel maritandam ad hoc non fiet nisi rationabile auxilium simili modo fiat de auxiliis de Civitate Londinensi quod omnes aliae Civitates Burgi Villae Barones de quinque portubus omnes portus habeant omnes libertates omnes liberas consuetudines suas Et ad habendum commune concilium Regni de auxiliis assidendis aliter quam in tribus casibus praedictis scutagiis assidendis submoneri faciemus Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites majores Barones Regni singillatim per literas nostras Et praetereà faciemus submoneri in generali per Vicecomites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in capite tenent de nobis ad certum diem scilicet ad terminum quadraginta dierum ad minus ad certum locum in omnibus literis submonitionis illius causam submonitionis illius exponemus sic facta submonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatum secundum consilium eorum qui praesentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti Nos non concedimus de caetero alicui quod capiat auxilium de liberis hominibus suis nisi ad corpus suum redimendum ad faciendum primogenitum filium suum militem ad primogenitam filiam suam semel maritandam ad hoc non fiat nisi rationabile auxilium but were constrained to omit altogether and forgo those clauses and provisions which
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-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
Pope sending his Legate with a large power to exact money for himself his Agent was disgracefully returned with an answer That the Kingdom was poor the Church in debt and it was of a dangerous consequence to the State to be exposed to the will of the Pope and therefore seeing a General Councel was shortly to be held at Lyons if the Church would be relieved it were fit to be done by a general consent of that Councel And the Emperour Frederick at the same time by his Letters to the King which were openly read desiring as he had often before That the Pope might have no supplies ou of England for that therewith he did oppress him by seizing upon his Castles and Cities appertaining to the Empire notwithstanding his often submissions desire of Peace and offers to refer the cause to the arbitration of the Kings of England and France and the Baronage of both Kingdoms and entreating that he might not receive a detriment whence as a Brother and Friend he expected a favour added that if the King would be advised by him he would by power free the Kingdom from that unjust Tribute which Pope Innocent III. and other Popes had laid upon it Which pleasing the Assembly the business took up so much time as the design of a share in the Government something like if not worse then a Co-ordination meeting with no concessions or effect they only granted an Aid to the King for the Marriage of his Daughter 20 s. of every Knights Fee not without much ado and repetition of all his former Aids although at the same or much about that time they could not be ignorant that he had by his Writ commanded Hugh Gifford and William le Brun that upon Friday next after the Epiphany they should cause to be fed in the Hall at Windsor ad bonum focum omnes pueros pauperes egenos quos invenire poterint ita quod aula impleatur si tot inveniantur The Charters were again ratified which confirmation is printed in the perclose or latter-end of those in the 9th year of that persecuted Prince after a proposal of Conservators and election of Judges and Lord Chancellors rejected which was urged and much insisted upon After which and his return from an expedition with great charges into Scotland a Parliament was summoned where he moved for an Aid against an Insurrection in Wales and for money to supply his wants and pay his Debts which were so great as he could not stir out of his Chamber for the clamour of those to whom he ow'd money for Wine Wax and other necessaries of House-keeping which wrought so little as to his face they denied to grant him any thing and enquiry being made what Revenues the Romans and Italians had in England they found them to have been annually 60000 Marks which being notified to the General Councel at Lyons the Pope was so vexed therewith as he was said to have uttered these words The King begins to Frederize it is fit that we make an end with the Emperour that we might crush these pety Kings for the Dragon once destroyed these lesser Snakes will soon be trodden down In the 32d year of his Reign a Parliament being convoked he was upon requiring another aid sharply reproved for his breach of promises and it was alledged that his Judges were sent in Circuit under pretence of Justice to fleece the people that his needless expences amounted to above 800000 l. and advising him to recal the old Lands of the Crown and pull them from his Favourites enriched with the Treasure of the Kingdom told him of his Oath made at his Coronation Complained that the Chief-Justiciar Chancellor and Treasurer were not made by the Common-Councel of the Kingdom according as there were in the time of his Magnificent Predecessors although they could not at the same time deny him that Right which was justly due unto him that he had by his Writs commanded the said William de Haverhul and Edward of Westminster quod singulis diebus à die natalis domini usque ad diem circumcisionis computatis illis duobus diebus impleri faciant magnam aulam Regis de pauperibus and in the same year by his Writ commanded William de Haverhul his Treasurer and Edward Fidz-Odo to feed upon the day of Edward the Confessor pauperes in magna aula Westmonasterium sicut fieri consueverunt ipsis Monachis Pittanciam eodem die sicut consueverunt faciant The King promised redress but nothing was effected so that after sundry meetings and much debate the Parliament was prorogued until Midsummer following and at the next Session he tells them that they were not to impose a servile condition upon him or deny him that which every one of them might do to use whom they pleased as Counsel Every Master of a Family might place or displace what Servants he pleased Servants were not to judge their Masters nor Subjects their Prince or hold them to their conditions and that he that should so encline to their pleasures should not be their King but as their Servant And being constrained to furnish his wants with the sale of his Plate and Jewels his Crown of Gold and Edward the Confessor's Shrine and with great loss received money for them enquired who had bought them whereunto answer being made that the City of London had bought them That City said he is an inexhaustible Gulf if Octavius ' s Treasure were to be sold they would surely buy it Howsoever being besides constrained to borrow 20000 l. of the City of London he wrote to every Noble-man and Prelate apart to borrow money but got little the Abbot of Ramsay lent him 100 l. but the Abbot of Burgh could not spare him so much although the King told him It was more Alms to give unto him than to a beggar that went from door to door The Lords in the 4th year of his Reign assembled again at London and pressed him with his promises that the Chief-Justiciar Chancellor and Treasurer should be constituted by the general Councel of the Kingdom but by reason of the absence of the Earl of Cornwal nothing was done therein The King demanding aid of his Prelates and Nobility assembled in Parliament they by agreement amongst themselves stoutly denied it which greatly troubling him he shewed them the Note or Roll what moneys some few Abbots had lent unto him with an Ecce how little it was with which not being able to remove their fixed resolutions he with some anger expostulating told them Ero nè perjurus juravi sacramento intransgressibili transfretans jura mea in brachio extento à Rege Francorum reposcam quod sine capioso thesauro qui à vestra liberalitate procedere debet nequaquam valeo and that not prevailing called aliquos sibi familiares affatus eos dit quid perniciosius exemplum aliis praebetis vos qui Comites Barones Milites strenui estis
non deberetis etsi alii timeant scilicet Praelati Ecclesiae trepidare avidiores caeteris deberetis jura Regni resposcere contra injuriantes Martia certamina potentèr experiri nostram partem solidare consolari tenetur jus nostrum quod habemus quâ fronte poteritis dominum vestrum ad tà m arduum negotium Reipublicae procinctum relinquere pauperem desolatum cum tenear promissa de transitu meo adimplere jurejurando strictius obligatus All which proving ineffectual made the King to be more angry insomuch as jurans cum sanctorum attestatione quod nullo revocaretur terrore nullis verborum ambagibus circumventus ab incepto proposito revocaretur quin ' in Octavis Paschae naves ascendens fortunam belli in partibus transmarinis contrà Francos imperteritus experiretur sic solutum est concilium utrobique reposita sed occulta mentis indignatione Dispositis igitur navalibus armamentis commendataque Regni custodia Archiepiscopo Eboracensi Idus Maii dispositis legionum suarum agminibus repletis triginta Cadis desideratissimis Esterlingis Comitante Regina fratreque suo Richardo Comite cum aliis septem Comitibus 300 Circiter militibus Naves ascendens versus Burdegalinos iter direxit prosperè velificando After which and many other troubles and distresses accumulated and thronging in upon him one after another he did in the 34th year of his Reign send his Precept to the City of London requiring them with all their Families even to a Child of 12 years old to come upon the Sunday next after the Feast Sanctorum perpetuae felicitatis unto him in the great Hall of his Palace of Westminster where appeared such a multitude as the Hall and Yard were wonderfully crowded Quibus congregatis Dominus Rex humilitèr quasi lachrymis abortis did supplicate them that every one of them would with heart and mouth pardon the anger and ill will which they had against him confessed that He and his Ministers had often wronged them in their Goods Estates and Liberties and prayed them to pardon him Which wrought so much compassion for the time in them as although they had no restitution they did not think fit to repeat their Sufferings that Design availing the King as little as the pity of the Men Women and Children of London did when those that were fit and able to bear Arms did not long after fight as well as they could against him at the Battel of Lewes where he was taken Prisoner and suffered him to be carried a year and a quarter together by an Army of Rebels to London and Westminster and to several other parts of the Kingdom and never offered to Relieve or Rescue Him In or about the 35th year of the Reign of King Henry III. Henry de Bathenia miles literatus legum terrae peritissimus Regis Justiciarius Conciliarius specialis being in Parliament diffamatus graviter accusatus quod sibi unimim amicus quod in unum annum Domini Regis subdolus supplantatur in officio Justiciario sibi commisso crumenas aliorum suas impregnatas non erubuit nec formidavit hinc inde delinquentes recipere ambidexter In brevi ita illico ditabatur in redditibus maneriis auro argento ut nulli Justiciariorum secundus videretur and grew so haughty in the strength and assistance of the Families of the Bassets and mâ—fords as he almost scorned and despised every man insomuch as the King being very angry with any that interceded for him answered John Mansel Clerk much employed and favoured by him who had offered to be his Bail that he should stare Justiciae that non oportet aliquem Clericum pro eo fide-jussorem in tali Casu reputans causam hanc esse crimen laesae Majestatis accedente igitur Episcopo Londinensi quamplurimis intercessoribus admissus est custodiae plegio viginti quatuor militum qui pro ipso Henrico responsionem justificationem ritè justè facerent dato termino factorum Whereupon the said Henry de Bathenia vafer circumspectus making all the Friends he could to pacifie the King and finding nothing could prevail made an Address to the Earl of Cornwal the King's Brother who not prevailing was heard to say unto some of his friends Non possumus deesse Nobilibus in jure suo nec paci Regni turbantis After all which in the same year by adjournment the business of Henry de Bathe coming again into question in Parliament and debate Rex persequebatur undique graviter ab adversariis suis fuerat impetitus accusatus Rex autem ira maxima accensus contra eum qui venerat multò stipatus milite de genere Uxoris suae amicis suis propriis accusavit ipsum gravius caeteris imponens eidem inter caetera quod totum Regnum perturbavit barnagium universum contra ipsum Regem exasperavit unde seditio generalis imminebat fecit igitur acclamari voce praeconia Londini in Curia ut si quis aliquid haberet actionis vel querelae adversus Henr ' de Bathenia veniret ad Curiam ante Regis praesentiam ubi plenè exaudiretur Insurrexerunt igitur multi queruli contra eum ita quod unus etiam sociorum suorum scilicet Iusticiarius palam protestaretur quod unum faconirosum Convictum incarceratum abire permisit impunitum sine judicio opinus respectus muneribus quod factum est in Regis praejudicium justiciariorum Comitum suorum periculum discrimen Rex igitur magis inde provocatus ascendit superius exclamavitque dicens si quis Henricum de Bathenia occiderit quietus sit à morte ejus quietum eum protestor sic properè recessit Rex Et fuerunt ibi multi qui in ipsum Henricum irruissent nisi Domini Johannis Mansel prudentia eorum impetum temperans refrenasset Dixit enim Domini mei amici non est necesse quod in ira prepropere dicitur prosequamur paenitebit enim fortè Dominum nostrum jam elapso irae tempore haec jutonuisse praeterea si aliquid violentiae ipsi Henrico intuleritis ecce Episcopus Londinensis qui spiritualem alii amici ejus militares qui vindictam exercebunt materialem sic in magna parte cessavit Extunc igitur procurante efficaciter Comite Richardo Episcopo memorato nutius actum est cum eo dictum enim est Domino Regi secretius quod mirum est quod aliquis ei curet servire cum eis post ministerium etiam mortem mittitur inferre promissa igitur quadam pecunia summa à mortis discrimine recessit liberatus Which the King was so unwilling to be cozen'd of as he took a care to have paid in this manner as the Record thereof will evidence viz. Rex omnibus c. universitas vestra noverit nos de bono corde penitus remisisse dilecto fideli nostro Henr ' de
praefatae sententiae ligentur omnes venientes contrà libertates contentas in ehartis communium libertatum Angliae de foresta omnes qui libertates Ecclesiae Angicanae temporibus Domini Regis Praedecessorum suorum Regum Angliae optentas usitatas scienter malitiosè violaverint aut infringere praesumpserint omnes illi qui pacem Domini Regis Regni perturbaverint similiter omnes qui jura libertates Domini Regis Regni diminuere infringere seu immutare praesumpserint quòd omnes venientes contrà praemissa vel eorum aliqua ignoranter legitimè moniti infra quindenam post monitionem praemissam dictam transgressionem non emendaverint ex tunc praedictae sententiae excommunicationis subjacebunt ità tamen quod Dominus Rex transgressionem illam per considerationem curiae suae faciat emendari sciendum autem quod si in scriptis super eadem sententia à quibuscunque confectis seu conficiendis aliud vel alitèr appositum vel adjectum fuerit aut articuli aliqui alii in eis contenti inveniantur Dominus Rex praedicti Magnates omnes communicatas populi protestantur publicè in praesentiâ venerabilium patrum B. Dei Gratiâ Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi totius Angliae Primatis nec non Episcoporum omnium in eodem colloquio existentium quòd in ea nunquam consenserunt nec consentiunt sed de plano eis contradicunt praetere à praefatus Dominus Rex in prolatione praefat ' sententiae omnes libertates consuetudines Regni sui autiquas usitates Dignitates jura Coronae suae ore proprio specialiter sibi Regno suo salvavit excepit In cujus rei memoriam in posterum veritatis testimonium tà m Dominus Rex quam praedicti Comites ad instantiam aliorum Magnatum Populi praesenti scripto sigilla sua apposuerunt Gascoign a great Province in France having been before the King had any Son granted by him by the counsel of the Lords to his Brother Richard Earl of Cornwal who was there received as their Lord and so continued until the King had Issue of his own after which revoking his Grant and conferring it upon his Son Edward the Earl though he were deprived of his Possession not being willing to forgo his Right the King in great displeasure commanded him to resign his Charter which he refusing to do the Citizens of Burdeaux were commanded to take and imprison but would not adventure thereon Notwithstanding money being offered and like to effect more than his command the Earl in danger to be surprized came over into England whereupon the King assembled the Nobility of Gascoign promised them 30000 Marks to renounce their homage and fealty to his Brother which being not accepted he sent Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester a rough and martial man in revenge thereof to be their Governour under him for six years and furnished him with 1000 Marks in order thereto whom Montfort by a stern Government so discontented as they and the Archbishop of Burdeaux accused him of heinous Crimes which was a cause of Montford s sending for over And the King resolute in maintaining the Gascoigners that sturdy Earl Montfort who had forgotten that he was an Alien himself and had received of the King large Gifts Preferments and Honours both in France and England unto whom the Earl of Cornwal with the discontented part of the English Baronage joyning complained as much of the Aliens viz. William of Valence Earl of Pembroke Guy de Lusignan the King's half-brothers by his Mother and the many French and Poictovins that over-much governed him and his Counsels as they did again complain of the breach of the Great Charter which was seldom omitted out of the Reer of their grievances which at last came to such an undutiful contest as Montfort upbraiding the King with his expenceful service wherein he alledged he had utterly consumed his Estate and said that he had broken his word with him the King in great rage told him That no promise was to be observed with an unworthy Traytor wherewith Montfort rose up and protested that he lyed in that word and were he not protected by his Royal Dignity he would make him repent it The King commanded his Servants to lay hold of him which the Lords would not permit wherewith Montfort growing more audacious the King told him He never repented of any thing so much as to have permitted him to enter into his Kingdom and to have honoured and instated him as he had done But shortly after the Gascoigns being again encouraged by the King against Montfort and that Province given to his Son Edward and Montfort sent thither a Governour again though with clipt wings grows enflamed as much as the Gascoigns were one against another but Montfort by his great Alliance with France overcame them who in the 38th year of the King's Reign being discharged of the Government retired from thence and refusing an offered entertainment by the French King returned into England where the King besides Gascoigny having given Ireland Wales Bristol Stamford and Grantham to the Prince and consumed all that ever he could get in that and the former expeditions which he had made which was reckoned to have cost him Twenty seven hundred thousand pounds which were said to have been more than the Lands endeavoured to have been regained were worth if they were to be sold. A Parliament was called in Easter-Term following which brought a return of grievances and complaints of the breach of Charters and a demand for former pretended rights in electing the Justiciar Chancellor and Treasurer whereupon after much debate to no purpose the Parliament was prorogued until Michaelmas next after when likewise the King's motion for money was disappointed by reason of the absence of many Peers being not as was alledged summoned according to Magna Charta In the mean time the Pope to destroy Manfred Son to the Emperour Frederick who was in possession of the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia sent the Bishop of Bononia with a Ring of investiture of the Kindom of Sicily to Edmond the King's second Son with the hopes of which his Praedecessor Innocent IV. had before deluded the King himself And the King being offered to be absolved from his Oath of undertaking the holy Wars so as he would help to destroy Manfred the Emperour Frederick's Son who being Victorious had no mind to be so ill used The Legate returned with great gifts and a Prebendary of York but could not obtain his design of collecting the Tenths in England Scotland and Ireland to the use of the Pope and the King for that the Clergy growing jealous m that the 〈…〉 g and the Pope were confederate therein protested rather to lose their Lives and Livings than to be made a prey to either the Pope in the mean time having upon that vain hope cunningly wrapt him in an obligation of 15000 Marks Upon
complaint of the Gascoigns who were under the Government of the Prince that their Wines were taken away by the King's Officers without due satisfaction and the Prince thereupon addressing himself to his Father in their behalf and the Officers in excuse of themselves informing the King that the Prince took upon him to do Justice therein when it belonged not to him the King was put in a great rage and said Behold my Son and my Brother are bent to afflict me as my Grand-father King Henry II. was And being put to his shifts to supply his necessities came himself into his Exchequer and with his own mouth pronounced and made Orders for the better bringing in of his Revenues Farms and Amerciaments under severe penalties that every Sheriff which appeared not yearly there in the Octaves of St. Michael with his money as well of his Farms and Amerciaments as other dues for the first day should be amerced five Marks for the second ten for the third fifteen and for the fourth should be redeemed at the King's pleasure all Cities and Freedoms to be amerced in the same manner and the fourth day making default were to lose their Freedoms the Sheriffs amerced five Marks for not distraining upon every man that having 20 l. Lands per annum came not to be made Knight unless he had before been freed by the King And by examinations of measures of Ale and Wine Bushels and Weights got some small sums of money and about the time of Richard Earl of Cornwal's going to Germany where he was by the privity and approbation of the Councel of State in England elected King of the Romans called a Parliament where bringing his Son Edmond clad in an Apuleian-habit he said Behold my Son Edmond whom God hath called to the dignity of Regal Excellency how fitting and worthy is he of your favour and how inhumane were it in so important a necessity to deny him counsel and aid and shewed them how by the advice and benignity of the Pope and the Church of England he had for the obtaining of the Kingdom of Sicily bound himself under the penalty or covenant of losing the Kingdom of England in the sum of 150000 Marks and had obtained the Tenth of the Clergy of all their Benefices for three years according to the new rates without deduction of expences besides their first-fruits for three years whereupon after many excuses of poverty they promised upon the usual condition of confirmation of Magna Charta to give him 32000 Marks But that not satisfying The next year another Parliament was holden at London where he pressing them again for money to pay his debts the Lords told him plainly They would not yield to give him any thing and if he unadvisedly bought the Kingdom of â—icilly and was deceived in it he was to blame himself therein And repeating their old grievances the breach of his promise contempt of the power of the Church and the Charter which he had solemnly sworn to observe with the insolency of Strangers especially of William de Valence who most reproachfully had given the lye to the Earl of Leicester for which he could not upon complaint to the King have right done him how they abounded in Riches and himself so poor as he could not repress an Insurrection of the Welsh The King thereupon promised by his Oath taken upon the Tomb of St. Edward to reform all his errours But the Lords in regard the business was difficult got the Parliament to be adjourned to Oxford and in the mean time the Earls of Gloucester Hereford the Earl Marshal Bigod Spencer and other great men confederated and provided by strength to effect their desires The King driven into necessities did the better to appease those often-complain'd-of grievances when his own were burthen enough by his Writs or Commissions sent into every County of England appoint quatuor milites qui considerarent quot quantis gravaminibus simpliciores à fortioribus opprimuntur inquirent diligenter de singulis querelis injuriis à quocunque factis vel à quibuscunque illatis à multis retroactis temporibus omnia requisita sub sigillis suis se cùm Baronagio ad tempus sibi per breve praefixum certificent which by any Record or History do not appear saith Sir Henry Spelman to have been ever certified And to obtain money procured the Abbot of Westminster to get his Convent to joyn with him as his surety in a Bond for 300 marks sent Simon Paslieu his trusty Councellor with Letters to other Monasteries to do the like but they refused And the Prince participating in the wants of his Father was for want of money constrained to mortgage the Towns of Stanford Benham and other Lands to William de Valence So that upon the aforesaid adjournment and meeting of the Parliament at Oxford in the 42d year of his Reign brake out those great discontents which had been so long in gathering whither the Lords brought with them great numbers of their Tenants by Knights-Service which were many followers dependants and adhaerents upon a pretence of aiding the King and going against the Welsh where after they had secured the Ports to prevent Foreign aids and the Gates of the City of London with their oaths and hands given to each other not to desist until they had obtain their ends began to expostulate their former Liberties and require the performance according to the Oaths and Orders formerly made the Chief-Iusticiar Chancellor and Treasurer to be ordained by publick choice the twenty four Conservators of the Kingdom to be confirmed twelve by the election of the Lords and twelve by the King with whatsoever else might be advantageous for their own security Whereupon the King seeing their strength and in what manner they required those things did swear again solemnly to the confirmation of them and caused the Prince to take the same Oath Of which Treasonable Contrivances Matthew of Westminster an ancient English Historian of good credit hath recorded his opinion in these words Haec de provisionibus imò de proditionibus Oxon dicta sufficiant And here yet they would not rest the King's Brethren the Poictovins and all other strangers were to be presently removed the Kingdom cleared of them and all the Peers of the Land sworn to see it done The Earl of Cornwal's eldest Son refusing to take the Oath without leave of his Father was plainly told That if his Father would not consent with the Baronage in that Case he should not hold a Furrow of Land in England In the end the King's Brethren and their followers were despoiled of all their fortunes and banished by order under his own hand with a charge not to pass with any Money Arms or Ornaments other than such as the Earls of Hereford and Surrey should allow and appoint with an injunction to the City of Bristol or any other Ports not to permit any strangers or Kinsmen of
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-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
were slain and drowned and the Londoners put to flight whom the Prince over-charging and pursuing by the space of four miles and putting many of them to the Sword was so out of sight and far gone from the King's Army as made them weaker than otherwise they would have been but at his return instead of a Victory found about 5000 of his Fathers Army slain the King of Almaine Robert de Bruce and John Comyn who had brought many Scots to the King's aid taken Prisoners with twenty-five Barons and Bannerets on the King's party and the King himself having his Horse killed under him made a Prisoner and shut up in the Priory Ita reversus Edwardus gravi praelio excipitur So as the Prince at his return was freshly set upon by the prevailing party The Earl Warren William de Valence and Guy de Lusignan and Hugh Bigod with forty armed Knights fled to Pevensey And the Prince when he was returned to the Town of Lewis sought his Father in the Castle but not finding him there went to the Priory where he found him In the mean time the conquering Barons assault the Castle which they that were within so stoutly defended as the besiegers withdrew which heartned the Prince so as he recollectis suis voluit iterum praeliari recollecting his Forces had a mind to try his and his Fathers fortune again and fight it out quo cognito miserunt Barones mediatones pacis which the Barons understanding sent unto him mediators to treat of a Peace promising the next morning to do it with effect at which time the Fryers Minors and Praedicants passing and labouring betwixt both parties the matters were adjourned until feria sexta some days after when Prince Edward and Henry the King of Almaine's Son were given as Hostages for their Fathers the Kings of England and Almain and sub spe pacis quietis delivered to Earl Symon de Montfort in the hopes of a peace and agreement ita ut cum deliberatione tractaretur quae Provisionum Statutorum essent pro utilitate Regni tenenda quae delenda so as they might at leisure and with deliberation treat and consider what Provisions and Statutes probably those which had been made at Oxford the Darlings of their designs were for the good of the Kingdom to be kept or what Laws were to be abrogated such in all likelyhood as might clip the King's Regalities and make them to be as much if not more King then Himself And that in the mean time the Prisoners on both sides should without any Ransom be set at liberty Insomuch as the Sunday following all that had been taken on both sides were licensed to go to their own habitations and the King as the said Symon de Montfort had directed him did write to those which were in the Castle of Tunbridge in Kent to deliver it up to Earl Symon which they did very unwillingly SECT VII Of the evil actions and proceedings of Symon de Montfort and his rebellious partners in the name of the King whilst they kept Him and his Son Prince Edward and divers of the Loyal Nobility Prisoners from the 14 th of May in the 48 th year of his Reign until His and Their delivery by the more fortunate Battel at Evesham the 4 th day of August in the 49 th year of his tormented Reign THe old Lyon thus taken and imprisoned by the misfortune of his gallant Whelp 's over-chasing and pursuing of a part of his enemies in the day and extremity of the Battel his Rebels when they had him were at a stand what to do with him They durst not let him loose for that would but restore him to his strength and power which his liberty might have regained If they should have murdered him that would have been so wide from a fix'd accomplishment of their wickedness as though it might have gained them a quiet or for some time continued possession of a Kingdom yet it was not at all likely to have been settled to them and their heirs whilst there was so wise and valiant a Prince and so many descendents of the Royal Line in remainder which would have been always wrestling and contending for it by the aid and assistance of a numerous Loyal and Potent Nobility and the common people who would be able easily to distinguish betwixt right and wrong would be more likely to love the former hate and bend all their forces and ill wishes against the latter and mock and take all opportunities of revenge in the redemption of an immured Sovereign his Crown Dignity and Lineage And therefore it would better suit with their wickedly-begun enterprizes and already-gotten advantages to make use of crafts and policy and render his own power the means the faster to ensnare and entangle him by putting Him and his friends in hope of a peace which they would not be very hasty in until they had gotten his Castles and Strength into their hands and drawn unto their party that part of his Subjects that had not intermeddled in the quarrels betwixt them but like men amazed stood at a gaze wondring at it and might well distrust and be jealous of their former pretences and promises when the Prince that had made himself a Pledge and Hostage for his Father that he might have his liberty found it was never intended but to keep him with all his hopes and fortunes as much a Prisoner as himself And by those and other arts and contrivances with their rebellious Army not disbanded but kept on foot to serve themselves and their Prisoners carried the King about with them from place to place to countenance against his will their evil designs and actions the people not of their party not daring to come either unto Him or Them without Letters of safe conduct which in the King's name whilst they play'd Rex with it and his Seal they could grant and write what they pleased in the language of their own design with which the Patent and Close Rolls of that year and the next with their Dates and Teste when they had him in their custody are well stor'd and in the mean time made it to be a great part of their care and business to cause to be delivered up unto them such Castles and places of strength as either they feared or had not in their Possession as Windsor Notingham Bamburgh Carlisle cum multis aliis c. Of which amongst many one to to Drugo Barentyn who had then in Windsor-Castle the custody of Peter de Moutfort taken in Arms against the King may serve for instance viz. Rex Drugoni de Barentyn Constabular castri de Windsor salutem quia specialia negotia vobis communicanda habemus vobis mandamus in fide quâ nobis tenemini firmitèr injungentes quatenus omnibus aliis praetermissis sitis ad nos London hoc instante die Mercurii ad ultimum nobisnm locutum hoc nullatènus omittatis nos enim
ad alios amicos nostros in partibus illis ad tractandum de Reformatione Pace status Regni nostri destinavimus quibus eundo illata fuerunt enormia Dampna de quibus anxiati with some indiscernable grief fuistis ut intellexerimus propter quod alii periculis huiusmodi se committere minus ausi sunt Serenitatem vestram recipimus affectione quâ possumus ampliori quatenùs Nuntiis nostris Baronum nostrorum ad praesentiam vestram ad Legatum supradictum nec non ad alios amieos nostros partium illarum in brevi destinand ' pro negoâ—â—is antedictis Salvum Securum Conductum vestrum in eundo ibidem morando inde recedendo concedere velitis Literas vestras inde patentes per latorem praesâ—ntium Nobis si placet transmittentes ad ipsos tutiùs conducendos aliquos de fidelibus v stris usque Witsand in Octabis instantis sancti Martini obviam nostro amore sibi mittatis Teste Rege apud Westminster tricesimo die Octobris Anno Regni nostri quadragesimo nono The 3 d. day of December in the Year aforesaid they being in want of Money to maintain and keep their Army together carry on their Designes and their Royal Prisoner caused a Writ to be sent to the Bishop of Norwich for some Supply Sub hac formâ Rex Norwicensi Episcopo Salutem Cùm per Praelatos Magnates Regni Nostri provisum esset unanimitèr concâ—ssâ—m quòd Decimae proventuum omnium beneficiorum in Regno Nostro darentur ad communem utilitatem eiusdem Regni Ecclesiae Anglicanae quòd huiusmodi Decimae per locorum Episcopos levarentur ad Nos mitterentur tunc vobis mandaverimus quòd juxta Provisionem praedictam in vestra Diocesi de beneficiis Ecclesiasticis huiusmodi Decimas levari ad Nos mitti faceretis indilatè convertendas in communem Utilitatem Regni Nostri Ecclesiae praedictae quod huc usque facere distulistis de quo miramur quà m plurimum movemur vobis iteratò mandamus firmiter injungentes quatenus huiusmodi Decimas sine omni dilatione levari eas usque London modis omnibus transmitti faciatis liberand ' venerabilibus Patribus H. London W. Wygorne Episcopis quibus injunximus quòd eas recipiant salvo custodiant donec aliud inde preceperimus ità quòd cas habeant in vigilia Epiphaniae Domini proxime futuri ad ultimum hoc sicut vos honorem vestrum diligitis nullo modo omittatis scituri quòd nisi feceritis mandavimus Vicecomiti nostro Norff. Suff. quòd usque ad septingentas Marcas A Mandate which the Bishops of London and Worcester would not have been content with if the King had been at liberty and had not been as then he was a Prisoner to their Rebellious Party in partem Solutionis praedictae de Bonis catallis vestris in Comitatibus praedictis sine dilatione levari ad Nos mitti faciat sine merâ per Rad ' de Camois Egidium de Argen ' Londini Wigorniae Episcopos Teste Rege apud Oxon 3o. die Decembris The 14 th day of that December next following having carried him in their victorious Army to Worcester they caused a Writ to be made in his Name and under his Seal directed to the Bishop of Durham in these words viz. Henricus Dei gratiâ Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae venerabili in Christo Patri R. eadem gratiâ Episcopo Dunelmensi salutem Cùm post gravia turbationum discriminum dudùm habita Regno Charissimus filius Edwardus primogenitus noster pro pace in Regno Nostro assecuranda firmanda Obses traditus exstitisset jam sedatâ benedictus sit Deus turbatione × praedictâ super deliberatione ejusdem salubritèr providendâ plenâ securitate tranquillitate pacis ad honorem Dei utilitatem totius Regni Nostri firmandâ totalitèr complendâ ac super quibusdam aliis Regni Nostri negotiis quae sine concilio vestro aliorum Praelatorum Magnatum nostrorum nolumus expediri cum iisdem Tractatum habere Nos oportet vobis rogantes in fide dilectione quibus Nobis tenemini quòd omni excusatione postposita negotiis aliis praetermissis sitis ad Nos London in Octabis sancti Hillarii proximi futuri Nobiscum cum praedictis Praelatis Magnatibus nostris quos ibidem vocari fecimus super praemissis tractaturi concilium impensuri hoc sicut Nos Honorem nostrum vestrum nec non communem Regni Nostri Tranquillitatem diligitis nullatenùs omittatis Teste Meipso 14. Decembr ' Anno Regni Nostri 49o. In formâ praedictâ subscribitur Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus subscriptis c. In formâ praedictâ mandatum est Comitibus nostris aliis subscriptis Dat. apud Woodstock 24o. die Decembris praedicti viz. Comiti Leicester Comiti Glouc. Comiti Norff. Marescallo Angliae Comiti Oxon Comiti Derby Rogero de Sancto Johannis Hugo de Spencer Justiciar ' Angliae Nicholao de Segrave Johanni de Vescy Roberto Basset G. de Lucie Gilbert de Gaunt which were notoriously known to be of their Party and like Inclinations in number 25 or 23 a Blank yet remaining upon the Record for the names of those more Loyal that were not of their Conspiracy which were very many the Writ it self to Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Consorts in that ungodly Enterprise being not to be found at all entred And of the same date sent out Writs in the Kings Name and under his Seal directed to all the Sheriffs of the Realm wherein signifying the Kingdom to be then in peace and quiet and the King's desire to establish the same to the honour of God and benefit to his People to send to the Parliament which was to be holden at London in the Octaves of Saint Hillary then next ensuing two Knights Elected for each County and of the Cityes and Boroughs two Citizens or Burgesses to treat with the King Praelates and Barons and give their Counsel Which Writs of Summons in the framing whereof their VVits could not be at leisure to think of an Election of Burgesses or Procurators for the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as if those Seminaries of Learning had been incapacitated and merited a procul ite prophani made in and by the Name of a captive King whilst he was a Prisoner of War not taken by Surprise or Ambuscado but Fighting in a Battle against a mighty Army of Rebels that should have been his Subjects had it seems no other effect than an Attempt to summon their contrived new-fashioned Parliament for that by a general Disturbance none of the many Boroughs in Cornwal being then likely to come for that the Earl of Cornwal was on the King's Party and a Prisoner and Commotion of the Kingdom
in their Minds and Estates Discontents of the vanquisht Nobility Absence and feared Insurrections of that and a great part of the Baronage and People that were not in the Battle on either side and the Decov cunningly inserted in their Writs of Summons to a kind of Parliament of their own framing that Pax Reformata fuit betwixt him and the Barons Benedictus sit Deus enticed many that either Fear or Flattery perswaded to be on the Stronger and Prevailing Side to make their Peace with them and either to Joyn with them or stand aloof off and enjoy as well as they could their large Possessions and Estates which in those times could draw many Tenants and Followers after them And being Jealous of the Affections Power and Strength of John Balioll and Peter de Brus with certain other Lords of Scotland Robert de Nevil and some of the Northern English Barons a Writ in the King's Name was also the 24 th day of that December sent unto them to come to London but without any certain Day or mention that they were there to Treat cum Praelatis Comitibus or cum coeteris Magnatibus de arduis negotiis Regni and not mixt with other Affairs as the former or after Form of Summons to Parliament or those great Councils were accustomed to be with a more than ordinary safe Conduct for their Persons and Security in the interim for their Lands and Estates in the form following viz. Rex Johanni de Bailol Petro de Brus Roberto de Nevil Eustachio de Bailol Steph. de Menill Gilberto Haunsard Rad ' filio Ranulphi Ad ' de Gensenr ' Roberto de Stotevil de Atton ' sociis suis partium borealium Salutem Cùm Karissimus filius Edwardus primogenitus noster pro Pace in Regno nostro assecurandâ Obses deputatus extitisset jam sedatâ benedictus Deus turbatione praedictâ super liberatione ejusdem salubritèr providendâ plena securitate tranquillitatis pacis ad honorem Dei utilitatem totius Regni Nostri firmandâ finalitèr complenda per quod vobiscum volumus habere tractatum super praemissis aliis negotiis Nostris arduissimis pluries vobis mandaverimus quòd ad Nos veniretis Nobiscum super specialibus negotiis Nostris colloquium habituri quod hucusque facere distulistis de quo miramur quà m plurimùm movemur vobis iteratò mandamus firmitèr injungentes quòd omnibus negotiis praetermissis ad Nos London sine omni dilatione veniatis Nobiscum super praemissis locuturi hoc sicut Nos Honorem Nostrum vestrum diligitis nullo modo omittatis ut securius ad Nos venire possitis mittemus dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem de Burgo seniorem ad conducendum vos salvo securè sicut in Literis nostris patentibus quas idem Johannes super hoc habet plenius continâ—tur mandavimus etiam dilectis fidelibus nostris Johanni de Vescy Henrico de Hastinges Joh ' de Eynill Adi de Novo Mercato aliis fidelibus nostris cum eis in partibus illis existentibus quòd à gravaminibus molestiis dampnis seu injuriis vobis aut hominibus vest is si ad Nes veneritis inferendis penitùs desistant In cujus c. Teste Rege apud Wodest ' vicesimo quarto die Decembris And the 26 th day of that December Symon Montfort and his Confederates wanting the Council and Assistance of the Bishop of Norwich and not knowing what to do either with the Old Lyon or the Young directed a Writ unto him in the King's name in these words viz. Rex Episcopo Norwicen ' Cùm post gravia turbationum discrimina dudum habita in Regno nostro karissimus filius Edwardus Primògenitus Noster pro Pace in Regno Nostro assecuranda firmanda Obses traditus extitisset jam sedatâ benedictus Deus turbatione praedictâ super deliberatione ejusdem salubritèr providenda plena securitate tranquillitatis pacis ad honorem Dei utilitatem totius Regni Nostri firmanda totalitèr complenda ac super quibusdam aliis Regni Nostri negotiis quae sine consilio vestro aliorum fidelium Magnatum nostrorum nolumus expediri cum eisdem tractatum habere Nos oporteat vobis mandamus rogantes in fide dilectione quibus Nobis tenemint quòd omni occasione postpositâ negotiis aliis praetermissis sitis ad nos London in Octabis Sancti Hillarii proximè futuris Nobiscum cum praedictis fidelibus Magnatibus nostris quos ibâ—dem vocari fecimus super praemissis tractaturi concilium vestrum impensuri hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum vestrum nec non ad communem Regni Nostri tranquillitatem diligitis nullatenùs omittatis Teste Rege apud Wod ' vicesimo sexto die Decembris And believing it to conduce much unto their naughty purposes to have the Cinque-Ports who were by their Tenures obliged to furnish out yearly a certain number of Ships for the safeguard of the Kingdom and Seas appertaining thereunto to be so much at their Devotion and Command as to hinder any Ayd which might come from any of the King's subjects and dominions in France for the Rescue of the King and Prince out of their Imprisonment and Captivity from which they never intended to Release them until they had Despoiled him of all or the greatest part of his Regalities The Writ following was the 20 th day of the then next following Month of January directed unto the Barons and Bailiffs of the Cinque-Ports to do that which they never did before as followeth c. Rex Baronibus Ballivis portus sui de Sandwico salutem Cum Praelati Nobiles Regni Nostri tà m pro negotio Liberationis Edwardi Primogeniti Nostri quà m prò aliis Communitatem Regni Nostri tangentibus ad instans Parliamentum nostrum quod erit London in Octabis Sancti Hillarii convocari fecimus ubi vestrâ sicut aliorum fidelium nostrorum praesentiâ plurimùm indigemus vobis mandamus in side dilectione quibus Nobis tenemini firmitèr injungentes quòd omnibus aliis praetermissis mittatis ad Nos ibidem quatuor de legalioribus discretioribus Portus vestri quòd sint ibidem in Octabis praedictis Nobiscum cum Praelatis Magnatibus Regni Nostri tractaturi super praemissis concilium impensuri hoc sicut honorem nostrum vestrum communem utilitatem Regni Nostri diligitis nullatenùs omittatis Teste Rege apud Westm ' Vicesimo die Januarii Similiter mandatum est singulis Portubus being within the very Octavies of St. Hillary The First day of February in the year and time of the King's Imprisonment as aforesaid some discords and disturbances continuing in the University of Cambridge amongst the Students and Schollars which was begun three years before and some Endeavours used to remove that
University or constitute and set up another at Northampton a Writ was as followeth sent in the Name of the King to the Mayor and Citizens of Northampton to prohibit it viz. Rex Majori Civibus suis Northampton ' salutem Cùm occasione cujusdam magnae Contentionis in villa Cantabr ' triennio jam elapso subortae nonnulli Clericorum tunc ibidem studentium unanimiter ab ipsâ villa recessissent se usque ad villam vestrum praedictani Northamp ' transferentes ibidem studiis inherendo novam construere Universitatem cupientes Nos illo tempore credentes Villam illam ex hoc posse meliorari Nobis utilitatem non modicam inde provenire votis dictorum Clericorum ad eorum requisitionem annuebamus in hac parte nunc autem ex relatu multorum fide dignorum veracitèr intellexerimus quòd ex hujusmodi Universitate si permaneret ibidem municipium nostrum Oxoniae quod ab antiquo creatum est à Progenitoribus Nostris Regibus Angliae confirmatum ac ad commoditatem Studentium communitèr approbatum non mediocritèr lederetur quod nulla ratione vellemus the rather probably for that Symon Montfort and his Partners had but a little before tasted of the seduced Friendship of that University when many of its Students under a Banner of their own came to the Seige of Northampton and Fought stoutly for them against their King maximè cum universis Episcopis terrae nostrae ad honorem Dei utilitatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae proficui Studentium videatur expedire quòd Universitas amoveatur à Villa praedicta sicut per Literas suas patentes accepimus vobis de consilio Magnatum nostrorum firmitèr inhlbemus nè in villâ vestrâ de coetero aliquam Universitatem esse nec aliquos Studentes ibidem manere permittatis alitèr quà m antè Creationem dictae Universitatis fieri consuevit Teste Rege apud Westm ' primo die Febr ' The 8 th day of that February Urianus de Sancto Petro and others of the County of Chester submitting themselves ad pacem of the King as they were willing to have that Rebellion called they did in the King's Name give order for a Restitution of his Lands and a Protection for the future in these Words viz. Rex Rogero de Lovetot salutem Cùm Urianus de Sancto Petro sicut alii de Comitatu Cestriae ad Pacem Nostram venerit per quod de consilio Magnatum nostrorum qui sunt de Consilio Nostro ipsum omnes terras tenementa sua in protectionem defensionem Nostram suscepimus jam de Consilio Nostro praedicto sit provisum quòd omnes terrae tenementa ipsius Uriani occasione turbationis in Regno Nostro uuper habitae per quoscunque occupata sibi restituantur ac vos terras tenementa praedicti Uriani in Comitatu Hunted ' occupaveritis ea detineatis occupata occasione turbationis praedictae ut accepimus vobis de Consilio nostro praedicto mandamus in fide homagio quibus Nobis tenemini firmitèr injungentes quòd omnes terras tenementa praedicta per vos vestros sic occupata sine dilatione restituatis eidem hoc nullatenùs omittatis Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium 8 o die Februarii The Fifteenth day of the same Month and Year reciting That the King had caused two of the discreetest Knights of every County of England to be at his Parliament as the Barons that kept him Prisoner were desirous to Style it ad tractandum with the King and his Council de liberatione Edwardi filii Nostri c. And being informed that two Knights for the County of York had tarried long not much above three weeks been at great Expences and paid great Loans and Taxes towards the defence of the Kingdom and Maritime parts against the Invasion of Alien Enemies the men that they so called being only the King's French subjects they did in the King's Name command That the said two Knights of that County de consilio by the Advice and Ayd of four Knights of the said County should Leavy the said Knights expences in their coming to that so called Parliament tarrying and return which was either but a few dayes before ended if it did either sit or do any thing at all in such a time of publick and general Distraction with a proviso and under a condition that the Commonalty should not be Ultrà modum oppressed thereby in words ensuing Rex Vicecomiti Eborum salutem Cùm nuper vocari secerimus duos de discretioribus Militibus singulorum Comitatuum nostrorum Angliae quòd essent ad Nos in Parliamento nostro apud London in Octabis Sancti Hillarii proximò praeteritis ad tractandum Nobiscum cùm Consilio Nostro super deliberatione Edwardi filii nostri karissimi securitate inde faciendâ nec non aliis arduis Regni Nostri negotiis ac iidem Milites moram diuturniorem quà m credebant traxerint ibidem propter quod non modicas fecerint expensas cùmque Communitates dictorum Comitatuum varias hoc anno fecerint praestationes ad defensionem Regni Nostri maximè partium maritimarum contrà hostilem adventum Alienigenarum per quod aliquantulum se minimum sentiunt gravatas tibi praecipimus quod duobus Militibus qui pro Communitate dicti Comitatûs praefato Parliamento interfuerunt de consilio quatuor legalium Militum ejusdem Comitatus rationabiles expensas suas in veniendo ad dictum Parliamentum ibidem morando inde ad partes suas redeundo provideri eas de eadem communitate levari facias Provisò quòd ipsa Communitas occasione praestationis istius ultrà modum non gravetur T. R. apud Westm ' 15 o die Februarii Which may warrant a Belief that either no other came or that new-invented kind of Parliament did not at all Sit there being upon diligent search of all the Records of that greatlytroubled Year none other to be found of that nature Wherein though no care was taken of other Countyes or of any the very many Burgesses of that County or of any other County intended to have been sent to that newly and first-of-all devised kind or manner of an English great Council or Parliament it appears to have been the first and only Writ for Parliament-men or Members of the House of Commons in Parliament that had or did bear any Resemblance with that allowance of Wages to any Members of Parliament in the House of Commons howsoever much different after a long interval of Time used for Wages allowed for Parliament-Members of the House of Commons King Henry the Third having never after his Release from that Imprisonment allowed any The 16 th day of the same Month of February in the Year aforesaid Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford absenting himself from the Army upon some Discontent in a Dislike
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
they endeavoured to doe but were over-reached by the Military Arts and Stratagems of the Montfortian Party the King having the Castle of Kenilworth surrendred unto him Symon and Guy de Montfort Sons to the Earl of Leicester with the disinherited Barons who escaped from the Battel of Evesham defending the Isle of Ely the King and the Prince going with an Army against them streightly besieged them and tendred them afterwards gentle Conditions wherein the King 's Privy Councel were divided for that Mortimer having the whole Earldom Honor and great Estate of the Earl of Oxford after the battle of Evesham granted unto him and many others who had great Quantities of the disherited Parties Lands given unto them were unwilling to forgo what the King had for their Valour and Fidelity bestowed upon them and therefore would hold what they had but Gloucester and the Twelve Ordained to deal for the Peace of the State and other their Friends which were many stood stifly for a Restoration Which raised new Displeasures so as Gloucester retired from the Court and sent a Messenger to require the King to remove Strangers from his Court and observe the Provisions made at Oxford according to his last Promise made at Evesham otherwise he should not marvel if himself did what he thought fit whereupon in the one and fiftieth year of his Raigne at S t. Edmunds-Bury was a Parliament summoned unto which were cited Comites Barones Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates and all who held by Knights Service were to appear with Horse and Armour for the vanquishing of those disherited Persons who contrary to the Peace of the Kingdom held the Isle of Ely John de Warren Earl of Surrey and William de Valentia were sent to the Earl of Gloucester who had leavied an Army upon the Borders of Wales to come in a fair manner to that Parliament which he refused to do but gave it under his hand that he would never bear Arms against the King or his Son Edward but to defend himself and pursue Roger Mortimer and other his Enemies for which he pretended to have taken Armes The first Demand in that Parliament which was made by the King and the Legat was That the Clergy should grant a Tenth for three Years to come and for the Years past so much as they gave the Barons for defending the Coasts against the Invasion of Strangers Whereto they answred That the War was begun by unjust Desires which yet continued and it was more necessary to treat of the Peace of the Kingdom to make use of the Parliament for the benefit thereof and not to extort Moneys considering the Land had been so much destroy'd by the War as it would never be recovered When it was required That the Clergy might be taxed by Laymen according to the just Value They answer It was neither Reason nor Justice that they should intermeddle in collecting the 10 th which they would never consent unto but would have the Antient Taxation to stand It was desired That they would give the 10 th of their Baronies and Lay-fees according to their utmost values They answered That they were impoverished in attending the King in his Expeditions and their Lands lay untilled by reason of the Wars It was moved That in liev of a 10 th they should give among them 30000 Marks to discharge the King's Debts contracted concerning the Kingdom of Sicily They answered They would give nothing in regard that all those Taxations and Extortions formerly made by the King were never converted to his own Use or the Benefit of the Kingdom Demand being made That all the Clergy-men which held Baronies or other Lay-fees should personally serve in the Wars They answer They were not to sight with the Material Sword but the Spiritual and that their Baronies were given of mere Almes Being required to discharge the 9000â— which the Bishops of Rochester Bath and the Abbot of Westminster stood bound to the Pope's Merchants for the King's Service at their being at the Court of Rome They answered That they never consented to pay such Loan and therefore were not bound to discharge it Then the Legate from the Pope required That without delay Praedication should be made throughout the Kingdom to incite men to take the Cross for the Recovery of the Holy Land Whereunto Answer was made That the greatest part of the People were already consumed by the Sword and that if they should undertake that Action there would be none left to defend the Kingdom and the Legate seemed to desire to extirpate the Nation and introduce Strangers Lastly when it was urged That the Praelates were bound to yield to all the Kings Demands by their Oath at Coventry where they did Swear to aid him by all means possible they could They answered that when they took that Oath they understood no other Aids than Spiritual and wholsome Councell So nothing but Denyals being obteyned in that Parliament the Legat imployed some to Sollicite the disherited Lords that held the Isle of Ely to leave off their Robberies and return to the Peace of the King the Faith and Unity of the Church according to the Form provided by the Dictum de Kenilworth made by a Commission of the King no Dict or Act of Parliament to 12 of the Peers for the Redemption of their Inheritances given away by the King for Five say some other Seven years Profits They who had no Lands were to give their Oaths and to find Sureties for their Peaceable Behaviour and make such Satisfaction and undergo such Penances as the Church should appoint they who were Tenants should lose their right to their Farmes saving the right of their Lords they who did instigate any to Fight against the King should forfeit the Profit of their Lands for two years and if any Person should refuse those Conditions they should be de Exhereditatis and have no power of recovering their Estates in which Composition or Dictum some Persons and particularly Symon de Montfort himself and his Heirs were excluded To which they answered That they hold the Faith received from their Catholick Fathers and their Obedience to the Roman Church as the Head of all Christianity but not to the Avarice and wilful Exactions of those who ought to Govern the same And that their Praedecessors and Ancestors whose Heirs they were having Conquered the Land by the Sword they held themselves to be unjustly disherited and that it was against the Popes Mandate they should be so dealt withal That they had formerly taken their Oaths to defend the Kingdom and Holy Church all the Prelates thundring the Sentence of Excommunication against such as withstood the same and according to that Oath they were prepared to spend their Lives and seeing they Warred for the benefit of the Kingdom and Holy Church they were to sustain their Lives by the Goods of those that detained their Lands which the Legat ought to cause to be
evil Doings marching and maintaining their Army from place to place Ungarrisoning and Garrisoning divers of the King's Castles and Places of strength together with the no small Charges of their disloyal Contrivances Envoys and Ambassadours to their good Friends the King of France and the Pope Their great Necessities appearing very demonstrable in their harshly pressing the Bishops for some Arreares of the Clergy Tenths Seizing and Sequestration of the Rents and Estates as much as they could come at of the Loyal Party to the pretended Use of the King taking away the Tax and Tallage of the Judaism or Banks of the Jews the then besides the Caursini the Popes Bankers or Brokers only Usurers of the Kingdom which had been assigned to the Prince not omitting the getting into their hands the Tolls and Profits of the Markets and Fairs appertaining to his Mannor of Stamford who untill the very instant of his Escape from the Castle of Hereford where he had long lain a quiet Prisoner under their Persecution had enjoyed them All or but some of which might have given them a Temptation and Opportunity if they had had the mind or least Inclination to it to have taken those few Commons that were with them into their Association and moulded them into a neverbefore-used Form or Figure of a Parliament ever since so mistakenly called or Constitution of a third Estate and House of Commons therein when anciently and long before our Kings great Councels or Parliaments consisted only of such Lords Spiritual and Temporal as they should please to advise withal and those Commons which they had with them do not appear to have made any Act of Parliament or Ordinance for the raising of Money to support the charges of their Rebellion But that part of the Baronage appeared to have been so unwilling to take them into their Company or give them any occasion to contemn or lift themselves above their former condition as when in the Difficulties with which they wrestled upon the Prince's denying his Consent ever to have been given to a supposed Ordinance then lately as they would have as many as they could make believe it to have been made at London by the Prelates and Barons by the unanimous Assent of the King and his Son the Prince totius Communitatis Regni concerning the setling of Peace in the Kingdom the freeing of the Prince from his Imprisonment and the Discharge of the ill Opinion which many of the People had of their Actions they were constrained to send Writs in the King's Name the 12 th of June in the same year of that imprisoned King dated at Hereford unto the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Salisbury Chester Coventry and Lichfeild Bath and Wells and the rest of the Prelates who may then be understood to have been absent to come omni festinatione to advise with him at Gloucester to assist him with their Councels and be a Means to take off those Rumours which had been raised that by the Testimony of the King himself and the rest of the Prelats the Truth might appear that it was not the King himself but the Rebels as whilest he was in their Power he was made to stile his Son the Prince and his Loyal Party But none of the Commons before summoned or designed to have been summoned had any new Writs sent unto them for that purpose to meet at Gloucester which would have been very necessary if they could have born any Testimony to that supposed Ordinance which is not in any of the Records of that year or any other year those monumenta vetustatis veritatis to be seen or if they had had any Vote in that imaginary Parliament it would not have been said in that King 's Writ dated at Westminster the first day of February in the year aforesaid and in the Close Rolls of that year That although upon some Discords arising amongst the Scholars in the University of Cambridge the King had given leave that there might be an University established at Northampton yet being informed by all the Bishops of the Kingdom that it would greatly inconvenience the University of Oxford he did de concilio magnatum strictly forbid it But if there had been any Proceedings upon those Writs for the Election of Members to constitute an House of Commons for that or any long time expended in the duration thereof few of whom either came or were willing or dared to be present at that new-fancied Parliament which could not be believed to have had any Duration or long Continuance if it had at all gained a lawful beginning or could have overcome those many Obstructions which lay before them those two Knights of the Shire sent out of Yorkshire who had obtained a Writ for their Wages or Charges in coming tarrying or returning and were possibly gone homeward or shortly going would not have made such hast to be gone It being alwayes to be remembred that although King Edward the First had so subdued Wales as to make them obedient unto such Laws as he would have them obey yet King Henry the Eighth was the first that removed the Barr and accustomed distances and Enmities that had long continued between the English and the Welsh when in the 27 th year of His Reign he did incorporate his Dominion of Wales with his Kingdom of England and ordained that All that were born or to be born in Wales should enjoy the Laws of the Realm which and no other be willed should be used in Wales and that two Knights should be chosen to be Knights as Members in the House of Commons in Parliament for the County and one Burgess for the Town of Monmouth Knights and Burgesses shall be chosen in every Shire and Borough of Wales to come unto the Parliament and have the allowance of Wages as others used to have and there should be two Knights for the County of Chester chosen and two Burgesses for the City to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament Which rendred it to be not only improbable but impossible that any Knights or Burgesses for Wales and the Counties of Chester and Monmouth and the Boroughs thereof in that so New-created Parliament of Symon de Montfort's own framing in Anno 49 of King Henry the Third or in any other Parliaments better authorized until the aforesaid Reign of King Henry the Eighth And it is also remarkable and to be observed that the County Palatine of Durham and the Borough of Newark in the County of Nottingham had no Authority to send Burgesses to Parliament neither did untill His now Majesties Happy Restauration Or if that so would be called Parliament could by any stretch of Fancy have been supposed to have been itinerant with the Army it could never come up to any Probability that that King so governed against his Will by it would the fourth day of June by his Writ dated at Hereford directed to the Mayor and Bayliffs of Bristol have
commanded them to send unto him Ten or Twelve of their most honest and discreet Citizens to satisfie the rest of the City that He had been privy unto all that had been done in His Name and to the end that they might be better informed of his Will and Pleasure if there had been any Members of Parliament for the City there already with him Elected or Attending For certainly they that had strugled so much and contended to blood for a Twenty-four Conservatorships reduced during the Kings Imprisonment to Nine after to Four of the more special Rebellious Undertakers would be loath to part with that Power and false Authority which they had so desperately gained And the business for which the Knights and Burgesses were desired by them to be elected and called together to treat with the Prelates and Nobles of the Kingdom whom the King as they would have it believed had caused to be summoned and called to a Parliament which was to be holden in Octabis S ti Hillarii then next coming as well concerning the Delivery of his Son Prince Edward out of Prison where he remained a Pledge or Hostage for the King as for other matters touching the common Good of the Kingdom in which the presence of them and other Loyal men as the Writ said was requisite and were in fide dilectione in which they were bound unto the King to be there to treat of such things as the King by the Advice of his Prelates and Barons should for the common Profit of the Kingdom ordain as they tendered his and their Honours a word by the Customes and Curialities of England not in these or many ages after usual or appropriate to the Commons Burgesses or Tradesmen of England And was an Import beyond the understanding and reach of the Capacity of the Vulgar and if it could have been thought to have been fitting or necessary for that instant Emergency could not with any Reason or true Judgment be supposed to have been proper Advisers for any afterward Matters of State weighty or grave Deliberations upon which the Safety and Welfare of the whole Nation was to have any dependance as if that Prince Edward or any other Prince our Kings Eldest Son had for all Ages to come been supposed to be Prisoners or Hostages for their Father Neither could such a device be in any Probability long or any thing near everlastingin the very Design it self or Meaning of the Contrivers for that even after they were to a Despair utterly overthrown at the battle of Evesham and the Dictum Pardons and Compositions made at Kenelworth the Earl of Gloucester upon a renewed Discontent raised Forces and demanded the Observation of the Provisions made at Oxford which amongst other things for the Conservatorships which he alledged the King had promised at the Battle of Evesham and very likely if at all after the battel ended and some of the disherited Lords that had fled to the Isle of Ely and forcibly withheld the possession thereof from the King did amongst other their Demands make it to be one of their Propositions that the Provisions of Oxford might be observed And that kind of Summons made in and by the Name of a Captive King when He was a Prisoner could not by any Rule of Law or Reason have been then added to our ancient fundamental Laws and made to be a fundamental Law as ancient as the Government upon which the House of Peers and a great part of the Monarchy was built nor such a third Estate or Constitution of a different Nature and after so long an Interval of time made to be co-ordinate with it which the Provisions at the forced Parliament at Oxford if any such thing as a Co-ordination in a House or Society of Elected Commons had then been in Actu or rerum natura or in any Being or Existence before the framing of those Provisions did annihilate and seem never to intend And if such a Novel great Councel Parliament or Convocation could have met with any Success which in regard of Discords Rebellions Hostilities Jealousies and Fears then busying and disturbing the Kingdom was every where embarassed and incumbred with Dangers and Troubles the King and His Brother the Prince His Son with many of the Loyal part of the Baronage imprisoned and the remaining part of them either Fled or under the power of their and the Kingdomes Enemies could have taken Root or gained any Fixation no small Contests and Dissentions arising betwixt the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester and their several Adherents two of the greatest Supports of the Faction as it usually happeneth saith Daniel in Confederacies where all must be pleased or all the knot will break about their Dividends private and particular Agreements It could not easily or at all receive any Entertainment in the Reason or Understanding of Mankind or which is much less any colour of it or less than that in any Man's Imagination or Conjecture not mad or distempered that such a numerous part of the Commons as to the Burgesses to be elected out of the vulgar rude rash giddy and apt-to-be-partial and easily misled affrighted or flattered sort of the People should produce any good Effect either to themselves or the publick when too many of them were or would be likely to be most commonly altogether illiterate and of such as could escape that unhappy Character but few that had ever looked in at the Threshold or Door of good Learning and Policy and fewer that had spent any or much of their time in it but addicted themselves or imployed most of their Thoughts upon the Cares of managing their own Estates Husbandry Trade or other necessaries of Livelihood more proper for the common and inferior Ranks of the People upon whom very many sad and often Experiments have for many Ages and Centuries before deservedly fixed and imposed the indeleble Marks of Mobile prosanum scelestum Vulgus and given Us a lamentable Account of many of their mad and reasonless Advices willful and head-long Actions to the Destruction not only of their Superiours and those that would or should guide them but of themselves and all that have had to do with them or any ill governed Assembly Sr let-loose Multitude of Men. Which without good Accidents and much Difficulty to boot are seldom Governed or brought within the bounds or compass of well digested Reason and Prudence especially if they sit for any long time to hatch or brood Factions or Partialities Envies Ammosities Self-interests over-strained Liberties Authorities Priviledges and taking too much upon them And there could not be any or much good Event expected to happen to the Councels of Princes or the Weal publick either as to the Secrecy the life of Councels Consultive or Active part of them Or to those rebellious Lords themselves who as the Case then stood with them were concerned to order the business as much as they could for their own Preservation and
Advantage and to take care that there should be some Bridle or Method to restrain them And there being besides Twenty-Four Cities in England where two Citizens were to be chosen out of each by the direction of that novel Writ and a great number out of as many Boroughs and Corporation-Towns then in England at the arbitrary and corrupt Power of the Sheriffs as it after proved and hapned with its Thirty-Nine Shires and two Knights to be chosen out of each the Counties and Boroughs of Wales not being at that time to be put into the Account and Four out of every of the Cinque-Ports the number would so swell and increase as might very much exceed that of the Peers and Barons which in the largest Estimate would not then arrive unto Two Hundred and Eighty and according to the then more common Accompt and they then summoned ad libitum Regis not many more than Sixty in which high and honourable Court and House of Lords Spiritual and Temporal should that very great surpassing number of Commons have their equal Suffrages as it may be believed they never were intended to be allowed the lesser number would be over-powered by the greater the more noble prudent and concerned by those that were little at all and introduce a Community or Vassalage upon themselves and their Posterity which the Roman Senators and Patritii in a Common-Wealth made out of a Monarchy for fear of Tyranny were unwilling to admit and when they were seditioned and mutinyed unto it left their Chiland Seri nepotes to endure the dire Effects of their often Changes from Kings to Consuls from Decem-virates unto Tribunes of the People Censors Tribunes-Military bloody Proscriptions and Wars betwixt the Patritii and Plebeians pacified and succeeded by a Dictator after that a Trim-virate after that an Emperor and semper Augustus Caesar with an arbitrary Power until good and wholsome Laws of their own making gave an Allay unto it For such a Miscellany of Imis cum Summis of Inferiours with Superiors could not be deemed to be either more or better enabled than the Prelates and Baronage of the Nation the Moratiores bomines Men of better Extraction Education the ancient extraordinary grand Councel of our Kings and Princes not meanly but eminently skilled in matters of State and Policy Religion War forreign Languages and Affairs of their own State and others and in the quieting the Troubles of it Nor could that their Device at that time have much Assurance of any good Success therein when the Prince was a Prisoner and Hostage for his Father who was long after in no better a condition against the Laws of Wars and Rules of Hostages and the Tenor of those Writs of Summons carried nothing in them of a perpetual Constitution or any thing more than pro hac vice and for that only time and purpose Or that such a Parcel of the lower ranks of People could be more knowing and intelligent than the King of France assisted by his grand and learned Nobility Clergy and Wisdom of his Parliament of Paris were not long before when they determined those grand and long-depending bloodily-agitated Controversies betwixt that persecuted King and some of his then ungovernable Barons concerning the disloyal and unhappy Provisions enforced from Him at Oxford some Years before And such a novum inauditum betwixt a Monarch and King no Feudatory and his rebellious Subjects referred to the Advice of themselves or their Partizans touching the Claim of their Pretences in their own particular Cases being not easily to be found in any the Annals Histories or Records of this or any other Kingdom or Nation For many of the Milites or Knights in that new Contrivance to be Elected were at that time as to their Estates of so general and lost Esteem as Twenty or Fifteen pounds per Annum was by the Statute of the First Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second which was not much above Forty Three Years after conceived to be no contemptible Rate or Proportion of Livelihood for a Knight when William de Felton an Ancestor of a Family now of good Note in the County of Suffolk being in the Third Year of the Raign of King Edward the Third presented before the Justices itinerant to be seized of the Mannot of Botingdon quod valet per Annum Twenty Pounds to be Thirty Years Old nondum Miles ideo in misericordia and many Gentlemen of good Extractions and Families did heretofore appear to have been long after retained under Earls and Barons in the Wars and Service of their Prince and not seldom as Domesticks and more especial Servants in their then large and honourable Families and have been their Receivers Stewards or Feodaries worn their more special Livings and taken Wages Dyet and Allowance for themselves and a limited Number of Men and Horses altho some of them have been Gentlemen of good Value and Descent and very many of those which have been since Elected are not denyed to have been Persons of ancient and worshipful Families The Citizens and Burgesses Merchants excepted such as did Sordidas artes exercere as the Civil Law stileth them Men that usually made their Gain or manner of Living by Deceits and Lying and were as our Common Law above Two Hundred Years after declared them saith Littleton to be Men with whose Daughters to Marry would be to a Gentleman such a Disparagement as the Parents and Kindred might Legally complain of it and the Testimony saith the Caesarean or Civil Law of a Gentleman was to go as far or to be valued as two of them And how unequal they were like to be in their Births Reputations and requisite Parliamentary Abilities who being to be very Burgesses and City or Town-Trading Inhabitants according to the Intention of those Writs could not be expected to be other than such as were only bred and instructed in the Arts Tricks Deceits and Mysteries as they have been since well called of Trade and the most of their Estates and Livelihood gained by it being much more wickedly than Honest as their Apprentices and Journey-men who know the Secret thereof can Witness nor to be able or serviceable to their Prince in any thing more than to attend Him if He should need or call him as a Merchant to some great and publick Mart or Fair to help him to buy or sell such Things as should be there Marchantable or that the Knights to be chosen in the Shires who in those times made the Military Exercises to be their greatest Care and Employment would not be more necessary and fit to attend their Soveraign to perform the Office and Intention of those Writs to defend their King themselves their Country Friends and Neighbours and to do that which every Gentleman and such as were è meliori luto of the more refined Clay better born and bred than the rude Vulgus or common sort of People would of
themselves if not commanded or otherwise by their Tenures obliged be willing to do as that Learned French Lawyer Brissonius well observeth Qu'en la necessitie de Guerre toutes les Gentilz hommes sont tenus de prendre les Armes pour la necessitie du Roy which by our Laws of England is so to be encouraged as it is Treason to kill any Man that goeth to Aid the King and is no more than what the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy do bind every English-man unto although they should tarry in the Camp more than Forty Dayes or not have Escuage or any Allowance of their Charges from their own Tenants And the People of the Counties and Cities as well as the smaller Towns or Boroughs which were to delegate or commission them and make them wise enough to give their Assent in that great and solemn Assembly and Councel of the King and His Prelates Baronage Lords Spiritual and Temporal unto what they should ordain in quibusdam not in omnibus arduis high and extraordinary Matters concerning the King Church and Kingdom not in ordinary or common were only or more especially to take into their Consideration and inform the State Commerce Interest and Affairs Abilities or Disabilities of the Countries Places to supply their Soveraign's occasions some of those Burgesses Elected and sent from poor Fisher-Maritime-Towns the most prudent Observers of whom might have done Aristotle good service in his Enquiries not of the Politicks but of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea or some of the lesser Genery or over-grown Yeomanry as might instruct Varro or Columella in the design of writing their Books de Re Rusticâ or the well lined plausible Dweller in some inconsiderable Villes or a small number of Houses little better than Cottages with a fair Inn with two carved or gilded Sign Posts and a St. George on Horse-back unmercifully killing the Dragon and the Inhabitants Men of no more Language Wit or Learning than was scarcely sufficient to manage their vulgar mechanick Employments might have been more useful in the Parliament of the Twenty-Seventh Year of the Raign of King Edward the Third when the Statutes of the Staple and the Staple Cities and Towns so greatly concerning the after happening Golden-Fleece-flourishing-wollen-Trade and Manufacture in England and the enriching those Cities and Towns were made and enacted And the Consent or Advice therein of the vulgar or ignoble part of the Free-holders might have been more requisite in the making and framing the Act of Parliament in the Twenty-Third Year of the Raign of the aforesaid King touching Labourers and Servants or that long after made by Queen Elizabeth in the Fifth Year of her Raign limiting the Wages of Servants Artificers and Workmen as being likely to be more sensible and to give good Instructions in their own Concernments than in those of their Superiours their Land-lords viz. The King Nobility Bishops Gentry irelgious Houses Colledges Universities Deaneries Praebendaries Hospitals Corporations and Companies of Trades c. Those that were Boroughs were not then so many or half so big as they have been since by our King 's Royal Favours in the granting of Fairs and Markets unto them with divers other Immunities and Priviledges c. Nor had gained so great Additions to their Buildings and former extent by their Scituation or Neighbourhood to some great Town or City of Trade and the Inhabitants of them Men only conversant in the evil Arts of Trade and with Demetrius the Silver-Smith ready to do more for Diana's Temple than St. Paul's Preaching and lay out that little Understanding that they have in taking some Lands to Farm near adjoyning and being as little acquainted as may be with State-Policy or any thing out of the reach of their Neighbourhood will be as unfit to know or discern wise Men as the Corydons Hobby-nolls country Carters or Mechanicks are or would be to Elect or give their Votes or Suffrages for the taking of the degrees of Doctors Masters or Batchelors of Arts in our Universities or as Brick-laiers would be to give their direction and advice in the Building Rigging Tackle Steering and Sailing of a Ship Or to give a liberty to the Boys to choose their School-Master and direct what Methods he should use in the governing of them or to the Common People to elect and choose the King 's Privy Council or to have Votes or Suffrages in the making or repeal of such Laws as the variety of their Humours Interests Envies Ambitious Ignorances and Whimsies should perswade them to obey or be ruled by or such as may consist with all of them together or as much as for that very instant or moment of Time may agree with every Man 's particular Fancy Interests Occasion Advantage Will or Pleasure or of those that shall awe flatter bribe delude fool or seduce them Or in the Hurry and Distraction which Rebel-Armies and Gatherings of a misled or cheated Part of the People in such a Collection use to be might probably think it necessary and greatly conducing to their present self Advantages to procure them that were under the influence of their Power then very formidable or of the Tenancy or dependance of themselves or the rest of the Baronage whom they were labouring by Force Fear Flattery or other seducing and evil Arts to entice and draw into their Party to consent for the present to the Advice or Petitioning for the Confirmation or Establishment of the constrained Provisions made at Oxford and their Conservatorships which the King of France had not long before solemnly in his aforesaid Arbitration condemned and annulled For the Engine or Knack of the Twenty-Four Conservators to govern them and the King and Kingdom Twelve as it was sometimes proposed to be chosen by the King and Twelve by the victorious Rebels after confined to a much smaller Number as their Power and usurped Authority in a short time after gave them the Liberty and Occasion could never be thought to be with any intention to continue that new Model or Frame of Parliament any longer than pro hâc vice until the imprisoned King and Prince should be released and the Disturbances of the Kingdom quieted as those Writs of Simon and Peter de Montfort's own framing and putting under the King's Name and Seal did if they might be credited seem to import But were rather convened for Simon de Montfort's particular Ambition and Establishment nor could otherwise be interpreted to amount to any more than the most likely to have been the dismal Effects thereof the Destruction of the King and his Family Subversion of the ancient fundamental Laws and Customs of the Nation and Change of our ancient Monarchy into an Oligarchy And must either be understood not to have known at all the fundamental Usages Customes Priviledges of the Praelates Nobility and Great Men of the Realm in their King 's great Councels or Parliaments when they were thereunto Summoned
and that long after both by the Feudal and common Laws of this Kingdom the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were in Parliament to Assess a proportionable Escuage upon such of their Tenants who held any Capite Lands and did not go with them in Person to serve their King and Country and were not to be their own Assessors but submit unto what they should in those great Councels subordinate to their King 's determine and as they anciently were used to do when Taxes were laid upon Knights Fees when the Common People that were to pay them were not all present or any for them Or never to intend to introduce such a Party of the Common People into a Co-ordination or Fellowship with them in a Subordination to their Soveraign which might as they did afterwards entice them to encroach and believe that a License of Petitioning for Redress of any Grievances which might happen and a Liberty to give an Approbation and Obedience to what should be there ordained by the King by the Advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the publick Good should be in or unto them or their Successors an Authority or original Power to controul what their Kings by the Counsel of their Lords Spiritual and Temporal should there find necessary to Enact when they could not forget that even in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third they did in his Letters Rescripts Writs and Edicts written and sent about the Kingdom in his Name amounting to no fewer than Sixteen mention that his said Orders Acts and Commands were done by the Counsel and Advice Procerum Magnatum suorum and in some of them his Prelates Barons hautes hommes but nothing at all of the Commons And that Rebellious part of the Baronage might the easier be led into that they never meant when they had some reason to think or assure themselves that such an Election of Members or the parts of the common People would much advance the fixing and setling their Designes when they could not but acknowledge that they owed much of their Liberties and happiness under their Kings and Princes unto them and their Ancestors as in particular unto an Earl of Oxford in procuring of the King Three Hundreds in the County of Essex to be diaforrested and might be glad to entail and perpetuate their Assistances Dependencies Hospitalities Priviledges and Favours upon their Posterity and after Generations and rather return a submissive Compliance unto them well accepted than to endeavour to prejudice or in the least to make themselves equal unto them or Mastors of them but would be content to be ruled by them and not endeavour to govern or domineer over them With which doth accord that well founded Opinion and Answer of that excellent Prince and very Martyr King Charles the First our late gracious and pious Soveraign in his Answer to the haughty and undutiful Nineteen Propositions sent unto Him by the rebellious and misled Parliament the Second Day of June One Thousand Six Hundred Forty Two That the House of Commons was never intended for any share in the Government or the Choosing of them that should Govern and were not likely in those early and troublesome times to get any Root or Foundation for such an unwarrantable Pretence And might have believed that the Prelates and Baronage of England had heretofore Power and Influence sufficient to have kept them in a better Order both towards them and their Sovereign SECT II. Of the great Power Authority Command and Influence which the Prelates Barons and Nobility of England had in or about the Forty-Ninth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Monfort and those Writs of Election of some of the Commons to Parliament were first devised and sâ—nt to Summon them And the great Power and Estates which they afterwards had to create and continue an Influence upon them WHen the then Prelates by the Papal great and exorbitant Power over the Bodies and Souls of the People of England as well high as low rich or poor their Power of certifying Illegitimations Bastardy or Ne unques loyalment accouplis en Matrimony with their Fulminations Excommunications Curses Interdictions Confessions Absolutions Pardons and Dispensations Denial of Christian burial Affrights of Purgatory undenyable Commands over the inferiour Clergy and they over the People together with the great Authority which their Episcopal Function and Dignity inseparably conjoynt with their Temporal Baronies had given unto them in the Parliaments of England the greatest and highest Councels and Assembly of the Nation were in the time of King Henry the Third's Imprisonment so much allured and drawn by some of their factious and naughty Incitements to Symon de Montfort's Party by a kind of Ordinance and Agreement before mentioned of the then over-ruling-Power of the rebellious Victors as there was an undertaking to preserve from Plunder and Spoil all the Lands and Estates of the Holy-Church affirm their Authorities and all that they should have reasonable Order for amends should be performed and full Power granted unto them by the King or Generality of the Earls Barons and great Men of the Land to provide things profitable for the bettering the Estate of the Holy-Church to the Honor of God And with their temporal Baronies unto which many Mannors of a great Extent and yearly Value were annext and some other Barons holding of them and had their many Milites for service of War and Multitudes of Tenants by Tenure Lease and Copy-holding of them And the regular and monastick part of the Clergy of England many of whose Abbots and Priors were admitted to sit amongst the Peers in Parliament were so envied for their great Revenues and Estates as the Commons in a Parliament in the Raign of King Henry the Fourth wherein Lawyers were prohibited to be elected Members and therefore stiled indoctum Parliamentum did petition the King to confiscate and take into his own Revenue all their Lands which they had calculated to be sufficient to maintain One Hundred and Fifty Earls no small Estate in those times being enough to satisfy the honourable Yearly expences of one Earl and his numerous Retinue after the rate of their then living One Thousand Five Hundred Knights Six Thousand Two Hundred Esquires and erect Two Hundred Hospitals for the Relief of maimed Souldiers And in that new Frame of a great Council or Parliament wherein a part of the Commons of England were to be Assembled which can find no other Original than the Fate of that unhappy King in the battle of Lewis as the close Roll of the Forty Eight of that King will tell us there were no fewer of the then well-wishing Clergy to Symon de Mortfort Summoned unto that new modelled Parliament than One Arch-Bishop Fourteen Bishops Thirty-Five Abbots Two Priors their good Friends and Confederates and for Companies sake in such an hopeful and popular
disobliging unto any of them was to fall foul or out of the favour of all their great Alliances Friends Kindred numberless Tenants Servants Retainers Dependants and well-Wishers many of which being their own Relations Friends or Kindred might either help on and bring upon them a most certain and inevitable Ruine or put their small and fainting Estates into a languishing Condition when any the least Offences taken or given would be sure to effect it in the Displeasure of those who until the Reign of King Edward the First and some Ages after were so high and potent As that Ferrers Earl of Darby an Opposite to King Henry the Third in the Baron's Wars had Twenty Lordships in Barkeshire Three in Wiltshire in Essex Five in Oxfordshire Seven in Warwickshire Six in Lincolnshire Two in Buckinghamshire Two in Gloucestershire One Herefordshire Two Hantshire Three Nottinghamshire Three Leicestershire Thirty-Five Derbyshire One Hundred and Fourteen Staffordshire Seven of which was Chedley a parcel whereunto that part of Staffordshire appertained and besides had the Castle and Borough of Tudbury in that County together with many Advowsons Patronages c. and Knights Fees holding of him in those and other parts of England An Ancestor of Gilbert de Gaunt a partaker of the Norman Conquest another Opposite of King Henry the Third had in the Conquerors Survey One Lordship in Barkshire Three in Yorkshire Six in Cambridgeshire Two in Buckinghamshire One in Huntingtonshire Five in Northamptonshire One in Rutland One in Leicestershire One in Warwickshire Eighteen in Nottinghamshire One Hundred and Thirteen in Lincolnshire with Folkingham which was the Head of his Barony besides Knights Fees of those that held of him Patronages and Advowsons Fairs Markets Assize of Bread and Beer Pillory and Tumbrel c. Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester was in the right of Amicia one of the Sisters and Co-heirs of Robert Fitz Parnel a Norman Earl of Leicester Lord high Steward of England in Fee an Office of Large Authority and Esteem had in Warwickshire Sixty-Four Lordships in Leicestershire Sixteen in Wiltshire Seven in Northamptonshire Three in Gloucestershire One besides many Knights Fees of those that held of him Advowsons Patronages Fairs Markets and the priviledges of Pillory Tumbrel and the Assize of Bread and Beer The Earl of Gloucester and Hartford had Thirty-Eight Lordships in Surrey Thirty-Five in Essex Three in Cambridgeshire Halling and Bermeling Castle in Kent Haresfeild in Middlesex Sudtime in Wiltshire Leviston in Devonshire Ninety-Five in Suffolke besides Thirteen Burgages in or near Ipswich of which Clare was one from whence that Family took their Surname or it from them had the Town and Castle of Tunbridge in Kent the Castle of Brianels in the County of Gloucester and whilst the King and his Son Edward were Prisoners at Lewis obtained a Grant under the Great Seal of all the Lands and large Possessions of Iohn Warren Earl of Surrey to hold at the King's Pleasure except the Castles of Rigate and Lewis was one of the Chief that extorted a Commission from the King authorizing Stephen Bishop of Chichester Symon Montfort and himself to nominate Nine as well Prelates as Barons to manage all things according to the Laws and Customes of the Kingdom until the Determinations should be made at Lewis and others which they better liked should take Effect Awbrey de Vere in the general Survey of William the Conqueror had Cheviston now Kensington Geling and Emingford in com Hunt Nine Lordships in Suffolk Fourteen in Essex whereof Colne Hengham and Bentley were part in Warwickshire Six in Leicestershire Fourteen in Northamptonshire Six in Oxfordshire Two and in Wiltshire Ten a Descendant of whom had in the Raign of King Stephen together with Richard Basset Justice of England custodiam Comitatus and executed the Sheriffs Offices of Surrey Cambridge Huntington Essex Hartford Northampton Leicester Norfolk Suffolk Buckingham and Bedford had by the Grant of Maud the Empress and King Henry the Second her Son by inheritance the Earldom of Oxford granted unto him and his Heirs and Mannor and Castle of Caufeild in the County of Essex and the Office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England in Fee with the Castles of Hengham or Hedingham and Campes to be holden by that Service and divers other Lands and Possession of a great yearly Value had before the Fourth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bulbeck many Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Buckingham and Cambridge and by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of Gilbert Lord Sanford the Inheritance of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Essex and Hartford and a Grant in Fee to be Chamberlain to the Queen die Coronationis suae with divers Priviledges and One Hundred Knights Fees holden of them one whereof was by the Heirs of Mordaunt for Lands in Essex to come compleatly Armed as Champion to the Heir of the Family and Earls of Oxford in the great Hall of Hedingham Castle upon the day of his Nuptials to defy and fight with any that should deny him to be Earl of Oxford and another for the Mannor of Horseth in the County of Cambridge holden by the Family of Allington now the Lord Allington of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Service of holding the Earl of Oxford's Stirrop die nuptiarum which was actually performed in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the day of the Marriage of Edward Earl of Oxford with the Daughter of the Lord Burghley Roger Bygod in the Conquerors Time did possess Six Lordships in Essex and One Hundred Seventeen in Suffolk had a Grant in the Raign of King Henry the Second of the Mannors of Ersham Walsham Alvergate and Aclay and the Honour of Eye in the County of Suffolk the Custody of the Castle of Norwich and a Grant of the Office of high Steward of England to hold and enjoy in as ample manner as Roger Bygod his Father had held it in the time of King Henry the First was Earl Marshal of England by Inheritance and had thereby a great Command and Authority in the King's Armies and all his Martial Affairs registred in his Marshals Rolls those many Thousands who as Tenants in Capite came into the Army to perform their Service by which also they were enabled to receive Escuage after of those that were their Under-tenants and held of them and did not come to do their Service was in times of Peace as in War to appease Tumults to Guard the King's Palace distribute Liveries and Allowances to the Officers thereof attend at the doing of Homages have a Fee of every Baron made a Knight and to receive of every Earl doing Homage a Palfry and Furniture Hugh de Montfort Ancestor of Peter de Montfort one of the Twenty-Four enforced Conservators for the Kingdom in the said Raign of King Henry the Third had in the general Survey Twenty-Eight
great Barons and Lords Spiritual and Temporal could not imagine would ever be able either to forget the Good which they and their Fore-Fathers had received and they and their after-Generations were like to enjoy under them or get loose from those many great Ties and Obligations of a never-to-be-forgotten Gratitude which they had upon them but thought themselves very secure from any danger that might happen by any of their Incroachments or Usurpations by placing any Power or but a Semblance of Authority for once in the lower Ranks of the People nor could have believed that the common People of England after their solemn Protestations to preserve them and the Government could after the Murder of their King in their last horrid Rebellion have Voted them to be useless and dangerous and being unwilling to leave any of the Divels their Masters business unfinished did solemnly enforce the deluded Seditious People under as many severe Penalties as they could lay upon them not any more to submit to any Government by a King and House of Lords to whom our Kings had given no Power to make their own Choice but lodged and onely entrusted it in the Sheriffs many of which the rebellious Barons had by Usurpation of the King's Authority provided before hand to be at this present of their own Party or were like to be so or under their Awe and Guidance wherein they were perceived by the King some Years before upon their ill-gained Provisions at Oxford to have been very diligent in making Sheriffs of their own Party those great Offices being in those times and many Years before and some few Years after alwayes put into the Hands and Trust of the Baronage or Men of great Estate and Power Whose Number by Tenures and Summons by Writs to our King 's great Councels or Parliaments Creations or Descents accounted in the Raign of King Henry the Third to be no less than Two Hundred and Forty if not many more and like the tall and stately Cedars of our Nation might well deserve the Titles of Proceres and Magnates especially when many or most of them were in their Greatness Goodness and Authority in their several Stations like the Tree which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his Vision high and strong The height whereof reached to the Heaven the leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowles of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof and as ex pede Herculem the Length and Greatness of Hercules's Foot declared the vast Proportion and Magnitude of the residue of his Body it was easy to compute how little were then the Common People how great the Nobility whom the Brittaines ancient Inhabitants of our Isle as the Learned Francis Junius the Son of the no less Learned Francis Junius hath observed justly stiled them Lhafords Lords and their Wives Lhafdies Ladies because they usually gave Bread and Sustenance to those that wanted it gave License of Marriage to the Widdows of their Thanks by Knight Service punished their Tenants so holding their Lands by Writ Cessavit per Biennium and a Forfeiture if not redeemed was Entituled to a Writ of Contra formam Collationis for not performing the Duties and Offices of their Endowments and the large Revenues and Emoluments appropriated thereunto And with the many Accessions and Devolutions of other Mannors Lands Revenues Estates Baronies Titles of Honour and Offices of State by Marriages Descents in Fee or remainders in Fee-tail munificent Guifts and Grants of their Kings and Princes upon Merit and great Services done for them and their Country or by Purchases guarded by the strength of the Statute De donis Conditionalibus made in the 13th Year of the Raign of King Edward the First with the Tye and Obligation of their Tenures and the Restraints of Alienation made them to be such Grantz Magnates as the common People did in their Disseisins Intrusions and Outrages done one unto another which in the elder times were very frequent colour and Shelter those Injuries by or under some Title or Conveyances made unto some of the Nobility or great Men of the Kingdom which caused some of our Kings to grant out Commissions of Ottroy le Baston vulgarly called Trail Baston to find out and punish such Evil doings and by the making of some of our later Laws to restrain the giving of Liveries so as until the Writs of Summons granted by King Edward the First in the 22d Year of his Raign to Elect some Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses to give their Assent in Parliaments to such Laws and Things as by the advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal should advise should by him be ordained there having been an Intermission of those or the like kind of Writs of Summons from the first Contrivance thereof in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign it was and ought to be believed as a matter or thing agreeable to Truth right Reason and the Laws and Records of the Kingdom that the Commons and Freeholders of England were long before and for many Ages past as ancient as the British Empire and Monarchy were to be no part of our Great Councels or Parliaments were never Summoned or Elected to come thither but had their Votes and Estates and well Being as to those great Councels included in the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and as to their assent or dissent good or ill liking represented by them and retaining their well deserved Greatness were so potent and considerable as Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester could after the Battle of Evesham where he had Fought for the King March with a formidable Army composed for the most part of his own Servants Tenants Reteiners and Dependants from the Borders of Wales to London quarrel and capitulate with his King that had been but a little before extraordinary Victorious and with John Warren Earl of Surrey did after the Death of King Henry the Third before the Return of his Son Prince Edward from the Wars in the Holy-Land to take the Crown upon him at the Solemnization of the Funeral of the deceased King in the Abbey-Church of Westminster with the Clergy and People there Assembled without their License and Election go up to the high Altar and swear their Fealty to the absent King Edward the First his Son So beloved feared and followed as the great Earl of Warwick was said in some of our Histories to have been the Puller down and Setter up of Kings could with the Earl of Oxford in the dire Contests betwixt King Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth for the Crown of England rescue and take by force King Henry the Sixth out of the Tower of London where he was kept a Prisoner attend him in a stately and numerous Procession to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul the one carrying up his Train and the other
bearing the Sword before him to the Church where they Crowned him and after a Frown of Fortune did stoutly by the help of the Lancastrian Party give Battle to King Edward the Fourth at Barnet-field where but for a Mistake of Oxford's and Warwick's Soldiers and their Banners and Badges fighting one against the other in a Mist instead of King Edward the Fourth's Men they had in all Probability prevailed against him And the Interest Alliance and Estate of that Earl of Oxford was so great notwithstanding shortly after in the Kingdom as although he had very much adventured suffered and done for King Henry the Seventh led the Vanguard for him at Bosworth field against King Richard the Third and eminently deserved of him as the Numbers and Equipage of his Servants Reteiners Dependants and Followers did so asfright that King and muster up his Fears and Jealousies as being sumptuously Feasted by him at Hedingham Castle in Essex where he beheld the vast Numbers goodly Array and Order of them he could not forbear at his Departure telling him That he thankt him for his good Cheer but could not endure to see his Laws broken in his Sight and would therefore cause his Attorney General to speak with him which was in such a manner as that magnificent and causelesly dreadful Gallantry did afterwards by Fine or Composition cost that Earl Fifteen-Thousand Marks Did notwithstanding their great Hospitalities Magnificent manner of Living founding of Abbies Monasteries and Priories many and large Donations of Lands to Religious Uses and building of strong and stately Castles and Palaces make no small addition to their former Grandeurs which thorough the Barons Wars and long lasting and bloody Controversies betwixt the two Royal Houses of York and Lancaster did in a great Veneration Love and Awe of the Common People their Tenants Reteiners and Dependants continue in those their grand Estates Powers and Authorities until the Raign of King Edward the Fourth when by the Fiction of common Recoveries and the Misapplied use of Fines and more then formerly Riches of many of the common People gathered out after the middle of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth by the spoil of the Abbey and religiously devoted Lands in which many of the Nobility by Guifts and Grants of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth in Fee or Fee-tail had very great shares brought those great Estates of our famous English Baronage to a lower condition than ever their great Ancestors could believe their Posterities should meet with and made the Common People that were wont to stand in the outward Courts of the Temple of Honour and glad but to look in thereat fondly imagine themselves to have arrived to a greater degree of Equality than they should claim or can tell how to deserve And might amongst very many of their barbarously neglecting Gratitudes remember that in the times in and after the Norman Conquest when Escuage was a principal way or manner of the Peoples Aides especially those that did hold in Capite or of Mesne Lords under them to their Soveraign for publick Affairs or Defence the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being then the only parts of the Parliament under their Soveraign the sole Grand Councel of the Kingdom under him did not only Assess in Parliament and cause to be leavied the Escuage but bear the greatest part of the Burden thereof themselves that which the common People did in after times in certain proportions of their Moveables and other Estates or in the Ninth Sheaf of Wheat and the Ninth Lamb being until the Dissolution of the Abbies and Monasteries in the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth when they were greatly enriched by it did not bear so great a part of the Burdens Aides or Taxes or much or comparable to that which lay upon the far greater Estates of the Nobility there having been in former Times very great and frequent Wars in France and Scotland no Escuage saith Sir Edward Coke hath been Assessed by Parliament since the 8th Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Howsoever the Commons and Common People of England for all are not certainly comprehended under that Notion their Ancestors before them and their Posterities and Generations to come after them lying under so great and continued Obligations and bonds of an eternal Gratitude and Acknowledgement to the Baronage and Lords Spiritual and Temporal of England and Wales for such Liberties and Priviledges as have been granted unto them with those also which at their Requests and Pursuits have been Indulged or Permitted unto them by our and their Kings and Princes successively will never be able to find and produce any Earlier or other Original for the Commons of England to have any Knights Citizens or Burgesses admitted into our Kings and Princes great Councels in Parliament until the aforesaid imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 48th and 49th Year of his Raign and the force which was put upon him by Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Party of Rebels SECT XII That the asoresaid Writ of Summons made in that King's Name to Elect a certain Number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses and the Probos homines good and honest Men or Barons of the Cinque Ports to appear for or represent some part of the Commons of England in Parliament being enforced from King Henry the Third in the 48th and 49th Year of his Raign when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and under the Power of him and his Party of rebellious Barons was never before used in any Wittenagemots Mikel-gemots or great Councels of our Kings or Princes of England FOr saith the very learned and industrious Sir William Dugdale Knight Garter King of Armes unto whom that Observation by the dates of those Writs is only and before all other Men to be for the punctual particular express and undeniable Evidence thereof justly ascribed which were not entered in the Rolls as all or most of that sort have since been done but two of them three saith Mr. William Pryn instead of more in Schedules tacked or sowed thereunto For although Mr. Henry Elsing sometimes Clerk to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament in his Book Entituled The ancient and present manner of holding Parliaments in England Printed in the Year 1663. but Written long before his Death when he would declare by what Warrants the Writs for the Election of the Commons assembled in Parliament and the Writ of Summons of the Lords in Parliament were procured saith That King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign when those Writs were made was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort and could not but acknowledge that it did not appear unto him by the first Record of the Writs of Summons now extant by what Warrant the Lord Chancellor had in the 49th Year of the Raign of that King caused
Rebellion with Montfort against him should bring his Action for the other Two Knight's Fees and an half From which most necessary and excellent Feudal Laws have proceeded those grand Honors fixed and appurtenant to our ancient Monarchy of England in our Kings and Princes Grant to several great Families in England in Fee or Fee-Tayl as to be Constable of England Earl Marshal of England Lord Steward of England Lord Great Chamberlain of England Chamberlain of the Queens of England Die Coronationis suae Butler to our Kings at their Coronations c. And likewise the Statute de Donis or Entailes the neglect whereof in leaving all the ruined Families of the Nobility Gentry and better sort of the English Nation to feigned Recoveries introduced about the Raign of King Edward the Fourth by an unhappy and unjust Trick of Law to make the Losers believe that they shall recover the Value of their Lands so Lost amounting in the whole unto the greatest part of all the Lands in England of the Bagbearer of the Court of Common-Pleas who in the Conclusion is only Vouchee to Warrants and to make it good out of his own Land and by the small Fees and Profits of his Office was never yet known to Inherit or to have been a Purchaser of ten Acres of Land yet walks about and is never molested or called to Account for those vast Sums of Money or his Land if he ever had or was re vera intended to have had any was to be liable by his being a Common Vouchee in all the Common Recoveries which are suffered in that Court It being in those more Obedient and Loyal Times esteemed no small Honour to serve our Kings or hold Lands by such a Kind of Tenure as it may be believed to have occasioned that Adage or Common saying in England before the ever to be lamented taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service and Pourveyance No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King and those Royal Services affixed unto Lands and Territories have been so immutable amongst other our Neighbor Nations as in the Aurea Bulla fastned upon the Empire of Germany about the 30th Year of the Raign of our King Edward the Third the Three Spiritual Electors viz. the Arch-Bishops of Mentz Cologne and Triers or Trevers do hold their Lands and Territories by their several Tenures of being Arch-Chancellors the First of Germany the Second of Italy and the Third of France the King of Bohemia to be Archipincerna Duke of Bavaria or Count Palatine of the Rhine Archidapifer Duke of Saxony Archimariscallus Duke or Marquess of Brandenburgh Archicamerarius of that Empire and might be with or amongst them exampled from our Pattern which was long before as also from the Scots who have to this day some of the like official Dignities annexed to their Lands and Estates and as in the Raign of our King Henry the First Count Tankervile was by Inheritance and Tenure of his Lands Chamberlain of Normandy And although not so ancient as the Customs of the Patroni and Clientes in the beginning of the flourishing of the vast Roman Empire which was so greatly advantageous both unto the greater and lesser part of the People the Patroni in their Popularities and Ambitions to gain and please them in their way of Advancements to Annual Magistracies not seldom exercising their Eloquence in pleading their Causes or Suits in Law before the Lawyers had for another kind of Advantages by the Gratifications of Fees and Rewards made it to be the greatest part of their Profession which before were principally employed upon seldom Occasions in matters of Difficulty in Jurisconsults and Decisions some of the more eminent sorts of them having about the Raign of the Emperor Augustus Caesar obtained Licenses of him ad respondendum Yet after the Irruption of the Goths Vandals Longobards and Hunnes with other Northern Nations into that Empire they found it to be more beneficial to do as the Germans and many other Northern Nations have done to be Feudalists and to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by Service of War and other necessaries under those grand Obligations of Interests Oaths Gratitude Homage and Fealty which proved to be better more certain and beneficial both for the Patroni and Clientes the poorer sort of the People alwayes or very often wanting the Aid and Protection of the greater from Wrongs and Oppressions like to be put upon them And the Patroni and Greater procuring to themselves thereby a more constant Observance of Duty Honour and Additions to their former Grandeur the greater and lesser thereby mutually supporting and assisting each other which in the Consequence was as it did likely to prove much better than the charge and trouble the Patroni were used to be as in the frequent courting and Humoring of the common People with their costly Epulae's and Ludi's not only to gain their own Preferments in their Annual poursuites of Offices of Magistracy but to keep the popular Votings from Mutiny and ruining them as much as themselves And howsoever that they with us in England by a great infelicity to our languishing Monarchical Government after an horrid Rebellion and murder of our late King Anno. 12. Car. 2. by an Act of Parliament made upon his now Majesties happy Restoration for the taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures in Capite and by Knight service and Pourveyance and for settling a Revenue upon His Majesty in lieu of a great part of the lands of England and Wales which the Rebels besides their great Estates had forfeited unto him which they were willing to retain to themselves and thank him as fast as they could with a more detestable Rebellion the Praeamble mentioning most unfortunately for want of a right Information and understanding thereof That the said Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures by Knight service in Capite holden of the King or others and Socage in Capite have been by consequence more praejudicial then beneficial to the Kingdome as if the Nerves and Ligaments of the Crown of England and the ancient Support and Defence of the Honour and glory thereof for more then one thousand years could any way deserve to be so Charactered and that after the Intromission of the said Court which hath been since the 24 th day of February 1645. when the Divel and his Reformation had made a large progress in the chasing Religion out of the Kingdom and washing over in blood the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first 3 Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland many Persons could not by their Will or otherwise dispose of their Lands by Knight Service whereby many Questions might possibly arise unless some seasonable remedy be taken to prevent the same Our Soveraign Lord by the Assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same did enact the taking away of the said Court
of Wards and Liveries with other the Premises And all Tenures of any Lands holden of the King or any others shall be turned into free and Common Socage and be discharged of all Homage Escuage Voiages Royal Wardships and Aide Pour file marier pour faire fitz Chivaler livery ouster le maine all Statutes repealed concerning the same all Tenures hereafter to be created by the King his Heirs or Successors shall be in free and Common Socage Provided that that Act extend not to take away Rents certain Herriots or Suits of Court belong ing to any other Tenures taken away or altered by that Act or other Services incident to common Socage or any Releifes due and payable in cases of free and common Socage or of any Fines for Alienations holden of the King by any particular Customes of Lands and Places other then of Lands holden immediately of the King in Capite Nor extend unto any Tenures in Franck Almoigne or by Copy of Court Roll honorary Services by grand Serjeanty other then what are before dissolved or taken away Provided that this Act nor any thing therein contained shall infringe or hurt any Title of Honour feodal or other by which any person hath or may have right to sit in the Lords House in Parliament as to his or their Title of Honour or Sitting in Parliament and the Priviledges belonging to them as Peers And that that Act extend not to any the Rights and Priviledges of His Majesty in his Tynn Mines in Cornewal In recompence whereof the King shall have the Excise of Ale Beer Perry and Syder Strong and Distilled Waters setled by that or some other Act of Parliament touching the Excise upon the King during his Life and a Moyety only after his death to His Heirs and Successors And are by Sir Henry Spelman said to be non solùm jure positivo Sed Gentium quodammodo Naturae not only by positive but the Laws of Nations and Nature Especially when it was not to arise from any compulsory incertain way or involuntary Contribution or out of any personal or movable Estate cases of Relief only excepted but to fix and go along with the Lands as an easy and beneficial Obligation and Perpetuity upon it and was so incorporate and inherent as it was upon the matter a Co-existence or Being with it Glanvil and Bracton being of Opinion with the Emperour Justiniam that the King must have Armes as well as Laws to govern by and not depend ex aliorum Arbitrio and therefore the Prelates Earles and Commonalty of the Realm did in a Parliament in the 7th Year of the Raign of King Edward the 1st declare it to be necessarily belonging unto him and to none other Judge Hutton in his Argument in the case of the Shipmony in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr and diverse other Learned Judges and Lawyers have declared Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service to be so inseparable from the Crown as not to be aliened or dissolved by any Act or Authority of Parliament Some of whom could not forget that a Design having been presented and offered unto King James when the Scots had by their importunityes much enfeebled the Royal Revenue by some who neither understood our Fundamental Laws or the Constitution of our Government and having considerable Estates in the County of York and Bishoprick of Durham and being Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and mischievous enough in the long Rebellious Parliament a Revenue of Two hundred thousand pound per Annum to dissolve his Courts of Wards and Liveries and release his Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service and the King liked so well of those Hopes of augmenting his overwasted Revenue as he with Promises of great Rewards to the Designers ordered a Table to be purposely kept at White-Hall for them untill they had brought their undertakings to perfection unto which the Reverend Judges being summoned by the King to deliberate and give their Opinions could find neither Law or right Reason for the taking away of those Tenures with their incidents even by an Act of Parliament Insomuch as the Design and Table were laid down and no more thought of until the unhappy Fate and Misery of forsaking and destroying Fundamentals did so drive it on afterwards as it hath done by our abandoning the old ways and the Truths thereof into those very many Misfortunes which it hath brought us into already and will more and more into the Prophet Jeremiah's Lamentations And so greatly resembled that very antient way of the great Councels or Parliaments in France drawn and derived from their Ancestors the Francks and other their Northern Progenitors in and of that Kingdom long before there inhabiting until the miseries brought by the English Conquests and their own Divisions upon that people by those Warrs and their seeking in the interim to govern their Kings and Domineer over them in the midst of their Troubles Necessities and Disabilities to protect them had constrained some of their after Kings as Lewis the 11th one of their Kings to find the way to govern so Arbitrarily as they have since done with a continual so limited Parliament as it signifieth little more than an extraordinary Court of Justice and verify the Edicts of his prerogative Power with a car tel est nostre plaisir Insomuch as those kind of Tenures and beneficial Mutualites might not improbably have been here introduced by the Saxons from one and the same or a like Radix or Original before the Normans Atcheivements and Acquests either here or in France or by what they had learned or practised of the Feudal Laws in the Empire or after the Normans had brought England their long before Compatriots into subjection and in the Reigns of some of their after Kings continued Masters of Normandy Aniou Aquitaine Mayne and Poicteau and of so many other great parts and Provinces of the French Dominions as in process of time they gained a full Possession of the residue and in a short time after lost them all by our own Domestick Ambitions and Discords So as one Egg of the same kind cannot commonly be more like in it's external Form and Likeness to an other then the antient and ever-to-be-approved Method of our and their former great Councels or Parliaments were Wherein may warrantably without any suspicion of an Arbitrary Government be vouched and called the learned Sieur du Fresne a man of vast Reading and Litterature and not only Learned in all the Roman and Northern Antiquities but in our Old English Saxon Laws and the allowed classical and veritable Authors and Writers of our Nation and to whom the Learned Works of our Glanvil Bracton Littleton Fortescue Coke Stamford Spelman and Selden were no Strangers when in his Glossary or Comment upon the word Pares he represents unto us the Figure or lively Picture of our own ancient Customes and Usages in our great Councels
Christianity in this our British Isle whither with divers good Authors we believe that King Lucius who is said to lie buried at Winchester did in the year 156 after the Birth of our Redeemer or in the year 185 186 or 187. write his Letter to Pope Eleutherius to transmit unto him the Roman Laws it is allowed by Sir Henry Spelman to have been written Rege Proceribus Regni Britanniae and that Faganus and Dervianus two Doctors being sent by Eleutherius to King Lucius Baptized him cum regulis populum Baptizant Clerum ordidinant 3. Metropolitanos 28. Episcopos instituunt Rex Ambrosius Aurelius ut memoriale Procerum Britanniae quos Hengistus Saxonesque sui complices nefanda proditione in monte Ambrosij qui nunc vulgò Stohenge dicitur trucidaverant 480. Consul ' Barones aeternum fieret praegrandes Lapides qui ibidem in borum memoriam usque in praesens positi sunt ab Hybernia cum magna manu Germano suo Uther illuc transmisso deportari fecit qui câ—â—n allati fuissent congregati sunt in monte Ambrosij edicto Regis magnates eum Clero cum magno honore dictorum nobilium sepulturam prepararent In the Charter of King Aethelbert confirming his Grant of the Land given to the Church of St. Pancrase in the Year 605. It is mentioned to have been done consensu venerabilis Augustini Archiepiscopi ac Principum suorum Et Decreta judiciorum ordinavit juxta exempla Romanorum concilio sapientum and when Edwin King of Northumberland was perswaded to be a Christian it is said that he consulted cum principibus conciliariis suis. Anno Dominicae incarnationis Aethelbertus Rex in fide roboratus Catholica unà cum beata regina filioque ipsorumque Eadbaldo ac Reverendissimo praesule Augustino caeterisque Optimatibus terrae solemnitatem natalis Domini celebravit Cantuariae convocato igitur ibidem communi concilio tà m Cleri quà m populi In Anno Domini 673. a Parliamentary Councel was holden at Hertford presentibus Episcopis ac Regibus Magnatibus universis but not any Knights Citizens Burgesses or Commons as we read of saith Mr. Pryn. A great Councel or Parliament was held at Becanfeld where Wythred King of Kent was present Anno 694. In like manner where none but the Peers were present The like Anno 710. at Worcester but without any Commons The like in the Councel at Cliff Anno 747. holden by Ethelbaldus King of Mercia omnibus Regni sui principibus ducibus being present but not one Knight or Burgess mentioned The like in Anno 787. at Colchuth coram Offa Rege suis magnatibus convenerunt omnes principes tà m Ecclesiastici quà m seculares Anno Domini 793. King Offa held a Councel at Verulam wherein the King suorum Magnatum acquiescens concilio took a journey to Rome Anno 794. after his return Celebrated two Councels the one at Colchyth where were present nine Kings twenty-five Bishops twenty Dukes but no House of Commons the other at Verolam Congregato apud Verolamium Episcoporum Optimatum concilio About the year 796. Cynewolf King of West Sex held a Councel where he wrote to Lullus Bishop of Mentz touching matters of Religion unà cum Episcopis suis nec non cum caterva Satraparum Anno 800. Kenulf King of Mercia called to the Councel at Clovesha omnes Regni sui Episcopos Duces Abbates cujuscunque dignitatis viros where there was no mention of any Commons Anno 816. at the Councel of Colechyth Caenulf King of Mercia was present cum suis principibus ducibus optimatibus but not a Syllable of Knights or Burgesses present About the year 822. in the Councel of Cloveshâ— where Beornulf King of Mercia Wilfred Archbishop Omniumque dignltatum optimates Ecclesiasticarum Secularium were present but no Knights of Counties or Burgesses Anno 824. another Councel was held by the same King at the same place assidentibus Episcopis Abbatibus Principibus Merciorum universis but no Commons for ought appears the King Archbishops Bishops and Dukes Subscribing their Names to the decrees there made About the same time a Councel called Pan-Anglicum or for all England was holden at London Praesentibus Egberto Rege West Saxonum Withlasio Rege Merciorum utroque Archiepiscopo caeterisque Angliae Magnatibus who Subscribed it Anno Domini 838. a Concilium Pan-Anglicum was holden at Kingston where King Egbert and his Son Ethelwolph were present cum Episcopis Optimatibus but not a word mentioned of the Commons Assent or Dissent Anno 850. A Councel was holden at Beningdon Praelatis proceribus Regni Merciae under King Bertulf when Lands were Setled and Confirmed by them to the Abbey of Crowland without the Assent or Mention of any Commons Anno Domini 851. In a Councel held at Kingsbury under King Bertulf Praesentibus Ceolnotho Archiepiscopo Doroberniae caeterisque Regni Merciae Episcopis Magnatibus without Knights or Burgesses Anno 855. There was a Councel or Parliament of all England held at Winchester where Ethelulf King of West-Sex Beorred King of Mercia and Edmond King of East-Sex were present together with the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York Caeterisque Angliae Episcopis Magnatibus wherein King Ethelwolf Omnium praelatorum principum suorum gratuito concilio without any Knights or Burgesses gave the Tithes of all the Lands and Goods within his Dominions a matter of no small Concernment to all his Subjects in their Estates and Proprieties to God and the Church which hath continued ever since in Force through all England Betwixt the Year 871. which was the beginning of King Alureds Raign and the end of which was in Anno Christi Domini 900. that excellent and prudent Prince Collected and Corrected divers Laws made by the Saxon Kings his Predecessors omitting others consulto sapientum Prudentissimorume suis consiliis usus edicit eorum observationem which was probably so done in a great Councel or Councels which were afterwards called Parliaments which in that so generally an unlearned age cannot be understood to be less than the Magnates of the Kingdom Bishops and Barons And the like is to be said of the Prudentum concilium given to Edoard who began his Reign in Anno 900. and ended it in Anno 924 and as much is to be believed of the Councel or Parliament of King Aethelstan who began his Raign in Anno 924 and ended it in the year 940. who besides what is mentioned in the making of his Laws that he did it prudenti Ulfheline Archiepiscopi aliorumque Episcoporum suorum concilio did about the year of our Lord 930. by his Charter give divers Lands to the Abby of Malmesbury in one of which Charters or Grants there was a Postscript or Subscription in these words Sciant sapientes Regionis Nostrae non has prefatas terras me injustè rapuisse rapinas Deo dedisse
them were the common People or that the Nobility were intended to be a part of them but rather that their Wills and Actions were wholly submitted to the Peerage reformare voluissent Regnum deformatum me deberent primùm accersire In Crastino post ejus adventum in Angliam intraverunt Magnates Capitulum Cantuariense so great a Power had they then over their Tenants and the Common People ducentesque reverenter Reges Angliae Alemanniae the Earl of Gloucester stans in medio called out the King of Almaine by the name of the Earl of Cornewall to take the Oath for a general Reformation of the Kingdom Eodem Anno being 43. Henry the Third Congregati sunt Nobiles Angliae Londini prout inter se prius condixerant whither came quidam de secreto Regis Francorum concilio Decanus Bituricensis ubi non modicè tractatum fuit de negotio inter duos Reges Franciae Angliae quid in partibus transmarinis actum fuerit exinde probatum After which a Monk of St. Albans ex parte Regis Reginae Magnatibus Angliae finding the King Queen Magnatibus Scotiae in their Parliament and informing them of the cause of his coming ex parte Regis Reginae Baronum Angliae requested that the King and Queen would not fail to come into England to treat of Matters of great Concernment and Secrecy with much difficulty obtained Letters Patents from the King Queen and Nobility of Scotland Communitèr sigillatas tà m sigillo Regis quà m omnium Magnatum Scotiae ad Regem Angliae totam communitatem wherein they granted their Request dummodo se facerent Rex Angliae Magnates which explains the extent and true meaning of the preceding words Tota Communitas Angliae de scripto suo sibi prius promisso securos and returned by him Domino Regi Angliae Reginae Magnatibus terrae Literas commendatorias and did shortly after send the Earl of Bochan and other honourable Commissioners to Treat with the King of England ejus Concilio who at their coming speaking with the said Monk Nullam in publico super expeditione negotij erga Regem Regni communitatem which may in this place well be understood to intend the Baronage reliquerunt redeuntes Certificationem Eodem Anno ex concilio domini Regis Franciae Angliae totius Baronagij the Earls of Clare and Leicester John Mansell Peter de Sabaudia and Robert Wallerand were sent ad Parliamentum Magnum Regis Francorum pro pluribus negotiis regna Franciae Angliae contingentibus carrying with them a Charter or Resignation from their King to the King of France and Letters of Credence to compose with that King and his Councell super negotiis without the Commons or their Consents inter eosdem Reges eorum regna diu agitatis but for that the Countess of Leicester refused to resign that part which she held or claimed in Normandy infecto negotio cachinnantibus Francis redierunt In the mean time the Almaines perceiving how little their King elected was respected in England returned home saying Ex quo compatriotae sui ipsum non venerantur nos ipsum quomodo honoribus prosequemur And in his Absence elected another Eodem Anno King Henry the Third in Franciam transfretavit and required Restitution to be made of the Provinces in France unjustly taken away from his Father King John and detained from him unto which the French answered That the Donation of Normandy was not free but by force extorted by Rollo so as the King if he had a mind to regain it having not Money to raise an Army and especially when he did see his own Subjects ready to make War against him was enforced to yield to a Peace that pro 300000 Turonensibus parvis restitutione terrarum in France unto him ad valorem 20000 librarum in Gasconia the King was to resign and release to the King of France his Dutchy of Normandy and County of Anjou ex tunc literarum suarum abbreviavit titulum ut nec Ducem Normanniae nec Comitem Andegaviae se vocaret And fearing that he had committed Perjury in taking the Oath to observe the Provisions enforced from him at Oxford sent secretly to the Pope for an Absolution Eo tempore Symon de Monte Forti Comes Legriae Richardus de Clare Comes Gloverniae Nicholaus filius Johannis Johannes filius Galfridi multique Nobiles ipsis adhaerentes convenerunt Oxoniae equis armis sufficientèr instructi finalitèr Staâ—uentes aut mori pro pace patriae aut pacis eliminare Patriae turbatores whither came also the Bishop Elect of Winchester William de Valentia and the rest of the Poictovins stipati Magna caterva satellitum fautorum but when they understood that the English Nobility intended eos vocare standum judicio pro suis nequam factis simul communitèr jurandum cum eis ad observandum provisiones they fled to the Castle of Whitesey whither the Barons pursued them and fearing that the Bishop Elect of Winchester would carry his Complaints to Rome against them sent four Knights as their Agents to Rome with Letters under their Hands and Seals not of the Commons to complain of the Injuries which the Bishop had done to the Kingdom and the Justices itinerant of the King were at Hereford prohibited to proceed for that as was alleadged it was against the Provisions made at Oxford Anno 45. Henry the Third the King retired to the Tower of London and caused all the Citizens of London above the Age of Twelve Years to Swear unto him Fealty and made Proclamation that all that would come as Souldiers to serve him should be paid the Barons came with great Forces to the Walls of the Tower lodging in the City the Absolution being come and Prince Edward not accepting it which the Magnates not the Multitude or Commons taking notice of missis Nuntiis humilitèr rogabant ut communitèr juramentum praestitum inviolabilitèr observare vellet si quid displiceret eisdem ostenderet ad emendandum Qui nequaquam acquiescens durè minacitèr respondens dicens quòd eis à Conventione deficientibus non amplius adquiesceret sed unusquisque deinceps propriis defensionibus provideret tandèm quibusdam mediantibus it was agreed that Two should be chosen on the King's part and Two on the Barons no Commons mentioned and the Arbitrators were if they could not agree to choose a Third but by reason of Prince Edwards late return from beyond the Seas and that being returned and informed what strange Councels had been given his Father was so Angry as he absented himself from him and adhering to the Barons saith the Continuator of Matthew Paris in hac parte prout juraverat fitque conjuratio inter eos quòd malos Conciliarios eorum fautores adquirerent à Rege pro viribus alongarent which the King understanding betakes
Fidus Achates the Trinoda necessitas or expedtitiones castrorum pontium reparationes From which the Bishops and Clergy by themselves or others were not to be excused raysing of Forces at the Countries Charges which the preservation of their Lands that were given them for that service besides the obligations of their Oaths and gratitude strictly oblige them unto making provisions for the War for the Victuals and the Wages of Military Men as well at Home as in Forreign Expeditions for the defence of the Kingdom and State together with the Arrogationes Auctoritatem dare l. 2. F. de adopt Sect. c. 1. or give licence to adopt as our King Stephen did King Henry the II. Which together with our Licences Pardon of Alienation and Fines paid for the neglect thereof Courts-Leet and Baron Ancient demesne Free and Copyholders and Fines certain or uncertain at the Will of the Lord Prescription of Ancient Custome and Usage not mala in se villani Bordarii manucaption Satis datio or Baile Fribergh Tithings Sheriffs Turnes or County-Courts Hundred-Courts and our Communia Concilia or Parliaments upon Urgent and Special occasions concerning the defence of the Kingdom and Church of England and the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to be had therein Wardships Marriage Advowsons Patronage of Churches License of Widdows of Tenants in Capite to Marry Seizures Ouster les maines Liveries or Investitures Primer seizen forfeiture of portion upon marriage tendered and refused respite of homage Priority in Suing for Debts Ann. Diem Vastum Power to amend wave or charge his Demurrer to Imploy Coroners Escheators and Feodaries Issues aut diem clausit extremum stay other Mens Actions with a Rege Inconsulto Kings Silver or Money to be paid pro Licentia Concordandi Writs of per que Servitia cessavit per Biennium de Coronatore eligendo de advocatione and the Assessments of Escuage quare impedit de viridario eligendo in Parliament Writs of Couge de Eslire Evesque Writs of Recordare or Accedas ad Cariam Writs of Prohibition distringas de Excommunicato Capiendo our Juries or Tryals in matters of Controversies per pares our Writs de Odio Atia ne injuste vexes Writs of Novell Disseisiu or of Entry and Redisseisin or Triall by Battell or Judicium Dei fire deal or Ordial Writts de Nativo habendo Certiorari de Proprietate probanda cum multis aliis mentioned in that authentique book of our Laws called the Register of Writs and even almost the whole frame and Context of our Laws do besides the Laws and Statutes made by our Kings and Princes and the reasonable Customes and Usages of the People indulged or allowed by them plainly bear and declare the Idea Effigies and lively Portraict of the Feudall Laws Planted and established as they ought to be in this our heretofore more happy Islands distinguishing Estates in Lands granted inter feudum nobile plebeium From the former of which our Nobility and Bishops have derived their Privileges of Freedom from Common Process of Arrest and even the widdows of the Nobility together with the precedency of the Sons and Daughters of them And our Kings have enjoyed the privilege of protecting the persons of their servants from personall arrests which they may certainly as Justly and lawfully do as the members of the house of Commons and their Servants And that of the House of Peers in Parliament do and have none in the Times of Parliament and it should not be unobserved or unknown by or unto our later Lawyers of England that the ancient and usuall forms of our Declarations and Pleadings at Law have been and are that the Plaintiffs or Defendents were or are Seized in dominico suo ut de feodo Simplici aut Talliato and that our Laws have or had ab antiquissimis Seculis or ages a great mixture of the Feudal Laws which the people esteemed to be a part of their happiness untill this our last mad age of Rebellion Faction and Sedition had taught our English Copy-holders to esteem their Tenures to be a Norman Slavery wherein the Charity and good-will of their Landlords have continued to their generations yet notwithstanding have by length of time converted their kindnesses into a villanous Custome of Ingratitude And as the Civill Law had before done inter patrones et Clientes the patritii or Nobility esteemed it to be a Disparagement to intermarry with the vulgar who could not for a long time and without much Strugling be admitted into the Magistracy as Livy and other good Roman Historians have assured us but were as a Seperate part of the people glad to be content with their Tribuni plebis to Intercede with the Senate to make good and wholsome Laws or abate the rigour or Severity of any of them so far were they from ambition or any designs of Intermedling above their Incapacitated Spheres or Incroaching upon the Kinâ—â—y Government as if Simon Montford and his Fellow-Rebells had by force put upon King Henry the 3d. in the 49th year of his Reign taught them the way unto it not as he did by force but by degrees and sly Insinnuations working upon the Indulgence or necessities of their princes but might have tarryed long enough and beyond the longest period of time before our Feudal Laws would have given them so much as a leave or licence to attempt it However if that will not do those Novillists or hatchers of new unwarrantable doctrines will to work again limbeck their Fancies to vent the only Vapours of such imaginations or what can be Extracted as some Elixir Proprietatis Elixir Vitae or Salutis to be purchased at their own others costly enough rates and prices so as they may be instrumentall and subservient to their Wicked and Seditious Designs of Subverting the Monarchy and Deluding the People And their men of more Faction then Wifdom Law Right Reason or Evidence SECT XVI That the General Councels or Courts mentioned before the Rebellious meeting of some of the English Baronage the constraint put upon King John at Running Mede or before the 49. of H. 3. were not the Magna Consilia or Generale consilium Colloquium or Communia Consilia now called Parliaments wherein some of the Commons as Tenants in capito were admitted but only truly and properly Curiae Militum a Court Summoning those that hold of the King in Capite to acknowledge record and perform their services do their homage and pay their reliefs c. and the writ of Summons mentioned in the close Rolis of the 15th year of the Reign of K. John was not then for the summoning of a great Councell or Parliament but for other purposes viz. Military Aids and Offices WHich withall their Strains Conjectures or Alchimy of abused Wit will never be able to make the Writ which Mr Selden found in the close Role of the 15th year of the Reign of King John to be
lands and Estates where our Laws do give unto them the benefit accrewing And the honourable Peers and Judges in that Court subordinate unto the King may as to matters therein determinable be the better content therewith for that not being Sworn nor punishable as Judges in other Courts are and in what they do advise therein they neither are or can be punishable in a judicio colloquiale wherein as Paulus Screrbic hath said in his Statua Poloniae Judex in colloquiis aut Regis praesentia judicans argui de male judicato non potest And the word KUPIA as Sir Henry Spelman saith with the Greeks and Romans signifying potestas dominium and the Lord or owner of it qui potestate fretus est judiciumque exercet and the place habitaculum domini the residence or Court of the Lord or Superior ubi sana rei narratio placitum forenses vocant dicebatur autem Curia primo de Regia palatio principis inde de familia judiciis in ea habitis ritu veterrimo or the place where Kings did administer Justice surely Kings were not therein to be co-ordinate or any less then Superior And the very Learned Sir John Spelman the Son of that Excellent Learned Father writing the Life of King Alured or Alfred hath together with the unquestionable historical part and truth of the relation given us the observation that Et Comitum potestatem ad huc minuebat nam neque iis integra restabat negotiorum bellicorum tractatio Horum enim magna pars Heretochiis sive Ducibus inferioribus a plebe in Comitiis suis Electis Committebatur Hi enim recensionibus meditationibis armorumque lustrationibus praefuerunt milites in Centuriis suis coeuntes ad locum toti exercitui destinatum deducebant in bellis demum Ducum inferiorum officiis fungebantur Prout e legibus boni Edwardi aliisque locis facile colligitur Haec institutio cum a populo non Comitibus Ductores hi eligebantur non parum e Comitum potentia abstulit Comitibus ergo quorum potentia Regibus semper maxime formidabilis relinquebatur ordinaria potestas in Comitiis Comitativis praefidendi in bellis sui Comitatus militibus imperandi in Curia sive Comitatu Regis conciliis publicis suo rumque negotiis attendendi mandata Regia subditis suis communicandi quod mira celcritate post novam hanc imperii institutionem factum est Et quidem si Aelfredi nostri vestigiis posteriores Regis institissent neque tot Seditiones ortae neque tantum Sanguinis in bellis Civilibus exhaustum neque Regis ipsi toties temporibus subsequentibus periclitati fuissent Sed tam bene constituta partim bella Civilia quae statim post ejus obitum recrudescentia pene omnibus legibus executionem impediebant videantur Edvardi senioris querelae lege quarta Danique post renovatas invasiones sub canuto victores maxime vero Normanni labefactarunt Gulielmus enim sive ut Magnates in invasione regni hujus maxima momenta pro meritis pactis etiam remuneraret sive ut Anglos dominio suo efficacius subderet nobilibus suis Normannis maximam potentiam que postea tot malorum origo indulsit Henricus vero primus quantum potuit leges Aelfredi nostri instituta revocavit sed tempora consuetudinesque perversae omnia quae expedire poterant inferri non patiebantur And the authority of our Kings in Parliament were not only in the Ages before but in King Alfreds or Alureds time Superior and Super-eminent in his great Councells over his Subjects as Asser Menevensis living in his Court and Writing his Life after his Death saith that Saepissimo in concionibus Comitum praepositorum ubi pertinacissime inter se dissentiebant ita ut pene nullus eorum quicquid a Comitibus praepositis judicatum fuisset verum esse concederet qui pertinaci dissensione obstinatissimo compulsi Regis subire judicium singuli subarrabant and when Appeals and Writs of Error came before him from his Earls or Ealdermen saith Mr. Selden out of Asser Menevensis when he found Error and Injustice committed by them would Sharply reprove them For in our Monarchicall Government with the ancient long continued and well-experimented existence and constitution of the House of Peers and Peerage in the Kingdom of England the Common People were so subordinate to the Baronage and Peers as the Commons were allways understood by our Kings and our Laws and the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and by the Common People themselves to be comprehended in and under the Baronage who did for them and as they were included in them very often in our great Councells and Parliaments grant or deny aids or Subsidies and in their behalf without the Commons themselves speaking or advising alledge their poverty and disability and the Popes and Forreign Neighbour Princes in their letters and rescripts understanding it no otherwise of which Mathew Paris and Thomas of Walsingham authors of great credit living in the Reign of King Henry the 3d. and King Edward the 1st his Son have afforded us plentiful instances And all things rightly observed or Considered could not give any one the least of reason or colour of it for if our Comites Burones Bracton not mentioning the Bishops who then had great power if not too much over our Kings and Princes there then being no Dukes Marquisses and Viscounts whom our Kings then used not to create though there were many Dukes or said to be in the time of the Saxons before the Norman Conquest who by our fundamentall Laws enjoyed all their authority Subordinate unto their Parliaments and Great Councells might forfeit their Lives Estates and Lands holden of them in Capite which was the only Measure of punishment in England before the Act of Parliament in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. was made which did at the request of the Lords and Commons the Bishops not mentioned declare what should afterwards be attempted and punished as High Treason against him and his Heirs or for Counterfeiting his Great Seal which did or should bear record of the Laws and Actions and Kingly Government of our Kings Princes there having not been in that Act of Parliament or any Act of Parliament or Laws of our Brittish Saxon Danish or Norman before or since tacitly or expressly for the abolishing or taking away our Feudall Laws and Customs or that ever to be wailed unhappy Act of Parliament made by his now Majesty King Charles the 2. for the taking away of the Court of Wards and Liveries by reason of his tenures in Capite and of all homage and fealty drawn and prepared by a Learned Lawyer and a Member of that House of Commons in Parliament Dreaming of a Common-Wealth untill their man of Sin Oliver Cromwell was pleased to awake them who was in his profession well known to have been eminently skilled in
his Subjects Untill in that much mistaken Erroneous Act of Parliament said to have been made in Feb. 1645. by some of the Lords Commons of that which should not have been called a Parliament when they made War had like strange Subjects and Advisors beaten away their King neither had there been any design of abrogating the Tenures in Capite or of that kind in all the Brittish Roman Saxon Danish or Normam times to annull or dissolve so strong and solid a Foundation as our Feudall Laws nothing in the Rebellion Force and strange unkingly restrictions Articles and agreements put upon King John at Running Mede no grievance by the Tenures in Capite or by Knight-service certified upon any the Writs sent by King Henry the 3. unto all the Sheriffs of the Counties and Cities of England and Wales to Elect 4 Knights of every County and City to certify to the King and his Baronage their Grievances nothing in the forced Parliament and Oaths upon King Henry the 3. and his Son Prince Edward in the 42. Year of his Reign nothing in his direfull procession and waâ—king with his Parliament of Praelates and Nobility throuâ—h Westminster Hall unto that Abby Church with burning Tapers Curses and Anathema's against the Infringers of Magna Charta and Charta de Forresta then and yet holden in Capite with many of our Liberties Fundamentall and Feudall Laws therein contained nothing desired or ordered to be taken away of them or any of them no mention of them in the arbitration or award made by the King of France betwixt that King and his Rebell Barons or when Simon Montfort and his Partners kept him in their powerfull Army a Prisoner about a Year or a Quarter no Complaints or grievances against those Tenures in Capite in all those multitudes of other supposed grievances nothing in the Petition of Right and 30 times confirmation of Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta as if they could never have enough of them nor Reformation desired in and through all the Clownish Rebellions and Insurrections in England in the Times of Wat Tiler John Ball Jack Cade Ket and others And therefore whilst these Underminers of our long lived Monarchy and in that their own happiness have gratified their fond feavourish fancies in procuring a Dissolution of as many as they could of our Tenures in Capite for all if any they could not with the Costly expence of 48. Millions sterling in mony besides an uncomptable and unvalued damage of four hundred thousand Men Women and Children slain or Massacred whole families ruined or for ever Crpled Heaven angry and incensed Hell gaping Religion torn in more then one hundred pieces and all for want of the Care Provision and Protection that the despised Mother Church of England like the Voice that was heard in Ramah Rachel mourning for her Children that they were not our Shames Published in the Streets of Gath and Askalon in the Time of its peace and the Sins of Rebellion and Witchcraft have as the Egiptian Locusts covered overspread the face of our heretofore fruitfull Island And the Protection and Provision usually made by our Tenures in Capite for Younger Children as well as the Eldest affords them no better a care then to leave them when the Mother is after the Fathers Death by some Debaucht Rooking or Gamiug Coxcomb made a fool of and Married again as very often they will are like Lambs left as a Prey unto the Wolves or Foxes the Second Husbands who if the Mother have Children by him will be as too many are well content to help to Fricasse the first husbands Children to make Portions or Estates for the Second so as if it be Enquired where is now the Court of Wards and Liveries which hath been so pretendedly without any Just Cause at all complained of they may find every where a Court of Wards and Liveries lamentably governed by the Fathers in Law of England Wales and Ireland They might do well to make more hast then they have done to repentance consider how much more then nothing at all the Nation was beholding to those overtures as much as they could of the Monarchy Tenures in Capite have been to those Commonwealth Erecters have deserved of the People and those whom they pretended to represent in Parliament when instead of bread they have given them Stones and of Fishes Scorpions and to shew the profoundness of their wisdom did as wisely as those that attempâ—ed to drown the Eel when upon a great serious consult they may Easily discover no better effects or fruit of their overchargeable expences enforced upon the people to their own great and Villanous gain and the ruin spoil and inestimable damage of our 3 before that most happy flourishing redoubtable Kingdoms When that Act of Parliament for taking away the Tenures in Capite doth but as much as it could convert them into Free and Common Socage without any mention of pro omnibus servitiis and the Law made by King Ina who Reigned here from the year of our Savior 923. untill after some part of the Year 940. which is not specially repealed by that Act of destroying as much as it was able the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service did ordain that Scutarorum nullus ex pelle ovina Scutafabricatur qui secus fecerit 30 solides mulctator pro singulo quoque aratrobinos alat quisque ornatos atque instructos Equites and in a Tenure in Free and Common Socage Fealty is a duty and service inseparable as Littleton saith and signifieth although as he putteth the Case is in the Ceremony of the doing thereof sometimes different from homage for when the Tenant doth fealty unto his Lord he shall hold his hand upon a Book and shall Swear that he shall be faithfull and true to his Lord and shall bear him faith for the Lands which he holdeth of him and fealty is derived a fidelitate Feltman bestowing upon an originall of the like nature a fide and Escuage draweth unto it homage and Homage draweth unto it fealty for fealty is incident to every manner of Service unless it be in the Tenure of Franck-Almoigne and the Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service some only excepted being transferred into Free and Common Socage without saying per fidelitatem tantum pro omnibus servitiis may notwithstanding the forebidding or rejection of of Homage and all other Incidents of Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service render the fealty incident unto free and Common Socage by our Laws to amount unto as much as that which the framer of that Act of Parliament hoped to extinguish by Converting those Tenures in Capite as much as he could into Tenures in pede which should have been beleived to have been very fundamental and dangerous to alter when the wisdom of the English and Scottish Commissioners authoris'd by an Act of Parliament in the Reign of King James
Train in the way of his Progress rather then fail to offer hasten to the River and bring as much water as he could in his hands and with a Cheerfull Countenance Wishes and Prayers for his health present it unto him Nor was so altogether appropriate to those Eastern Countries where God speaks first unto his people and the Sun of his righteousness did arise but was long ago practised in England where the custom was as Gervasius Tilburiensis who wrote in the Reign of K. Henry the 2. informs us that in the Reign of King Henry the 1. upon all addresses to the King quaedam in rem quaedam in spem offerre to present the King with some or other presents either upon the granting of any thing or the hopes that he would do it afterwards and so usually as there were Oblata Rolls or Memorialls kept of it in the Reign of King John and some other the succeeding Kings and Queens who seldom escaped the tender of those Gratitudes of Aurum Reginae Mony or Gold presented unto them as well as unto their Kings and was a Custom not infrequent in the Saxon Times as appeareth by our Doomesday Book the most exact and generall survey of all the Kingdom and so little afterwards neglected as it was paid upon every pardon of life or member and so carefully collected as it was long after in the Reign of King Henry the 3d by an Inquisition taken after the Death of Gilbert de Samford who was by Inheritance Chamberlain to the Queens of England found that he had amongst many other Fees and Profits due unto him and his Heirs by reason of his said office Six pence per Diem allowed for a Clark in the Court of Exchequer to Collect and gather that oblation or duty For if there were no Damage to a Prince in his Dignity and Sovereignty as it must needs be of no small concern it can be of no small Importance in matters of profit and other Necessaries appertaining to his Regality and the necessary protection and defence of himself and his people as hath been truly calculated and made demonstrable And when Homage hath been defined by our Learned Lawyers Littleton and Sr Edward Coke to signify no more then Ieo deveigne vostre home Et mutua debet esse dominii homagii fidelitatis Connexio Ita quod quantum homo Domino ex Homagio tenentis tantum illi debet Dominus ex Dominio praeter solam reverentiam and Sr Edward Coke citing a part out of the Red book of the Exchequer saith omnis homo debet esse sub Domino de vita memibris suis terrenio honore observatione consilii sui per honestum utile comprehended in the words Foyall Loyall salva fide deo terrae Principi and servicium is by him defined in Liege Angliae regulariter quod pro tenemento suo debetur ratione feodi sui and the manner of doing homage and fealty declared or appointed to be taken in 17 King Edward the 2 was that he should hold his hands together between the hands of his Lord our Littleton long after writing his book saith he shall be ungirt his head uncovered his Lord shall sit and he shall kneel before him upon both his knees and hold his hands Joyntly together betwixt the hands of his Lord and say I become your man from this day forward of life and limbs and earthly worship and shall owe you my faith for the Lands which I hold of you saving the faith which I owe unto my Lord the King and to mine other Lords Et homo Homagium saith Sr Henry Spelman sunt verba feudaliam in fundamentis Juris illius and after the Osculum or kiss of the Lord received ariseth and taketh the Oath of Fidelity to be faithfull and true unto him and saith Bracton homage becometh to be ex parte Domini protectio defensio Warrantia ex parte Tenentis reverentia Subjectio And our Littleton defining fealty as it is amongst the Feudists a fidelitate saith that it is to be true and faithfull to his Lord for the Lands which he holdeth of him and shall faithfully do unto him the service which he ought to do And Gervasius Tilburiensis cited by Sr Edward Coke might have added to the definition of homage on the King or Lords part something more from the Tenant or Homager then reverence and subjection and not have omitted the greatest Tie and Obligation which was gratitude for the Lands at the first given to his Father and Ancestor for that only Service The Tenant holding his lands services under a forfeiture but the King or Lord not simili modo but reteyning and holding his propriety directum dominium without any limitation the utile dominium appertaineth unto the Tenant untill he forfeits and then the Lord may enter upon the utile and annex it unto his directum and dispose of it as he pleaseth And Sr Henry Spelman saith licet non Juratum est in homagio sed in fidelitate Intelligendum est quod fidelitatis praestatio individue sequitur homagium Et in nostro Jure fidelitas est de Essentia Homagii nam si quis fidelitatem remiserit cassum facit ipsum Homagium And in the language of our Old Records Writs and rescripts of our Kings and Princes Homage and fealty do so often go together as they may be seem to be adjuncts each unto the other and are in effect as to the Subjection and service but Synonimous and Consignificant differing only in the Ceremonies as our Littleton saith in doing the same which in the direction and stile of our Kings mandates unto one that hath actually done his homage the Word Fidelis is many times used without any mention of Homage dilecto fideli suo as comprehending Homage fidelitas autem particularis apud Anglos individue comitatur omnes Tenuras etiam dimissiones ad brevissimum tempus nunc dierum quamvis nunc dierum parcius exigitur relaxari tamen nullo modo potest sine tenurae interitu And Homage and Fealty being such inseparable Concomitants as not to be separated Homage in the Capite and Knight Service conjoyning unto it Fealty which is the reality effect and service thereof and Homage in those Tenures the only Ceremoniall part thereof which would be to little purpose without the faith fidelity and service which can subsist and perform its services without it And was so understood by our Kings and Princes in their Writs of Summons to their Baronage to their Parliaments when making no mention of Homage which is often respited commands them infide qua nobis tenemini to appear and be present For howsoever amongst Kings and Princes those great concerns of them and their Subjects may be allowed to insist upon punctilio's of Honour and very necessary Concernments which might be consequentiall thereunto which caused our great
be made a Knight unless he can manifest himself to be a Gentleman So great a disparagement inconvenience and disarming and disabling the Nation both in the defence of their King and Themselves and their Posterity and the Honour and Dignity of their Kings and Princes with as much Wisdom as if they should make their most Earnest Supplications unto God Almighty the King of Kings to lessen the Sun make him to be no more then a small Farthing Candle have the Procurers Contrivers of that most prejudiciall Act of Parliament for Metamorphosing the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into Free Common Socage brought upon us that ever was contrived against the Imperial Crown Dignity of our Kings and the safety of their People and Subjects wherein they have attempted as much as they could to Manacle our Monarchy and Invalidate and make ineffectuall at once that great and unvaluable service done by the gallant and Generous George Monke in his Majesties most happy Restauration with his entire and Just Regalities When they should rather admire and give God thanks for that goodly Fabrick and Structure of our Laws and Liberties under the best of Monarchies then seek to eradicate and pull them up Root and Branch by hearkening to that wicked advice which Mr Bond the Master of the Savoy in the time of their troubles and some distresses happening to the hopes of erecting their Project of a Commonwealth Founded in the Murther of their Religious King and the Blood of multitudes of their Fellow-Subjects gave unto his Fellow-Rebells in a Consolation Sermon preached by him before the then Usurped House of Commons in Parliament that if they could not prevail they should imitate Sampsons Revenge upon the Philistians by pulling down the House upon their Heads with an Encouragement and Assurance that if they should fail or miscarry in that Cause of God he would have it after his death to be Written upon his Tombe Here lieth he that was deceived in his God and his Gospel The Scutifer Armiger or Esq. which in a right definction and in its true Etymon and radix is and should be less and of a lower Degree then Gentleman as de gente Fabia Cornelia although of later Times it hath been otherwise believed and used and is not Equivalent unto that of a gentleman who hath many Priviledges As to bear Arms or Coat Armory The Clown Varlet or Sokeman shall arise and give him place A gentleman ought to be preferred unto Offices before any man Ignoble and in matters of Testimony Magis Credendum Nobilibus quam plurimis aliis may wear better Apparell as to his body and use more rich utensils in his House or necessaries his vote vow or opinion is in the Election or Scrutiny of Voices next after the President or Magistrate primam vocem Edit Nobilis the ungentle shall not Challenge the Gentle to a Combat Quia Conditione impares with 28 more Priviledges which the Civill Caesarean and Feudall Laws have given them And those Confusion Mongers might once if ever they Intend to repent ought not only to look back into the days of old where in all Kingdoms and Nations of Mankind they may see it was found to be necessary to have severall orders degrees and Classes of people according to each of their Capacities had under Kings appointed by God those that were fit for Magistracy and Councell Military men and such as were necessary for War by Land or Sea Plowmen or such as might manage or Till the Earth Opifices or Tradesmen with the plebs or imperita Multitudo and how much Sin and Villany great Damage Ruine and Confusion they have committed or done against their Kings Themselves and their own Posterities in assaying to make an head out of the feet or turn an head into a foot or what kind of Reformation could those Contrivers imagine could ever be made out of such a Chaos of their own making which will inevitably prove to be in the sequel as Impossible as for Circes Inchanted Cup soundly or deeply drank off ever to Unswine those that had been Inchanted or Transformed by it or what Form or Frame of Government we should have when the Caesarean and Feudall Laws and the Ancient rectified and rational Customes of the Kingdom shall be Massacred when the happily escaping Baronage Temporall and Spirituall the Knights Esquires Gentlemen and Freeholders the later of whom had no other stile or Title at the best then probos legales Homines must be put under or into no better a respect or Condition then to be sent to Plow as Villain or Varlets and be no more then Socage or Sokeman of which that of Villainage or Husbandry hath been both by our Littleton and Coke accompted to have been a part for Laudes apud Galloâ— liberi sunt aut serviles vernacula Laudes Francks Laudes serfs hi rei rusticae ascripti tributa pendunt opera servilia illi ad militiam designati nobiles habentur Immunes a tributis And all men but meanly acquainted with the beginning rise Duration and Continuance of the vast Roman Empire must Acknowledge that they were at the first but Bubulci Opiliones such a Company of Shepheards and Heardsmen as their neighbours the Sabines scorning to intermarry with them they were forced to Ravish and steal their Daughters to make Wifes and that after many Wars Troubles seditions and Expulsion of their Kings and abrogating of former Laws and Customes they rowled tumbled over and over and so disquieted each other as they were constrained to send to Sparta and Athens to enquire what Laws and Government they had which for a while Contenting and keeping them in some order whilst they were busied in the Building up their Empire robbing and Conquering a great part of the World Although with troubles enough the while in the often change and turmoile of their Magistrates as in their Decemviri Consuls Tribuni Plebis patricii and Commons with the bloody interchange of the Marian and Syllan proscriptious Triumvirate c. untill they arrived at the happiness of perpetuall Dictator and Monarchy yet in all that time and after the Division of that overgrown Empire mole ruentis sua into that of the West and East they never sought to abrogate the Laws of the 12 Tables the Fontes and Origines of the Civill Laws and those voluminous Comments which have been made upon them by their Jurisconsults though long after hidden as for a great part disused and driven almost into Oblivion by the Irruption of the Goths and Longobards into the Western Empire and the Establishment of their better-natured and approved Feudall Laws untill about 500. Years after they had escaped the Edicts of those Northern People to be burned and never more used and being found safe and entire were in the time of Lotharius the Emperor brought in a grand Procession and Ceremony
by Torch-light into Pisa or Florence and so ever after lived peaceably and quietly in the neighbourhood of the Feudall Laws So as the One became Assistant unto the Other cohabited and would never after depart from each other and even the Late Commonwealth Rebells could not amongst all their new-Fangles and Devices forbear their being much in love with the Tryalls by Juries both in Civill and Criminall Actions which had both their Use and Foundation from the Civill and Feudall Laws And Oliver Cromwell could after he had over-reacht and Mastered them find no better expedient to maintain the Grandeur of his wickedly-gained Protectorship but to borrow and make use of that part of the Feudall Laws which allowed a subservient Peerage and therefore Created some of his Major-Generalls amongst whom were those grand States-men Hewson the Cobler Pride the Drayman and Kelsy the Bodiesmaker c. Members of an House of Peers which he would by another name have called the Other House as Superior to his House of Commons or Rebellion-Voters who having sate and executed as much Power as he could bestow upon them did after death had cropt his Ambition and carried him to his deserved severe accompt attend with their whole House in grevious melancholly and mourning his Funerall and Magnificent Charriott of State to be buried in Westminster-Abby to lye there untill the Hangman afterwards by a better Authority fetched away his Hipocriticall Carcass to a more proper Place with their long-mourning Train Supported by 6 or 8 of his nicknamed Peers And after those pullers down as much as they could of our Excellent Foundations to build up their Abominable Babell of murdering their King Destroying Massacring Plundering Sequestring and decimating of his Loyal Subjects ruining his Royal Posterity should after his Miraculous Restauration think it to be a great piece of service to themselves and the whole Nation to put under the shame and Ignominy of a tenure unto which our Laws never yet afforded any more then the lowest of Titles as Rusticks men holding by the service of the Plough and Villainage to teach the most Ignorant and Incapacious part of the People how to Master equall or abuse their betters or invite the Hogs and Swine into the Gardens and Beds of Spices to root up foul and trample upon the Lillyes of the Vallies and Roses of Sharon hoping thereby to frustrate the glorious actions of that great Generall Monke in the Restoring of the King unto his Just entire regall Rights and to lay a Foundation hereafter of binding him and our Kings in Chains and our Nobles in Fetters of Iron and to make an easy way for all the People of other Kingdoms to order and Govern their Kings as they hoped by transforming their Laws and Regalities into such evil and Ignorant shapes Interpretations and Constructions as the People 〈◊〉 like the Dogs in the Fable of Acteon might when they pleased be the Murderers of their Kings and Princes and of their own Laws and Liberties But that Great and Prudent Prince in the time of his travail and abode after his fathers death in the parts beyond the Seas and other great Actions done by him before he returned into England as Fleta a Lawyer of good accompt and not meanly instructed as well in the Civil as Common Laws or else Mr Selden would neither have Caused his Manuscript so long concealed in Libraries and passing from hand to hand of such as could be made happy by the view thereof to be Printed and Published with his learned Dissertations or Comment thereupon saith that there having been a Congress or Meeting at Montpellier in France upon the 16th day of November 1275 or some short time after in the year 1276 about the 4th year of his Reign between him and many other Christian Kings or their Embassadours Viz. Michael Paleologus Imperator Orientis Rodolphus Primus Occidentis Galliae Philippus Audax Castellae Leonis Alphonsus Decimus summus ille Astronomus Partitarum Author Scociae Alexander tertius Daniae Ericus octavus Poloniae Bodislaus Hungariae Uladislaus quartus Aragoniae Jacobus Boemiae Ottocarus Carolus Siciliae Hugo Hierosolonicorum alii Complures minoris nominis qui Regum Christianorum vocamme fruebantur wherein certain agreements and provisions were severally made touching the resumption of the Lands and Manors appertaining to their Crowns Kingdoms together with their Homage Rights Jurisdictions wherein although Mr Selden that great Diver and Searcher into antiquities seemeth to doubt of the truth thereof for that Scriptores de hoc Anno non Conveniunt and at that time Rodolphus Caesar had granted unto Pope Gregory the 10th Latifundia circumquaque amplissima quae antea Imperii pars insignis And saith that assertion or place in Fleta is locus prodigiosus the rather for that Azo Item Jurisconsulti illius aevi summi vecusti and our Bracton maketh no mention of it in his Chapter de donationibus nor Britton in his Compendium Juris neither is it found in any other Jurisconsults or in Fortescue who lived long after Howsoever Notwithstanding the great reverence and respect which every man of learning or well-wishers thereunto must or ought to bear unto our great Selden that Dictator of learning so universally acknowledged not only in England but in the parts beyond the Seas to be Decus gentis Anglorum I shall be of necessity constrained in this particular to Vâ—ndicate Fleta from what he chargeth upon him concerning the provisions and resolutions made and taken by our King Edward the 〈…〉 and â—â—e aforesaid Christian Kings and Princes who especially Alexander King of Scotland and the Kings of France Castill and Leon near neighbours to England or his French territories together with the Emperor of Germany and the King of Sicily by whom he had been Sumptuously Feasted in his Return from Jerusalem might probably not have been Ignorant of his own and his Fathers and Grandfathers troubles and Ill usage by some of his Rebellious Baronage and a party of the Ecclesiasticall and Common People depending upon them or allured unto their Ill usage of their Kings and Princes but to appeal to his own Vast reading and the Company of his large and Eminently furnished Library with his Collection and recherches of and into all the Records and Choice Manuscripts in England all the Uuiversities thereof and Forreign parts the Roman Vatican not excepted and what could be in that famous Library of Sr Robert Cotton whilst he lived truly believed to be the Esculapius Librorum And it will be undoubtedly certain that there hath never been since the Writings of the books of Sacred Scripture any Infallibility or absolute Certainty that a Gospell of St Thomas hath been assayed to be Imposed upon the Christian World that St Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews though by the Church admitted to be canonicall have met with some Jealousies who was the Author thereof the great Care of the Monks mentioned in the preface
of Dr Watts his Edition of Matthew Paris to have truths â—nâ—y registred to Posterity have not freed us from the Discrepancy amongst our Ancient Writers as unto matters of Fact as well as of opinion and reasons given thereof and even in that plain dealing Monk of St Albans matters of Consequence have been omitted though he was King Henry the 3. his Historiographer which others have recorded and some things recited that others have omitted and it will ever be impossible to reconcile the every where apparent differences amongst Ancient Authors as to things done when non omnia possumus omnes hath been truly said one man may know all and others but some part one thinks it not necessary to record some things and others the Contrary and quot Homines tot sententiae our English Chronicles written by Hollingshead Grafton Fabian Stow and Sr Richard Baker have not been Written with one and the same Pen memory or Intelligence And it is likely that all or most of them have not given us the true relation of the Cause or misfortune of the firing or burning of the Famous High Steeple of St Pauls Cathedrall in London and a great part of an Hundred Years hath passed whilst the People have entertained a belief that the height of that Steeple and Lightning had been the Cause of it untill a Plummers Boy grown up to a very old man did upon his death-bed Confess that it was his own Carelessness that did it by leaving of Fire amongst the Chipps that helped to melt the Lead whereby the Steeple and Church fell on Fire and that untill then he durst not reveal it And our great Selden may suffer the World to believe that in his most excellent book of mare Clausum to prove the Dominion of the Brittish Seas to appertain unto our Kings of England he hath Discovered more then ever was known or Written of before by any Author and of many other his learned Recherches in all the parts of the most Severe and hidden learning through the Western and Eastern Languages opening and Discovering of many of the Rich mines of Knowledge learning which untill his Industrious labours had Blessed the World with the Knowledge thereof had yet probably lain as it were buried and Concealed And certainly were that Summus ille vir great man of Learning now Living he would Ingeniously Confess that that even in his own times our great Physitian the Learned Doctor Harvey hath Discovered and made it to be Confessed and Believed without any Contradiction of the Learned in the Medicinall Art that the blood in the body of a man doth Circulate unto the Heart which Gallen Hypocrates Avicen Averroes or any the Medici Physitians and Anatomists Pancirello and his learned Commentator Salmuthius that Travailed so much in the search of the Occultia nova reperta of the World from the Creation thereof never met withall or were able to Demonstrate as he hath done and Mr Selden must of necessity permit it to be likewise believed that our English Annalists Historians and records will witness that before the Reign of King Edward the 1. and that grand Parliament or congress of him and the aforesaid Christian Kings mentioned by Fleta our Henry the 2. King of England did not only resume and call back to the Revenues of his Crown divers Manors Lands and Hereditaments which his Royall Predecessors had aliened but King Edward the 1. Henry the 4th 6th and Edward the 4th did the like For Choppinus in his book de antiquo Dominio Regum Francia hath given us the Reason and necessity thereof and our Parliament Rolls can evidence that the Commons of England have complained that our Kings have granted away to their Subjects too many of the Liberties belonging to the Crown of England and it was one of the Articles Exhibited against the Rebelliously deposed King Richard the 2. that he had aliened certain Manors and Lands of the Crown And the Actions and Proceedings of King Edward the 1. after his return into England and that aforesaid Congress and Meeting of so many Christian Kings and Princes must of necessity greatly Corroborate and Confirm Fleta's before-mentioned assertion when the great Actions of that Prince after that he came into England may evidence that he was Diligent and Carefull in the performance of what he undertook and understood rationally to be done in his own Kingdoms and Provinces and might well think that many of the aforesaid other Kings and Princes would have done the like if some other evenements or disturbances as the long continued Wars in France and the Aurea Bulla in the Empire of Germany had not lessened or hindred their resolutions So as our excellently learned Mr Selden may give me and others leave to say That when Fleta recited that Dreadfull Procession Imposed and put upon King Henry the 3. to walk through Westminster Hall to the Abby Church of Westminster Cursing and Condemning to Hell the Violaters of Magna Charta and Charta de Forresta and saith it was done in praesentia assensu Regis Henrici Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Abbatum Priotum Comitum-Baronum magnatum Regni Angliae he doth not mention King Johns Charter being read as Mathew Paris and Samuel Daniel have related or of the Record before specified of the Kings speciall saving of his Regalities and it happened well that none of the Predecessors or Progenitors of the House of Commons in the Parliament of 1641. and their Continuators through all that long and fatall Rebellion the most Ingrate and greatest Infringers of Magna Charta and Charta de Forresta and as great over-turners of Reason Laws Religion and Truth and the English Nation and the sense Construction and true meaning of the words heretofore used or misused therein as ever was or hath been in any Nation Countrey or Kingdom or at the Confusion of Languages at the building of the Tower of Babell or amounting to all the Nonsence that hath ever since been spoken by or amongst mankind in an everlasting Spirit of Contradiction to Reason Truth and the Laws of the Land And Fleta a Contemporary Lawyer under that valiant and prudent Prince hath likewise recommended to After Ages that res sacras Coronae fuere liber Homo paâ— Jurisdictio muri portae Civitatis quae nullo dari debeant And that res quidem Coronae sunt antiqua maneria Regis Homagia libertates hujusmodi quae non alienentur tenentur Rex ea revocare secundum provisionem omnium Regum Christianorum apud montem pessulam mompellier in Languedock Anno Regni Regis Edwardi fil Regis Henrici quarto Et si de Escaetis suis perinde debeant ad valenciam nec valebit deforciantibus longi temporis praescriptio diuturnitas enim temporis tantum in hoc Casu magis Injuriam auget quam minuit cum constare debeat singulis quod hujusmodi libertates de Jure naturali vel gentium ad Coronam tantum
pertineaut And that great King was so more then ordinarily carefull of the rights and Honor of his Crown and Regall authority which had been too much depressed and misused by the Rebellion of Simon Montfort and some Rebellious Barons and his fathers Imprisonment with the Wars and Hardships put upon them did so well provide against any the like troubles and Convulsions of State as in his return through France and abode for some time in Aquitain where he was Sumptuously feasted by the King of France he took an especiall care when he did Homage to him for Aquitain and some other Dominions he held of him in that Kingdom to limit it only unto them and except Normandy where he expended much time in the Setling of his affairs But howsoever Summus ille viz our Mr Selden was of opinion that so remarkable a provision and Monarchical Resolution of our King Edward the first and so many Emperors and Christian Kings and Princes to conserve the rights of their Crowns reported by Fleta was Prodigious and taken too much upon trust and an over facile credulity of our Carceratus Fleta as he termed him because resumptions of the Sacred Patrimonies aliened had been used here in England long before and not used at or about the same Time by Rodulphus primus the Emperor of Germany when he granted to Pope Gregory the 10th Bononia in Italy et latifunda circum quaque amplissima quae ante Imperii Romani pars insignis and permitted to be aliened to the Pope who was not then so easy to be resisted and that Choppinus and those many great and learned Doctors of the Law that had written and argued so much concerning those kind of alienations and our own Historians had been altogether silent therein yet that Decus Anglorum gentis might in his great recherches of our English Records Laws and Annalls have found that our King Edward might have been believed to have taken such Councel either from his former calamities in his his fathers Time or by a generall Consult with some or all of those Christian Princes or their Legates for that he was no sooner arrived in his own Kingdom and Dominions but he began to busy himself as much as his other great Cares and Variety of troubles would Suffer him to do in the allaying the Unquietness of the Disturbances which Humfrey do Bohun Constable of England Rigor Bigod Earl Marshall of England Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and many other the remains of his fathers more then Cammon Distresses and in his Wars with Scotland and annexing the Rights and Superiority of it to his Crown of England in the placing displacing of the Kings and Heirs thereof a Regality Superlative not to be neglected and an effect pertinent enough to that Monarchick Universall consult when in the fourth year of his Reign an Enquiry was made of all the Manors and Lands Tenements Parks Buildings Woods Tenants Commons Pastures Pawnage Honey Herbage and all other profits of Forrests Waters Moors Marshes Heaths Turbury and Wasts and how much it was worth by the year Mills Fishings Common and severall Freeholders and Copyholders by what Service they did hold their Land by Knight Service or in Socage and what reliefs what Customary Tenants and by what works or Service they did hold what rents of Assise what Cotages and Curtilages and what rents they do pay by the Year what pleas and exquisites of the Counties and of the Forrests and what they were worth by the Year what Churches of what Yearly value and who was the Patron with the yearly value of Herriotts Fairs Markets Escheats Customes Services fore Time Works and Customs and w 〈…〉 tâ—e pleas and perquisites of Courts Fines all other Casualties were worth by the Year or may fall by any of those things an Inquisition much resembling that of the Norman villains enquest in the Book of Domesday or that which long before preceded it called the Roll of Winchester and in his elaborate recherches of all the Ancient Records Annalls Historians Manuscripts and Memorialls of the Brittish Saxon Scotish and English Nations for the clear Evidence and manifestation of his Undoubted Right to Jus Superioritatis oftke Kingdom of Scotland And in the same Year what things a Coroner should enquire of purprestures or usurpation upon any of the Kings Lands and that they should be reseised A Statute of the Exchecquer touching the recovery of the Kings Debts made in Anno 10. E. 1. A Cessavit per Biennium to be brought by the Chief Lord with a forfeiture upon him that neglecteth to do his service by the space of 2 Years In Anno 17. Fined 10 of 12 of his Judges accused and indicted of taking Bribes and very great summs of Mony Statute of quia Emptores terrarum that the Feoffs shall hold his lands of the Chief Lord and not of the Feoffer And afterwards caused the Judges at their return out of their Circuits to rectify in rolls of Parchment all Fines and amercements due unto him and ordered them to receive only their then small Wages thereout curbed the Clergy that denied to give him Aids and forbad them to come to his Parliament which was holden untill their Submission with a Clero Excluso and granted his Writs contra Impugnatores Jurium Regis made 2 Statutes of Quo Warranto in 18. E. 1. that every man should shew cause how he claimed or held his Liberties Ordinatio de libertatibus perquirendis 27. E. 1. Statute of Wards and Reliefs Anno. 28. E. 1. Another Statute of Quo Warranto Anno. 30. E. 1. Ordinatio Forrestae Anno. 33. E. 1. So that pace tanti viri with all the honor and reverence that can or ought to be given to Mr Selden that Dictator of Universal Solid Learning it may be said that our Fleta which was by him so well esteemed as to have been published and caused to be printed with his learned dissertations and Comment thereupon might well have escaped his scruples and distrust when in that great Kings travail from Hierusalem or out of Aba homewards he was royally feasted by the King of Sicily one of the aforesaid Confederate Christian Kings the Pope and divers Princes of Italy And when the Pope had afterwards demanded 8 Years arrears of him for an Yearly tribute of 1000. Marks for the Kingdom of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that the Parliament was dissolved before his letter came unto his hands and that sine Praelatis Proceribus no Commons therein mentioned comunicato Concilio sanctitati suae super praemissis non potuit respondere Jurejurando in Coronatio sua prestita fuit astrictus quod Jurat regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquid quod Diadema tangit regni ejusdem no such Oath or Promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil abusque illorum requisito Concilio
and testify that the Land is holden of them and that without taking away the Fealty and repealing the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy the Duty and Oaths of the Subjects remained as they did whilst they held their Land in Capite and by Knight Service Which probably as may sadly be lamented could never have hapned if the later men of the Law in England had not by the space of something more then Forty Years last past leaped over as it may be feared they have overmuch done the successive learned labours and Books in a long process of Time in the Reign of our Regnant Kings and Princes divers Judges and Sages of our Laws Recording from Time to Time Cases Judgments Decrees and Dicisions maturely and Deliberately adjudged therein But too much neglected those guidings better guides and faithfull Directors the Civill and Feudall Laws and suffred their Studies and practice to be imployed and incouraged in the Factious Seâ—iâ—ious Rebellious principles of those Times by following the gross Mistakes of Sr Edward Coke in his Discontent malevolence and Ill will unto the necessary and legall Regalities of the Crown and Idolizing as he did those grand parcells of forgery and Imposture entitled the Mirrour of Justice and the Modus tenendi Parliamentum and their neglecting the readings of Glanvile Bracton and Britton and other good Authors And the Civil Law was the Parent and Mother of many of the maximes and principles of that which is now called our Common Law And those men of the Law who without Books subsistence or Estates when they went beyond the Seas with their Sovereign and had not there the opportunities of the Knowledge or help of the Records of the Kingdom that might have been their best Instructers were for the most part but Young Gentlemen Born and Bred in the times of our Distempered Parliaments as those were that Tarried here who walked along with the Rebellion too much adhered unto them and came Weather-beaten again with his Majesty had understood as they might have done the Originall Foundation and Continuance of our Monarchick Government But King Edward the 1. who had passed over and overcome so many Hardships Difficulties Misfortunes and Storms of State was so unwilling to be afraid of a part of his Unquiet Baronage or to Humour the popularity and ignorance of any of the Common People or to be in fear of them or of any their Factious or Seditious Machinations making what hast his affairs would permit to return into England where his father having by his Death escaped the restless conflicts of a long and troublesome Reign and his Exequies and Ceremonies of buriall performed Róbertus Kilwarby Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Gilbertus de Claro Comes Gloverinae a man that had been in Armes and opposite enough against his father and himself in the former convulsions of State and John Warren Earl of Surrey saith Samuel Daniel went up to the High Altar cum aliis Praelatis ac Regni proceribus Londiniis apud novnm Templum convenerunt Edwardum absentem Dominum suum Ligeam recognoverunt paternique Successorem honoris ordinaverunt assensu Reginae non Populi and before his return into England John Earl Warren and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester in the Abby Church of Westminster sware unto him Fealty without asking leave of the People and proclaimed him King although they knew not whether he were Living or Dead caused a new great Seal to be made and appointed six Commissioners for the Custody of his Treasure and Peace whilst he remained in Palastine where by an Assassin feigning to Deliver Letters unto him he received 3 Dangerous Wounds with a poysoned knife then said and believed to have been cured by the Love of his Lady that Paragon of Wives and Women who sucked the Poyson out of the Wound when others refused the adventure and after 3 Years Travail from the time of his setting forth many conflicts and Disappointments of his aids and Ends left Acon well fortified and manned and returned homewards in which as he travailed he was Royally feasted by the Pope and princes of Italy whence he came towards Burgundy where he was at the foot of the Alpes met by Divers of the English Nobility and being Challenged to a Tournament by the Earl of Chalboun a man of extraordinary Renown Successfully hazarded his Person to manifest his valour thence came again into England with the great advantages of his Wisdom Courage and Reputation assisted by the memory of the fortunate Battle at Evesham and his Actions in the East SECT XVIII Of the Methods and Courses which King Edward the 1. held and took in the Reformation and Cure of the Former State Diseases and Distempers KIng Edward the 1st was together with his Queen Crowned at Westminster by Robert Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander King of Scotland and John Duke of Britanny attending that Solemnity which being finished he shortly after forced Leoline Prince of Wales who had taken part with Montfort against his Father King Henry the third to do him Homage and after a Revolt imprisoned and beheaded him did the like to his brother David and United Wales as a Province to England made the Statute of Snowden considered and perused their Laws allowed some repealed others collected some and added new as he well might there do for the Prince or King which Governed Wales had always used so to do and appointed one to give his assent to the Election of Bishops and Abbots And when The Pope demanded 8 yeares arreares for the rent or tribute of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that his Parliament was dissolved before it came and that sine Praelatis et Proceribus communicato concilio sanctitati suae super praemissa non potuit respondere et Jurejurando in coronatione suam praestito fuit obstrictus quod jura Regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquod quod diadema tangat Regni ejusdem no such clause or promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil absque illorum requisito concilio faceret Sent to Franciscus Accursius Docto of laws resident at Bononia in Italy the son of the famous Accursius the Civil lawyer to come with his wife family into England by his writ to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire commanded him to deliver unto the said Doctor Accursius the King 's manor house and castle of Oxford then no mean place for him and his wife to Inhabit Did so imitate the wisdom and providence of the Roman and Caesarean laws as Augustus Caesar and other of the Succeeding Emperours had done as he gave unto men learned in the laws which was more for the peoples good then in their suits and actions at law to court and live under the protection and humours of their popular Patroni's libertatem respondendi to give councell and advice to their clients in their concernments at law and
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
encouraging and rewarding merit and Service for the good of the publick greatly and too much wasted and exhausted ever have been perswaded to have released so much as was done of the Tenures in Capite by a factious part of the people who designed to undermine the Monarchical Estate of the Government Or by some of the more Loyall advisers who either by ignorance or otherwise did not well understand Monarchy and the Government Or the sad and ever to be lamented Consequences and Effects that have already followed and will hereafter fatally ensue the change of the Tenure in Capite and by Knight Service to release and turn those Nerves and Sinews of the Government ligaments and ties of the Crown the Chariots and Horsmen of our Israels Glory Strength and support of it and the Loadstone of the Subjects obedience into free and common Soccage Wherein much more heed was to have been taken then formerly for that the Militia and the Sovereignty and Power of our Kings much whereof were lodged and incorporated therein were founded and built upon the Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service the Basis Foundation Life Blood Animall Spirits Soul Essence and support thereof and had not long before been by an Horrid and Hypocritical Rebellion wrested out of the hands of the late blessed Martyr King Charles the 1st by abuse and misconstruction of the Laws false arguments and the fear and flagging of some of his most Eminent Justices and Lawyers who were too little acquainted with the Feudall Laws and Laws of Nations the Records Annalls and Histories of the Kingdom and the Monarchicall Government thereof Which too much encouraged and assisted the Rebellion against him together with the murder and destruction of him and many Thousands of his Loyall and more Dutifull Subjects that fought for him Notwithstanding all which the aforesaid cares condescensions of that prudent Prince King Edward the 1. hoping for the best and not suspecting the worst In the 25th Year of his Reign requiring Bohun Earl of Hereford and Constable of England and other the Barons to go with him to the Wars in Gascoigny and Bygod Earl Marshall of England likewise refusing unless the King himself would go in Person the King swears ye shall go or Hang and the Earl answered he would neither go nor Hang and so without leave departed the King notwithstanding proceeded in his Voyage to Flanders the two Earls of Hereford and Norfolk assemble many Noblemen and other their friends to the number of 30 Bannerets so as they were 1500 men at Arms and stood upon their Guard and the King being ready to take Ship the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons and Commons sent him a Roll of the Grievances of his Subjects in Taxes Subsidies and other imposicions with his seeking to force their services by unlawfull courses to which the King answered that he could not alter any thing without the advice of his Councell who were not now about him and therefore required them that seeing they would not attend him in his journy which they absolutely refused to do though he went in person unless it were into France and Scotland that they would yet do nothing in his absence prejudiciall to the Crown promising at his return to set all things in good order but being afterwards enforced to send for more Supplies of Mony ordained a Parliament to be held at York and to the End he might not be disappointed of aid condesended to all such Articles as were demanded concerning the great Charter promising from thenceforth never to charge his Subjects otherwise then by their consent in Parliament Seized the moneys in the Popes Bankers hands to relieve his and the publick necessities gave protections from arrest and troubles in their Estates to them that should have paid it otherwise and notwithstanding the Popes Anger and Threats not in those days easily to be adventured upon did not pay and refund it within 2 or 3 Years after Seized also and took at his own price the Wools which the Merchants then had in the Ports ready to be transported and all the Lands and Great Estates of Bohun Earl of Hereford and Clare Earl of Gloucester and upon the Marriage of his Daughter the Lady Elizabeth to the first with a Gift in Tayl to them the reversion in the Crown and the like to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford by Marriage of his Daughter the Lady Joan restored them in tail as aforesaid unto them and made not only the said Humfrey de Bohun Roger Bygod Earl Marshall whom upon second failings he afterward confiscated and all others who had joined with him in refusing to serve him in his warrs according to the tenure of their lands to be glad and well content with his generall pardon In the same year granted to Hugh Kent de Galvy in Ireland and the Heirs Males of his body the liberty of enjoying the benefit of the English laws in terra sua Hyberniae as the writ ensuing wlll evidence viz. Rex omnibus ballivis fidelibus suis in Hybernia ad quos c. Salutem volentes Hugoni Kent de Galvy Hyberniae gratia facere specialem concedimus ei pro nobis haeredibus nostris quod ipse liberi sui de corpore ipsius Hugonis legitime procreati procreandi hanc habeant libertatem quod ipsi posteri eorum de extero in terra nostra Hyberniae tam in morte quam in vita legibus consuetudinibus utantur Auglicanis firmiter inhibentes ne quis eos contra hanc concessionem nostram injuste vexet in aliquo vel perturbet in cujus c. Teste Rege apud Gillingham 25 die Martii per ipsum Regem And by his letters patents constituted Johannem de Breton Custos or Warden of the City of London as followeth viz. Rex omnibus ballivis fidelibus suis ad quod c. sciatis quod dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem le Breton constituimus custodem civitatis London ad amerciandos Aldermannos alios quoscunque de civitate praedicta qui ad rationabilem praemonitionem Seu Summonitionem custodis ejusdem pro negotiis nos Civitatem illam tangentibus venire contempserent etiam ad Vicecomites Civitatis praedict ipsorum Clericos ac ministros mercedem sui Officii capientes cum super hoc modo debito convicti fuerint juxta quantitatem delictorum suorum castigandos puniendos quantum necesse fuerit quatenus sua discretio de jure viderit faciendum specialem tenore praesentium committimus potestatem quam diu nos placuerit durando in cujus c. Having before in the 13 or 14th Year of his Reign fined Gregory de Rokesly Mayor of London for that he renounced the Mayoralty and delivered the Common Seal of the Mayoralty or City to Stephen de Ashren aliis de Communitate London sine licencia ipsius Regis for which he
was glad to receive his Pardon In the 25th Year of his Reign directed his Writ Custodi Northwallia mentientes falsos rumores contra Regem castigand The like to punish conventus conventicula Another to respite the King's Debts aliorum dum in obsequio Regis With a Proclamation for the confirmation of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta and to Command that two discreet Knights be chosen in every County to Attend Prince Edward the King's Son his Lieutenant in England during the Kings absence in partibus transmarinis to procure the King's Letters-Parents for confirmation of the Peoples Liberties In the 27th Year of his Reign a Parliament being called at Westminster wherein the two Charters were confirmed with the allowance of what Deafforestation had been formerly made but with ommission of the clause Salvo jure Coronae nostrae which the King laboured to have inserted being a small return and Civility to a Sovereign whose Royall progenitors had freely granted those Liberties and Priviledges and himself willing to confirm them but by no means it would be agreed unto Was so incensed at the revolt of the Scots and so fixt in his resolution of subduing them as going to fight a battle with them whose army much exceeded his own when he was with one foot in the Stirrop getting on horseback the horse upon some great noise or shout in the Scottish army who were Marching on to engage him Started and throwing him to the ground with his hinder foot Strake him so on one side as he brake two of his Ribbs which could not so hinder either his Courage or Resolution but he again remounted the same Horse and charged with good Success as he wan the field and slew as some of their Historians mention about 60 thousand of them In the 30th Year of his Reign the Constable of Dover having upon an Order or Sentence of the Court of Sheppey which was the Magna Curia of the Cincque-Ports arrested the Abbot of Feversham pro quibusdam transgressionibus per ipsum perpetratis in laesionem Coronae regiae dignitatis was cited and excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury the King thereupon as the record mentioneth nolentes nobis super Statu regio nostro aliqualiter derogari aut ministros nostros pro hiis quae judicialiter fuerint indebite fatigari commanded the Archbishop in fide qua sibi tenetur firmiter injungentes quod hujusmodi citationibus of the Constable or his Ministers ea de causa faciendis supersedeat sententias praedictas in ipsos per ipsum ut praemittitur fulminatas faciat sine dilatione aliqua revocari ita quod non operteat nos ad hoc aliter apponere manum nostram In the claim which he made and deduced to the Pope of his right to the Superiority of the Kingdom of Scotland attested by an hundred hands and seals of the Earls and Baronage of England in a Parliament holden at Lincoln when he gave an answer to a letter of the Pope mediating in the behalf of the King of Scotland and claiming that Kingdom to belong to the Church of Rome wherein he had desired him to send his procurators and evidence to be heard and determined at Rome the historian and our records have informed us in these words that quoniam vero ad hoc quod Papa petivit quod si Rex Angliae jus haberet in regno Scotiae vel aliqua ejus parte procurators instructos mitteret fieret eis justitiae complementum Rex per se noluit respondere sed hoc commisit Comitibus aliisque terrae Baronibus who gave him a choaking and flatly denying answer on the behalf of their King And pursuing his Victories against that Nation took out of Edenburgh the Crown Scepter and Cloth of Estate with the Marble Chair wherein the King 's of Scotland used to Sit whilst they were Crowned wherein according to an old Scotch Prophecy the fate of that Kingdom so resided as wheresoever it should be the Rule and Government of that Nation should follow and offered up the same at St Edwards shrine at Westminster intending to unite the Kingdom of Scotland to England imprisoned the King of Scotland in the Tower of London where he long detained him subdued Malcolmus King of Man and the Kings of the Other Isles and was so unalterable in those his purposes as he ordered that his bones should after his death be carried along with such English Armies as should afterwards be employed against that Nation Did in the 31st year of his Reign treat with the foreign Merchants and by his Charta mercatoria without the trouble advice or assent of his great Councel or Parliament relinquish unto them his former kind of customs called Prises upon their granting unto him 3d of the pound now called the Petit Customs out of all foreign Merchandises imported except wines for every sack of wool to be exported 40d for every 300 woolfells the like and for every last of leather a demy mark over and above the duties payable by Denizens for the same commodities which grant being by the Merchants of several nations not incorporate into a body-politick of no force by the rules of the common Law the Kings Charter only made it good and maintained it untill it was confirmed by Act of Parliament in Anno. 17. E. 3. which was 50 Years after which Charter being made in England by that great and valiant Prince was afterwards by him exemplyfied and transmitted into Ireland with a speciall Writ to the Officers of the Customes there to leavy the 3d penny in the Pound and other duties mentioned in that Charter as appeareth in the Records of the Exchequer of Ireland by virtue of which writ without any Act of Parliament there the 3d penny in the pound with the other duties were ever after leavied in that Kingdom and paid to the Crown In the 32d year of his Reign he was so little afraid of his potent Nobility under whose greatness and power many of common people sheltered their Oppressions of one another by wrongfull disseisins and making themselves Tenants to their greater Landlords for those Lands which they had no right unto as he made severe Laws for the regulation thereof And in Declaratione Juris Regis in regno Scotiae protestavit se jus Coronae suae usque ad effusionem sanguinis defensarum ab quem Rex illo Anno omnia Monasteria Angliae Scotiae Walliae perscrutari faceret ad dignoscendum quale jus posset sibi competere in hac parte repertum est in Chronias mariani Scoti Willielmi de Malmesburia Rogero Hoveden Henrici de Huntingdon Radulphi de Luzeto or diceto quod Anno Domini non gentesimo decimo Rex Edwardus subegit sibi Regis Scotorum Cambrorum Item ibidem que Anno domini non gentesimo vicesimo primo praedictae gantes Eligerunt sibi Edwardum praedictum in Domium
of his Royall Ancestors had untill the aforesaid Imprisonment of his Father constantly and successively walked did Resolve as long as he could to continue therein Insomuch as 3. E. 1. Indictum est Parliamentum Londoniis ubi Leolinus princeps Walliae being summoned to come to do his Homage pretended that he durst not come without hostages which the King taking ill refused to give sed tamen dissimulato negotio inceptum Parliamentum consummavit post Parliamentum vero Rex raised an Army to subdue him hoc Anno solvit populus Regi quinto decimam bonorum quae patri suo dicebatur praeconcessa Anno. 5. E. 1. in subsidium guerrae Wallensis concessa est Regia populo vicesima pars bonorum Anno 6 tenuit Parliamentum Gloverniae in quo edita sunt Statuta quae Gloverinae appellantur and it appeareth by the Act of 7. E. 1. that the Prelates Earls and Barons were present at the making thereof 2. E. 1. Habitum est Parliamentum Salopiae in quo per deputatos ad hoc Justiciariis David the Brother of the Prince of Wales sine condemnatus tractus suspensus Eodem Anno tenuit Rex Parliamentum apud Acton Burnell ubi editum est statutum quod a loco cognominatum est 18. E. 1. Upon the death of Margaret daughter of the King of Norway by the daughter of Alexander King of Scotland ad quam jure haereditario defuncto avo patruo matre regnum Scotiae devolvi debebat quis fuit justus haeres Scotiae apud omnes in dubium vertebatur and there being many competitors amongst which there were of the English Baronage Johannes de Hastings Dominus Abergavenny Johannes de Vescy vice patris sui Nicholaus de Sules Willielmus de Ros and the Pope claiming the superiority and the determination of the Title Eodem Anno post Pascha Rex Angliae Scotiam apprcpinquans Parliamentum tenuit apud Northumbr ubi consultis Praelatis ac utriusque juris peritis wiser and fitter men then Common people use to be revolutisque priorum temporum Annalibus and the memorialls of the Abbies and Monasteries vocari fecit Praelatos Majores Regni Scotiae corameis in Ecclesia parochiali de Northumbr jus suum in superius dominium Regni Scotiae fideliter declaravit petivitque ut haec recognoscerent protestando se jus Coronae suae usque ad effusionem sanguinis suae defensurum And the Kings Right and Superiority being fully evidenced all the pretenders to that Crown did under their Hands and Seals not only acknowledge his Superiority but that they would hold that firm and stable which he should declare therein and yeild the Kingdom to such as he should adjudge which no where appears to have been done by the consent of the Common people of England and Scotland and was of the greatest concernment to those of Scotland And in another Charter of the same date declaring Cum autem non possit praefatus Rex Angliae isto modo cognitionem facere nec complere sine judicio nec indicium debeat esse sine executione nec executionem possit debito modo facere sine possessione seisina ejusdem terrae Castrorum did deliver seisin to the King as the Supream Lord untill the Right should be determined Ita tamen that before the seisin taken he should give good Security to deliver it back to such as should be adjudged to have Right to the Kingdom of Scotland cum tota Regalitate dignitate dominio libertatibus consuetudinibus Justiciis legibus usibus quibuscunque cum pertinentiis in eodem Statu c. So as an account and Restitution be made within 2 Months after to those that should be adjudged to have Right unto that Kingdom of the issues and profits thereof salvo Regi Angliae homagio illius qui Rex erit Quo facto although Ericus King of Norway did at the same time by his Attorneys or Procurators appear coram concilio Regis Angliae with his Commission omnibus inspecturis to claim 100000l Sterling a penalty for not admitting the said Margaret his daughter to be heire to the Kingdom of Scotland and 700 marks per Annum dowry which he gave with her c. who being heard and severall days given and refusing ulterius prosequi post diligentem hujus negotii disquisitionem inter caeteros competitores de assensu communi Rex Angliae without any license or confirmation of his Parliament post varias disceptationes vendicantium regnum illud adjudged it to John de Baylioll as descended from the Eldest Daughter of David King of Scotland excluso Roberto de Brus who claimed from a younger received his homage and fealty and caused him to be Crowned sitting super lapidem Regalem said by these people to have been the Stone upon which Jacob Slept when he journeyed from Barsheba to Aran. About the same time 200 Ships or Barks of Normandy sailing homewards with Wines from Gascony Domineering as if sibi solis maris cessisset libertas they were by 60 English Ships taken and 15000 of their men slain and the King of France by his Embassadours demanding Satisfaction or to have the matter determined in his Court in Gascony being of a very great concernment to the English Nation the King deliberato habito concilio sending the Bishop of London adjunctis sibi aliis viris prudentibus to the King of France suo concilio offered that if any found themselves aggrieved they should upon a safe conduct come for Justice ad Curiam suam quae nulli subjecta fuit whereupon a great contention arising betwixt the two Kings and the King of France seising divers Castles of the King of England in Gascony and citing him personally to appear at his Court at Paris to answer for that transgression which being upon a safe conduct performed and a peace thereupon concluded and that shortly after cavilled at by the King of France The King in the 22 year of his Reign convocato Londoniis Parliamento cui Johannes Rex Scotorum interfuit being in the same year and Parliament to which he had by his writs caused some of the Commons of England to come to assent unto what should be there ordained de concilio Praelatorum Procerum consentium without any mention of the Community agree that terram sub-dole ablatam recuperandam fore gladio And thereupon the King not the Parliament sent his Embassadours again unto the King of France and declared that since he had Violated the Leagues and Agreements made betwixt them and their Royall Progenitors Non videbatur sibi his great Councel and Parliament not being at all named quod ipsum Regem Angliae ducemque Aquitaniae hominem suum reputabat nâ—c ipse homagio suo astringi ulterius intendebat And mandavit Justic. suis hic breve suum patens in haec verba Edwardus Dei Gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae
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
instance of the great men of the Realm hath granted provided and ordained that the Feoffees or Alienees shall hold of the chief Lord of whom the Lords were holden Ca. 2. If part of the lands be sold it is to be apportioned and it is to wit that this Statute extendeth but only to lands holden in fee simple and for the time coming and is to take effect at the Feast of St. Andrew next In the Statute of Quo Warranto liberties are holden our Lord the King of his especial grace and for the affection which he beareth unto his Prelates Earls and Barons and other of his Realm hath granted In a 2d Statute of Quo Warranto to the same Effect hath Established In the Statute de modo levandi fines it is to be noted that the order of the Laws will not suffer a finall accord to be leavyed in the Kings Court without a Writ Original In the Statute of Vouchers made in the 20th Year of his Reign Our Lord the King by his Common-Councell hath ordained In another of the same year concerning wast committed by Tenant for life Our Lord the King hath ordained In the Statute de defensione juris Hath ordained and from henceforth commanded In a Statute de non ponendis in Assisis made in the 21st year of his Reign Our Lord the King hath ordained By an Act of Parliament made in the same year de malefactoribus in parcis Our Lord the King hath granted and commanded In the Statute or Act of Parliament de Consultatione made in the 24th Year of his Reign Willeth and commandeth In the Confirmation of the great Charter and the Charter of the Forest in the 25th Year of his Reign Granteth and Willeth In Ca. 2. That Judgements given against them should be void it is said We will The like in Ca. 3 and 4. In Ca. 5. We have granted In Ca. 6. That the King or his Heirs will for no business whatsoever take aids or prizes but by consent of the Realm and for the Common profit thereof saving the Ancient aids and prizes due and accustomed it is said Moreover we have granted In Ca. 7. for a release of Toll taken by the King for Wool without consent as aforesaid saving the custom of Wools Hides and Leather granted by the Commonalty it is said that the King at their request hath clearly released and granted The King hasting into Flanders to aid his Confederate the Earl thereof against the Continued envy malice and designs of the King of France his malignant Neighbour constituted without License of Parliament his Son Edward then being under age the Custos or Guardian of the Kingdom and appointed Richard Bishop of London William Earl of Warwick nec non milites Reginaldum de Gray Johannem Gifford Alanum Plukenet viros emeritae militae providos discretos to be his Assistants and Councellors who in the Kings absence with much ado and with nullam aliam sentire vellent obtained a Peace to be made with the Earl of Hereford and Earl Marshal that the King should confirm the great Charters with the aforesaid Articles added in the 2. 3. 4. and 5. of that Parliament and to the 6. of Nullum Tallagium but by the consent of the Realm and for the Common profit thereof saving ut supra releasing the Tolls of Wool Which being sent unto the King were returned sub sigillo suo tanquam saith the Historian ab eo qui in Arcto positus erat cedendum malitiae temporis censuit upon the confirmation whereof the populus Anglicanus concessit denarium nonum bonorum suorum But the King being returned in the 26th Year of his Reign was pressed in Parliament by the aforesaid Earls the Constable Marshal because the Charters were confirmed in a Forreign Country to do it again for that the Bishop of Durham and the Earls of Surrey Warwick and Gloucester had promised that obtenta victoria against the Scots he should post ejus reditum do it and in the 27th Year of his Reign being again in a Parliament holden in London urged by the said Earls to do it post aliquas dilationes was willing to do it with an addition of Salvo jure Coronae with which the Earls being displeased and leaving the Parliament revocatis ipsis ad quindenam Paschae ad votum eorum absolute omnia sunt concessa Which begot the Statute said in the printed book of Statutes published by Mr Poulton to be incerti temporis E. 1. but it is to be beleived for the Reasons aforesaid to have been made in the 27th year of his Reign in those only words that no Tallage or Aid shall be taken or leavied by us or our heirs in our Realm without the good-will and assent of Arch-Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land In the Statute of Wards and Reliefs 28. E. 1. Who shall be in ward and pay relief which seemeth to be a declaration of the King alone being for the most part of matters concerning himself and his undoubted casuall revenue it is to Wit when in the Statute immediately following touching persons appealed it is said the King hath granted ordained and provided In the Statute called Articuli super Chartas ca. 1. in the confirmation of the great Charter and the Charter of the Forest in the later end and close thereof are these words viz. And besides these things granted upon the Articles of the Charters aforesaid the King of his especial grace for redress of the grievances which his people hath sustained by reason of his Wars and for the amendment of their Estate and to the intent that they may be the more ready to do him service and the more willing to assist him in the time of need hath granted certain Articles the which he supposeth shall not only be observed of his Leige People but also shall be as much profitable or more then the Articles heretofore granted That none shall take prices but the Kings Purveiors or their Deputies it is said to be Ordained with a Nevertheless the King and his Councell do not intend by reason of this Estatute to diminish the Kings right for the ancient prizes due and accustomed as of Wines and other goods but that his rights shall be saved unto him whole and in all points Declaring of of what things only the Marshall of the King's House shall hold plea c. It is Ordained And in Another Act Entituled Common Pleas shall not be holden in the Exchequer it is said moreover no Common Pleas shall from henceforth be holden in the Exchequer contrary to the form of the Great Charter That no Writ concerning the Common Law shall be award under any Petit Seal The authority of the Constable of the Castle of Dover touching hold pleas and distresses That the Inhabitants of every County shall make choice of their Sheriff being not of Fee it is said that the King hath granted
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
de Wileby Miles de Com. Leic. qui manucapt fuit per Johannem Clerke Johannem Russell Johannem Peche mil. de Com. War per manucapt Johannem Walkere Willielmo peniter For although it hath been said and sometime taken for a Rule in our Laws as well as in others in some cases that qui facit peo alium facit per se yet such trusts as those are as little transferrable as that of a MemberShip of the house of Commons in Parliament to one that was never elected and the Sheriffs are not to trust either Ignorant or Factious men by packing and juggling one with another to choose Boys or Youths under the age of 21. of which sort as Mr Pryn hath publiquely declared there have been above Twenty at a time in the House of Commons in some of our late unhappy Parliaments or Debauches Hereticks or Anti-Trinitarians as one was in one of Oliver Cromwells mock-Parliaments and ejected for it or an Atheist in regard that besides some particular clauses of their Writs mentioned it is allways expressed that the business for which the Parliament was likewise to be Assembled was pro defensione Regni Ecclesiae Anglicanae which do manifestly declare the Intention of the King and his Writs to be that the Madheaded people led by Drink Ignorance Interest Bribes Fear or Flattery are not to be suffered by Sheriffs to chuse Papists Fanatiques or Rigid Presbyterians the greatest or most Inveterate Enemies to the Church and Kingdom or the Sons of such as Sate in the Horrid Convention that murdered their King and when they should make their Election de prudentioribus Discretioribus let Fools Knaves and Drunkards chuse one another for howsoever the House of Commons have been heretofore filled with some or moulded otherwise then they should be yet the Intention of the Writs was never ro Introduce such Fiery Tempers or Granadiers as should do what they Could to Fire all within and without and Elect all the new-fangled untryed Innovations they Can and encourage others thereunto before they know how to Understand them make Remonstrances and Harangues and print and publish them to the people against the Government Fundamental Laws and the just rights of their Sovereign and their Succession the former and later of which the Politiques of former Ages and Queen Elizabeths blessed Reign would never think sit to be there disputed and the perclose or later part of those Writs that one part of the Indentures should be retorned to the King in his Chancery may evidence that the Intention of those Writs and of him that gave them their breath and authority was that the approbation and allowance of the Elections should ultimately reside in the Sovereign which gave occasion to Oliver Cromwell in his Usurped Kingship under the Counterfeit title of Protector of his Fellow-Rebells in an Instrument of his own making to reserve to himself and his Privy Councell the power of allowing and disallowing such as should be Chosen to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament For by Law it is intended that the King should have the approbation of the men elected and therefore to that end one pair of the Indentures are to be retorned to the Clark of the Crown in Chancery our Kings in their Parliaments that Succeeded the 21th Year of the Reign of King Edward the first as well as the tenor purport of the Writs did provide that the Sheriffs who are the Kings Officers not the Peoples should according to the Kings Writs be Judges of the fitness or unfitness of the persons Elected or to be Elected and did therefore to prevent the defaults of due Elections ordain Penalties to be laid upon them for making false retorns or doing wrong therein and give directions unto them how in many things to manage the affairs in such Elections as in 7. H. 4. 15. where it was Complained that the Sheriffs made the Elections according to affections or otherwise 11. H. 4. that undue Elections should be enquired of by Justices of Assize who should have power to enquire of false retornes made and to examine and Fine the Sheriffs making default at 100 l. and the Knights unduly retorned were to lose their Wages of old time accustomed and by an Act of Parliament made in the 6th year of the Reign of King Henry the 6th the said Sheriffs and Knights were to be admitted to their answers and traverse to such enquests taken which must be understood to be either in the Kings Court of Chancery or Kings-Bench where the King himself is supposed by Law to be present and the Knights should not be endamaged to the King his Heirs and Successors by any such enquest untill they should thereof be Convict according to the form of the Statute of the 1. of H. 5. 1. Knights and Burgesses should be Chosen of such as be resiant 8. H. 6. ca. 7. The People that were to Chose or rather to assent were to have 40 s. per Annum Freehold and none to be Chosen Knights of the Shires that have not above and the Sheriffs were Impowered to examine upon Oath how much every one in giving his Vote or Consent to theâ— Election might expend by the Year And by the Statute of 23. H. 6. 15. the Sheriffs is to make his Precepts to the Mayor or Bayliff of Cities and Parliament Burgess Towns who were to take Care of due Elections and retorne the Indentures to the Sheriffs and the Penalties given to the King and they that should be mischosen and Sit in Parliament are to forfeit 100 l. to the King and as much to the Party duly Elected or to them that will Sue for the same wherein no wager of Law or Essoyne is to be allowed but such process as are to be awarded as in trespass at the Common Law and Brooker a Sheriff of Wiltshire was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth prosecuted in the Court of Starr-Chamber upon an Information for perjury at the Queens Suit for a false Retorne made of Sr John Thyn to be Knight of the Shire for the said County in Parliament whereas in truth Penruddock was Chosen by the greater number of the Freeholders in the said County in deceit of the County and of the whole Realm And the Sheriffs and the Chief Magistrates of every City and Burgess town every Knight of the Shire and Burgess of Parliament ought by the mandate and tenor of the Writs and as the Indentures which are not made betwixt the Electors and the Elected but betwixt the Electors and the Sheriff do ordain to take Care that the Knights should have plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se Comunitate Comitatus and the Burgesses Chosen for every City and Burgess town ad faciend Consentiend c. which in a Just formality of Law ought to be signified to the King in his Chancery by their Indentures as an Instrument or Deed of procuration or letter
very great was the power command and influence of the Nobility and dignified Clergy as they could from time to time as the Winds and Tydes do usually agitate and blow upon the unruly waves of the Ocean make them lacquey after their good-will and pleasure and attend their ambitions and advantages which began but to peep out and câ—awl in the later end of the Reign of King E. the 2d when Roger de Mortimer Earl of March was in a Parliament holden in the Reign of King Edward 3. Accused of Treason and accroaching to himself Royal power by procuring certain Knights of the Shires attending in the House of Commons in Parliament to give their consent to an aid to the King for his Wars in Gascoigny and the humours and interests of the Common people were so governed and influenced by the grandeur of the English Nobility and principal Clergy enticing them thereunto more by their own respects and desires to please and humour then by any particular motive or impulse of their own as in an Election of Members for the House of Commons in Parliament in the 13th year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th the Archbishop of York and Sundry Earls Barons and Ladies being said to be Suitors in the County-Court of York were by their Attorneys the sole Electors of the Knights of the Shire of that County namely by William Holgate Attorny for Ralph Earl of Westmorland William de Killington for Lucy Countess of Kent William Hesham for the Lord Peter de Malo lacu William de Barton for William Lord Roos Robert de Evedale for the Baron of Graistock William de Feston for Alexander de Metham Chivaler and Henry de Preston for Henry de Percy Chivaler who was then a Baron Earles and Barons in those times being well contented to make use of that then no disparaging Title Sectatorum communium com no other electors being then named in the Indentures betwixt the Sheriff and the County of York upon that Election and in the 2d Year of King Henry the 5th with little variation except for the persons for whom the Electors were Attorneys as namely in Yorkshire William Mauleverer Attorney for Henry Archbishop of York William Feutores for Ralph Earl of Westmorland William Archer for John Earl Marshal William Rillington for Henry le Scrop Chivaler Domino de Masham William Heshum for Peter de Malo lacu William Postham for Alexander de Metham Chivaler William Housam for Robert Roos Robert Barry for Margaret the Wife of Henry Vavasour Chivaler and Robert Davinson Attorney for Henry Percy sectatorum communium pro com Eborum No other suitors or electors being in that Election and Sheriffs Indenture then mentioned the like upon Writs for Election of Knights issued to the Sheriffs of Yorkshire were found by Indentures hereupon And in Annis 8. and 9. H. 5. And in 1. 2. 3. 5. and 7. Henry 6. the Attorneys only of Nobles Barons Lords Ladies and Knights were made the suitors who made the election of the Knights of Yorkshire and sealed the Indentures untill 25. of King Henry 6. when that undue course and way ceased and the Election and Indentures were made by the Freeholders and being Elected were not at that instant enabled by them or at any time after to act or do any thing otherwise then according to the Intent Tenor and Purport of their said Writs of Elections untill some farther Requisites were to be by them performed and done in order to the Trusts reposed in them by their King and Fellow-Subjects SECT XXII Of the Actions and other Requisites by the Law to be done by those that are or shall be Elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend our King in their great Councells or Parliaments precedent and preparatory to their admission therein FOr the Sheriffs and people of the Counties were at the first so punctuall in the due performance of their Kings aforesaid Writs and Mandates in all and every the clauses and particnlars thereof and so carefull in their Elections of such as were to be trusted by and for them in affairs of so high and more then ordinary concernment as the States well-being and defence of the King the Church the Kingdom Themselves and their Posterities not only for their personal appearance but performance of the trust reposed in them and not to do less or more too short or beyond the bounds of their Commissions or Authority granted by the King as they that were elected were constrained at the same time to give pledges and main-pernors and sometimes four securities but never under two that they should not omitt what was commanded by the Tenor of those Writs insomuch as in the 30th Year of the Reign of King Edward the first John de Chetwood and William de Samtresden being elected Knights of the Shire for the County of Buckingham gave four manucaptors and the like did Robert de Hoo and Roger de Brien elected Knights of the Shire in the same Year for the County of Bedford and in that Year Andrew Trolesks and Hugh de Ferrers Elected Knights of the Shire for the County of Devon were districti per terras catalla quia Pleg invenire noluerunt And in Anno 8. E. 2. a Sheriff of Gloucester Bristow at that time being neither City or County made his return on the dorse of the Writ of Summons that the Custos libertatis villae Bristol respond quod elegi fec Robertum Wildemersh Thomam L'Espicer ad essend ad Parliamentum apud Westminster in Octavis Sancti Hillarii qui manucaptores ad essendi ad diem locum praedictos invenire recusarunt per quod propter eorum vim malitiam resistentiam executione istius mandati ulterius facienda intromittere non potuit And a Writ appeareth in that Year to have been returned for the County of Midd. that William de Brooks and Richard le Rous milites electi fuerunt per communitatem Comitatus praedict essendi coram concilio Domini Regis ad diem locum in brevi content qui potestatem habent ad faciend quod de eodem concilio Secundum brevis tenorem ordinabitur after which followed the names of their Manucaptors or sureties and was a caution in those times believed to be so necessary as in the 15th Year of the Reign of King Edward 2d when Thomas Gamel one of the Citizens of Lincoln being returned with 2 manucaptors a burgess for the Parliament and not vouchsafing to attend the Mayor and Commonalty of Lincoln they elected Alain de Hodolston in his place and desired Sr William Ermyn then Keeper of the Great Seal that he being so elected by them might be received with the other Citizen first elected with Gamel as their Busgess for that Parliament and sent that their Certificate and return under their City-Seal affixed to the Writ of Election that very ancient and necessary usage of giving Manucaptors upon Parliamentary Elections being used in
the Fryday before St Michael in the same Year as q'eux Prelatz ove le Clergie par eux mesmes les Counties Barons par eux mesmes Chivalers Gentz des Countes Gentz de la commun par eux mesmes en treteront imparterent temps 4. Vendredi prochein suont mesmes le Vendredi en plein Parlement les Prelatz par eux mesmes les Countes Barons par eux mesmes les Chivalers des Countes par eux mesmes puis toutz en commun responderont and the like we read of the Prelats Earls Barons and great men eux mesmes Chivalers Gentz des Countes of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses and Commons separate consultations by themselves and their several answers to the Articles and businesses propounded to them in the Parliaments of 13. E. 3. N. 6. 10. 11. part 2. N. 5. to 9. 14. E. 3. N. 6. 11. 17. E. 3. N. 9. 10. 11. 55. 58. Ro. Parl. 20. E. 3. N. 10. 11. Ro. Parl. 25. E. 3. N. 6. 7. Ro. Parl. 28. E. 3. N. 55. 56. Ro. Parl. 36. E. 3. N. 6. 7. Ro. Parl. 40. E. 3. N. 8. Ro. Parl. 42. E. 3. N. 7. Ro. Parl. 47. E. 3. N. 6. Ro. Parl. 50. 51. when the Commons had a Speaker and departed to their accustomed place in the Chapter-House of the Abby of Westminster And â—aith Sr William Dugdale at the Parliament holden at Gloucester in Anno Domini 1378. in the Reign of King Richard the 2d in refectorio de armorum legibus tractabatur aulae autem hospitium communi Parliamento erat deputata Porro in camera hospitii quae camera Regis propter ejus pulchritudinem antiquitus vocata est concilium secretum inter Magnates versabatur ac in domo capitulari concilium commune In the said Kings Reign the Knights and Burgesses were called by name in presence of the King In the great alterations betwixt the Lords and Commons and King Henry the 4th in the 9th Year of his Reign and a pacification and endeavour to reconcile the Lords and Commons the King sent unto the Commons to come before him and the Lords In a Parliament holden the 13th year of his Reign the Commons of Parliament were called at the door of the painted Chamber in the Kings Palace of Westminster and came which shews that they did not usually sit there In the 33. of King Henry the 8. The Duke of Suffolk then Lord Steward commanded the Clerk of the Parliament to call the Names of the House of Commons unto which every one answered being all in the upper house below the Barr and then the King came Nor was or is it likely to be within the verge or neighbourhood of any truth or reason that such an inferior sort of men as some citizens and Burgesses to be elected out of so many Citys and Boroughs as those enforced writs of Elections in Anno 49. H. 3. Designed when the Nobility and Gentry and the Laws of those times not only held but believed it to be a disparagement to a whole Kindred to Marry with the Daughters of Burgesses who might be understood to be either their Tenants or Dependents should presume or be allowed to Sit in one and the same Chamber room or place with their King sitting in his throne or chair of estate encompassed with his more noble and greatest councell the Lords Spirituall and Temporal the Peers in Parliament where none but the Peers themselves and their Assistants are permitted to sit and do then also sit uncovered when the civill and Caesarian Laws and the Laws and reasonable Customes of nations do so distinguish betwixt the noble and ignoble as if a Gentleman be present the ignoble or common persons shall arise from their seats and give diligent heed when he speaks and it is a peculiar honor due unto gentry to sit upon benches or seats and those who are otherwise are not to take the right hand of them or the chiefest seats in the company or to sit next the Judge before them are not to be so much valued in their testimonies and more credit ought to be given to the Oaths of two Gentlemen produced as witnesses then to a multitude of the vulgar or ignoble persons though many and great privileges are and have been in the civill Laws given and allowed to the Honorable Order of Knighthood and that our Kings and common laws have given unto them great respects and privileges which are and have been to these our dreggy and worst of times enjoyed yet it can be no disparagement to that ever to be esteemed Order and Degree to have it affirmed and believed that it hath been from the 21th year of the Reign of King Edward the 1st to this our present century and scarcely slipt out of the memories of aged men no unusuall thing that many of the Knights of the shires and Burgesses elected to be members of the house of Commons have been the Secretaries Stewards Feodaries or domestick Servants Reteyners Tenants by Knights-service or Petit Serjeanty Castle-guard or managers of some part of the Lands and Estates of the Nobility and great men of the Kingdom And as to that which some that are unwilling to Submit to the powers of truth and right reason will be ready to object that in the 3. year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th a Committee of the Lords have come into the House of Commons to confer with them and probably saith Mr Elsing might during the time of that Conference sit with them yet it was but pro hac vice and not constantly or at any other time And when King James in the 7th year of his Reign was pleased to order the Lords and Commons to sit in the Court of Requests the Lords on the right hand by themselves and the Commons on the left they did then sit distinctly as out of their separate houses to be Spectators of the creation of Prince Henry to be Prince of Wales and could be no more an argument for those contrivers who are enforced to pick up any thing that they can imagine may be for their purpose then that of the fatal over-eager prosecution of the late Earle of Strafford at the suit instance of the house of commons upon their unlucky bill of Attainder in Westminster-hall whether his late Majesty afterwards murthered and martyred had from their separate and distinct houses for that only business dislocated and transferred them SECT XXIV What the clause in the Writs for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come unto the Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum do properly signify and were intended by the said Writs Of Election to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament FOr Assensum dare est probari l. 2. c. de relation Consensus denotat aequalitates sententiarum cogitationis voluntatis And facere duplici modo accipitur aut
could neither give or intend for nil dat qui non habet as being never able to give them complextly or singly their diversities of Powers or Interests present or to come other than such as the intent and purport of their Writs of Election Commissions allowed when the Devil with a pair of Spectacles cannot find in their Indentures or Procurations any Commission either by the King or those that Elected them other than to do and perform such things as the King by the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament should ordain but not to make War against their King and Murder him Plunder and destroy their fellow Subjects and Masters that elected and sent them for better purposes neither can they or any of their Record-massacring Champions ever be able to prove that the Lords Spiritual or Temporal did or could transfer unto them their power representative in Parliament which without the Authority of the King that gave it is not transferrable And when there were but 170 Counties Cities and Towns that sent Knights Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament in the latter end of the Raign of King Edward the First were but almost one Part of three that could be truly esteemed Representers of many of the Commons too many having been since only added by corruption of Sheriffs and otherwise it could never be intended or at all possible or so much as probable as all could be Freeholders or otherwise within the true meaning and intention of the word Representation or represent applied to the House of Commons or any particular member thereof was until our late Factious and Seditious Times never found in any of our Parliament Rolls Records or Memorials which hath lately been made to be very large and drawn into a factious and seditious extent and interpretation For the Parliament being only the Kings great Councel not of the people his Subjects upon special emergent occasions concerning the weal publick in the defence of the Kingdom and Church all offences committed against the Members of either of the Houses siting the Parliament or in their coming or returning are by Law to be prosecuted and punished in the behalf of the King and in his name and by his only Regal Authority and the Prison of the Tower of London is the Kings by a long possession but none of the peoples as it was adjudged in the Raign of Edward the 1st in the case of the priviledge of the Earl of Cornwal and long after that viz. In the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the 8th in the case of the Lord Cromwel and Tailbois and in the extraordinary forcible Riot and Trespass committed in the 12th year of the Raign of K. Richard 2. upon the Goods Lands and Servants of one of the Knights of the Shire of Cumberland sitting the Parliament whereupon that King upon his complaint directed a Writ or Commission to enquire and certify the Fact directing the Sheriff of Westmorland by a Jury of his County to attend them therein and those that were found offenders to arrest and bring coram nobis concilio nostro not the House of Commons in Parliament in Quindena sancti Michaelis with a nos talia si fuerint relinquere nolentes impunita upon which Mr. Pryn observeth that the King upon that complaint did not presently send for the Offenders in Custody by a Serjeant at Arms as the Commons of late times have done And did the more as he saith urge that Record and Precedent to rectify the late irregularities of sending for persons in Custody upon every motion and suggestion of a pretended breach of priviledge to their extraordinary vexations and expence before any legal proof or conviction of their guilt against the great Charter and all ancient precedents and proceedings in Parliament further evidenced by him to appertain only to the King by the Commons own Petitions from time to time in several Parliaments in the Raigns of Henry the 4th Henry the 6th and Edward the 4th in the cases of Chodder Atwil Dome Colyn c. And that it was expresly resolved and declared to belong only to the King by his Writs of Priviledge supersedeas habeas corpora issued out of the Court of Chancery to deliver members of Parliament or their Servants imprisoned or taken in execution against the Priviledge of Parliament for in the great Debates and Arguments in the House of Commons in the case of Fitz-Herbert in the 35th year of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth when Sir Edward Coke was Speaker it was at the last concluded that it was meet that the whole matter should be brought before them by an Habeas corpus cum causa issued out of the Chancery and there to be returned since no Writ of Habeas Corpus nor yet of priviledge could be returned into the House of Commons but only into the Chancery or Lords House as Writs of Error were whereupon the Speaker attending the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England pressed for a special Habeas Corpus with a clause to be inserted therein that Fitz-Herbert existens de Parliamento captus suit c. with a recital of the cause of priviledge who upon conference with the Judges would not Assent thereunto and resolving not to depart from the usual form issued out the Writ to the Sheriff returnable in Chancery who bringing the Body of the Prisoner and certifying the cause of his imprisonment the Lord Keeper sent the Sheriffs return of the Habeas corpus to the Commons House the Chancery men who brought it being ordered to read it which they did with the Writ thereunto annexed whereupon Mr. Dalton argued that the House had no power to deliver him he being not arrested sedente Parliamento but before it sate and that in a point of Law whether in this case he ought to be priviledged the Commons House ought not to pass any Vote therein but ought to advise with and receive instructions from the Judges of the Realm whether in this case by the Law they could grant Priviledge which being seconded by Sir Francis Bacon and thirded by Sir Edward Coke it was ordered that Fitz-Herbert should appear and be heard by his Councel the next morning and that the advice of the Judges should be had therein which being bad the Judgment of the House was that he was not to have Priviledge for three causes First because he was in Execution taken the same day of his Election Secondly because it was at the Queens suit which was the grand Reason Thirdly because he was taken neither sedente Parliamento nec eundo nec redeundo and Mr. Pryn likewise humbly conceived that in case of any Member of Parliament Arrested their only legal Means and Remedy was and is by a Writ of priviledge out of the Chancery In the Journal of the House of Commons in Parliament Anno 6. E. 6. There is an Order entred that if any Member require priviledge for him
or his Servant he shall upon declaration have a Warrant signed by the Speaker to obtain a Writ of Priviledge after which as on the same day follows a special Entry of a Vote of the House of Commons in these words For that William Ward Burgess of Lancaster had obtained a Writ of Priviledge out of the Chancery without a Warrant from the House it is committed to Mr. Mason Mr. Hare and Serjeant Morgan to examine and certify whence it is apparent saith Mr. Pryn their old friend that the House of Commons in that age did not use to enlarge their Arrested and Imprisoned Members by their Serjeant at Mace and own Orders but only by special Writs of Priviledge issued out of the Chancery under the great Seal of England according to the practice and usage of former ages that the House was first to be informed of the Arrests and thereupon to order their Speaker not to grant a Warrant directed to the Lord Chancellor not as their Subordinate or Coordinate Soveraigns to Issue a Writ of Priviledge to them if he saw cause and in case of Servants of a Member of an House of Commons in Parliament Arrested or Imprisoned the Master was upon his corporal Oath to prove that he was his real moenial Servant who came along with and attended on him before he could be released by a Supersedeas and Writ of Priviledge out of the Chancery being the Court of the King not of the House of Commons in Parliament one Member of the House of Commons in Parliament assaulting another is a breach of Priviledge and of the Peace for which he may be imprisoned until he find Sureties of the Peace and in the case of George Ferrers a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament reported by Mr. Crompton the House it self appealed to King Henry the 8th for his deliverance And although they do represent some part of the Commonalty yet it is within limits and boundaries so little to be transgressed as our Laws constant Customs and Usage of Parliament have una voce constantly affirmed that there can be no allowance of Priviledge of Parliament in cases of Treason Felony or Trespass And being so subordinate and tyed up as to themselves by our Laws antient Customs and Usages and their own Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy ought not surely to think that the power of representing for some can be by a limited Commission or Procuratorship enlarged to all that an Authority to represent in the doing of one single Act or consenting thereunto can give them a liberty to do what they please in every other matter and even in contraries against duties enjoyned by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and that when antiently and of long continuance now altogether disused they were to give Sureties or Pledges to their Counties or places to perform their trusts it was not to imprison sequester starve or ruine or make Rebels Traitors those that gave them their Letters of Attorney Substitutions or Procurations and cannot but understand that an Attorney or Transgressor wilfully damnifying those that commissionated them are by common Law Reason and Equity damna resarciri and make amends that jure gentium Leagues even made by Embassadours in the behalf of their Princes that sent them contrary to their Mandates or Instructions have not seldom been avoided or altered and that it was adjudged in the case of Mendoza the Spanish Embassadour plotting Treason here against Queen Elizabeth that he was not to be allowed the priviledge of an Embassador for that Illiciti non est mandatum For did they represent those that within their bounds they did truly and properly represent they could not Arrogate a power without the King to unelect or remove those that came thither elected by their own Counties Cities and Burroughs not by any power or Authority of their own but by virtue of their Kings Writs nor order the Clerk of the Crown the Kings Officer and none of theirs to raze their names out of the Record a matter which our Laws and Parliaments themselves have ordained to be without exception highly Criminal and it may be an everlasting problem how the Members chosen by one County or City should be put out by another that were strangers or Forreign unto their Election and were not commissionated to expel or justle out one another for so might Cornwal Wiltshire and the County of Sussex who do claim a multiplicity of Members in the House of Commons in Parliament be praedominant and out-do all the rest in benefiting themselves or hindring whom they list or by what Authority they do now of late for before or in the Raigns of King Henry the 8th Edward 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the Martyr and all their Royal Progenitors and Predecessors ever since this Kingdom was and hath been and should be a Monarchy of above One Thousand years it hath been never heard of that strangers whom they would be thought to represent and sometimes their own Members or those they do not represent must when they receive their sentence or censure as it is stiled from them who have no judicative power but were only Elected ad faciendum consentiendum unto those things which should be ordained by the King by or upon the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament constrain to receive their sentence of expulsion if they be Members or punishment if otherwise upon their knees unless they will claim to be a Soveraignty which their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy all our Laws Records and Journals of Parliament and our Annals and Histories and the Usage and Customs of Neighbour Nations Kingdoms and Republiques have hitherto contradicted or if it shall be said that it is in regard that the King is supposed to be virtually there and always believed to be present our Laws Records Annals and Reason and Truth will make hast to confute them that it would be absurdissimum ab omni ratione remotum nullo Exemplo in Anglia usitatum for that the King is we hope no Commoner or Member of the House of Commons in Parliament who come thither as his Subjects and sworn to obey him and his Successors under their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy was not Elected at all or to be there for his Place and his Throne and Chair of State is in his House of Peers in Parliament to whom he sends which he usually doth in the time of Parliament to come to receive his Commands and Directions and cannot surely at one and the same time be supposed to be in two places or to send for himself to come out of the House of Commons to himself into the House of Peers to hear what himself would say unto himself for when in other cases it hath been said that the King is by our Laws intended to be vertually or personally present in his Courts of Justice it it is not personaliter but
upon less overt-acts and Praesumptions have been accompted and punished as High Treason § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any Authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed delinquency whatsoever FOR if Monarchy hath been by God himself and the Experience of above 5000 years and the longest Ages of the World approved as it hath to have been the best and most desirable form of Government And the Kingdom of England as it hath been for more than 1000 years a well tempered Monarchy and the Sword and Power thereof was given to our Kings only by God that ruleth the Hearts of them The means thereunto which should be the Power of Punishment and Reward can no way permit that they should be without the Liberty and Prerogative of Pardoning which was no Stranger in England long before the Conquest in the Raign of King Athelstane who did thereby free the Nation from four-footed Wolves by ordaining Pardons to such Out-Laws as would help to free themselves and others from such villanous Neighbours the Laws of Canutus also making it a great part of their business to enjoyn a moderation in punishments ad divinam clementiam temperata to be observed in Magistracy and never to be wanting in the most Superior none being so proper to acquit the offence as they that by our Laws are to take benefit by the Fines and Forfeitures arising thereby and Edward the Confessors Laws would not have Rex Regni sub cujus protectione pace degunt universi to be without it when amongst his Laws which the People of England held so sacred as they did hide them under his Shrine and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of the Conqueror that they should be observed and procured the observation of them especially to be inserted in the Coronation-Oaths of our succeeding Kings inviolably to be kept And it is under the Title of misericordia Regis Pardonatio declared That Si quispiam forisfactus which the Margin interpreteth rei Capitalis reus poposcerit Regiam misericordiam pro forisfacto suo timidus mortis vel membrorum per dendorum potest Rex ei lege suae dignitatis condonare si velit etiam mortem promeritam ipse tamen malafactor rectum faciat in quantumcunque poterit quibus forisfecit tradat fidejussores de pace legalitate tenenda si vero fidejussores defecerint exulabitur a Patria For the pardoning of Treason Murder breach of the Peace c. saith King Henry the First in his Laws so much esteemed by the Barons and Contenders for our Magna Charta as they solemnly swore they would live and die in the defence thereof do solely belong unto him super omnes homines in terra sua In the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Peirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwal being banished by the King in Parliament and all his Lands and Estate seized into the Kings hands the King granted his Pardons remitted the Seizures and caused the Pardon and Discharges to be written and Sealed in his Presence And howsoever he was shortly after upon his return into England taken by the Earl of Warwick and beheaded without Process or Judgment at Law yet he and his Complices thought themselves not to be in any safety until they had by two Acts of Parliament in the seventh year of that Kings Raign obtained a Pardon Ne quis occasionetur pro reditu morte Petri de Gaveston the power of pardoning being always so annexed to the King and his Crown and Dignity And the Acts of Parliament of 2 E. 3. ca. 2. 10 E. 3. ca. 15. 13 R. 2. ca. 1. and 16 R. 2. ca. 6. seeking by the Kings Leave and Licence in some things to qualifie it are in that of 13 R. 2. ca 1. content to allow the Power of Pardoning to belong to the Liberty of the King and a Regality used heretofore by his Progenitors Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justiciar of England in the Raign of King Henry the third laden with Envy and as many deep Accusations as any Minister of State could lie under in two several Charges in several Parliaments then without an House of Commons had the happiness notwithstanding all the hate and extremities Put upon him by an incensed Party to receive two several Pardons of his and their King and dye acquitted in the Estate which he had gained Henry de Bathoina a Chief Justice of England being in that Kings Raign accused in Parliament of Extortion and taking of Bribes was by the King pardoned In the fifieth year of the Reign of King Henry the third the Commons in Parliament petitioning the King that no Officer of the Kings or any man high or low that was impeached by them should enjoy his Place or be of the Kings Council The King only answered he would do as he pleased With which they were so well satisfied as the next year after in Parliament upon better consideration they petitioned him that Richard Lyons John Pechie and lice Pierce whom they had largely accused and believed guilty might be pardoned And that King was so unwilling to bereave himself of that one especial Flower in his Crown as in a Grant or Commission made in the same year to James Botiller Earl of Ormond of the Office of Chief Justiciar of Ireland giving him power under the Seal of that Kingdom to pardon all Trespasses Felonies Murders Treasons c he did especially except and reserve to himself the power of pardoning Prelates â—arls and Barons In the first year of the Raign of King Henry the fourth the King in the Case of the Duke of Albemarle and others declared in Parliament that Mercy and Grace belongeth to Him and his Royal Estate and therefore reserved it to himself and would that no man entitle himself thereunto And many have been since granted by our succeeding Kings in Parliament at the request of the Commons the People of England in Worldly and Civil Affairs as well ever since as before not knowing unto whom else to apply themselves for it So as no fraud or indirect dealings being made use of in the obtaining of a Pardon it ought not to be shaken or invalidated whether it were before a Charge or Accusation in Parliament or after or where there is no Charge or Indictment ant cedent The Pardon of the King to Richard Lyons at the request of the Commons in Parliament as the Parliament Rolls do mention although it was not inserted in the Pardon was declared to be after a charge against him by the Commons in Parliament and in the perclose
both Houses and had no Royal Assent unto them must at the next Assembly begin again for every Session of Parliament is in Law where any Bill hath gained the Royal Assent or any Record upon a Writ of Error brought in the House of Peers hath been certified is and hath been accompted to have been a Session And although some of this latter quarrelling Age have Espoused an Opinion too much insisted upon that an Impeachment brought by the House of Commons against any one makes the supposed Offence until it be Tryed unpardonable A Reason whereof is undertaken to be given because that in all Ages it hath been an undoubted Right of the Commons to Impeach before the Lords any Subject for Treason or any Crime whatsoever And the Reason of that Reason is supposed to be because great Offences complained of in Parliament are most effectually determined in Parliament Wherein they that are of that Opinion may be intreated to take into their more serious Consideration That there neither is nor ever was any House or Members of Commons in Parliament before the Imprisonment of King H. 3. by a Rebellous part of his Subjects in the Forty ninth year of his Raign or any kind of fair or just evidence for it Factious designing and fond conjectures being not amongst good Pa 〈…〉 ots or the Sons of Wisdom ever accompted to be a sufficient or any evidence Nor was the House of Lords from its first and more ancient original intituled under their King to a Judicative Power to their Kings in common or ordinary Affairs but in arduis and not in all things of that nature but in quibusdam as the King should propose and desire their advice concerning the Kingdom and Church in matters of Treason or publick concernments and did understand themselves and that high and honourable Court to be so much forbid by Law ancient usage and custom to intermeddle with petty or small Crimes or Matters as our Kings have ever since the sixth year of the Raign of King Edward the first ordained some part of the Honourable House of Peers to be Receivers and Tryers of Petitions of the Members of the House of Commons themselves and others directed to the King to admit what they found could have no Remedy in the ordinary Courts of Justice and reject such as were properly elsewhere to be determined with an Indorsement of non est Petitio Parliamenti Which may well be believed to have taken much of its reason and ground from a Law made by King Canutus who began his Raign about the year of our Lord 1016. Nemo de injuriis alterius Regi queratur nisi quidem in Centuria Justitiam consequi impetrare non poterit For certainly if it should be otherwise the reason and foundation of that highest Court would not be as it hath been hitherto always understood to be with a Cognisance only de quibusdam arduis matters of a very high nature concerning the King and the Church But it must have silenced all other Courts and Jurisdictions and have been a continual Parliament a Goal-delivery or an intermedler in matters as low as Court Leets or Baron and County Courts and a Pye-Powder Court And the words of any Crime whatsoever do not properly signifie great Offences and that all great Offences do concern the Parliament is without a Key to unlock the Secret not at all intelligible when it was never instituted or made to be a Court for common or ordinary Criminals For the House of Commons were never wont to take more upon them than to be Petitioners and Assenters unto such things as the King by the advice of His Lords Spiritual and Temporal should ordain and obey and endeavour to perform them And an Impeachment of the House of Commons cannot be said to be in the Name or on the behalf of all the People of England for that they never did or can represent the one half of them and if they will be pleased to exaimine the Writs and Commissions granted by our Kings for their Election and the purpose of the Peoples Election of them to be their Representatives Substitutes or Procurators it will not extend to accuse Criminals for that appertained to the King himself and His Laws care of Justice and the Publick for the Common People had their Inferiour Courts and Grand Juries Assises and Goal-Deliveries to dispatch such Affairs without immediately troubling Him or His Parliament and the tenour and purpose of their Commissions and Elections to Parliament is no more than ad faciendum consentiendum iis to obey and perform such things as the King by the advice of His Lords Spiritual and Temporal should in Parliament ordain For although where the Wife or Children of a Man murdered shall bring an Appeal the King is debarred from giving a Pardon because by our Saxon Laws derived from the Laws of God they are not to be disturbed in that satisfaction which they ought to have by the loss or death of the Man murdered Yet the publick Justice will not be satisfied without the party offending be Arraigned and brought to Judgment for it if the party that hath right to Appeal should surcease or be bought off so as an Appeal may be brought after or before the King hath Indicted and an auter foitz acquit in the one case will not prejudice in the other and where the Matter of Fact comes to be afterwards fully proved and the Appeal of a Wife or Child of a Bastard called filius populi quia nullius filius where only the King is Heir cannot vacate or supersede an Indictment of the Kings Neither is an Appeal upon a Crime or in criminal Matters in the first instance to be at all pursued in Parliament by the Statute made in the First year of the Raign of King H. 4. the words whereof are Item for many great inconveniences and mischiefs that often have happened by many Appeals made within the Realm of England to the great afflictions and calamites of the Nation as it afterwards happened by the Lancastrian Plots and Desings in that mischievous Appeal in Anno 11. of King Richard the Second before this time It is ordained and stablished from henceforth That all the Appeals to be made of things done out of the Realm shall be tryed and determined before the Constable and Marshal of England for the time being And moreover it is accorded and assented That no Appeals be from henceforth made or in any wise pursued in Parliament in any time to come And therefore that allegation that the House of Peers cannot reject the Impeachment of the Commons because that Suit or Complaint of the Commons can be determined no where else will want a better foundation an Impeachment of the House of Commons in the Name of all the People being no other than an Appeal to the King in Parliament And the Suit of such as might be Appellants in another place being there
Parliament and that learned and pacifique Prince having been much tempted thereunto in his great want of Money by an offer of 200000 l. per annum which was more than the whole profits of the Excise upon Ale Beer Cider Coffee c. All the Salaries Cheats Charges and Allowances Filchings Lurches and False Accompis deducted could or did amount unto that kind of Revenue being since his late Majesties death to be no more than a moyety thereof And these Tenures in Capite were so inherent in the Crown of England as divers of the learned Judges of England in their Arguments in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr made no Scruple to assert that the Tenures in Capite were of so high a nature that they could not be taken away by any Act of Parliament And to take away from our Kings and Princes the love and honour of the people as well as they had done the Tenures in Capite the Nerves and Sinews of our Monarchick Government it was the especial work and design of those Enemies of our former happiness to take away also the Honour of his Crown and Hospitality and could not think they had done all their work until they had thrown the Pourveyance into the bargain of the Tenures in Capite which nothing but the value of the Kingdom it self could make an Equivalent recompence or purchase and the unhappy contrivers thereof might have put a better value upon it when in Michaelmas Term in the third year of the Raign of King James the first all the Judges of England did certify that it was a Praerogative of the King at the Common Law and that all the Statutes which have been made to correct abuses in the Purveyances took not away the Purveyances but confirmed them Et qui tollit Iniquitatem firmat proprietatem confirmat usum And all those mischiefs done by one that unhappily might have taken more heed of an Assembly which some flatteringly called the Collected Wisdom of the Nation when he could not well esteem them so to be when by Fudling Drinking Bribing and all the base Cheats imaginable they had procured themselves to be made Members of that much miscalled Parliament And yet after his late Majesties miraculous restoration being advanced unto great preferments and at the last a Grand Minister of State did so think well of his own doings as he publickly at the Table of Sir Harbottle Grimston Master of the Rolls in Chancery-Lane in the hearing of many worthy persons Sir Nicholas Strode John Hern Esquire and others one of them yet living ready to testify it what a most especial Service he had done for the King and Kingdom when he was a Member in Parliament and known to be the Kings Sollicitor General by a motion without any the Kings privity or direction to dissolve and destroy the Tenures in Capite and accept a Recompence for them which Serjeant Glyn a former Grand Rebel to his Majesty and after his Restauration crept in as the most of them did and got to be Members of Parliament was ready to assist by the offer of a Recompence by an Excise upon Ale Beer Sider and Coffee a Limb of that Dutch Devil which they had made use of in their Rebellion and time of his late Majesties and now Majesties persecution At which the Company standing amazed and Sir Nicholas Strode said that he should never have fought for the late blessed Martyr or come to his setting up his Standard at Nottingham if he could have foreseen it the most of the Nation at that time and almost ever since verily believing that it had been the folly and evil doing of Sir Edward Hyde the late Lord Chancellor afterwards Earl of Clarendon and therefore was sufficiently railed upon Cursed and Banned for it and yet he was so Faultless and Innocent therein as it can be witnessed by the now Earl of Clarendon his Son Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord privy Seal in the Kingdom of England that this overbold presumptuous motion of a Servant and Councel at Law of that unfortunate weather-beaten Prince not being at all informed how or by whom the project came to be first hatched or moved his late Majesty calling together his privy Councel and advising upon that most unhappy proposition wherein the Rebel Parliament in February 1647. had made some Vote Act or Ordinance against the aforesaid Tenures under the notion of the Court of Wards being but two years before his Royal Fathers Murther and Oliver Cromwel had made some Act of his Worships miscalled Parliament some few years after as it behoved for the destruction of those Tenures in Capite when he intended as much as he could to take away the Kingship and Monarchy until he could make himself fit to govern a foolish besotted rebellious people they having before not at all made any mention or request to have the said Court of Wards put down or the Tenures in Capite by their High and mighty 19 Propositions nor were any complaints of grievances made thereby nor in all our Parliament Records or Journals or Historians since or before the Raigns of King Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror doth there appear to have been any Petitions in Parliament against them neither in that as it were intended deposing Remonstrance of the 15th of December 1641. wherein nothing was omitted that might injure or calumniate per fas aut nefas the Kings Authority or Government there appears to have been nothing against either the Tenures in Capite or Court of Wards And it can be proved that the Royal Martyr during his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight had designed that if ever he came again to his Rights he would upon all his Crown or Chequer Leases reserve some military Services notwithstanding all which his late Majesties great want of present Money and some setled Revenue perswaded him to hearken more than otherwise his own great Judgment would have done The Earl of Radnor was much against their dissolution alledging that the constitution it self was good and was not in it self to be cast away by any Male-administration Sir Geffery Palmer was very much for the preservation of the Tenures and so were many other and the Lord Chancellor Clarendon very much and so greatly as he called to the said Sollicitor General and said will you also put down the Pourveyances saying with some passion by God we seem to be against the late Commonwealth and yet are acting for it And his late Majesty was so unwillingly drawn to be in Love with that ever to be deplored Parliament contrivance to decapitate the Monarchy and not only that but Ireland and render all the Inferiour part thereof to be in a paralitique or dead palsical over-benummed in its Members as before that Act passed he sent for one Mr. Darnel an ancient and experienced Clerk and Attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries to propose some expedient for the Regulation of
the order of the House of Commons who returning to their places again ordered that their Serjeant should go to the Sheriffs of London to demand the delivery of their Burgess without any Writ or Warrant albeit the Lord Chancellor offered to grant them a Writ which they refused as being of opinion that all commandments and orders of their House by their Serjeants only shewing of his Mace the Ensign of their Soveraigns authority without a Writ would be authority sufficient but before the Serjeant came into London the Sheriffs having intelligence how heinously the matter was taken better bethought themselves and delivered the Prisoner but the Serjeant according to his command charged the Sheriffs to appear the next morrow in the House of Commons bringing with them the Clerks of the Compter and the said White was likewise taken into Custody whereupon the next morning the said Sheriffs and Clerks together with the said White appearing were compelled to make Answer without Councel and with the Sheriffs and the said White were committed to the Tower of London and the Officers and Clerks to Newgate where they remained for some days and were after delivered not without the humble suit of the Lord Mayor of London and divers of their friends But a debate and questions arising in the House of Commons which lasted 9 or 10 days together how to preserve the debt of the Creditor whilst they enjoyed the priviledge of Parliament by delivering Mr. Ferrers out of prison upon an execution and some being of opinion that it was to be salved only by an Act of Parliament and not well agreeing also thereupon the King being advertised thereof summoned to appear before him the Lord Chancellor and the Judges and the Speaker of the House of Commons and other the gravest persons of that House who after his Judicious arguments concerning the extent and warrantableness of the priviledge of Parliament and his own more especially in the granting thereof touching the freedom from Arrests which all the Judges assented unto none speaking against it commended notwithstanding the intention of his Houses of Parliament to have an Act to preserve the Creditors debt who he said deserved to have lost it the Act of Parliament was consented unto by the Commons but passed not the House of Lords by reason of the sudden dissolution of the Parliament Upon the report made by Mr. Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster Chairman or principal of the Committee of the House of Commons for the delivery of Edward Smally a Servant of Mr. Hales a Member of Parliament arrested in Execution that the said Committees found no President for the setting at large by the Mace and if they had it had but denoted the Kings sole Authority for that it was his Mace and his Serjeant at Arms that carried it and none of their Mace or Serjeant any person in Arrest but only by Writ and that by divers precedents of Record perused by the said Committee it appeareth that ever Knight Citizen and Burgess of the House of Commons in Parliament which doth require Priviledge hath used in that case to take a corporal Oath before the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being that the party for whom such Writ was prayed was his Servant at the time of the Arrest made And thereupon Mr. Hall was ordered by the House that he should repair to the Lord Keeper and make Oath in form aforesaid and then to proceed to the taking of a Warrant for a Writ of Priviledge for his said Servant according to the said report and it so appears by the Journal of the House of Commons and saith Mr. Elsing the Writ of Priviledge being so easy to be had what needed any Petitions to be made by the Commons to the King and the Lords for the same and as there is no precedent for this in the times of Edward the third Richard 2d H. 4. nor H. 5. so there are none to the contrary There being then no such opinions as have been since indulged and seditiously enough espoused by some that would go so far beyond Truth and Reason as to believe that the Members of the House of Commons that are or shall be have a Charter of Ordination or which is more of a never to be prov'd Commission from an unintelligible power of Soveraignty of the People And a man might wonder himself almost into an Extasy or Inanition how or by what magical or strange artifice Sir Edward Coke in the latter end of his Age and Treasury of Law and good Learning if he had ever Studied and read as he ought to have done the Feudal Laws which were our Fundamental Laws and the Original of our once and I hope may be again happy government and might before he came to be over-credulously infected with the Impostures of the modus tenendi Parliamenta and mirrour of Justice have well understood that they were no other than those which are and long have been the Laws of the Britains Saxons Germany France and Spain the Goths Vandals and Longobards Denmark Norway Sweden Hungary Bohemia Holland and West Freizland Gelderland Savoy Transilvania Silesia Moldavia Walachia Navarre Catalonia and the Republicks of Geneva and Genoa Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily Dutchies of Lorrain Millian and Florence with some little small diversities and that all our multitudes of allowed Customs Usages and Priviledges by the Indulgence of our Kings and Princes and their Laws have had no other Fountain or Original and should confess that our Magna Charta and Carta de Foresta which were not only some Relaxations Liberties and Priviledges granted and allowed by our King Henry the third but were expressly granted to be holden of that King his Heirs and Successors in Capite and that both they and all our Acts and Ordinances made them to be no other than as their Patroni or foundation and that our Colloquia generalia or Magna Concilia or Curia as Brodon stiles them now or for many Ages past called Parliaments and even those beneficia and Laws were not unknown to the Brittains in the time of their valarous and great King Arthur and could tell how when he was a Member of Parliament in the third year of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr and one of the most eminent and busy to Name and Stile the Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled their Petition of Right when that which they would there claim to be their Rights and Liberties had no Right Reason Law President true History or Record to back or assert what they desired the King to give his Royal assent or Fiat unto and was no more the Rights of the People truly understood than to desire a Liberty to pull down the House or Government upon their own heads carve out their own destruction and entail it or as little Children left alone in an House with a great fire
great wrong or Male Tolt set upon Wooll be revoked and that this grant turn not into a Custom That the keeping of the Kings Wards Lands may be committed to the next of the kin of the same Ward That Remedy may be found against such as dying past away their Lands to defraud the Lords of their Wardships The Commons made answer that they knew and tendered the Kings Estate and were ready to Aid the same only to this new device they durst not agree without further conference with their Countries and so praying respite until another time they promise to travel to their Countries Sundry of the Lords and Commons being not come the Parliament was continued from day to day until the Thursday following The Archbishop of Canterbury having been in the Kings displeasure humbled himself and desired his favour and having been defamed desired his Tryal by his Peers to which the King answered he would attend unto the Common affairs and after hear others A Proclamation was made for such as would exhibit any Petitions and a day given therefore Anno 25 E. 3. The Commons pray that process of Outlawry shall be in debt Detinue and Replevin To which was answered the like motion was in the last Parliament which had the same Answer and was then reasonably answered Anno 45. E. 3. it was agreed that ever Petition now exhibited may be by some of the Lords considered The Commons pray that the Extracts of Greenwax may mention at whose suit such Amerciaments were lost in what Term and what Plea and between what parties To which was answered let the same be provided the next Parliament which was not summoned until in Anno 47. E. 3. In Anno 47. of his Raign after Subsidies granted the Commons prayed answers to their Petitions which was granted after the Chancellor had in the name of the King given them great thanks he willed that such of the Commons that would wait on their Petitions might so do and the rest that would might depart and so the Parliament ended They pray that Right may be done to every mans Petition To which the King answered let that be observed which toucheth every private person our Kings and Princes having ever taken time to answer the petitions of their Subjects §. 30. That in those affairs peculiar only to so great and venerable an assembly which should not be Trivial or proper to Lower and Lesser Jurisdictions assigned for the determining of Lesser matters for the publick Ease and Benefit Our Kings and Princes have a greater burden and care upon them as Gods Vicegerents besides that of Parliaments to manage and take care of the Kingdom for the benefit and good of themselves and their People FOR our Kings and Supream Magistrates having many other as well necessary as ordinary and Common affairs to look after and have regard unto as the care of Peace at Home and Abroad Defence and Protection of their People Commerce Intelligence and Correspondence with Allies and Neighbour Princes guard of the Seas and reducing of Parliament Councels to speedy Actions could not admit a long consult which in our former and more happy Parliament Assemblies were seldom above forty days and many times with lesser periods of time found to be sufficient to dispatch the great and Important occasions thereof For the care of three great Kingdoms and a multitude of Accidents dayly hourly or oftner happening ordering and disposing Competent Magistrates and Officers therein observation of their well or ill managing their trusts rewarding and encouraging the good and punishment of the bad with the administration of fit Remedies to all that complain of grievances and oppressions committed by or amongst such a multitude of people with the very great difficulties of keeping Peace abroad with Neighbour Princes and preserving their own Subjects from being Injurious to theirs or receiving wrong from others may put a Prince into a necessity of having in his own person more than Argus his Eyes or Briareus hands and give him no or a very small time of rest to ask of God what Solomon did when he took upon him the government of Israel being a great People that could not be numbred or counted for multitude give therefore thy Servant an understanding heart to Judge the people that he may descern betwixt good and evil for who is able to Judge so great a People And with greater reason as being to govern a stubborn and Rebellious people high minded and proud with the riches gained thereby many of whom have perplexed and troubled him and themselves with their needless and destructive Fears and Jealousies without which the burden would not be so heavy as it is And can never seem light if those Fault-finders and Quick-silver Brained State Polititians would but consider how great it is in the dayly exercise of that government have hitherto made kept us happy all which put together might be enough to load an Atlas and would never be so well done or prove so effectual for dayly and publick good if they should tarry either for the coming of Parliaments or for long and perpetual or disagreeing Parliaments And cannot be deemed to be of little moment or concernment if an estimate be taken of the cares charge and troubles to preserve the publick Peace both by Sea and Land Leagues and Alliances Intelligence Correspondence and Amity with Forraign Princes and States the least breach of Peace with whom might disturb our Peace and Commerce abroad and transport Invasions and War upon us at home with sending and receiving of Embassadors giving audiences dispatches to theirs and sending Instructions with ours besides their sitting in Councel with their Privy Councel commonly three times in every Week of extraordinary concernments make not some addition thereunto Sundays scarce excepted and not that day or every day in every Week besides can pass but he is troubled either with petitions for grants or favours protection from oppressions and redresses for greivances either delivered by the petitioners themselves or by one or both of the two Secretaries or the four Magistri Supplicationum Libellorum Masters as they are called of Requests who by their monthly turns of waiting have commonly an audience twice in every moneth of our Kings and Princes who are as the mercy seat upon Earth the Pool of Bethesda the Asculapius Temple the Balm of Gilead Asylum sanctuary or refuge to help all the distresses and calamities of their people And that in all our Parliaments since the beginning of the Raign of King Edward 3. they have inter their quaedam Ardua taken alwaies into their care not only those of England but of Ireland Scotland Gascogney Guernsey Jarsey and the Isles though they have no Burgesses or any other representing for them as England hath had since the 48th year of the Raign of King Henry the third which considered with the many cares of collecting and gathering in his Revenue and well ordering
Praemunire the Commons by the name of the Commons of England three times repeated not stiling themselves a third Estate petitioned the King that the Estates viz. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal herein acknowledging the Praelates to be of great use to the King might declare their resolutions to stand to and abide by the King and had never presumed so high as publickly to print and declare that the Soveraignty is inherent and radicated in the people if they had not plundered or sequestred the Devils Library of Hellish Inventions Tricks and new found devices or met with some manuscript of them at some Auction a Trick of trade newly found out by the Stationers And likewise prayed the King and him require by way of Justice that he would examine the Lords Spiritual and Temporal severally and all the Estates in Parliament to give their opinion in the cases aforesaid whereupon the said Archbishops Bishops and Praelates being severally examined made their Protestations that they could not deny or affirm that the Pope had power to excommunicate or translate Bishops or Praelates but if any such thing be done by any that it is against the Kings Crown and dignity And the Lords Temporal being severally examined answered that the matters aforesaid were clearly in derogation of the Kings Crown and Dignity And likewise the Procurators of the Lords Spiritual being severally examined answered in the name and for their Lords as the Bishops had done whereupon the King by the Assent aforesaid and at the request of the Commons did ordain and Enact the said Statute of Praemunire And might be assured that in Holland the united Provinces the chief of the confederate Estates with those that represent the Reistres Schaff or Nobility do usually sit at the Hague in Holland many times go home or send to the Towns and places they represent to receive their orders or approbation who sometimes send their Deputies unto the Estates at the Hague with their resolutions so as there is a wide and great difference betwixt those which our ambitious high-minded parcel of people that would be called Estates and those that are the true and real Estates of the principality of Ghelders and County of Zutphen Earldoms and Counties of Holland Zealand Utrecht and Friziss Omland and the Eu and Lovers who did so unite and confederate themselves together with all those that would allye and unite with them as they promised not to infringe or break any of each of their Priviledges or Immunities which our Members of the House of Commons in Parliament have largly done by ejecting turning out and imprisoning one another putting others in their places and making them receive their illegal Sentences and unjust Judgments upon their knees neither shall raise or make any Taxes or Imposts upon each other without general consent which ours would be so stiled Estates have as largely done as 48 Millions of English Money have amounted unto and in case any thing be done to the contrary it shall be null and void the Lords Lieutenants and Governors of the said several Provinces and Stadtholders thereof and all the subordinate Magistrates and Officers should from time to time take their Oaths to perform the same and the Governors of the Cities Towns Places in the said united Provinces do in especial cases send unto their Stadtholders their Assent or Ratifications before any thing be acted which our pretending third Estates did not do when they arraigned and murdered their King at the suit of the people when that blessed Martyr King Charles the first asserted that they were not a tenth part of the people and he might truly have said that there were not above one in every 200 of the deluded people of many Millions of his Subjects Cromwels Souldiers and Army and the murdering Judges only excepted and not all of them neither that desired his death or being so wickedly used And can never find any reason record or president to warrant the imprisoning securing or secluding as they have lately called it any of their own Members nor are to judge of the Legality or Illegality of the Election of their Members nor of any the pretended breach of their Priviledges of which the King and Lords were anciently the Judges as is evident by 16 R. 2. n. 6. 12 R. 2. n. 23. 1 H. 4. n. 79. 4 H. 4. n. 19 20. 5 H. 4. n. 71. 78. ca. 5. 8 H. 4. n. 13. Brook Parliament 11. 8 H. 6. n. 57. 23 H. 6. n. 41. 31 H. 6. n. 27 28. 36. 14 E. 4. n. 55. 17 E. 4. n. 36. cum multis aliis but were always Petitiouers to the King for Publick Laws and redress of grievances or in the case of private persons but very seldom petitioned unto and then but by sometimes the Upholsters and Merchant adventurers of London and though they had the free Election of their Speakers granted yet they were to present them to the King who allowed or refused them and sometimes caused them to chuse another never did or could of right administer an Oath to witnesses or others to be examined by the whole House of Commons as the Lords in their subordinate Judicative power usually did had no Vote nor Judicature in Writs of Errour brought in Parliament returnable only before and to be judged by the King and his House of Lords nor yet in criminal Causes upon impeachments wherein the Lords are only subordinate to their Soveraign to be Judges So as the improbability impossibility and unreasonableness of the super-governing power and pretended Supremacy of the House of Commons in Parliament will be as evident as the Absurdity and Frenzy thereof will appear to be by all our Records Annals Historians and Memorials which will not only contradict the follies of those that are so liberal to bestow it upon them but may give us a full and undeniable assurance that the representing part of part of the Commons of England in Parliament from their first Original in 49 H. 3. when their King was a Prisoner to a part of his Subjects they could then represent none but Rebels did not certainly believe themselves to be either one of the 3. Estates of the Kingdom or co-ordinate with their King when in the first year of the Raign of King Edward the second as Walsingham a Writter of good accompt then living and writing after the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. hath reported the people seeking by the help of the Bishops and Nobility to redress some grievances which did lye heavily upon them ad Regem sine strepitu accedentes rogant humiliter ut Baronum suorum Conciliis tractare negotia regni velet quibus a periculis sibi regno imminentibus non solum cautior sed Tutior esse possit And when they had any cause of complaint or any grievances cast or fallen upon them by their fellow Subjects or thrown or imposed one upon another did not
calumniate their Kings by publick calumnies or Remonstrances for who would not in the course of ordinary friendship or in the case of Children or Servants to their Parents or Master take it to be an ill piece of love or duty publickly to abuse and rail at their Kings and those which were invited for helps in Councel worse than the accursed Chams discovery of his Father Noahs Nakedness or Jobs instead of comfort better censuring friends did it in no worse expressions than Walsingham hath related viz. Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbato Priores Comites Barones tota terrae Communitas monstrant domino nostro Regi humiliter rogant eum ut ea ad honorem suum populi sui salvationem velit corrigere emendare And when they long after found themselves as aforesaid stiled one of the 3. Estates in some of the Parliament Rolls so as aforesaid mentioned could not by any Grammar or reasonable construction or by any Rules of any truth sense or reason believe the King to be one of the 3. Estates spoken of or at all intended in the Journals or Rolls of Parliament or understood so to be by the parties speaking or spoken of or unto the Sandy and britle foundation of which ill digested opinion being not likely to get any room in any serious mans well weighed consideration Being only made use of as a Trick of Faction and Sedition to exclude the Bishops and Lords Spiritual on purpose to put the King in their place whereby to make him co-ordinate with them and the House of Peers and help to justifie as much as they could the fighting against Imprisoning Arraigning and Murder of their King And being Elected and Introduced into the House of Commons as Procurators only and representing for some part not all of the Commons under their proper limitted conditions ad faciendum consentiendum iis to such matters and things as in that greatest of Councels in the Kingdom should be ordained by the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal there Assembled for the good and welfare thereof under the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy did not stile themselves Estates or think they were thereunto entituled when at the Coronation of their former and succeeding Soveraign Kings and Princes they were in suo genere though with different Species Degrees Estates Capacities comprehended under the notion of the vulgus or common People for until the 11th year of the Raign of King Richard the 2d they had no Title of Estates allowed or given unto them and if they could make any Title thereunto the Lords Spiritual or Praelates were the first the Lords Temporal and Nobility the 2d under and subordinate to their King Supream Head and Governour and the Commons who were dispares to the Peers of England the 3d. who did notwithstanding long after in their Petitions in Parliament take it to be honour enough to call themselves by no higher a Title than the Commons The Kings Leiges and his pouvrez Leiges the word Estate State or one of the Estates in Parliament being by the Invention or Phraseologie of their Clerks or Registers by hasty abbreviation and in and but sometimes saving of labour in the aforesaid 11th year of the unfortunate Raign of King Richard the 2d by Use and Custom fastned upon them as men and many learned Authors have often by an Incuria done when in their writing of Ancient and Former things or times they have made use of words or expressions of the present times as more intelligible as Duel for Battle or Camp Fight Parliament for our seldom or greatest Councels hint for intimation or spoken of before the last of which being known only to have been here introduced in the late Covenanted Scotch and English Rebellion by Mr. Alexander Henderson or the late Senseless Proud False and Insignificant Titles of Honour or Respect of an Alderman assumed by such as paid a great Sum of Money as a Fine not to be an Alderman and so became revera no Alderman with as little Reason as the Citizens Wives of London as low as the Meal-man's and Bricklayer's do think themselves clownishly handled or dealt with if they be not at every word stiled Madam cum multis aliis his nugis Curialibus of the misusage and impropriety of words misapplied without any consideration had of the intention and true meaning of the Authors and the times wherein they lived and the mode and usage of the words in former and latter times made use of for the better signification and expression of mens meanings either writings reading or modus loquendi viz. by an ignorant Bellum Grammatical make Rebellion to be as necessary as Religion and Rebellion to be Religion Who could not without the Power or impulse of dreaming or some wild imagination be Estates in very deed when they took and sued for their Wages in coming to the Parliament tarrying and returning and have been told by some of our Kings in Parliament that they were but Petitioners which they then did not contradict which the higher sphered Lords in Parliament never did more than enjoy a Priviledge Anciently allowed but rarely made use of by them in the hunting and killing a Deer as they travelled through any of the Kings Forests or Parks in their way to advise and serve their Kings in those their greatest of Councels and in our Statutes and Acts of Parliament penned by the Judges and Councel of our Kings in their former and much better Usage and Custom of drawing and penning our Acts of Parliament of late left only to be framed by Sollicitors and the Prosecutors and Contrivers thereof so as the word Estates is rarely to be found therein And so little were the Parliamentary Commons of England obliged to the old approved good Writers and Historians as Asser Menevensis Ingulfus Roger Hoveden Gervasius Tilburiensis William of Malmesbury Matthew Paris Brompton Knighton and many others contemporaries to our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Kings and their Successors and if their Testimonies will not pass with these Reeord Scrap-mongers who would wrest and wring every thing they can meet with to their Seditions and Treason hatching by false and wicked glosses and misinterpretations the Parliament and Statute Rolls that do every where give evidence as an everlasting truth unto what that blessed Martyr King Charles the first hath so truly asserted in his Answer to the Rebel Parliament 19 Propositions when the Secretary or Sir Edward Hyde by a mistake had allowed them the Title of Estates which being decryed by the Lawyers and Loyal Members of the Loyal Parliament at Oxford then attending viz. Sir Orlando Bridgman Sir Geffry Palmer and Sir Robert Holborn had not so passed but that the post could not be recalled yet howsoever the Rebellious party at London that were so willing to catch at that as they thought advantage might have seen read in the words cohaerent in the same Paragraph an exception in the
according to the great Charter nulli vendemus Justitiam unto which the King answered such as be of course shall be so and such as be of grace the King will command the Chancellour to be therein gracious Neither doth it appear that the Lords Spiritual who in the Raign of King Stephen held three several Councels in Secular Affairs and of King Henry the 2d were sundry times Mediators employed by him in Treaties betwixt him and the King of France or that the Lords Temporal the other part of the House of Peers and Baronage of England subordinate under their King and Soveraign did ever take esteem or believe the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament jointly or separately to be a 3d. Estate of the Kingdom for they neither had or enjoyed that Title or supposed Power In Anno 17. of King John in the Rencounter or Rebellion at Running Mede when in a pacification there made with some of his robustious Barons it was agreed that if the Conservators none of them which were then nominated to be the Conservators of the Kingdom being then called the Estates could not obtain a just performance of that constrained agreement by a complaint made unto the King or his Chief Justice of the Kingdom populus not then dreamed to be a 3d. Estate might â—um pravare with a salvo or exception to the Persons of him his Wife and Children do it and were not so imagined to be when the Popes Legat had by his Excommunication of that King and Interdiction of the use of Christianity in the whole Nation constrained him to do Homage to the Pope by an Investiture of the Sword Crown and Scepter and an yearly Tribute of 1000 Marks for the Kingdom of England and Ireland to the Church and See of Rome that Engine or Trick of Soveraignty Inhaerent in the People or a 3d. Estate representing for them in Parliament not then being thought necessary for a ratification of those that would magnifie themselves with that Factious and Fictitious Title of a 3d. Estate which they durst not adventure to make use of or mention in our Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta freely granted by King Henry the 3d. his Son and that more than thirty times Confirmations for the first whereof they believed they had made a good bargain when they had given unto that King the 15th part of their moveables and were not a 3d. Estate or called so in the 42 year of the Raign of that King when the Derogatory Act of Parliament to Kingly Government was enforced from him at Oxford in the 42 year of his Raign Anno 13. E. 3. The Bishop of Durham and Sir Michael de la Poole came from the King with a Message to the whole Estates which probably were then none other than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal concerning his Victories atchieved in France The Lords upon the Kings want of Money grant to the King the tenth Sheaf of Corn their Bond or Bond-Tenants excepted their 〈…〉 h Fleece of Wooll and 〈…〉 h Lamb for two years the Commons then not stiled Estates require time to go into their Countries to advise with those that sent them the Commons not Estates return their Assent and make several demands with a request that the Sheriffs of every County may in the next Summons to Parliament return two Knights girt with Swords A general Proclamation was made that all Persons having Charters of Pardon should resort to the Sea-coast for the Kings Service upon pain to forfeit the same The Commons do give the King for his Relief 30000 Sacks of Wooll upon conditions expressed in a pair of Indentures whereupon the Lords promised to send to the King to know his pleasure after long Debating the Commons promise to give presently to the King 2500 Sacks of Wooll so as if the King liked the conditions aforesaid the same should run in payment if not they would freely give it to him Remembrances of things not finished in one Parliament to be done in another They granted unto the King the ninth of their Grain Wooll and Lamb for two years to be Levyed out of all Towns-men the ninth of their Goods of such as dwelled in Forests and Wasts a Fifteenth upon condition the King would grant their Petitions contained in a Schedule so willing were the Commons to obtain and get what they could from the King and so little did they think themselves to be a 3d. Estate or an entire or any part of Soveraignty Sundry Bishops Lords and Commons were appointed daily to sit until they had reduced the aforesaid Grant into the form of a Statute and was agreed upon by the King and the whole Estates which could not be expounded that the King was one of those Estates or the other any more than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal leaving the Commons to be no more than they were in suis gradibus no 3d. Estate which beginneth To the Honour of God c. And such Articles as were to continue but for a time the King exemplified under the great Seal Know ye that with our Bishops Earls c. Certain Bishops and Lords requiring to be saved harmless against the Duke of Brabant for great sums of Money wherein they stood bound for the King if the Duke of Cornwal married not the Daughter of the said Duke which was granted and all which Letters Patents were inrolled in Chancery And for that the King in his Stile was named King of France and had changed his Arms whereby The Abridger of the Parliament Rolls or Records or Mr. Pryn the Rectifier or misuser of them hath given us a curtailed Abbreviation of the Parliament Remembrances in 14 E. 3. wherein all that the Abridger or Rectifier was pleased to give us was that Subjects were no longer bound to him than as King of France the Kings Letters Patents of Indempnity were granted beginning Edwardus c. Know ye that where some people intend c. When as in the Printed Statute according to the Parliament Record for so it may better be understood to have been the Abridger or Rectifier so miscalled might have seen that the King by the Title of King of England and France and Lord of Ireland by his Letters Patents under the great Seal of England reciting that whereas some people did think that by reason the Realm of France was devolved to him as Right Heir of the same and for as much as he is King of France the Realm of England should be put in Subjection of the King and of the Realm of France in time to come he having regard to the Estate of his Realm of England and namly that it never was nor ought to be in Subjection to the obeysance of the Kings of France which for the time have been nor of the Realm of France and willing to provide for the Surety and Defence of the Realm of England and of the Leige people of the same doth will and grant
Durham Earls of Northampton Arundel Warwick Oxford Suffolk and Hugh le Despenser Lord of Glamorgan to the whole so misnamed Estate of Parliament when the King could not be one of them not at all being present purporting that whereas the King at his Arrival at Hoges in Normandy had made his Eldest Son the Prince of Wales Knight he ought to have of the Realm forty Shillings for every Knights Fee which they all granted and took Order for the speedy levying thereof 25 E. 3. Sir John Matravers pardon was confirmed by the whole missettled Estates whereof the King could not be accompted any of them for he granted the pardon 28 E. 3. Richard Earl of Arundel by Petition to the King praying to have the Attainder of Edmond Earl of Arundel his Father reversed and himself restored to his Lands and Possessions upon the view of the Record and and the said Richard Earl of Arundels Allegation that his Father was wrongfully put to death and was never heard the whole Estates saith that ill Translator adjudged he was wrongfully put to Death and Restored the said Earl to the benefit of the Law which none could do but the King who was petitioned and having the sole interest in the forfeiture was none of those which were wrongfully called the whole Estates 37 E. 3. Where it is said that at the end of the Parliament the Chancellor in the presence of the King shewed that the King meant to execute the Statute of Apparel and therefore charged every State to further the same the King could not be understood to charge himself After which he demanded of the whole Estates so as before mistaken whether they would have such things as they agreed on to be by way of Ordinance or of Statute they answered by way of Ordinance for that they being to take benefit thereby might amend the same at their pleasure And so the King having given thanks to all the as aforesaid miscloped Estates for their pains taken licensed them to depart which should be enough to demonstrate that the Granter and Grantees were not alone or conjoynt and that the King giving thanks to the Estates did not give it to himself 42 E. 3. The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Kings behalf gave thanks to the whole in the like manner mis-termed Estate for their Aids and Subsidies granted unto the King wherein assuredly the Archbishop of Canterbury did not understand the King to be any part of the whole Estate which the King gave thanks unto The Commons by their Speaker desiring a full declaration of the Kings necessity require him to have consideration of the Commons poor Estate The King declared to the Commons that it was as necessary to provide for the safety of the Kings Estate as for the Common-wealth Anno 6. Regis Richardi 2. after Receivers and Triers of Petitions named Commandment was given that all persons and Estates which imported no more being rightly understood than conditions or sorts of men miscalled as aforesaid should the next day have the cause of summoning the Parliament declared 11 R. 2. The Parliament was said to have been adjourned by the common Assent of the whole Estates the first time of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being called the Estates without or with the Commons joyned with them no such names or words appellations or Titles were either known or in use nor any such words or Titles as Estates being to be found in the Originals or Parliament Rolls before Anno 11 R. 2. for no more appeareth in the Original than in and under these expressions viz. Et mesme le vendredi auxint a cause ce fest solempnite de pasch estoit a progeno ii coveient le Roi les Seigneurs tautx autres entendre a devotion le Parlement coe assent le toutz Estats le Parlement estoit continez del dit vendredi tanque Lindy lendemain de la equinziesme de Pasch adonquez prochem ensuent commandez per le Roy a toutz les Seigneurs Communs du dit Parlement Quils seroient a Westminster le dimengo en la dite quinzieme de pascha a plustaid sur ceo noevelles briefs furent â—aiots a toutz les Seigneurs somons au dit parlement de yestre a la dite quinzieme sur certaine peine a limiter per les Seiguro qui seroient presents en dit Parlement a la quinzieme avant dite le quel Limdy le dit Parlement fust recommence tenat son cours selont la request des Communs grant de nostre Seigur le Roi avant ditz And then but the inconsiderate hasty new created word of the Clerks in a distracted time when the great Ministers of State in two contrary Factions to the ruin of the King and many of themselves as it afterwards sadly happened were quarrelling with each other and all the Bishops so affrighted as they were enforced to make their Protestation against any proceedings to be made in that so disturbed a Parliament In Anno 21. R. 2. The Bishop of Exeter Chancellor of England taking his Theme or Text out of Ezechiel Rex unius omnibus erat proved by many Authors that by any other means than by one sole King no Realm could be well governed For which cause the King had assembled the Estates in Parliament to be informed of the rights of his Crown withheld which Oration afterwards was to the same effect seconded by Sir John Bussey Knight Speaker of the House of Commons King Richard the second being as a Prisoner in the Tower of London made the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Hereford his Procurators to publish his Rem 〈…〉 of the Kingdom to the whole Estates Which whether at at that time distinguished or divided into three doth not appear viz. into Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons could not comprehend the King who was not to be present but gave the direction and authority to his said Procurators and could never have been understood to have been present or one of them himself or to have made such a prosecution against or for himself After the claim made unto the Crown of England in Parliament by Henry Duke of Lancaster and a consultation had amongst the Lords and Estates not expressing that the Commons were a 3d. or any part thereof it being then altogether improbable that King Richard the 2d or any other representing for him was there present and to make one of the said pretended Estates as much out of the reach of probability that King Richard himself was one or a Person then acting against himself the Duke of Lancaster himself then affirming that the Kingdom was vacant And when the Usurping King Henry the 4th openly gave thanks to the whole Estates wherein is plainly evidenced that himself neither was or could be understood to be then or at any other time one of the said Estates The first day of the Parliament the Bishop of London
the Kings Brother and Chancellor of England in the behalf of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of calling the Parliament and taking for his Theme Multitudo Sapientum learnedly resembled the Government of the Realm to the Body of a man the Right-hand to the Church the Left-hand to the Temporalty and the other Members to the Commonalty of all which Members and Estates the King not deeming himself to be one was willing to have Councel The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England by the Kings commandment declaring the cause of the Summoning the Parliament and taking for his Theme Regem honorificate shewed them that on necessity every Member of mans Body would seek comfort of the Head as the Chief and applyed the same to the honouring of the King as the Head And in that his Oration mentioning the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Knights Citizens and Burgesses giveth them no Title of Estates but the Kings Leiges In the presence of John Duke of Bedford Brother of the King Lieutenant and Warden of England and the Lords and Commons the Bishop of Durham by his commandment declared that the King willed that the Church and all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which could not include the King It was ordained that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties without the words Concessimus which could not comprehend the King who granted it to them but not to himself The Chancellor at the first assembling of the Parliament declared that the King willeth that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which must be intended to others that were his Subjects and not to himself that was none of them The Archbishop of York Chancellor of England declaring the cause of Summoning the Parliament said the King willeth that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties in which certainly he well knew that the Person willing or granting was not any of the Persons or Estates to whom he willed and granted that they should enjoy their Liberties The Duke of Gloucester being made Guardian or Keeper of England by the King sitting in the Chair the Archbishop of York being sick William Linwood Doctor of Laws declaring the cause of summoning the Parliaâ—ent said that the King willed that every Estate should enjoy their due Liberties which properly enough might be extensively taken to Military men and Soldiers the Gentry Agricolis opificibus all sorts of Trades Labourers Servants Apprentices Free-holders Copy-holders Lease-holders single Women and Children Tenants at Will and which never were themselves Estates but the several sorts and degrees thereof wherein if any Law Reason or Sense could make the King to be comprehended an inextricable problem or question would everlastingly remain unresolved who it was that so willed or granted The King sitting in his Chair of State John Bishop of Bath and Wells Chancellor of England in the presence of the Bishops Lords and Commons by the Kings Commandment declared the causes of summoning the Parliament taking for his Theme or Text the words sussipiant montes Pacem Colles Justitiam divided it into three parts according to the three Estates by the Hills he understood Bishops and Lords and Magistrates by little Hills Knights Esquires and Merchants by the People Husbandmen Artificers and Labourers By the which third Estates by sundry Authorities and Examples he learnedly proved that a Triple Political vertue ought to be in them viz. In the first Unity Peace and Concord In the second Equity Consideration Upright Justice without maintenance In the third due Obeysance to the King his Laws and Magistrates without grudging and gave them further to understand the King would have them to enjoy all their Liberties Of which third Estates the Chancellor in all probability neither the King or they that heard him did take or believe the King himself to be any part The 15th day of August the Plague beginning to increase the Chancellor by the Kings Commandment in the presence of the 3 Estates the Clerks Translator or Abridger being unwilling to relinquish their Novelty or Errors of which the commonest capacity or sense can never interpret the King to be one Prorogued the Parliament until the Quindena of St. Michael The Bishop of Bath and Wells Chancellor of England in the presence of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of the Summons of Parliament said that the King willed that all Estates should enjoy thâ—â— Liberties which might intitle the King to be the Party willing or granting but not any of the Parties who were to take benefit thereby It was enacted by the whole Estates which may be understood to be the King Lords Spiritual and that the Lords of the Kings Councel none of theirs should take such order for the Petition of the Town of Plymouth as to them should seem best Letters Patents being granted by the King to John Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury of divers Mannors and Lands parcel of the Dutchy of Lancaster under the Seal of the Dutchy were confirmed by the whole Estates for the performance of the last Will and Testament of King H. 5. though it was severed from the Crown and was no part of the concernment thereof nor had any relation to the Publick or any Parliamentory Affairs the King himself that granted the Letters Patents could not be interpreted to be one of those whole Estates which were said to have confirmed them By the whole Estates were confirmed King Henry the 6th Letters Patents of the Erection and Donation of Eton Colledge and also of Kings Colledge in Cambridge with the Lands thereunto belonging which might well conclude the King although he being the Donor could not be believed to be any part of the whole Estates who by their approbation are said to have confirmed his Letters Patents The Chancellor in the name of all the Lords in the presence of the King protested that the Peace which the King had taken with the French King was of his own making and will and not by any of the Lords procurations the which was enacted And it was enacted that a Statute made in the time of King H. 5. that no Peace should be taken with the French King that then was called the Dolphin of France without the assent of the three Estates of both Realms should be utterly revoked and that no Person for giving Counsel to the Peace of France be at any time to come impeached therefore which may demonstrate that neither the Dolphin of France nor the King of England were then accompted to be any part of the several 3. Estates of the said Kingdoms The King by his Chancellor declared that he willed that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties it cannot be with any probability supposed that either he or his Chancellor intended that himself was one of the said Estates The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England in the presence of the King gave thanks in his behalf to the 3. Estates wherein no
quaecunque in Actis Inae Gentilis sui Offae Merciorum Regis Ethelfredi magni Ethelbaldi qui primum Anglicos sacro Baptismate tinctus observata digna deprehendit ea collegit congessit reliqua plene omisit Or in any of the Books if they were extant said to have been written by that great King viz. Breviarium quoddam collectum ex Legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britannorum Saxonum Danorum as hath been before mentioned Or in or by the Laws of King Edward who Raigned here in Anno 900. when iis omnibus quae republicae praesunt etiam atque etiam mandavit ut omnibus quoad ejus facere poterint aequos se praebeant Judices perinde ut in Judiciali libro Scriptum habetur no Warrant yet appearing for a Modus tenendi Parliamentum nor a third Estate over-ruling or voting their Soveraign nec quicquam formident Jus Commune audacter dicant litibus singalis dici quibus dijudicantur codicibus statuit Or in the Laws of King Athelstan who Raigned here in the year 924. the Heptarchy being then reduced to its pristine Estate of Monarchy or in or by his Laws in a Councel holden at Exeter or in or by any the Laws of King Edmond Or in or by any the first written Laws said to be of the Brittains in the Raign of their King Howel Dha stiled the good or in or by any the Laws of King Eldred made in or about the year 948. or in or by any the Laws of King Edgar who Raigned about the year 959. and stiled himself favente dei gratia not of the people totius Angliae Rex Imperator as he might well do when he was Rowed in a Ship or Barge upon the River Dee in Wales by four of his Tributary Kings Or by King Edward made in or about the year 950. in the Senatus Consultum League or Agreement made betwixt him and the Monticuli Walliae Angliae sapientum and Walliae consiliis Or in the pact or agreement made betwixt King Edmond Ironside and Canutes the Dane when they were perswaded to spare the dire effect of a Bloody Battle and leave the â—vent unto a personal combate betwixt the King and his Danish Competitor in the view of both Armies whereupon they both being ferried over into the near Isle of Alney the strong Ironside so wearied and almost vanquished the Dane as he willingly agreed to be content with the moity of the Kingdom Neither doth there any thing appear in or by the Laws of our King Canutus who Raigned here about the year 1608. ex sapientum Consilio Or in or by any the Laws or Constitutions of William the Conqueror or any of our succeedings Kings or Princes And the late new Framers of new Governments calculated for the meridian of their own Profit and Ambitious Factious designs might have better informed themselves by the reading those mischievous Provisions imposed at a Parliament at Oxford upon King Henry the third and his Son Prince Edward which being afterwards by the King and the contending Barons referred to the Arbitration of the King of France a not long before enemy enough of King Henry the third with an engagement on both sides upon Oath to abide by his award those Provisions were upon a full hearing before that King and his Great Councel the Parliament at Paris in the presence of all the contending parties adjudged to be null and void as derogatory to Kingly government as hath been here before expressed that although in those Provisions there was another solemn Jury Impannelled in every County to Enquire and Certify all and every the supposed Breaches of Liberties and their Verdict under their Hands and Seals were returned into the Court of Chancery there is nothing to be found of the contents or complaints expected and that there being by those Provisions to be 3 Parliaments in every year one at Michaelmas or 2 at Candlemas and a third at the first of June and 12 to represent the Common people were to be Elected by the Barons and they that were chosen were none other than Bishops and Barons and the hautes homes so small was then the trust in the Vulgus or Common people and so nothing at all either in behalf or consideration of modus tenendi Parliamentum or a third Estate or Soveraignty in the people or can any rationally beleive that the Clerks in the House of Peers which is the highest Court of Record under their Soveraign and the house of Commons none but often supplicating the other to Record and Inrol their Special matters and Protestations and in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. when the five great Lords appealed five other as big as they of High Treason and throwing down their Gauntlets with Armies ready to attend their purposes and the Bishops had made their protestation and forsook their places might not by a facile inadvertency have suffer'd the word Estates to have crept under their Pens and be a means of procreating some of the like unfortunate Errors yet were they now amongst the living and examined they would swear they intended none other than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but subordinate to the King especially when the whole tenor and current of our multitudes of Acts of Parliament except those few of Richard the 3. that murdered his Nephew the young King to get into his Throne by flattering the people and calling them Estates seem to have no acquaintance with that since misused word or expression as some have done by saying when he came once to sit in Chancery the King can do no wrong And it might be more marvellous than the seven wonders of England that so great an Elevation and belief should be in that mistaken part of Parliament when in the storm and tide of a Faction and Sedition driving on a horrid Rebellion in order to the Murder of their King they had in their more than Pharisaical Fastings and Prayers with Protestations to make him a glorious King put him into insufferable Fetters as it were of Iron as to impose upon him in the 16th year of his Raign to put the power of summoning the Parliament once in every three years if he should omit it to the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal under severe penalties upon their Oaths at a certain praefixation of time and upon his failing to any twelve or more of the House of Peers and every house might choose their own Speaker and Administer the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to their Members and that therein should be omitted the title of Estates or some other Character of Grandetza if it had at all been justly due unto them When in December 1621 the House of Commons in Parliament by a Remonstrance made unto King James not being able to shew any good Law or Reason to the contrary did declare that they did not assume to themselves any power to determine of Religion or War nor did intend to
defectum ejus Et dixit D. Tho. qui. 1. P. 62. Quest. dixit Angelos quia peccare non possunt liberiores esse nobis qui pecca e possunt And Cicero defineth liberty to be potestas vivendi ut velint at non vivit ut velit qui juxta sensus carnis suae Cupiditatis sed is solummodo qui vivit juxta rationem Plutarchus Epictetus eandem Libertatis definitionem Nobis dederunt not that liberum esse debet dici cui nec impedimentum praeberi possit volenti nec vis inferri volenti but if none of the fancied vast liberties which the too many of our State or Government Menders would entitle their own evil designs and entail upon all that shall be so foolishly wicked as to be deluded by them and the costly searches of Mr. William Pettit amounting by his own Report unto more than five hundred pounds in all that could be found in any the Books and Manuscripts publick or private of England cannot reach or come so near as unto a probability that there ever were in the Brittish Roman Saxon Danish or Norman Raigns of our Kings and Princes and their many Royal Successors ever since or long before that since the Creation of the World either in Parliament or without any mention of a third Estate inherent in the people and they must be content to go a begging for a belief in some lately discovered Island where they may dream any such stuff may be sound either as their modus tenendi Parliamentum or a third Estate as Subjects at the same time governing their Kings and Princes when by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy they are bound alwaies to be obedient unto them as next under God their SupremeHead and Governor And may curse their fate that every thing their scrutinies can assist them with should not with wresting wringing and false and senseless Interpretations appear at all to be for their purposes but every thing clearly against them and sorrowfully repent that they or their Predecessors had so unhappily busied themselves in destroying so many Props of the Monarchick Government as the Court of Star Chamber wherein did sometimes sit as Judges the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer and the Chief Judges of both the Benches and the Barons of the Exchequer the Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the Kings Privy Council who as Judges in seveveral Courts did sit there upon special occasions and the procuring the King to take away the High Commission Court in their miscarried designs of Levelling the Hierarchy and order of Bishops The want of which two very necessary and useful Courts hath suffred the Nation to be overflown with all manner of wickedness and Impiety And in that their over-hasty carreer of breaking our English Monarchy like a Glass into many small or little peices needed not to have been so hasty but have paused a little while have considered that as unto the circumstances of Time Place Number of Persons Usages and Customs in a variety of contingencies being the only ancient proper and efficient cause of summoning Parliaments adjorning or dissolving them there could not be a probability of a modus tenendi Parliamentum either in King Edward the Confessors Raign or before or after for that our Parliament Rolls and Records do una voce plainly declare against it and shew that many times Parliaments have been holden in the absence of our Kings by the Prince his Eldest Son or by some other of their Sons as Lieutenants or Guardians of their Kingdom or by the Queen Mother assisted by the Kings Justitary or other Commissioners during the Imprisonment of King Richard the first or by the Queen Consort of King John in his absence or by King Henry the 4th in his usurpation upon King Richard the second when he unjustly made use of a Parliament summoned by him And there could not be a third Estate in the Raign of King Charles the second when he had as aforesaid so unfortunately been ill advised to exchange the Nerves Sinews Strength and Honour of his Crown and Government for a mistaken Recompence of an Excise upon Ale Beer and Syder and then there were but two Estates viz. The Lords Spiritual and Temporal subordinate unto their Soveraign and it would be a difficulty insuperable to find any Truth Reason Evidence Probability or Possibility that there is or ought to be a Soveraignty inhaerent in the people or if such Improbabilities were or could be what Method or contenting Equal distribution could be made thereof amongst Learned and Unlearned Ambitious Rich and Poor Rude Ignorant or better tempered vicious or virtuous Women and Children or Fooles Madmen in their intervals or without when some have not improbably calculated the number of the Kings Subjects in England only to be not much under five Millions besides these vast numbers in Scotland and Ireland And who upon any or many discords like to happen should be the pacifying Reconciler Justiciary or Umpire betwixt them and what Charters Agreements or Surrenders should be contrived or put in writing betwixt them concerning the Right use or distribution of that never to be proved inhaerent Soveraignty in the people taking as Subjects the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy or that ever it was attempted before our English Rebellions either in England Scotland or Ireland or can they give us any reason or demonstration that it was ever allowed of or that any pact or Agreement was made to confirm it Neither is there any Modus tenendi Parliamentum or any such thing or matter as a three governing Estate in the solemn Recognition made in a Parliament at Clarenden in the Raign of King Henry the second of the Anitae Consuetudines or Laws used in the time or Raign of his Grand-Father King Henry the first which the Archbishops and Bishops verbo veritatis sine dolo malo Ing nio promised faithfully to obey and the Earls and Barons likewise And will be a Priviledge never taught to the Athenians sometimes the wiser part of Greece by their great Legislator Solon who after he had made them some Laws feigned a Voyage or Journey to Salamia and caused them to swear to observe them until his Return and absented himself the longer because he would not have them break them as Pisistratus the Tyrant did afterwards to his own advantage perswade them to do the Spartans under their great Legislator Lycurgus and the many other little Commonwealths of Achaia first fooled by Philip of Macedon afterwards by Alexander the Great his Son who conquered all that part of the World but Diogenes the Philosopher in his Tub now all into slavery the Ottoman Empire had long before better business to trouble their Heads with than the fond Imagination of a Soveraignty inhaerent in themselves although one of their most â—acred Laws in their Ten Tables was Slus populi sit Suprema Lex ne quid detrimenti res publica capiat Neither did
upon occasion of War binos ornatos atque instructos Equites when by converting all the Tenures in Capite that of the Peers and Grand Serjeants excepted into Socage they have given the King a greater Revenue than they intended far exceeding the Revenue of the tenures in Capite the honour of the King and safety of himself and the people excepted And that in those early times none were imployed in Commissions or Places of trust by our Kings and their Laws but Knights holding by Tenure in Capite immediately or mediately that King Henry the 2d in some of his Laws declared none to be liberi Homines but those that were Military and that if the Socage men or Tenants of all the Possessors of Lands and Tenements now in England and Ireland must be in no better a capacity than as Villani Servi Bordarii Cotarii and Tenants at will under domineering Landlords and be shut out of the blessings of our Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta and left as the people were in the Raign of William the Conqueror William Rufus and Henry the first to the dire punishments cases of Treason and Felony only excepted of plucking out of Eyes and cutting off the Genitals Legs or Noses of the Offenders And it might be a meet question among the Heralds upon what foundation more than 1000 Knights Baronets do now stand seeing that Ireland is turnd into a Socage Tenure when the first original of them was to find in Capite so many men at Arms in the Kings Service And having with the Prophet Jeremy called cried out and advised many of my friends stare super vias antiquds inquirere veritatem I lament and bewail that the Monarchy of England that for more than 1600 years last past hath been so great glorious amongst her Neighbour Nations and hath in this our last Century of years been so unhappy ever since the beginning of the Raign of King John when Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury had in his Oration at the Coronation of that infortunate King declared to the Nobility and people there assembled that he was created King by the Election of the people and being reprehended and blamed for it by some of the Nobility was at that Instant or before that Assembly forced to excuse that inadvised Speech as well as he could by saying he had so done it as knowing his force nature it might induce him to govern the more orderly although he might have known that the Kingdom of England was hereditary and that King Richard the first had by his last Will and Testament devised it unto him with all other his Dominions and caused the Nobility there present to swear fealty unto him Which poyson so thrown into our Body Politick and by degrees creeping into it may well be believed to have so fixed the venom thereof as it hath from age to age been the original Cause and fomenter of the very many mischiefs and discords some Intervals of quiet intervening that have until the late long Parliament Rebellion and the Murder of King Charles the first and ever since unto this very day by those unhappy discords hapned in our Parliaments General Consiliums Colloquiums or conferences betwixt our Kings and Princes and a select number of his Subjects for mutual Aids in a general and reciprocal concernment the best and most happy constitution that ever was or could be practised in any Kingdom if it could have escaped that Series malorum Concatenation of discords that have of late been too often their Concomitants either by some aversions to Loyalty or by the Grand mistakes in the practise thereof and by the Common people making the Parliaments of later times to be as their King and he that is and should be their King little more than an extraordinary fellow Subject A Right observation and accompt whereof may from one unto the other lead us to the late blessed Martyrs fatal Murther and that Pestiferous Doctrine that did over much intice the Vulgus and ignorant part of the people that there is and ought to be an Inhaerent Right of Soveraignty in the people it being not unuseful for after ages to know and understand the same with the beginnings and progress thereof which for ought appears had its first original from Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury who had in the troublesome Raign of King Henry the second and at the time of the making the Assise and Constitutions at Clarendon such a peevish ambition and unwarrantable loftiness of Spirit as after the King had in the presence of the said Archbishop and all the Bishops Earls and Barons of England received their Recognitions and promises to perform and obey them they were sent unto the Pope to have his approbation who returned them to some with an hoc damnavit toleravit as unto others And Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury promoted by the Pope against the will of King John discovering as a singular rarity the Charter of the liberties granted by King Henry the first did so please some discontented Barons as they swore upon the Altar they would live and dye in the obtaining those beneficial Laws and Liberties begot a Spirit of unquietness in them which could not be allayed until the said Avitae consuetudines recognized and all ratified by King Henry the second his his Grandson by the constitions â—at â—arendon which begetting some little quiet broke out again in a worse manner upon his Son King John in the constraint and unkingly force put upon him at Running Mede where those tumultuous Barons w 〈…〉 a great Army in battel Array the better to attain their said Charter of liberties had promised to pay debts but never intended it And were so faithless and unwilling to be his Subjects as what they by force extorted from that oppressed Prince could never truly and properly merit the name or title of a Charter although he himself had been constrained so to call it and the King of France in his Exception to his award made as aforesaid many years after had so stiled it yet those undutiful doings of theirs were disliked by divers of the Bishops that had been the Popes and those Rebellious Barons Favourites who it seems did so little intend what they ought to do and undertook as some of the Bishops could not deny to certify as followeth Omnibus Episc. sidelibus Stephanus De igra Cant. Archiep. Primas Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Card. Henr. Dublin Archieq Will. London Petrus Winton Joscelin Bathon Glaston Hugo Lincoln Walter Wigorn. Will. Coventr Richardus Cicestr Magister pond Domini papae Subdiaconus familiaris Salutem Noverit Universitas vestra quod quando facta fuit pax inter donum Regem Johannem Barones Angliae de discordia inter eas orta lidem Barones nobis presentibus audientibus promiserunt dom Regi quod quamcunque securitatem haberi vellet ab iis pace illa observanda ipsi
who had been Receiver of the Kings Money and had not accounted for it in Twenty years was once endeavoured to be pleased by being made Chancellor of the Exchequer Hollis one of the Secretaries of State Sir Arthur Haselrig and William Strode were to be put into great places one to be Governour of the Prince and the other as a Secretary and there being no special Office for the Lord Kimbolton the hopes of their being better Subjects and Councellors than the former begat their after Rebellion for which three Kingdoms and the ruin and desolation thereof with the life of the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first might have been spared if that Treason had been punished by Law the King having been informed that some of the well-willers to the Scotish Rebellion had before hand conveyed away their Estates the next care to be taken being to take away the Life of Thomas Earl of Strafford who was General of the Army of the King in the North against the Scots who coming up to London to accuse Pym and the rest of the five Members so called found as he was knocking at the door of the House of Peers Mr. Pym gotten in accusing him of High Treason upon which he being Arraigned was Acquitted when he was guilty of no Treason but they of abundance but that not giving satisfaction to their wicked designs they invented a way to have him again Arraigned upon a Bill in Parliament at the Suit of the Commons of England which was the first Bill in Parliament of that kind in writing that ever was before to Interest and proclaim the House of Commons to be Co-ordinate and a third Estate including the King to be in or ex se one of them many of the Preachers were found fault with for Arminianism and other Doctrines by those that understood them as little as they did the Word of God that they preacht up the Kings Power and Prerogative and Doctor Manwarring voted by the House of Commons in Parliament to be punished and sequestred whom the King afterwards made a Bishop Mr. William Pryn Mr. Henry Burton and Dr. Bastwick justly sentenced in the Court of Star Chamber the first having his Ears nailed unto the Pillory and all of them severally imprisoned in remote places were insolently voted out of Prison an attempt never before adventured upon by an House of Commons in Parliament and no such things as previous votings in order to the fixing or carrying on evil designs were ever before used to be made in any of our Kings or Princes Raigns and were by multitudes of factious Londoners of the most Common sort intermingled brought in a seditious procession on Horseback through the Streets with Rosemary in their Hats or Hands Mr. Pryn shortly after made a busy and fiery Member of Parliament the two former whereof were fanatically reported to have had miracles or visions seen upon the occasion of that they called their sufferings Bills were put upon the Corners of the Streets in London to invite People to give a meeting upon a certain day at Grocers Hall in London to some Members of the House of Commons in Parliament to prepare Petitions unto themselves some Troops of Factious Ministers made themselves the Conductors out of several Counties of many a simple Innovator with Papers in their Hats signifying no more than something they knew not what against Popery the Porters of London must put on their Sunday Cloaths and carry to the House of Commons printed Petitions against the Kings enjoying the Militia where they were only informed that it was against Watermen of London's carriying of Trunks all the Boys in a Free School at Stamford in Lincolnshire enticed by the naughty School-Master to subscribe their names to a Petition against Bishops with other numberless Cheats and trciks to make fears and jealousies and breed a Rebellion which might proceed as much as it could to break in peices never as they hoped to be repaired again our Ancient and flourishing Monarchy the King maketh a progress into his Kingdom of Scotland where they beg and importune him for the small Demesne Crown Lands which he had left and when he would have reserved enough to have defrayed the charge of his house keeping whilst he remained there they would not trust him with the Money for fear he should provide Arms with it when in the mean time a Rebellion was begun in Ireland with a Massacre from whence when he returned to London he was received by all the Citizens with the Hosanna of a Great seeming Joy but suddenly after ill managed by some Lords and Commons in Parliament their then too great Idol in a most Hypocritical way of a Remonstrance bearing Date the 14th day of December 1641. at Hampton Court wherein with all zeal and faithfulness unto His Majesty acknowledging his Royal favour and Protection to be a great blessing and security unto them for the enjoying of all these publick and private Priviledges and Liberties and whensoever any of them shall be invaded or broken And because the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament are the Birthright and Inheritance not only of themselves but the Kingdom but every one of his Subjects is interessed that is as to his protection only whilst they are his Subjects do honour and obey him are so simpliciter but not secundum quid the maintenance and preservation whereof doth very highly conduce unto the publick peace and prosperity of His Majesty and all His People they conceive themselves more especially obliged with all humbleness and care and constancy of Resolution to endeavour to maintain and defend the same as in an easie to be conceived manner of threatning Amongst other the Priviledges of Parliament they do declare that it is their undoubted Right that His Majesty ought not to take notice of any matter in agitation and debate in either Houses of Parliament but by their Information which would not only contradict but overturn the Reason Constitution Records and Annals of all our Nation And that he ought not to propound any condition provision or limitation in any Bill or Act in debate or preparation in either of both Houses of Parliament or to manifest or declare his consent or dislike of the same before it be presented to His Majesty in the course of Parliament so as they would have their King to be as a Mute until they shall have finished all they would for otherwise one Interval might thwart another how shall such a King be Master of a Judgment or have any or was God to be prayed unto to give his Judgment to the King or unto the People or by what Rule of Right Reason should the King being of full age and sanity of mind not be permitted the right use of the Faculties of his Soul And that the King ought not to conceive displeasure against any man for such Opinions and Propositions as shall be delivered in such debate it belonging to the several Houses of Parliament
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
and his Government to alienate the affection of his People and to make his Majesty odious unto them 3. That they have endeavoured to draw his Majesties late Army to disobedience to his Command and to side with them in their trayterous designs 4. That they have trayterously invited and incouraged a forreign Prince to invade his Majesties Kingdom of England 5. That they have trayterously endeavoured to subvert the very Rights and being of Parliaments 6. That for the compleating of their traiterous designs they have endeavoured as far as in them lay by Force and Arms to compel the Parliament to joyn with them in their traiterous designs and to that end have actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament 7. That they have traiterously conspired to leavy and actually have leavied War against the King Whereupon the House of Commonsin Parliament the 3d. of January 1641. did Order that if any person should seal up the Trunks or Doors of any Members of their House which in the case of the King for Treason was not certainly within the Virge of their Commission or purpose of their Election either by the King or their Countries or their Indentures or Wages allowed nor the Priviledge of Freedom from Arrest of their persons or goods whilst they are there in his important service they should require the Aid of the Constable who by his Oath of Allegiance was not to do it And in another Declaration of the 7th day of January 1641. Printed and Published which in this Kingdom or any other part of Christendom was never accustomed or allowed to be done were pleased untruly to affirm that the King having sent a Serjeant at Arms to their Speaker to demand the persons aforesaid accused and being denyed came the next day in his Royal Person to demand them with Halberts Swords and Pistols attending without at the Door who if they had been as dreadful as they would make it would have been but necessary lest he might have been Stabbed and Assassinated as Julius Caesar was unguarded in the Roman Senate Did declare that the Arresting of the said Accused Members or any other Members of Parliament by prretence or colour of any Warrant issuing from the King only as if they were assured of a Co-ordination with him is guilty of the Breach of the Liberty of the Subject and of the Priviledge of Parliament and a publick Enemy of the Common wealth and that the Arrestnig of any of the said Members or any other Member without a Legal proceeding against them is declared a publick Enemy of the Commonwealth notwithstanding they did declare that they would noâ— protect any Member that should be prosecuted by the King according to the Law of the Kingdom and the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament for Treason or any other Misdemeanor so as they which never were yet a Judicature or had ever any power to examine a Witness might be the Judges what was the Law or Treason and will be as willing that Justice be done against the Commons as to defend the just Rights and Liberties of the Subjects and Priviledges of the Parliament of England That the Priviledges of the Parliament and Liberties of the Subjects so violated and broken cannot be sufficiently vindicated a punctilio of Honour never before insisted upon by any of the Parliaments or Subjects of England to their Soveraign Kings or Princes without the delivering up unto them the names of those that advised or councelled him thereunto and the coming in his own Person the publishing of the said Articles and Printed Papers inform against the said Members to the end that such persons may receive condign punishment intending very likely to have it only left to their own lately self-erected Soveraignships The County of Buckingham Petitioned for Mr. Hambden and did adventure to say that in their Opinion his Majesties Accusation of him doth oppugne the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament which was according to the Protestation to defend the King and the Church and Commonwealth The House of Commons the 15th of January 1641. examined Sir Edward Herbert the Kings Attorney General upon several Articles concerning the Accusation for Treason against the Lord Kimbolton and the other Members and whether he would undertake or make good the said Articles or any of them if he shall be called before the Lords unto which he answered by my former expression you may discern what answer I cannot make or take to make one Title of them otherwise than as my Master hath informed me and enabled me for of my self I cannot nor will not do more than one that never heard of them Whereupon it was resolved by the House of Commons that the said Attorney General had broken the Priviledge of Parliament in praeferring the said Articles and that a Charge be sent up to the House of Lords in the name of the House of Commons against him to have satisfaction for the great scandal and injury which he hath done to the said Members unless by Thursday next he bring in and make good if he can the said Articles against the said Members or any of them The 4th of March 1641. the King from Royston in his Journey towards York being deterred from his Palace at Whitehall wrote to the Lord Chancellor commanding him to read unto the Lords the Copy of his Charge against the aforesaid Members and nominate a Committee to examine the Evidence thereof and also signified that what his Attorney General had done therein was by his command and according to his Duty But having declared that he found cause wholly to desist from prosecuting the said Members he had commanded him to proceed no further therein nor to produce or discover any proof concerning the same After many Messages and Petitions not to suffer the Queen to go with the Princess of Orange her Daughter into Holland nor to take the Prince into Yorkshire with him many Petitions and pretences to have the Militia put into their hands absolutely to secure them from their own coyned fears and jealousies and a denial of that but for a limited time they having also not failed in desiring strong Towns Castles Forts and Garrisons to be put into their Custody and voted Sir John Hotham one of their Members no Traytor after the King had Proclaimed him a Traytor for his denying him entrance when he Personally demanded it into his strong Fortified Town of Kingston upon Hull and a 2 or 3 Remonstrance over-boldly Printed and Published to Idolize themselves and inflame the silly people and made their Blockades Circumvallations Trenches and Mines about our Monarchy and too many of the deluded people ready to betray and deliver it up or gape at the spoil which might inlarge and better their formerly wicked conditions and appointed Deputy Lieuetnants and Commanders in every County and City took into their hands the Kings Navy with the profit of his Customs and all that they could by fear or fraud get into
the hands or clutches of their Wolves Foxes and Harpies Birds or Beasts of prey mean while the King labouring by many Princely Answers to their Messages Letters and Proclamations to keep them from the Witchcraft of Rebellion the more they galloped into it and nominate the Earl of Essex to be their General and a great contribution of Plate and Money as before hath been mentioned to bring the King home to his Parliament who might have been more ready than they had he not been encompassed without any cause or provocation with as many Treasons Plots Falsehoods and Treacheries as he had Hairs upon his Head and Beard with no small want of Money and Friends in the midst of his three once flourishing Kingdoms flaming and on fire about his Ears which could not otherwise have brought such an accumulation of evils upon him And being somewhat supplied by many of his Exchecquer Receivers who brought unto him Remainders of Moneys upon their Accompts John Pym excepted that was the Kings and his Fathers Receiver in Arrear about 22 years and could not be at leisure lest he should thereby hinder the managing of his Treason against the King and so would have made a trusty Chancellor of the Exchecquer for the King marched as well as he could toward his Loyal Subjects of Wales whither to hinder and distress him the Earl of Essex with his Army of Rebels way-laying him at Edge-hill in Warwickshire where Loyalty and Rebellion fighting a bloody Battel and Robert Earl of Lindsey the Kings General being hurt and carried away Prisoner to Warwick Castle shortly after died his Son the Lord Willoughby offering himself an Hostage being not according to the Laws of War accepted and the Rebels Cannons levelled against the brow of the Hill where the King and the Prince sat but being disappointed left the Field and retired to Warwick and the King keeping it all that night the next day marched to Banbury and took it from thence fixed himself at Oxford to which very many Parliament Men that were Loyal retired and kept a true Parliament howsoever the Rebels made shift to get by parcels to London where they Publish how near they were to gain the Victor◠of which they could have given a greater eertainty of the Lord Wharton had not hid himself in a Saw-pit and Stephen Marshal a Factious Minister had not mistaken himself when in his Parish Pulpit at Finching field in Essex he had related an impudent Lye in the hearing of one that had been in that Battel that he had pickt up Bullets in his Velvet Cap to help the Rebels Souldiers when a Souldier that heard him so preach could have proved that he at another time had confessed that he was so affrighted that he had run away four or five Miles from the place where the Battel had been before he knew where he was after which they were so unwilling to forsake their Treasonable hopes as they rallyed and ingaged all the Friends the Devil could help them unto insomuch as the War grew more and more fierce as at the Kings Besieging of Gloucester the effascinated Citizens of Londons Trained Bands came to raise the Siege a sharp Fight was at Newbury where they were beaten and Weemes a Scotish Cannoneer taken Prisoner whilst he was levelling at the Person of the King in a Bloody Fight at Copreby Bridge where the Rebels had the worst and yet Weemes was pardoned and left to do more mischief when all he could say was in Gude Faith his Heart was to the King And the King was from place to place so victorious as he drove the Parliament Rebels by the help of his Nephews Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice and the gallant Conduct of Sir Ralph Hopton and the Greenviles and the courage of the Cornish men for which they had the Kings thanks publickly read and Registred in the Churches the Earl of Essex and his Rebel Parliamentarians were so driven and penn'd up at Lestichiel in Cornwal as their whole Army Cannon and Amunition Bag and Baggage were seized and the Earl of Essex and some other Commanders enforced to shift and save themselves in a Cock-boat Sir William Balfour getting away with some of the Horse notwithstanding all which and that that over-tender hearted Prince had experimented more than once their Rebellion was inexorable and that neither his Protestation upon the Sacrament nor the word stamped upon his Coyn for Religion and the Priviledges of Parliament could make them forsake their Rebellious Principles could not forbear to bring them if possible out of that sin of Witchcraft but when he might with a victorious Army have beaten them at Bramford did by some that were hired to betray 〈◊〉 Councels for by that time they had as much lea 〈…〉 the Art of Bribery as they had the glosses of Rebellion rouse their obdurate and feared Souls with Messages for Peace and divers Royal Ministers and Citizens of London had petitioned them to make Peace with the King who sent the Earls of Southampton and Dorset unto their then called House of Peers who were answered and received uncivilly enough as to their own Persons and the King their Master that sent them Printed and Published intercepted Letters betwixt the King and the Queen and relying more upon their confederating Brethren of Scotland than upon their God and the King his Vicegerent in all hast sent to invite them to come unto their Aid which they did and before they went home had 300000 l. Sterling paid unto them for their Rebel Assistance which putting a stop to the Kings Victories especially in that unfortunate Battel at Naseby and afterwards at Marston Moore by a misintelligence at the later betwixt Prince Rupert and the Earl of Newcastle the King condescended to a Treaty by Commissioners at Uxbridge where no other reason could be accepted but as if the King had been a Subject and they his Soveraign they appeared willing to transfer unto their Scotish Brethren a great part if not all of the Kingdom of Ireland every attempt and self-defence of the King and his Loyal Party bringing no better comfort than dispair he gave license to his good Subjects to retire into the Parliament Quarters or unjust Dominion and compound for their supposed forfeitures which much encreased their Treasure and Power for fighting against the King when they fought for him against his Rebels as if the King and they had been but one Incorporation and themselves the head and the King could be a Rebel to himself and them at the same time and Wat Tyler or Jack Cade or the late Massinello had Authority to make themselves Soveraigns which they had not impudence enough to adventure for it must needs appear to all Mankind to be a Gipsy jugling trick or Proteisme never before heard of in any part of the World The Noble Earl of Scarsdale refusing to compound but retiring home did ever after cloath himself in Sackcloth and every day to his death make a
maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adhaerents to subvert and suppress it whereby his Majesty will be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentory way for his aid and assistance in restoring his Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same cause 18. That his Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parliament to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the 5 Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the consequence of that evil president 19 That his Majesty would be graciously pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the consent of both Houses of Parliament which would have made him such a King as never was or can be found in any Christian or Heathen Kingdom or Nation and themselves such Subjects as until they could agree the matter amongst themselves or they should be couzened by some Republicans and those publick Plunderers by some Cromwel cheat those kind of extraordinary mad Men and Fools of both Sexes must have been all Kings Queens and Princes and that which they would have called their King to be but as a shadow or semblance or none at all which would have restrained the King from all power that other â—ings and Princes had to reward men of merit when as Joseph had the Honour done him by Pharaoh that they should make him ride them second Chariot and cry before him Bow the Knee and as Mordecai who had preserved King Ahashuerus Life was Arrayed with the Royal Apparel and rode upon the Horse on which the King used to ride with the Crown Royal on his Head and the Horse to be led by one oâ— his greatest Princes through the Street of the City who sh 〈…〉 Proclaim before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to Honour All those or which their humble desires being granted by his Majesty they should faithfully apply themselves to regulate his present Revenue in such sort as may be for his best advantage and likewise to settle such an ordinary and constant increase of it as shall be sufficient to support his Royal Dignity in Honour and Plenty beyond the proportion of any former Grants of his Subjects of the Kingdom of his Majesties Royal Predecessors And what he owed to himself his Posterity People Prudence Honour and Dignity as to have granted what they desired they would too easily have obtained their advantages of bereaving him of his Monarchy by such their Propositions not fit to be advised and Petitions neither to be made or granted more than Pepin the Mayor of the Palace at Paris ever had when he perswaded the last King of the Merovignian Line to indulge his ease leave all his Affairs of State to his care manage which brought that Prince within a short time after to be shaved and put into a Monastery and the great Charles or Charlemain Son of Pepin established King of France or the like opportunities which Hugh Capet the Ancestor of the now King of France had by his getting the Rule and Reins of the Government into his own hands which did the like to the Family of that Great Charles and placed himself and his ever since flourishing Lineage in that Throne And would make him as small a King as Arise Evans a Fanatick Taylor in Black Fryers in London had proposed when Sir James Harrington had modelled his Government of Oceana Mr. Henry Nevil his Plato Redivivus and Mr. Charles George Cock his Houshold of God upon Earth and every one would be busy as he could in shooting of his bolt That a King should be Elected out of the Poorest sort of Men and have an 100 l. per Annum for his care and pains to be taken in the Government which would have been much better than the aforesaid 19 careful manackling Propositions when the Parliament must have been the King and the King only executive and as the Subject and the Parliament from time to time impowered to make Laws contrary to those which he and his predecessors had made and governed by and when they please is to execute quite contrary and procure a pardon when he can of God Almighty for it And having by the help of their Seditions and Rebellion gained as they hoped a new Magna Charta for themselves as representatives for the people their next care and industry were employed not only to guard and keep what they had thought themselves possessed of but to add as many more advantages unto them as the pressures and necessities of their King might join unto them and therefore when the Noble General Monke after Duke of Albemarle had by Gods mercy to King Charles the 2d under the mask of a Commonwealth by his wary conduct in almost a miraculous manner reduced the King to his Kingdoms Dominions and Monarchick Rights without as the Parliament Rebels would have perswaded him the taking of the Rebellious Covenant or the abstracting of any of his Regal Rights they did so contrive their matters as in an Act of general pardon larger than ever was granted by any of our Kings of England with some small exceptions prepared by two Serjeants at Law that had Sailed along with the Wind and Tide of that long lasting Rebellion they had bestowed upon it an especial praeamble That whereas divers Rebellions and Insurrections had been by vertue of divers Commissions of the King and of the Parliament as if any could be guilty of High Treason or other Misdemeanors or could forfeit that acted by the Kings Authority the King had pardoned all Treasons Felonies c. And as if they had nothing more to incroach upon the Monarchy did take it to be a breach of they knew not what Priviledge for their murdered King to send for a Printing-press from London to York or Oxford and the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after that huge pardon granted by King Charles the 2d of the forfeiture of all the Lands in England which were in the Rebels possessions with all their rich Goods and Chattels together with another Act to unbastardize their Children and unadulterate their Fathers and Mothers fastened and entailed upon them by a new Fanatical way of Marriage before Justices of Peace as if they were only to part a fray or keep them from fighting for which they seemed not to be at any rest or quiet with themselves until every County City Burrough Market Town and Corporation or Company of Trade had attended his Majesty with Addresses of huge protestations of Loyalty and Obedience and the expence of their Blood Lives and Fortunes and all that could be dear unto them yet too many of them could after make their counterfeit Loyalty with promises to live and dye with him to
the provisions Derogatory to Kingly Government made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the third and constrained of King Edward the second And might have happened into a question unanswerable what mischief our Magna Charta or Charta de Foresta had done unto our Nation or upon what other cause or reason those excellent Laws were granted by our King Henry the 3d and so dearly beloved as they thought themselves utterly undone if they had not with the 15th part of their Moveables obtained them eisdem modo forma without any substraction or addition the same which have been continued confirmed by their several Kings and Princes above thirty times and was such a caution in one of their Parliaments as the Bishops in their several Diocesses were impowered to Anathematize all the Infringers thereof and King Henry the 3d in that direful Procession was constrained to walk through Westminster-Hall the Abby-Church of Westminster with all the Bishops Earls Barons and Nobility of England and Wales holding burning Tapers in their hands the King only refusing after the reading of the aforesaid Magna Charta's freely granted by that King and likewise that enforced upon King John his Father and throwing down their Tapers wishing that the Souls of the Infringers thereof might so burn and fry in Hells everlasting fire being such a cursed obligation as was never enforced upon any King or Prince by their people in any Nation of the World and might if Right had been done unto that distressed King have been deeply censured in foro Animae gratitudinis And if those Magna Charta's have been such a darling of the people as they seemed to value it as their Blood and Estates how could they fall so much out of their love as they would do all that they could to be rid of them as if they had been Circe's Swine tearing them in peices when they are for the most part a compleat System or figure of our Antient Monarch Feudal Laws and every Chapter therein loudly proclaim them to be no otherwise And what have we got in Recompence of the overturning of our beneficial and ever to be praised Feudal Laws but the forfeitures of all our Lands and Estates if God and the King should be extream and mark what is done amiss Or can any man of Learning Reason or Understanding or any but one that is or hath been mad without Lucid Intervals believe that St. Edward the Confessors Laws have not deduced their Original for the most part if not all from the Feudal Laws when by the solemnest and greatest Jury of the World impannelled by King William the Conqueror they appeared sine dolo malo ingenio to be no other than our Feudal Laws by which the Soveraignty did appear to be in the King not the People by which our Kingdom had been Governed and did bear as near a resemblance thereunto as one Hen Egg doth or can unto another in shape or figure And what strange kind of Imaginary Soveraignty radically or otherwise at any time was believed to reside in the people when the Pope and his Legate Pandulphus made our affrighted King John to do homage by laying down his Crown and Scepter at the feet of his Legate multum dolente Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi saith Matthew Paris nor was the Tribute paid or thought fit to be paid thereupon for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland though demanded of King Henry the third his Son or Edward the first his Grandson but by all our Kings and Princes neglected it being an allowed Maxime in our Law that Angliae Rex nunquam moritur which could not be if all the People had been understood to have been Soveraigns Or can any man believe that our English Ancestors did not think St. Edward the Confessors said Laws to be tantum sacrae when they hid them under his Shrine in the Church of Westminster-Abby and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of him to be Governed by them Which William the Conqueror would not have granted until he had by the aforesaid grand Jury examined and compared them per sapientes viros in Lege eruditos and the People of England and Wales have ever since being about 619 years never believed their Lives Estates and Posterities to be in any kind of safety if the Conqueror and all the succeeding Kings and Princes did not at their several Coronations take their Oaths to observe most especially St. Edward the Confessors Laws which they never failed to do and hath been so taken both by his late Majesty and this our present King And it would be a strange forgetfulness of Duty and our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy upon which and no other our Feudal Laws are built to forget them and the care of our Souls which the Britaignes in Armorica in France could never do since the dread and fear of the cruel Invasion of the Scots and Picts making them forsake their Native Countrey of England and retire where they now are where they yet retain their Antient Feudal Customs used in England which is that Ligeance est ordinaire en tous fiefs la quelle de sa nature emporta obeyssance du vassal foy homage autre les droits devoirs contenus en l'infeodation anciens advouz tenures L'homage lige ce fera en ceste forme scavoir que le vassal l' Espee Esperons ostez teste nue ayant les mains entre celles de son Seigneur se enclynant dira telles paroles mon Seigneur Je deviens vostre home Lige pour telles choses lesquelles Je releve tien de vous ligement en tiel vostre fief Seigneurie lesquelles choses me sont advenues par tels moyens a cause de quoi Je vous doy la foy homage lige vous promittes par ma foy serment vous estre Loyal feable porter l' honneur obeysance envers vous me gouverner aynsi que noble homage de foy lige doit faire envers son Seigneur Le Seigneur respondra come sensuit vous devenus mon home pour rayson de tales choses par vous dites de choses en tel me promittant que vous me serra feal obeysant home vassal si que vostre fief le requier le Subject respondra Je le promets ainsi lors le Seigneur dira Je vous y recen sauf mon droit de l' autrui Insomuch as when all the aforesaid concurrences of the Laws of God and Man Records and Annals Truth and rectified Reason shall be united and laid together he must be an ill Subject and a very great INfidel that cannot with great assurance believe that the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first and his late Royal Majesty and our now Gracious Soveraign have been much wronged in their Regal Rights Revenue and Authority and had as their Blessed Father been made likewise Martyrs if
absentiam Praelatorum ut tunc negotium sortiretur effectum sed illud absque Regis aliorum qui absentes erant assensu praefixum diem admittere Ita singuli ad propria sunt reversi Rex Convocatis seorsim Praelatis quibusdam Magnatibus no Commons mentioned dedit responsum Nuntiis Imperatoris circa electionem Richardi Comitis Cornubiae Regis fratris in Regem Romanorum Rex Anglorum ardenti desiderio sitiens ad partes Transmarinas Hostiliter transfretare convocavit Conciliariis suis fecit recitari literas a Domino Papa transmissas quaerens not to disturb the King of France whilst he was in the Wars at Jerusalem Ab eis Concilium placuit Itaque Praelatis Magnatibus universis no Commons at that Council ut differetur negotium Anno Henry the Third 11. apud Oxoniam Concilio Congregato denunciavit coram omnibus se Legitimae esse aetatis de caetero solutus a Custodia Regni negotia se principaliter ordinaret Anno Domini 1229. which was in 13. Henry the Third Rex Anglorum Henricus ad Natale Domini Curiam suam tenuit apud Oxoniam praesentibus Magnatibus Regni no Commons thither sent or Elected Eodem Anno Rex Anglorum Henricus congregavit apud Portesmue totam Nobilitatem Regni Angliae Comites viz. Barones Milites cum tanta equitum peditum turba quantam nullus Antecessorum suorum aliquo creditur tempore congregasse Anno Domini 1232 which was 16. Henry the Third convenerunt nonas Martij ad colloquium apud Westmonasterium ad vocationem Regis Magnates Angliae tà m Laici quà m Praelati no Commons sent or Elected of whom the King requiring Aid for his Wars and payment of his Debts Comes Cestriae Ranulphus pro Magnatibus loquens respondit quòd Comites Barones Milites qui de eo tenebant in Capite having Personally attended him were many of them gone home and could give him no Aid and the Bishops pretending the Absence of divers of the Bishops and Abbots petiêrunt inducias until they all might meet together Praefixus est itaque Dies à quindecim diebus post Pascha Anno 1236. which was 20. Henry the Third congregati sunt Magnates Angliae no Commons Londini ad colloquium negotiis Regni tractaturi Anno 21. Henry the Third tenuit Curiam suam ad Natale apud Wintoniam Misit per omnes fines Angliae Scripta Regalia his Writs of Summons praecipiens omnibus ad regnum Angliae spectantibus viz. Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus installatis Comitibus Baronibus ut omnes sine omissione in Octavis Epiphaniae Londoniis convenirent Regia negotia tractaturi totum regnum contingentia quod audientes Magnates no Commons Regis praeceptis câ—nâ—inuò paruerunt Anno 22. Henry the Third Rex recedens a Londoniis venit Mortonam ut ibi revocati Magnates only audito recenti Imperatoris Mandato una cum Rege de regni negotiis contractarent Diebus etiam eisdem Rex Henricus Tertius pro salute animarum emendatione Regni sui Spiritu ductus Justitiae Praelatis quasdam Leges novas constituit constitutas per regnum suum inviolabiliter jussit observari Et eodem Anno convenerunt Magnates Londini die statuto multis equîs armis communiti ut si Rex circumventus per lenitatem recalatraret cogeretur Eodem Anno in colloquio ad quod ex loâ—ginqùo Nobiles convocaverat he prayed an Aid Eodem Anno Scripsit omnibus Magnatibus suis no Commons ut coram eo Domino Legato Papae in festo Exaltationis sanctae Crucis apud Eboracum convenirent de Arduis regnum contingentibus tractaturi Anno 24. Henry the Third convenerunt apud Radingum omnes Archiâ—piscopi Episcopi Majores Abbates quidam Magnates Regni Papale Mandatum à Domino Legato explicandum audituri Anno 26. Henry the Third Archiepiscopus Eboracensis Custos Regni Existens omnes Episcopi Angliae Abbates Priores per se vel per Procuratores suos nec non omnes Comites ferè omnes Barones Angliae ad Mandatum Domini Regis convenerunt apud Westmonasterium Eodem Anno Rex Anglorum omnibus suis Angliae Magnatibus Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus Comitibus Baronibus districtè praecipiens ut omnes generalitèr Londinum convenirent die Martis prox ante festum Purificationis beatae Mariae Virginis de negotiis Regni dilationem non Capientibus cum summa deliberatione Tractaturi imminente vero die totius Angliae Nobilitas tà m Praelatorum quà m Comitum Baronum secundum Regium praeceptum est Londini congregata atque Regi auxilium pecuniare petenti restiterent Magnates no Commons c. Archiepiscopus Eboracensis omnes Episcopi Angliae Abbates Priores per se vel per Procuratores suos nec non omnes Comites ferè omnes Barones Angliae no Commons in Scriptis dederunt responsionem 28. Henry the Third Convenerunt Regia submonitione Londinum Magnates totius Regni Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Priores Comites Barones tunc to answer to the Kings demands de communi Assensu electi fuerunt ex parte Cleri Cantuariensis Wintoniensis Lincolniensis Wigorniensis Episcopi ex parte Laicorum which were not to be believed to be any more present than the Universitas or whole Body of the Clergy Richardus Comes frater Domini Regis Comes Bigot Comes Legr ' Simon de Monte Forti Comes Mariscallus W'ex parte verò Baronum Richardus de Muntfichet Johannes de Bailioil de Sancto Edmundo de Rameseia Abbates Convenêrunt autem iterum for it appears they had been prorogued Magnates cum Praelatis generaliter Londini no Commons at all mentioned Upon the Emperor Fredericks being Excommunicated and deprived by the Pope notified to the Kings of England and France who fearing the example had sent their Embassadors to Rome in the 29th Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third Expectantibus Universitatis Anglicanae Procuratoribus viz. Comes Richardus Bigod cum suis Consortibus placabile domini Papae responsum Anno 30. Henry the Third Rex missis literis suis totius Regni Magnates convocavit Londini de statu regni generalitèr tractaturos Where the Pope intercedes for the Pardon of Fulke de Brent and the King denied it because the Judgment against him was given in Parliament ab enim omni Clero populo regni per judicium Curiae suae ab Angliâ fuerat in exilium pulsus licet regni cura specialiter ad ipsum spectare videretur debet legis quidem bonas Regni consuetudines observare although Mat ' Paris himself had said That Rex did sententialitèr diffinire and the Proceres and Magnates consenserunt cum Rege that he should abjure the Kingdom and be banished
the King's Court being then the Parliament without Commons Anno 31. Henry the Third Rex cum Magnatibus tractatum habuit diligentem per plures concilium urgens dies Medio Quadragesimae edicto Regio convocata convenit ad Parliamentum generalissimum Anglicani totius nobilitatis Londini videlicet Prelatorum tà m Abbatum Priorum quà m Episcoporum Comitum quoque Baronum ut de Statu Regni jam vacillantis efficacitèr prout exegit urgens necessitas contrectarent Upon further troubles and concernments of the Kingdom Convenêrunt ad Parliamentum memoratum totius regni Magnates no Commons imprimis aggressus est Dominus Rex ore proprio Episcopos per se postea verò Comites Barones deinde Abbates Priores Afterwards in the same Year Habitum est magnum Concilium inter Regem regni Magnates apud Wintoniam super multiplici Regni totius maximè totius Ecclesiae desolatione wherein upon the hopeless Account given by William de Powic and Henry de la Mare two of the Procurators sent to Rome of the Popes obstinacy to continue his Pilling and Polling of the Kingdom It is said Haec autem cùm audisset dominus Rex cum Magnatibus suis not the Commons commotus est vehementèr meritò praecepitque voce Praeconis in omnibus Comitatibus per omnes villas loca congregationes that no Man should pay any of the Popes Exactions And in the 31. Henry the Third Rex cum Magnatibus tractatum habuit diligentem per plures concilium urgens dies protelavit Per idem tempus Dominus Rex comperiens regnum suum enormitèr periclitari jussit omnem totius regni Nobilitatem convocari ut de Statu ipsius manifestè periclitantis Oxoniis diligentèr contrectarent Praelatis autem maximè ad hoc Parliamentum vocavit arctius 32. Henry the Third at the Quindena of St. John Baptist covenit Londinum totâ—â—s Angliae Nobilitas venientibus in unum omnâ—bâ—s regni Primatibus in a great expectation of the King 's redressing of Grievances Anno 33. Henry the Third Rex congregavit omnes regni Nobiles ut â—â—rum consensum flecteret ad auxilium dandum sent his Letters by Symon Pasleu to the Sheriffs of every County to Collect what they could of them Anâ—o 35. Henry the Third 13 Calendarum Martij habitum est Parliamentum magnum Londini sicut fu rat praelocutum praefixum where Henricus de Bathonia Justiciarius Regis being greatly accused by the Commons not any Commons Elected to come in Parliament was afterwards for a Fine or great Sum of Money pardoned by the King when he was hugely incensed against him yet there was enough to manifest that there were none of the Commons Eodem Anno instante Paschali solennitate fecit dominus Rex convocari Londini omnes Magnates Angliae cruce signatos ut infra Quindenam Paschae ibidem convenerent super nâ—gotio Terrae sanctae eujus honor enormiter vacillare videbatur diligentèr contrectarent Adhuc autem non terminato Parliemento where the King was said to be inexorabilis factus omni petenti saltem breves inducias debitoribus suis non concessit graviter Comes Lâ—griae in cuâ—ia Regis accusatus and when the King magnâ irâ had commanded Richard Earl of Cornewall his Brother to deliver up his Patent or Commission of the Covernment of Gascoâ—gne which the Earl refused and charged the Citizens of Bourdeaux to apprehend him which they denyed it is said that Noluit autem Rex hoc praecipere Magnatibus Angliae certus quòd hoc nullatenùs facerent siue maximâ consideratione Rex igitur nè viderentur quidam Magnates qui jam illuc advenerant inanitèr suisse convocati districtè tractatum suscitavit Soli to igitur cum Regis Cleri Magnatum indignatione c. Convocatis denuò dommus Rex Optimatibus suis c. Anno 37. Henry the Third in Quindena Paschae tota edicto Regio convocata Angliae Nobilitas no Commons convenit Londini de arduis regni negotiis simul cum Rege tractaturi extiterunt igitur ibidem cum Comitibus Baronibus quamplurimis Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis Bonifacius Episcopi Angliae fere omnes Where when the King pressing for Aid and Supplies could not upon the Bishops unwillingness forbear to remember them how he had in particular advanced many of them beyond their deserts they had no better answer to return him than Domine Rex non facimus de praeteritis mentionem sed Sermonem extendimus ad sutura after many long Debates a Tenth was granted by the Clergy towards the Wars of the Holy-Land per visum Magnatum not of the Commons cum iter ad Hierusalem arriperet à militibus Scutigeris illo Anno ad scutum tres Marcae was perswaded by Fear or the desire of the Money by no Order or Ordinance of Parliament to which not any of the Commons though greatly concerned therein were Parties to give his Consent and walk with many of the Nobility and Bishops through Westminster-Hall in that direful Procession with burning Torches pronouncing Curses and wishing Damnation and the fiery Torments of Hell upon the Infringers of the Charters of their and the Peoples Liberties 38. Henry the Third Convenissent universi ferè Angliae Magnates viz. Comes Mareschallus R. Bigod Gilbertusque de Segrave speciales domini Regis Nuntij ad Parliamentum venientes ex parte ejus propositum suum praecordiale Universitati Angliae fortè seducti nuntiantes aderant autem illuc Comes Richardus frater Domini Regis Comes Cornubiae Comes Wintoniensis cum domind Regina no Commons omnes Episcopi Angliae exceptis duntaxat Cantuariensis Eboracensis Archiepiscopis Dunelmensi Bathoniensi Episcopis qui cum Rege in Gasconia fuerunt where after the necessities of the King shewed and the danger of Hostilities from the King of Castile respondit Universitas they did not believe there could be any such danger sic igitur solutum fuit Concilium cassum inane Eodem Anno Congregati sunt iterum Angliae Magnates quibus significabat Rex quòd pecunia indigebat viribus amplioribus ad repellendum violentiam magni hostis supervenientis but they alleadging former great Taxes denyed it Anno 39. Henry the Third Edicto Regio convocata convenit Magnatum numerosa multitudo anno vero sub eodem ad sestum sancti Edwardi fuerunt apud Westmonasterium omnes ferè Angliae Magnates ubi Rex petebat auxilium pecuniare Anno 41. Henry the Third veniunt Londini ad dominum Regem qui multos sibi cum Comite Richardo ibi Magnates congregârat quidam de Primatibus Alemanniae concerning the Election of the said Earl Richard to be King of Almaine Eodem Anno in media Quadragesima factum est magnum Parliamentum where the Controversy betwixt the Bishop of Lincoln and
Conscience And may be likewise very prejudicial to the very ancient and honourable House of Peers in Parliament for these and many more to be added Reasons viz. Former Ages knew no Bills of Attainder by Act of Parliament after an Acquittal or Judgment in the House of Peers until that unhappy one in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr which for the unusualness thereof had aspecial Proviso inserted That it should not hereafter be drawn unto Examples or made use of as a Presidâ—â—t And proved to be so fatally mischievous to that blessed King himself and His three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland as he bewailed in his excellent Soliloqâ—â—es and at his Death his consenting to such an Act and charged His late Majesty never to make Himself or â—is People to be partakers of any more such Mischief procuring State Errors The House of Commons if they will be Accusers wherein they may be often mistaken when they take it from others and have no power to examine upon Oath wild and envions Informations and at the same time a part of the Parliament subordinate to the King will in such an Act of Attainder be both Judge and Party which all the Laws in the World could never allow to be just And such a course if suffered must needs be derogatory and prejudicial to the Rights and Priviledges and Judicative Power of the Peers in Parliament unparallelled and unpresidented when any Judgments given by them shall by such a Bill of Attainder like a Writ of Error or as an Appeal from them to the House of Commons be enervated or quite altered by an Act of Attainder framed by the House of Commons whereby they which shall be freed or absolved by their Peers or by that Honourable and more wise Assembly shall by such a back or by-blow be condemned or if only Fined by the House of Peers may be made to forfeit their Estates and Posterities by the House of Commons or if condemned in the Upper House be absolved in the Lower who shall thereby grow to be so formidable as none of the Peerage or Kings Privy-Councel shall dare to displease them and where the dernier Ressort or Appeal was before and ought ever to be to the King in his House of Peers or without will thus be lodged in the House of Commons and of little avail will the Liberty of our Nobility be to be tryed by their own Peers when it shall be contre caeur and under the Control of the House of Commons Or that the Commons disclaiming as they ought any power or Cognisance in the matters of War and Peace should by a Bill of Attainder make themselves to be Judges and Parties against a Peer both of the Kings Privy Council and Great Council in Parliament touching Matters of that Nature For if the Commons in Parliament had never after their own Impeachments of a Peer or Commoner Petitioned the King to pardon the very Persons which they had Accused as they did in the Cases of Lyons and John Pechie in the 51 year of the Raign of King Edward the Third whom they had fiercely accused in Parliament but the year before the Objection that a Pardon ought not to be a Bar against an Impeachment might have had more force than it is like to have Neither would it or did it discourage the exhibiting any for the future no more than it did the many after Impeachments which were made by the Commons in several Parliaments Kings Raigns whereupon punishments severe enough ensued For if the very many Indictments and Informations at every Assizes and Quarter Sessions in the Counties and in the Court of Kings-Bench at Westminster in the Term time ever since the Usurpation and Raign of King Stephen and the Pardon 's granted shall be exactly searched and numbred the foot of the Accompt will plainly demonstrate that the Pardons for Criminal Offences have not been above or so many as one in every hundred or a much smaller and inconsiderable number either in or before the first or latter instance before Tryal or after and the Pardon 's granted by our Kings so few and seldom as it ought to be confest that that Regal Power only proper for Kings the Vicegerents of God Almighty not of the People hath been modestly and moderately used and that the multitude of Indictments and Informations and few Pardon 's now extant in every year will be no good Witnesses of such a causelesly feared discouragement And it will not be so easily proved as it is fancied that there ever was by our Laws or reasonable Customs anâ— Institution to preserve the Government by restraining the Prince against whom and no other the Contempt and Injury is immediately committed from pardoning offences against Him and in Him against the People to whose charge they are by God intrusted Or that there was any such Institution which would be worth the seeing if it could be found or heard of that it was the Chief to be taken care of or that without it consequently the Government it self would be destroyed To prove which groundless Institution the Author of those Reasons is necessitated without resorting as he supposeth to greater Antiquities to vouch to Warranty the Declaration of that excellent Prince King Charles the First of Blessed Memory made in that behalf when there was no Controversie or Question in agitation or debate touching the power of pardoning in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament wherein stating the several parts of this well regulated Monarchy he saith the King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each particular Priviledges Wherein amongst those which belong to the King he reckons the power of pardoning if the Framer of those Reasons had dealt fairly and candidly and added the Words immediately following viz. And some more of the like kind are placed in the King And this kind of excellently tempered Monarchy having the power to preserve that Authority without which it would be disabled to protect the Laws in their Force and the Subjects in their Peace Liberties and Properties ought to have drawn unto him such a respect and reverence from the Nobility and Great Ones as might hinder the Ills of Division and Faction and cause such a Fear and Respect from the People as might impede Tumults and Violence But the design being laid and devised to tack and piece together such parcels of his said late Majesties Answer as might make most for the advantage of the Undertaker to take the Power of Pardoning from the Prince and lodge it in the People and do what they can to create a Soveraignty or Superiority in them which cannot consist with his Antient Monarchy and the Laws and reasonable Customs of the Kingdom the Records Annals and Histories Reason Common Sense and understanding thereof the long and very long approved usages of the Nation and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy of those that would now not only
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
respectively which had their Original contradistinct Powers and Customs to judge and determine such Errours and Offences in Words or Actions that shall be committed by any of their Members in the handling or debating any matter depending which was contradicted by Queen Elizabeth when she charged the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament not to intermeddle in matters of Church or State or receive any Bills of that nature and severely punished some Members that attempted to do otherwise Yet they complained in their so strange a claim of those their never to be found Priviledges that they were to their great grievance broken by the Kings endeavouring to put a Salvo Jury to their Bill or Act of Parliament forbiding the pressing of Souldiers at that instant when there was so great an occasion for the Wars in Ireland and went much higher than the great Earls the Constable and Earl Marshal of England and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester did when in a Parliament of King Edward the first they denyed him his accustomed Salvo Jure where he or his Privy Councel or Councel at Law adjudged it necessary And therefore humbly intreated his Majesty by his Royal Power and Authority whereof it may 〈◊〉 they would leave him as little as possibly they couldâ— to protect them in those and all other their Priviledges of Parliament And for the time to come would not interrupt the same and that they may not suffer in his Majesties favour when he should be so greatly obliged unto his Subjects as to restore again to his knowledge and Judgment after the end of such a Parliament never before known in England or any other Nation of the Christian World such a kind of Priviledge neither being possible to be found or heard of on Earth or amongst the Antipodes or in the discovery which Gonzagua's Geese made of the Countrey of the Moon where the Servants are reported to govern the Masters and the Children their Parents And that his Majesty would be pleased to nominate those that have been his Advisers that they may receive such condign Judgment as may appertain unto Justice And this his most faithful Councel shall advise and desire as that which will not only be a comfort to themselves but of great advantage to his Majesty by procuring such a confidence between him and his People as may be a Foundation of honour safety and happiness to his Person and Throne And probably had never adventured to fly so high a pitch if some of the Lords and Commons in Parliament had not upon the Scotch petitioning Rebellion and entring into England borrowed 150000 l. upon their several personal securities to pay their quarters whilst they were here which Parliament Manacles of their King would have amounted to more than the aforesaid Sir Edward Cokes figment of a modus tenendi Parliamentum used as he beleived in Edward the Confessors time And in the absence of Parliaments might have the Name and Title of King until they should make an occasion to Print a Remonstrance against him or arraign him And as a Prologue to their intended Remonstrance the next day they seeming not a little to congratulate his safe coming from Scotland did beseech him to give more Life and Power to the faithful Councel of his Parliament and being necessitated to make a Declaration of their grievances and the corruption of some of his Bishops especially such as are in a near trust and employment about him and were divers of them of his Privy Councel and about the Prince his Son and have thereby a dangerous operation in his Councel and Government in this time of a preparation for War betwixt his Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland which was then but procured and fomented by confederacy Insurrection of the Papists and Bloody Affairs in Ireland for prevention whereof they have ingaged themselves and their Estates in the sum of 150000 l. Sterling or thereabouts for the necessary supply of his Majesty in his dangerous Affairs therefore they prayed 1. That he would concur with the desires of his Parliament for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament which was the one half of that grand Fundamental of the Laws and Government of England in the House of Peers in Parliament and abridge their immoderate power usurped over the Clergy to the hazard and prejudice of the Laws Liberty and Religion of his Subjects and the taking away oppression in Church Government and Discipline punishing such Loyal Subjects as join together in Fundamental Truths against the Papists and by the oppressions of unnecessary Ceremonies 2. Remove from his Councel all the promoters thereof and to imploy such persons in his great Affairs and trust as his Parliament may conside in which was to govern him both in times of Parliament and without when he hath at his Coronation taken his Oath to govern according to his Laws not any of the Peoples 3 That he would not alienate any of the forfeited Irish Lands which begot good bargains for some of the ungodly contrivers when they after purchased their Rebel perjured Soldiers arrears for xvj d. per pound Which being fulfilled they his most great and faithful Councel upon these conditions â—â—all by the blessing of God as they would have it cheerfully undergo the expence of the War and apply themselves to such other means and Councels as shall support him and make him glorious both at home and abroad In order whereunto the contrary way they did the 15th day of December 1641. notwithstanding his earnest request unto them print and publish it wherein besides some of their own or their instigators unquiet Spirits ambitious or evil designs to misuse and Govern their Soveraign plainly appearing may be seen and the many greivances of their own making in the oppressing of each other and undertaking to determine of matters and Mysteries of State and the Arcana's and necessities of State of which they could not possibly without necessary Praecognita's be competent Judgâ—s they made a great addition to that prologue to their subsequent Rebellion and abominable consequence of the murder of that excellently pious Prince insomuch is it may be over and over again a wonder to be ranked amongst the greatest in what untrodden or dark inaccessible Caverns of the Earth these unknown and never accustomed Priviledges of the Parliaments of England could lurk or lye hidden when in all the Conservatorships of liberties devised at Running Mede forced upon King John the â—ovisions made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the 3d. neither any thing in the Raigns of King Edward the 2d 3. 4. and Richard 2d Henry 4 5 6. Richard the 3d the Usurper Henry the 7th King Henry 8. E. 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and and King James had never such shackles desired or claimed to be put upon any of them unto which those Parliament Remonstrants were the more incouraged by that oppressed Princes having his three Kingdoms
set on fire about his Ears at once that of Ireland incited by his condescensions to that of Scotland and that of England as busy as the worst but gaining more by it when the King had to pacify all given them license by an Act of Parliament to continue in Parliament without adjourning proroguing or dissolving until those great Sums of Money should be satisfied and Ireland quieted which they never intended but hindred and perplexed all they could although he offered to go thither in Person himself which they would not consent unto for fear least he should thereby get Arms and Power into his own hands to frustrate their wicked design which that Republican wicked party durst never offer to Oliver Cromwell the Protector of their supposed Liberties with any the least of those monstrous conditions by them called Priviledges but could tamely suffer him to make his own Instrument of Government alter the Course of Parliament with more or less Members of the House of Commons in Parliament pull out and imprison diverse Members of that House and shut up the Doors constitute a new House of his mechanick and ordinary Commanders instead of a House of Lords after the Republican partty had made such an Act of Parliament as they could that none should have benefit of the Laws who did not take an oath of engagement not to have any more a King or House of Lords And to be disappointed as little as they could possibly in those their intentions made all the hast they could to fire their Beacons of personal Plots and dangers against themselves the great Patriots of the Kingdom and Weal publick as they had done before against Popery and therefore incredible Plots and Conspiracies were discovered by one of their Members who had an especial faculty therein and likewise by others as a Plaister taken from the sore of a man infected therewith and brought by an Incognito in a Letter to Mr. John Pym the Lord Digby seen at Kingston upon Thames with four Horses in a Coach in a warlike manner Horses kept and trained under ground and a dangerous design to blow up the River Thames with Gunpowder whereby to drown the Parliament Houses with many the like ridiculous fopperies to affright the easy to be deluded silly Vulgar and engage them in a Rebellion and were in the mean time to be secured themselves by a guard for which they â—eâ—tioned the King who ordered the Justices of Peace to command the Constables of that division to furnish one but that would not accommodate their purposes nothing would help forward their more than ordinary designs than a guard by the Trained Bands of the City of London by turns which being granted by the King suddenly after the Citizens Wives were so afraid of the danger oâ— the Tower of London as they could not lye dry in their Beds and the Lieutenant of the Tower must be displaced and a more confiding one put in to give them content that never intended to be satisfied Which being done the Pulpits of the Prebyterian Scotized Clergy flaming and the Printing Presses Stationers and Cryers in the Streets as busy in the publishing the Harangues of the House of Commons Members in proclaiming the imaginary grievances and he was a small man at Arms that had made and published no more than one or two such Speeches mean while Protestations were ordered to be made in every Parish of England and Wales to defend the King and the Protestant Religion the King going into London in his Coach hath a Paper thrown into it with a writing thereupon To your Tents O Israel the many Rude â—eople of the adjoyning Hamlets came in droves to the Parliament crying No Bishops and for Justice and as they pass by Whitehall Gate and knock at it desire to speak with the King who sends unto the Students of the Inns of â—ourt with some Captains and Commanders to attend him as a supplemary Guard who came and had a Diet and Table provided for them the Bishops do leave the House of Peers with a protestation patterned with one in 11 R. 2. that they could not sit there in safety for which they were all made Prisoners in the Tower of London but were all afterwards released except Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely who remained there sequestred from his Bishoprick for something more than 13 years without knowing for what cause or crime until his late Majesties happy Restauration Mr. Henry Martin a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament more fearing the Anger of his Mistress than his God or King begins in Parliament to declaim against the King saying that he was not fit to Raign or Govern and moved that all the Regal Ornaments customarily lodged in the Abby of Westminster under the custody of the Dean and Chapter thereof might be seised one Mr. Parker made hast to make himself an Observator of the Rebellious way with dislocated Maximes abused and wrested out of their proper meaning and Interpretations viz. Quod efficit tale est magis tale the King is Major singulis but minor universis salus populi est suprema Lex which although Learnedly answered by the more Loyal Orthodox Party to an ample Conviction that should be could not satisfie or stop the designed Confederacy and Rebellion but the ten Judges of the twelve that gave their Opinions in the case of Mr. Hambden against him concerning the Ship-money for the King were by the Parliaments Order put out of their Offices and Places Justice Berkly one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench taken Prisoner as he was sitting by the Usher of the Black Rod attending the House of Peers after which Mr. Denzal Hollis came to the House of Lords and with greater boldness than assurance claimed the Militia and Power of the Sword to appertain of Right to the People and Mr. Pryn writes and Publishes his Book of the Supremaey of Parliaments seconded by Mr. John Whites Book entituled a Politick Chatechism undertaking to prove by our Laws the Resistibility and Forcing the Power of our Kings to be Vested in the People and the Judges were commanded by the Parliament without the King to declare to the People in their Circuits that the Militia is and ought to be in the Parliament as the Representative of the People which was never before done read seen or heard of in England which all the Judges obeyed but my honoured Friend the worthy Sir Thomas Mallet one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench who not forgetting his very Ancient and Noble discent plainly and resolutely at every place in his next Circuit declared it in all his Charges to be in Law de Jure Coronae suae in the King and for his so exemplary Loyalty was in the last place of that Circuit by Sir Richard Onslow Knight a Member of the Commons House in Parliament with a Troop of Horse as he was sitting upon the Bench at Kingston upon