sint semper prompti parati ad servicium suum integrum explendum peragendum cum semper opus adfuerit secundum quod debent de â—eodis tenementis suis de jure facere Appointed and commanded that all Earls Barons Knights and their Servants should be ready with their Horse and Arms as they ought to do their Service which they owed and were to do for their Fees and Lands when need should require and was beneficial to the Vassal or Tenant CAP. II. The holding of Lands in Capite and by Knight Service is no Slavery or Bondage to the Tenant or Vassal FOr his lands were a sufficient recompence for the service which he performed for them and his Lord besides the lands which he gave the Tenant gave him also a protection and help in lieu of the service which he received from him For though as Bodin observeth vassallus dat fidem nec tamen accipit The Tenant makes fealty to his Lord but receiveth none from him there is betwixt them mutua fides et tuendae salutis et dignitatis utriusque obligatio contracta a mutual and reciprocal obligation to defend one another And when the Donee had lands freely conferred upon him and his Heires upon that consideration omnia feoda as well in Capite and Knights service tenure as Copy-hold and more inferior Tenures being at first ad arbitrium Domini no man can rightly suppose that he would refuse the reservation of Tenure and incidents unto it or imagine it to be a servitude or any thing else but an Act of extraordinary favour arising from the Donor which by the Civil Law and Customes of Nations chalenged such an hereditary gratitude and return of thankfulnesse as amongst many other priviledges thereupon accrued to the Donor if any of the Heires of the Lord of the Fee happened to fall into distresse the Heires of the Tenant though never so many ages and descents after were to releive them Domini utilitatem proferre et incommoda Propellere et si cum poterit non liberaverit eum a morte feudo sive beneficio suo privabitur such a Donee or Tenant was to advance the good of his Lord or Benefactor and hinder any damage might happen unto him and forfeit and be deprived of those lands if he did not when he could rescue him from death for Feudum ut habeat et Dominum non juvet rationis non est it is no reason that he should enjoy that land or benefit and not help or assist him which gave it and by our Law if such a Tenant ceased to do his service if not hindred by any legal impediment by the space of two years upon a Cessavit per Biennium brought by the Lord the land if no sufficient distresse was to be had was forfeited if he appeared not upon the distresse and paid the arreares And such Tenure carrying along with it an end and purpose in its original institution not only of preservation and defence of the Donor but of the Kingdome and protection also of the Tenant and the land which was bestowed upon him And being a voluntary and beneficial paction submitted unto by the Tennant insomuch as Feudum whether derived from the German word Feec or warre or a fide prestanda or a faedere inter utrosque contracto is not seldom in the Civil Law called beneficium may with reason enough be conceived to be cheerfully after undergone and approved of by the Tennants and their Heirs receiving many Privileges thereby as not payign any other aydes or Tallages besides the service which their Tenures enjoyned them w ch by a desuetude or necessity of the times is not now allowed them not to be excommunicated by the Pope or Clergy which H. 2. amongst other Laws and Customes observed in the time of his Grandfather H. 1. in the Parliament at Clarindon claimed as a special priviledge belonging to him and those which held of him in capite which in those days was worthily accounted amongst the greatest of exemptions and of creating like Tenures to be holden of themselves with services of War Wardship Marriage and other incidents to have their heirs in minority not only protected in their persons and estates which in tumultuous and unpeaceable Times was no small benefit but to be gently and vertuously educated in Bellicis artibus feats and actions of arms taught to ride the great horse and manage him and himself compleatly armed with Shield and Launce married without disparagement in his own or a better rank and quality his equitatura or Horse and Arms could not be taken in execution unless he dishonourably absented himself when his service was required and then all that he had was subject to execution saving one horse which was to be left him propter dignitatem militiae and have no usury which in those dayes especially until the reign of E. 1. By Jews and a sort of foreiners called Caursini was very oppressive and intollerable run upon them for their fathers Debts whilst they were in wardship Besides many other great priviledges belonging to Knights Gentry the original of many of whom was antiently by Arms and military service allowed them by our Laws of England as wel as by the Civil Law and Law of Nations as to bear Arms make Images and Statues of their Ancestors and by the Civil Law a preheminence that more credence should be given by a Judge to the oath of two Gentlemen produced as Witnesses then to a multitude of ungentle persons ought to be preferred to Offices before the ignoble in â—uâ—io enim presâ—mitur pro nobiliâ—ate ad efficia regenda and honoured in the attire and apparrel of their bodies as to wear Silks and purple colours and ex consâ—eâ—udine non suspenduntur sed decapitantur are not when they are to suffer death for offences criminal used to be hanged but beheaded with many other priviledges not here enumerated which our common people of England in their abundance of freedom have too much forgotten Were so much respected here in the raign of H. 2. saith the eminently learned Mr. Selden as one was fined one hundred pounds which in those days of more honesty and less mony was a great sum of mony for striking a Knight and another forty Marks because he was present when he was compelled to swear that he would not complain of the injury done unto him the grand Assize in a writ of right which is one of the highest Trials by Jury and Oath in the Law of England is to be chosen by Knights and out of Knights a Baron in a Jury for or against him may challenge the Pannel if one Knight at the least were not returned of the Jury if a Ribaud or Russian stroke a Knight without cause he was to loose the hand that struck him Kings have Knighted their eldest Sons and somtimes sent them to neighbour Kings to receive that Honour and Barons and Earls
design to make all or most of the Actions of those our Kings and Princes and the Nobility and Clergy in their several reigns for at all of them like one of the Ephori sitting in Censure rather than Judgement upon the Spartan Kings and Government and the Acts of Parliament made in the several Reigns of those Kings he aimed and flung his Fancies clad in a sober Stile and Gravity rather than any Truth or Reason by pretending that they were made and contrived only under their influence to be arbitrary and oppressive to the freeborn people of this Nation for which he got several Preferments under Oliver the Protector of our burdens miseries Though if the Records and Journals of our Parliaments may be credited as certainly they ought to be before him most if not all of our Acts of Parliament were granted and assented unto by our Kings upon the Petitions of the Commons representing the people in Parliament as â—alsoms and great Remedies and redresses of all that they could complain of deliverances from the oppressions frauds and deceipts of one another and prevention of evils which might happen to them and their posterities wherein our Kings have almost in every Parliament given away many diminished very much of their own just legal Rights and prerogatives by granting and confirming their Liberties and Estates with such an infranchisement and freedom as no Nation or people under Heaven now enjoyes And when as heretofore in former Parliaments they gave to their Kings Princes many times too unwillingly any aydes or Subsidies were sure besides the blessings which accrewed to them by many good Laws and wholesome Acts of Parliament to gain a great deal more by their Acts of grace and general pardons only then the aids and Subsidies did amount unto Unlesse it were in the Reign of King H. 8. when the Abby Lands were granted unto him in the raign of King E 6. when the Chanterie remaining peices of those religious Lands were given to him wherein only the Founders and the religious to whom they properly belonged were the only loosers and yet by reason of King H. 8. his Endowments and erection of the Bishoppricks of Oxford Peterborough Chester Gloucester and Bristol the Colledge of Christ-Church in Oxford and the Deanary of Westminster Deanries and Prebends of Canterbury Winchester Worcester Chester Peterburgh Oxford Ely Gloucester Bristol Carlile Durham Rochester and Norwich and his large gifts and grants to divers of the Nobility who had formerly been the Founders or great Benefactors to many of the Abbyes and Prioryes and also to other of his people and the grants of E. 6. Queen Eliz. and King James considered very little of those Lands and Revenues doe at this time continue in the Crown And our many Acts of Parliament against Mortmaines without the Kings Licence Provisions by the Pope or any appeales to be made to him under the most severe penalties of Premunire the Act of Parliament taking away the Popes Supremacy the fineing and putting the Clergy of the Provinces of Canterbury and York under Premunires by King H. 8. An Oath of Renunciation of all fealty and appeales to the Pope an Engagement to observe all Lawes made against his Power the losse of 72 Mannors or Lordships out of the Revenues of the Arch-bishopprick of York and of sundry great Mannors and Possessions taken from the Sees of Canterbury Ely and London The demolishing and dissolution of Religious Houses 3845. Parochial Churches being more than a third part of all the Churches in England impropriated and gotten into the hands of the Laity many of the Vicarages confined to the small and pittiful maintenance of some 20 l. per Annum others 10 and some but 6 l. per An. several Acts of Parliament made in the reigns of several other Kings and Princes clipping the Clergies Power in making Leases or chargeing their Benefices with Cure restraining their taking of Farms forbidding Pluralityes intermedling as Commissioners in Lay or Temporal Affairs or to make Constitutions in their Synods or Convocations without the Kings Assent may declare how little power for some hundreds of years past the Clergy of England have before or since the Reformation either encroached upon or been able to get or keep Finds not in his mistaken Censures and Distortions of most of the Acts of our Kings and Parliaments to make way in the deluded peoples minds for the erecting of Olivers Protean and Tyranical Government Any fault with the erection of the Court of Wards and Liveries nor with Tenures or Wardships but justifying them sayes that the relief paid by the Tenant upon the death of his Ancestor was in memorial of the first Lords favour in giving him the Land and was first setled in the Saxons times that the Law of Wardship may seem more antiently seated in this Kingdom than the Normans times that Wardship was a fruit of the Service of the Tenant and for the defence of the Kingdom Which that Parliament or the following Conventions or Assemblies made no hast to overturn or take away until Oliver Cromwel that Hyaena or Wolf of the Evening having filled the Kingdom with Garrisons several Regiments of Horse and Foot amounting to 30000. men which were to be constantly maintained at the peoples charge to keep them quiet in their slavery had upon the humble petition and advice of that which he called his Parliament acknowledging with all thankfulness the wonderful mercies of God in delivering them from that Tyranny and Bondage both in their Spiritual and Civil Governments which the late King and his party which in a Fog or Mist of sin and delusion they were pleased most injuriously to averre and charge upon them designed by a bloody War to bring them under when as then they were under none and all but the gainers by the spoyles of those Wars have since had more Burdens Grievances and Taxes entailed upon them then ever was in any Nation in Christendome allowed him in a constant Revenue for support of the Government and the safety and defence of the Nations of England Scotland and Ireland a yearly Revenue of thirteen hundred thousand pounds whereof ten hundred thousand pounds for the Navy and Army which far exceeded thaâ— which accrewed to the Crown or Kings of England by Wardships Tenures and Ship-mony which were but casual and upon necessity and but at some times or seldome and alwayes less by more than eight parts in ten of those justly to be complained of awful and yearly Asessements Procured the Assembly or Parliament so called in Anno 1657. to awake that sleeping Ordinance and dresse it into an Act as he called it of Parliament wherein It was without any Cause or Grievance expresâ— or satisfaction given or promised to those that remained the loosers by it enacted that the Court of Wards and Liveries and all Wardships Primer seisins and Oustre le maines and all other charges incident and arising for
under them and if any evil happened unto them either endured it with them or willingly ventured their lives with them others attribute it to the Saxons ubi jus antiquissimum feudorum semper viguit et adhuc saith the learned Craig religiose observatur where the feudal Laws were and are yet most religiouâ—ly observed and Cliens and Vasallus in matters of Fâ—wds and Tenures are not seldome in the Civil Law and very good Authors become to be as Synonimes and used one for the other And the later Grecians since the Raign of Constantine Porphyrogenneta in the East and the Roman Emperors in the West before since the Raign of Charlemain or Charles the great were not without those necessary defences of themselves and their people And such a general benefit and ready and certain way of ayd and help upon all emergencies in the like usage of other Nations making it to be as a Law of Nations There hath been in all or most Kingdoms and Monarchies of the World as well Heathen as Christian a dependency of the Subject upon the Prince or Soveraign and some duties to be performed by reason of their Lands and Estates which they held under their Protection and in many of them as amongst the Germans Saxons Franks and Longobards and several other Nations descending from them Tenures in capite and Knight service were esteemed as a foundation and subsistency of the right and power of Soveraignty and Government and being at the first precariae ex domini solius arbitrio upon courtesie at the will only of the Prince or Lord were afterwards Annales from year to year after that feuda ceperunt esse vitalia their Estates or Fees became to be for life and after for Inheritance So as by the Law of England we have nâ—t properly Allodium saith Coke that is any Subjects Land which is not holden of some Superior and that Tenures in capite appear not to be of any new institution in the book of Doomsday or in Edward the Confessors dayes an 1060. in King Athelstans an 903. in King Canutus his Raign in King Keâ—ulphus his Raign an 821. or in King Ina's Raign an 720. In Imitation whereof and the Norman no slavish Laws and usages which as to Tenures by the opinion of William Roville of Alenzon in his Preface to the grand Customier of Normandy were first brought into Normandy out of England by our Edward the Confessor the Customs Policies of other People and Kingdoms prudent Antiquity having in that manner so well provided by reservation of Tenures for the defence of the Realm William the Conquerour sound no better means to continue and support the Frame and Government of this Kingdom then upon many of his gifts and grants of Land the most part of England being then by conquest in his Demeasne to reserve the Tenures and Service of those and their Heirs to whom he gave it in Capite and by Knight Service and if Thomas Sprot and other antient Authors and Traditions mistake not in the number of them for that there were very many is agreed by the Red Book in the Exchequer and divers Authentiques created 60215 Knights Fees which with their Homage incidents and obligations to serve in Wars with the addition of those many other Tenures by Knights service which the Nobility great men and others besides those great quantities of Lands and Tenements which they and many as well as the King and others our succeeding Princes gave Colonis Hominibus inferioris notae to the ordinary and inferior sort of people to hold in Socage Burgage and Petit Serjeantie reserved upon their guifts and grants to their Friends Followers and Tenants who where to attend also their mesne Lords in the service of their Prince could not be otherwise then a safety and constant kind of defence for ever after to this Kingdom And by the Learned Sir Henry Spelman said to be due non solum jure positivo sed gentium quodammodo naturae not only by positive Law but the Law of Nations and in some sorts by the Law of Nature Especially when it was not to arise from any compulsary or incertain way or involuntary contribution or out of any personal or moveable estate but to fix and go along with the Land as an easy and beneficial tye and perpetuity upon it and is so incorporate and inherent with it as it hath upon the matter a co-existence or being with it and Glanvil and Bracton are of opinion that the King must have Arms as well as Laws to Govern by and not depend ex aliorum Arbitrio it being a Rule of Law that quando Lex aliquid concedit id concedit sine quo res ipsa esse non potest when the Law granteth any thing it granteth that also which is necessary and requisite to it And therefore the old oath of Fealty which by Edward the Confessors Laws was to be administred in the Folcmotes or assemblyes of the People once in every year Fide et Sacramento non fracto ad defendendum regnum contra Alienigenas et Inimicos cum Domino suo Rege et terras et honores illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare et quod illi ut Domino suo Regi intra et extra regnum Britanniae fideles esse volunt by faith and oath inviolable to defend the Kingdome against all strangers and the Kings Enemies and the Lands and dignity of the King to preserve and be faithful to him as to their Lord as well within as without the Kingdom of Britain which was not then also held to be enough unlesse also there were a tye and obligation upon the Land and therefore enacted that debeant universi liberi homines secundum feodum suum secundum tenementa sua arma habere illa semper prompta conservare ad tuitionem Regni servicium Dominorum suâ—rum juxta preceptum Domini Regis explendum peragendum every free man according to the proportion of his Fee and Lands should have his Arms in readinesse for the defence of the Kingdom and Service of their Lords as the King should command And it was by William the Conqueror ordained quod omnes liberi homines fide et Sacramento affirment quod intra extra universum Regnum Willielmo Regi Domino suo fideles esse volunt terras honores suos omni fidelitate ubique servare cum eo contra Inimicos Alieniginas defendere that all Free-men should take an Oath that as well within as without the Realm of England they should be faithful to their King and Lord and defend every where him and his Lands Dignity and Estate with all faithfulnesse against his Enemies and Foreiners Et Statuit firmiter precepit ut omnes Comites Barones Milites Servientes Teneant se semper in Armis in Equis ut decet oportet quod
vel quibuscunque illatis a multis retroactis temporibus et omnia inquisita sub sigillis suis inclusa secum coram Baronagio ad tempus sibi per breve praefixum Four Knights men of known worth and wisdom loving and beloved of their Countryes to enquire what grievances or oppressions the smaller sort of people suffered by the greater and also of all injuries and â—â—ongs done by any person whatsoever either lately or formerly and to certifie it under their Seals to the Barronage which what ever they were or if ever or never recorded for they have not for ought appears been certified or recorded no Record or Historian of that or the after times have said that Tenures in Capite and by Knights service were thereupon retorned to be oppressive or so much as inconvenient Neither are to be found amongst any of those huge heaps of evils which Mathew Paris that sower and honest Monk of St. Albons who lived in those times and especially remarked them hath delivered to posterity The 24 Reformers or Conservators of the Kingdom in that Kings Reign appointed by the Baronage never intimated any thing of their dislike of that honourable institution It was not complained of upon the refusal of Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk Marshall of England Humphry Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and Hertford great and mighty men and of Princely Estates to go at the Command of King E. 1. unto his Wars at Gascony upon pretence that the warning was to short whereby the Kings displeasure was so much incurred aâ— Bohun and Clare to escape the Seisure and forfeiture of their Lands and to purchase his favour again were glad each of them to marry one of his Daughters without any Dowry and surrender their Earldoms Honors Offices and Lands unto him take back Estates thereof in Tayle to them and the Heirs of their Bodies upon their wives to be severally begotten and Bigot surrendring also to him his Earledom and Marshals rod together with all his Lands and taking Back a grant of an Estate for life in his honors and Lands the reversion to the King if he should not have any Issue of his Body begotten the King in Parliament pardoned them and John de Ferrariâ—s and other Earls Barons Knights and Esquires and all other of their fellowship confederacy and Bond and all that held twenty pounds Land Per annum whether in chief of the King or other that were appointed at a certain day to pass over with him into Flanders their rancour and evil will and all other offences committed against him Were not in the Roll of general grievances which the Arch-Bishops Bishops Eaâ—ls Barons and Commons sent him when he was at the Sea side ready to take shipping into Gascoigne concerning his Taxes and other impositions Neither any vestigia or footsteps to be found of any grievance by them in that grand search or inquiry by the Commissions of Traile Baston in or about the 33 of E. 3. after intruders into other mens Lands exactions and oppressions or in the presentments in the Eyres when the Justices thereof in several Kings reigns carefully travailed into the several Counties and places of England and found out and returned the complaints and oppressions of every County and where the Natives themselves the witnesses cannot be supposed to be so much their own enemies as to conceal the Countries oppressions the Jurors were solemnly charged to present them upon their Oaths and if they should omit to do it had the malice of their Neighbours to watch accuse their Perjuries and the severity of the Judges to punish any failings in their duty Or in the Reformation which the Lords Ordainers as they were afterwards called in or about the fifth year of the Raign of King E. 2. pretended to make in that unadvised Commission which he granted them for the Government of the Kingdome No pretence or so much as a murmur against them by the Reformers in Wat Tylers and Jack Straws commotion when they were so willing to overthrow and extirpate all the Nobility and Gentry which should withstand their rude and unruly designs of making all Bondmen free and taking away Villenage and of making Wat Tyler and several other of their party Kings in several Counties and to devise what Laws they listed Or by Jack Cade or Captain Mend-all as he falsely stiled himself when many a grievance was picked up to colour his Rebellion in the reign of King H. 6. but could find nothing of that for a garnish of his Roguery Or Robert Ket the Tanner in the reign of King E. 6. sitting in judgment amongst the Rabble under his tree as they called it of Reformation where Tenures and Wardships being so obvious and every where insisted upon they would not probably have omitted them out of the Roll or list of their complaints if there could have been but a supposition or dream of any grievance in them which being the more noble beneficial and better sort of Tenures may better deserve an approbation of the People and Parliaments of England than Tenures in Villenage which by an Act of Parliament in 25 E. 3.18 may be pleaded and a Villain seized though a libertate probaâ—dâ— be depending And it was enacted in the Parliament of 9 R. 2.2 that if Villaines fled into places infranchised and sued their Lords their Lords should not be barred thereby and by an Act Parliament in 8 H. 6.11 that a Villain should not be admitted or put to be an Apprentice in the City of London and by an Act of Parliament in 19. H. 7.15 If any Bond-man purchase Lands and convey away the Lands the Bond-man being â—estui que use of thâ—se Lands they shall be seised by the Lord. Nor did the Act of Parliament of 25 E. 3. which provided that none should be constrained to find men of Armes Hâ—blers nor Archers but by common assent and grant made in Parliament mistake when it inserted a saving and exception of all those that held by such services Neither did the Commons in the Parliament of 5 R. 2. upon the Repeal in Parliament of the Manumissions of Bond-men extorted from the King by Wat Tyler and his Rout or men of Reformation think they did themselves or those they represented any hurt when they cryed with one voyce that the Repeal was good and that at their request the Repeal was by whole assent confirmed Tenures in Capite and by Knights service were not complained of in the Parliament of 13 R. 2. though the Commons in Parliament had prayed and were allowed that euery man might complain of the oppression of what person or Estate soever without incurring the pain of the Statute of Gloucester which under great penalties prohibited false Newes and Lies of the Nobility and great men of the Realm Chancellor Treasurer Justices of both Benches and other great
to the King at Oxford to be treated upon by the Earl of Northumberland William Pierrepont Esq Sr. Wil. Armin Bulstrode Whitlock Esq their Commissioners There was nothing desired or proposed for the taking away of the Court of Wards or changing of Tenures but did conclude that if that which then was desired of the King should be granted the Royalty greatnes of his Throne would be supported by the loyal and bountyfull affections of his people their Liberties and Priviledges maintained by his Majesties protection and Justice They were no part of the Bills or Acts of Parliament sent to the King at Oxford in order to a peace in July 1648. No part of the Demands or Bills or Acts of Parliament proposed by the Parliament in the Treaty at Vxbridge betwixt them and the King 23 Novemb. 1644. And there was so litle of grievance or inconvenience or none at all to be found in Tenures in Capite and by Knight service by reason of any accidents for naturally or originally there can be none at all proved to be in them As notwithstanding the Vote of the House of Commons in Parliament made the 20 th day of September 1645. Which being less then an Embrio and no more then an opinion of the Major part of that House a recens assensio velleity desire or intention only which our Laws take no notice of was left to an after more mature deliberation when an Act of Parliament should be brought in upon it have gone through all its necessary requisites formalities and debates the Parliament it self were so litle resolved or beleiving any Grievance to be in them as the Lords and Commons by their Ordinance of the first day of November 1645. did ordain that the Master and Councel of that Court should proceed in all things belonging to the Jurisdiction of that Court according to Law And the House of Commons shortly after viz. the fourth day of November 1645. being informed that by reason of a Vote passed in that House the 20 th day of September 1645. that the Court of Wards should be taken away diverse Wardships Liveries Primer seisins and Mesne rates which theretofore fell and happened were not compounded for as they ought to be It was declared that all of them which have happened or shall fall or happen before the Court of Wards shall be put down by the Parliament shall be answered to the Common-wealth and the Master and Councel of that Court were required to proceed accordingly so as it extended not to any whose Auncestors being Officers or Souldiers have been slain or died in the service of the Parliament But the 24 th of February 1645. upon occasion of a debate concerning the Wardship of the Son of Sir Christopher Wray who dyed as they said in the service of the Parliament an Ordinance was brought in and made by the Lords and Commons for the taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which saith one of their allowed Mercuries was first given to the Crown for defence of the Kingdom but the Parliament would take care for other supplies But that Ordinance notwithstanding was so little liked of as that without the giving satisfaction which they promised to the Nobility Gentry and Mesne Lords for the losse of their Tenures by Knight service and satisfaction to the most part of the Officers of the Court of Wards it was no more or not much thought of but lay from that time in a slumber untill the first of August 1647. when the mighty Mechanicques of the Army driven on by their ignorant and seditious Agitators who were but the Engines of Cromwell's lurking and horrid designs had by their Remonstrances like Wolves cloathed in Sheep-skins bleated and seemed to thirst only after godly and purified Reformations and Hewson the Cobler and Pride the Drâ—yman and others of the Colledge of their nâ—w â—apientia busying themselves in State as well as Parliament affairs and thombing the Scriptures and the English Translations of Livy and Plutarch at the wrong end thought every one of themselves to be no less than a Solon and Lycurgus admired Agrarian Laws and other old exploded grievances dreamed they were excellent Politiques and not knowing our good old Laws but suspecting them as well they might to be averse and no well-wishers to their ungodly and worse than Machiavillian devices did all they could to destroy them root and branch and at the same time when in their New-England Phrase they held forth a more than ordinary Care of the Kings Honour and Dignity and the freedom rights and interests of the seduced people proposed or commanded rather that the Ordinance for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveryes be confirmed by Act of Parliament provided his Majesties Revenues be not damnified therein nor those that held Offices in the same left without Reparation some other way Which howsoever it were to the remaining and small part of that Parliament who durst not say it but found themselves under a force which against many of their willâ— had undertaken to be their Guard and safekeeping a motive or spur enough to make them put that Vote and ordinance against the Court of Wards and Liveries inâ—o an Act as they would call it of Parliament after 10000 l. given paid to the Master of the Court of Wards for the loss of his place 5000 l. to Sr. Roland Wandesford Atturney General of that Court 6000 l. to Sr. Benjamin Rudiard Surveyer General 3500 l. to Charles Fleetwood late Governour of the destroying Committee of Safety for his supposed loss by the Receiver Generals place of that Court which he pretended he ought to enjoy by a Sequestration from Sr. Will. Fleetwood his Brother who was then attending his Master the King at Oxford and to Mr. Bacon 3000 l. for a pretended loss of his Office for the making and ingrossing of Licences or pardons for alienation all of them but Sir Roland Wandesford being Members of Parliament it did without any mention made or remedy provided for those only supposed Evils in Tenures in Capite and Chivalry in the Billsor intended Acts of Parliament which were sent to the King the 3 of March 1647. when he was at Holmby under a restraint fall asleep for many years after and left all other to expect their satisfaction upon the Parliaments promises and further proceedings And there was so little cause for putting that Sentence in execution against them in the judgment opinion of some of the most knowing sort of the Arraigners of antiquity and the actions of their more understanding fore-fathers as Mr. Nathaniel Bacon in his Historical discourses of the uniformity of the Government of England under the Britain Saxon Danish Norman and other Kings of this Isle until the reign of King E. 3. published in Anno 1647. and in his 2 part from King E. 2. until the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth printed in Anno 1651. in a
or by reason of any such Tenures Wardship Primer seisin or Oustre les maines be taken away from the said 24 th day of February 1645. though notwithstanding this pretended Act he could for his own profit continue and take the Fines upon Alienations And that all Homages Licences Seisures Pardons for Alienations incident or arising for or by reason of Wardship Livery Primer seisin or Oustre le maines and all other charges incident thereunto be likewise according to the new mode of making retrospective Acts of Parliament taken away from the said 24 th day of February 1645. And that all Tenures in Capite and by Knights service of the late King or any other person when as the Parliament that made the Ordinance for taking away Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service did as was said promise that all the mesne Lords and others which held of the King and had others held of them should be recompenced for the loss of their Tenures and all Tenures by Socage in cheif to be taken away and turned from the said four and twentieth day of February 1645. into free and common Socage Whereby in all probability he did but cause those Tenures in Capite and Knight service to be put down to the end that he might take them up again at his pleasure when he should have finished his wisht and devilish designs of making himself a King over a degenerate as to the generality of the people sinful and harassed Nation or in stead of them to rule as he had begun with his Janisaries and Bashawes or Major Generals But whatever he or his over awed and flattering Assemblies would make a long often deluded Nation to believe concerning Tenures in Capite and Chivalry or that kind of fixed and constant part of the Militia It was not accompted in the holy Scripture to be any grievance to the people of Israel that Saul in the government of them had in every Tribe and of every kindred many thousands of men of War of the most valiant in a standing Militia as of the Children of Ephraim twenty thousand and eight hundred mighty men of valour famous and such were our Nobles Tenants in Capite throughout the house of their Fathers and of Zebulun such as went forth to Battle expert in war and were not of double heart fifty thousand or that of the Children of Benjamin the greatest part of three thousand kept the Ward of Sauls house Or that David a King after Gods own heart did appoint the Chief Fathers and Captains of thousands and hundreds and their Officers that served the King in any matter of the Courses which came in and went out Month by Month throughout all the Months of the year and of every Course twenty and four thousand which were as our Knights Fees or Tenures in Chivalry out of a select or more refined and fit part of the People whose Estates as well as their Persons made them lyable unto it for the general Musters or trained Bands did by many hundred thousands exceeding that number which were only as a Landguard or ready help and defence upon all emâ—rgencyes although it be not there said that they held their Lands by that or any military Service yet a great resemblance and affinity may be discerned betwixt that and the cause reason of Tenures in Capite which amongst that people was lesse requisite necessary for that they being alwayes Marshald under Captains of Thousands Hundreds Fifties Tens were by some not expressed Tye or Obligation or their grand Obedience to the command of their Kings and Princes which by a set Law of the Almighties own enacting in all matters as well military as civil had no lesse a punishment than Death affixed to the Transgressors thereof always ready to go up to battle with their King against any neighbour Nation or others that did them injury and leaves but this only difference betwixt our Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and if they were not then in use amongst them their fixed provisions for wars offensive or defensive that theirs was a continual charge upon so many of the people in every year by turns or courses and ours upon the Princes Nobles and many of the Gentry and better part of the people for all of the Gentry had not the happiness to have Lands originally given them to hold by such kind of Tenures or did not afterwards purchase them of the first proprietors of those beneficiary and noble kind of Tenures when wars should happen which being not often or might not perhaps be commonly once in forty or more years were not then also called out to War themselves but when the King went in person or sent his Lieutenant and then were to tarry with him or send one in their stead at their own charges but for forty dayes No wrong was done by Solomon to the people of Israel when he made the people that were left of the Hittites Amorites Perezites Hevites and the Jebusites and their Children which were not of Israel to pay Taxes and doe publique work And the Children of Israel no Servants for his work but men of war and chief of his Captains of his Chariots and Horsemen Jehoshaphat did not any evil in the fight of the Lord when as notwithstanding that the Fear of the Lord had fallen upon all the Kingdoms of the Lands that were round about Judah so that they made no War against him and the Philistines the old Enemies of Judah and Israel brought him presents and Tribute Silver and he waxed exceedingly great and built in Judah Castles and Cities of Store placed Forces in all the fenced Cities of Judah set Garrisons in the Land of Judah he understood it whilst the Lord was with him he walked in the first ways of his Father David to be a Salus Populi to have the men of War mighty men of valour in Jerusalem eleaven hundred and threescore thousand men which waited upon the Kings besides those whom he put in the fenced Cities It was no Imposition upon the people of Israel neither is it in holy Writ made to be any Error in Government that Saul whom our Kings Nobility in the Creation of military Tenures did but imitate when he saw any strong man or any valiant man took him unto him Or that David after he was King hearing of the fame of the Hebronites sought for them and when there were found among them at Jazer of Gilead Jerijah the chief and two thousand and seven hundred mighty men of valour made them Rulers over the Reubenites and it seems were also but of some part of them for that in the next Chapter the Ruler whom he appointed over the Reubenites the Gadites and the half Tribe of Manasseth was Eliezer the son of Zichri over the half Tribe of Manasseth in Gilead Iddo the Son of Zechariah Nor did Nehemiah that great and good
invented to fasten Subjects to their Duty any one of which cannot now with any safety to the King or his Kingdom and people be separated or disjointed more especially that of Homage for that former ages understood the Obligation of self Preservation and Interest to be more binding than Oaths as Salmuthius in his learned and accurate Comment upon Pancirollus well noteth Ut amore humani ingenii pro illis habeant maximam Curam in quibus suam vident esse positam Substantiam That men most commonly take most care of that wherein their Lands and Estates are concerned which that antient Committee-man and old Sequestrator the Devil well understood when he got an Order or Permission to ruine the Righteous Job in his Estate and our last twenty years can inform us how impotent and unable Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Protestations National Covenants with hands lifted up to heaven calling God to witnesse Loyalties hot and fiery Zeals and pretences of Religion setting up of Christ and his Interest and walking with God in the more as it was wrongfully called refiâ—â—ed way of his worship to resist or stand in the way of Interest Dangers Hazards Self-seeking and Self-having in this world but nothing at all in the better Which the reserving of Fealty or its being always to be taken upon Tenures in Socage and as well upon Leases for years as Estates of freehold and inheritance will not remedy when as Sir Henry Spelman hath well observed Fealty though it be taken upon Oath is not so obligatory as Homage though it be not taken upon Oath for that the Words of Homage are devenio homo vester ab hac die in posterum de vita de membro de terreno honore verus fidelis vobis ero fidem vobis portabo ob terras quas a vobis teneo I become from this day forward your man of life member and earthly honour and shall be faithful and bear faith unto you for the Lands which I hold of you And is not so awful binding as that which was used in the British or Saxon times or shortly after the Conquest viz. ad defendendum Regnum contra alienigenas contra inimicos una cum Domino suo Rege terras honores cum omni fidelitate cum eo servare quod illi intra extra Regnum fidelis esse voluit intra extra Regnum defendere that is to defend the Kingdom against Foreigners and Enemies within and without the Kingdom and with the King to defend his Lands and Honours with all fidelity and would be faithful to the King within and without the Kingdom that that which is prescribed by the Statute of 17 E. 2. in which also the form and words of the Homage is declared and expressed ever since used viz. Quod vobis ero fidelis et legalis et fidem vobis feram de tenementis quae de vobis teneo et legaliter vobis faciam Consuetudines et servitus quae vobis facere debeo ad terminos assignatos ut deus me adjuvet that I shall be faithful and loyal and faith bear to you for the Tenements which I hold of you and shall lawfully doe and perform to you all Customes and Services which I ought to doe at the Tearms assigned So God me help is far lesse obliging and comprehensive and so litle in the opinion of the Tenants or Fealty makers as sufficit plerunque As Sr. Henry Spelman saith si pactos redditus exoluerit sectamque Curiae Domini ex more praestiterit Domini autem non milit at nec armis cingitur they most commonly think it extendeth but to pay the rents agreed upon and doe the accustomed suit and service to their Lords Court Which in the Civil Law form of an Oath of Fealty used in the parts beyond the Seas in this manner viz. Ego juro ad sancta dei Evangelia quod a modo in antea ero fidelis ei ut vassallus domino nec id quod mihi sub nomine fidelitatis commiserit pandam alii ad ejus detrimentum me sciente I swear upon the holy Evangelists that from henceforth I shall be faithfull to him id est the Lord as a vassal to his Lord nor shall willingly discover to another any secret which under the name of Fealty he shall commit unto me was taken and found to be so slender a tye or obligation as Alia de novo super fidelitatis juramento inventa forma et utentium consuetudine quae hodie When Obertus de Orto wrote his books de feudis in omni curia videtur obtinere a new form of the Oath of fidelity was found and invented and is used saith he almost in every Court and approved by those that used it Scilicet ego Titius juro super haec sancta dei Evangelia quod ab hac hora in antea usque ad ultimum diem vitae meae ero fidelis tibi Caio domino meo contra omnem hominem where it is to a mesne Lord excepto Imperatore vel Rege I Titius doe swear that from this hour to the last day of my life I shall be faithful to thee Caius my Lord against all men except the Emperour or the King which saith the great Cujacius by reason that the genuine sence or meaning of the words would not be so well understood by ignorant men haec adijci solet other clauses words were used to be added which amounted to as much as the duty of one that doth homage for Lands holden by Knights service which Cujacius thought to be necessary enough quod plaerique fidem sibi promitti satis non habent nisi et fidei partes muniaque specialiter enumerentur veleo maxime si quid contra ea fecerint ut non possint negare se commisisse in Jusjurandum et feudum amisisse for that they did not think it to be enough to have fealty promises made unto them unless the duties and parts thereof should be especially enumerated to the end more especially that iâ— they should doe any thing contrary therunto they should not be able to deny that they had broken their Oath and forfeited their Fee and Lands so litle were they satisfied with the slight or general words formerly used in the Oathes of fealty though in more just and honest times about the reign of Charles the great Emperour the word fidelis or a fealty did contain in it howsoever not expressed a promise de tuenda vita et honore domini et si quid aliud specialiter jurejurando exprimi solet to defend the life and honour of the Lord and every thing else which was specially expressed in the Oath so great a care was taken to make the first intentions and promises of those that had those Fees given them to come up and be answerable to the good will and expectations of those that gave them And therefore it may
by the Family of the Dymocks in Lincolnshire and very many others holding by divers other grand Serjeanties Prejudice the Families of Cornwal Hilton and Venables who though not priviledged and allowed to sit as Peers in Parliament are by an antient custome and prescription allowed to use the Title of Baron of Burford Baron Hilton and Baron of Kinderton because they hold their Lands per Baronâ—am Disparage the Esquires and Gentry of England the first sort of which being as antiently as the dayes of the Emperour Julian called Scutarii of their bearing of shields in the Wars and the other as our excellently learned Mr. Selden teacheth us called Gentlemen a gente or the stock out of which they were derived or because they were ex origine gentis of noble kind distinguished from them whom Horace termeth sine gente or that they had servile Auncestors had by their fears and prowess in War not only gained great reputation but Lands given to them and their Heirs for their reward support and maintenance from which custome and usage amongst the Romaâ—s saâ—th Pasquier the French in imitation of the Gaules did call those Esquires Genâ—â—â—men Quilz viâ—â—ent estre pourvâ—uz de tels benefices whom they did see so provided with those benefices or rewards Et pour autant quilz veterent ceux cy n' estre chargez d' aucune redevance pecuâ—iare à raison de leurs terres benificiales envers le Prince et outre plus qu'a l' occasion d'icelles ils devoient prendre les armes pour la protection et dâ—ffense de Royaume le peuple commenca de fonder le seul et unique degrè de noblesse sur telle maniere de gens â—or that they did see that they were not charged with any Assessement in money to the Prince by reason of the Tenures of their Lands and that therefore they were upon all occasions to take Armes for the protection and defence of the Realm the people took them to be a degree of Nobility as appeareth by the stature of 1 E. 2. touching such as ought to be Knights and came not to receive that order Take away a great part of the root and foundation of the Equestris ordo and antient and honourable degree of Knighthood in England which was derived and took its beginning from the service of their Lands which were military for the cheif Gentlemen or Free-holdes of every County in regard they usually held by Knights service saith the learned Selden were called Chivalers in the statute of W. 1. touching Coroners and was so honourable a Title as the name of Chivaler was antiently given to every temporal Baron whether he were dubbed a Knight or no. Blast and enernate that also of our not long agoe instituted order of Baronetts which are though there be no Tenure expressed in their Patents held by service in War and a more noble Tenure then Socage Take away the cause and original of that antiently very eminent degree of Banneret when as such as hold Lands in Capite and by Knight service and had many Tenants also holding of them by Knight service were able in a more then ordinary manner to do their King and Country service by bringing their own Banner in the Feild which was to be displaced by the King or his Leivetenant Make our heretofore famous English Nation in matters of Armes and feats of Chivalry to be as a Pastoritium or agreste genus hominum to be Rusticks and Plowmen which the followers of Romulus which were many of them but Rubulâ—i et opiliones Sheppheards and Heardsmen did not take to be a degree worthy the Founders of that great Empire of Rome nor could be content with any lesâ— then that of their Patricij or Equites Senaâ—ors or Knights And was therefore called Feudum nâ—bile et cognoscitur mulâ—is privilegiis inhaerentibus viz. Gardia Fidelitas Homagium Curia Consuetudinâ—s Jurisdictio in Vassallos Banni et retrobannâ— privilegium jus Columbarij jus molendini c. A noble Fee which hath many priviledges belonging to it viz. Wardship Fealty Homage a Court Customes Jurisdiction over Tenants priviledge of Ban and Arriere Ban calling them to War in defence of their Prince a right to have a Dove-house and a Mill the two latter of which others could not heretofore build or enjoy without the Kings licence Equibus liquet ingentem maneriorum nostrorum multitudinem Normannis enim abunde auctam videmus ex privilegiis ad feuda militaria olim spectantibus originem sumpsisse by which it is manifest that our great number of Mannors came to be abundantly increased by the Normans and took their begining from the priviledges belonging to Knights Fees Take away all the Mannors and Court Barons of the Kingdome which being before the statute of Quia emptores terrarum created by the Lords who parcelled out the Lands which the King had before given them to several Friends or Tenants to be held of them and their Heirs by Knight service and some other part in Socage to plow their Lands and carry their Hay c. and to do suit to the Courts of which the Free-holders are said to be the Homage holden for their Mannor in whose Jurisdiction the Lands do lye and are no small part of the legal and necessary priviledges and power of the Gentry or Lords of Mannors over their Tenants which were as Sr. Edward Coke saith given them for the defence of the Kingdome and doe not only very much conduce to the well ordering of their Tenants but to the universal peace and welfare of the Nation in their inferior Orbes and Motions subordinate to the higher Were all at the first derived out of Knight service as evidently appears by Edward the Confessors Laws wherein it was ordained that Barones qui suam habent Curiam de suis hominibus which have their Court consisting of their men and Tenants Et qui Sacham et Socam habent id est Curiam et Jurisdictionem super Vassallis suis have a Court and Jurisdiction over their Tenants are to doe right to their Tenants and by the fall of those many thousand Mannors Court Barons in the Kingdoms which will at the same time dye and perish with the Tenures in Capite and by Knight service Extinguish the Copyhold Estates which belong unto them which by the destruction of the Mannors and Court Barons will also fall for as there can be no Court Baron without Freeholders so no customary Court without Copiholders And once lost or but altered cannot be created again for that now a Subject cannot make a Mannor which must be part in demesnes and part in services to hold of him by services and Suit of Court which is to be by a long continuance of time a tempore cujus contrarij memoria hominum non existit and if there be no Court the Customary Tenants or Copiholders cannot enter their Plaints make Surrenders
and be admitted Turn the Tenures in Capite which are only so called from the duty of Homage and the acknowledgement of Soveraignity and Headship in the King into a Tenure in Socage which is so far from acknowledgeing the King to be chief or to ingage as the other doth their Lands to do him service as it is but a Tenure as it were a latere is no more then what one Neighbour may acknowledge to hold or doe to another for his Rent or money be a Lease for a Life or one or more years or as Tenant at will and levels and makes rather an equality then any respect of persons which if ever or at all reasonable or fit to be done is in a democratical or popular way of Government but will be unexampled and is not at all to be in Monarchy may make many of the people which are not yet recovered out of a gainful Lunacy to beleive they were in the right when they supposed themselves to be the Soveraigns Ireland which in the subverting Olivers time was to have their Swords by the like Tenure turned into Plow-shares though their warres and taxes were never intended to leave them was to pay but 12000 l. per annum to turn their better Tenures Conditions into worse will if they be not come again to their wits expect the like prejudicial bergain Bring many inconveniences and mischiefs to the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland if their Tenures in Capite and Knight service and those which are holden of them as Mesn Lords shall as ours be taken away with their services and dependencies Licences of Alienation benefits of Investitures infeodations and the like it being amongst others as a reason given for Wardships in that Kingdom in the Laws of Scotland in the reign of their Malcombe the 2. which was before the Conquerours entring into England Ne non suppeterent Regiae Majestatis facultates to the end that the King should have where-withall to defend the Kingdom And a letting loose of a fierce and unruly people who are best of all kept in awe order by a natural long well enough liked subjection to their Mesne Lords and Superiours into a liberty which cannot be done without a disjointing and over-turning all the Estates of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom and may like our late English Levellers either endeavour to do it or bring themselves and the whole Nation to ruine by a renversing of the fundamental Laws and that antient order and constitution of that Kingdom wherein the estates and livelyhood of all the Nobility and Gentry and better part of the people are hugely concerned And besides a great damage to the King in his Revenues and profits arising out of such Tenures if not recompenced by some annual payment Will howsoever take away that antient Homage and acknowledgement of Superiority which from that Kingdom to this of England cannot be denyed to be due and to have been actually and antiently done and presidented and not in one but several ages fidem obsequium ut vassallos Angliae Regibus superioribus dominis jurejurando promisisse to have done their Homage and Fealty as vassals to our English Kings and bound themselves by oath thereunto as namely to Alfred Edgar Athelstane William the Conqueror William Rufus Maud the Empresse Henry the second and Edward the first the later of whom with all the Baronage of England in a Letter to the Pope did upon the search of many Evidences and Records stoutly assert it Will be no small damage and disturbance to the Kings other Regalities and Prerogatives and in the Tenures of the Cinque Ports who are to provide fifty ships for the guarding of the Seas and the Town of Maldon in Essex one the Town of Lewis in Sussex as the Book of Doomsday informeth where King Edward the Confessor had 127 Burgesses in dominio eorum consuetudo erat si Rex ad Mare custodiendum sine se suos mittere voluisset de omnibus hominibus cujuscunque terrae fuissent colligebant 20 sâ—lidos hos habebant qui in manibus arma custodieâ—ant had 127 Burgesses in his demeâ—ne of the King and when he sent any of his men to guard the Seas they were to gather 20 s. a man which was to be given to those that manned the Ships in Colchester where the custom then was that upon any expedition of the Kings by Sea or Land every house was to pay six pence ad victum soldariorum Regis towards the quarter or livelyhood of the Kings Souldiers and likewise prejudice him in his grand and Petit Serjeanties and many thousand other reservations of honour and profit by and upon Tenures in Capite and Knight service which revived and called out of their Cells wherein those that are to do and pay them are content they should sleep and take their rest for ever would go near to make and maintain an Army with men and Provisions The King when the Tenures in Capite shall be taken away shall never be able to errect his Standard and to call thereunto all that hold Lands Fees Annuities and Offices of him to come to his assistance according to the duty of their Tenures and the Acts of Parliament of 11 H. 7. chap. 18. And 19. H. 7. chap. 1. of forfeiting the Lands and Offices holden of him under the penalties which was the only means which the late King his Father had to protect as much as he could himself and his Subjects or to manifest the justice of his Cause in that War which was forced upon him and was very useful and necessary heretofore for the defence of the Kings of England and their People and proved to be no otherwise in the Bellum Standardi so called in the reign of King Stephen where some of the Barons of England and some of the English Gentry gathered themselves to the Royal Standard and repelled and beat the King of Scotland and in several Kings reigns afterwards repulsed the Scotch and Welch Hostilities and Invasions and at Floddon Field in King H. 8 ths time when the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey and diverse of the Nobility and Gentry which accompanied them vanquished and slew the King of Scots The benefit whereof the Commons of England had so often experimented as in diverse Parliaments they Petitioned the King and Lords to cause the Lord Marchers and other great men to repair into their Counties and defend the borders and was so necessary in France to assemble together the Bans and Arrierebans which were but as our Tenants in Capite as it helped King Charles the 7 th of France to recover that Kingdom again out of the hands and possession of our two Henries the 5. and 6. Kings of England And if any Rebellion or Conspiracy shall hereafter happen When Cum saepe coorta Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Fury and Rage of
Seisins and Liveries and all other incidents belonging to the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service be reserved and continued to the King and Mesne Lords and the Mariages of the Wards be put to a just apportionment and rate not to boxing or bidding with every pretender or such as shall be procured on purpose and was thought by the Sons of Rapine to be a parcel of godliness according to two years present value of the Estate and a moderate Rate or Rent for the Lands And if that they do not like to sue or be sued in that Court may do it either in the Exchequer or Chancery and try which of those Courts they shall like the better There being no Reason to be shown why Wardships Rents and Marriage Money should not be paid as quietly or without the Noise or Clamour of Oppressioon by some orderly Course to be taken in the collecting of it as the first Fruits of Arch-bishoppricks Bishoppricks and all the Clergyes Benefices which was at first derived from the Popes Usurpations and afterwards setled in the Crown or as the Tenths of all the Monasteryes and Religious Lands which by Act of Parliament were setled in the Crown for the Support and Maintenance thereof And now all the Lines are come in and meet in one Center we may aske the Days that are past and demand of the Sons of Novelty how it should happen or where the Invisible Cause or Reason lurketh that a People at least too many of them not long agoe covenanting whether his late Majesty would or no to preserve his Honor Rights and Iurisdâ—ctions and calling God to witness that they had no Intention to diminish them should presse or perswade the King to part with the vitals of his Regalitie or let out the blood thereof to take in water instead of it which that learned John Earl of Bristol who in his many Travails and Embassies to forrein Princes had observed the several Strengths Policyes and defects of Governments of all the Kings and Princes of Christendom could think no otherwise of that high and just Prerogative of Kings then that to discharge the Tenures in Capite would be consequently to discharge them of their Service to the Crown When as their can be neither Cause nor Reason to make any such Demands and that all the Lords of Mannors in England who may already find the Inconveniences of making too many small sized Freeholders and I wish the Kingdom may not feel it in the Elections of Parliament men and Knights of the Shire as well as it doth already by the Faction and Ignorance of such as choose Burgesses in Towns and Corporations who many times choose without eyes ears or understanding would not be well content to have the many perplexed and tedious Suits at Law betwixt them and their troublesome Tenants about Customs and Fines incertain which in every year do vex and trouble the Courts in Westminster Hall or that which the late feavorish Fancies of some would call Norman Slaveryes should be either a Cause that they must be forced or over intreated to part with their Copy-hold Estates Herryots Fines for Alienations and all other Incidents thereunto belonging or that it would be a good Bargain to have no Compensation or Recompence at all for them or no more than after the Rate of what might Communibus Annis one year with another be made of them Whenas to have the intended Recompence for the Court of Wards paid as is now proposed by a part of the Excise or Curses of the People or to have the poor bear the burden of the rich or those to bear the Burden of it which are not at all concerned in any such purchase or Alteration and will be an Act which can have no more Justice or Equity in it then that the payment of First-Fruits which is merely Ecclesiastical should be distributed and charged for ever upon the Layety and the other part of the People as well as the Clergy That the Tenths which the Layety and some of the Clergy do now contentedly pay should be communicated and laid upon all the Kingdom in general in a perpetuity That the draining or maintaining the Banks and Sluces and Misfortunes many times of the Fenns in Lincolnshire and other particular Places should be charged upon the Estaâ—es of all the men in England that could not be concerned either in profit losse or Dâ—nger Or that in the enclosing of Commons or in Deafforrestations the Commoners should have their Compensation paid by all men in City Town and Country for that which was not 〈…〉 nor was ever like to be any Gain or Aâ—vaâ—tage to them Or that the losses of Merchants by Shipwâ—acks Pirates or letters of Reprisal should be repaired and born by all the rest of the people that went no partnership or gain with them Or which way the people of England should think it to be for their good or safety that as it was in the dayes of Saul there should not be a Sword or Spear in Israel that the Lords of England whose great Auncestors helped to maintain all our Liberties being in Parliament in the 20 th year of King H. 3. pressed by the Bishops to Enact that Children born before Matrimony when their Parents after married should be legitimate answered Nolumus mutare Leges Angliae we will not change the Lawes of England should not take the overturning so many of the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome to be the ruine or destruction of it to be of a greater concernment And that the King will not think it to be a most Christian as well as an Heroick answer of John King of France when he was a Prisoner in England to our King E. 3. and was denied his Liberty unless he would amongst other things doe Homage for the Realm of France and acknowledge to hold it of England That he must not speak to him of that which he neither ought nor would doe to Alienate a Right Inalienable that he was resolved at what price soever to leave it to his Children as he had received it from his Auncestors that affliction might well ingage his person but not the inviolable right of the Crown where he had the honour to be born over which neither Prison nor Death had any power and especially in him who should hold his life well employed sacrificing it for the Immortal preservation of France And that the people of England should not rather imitate the wisdome as well as goodness of the Elders of Israel when as Benhadad not content with Ahabs Homage had demanded unreasonable things of him Say unto the King hearken not unto him nor consent But remember that it was their fore-Fathers which in a Parliament of King E. 3. holden in the 42 th year of his raign declared that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn
that in a Parliament holden in the 14 th year of the raign of King Richard the 2 d. the Lords and Commons did pray the King that the Prerogative of Him and his Crown may be kept and that all things done or attempted to the contrary may be redressed and that the King might be as free as any of his Progenitors were which the King granting gave to it the force and power of an Act of Parlaiment And consider that the innovation of Laws or change of Customs are dangerous and as St Augustine saith non tam utilitate if there were any profit in them prosunt quam Novitâ—â—e perturbant do more hurt than good by their Novelty that it will be unsafe to take away or dig up foundations that where the inconveniences in the old Laws are not apparant and the conveniences to come by the new not infallible or not likely to deceive our expectation of them it will be perilous to change our Laws more perilous when they be many and most of all when they be fundamental That the more Power and Might is in the King to defend us the better will be the Ends which by the Means is intended and that therefore in the Parliament of 7 E. 1. the Prelates Earls Barons and the Commonaltie of the Realm did acknowledge that to the King it belonged of his Royal Signory streightly to defend force of Armour and all other force against the Peace and to punish them which shall do contrary according to the Laws and usages of the Realm and thereunto were bound to ayd their Soveraign Lord at all Seasons when need shall be that to make a Captain of a Cripple or a Constable which should keep the Peace in a Parish and be ready to repell any violence which should be offered to the Inhabitanâ—s to be blind or Bed-rid would not answer the End or bâ— for the Safety of those that expect it from him And that his Majesties opinion expressed in his Message or Declaration from Breda before his return into England is and ever will be a maxime composed of very great reason and truth that his Majesties just rights are the best preserver of the peoples Liberties And may believe before it be too late that to take away Tenures in Capite and introduce the inconveniences before mentioned will be but as a Prologue or usher to Levelling and the gate or entrance to the Agrarian Devices and the supposed Saints taking possession of the Estates of those which they call the wicked And that the laying by of Tenures in Capite and their services and making use of Mercenary and Mechanick Souldiers may help us to as many miseries and follies as we have pertaked of in our late troubles from our Servants make them to become our Masters and by inureing them to insolencies against others teach them how to domineer over the people which shall be their pay-Masters after that over Parliaments garbling and purging the House pulling out and putting in whom they please turn Legislators and Remonstrance makers from their head quarters make themselves not the Repairers of Breaches but the makers and causers of them ingrosse all the places and imployments of the Kingdom throw down Laws and Government create out of themselves and their own Party Mayors Generals to tyranize awe the people and abuse their Laws and Liberties and play the fools at Coffee-Houses with disputing and discoursing of Rotas and Balloting Boxes and which of their Whimsies and ignorant contrivances would best make a Government Committ Perjuries in abundance and make their oaths more changeable and lesse to be trusted then the Wind or Weather or a Lillies Almanack and make it their only businesse to enslave and insult over the people and Metamorphose them into as many shapes of baseness perjuries Hipocrisies dissembling and wickednesse as poverty hope of gain or to get or preserve estates though it be but to have Poliphemus his curtesie to be last of all ruined fear or flattery or an accursed ambition to raise an estate out of other mens miseries could perswade or draw them unto That the taking away of Tenures in Capite by Knight service is not desired by any universal or general Petition at all of the People that not one in every 20 of those that are concerned hold by those Tenures nor one in every 100 of those that hold by other Tenures and are not concerned do desire it That the injudicial and inconsiderate desires of a very few of the common people who doe sometimes as they have many times done in our late troubles and too late repented it out-do Children in asking Stones instead of Bread and Serpents for Fishes are not to be hearkened unto that the Surfets upon Liberty are many times very dangerous may prove as fatal unhappy though granted or asked with the best of intentions as that of giving great Sums of money to the Scots in the begining of our unhappy Wars calling their invasion a brotherly assistance or that of giving Liberty to the long Parliament not to dissolve without their consent That if Augustus Caesar when by his great Prudence he had put the broken peices of the Roman Republick which was Civilibus Discordiis lacerata wofully torn with civil Discords into a well composed Monarchy and blest the Empire a great part of the World with an universal Peace could find no better a way to fix and make it lasting then to put many of the Souldiers under a Gratitude and Concernment to love and cherish it by giving them Lands for Life or Inheritance to engage them to their former Duties when occasion should happen which saved the Charge and Trouble on all sides as well to the conquered as the conquering in maintaining Roman Legions made up of a Medley or Gallimausry of all manner of Nations It cannot now be good when the long lasting Monarchy of England hath been lately and lamentably torn into peeces to make up a Common-wealth could never be agreed upon to alter or take away a Course of constant and ordinary defence which hath been for so many Ages past the happy Support of this Antient Monarchy And that it could not have been any bad or likely to be unsuccessefull Policy but a means of an Establishment of our late Souldiers and Controullers had in the Allowance of their cheap purchases been tyed to Tenures by Knight Service for the Defence of the Kingdom as the late King of Sweden was to hold of the Empire by the Treaty of Munster And if that Bracton who was a Lord Chief Justice in the Reign of King H. 3. was of opinion that by a paâ—tition of Earldoms and Baronies deficeret Regnum quod ex Comitatibus Baronijs dicitur esse constitutum would ruine the Kingdom which is constituted of Earldoms and Baronies he would now certainly foresee greater Mischiefs and Inconveniencies in the taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service or changeing