Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	henry_n	john_n	king_n	2,844	4	3.5814	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28308	Some remarks upon government, and particularly upon the establishment of the English monarchy relating to this present juncture in two letters / written by and to a member of the great convention, holden at Westminster the 22nd of January, 1689.	A. B.; N. T.	1689 (1689)	Wing B31; ESTC R2761	23,032	29

and more especially by their Ignorance of better methods which continued longer in Islands by reason of the difficulty of Commerce than in Continents where a Correspondence was then more easily maintained It is undoubtedly from this bottom that the People of England are still supposed to hold all their Lands mediately or immediately from the King and 't is perhaps from hence that so many Commons and Wasts still remain uninclosed and that Waiss Strays Wrecks Wasts and all other things in which no man can lay a particular propriety are reputed to be in the Crown Upon these reasons I conclude that the property of all the Lands here in England being originally in no particular person must necessarily as the Law still is in such Cases rest in the King and those that held from or by his power neither had or could have any right against that power by which they held but only against others that were in a level with themselves How many these Landed Men Originally were or what seperate proportions were alloted to them whether the quantity of a County Hundred or Tything or whether their Allotments were according to the largness of their respective Families or their Princes favour I cannot say But these Proprietors were probably the Pares Regni or such as afterwards by the growth of Laws and the removal of Ignorance became by a settled and uncontroulable right the Peers and Nobles of the Land and having by their Princes permissive favour long enjoyed their Dignities and Possessions they at last wrought them up to an Establishment by Law insomuch that what was held before ad voluntatem Domini is now made hereditary performing only some small Services and Acknowledgments to their King of General some whereof were payable in times of War as Knight Service Escuage petty Serjeanty and grand Serjeanty others in times of Peace such were Burgage Villenage Socage Homage and Fealty Thus did a part of the People first twist themselves into a real Property in part of the Lands of the Kingdom and as the Prince proved kind and liberal so did the numbers of these Proprietors increase and their Properties grew more strong and indefeasable and so consequently their Power and Dominions but the Prince on the other hand grows proportionably poorer and weaker Both resembling a Boat which rises and falls with the flowing Element that bears it up After this manner the Lords grew daily richer and stronger till they had in a great measure by their acquisitions strip'd the Crown of its chiefest Embellishments and invested themselves in much the better share of the Lands of England And their Power grew with their Property to that degree that they who were Originally but Servants to the Prince became now Masters of the Nation This King John to his sorrow was sufficiently sensible of in his Barons War and it was from the Power of the Nobility alone that King Henry the Seventh did receive his Chaplet as well as Crown He was a wise Prince and from hence took an occasion of Jealously that the same Powers which rais'd and plac'd him in the Throne might pull him down again and lay his Glories in the Dust To prevent therefore all Dangers which might arise from their growing Greatness he first procures a Statute to be Enacted against Retainers that the number of the Followers and Attendants of Noblemen might be retrench'd for they did so far indulge the Vanity of a large Retinue in those times that their respective Trains were sufficient for a Soveraign Prince's Guard. In the next place he procures the Statute of Fines to pass both Houses whereby the Nobility got a power which by the Common Law they had not to cut of Entails and thereby to sell their Estates to the best Purchaser Before this Statute and Estate in a Noblemans hand might in some respect be said to be in Mortmain for by the Intail it was so bound up in the Family that it grew almost irremoveable and thus having a power to purchase but not to fell their Possessions and consequently their Power grew daily greater without a possibility of Diminution But these Entails as they were injurious to Trade and Industry so by their Consequences they were dangerous to Regall Authority and therefore this Device was contriv'd to prevent both these Inconveniencies and it did indeed prove very effectual in divesting the Nobility both of their Property and Power but at the same time it open'd a Door to the Commonalty and gave them free access to that Property and Dominion which the Nobility did by degrees part with Nor did they neglect to improve this advantage they had got by Diligence Industry and Frugality for in process of Time they wound themselves into the better share of those Possessions which were first derived from the King to his Nobles and from them thus to the Commons of the Nation The Effect and Consequence of these Acquisitions made by the Commonalty were discover'd and fear'd by King James but not felt till the Reign of King Charles the First who by an imprudent Contest with This Superior Power was first depriv'd of his Crown and afterwards of his Life The yearly Rents of England besides the accrewing benefit of Trade which is altogether in the hands of the Commonalty amounts to 14 Millions per annum Of this the King and Nobility both together hold not above one Million at the most the King's Revenue being principally made up by the Excise and Customs not by the Rents of Crown Lands so that there remains 13. shares of 14. of the Lands of England and consequently a proportionable share of the Power in the Commons But the Constitutions of our Government as it now stands placing the Dominion in the King whilst the Property is in the People does in this commit a sort of Violence upon Nature 〈◊〉 seperating thus the Soul from the Body the Power from the Possession This it is which causes these frequent Distempers and Convulsions in the Body Politick for Power is a sort of Volatile Spirit which cannot subsist without a proper Vehicle to give in Body and this must be Possession from which if it be once separated it immediately evaporates and disappears Having hitherto trac'd the Government of England in its Originals and Procedures I will farther take the liberty to advert some Particulars as they seem now to stand in its present Constitution and in the first place I cannot think it so happy and well compos'd a Government and so aptly suited to the present condition to the People as most Men endeavour to represent it for it seems in its Frame and Nature to be sett to Factious Interests and Dissentions and thus it has been ever since the disunion between Property and Power the Court and Country Interests are no new nor unknown Terms to us and have been managed and upheld by their respective Votaries tho in some Kings Reigns with greater Spirit and Animosity than in others ever