to my self that our seri Nepotes some others hereafter walking recto tramite in the like search and path of truth as I have done might add more assistance thereunto and may be permitted to say as St. Paul in another case did of himself that if I have had in so long an age and perambulation of time any acquaintance or conversation at all with my self mine own heart and Actions which many that have known me so long in my various careful and sorrowful passages of life occasioned by many the ingratitudes and ill dealings of some great families and others that should have dealt better with me in may testify my always constant and adventurous Loyalty to my Soveraigns without any the least fainting or haesitation will or may believe that I have neither lied or sought for preferment or any thing that could look otherwise than the sincerity of my heart and an unshaken and unbiassed love to Truth and Loyalty to my King and Countrey And can truly say and aver with many witnesses to confirm it that my long observations ever since the year 1628. until now compleating almost full 46 years of the said persecutions disloyalties misusages and sufferings of King Charles the Martyr in order and design to his Murder and the many Plots afterwards intended against his late Royal Majesty King Charles the second and his now Sacred Majesty and my Researches into the Records and Antiquities of this and other Nations concerning the Just Rights and Praerogatives of our Kings and Princes for the publick good and the avoiding the manifold miseries and damage that attend the Witchcraft and Madness of Rebellion and to the end that I might recal into the right way of truth those very many Noble learned grave and pious men that perfectly hated Rebellion and yet by fear or force going along with the Tide to secure themselves and Estates as well as they could and with the Vulgus and Rabble that had cut the reformed Church of England into no less than 160 Sects or new fashioned Religions and so far strayed from their Mother the reformed Church of England as they ran out of their Wits as much as their Religion so that they could not stop themselves in that their mad Career until they came to an opinion that it was Religion to be Rebellious and that Rebellion or Sedition for any thing called Religion was or at least ought to be warrantable by some or other word of God when by his new light they should be enabled to discover it hath given me like old Barzillai no quiet until I had done my duty unto God my King and my Countrey and posterity and brought what help I could unto our much injured and persecuted David in these now published Truths wherein I have as carefully as I could without the purchase of other mens Writings or Manuscripts at Auctions as too many our Lurching yet Learned enough Authors have done weighed all particulars in the Ballance of Truth Law and Right Reason and without any opiniatrete have left my self to the Judicious throughly impartial Readers and Tryers of those my carefully considered Labours wherein I shall be willing to rectify and submit to any truths when justly and rationally proved and be ashamed in the least to imitate those impudent Contrariants of truth and Right reason our Laws Annals and Records who although in their Books and Writings against our ever maintainable truths whilst they are in the acting and perpetrating the greatest Injuries imaginable unto them can offer to forsake their evil Impostures grounded Fancies and Opinions yet can after they have been publickly examined tryed and convicted of several gross Impostures and falsifications by the undeniable evidence of the Records themselves which they cited and referred themselves unto not like to those better men of Confessions and Retractations but being unwilling it seems either to perform their promises to their Readers or imitate the more honest examples of better men have thought it to be more correspondent unto their evil designs not to discourage their Disciples to persist in their egregious falshoods and unlearned foolish reasonless senseless and inconsequential arguments because they have wickedly made it their Interest and business to advocate the Devils cause by his and their evil Methods and Impostures And may find that they have by a Factious and Seditious Ignorance and over-bold adventure enticed many good men and Lawyers out of the paths of truth into an horrid Confusion and Rebellion for which they may suffer in the next World unless they can furnish their gross mistakes with some invisible or misinterpreted Record that every man may fancy and frame a new and better Government of the Kingdom and carve and make his own Religion and Idocize and propagate their own vain imaginations and selflreated ignorant Fancies instead of Laws and Records And should do better to stand and consider that the advice of the Prophet Jeremy that should not be thought to have spoken vain untrue or foolish Councel to stand upon the old ways and enquire after the ways of truth was not to do what you can to blind or sophisticate truth put her into disguises and transform her into as many shapes as may consort with the ugly designs of Faction and Rebellion and call to mind better than they do how diffusive and infectious the sin of Rebellion is that every of our evil Examples Doctrines or Perswasions tending thereunto such an evil especially as Sedition or Rebellion are by God chargeable also upon their accompt And that at the great Audit before an all knowing God there will be a multitude of consequential Evils besides their own particular sins which may be enough charged upon them when it will be too late to say one unto another as St. Paul did to his Innovators O ye foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you And amongst those many motives and obligations of Duty and Loyalty Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy to my Soveraign and compassion unto those multitudes that have erred and gone astray to the end that I might give an accompt of the trust reposed in me particularly and solely by his late Majesty under his sign Manual bearing date the 30th day of September in the 28th year of his Raign with full power and Authority to search and take Copies of all or any might be found concerning his Royal Rights which was seconded by an order of the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Anglesey then Lord Privy Seal Mr. Henry Coventry and Sir Joseph Williamson his then Secretaries of State and Sir George Carteret being all of his Majesties Privy Council who did by their order dated the 3d. of July 1677. direct and authorize Sir William Dugdale since Garter King at Arms Elias Asbmole Esquire and my self in pursuance of his Majesties Order dated the 23. of February 1675. authorizing the aforesaid Lords of his Councel to examine the State and Condition of the Records in the Tower of London and consider what is
would condescend to please the People which Some of them or those that would make use of them began to be too fond of and therefore could hardly bring himself to please them in that kind especially when he could perceive the Nobility Disliking and averse unto it Howsoever with some Confidence believing it to be beyond any fear or Imagination that any Danger to the English Monarchy and Government so Anciently rationally and well founded according to the Laws of God Nature and Nations Laws of the Land and reasonable Customes thereof could happen thereunto by the election of a part of the People Subordinate to the Nobility and Baronage as well Spirituall as Temporall adstricti legibus and obliged by their Tenures in Capite Homage and Fealty in the strongest manner that the Wisdom and Care of Mankind could devise as bonds never to be shaken off and a tye upon their Estates Bodies and Souls by their Oaths of Allegiance Tenures and Forfeiture of their Lands to be true and faithfull to their King and those which they held of or that they or any of their Posterities could be so ingratefull for benefits received from the Crown and his Progenitors from Generation to Generation as to be so unmindfull of their often repeated Homages and Oaths of Allegeance as when they were Summoned only to perform and obey what the King and his Lords Spirituall and Temporall in his greatest Councell should adjudge meet to be done for the Publique Good and to stand as Petitioners in the outward Courts should by Insinuations from some priviledges and the Power granted unto them and others for that purpose and only end of contributing necessary aids for their Kings for the defence of themselves and their Defenders by gradations and the over indulgence of their Kings and Princes and the advantages of catcht opportunities creep into the Arcana Imperii and snatching the thunderbolts and authority of the Sovereign out of his hands make themselves too busy with the supream power themselves that should be governed to be the unruly and unreasonable Governors of their King and Gods Vice-Gerent Who might have thought himself and his Successors to have been in some condition of Safety when the Summons to Parliament were to be only by his Writs and Authority and the Sheriffs who were not the Parliaments Officers but the Kings and by the Law Sworn unto him not unto both or either of the Houses in Parliament and strictly bound to observe and Execute his Writs and Mandates made himself content to allow some things of that way or course which had been before unduly and Illegally contrived and therefore did as it appeareth alter and change it into a more legall and just way with different methods enough as he thought to make them and after Ages understand that it was his only right to do it and that they were to be no more then consenters obedient and ready to do and perform what the Lords Spiritual and Temporal should in Parliament advise wherein he was to be the sole Director Ratifier and Ordainer and to be at his Disposing in the Summoning and Calling them together as to Time Place Continuance Proroguing Adjourning or Dissolving any such or the like Assemblies and that he in all things to be done therein was as their Sovereign to have his Granting Directive and Negative Voice and in the sending out of his Writs of Summons for any Great Councells or Parliaments to vary in the circumstances orders or limitations or additions as his occasions for the Weal publick should require with such other variations as might signify his care to prevent future Evils or impending Dangers and reserve to him and his successors the long ago just rights of the best tempered Monarchy in the Universe And for the better method and order to be used in his House of Lords and Peers whom he had Summoned and made use of in his great Councels and Parliaments untill that time without the Commons or any Procurators on their behalf in the making of divers Laws and Statutes of very great Concernment to them and the Weale Publick And to make the Councells and Assistance of the Wiser and better part of his People more Effectuall and in a better order then that which the rebellious part of his and his Fathers ill-affected Baronage had neither well provided for themselves or them did whilst he was content to admit into the fitting and necessary Secrets and intimacy of his great Councells a select part of them to be duly chosen by his Writts and commands as to Time Occasion and Place resolve to give after ages to understand that he did notwithstanding reserve to himself as his Royal Progenitors had Anciently done when they only Summoned the Prelates and Peers to their Great Councells his and their most undoubted rights and power of Summoning Proroguing Adjourning or Dissolving those Assemblies and the sole and only affirmative or negative voice in the making of Laws as being the only breath Life and being thereof Did at his being in Goscoigne in the Twenty Second year of his Reign send his Writs of Summons to Summon divers great Lords as well French as English being in number Sixty one amongst whom were Roger de Moubray William Trussel Symon Basset Theobald de Verdon c. habere colloquium tractatum with him in England ubicunque fuerit in a much Differing form then those of Henry the 3 his as aforesaid Imprisoned Father And Directed his Writ to the Sheriff of Northumberland in these Words viz. Rex c. Vice Comiti Northumbriae Salutem tibi praecipimus quod de Comitatu praedicto duos milites de qualibet Civitatem ejusdem Comitatus duos Cives de quolibet Burgo duo Burgenses de discretioribus ad laborandum potentioribus sine dilatione eligi eos ad nos ubicunque in Regno nostro fuerimus venire facias it a quod dicti milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se communitate Comitat praedicti duos Cives Burgenses pro se communitate civitatum Burgorum praedict divisum ab ipsis tunc ibidem habeant ad consulendum consentiendum pro se communitate illa his quae Comites Barones proceres de Regno nostro ordinabunt c. T. Rege octavo die Octobris alltogether Different from the Writs made out and enforced from his Father King Henry the 3. During his Imprisonment in Anno 49 of his Reign Consimilia brevia diriguntur singulis aliis Vicecomitibus Angliae And in the same Year and the next Day after sent another Writ to the same Sheriff in these words Cum nuper tibi praeceperimus quod duos milites de discretioribus ad laborandum tunc potentioribus ejusdem Comitatus de consensu ejusdem eligi eos ad nos usque Westmonasterium in crastino Sancti Martini proximo futuro cum plena potestate pro se tota Communitate
all the returns of the Writs of Election for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses from the 21st Year of the Reign of King E. 1. during the residue of his Reign for before no Manucaptors or pledges for Knights or Burgesses elected to come to Parliament were given in for those Knights that were elected in Anno 49. H 3. for the County of York and from thence during the Reign of King E. 2. E. 3. R. 2. H. 4. and 5. and thence until after the 33. of King Henry 6. and had after their Elections actuall and formall Indentures or instruments of procuration mutually Signed and Sealed by the Sheriff and the Electors or Assentors and Elected which were with the Writs of Election returned and filed amongst the records of the King in his Chancery having their procurations or powers inserted in the perclose of the indenture made betwixt the Sheriff and the Electors some being named instead of many Dante 's Concedentes eisdem the parties Elected plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se communitate praedict ad faciend consentiend iis quae tunc ibidem de communi concilio regni Domini Regis favente Domino ordinari contigerint super negotiis in dicto brevi specificat and notwithstanding their election and one part of the Indenture with the procuration therein returned with the Writ to the King in his Chancery were not accompted members of the House of Commons in Parliament untill their admittance by the Kings Allowance and Authority as it was upon a great debate adjudged in the 35 Elizabeth in the House of Commons in Parliament in the Case of Fits-Herbert in which the two eminent Lawyers Anderson and Coke afterwards successively Lord Chief Justices of the Court of Common Pleas were as Members personally present and in a Parliament holden in the 18 Year of the Reign of King Edward 3. the King was angry that the Convocation of the Clergy appeared not and charged the Archbishop of Canterbury to punish them for their defaults and said he would do the like to the Parliament In the 5 year of the Reign of King Richard 2. Members Elected were by an Act of Parliament to appear upon Summons or be amerced or otherwise punished according as of old times hath been used to be done in the said case unless they may reasonably and honestly excuse them to the King and in 1st and 2d Philip and Mary 39 of the Members of the House of Commons saith Sr Edward Coke whereof Mr Edmond Plowdon the famous Lawyer was one who pleaded that he was continually present at that Parliament and traversed that he did not from thence depart in contempt of the King and Queen and of the said Court had an Information exhibited against them by the aforesaid King and Queen for not appearing in Parliament according as they were Summoned cannot be admitted in the House of Commons in Parliament before they shall have taken the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy before the Lord Steward of the King's Houshold or his Deputy under a forfeiture or penalty nor depart from the Parliament without License and when admitted are Petitioners for License to choose and present their Speaker to the King who in their behalf prayeth to be allowed access to his Majesty freedom of speech and from Arrest of themselves and their menial servants during the time of their attendance have Wages allowed them by the King to be paid by their Commonalties in eundo morando redeundo according to longer or shorter distances or abode their Speaker being by the King also allowed Five Pounds per diem besides other perquisites appertaining to his place are but Petitioners have receivers and tryers of their petitions assigned by the King or by the Lord Chancelour de per liu and days were seldom prefixt and limited for exhibiting of them which were many times rejected with a non est petitio Parliamenti endorsed for that it was more proper for inferior Courts and sometimes for their hast or Importance of the King's Affairs were ordered to be answered in Chancery are no Court of Judicature or Record were not accustomed to draw or frame Acts of Parliament which they assent unto but leave them to be formed by the Judges and the King 's learned Councel at Law and not seldom after Parliaments ended most of the former Acts of Parliament being drawn and framed upon petitions or specifying to be at the request of the Lords and Commons or of the Commons only or that the King Willed Commanded Prohibited Provided or Ordained can make no proxies and are but a grand enquest of the Kingdom are not Authorized to give or administer any Oath never did or are to do it but are to send such Witnesses as are to be sworn to take their Oaths in the House of Peers and the Members of the House of Commons or their Speaker Jointly or severally cannot administer an Oath unto any of their fellow Members or any of the Commons whom they would represent for that would be to administer it unto themselves which Juries and men Impanelled in Enquests are never permitted to do but are to receive their Oaths from a Superior Authority and none but the King or such as have been Commissionated by him are impowred to give Oaths which hath allways put a necessity upon the House of Commons when any Witnesses are to be examined before them to produce and send them first to be sworn and take their Oaths in the House of Lords and they cannot adjourn or prorogue without the King 's special order and command nor were ever Summoned by themselves legally to come to Parliament without the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but as to their Meeting and Continuance were to follow their King in his House of Lords as the Moon and the Stars those Common people of the Sky do the Sun could not punish heretofore an offence or delinquency against themselves or any of their Members without an Order first obtained from the King or his Lord Chancellor have sometimes Petitioned the Lords in Parliament to intercede with the King to remit his displeasure conceived against them in the times of Henry the 4 few Petitions were directed to the King and his Councel some were to the King alone and some to the Lords alone and some to the Commons only saith Mr. Elsing and if they were Petitions of Grace the Commons only wrote thereupon soit baile as Seigneurs per les a Roy or soit per le a Roy per les Seimurs the other were sent up to the Lords without any directions the Judges the Kings Learned Councel in the Law prepared all answers to the Petitions of the Commons all Petitions directed to the King were to be considered by the Judges and his Councel at Law and by them prepared for the Lords if need were by the Commons who sometimes Petitioned
be Elected to be a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament is to take before he be admitted to sit therein or have any voice as a Knight Citizen or Burgess of or in the House of Commons an Oath upon the Evangelists before the Lord Steward or his deputy that he doth testify and declare That the Queens Majesty her Heirs and Successors is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of any Foreign Prelate Prince or Potentate whatsoever And promise that from henceforth he shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors and to his power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm Queen Elizabeth in the 31st Year of her Reign did by the advice of her Privy-Councell and of the Justices of both her Benches and other of her learned Councell prorogue and adjourn the Parliament from the 12th of November 1588. to the fourth of February then next following from which day it was continued till the Thursday following post meridiem Wherein divers of the Bishops Earls Barons Justices and masters of Chancery were Receivers and Tryers of petitions The Bishops all but 7 named each of them 2 Proctors 7 Temporall Lords sent their proxies Such as were meer attendants in the House of Peers were sometimes made joint Committees with the Lords in severall matters The Commons presenting their Speaker to the Queen he was admitted with a caution not to use in that House irreverent Speeches or to make unnecessary addresses to her Majesty and the Chancellour by Command of the Queen continuavit praesens Parliamentum usque diem Sabbati prox hora nona When the Lords sent to pray a conference with the Commons and it is assented unto one of the Judges were allways named to attend the Lords Committees In a bill for setling a jointure for the Wife of Henry Nevill Esq. Wherein all former conveyances were to be cancelled the Lords ordered that the deeds should be sealed up and brought into their house to the end that they might be redelivered again uncancelled in case the Queen should resuse to sign the Act of Parliament the House of Commons by their Speaker desired her Majesties assent to such Statutes as had been provided by both Houses Upon her gracious generall Act of Pardon les Prelats Seigneurs Commons en Parlement en nom de toutes voz autres Subjects remercient tres humblement vostre Majeste The Queens Sollicitor generall being Elected a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament they desired the Lords that he might come into the House of Commons and sit with them which was assented unto and performed In the Year 1588. and 31st of her Reign when she had most need of her Subjects aid and good will upon the Petition of the Commons against some grievances of the Purveyors and her Court of Exchecquer she answered by their Speaker that she had given orders to her Lord Steward to redress any Complaints of her purveyance and that she had as much skill and power to rule and govern her own House as any of her Subjects whatsoever to rule and govern theirs without the help of their Neighbours and would very shortly cause a collection to be made of all the Laws already made touching Pourveyance and of all the constitutions of her Houshould in that case and would thereupon by the advice of her Judges learned Councell set down such a formall plot or method before the end of that present session of Parliament as should be as good better for the ease of her subjects then what the house had attempted without her privity in which they would have bereaved her Majesty of the honour glory and commendation thereof and that she had in the 10th year of her Reign caused certain orders and constitutions to be drawn for the due course of such things in her Court of Exchequer as her Subjects seem to be grieved at And so after a Generall Pardon and some bills passed the Lord Chancellour by her Majesties command dissolved the Parliament Anno 35th the Lord Keeper by her Majesties command declared the necessity of publick aides how little the Late Subsides amounted unto by Reason of the ill gathering desired the time might not be Mispent in long orations Speeches and verbosities which some men took delight in Receivers and Tryers of Petitions were named and some Proxies delivered Their Speaker Sr Edward Coke in his Speech remembred the Queen of her speech to the last Parliament that many came thither ad consulendum qui nesciunt quid Sit consulendum and prayed that she would give her assent to such Bills as should be agreed upon The Lord Keeper in his reply alleadged that to make more laws might seem Superfluous and to him that might ask Quae causa ut crescunt tot magna volumnia legum It may be answered in promptu causa est crescit in orbe malum And after upon further instructions received from her Majesty declared that Liberty of Speech was granted but how far was to be thought on there be two things of most necessity wit and speech the one exercised in invention the other in speaking priviledge of speech is granted but you must know what priviledge you have not to speak every one what he listeth or what cometh in his heart to utter but your priviledge is to say yea or no wherefore Mr Speaker her Majesties pleasure is that if you perceive any idle heads which will not Stick to hazzard their own estates which will meddle with reforming of the Church and transforming of the Common-Wealth and do exhibit any bills to such purpose that you receive them not untill they be viewed and considered of by those who it is fitter should consider of such things and can better judge of them The daily continuing or adjorning of the Parliament was Dominus Custos magni Sigilli continuavit praesens Parliamentum After a bill for setling the lands and Estate of Sr Francis Englefeild attainted of high Treason in Parliament had been ordered by the House of Commons to be ingrossed the Lords did hear Councell on the part of Englefeilds heirs and afterwards passed it In the case of repealing of certain uses in a deed concerning the Estate of Sr Anthony Cook of Rumford in the County of Essex after the bill had been 3 times read in the House of Lords and assented unto a Proviso was added of Saving the Queens right with a note entred that it should not hereafter be used as a praecedent Acts or bills of Generall pardon do passe both Houses with once reading The Lord-Keeper by her directions
8th who being a Member of the House of Commons and Imprisoned the House of Commons made an address to the King for his release when they could not do it by their own power Mr Speaker said I am to deliver unto you her Majesties commandement that for the better and more speedy dispatch of causes we should sit in the afternoon and that about this day sennight her Majesties pleasure is this Parliament shall be ended At a conference with the Lords their Lordships told the Commons they would not have their Judgment prejudicated and in that conference of the House of Commons stiled themselves the Lower House There was saith Justice Hussey a whole Alphabet of paenall Laws in the time of King Henry the 7th Mr Mountague said The praerogative Royall is now in Question which the law hath over allowed and Maintained Serjeant Heale speaking somewhat that displeased the Generality of the House they all made an humming and when he began to speak again they did the like whereupon the Speaker stood up and said It is a great disorder that this should be used for it is the antient use of this House for every man to be Silent when any one Speaketh and he that is Speaking should be Suffered to deliver his mind without interruption Sr Edward Hobby upon the debate of a bill brought in for the peoples more diligent repair to Church whether the Church-Wardens were the more proper to certifie the defalters said that when her Majestie did give us leave to chuse our Speaker She gave us leave to chuse one out of our own number Mr Onslow the Clark of the House of Commons in Parliament being Sick the House gave his man leave to officiate for him every Members contributing 12d apeice for his support In the case of Belgrave depending in the Court of Star-Chamber upon an Information brought by Sir Edward Coke her Majesties then Artorney General prosecuted by the Earl of Huntington for wearing his Livery to make himself a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament after several Motions Debates and Disputes in the House of Commons a Conference was concluded to be had with the Lords thereupon the rather for that it had been said that the Lords in Parliament were reported to have directed the said Bill to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber one of their House being concerned therein and a day appointed by the Lords accordingly which failing and revived again by a motion of one of the Members of the house of Commons in their own House and the matters limitted whereupon it should consist first touching the offence committed by Mr. Belgrave whether it was an Infringement of the Liberty of the House of Commons and for the first that the Commons would do nothing therein until a Conference with them for the 2d to know the reasons of their Lordships appointment of the Information and to bring it to some end Mr. Speaker at another day certifying a message from the Lords concerning some other matters Sir Edward Hobby said We attended the Lords that morning which was appointed touching the Information against Mr. Belgrave who in the end concluded that forasmuch as it concerneth them as the House of Commons Priviledges they desired some time to consult and they would send us word of their Resolutions and some days after a Copy of the Information against Belgrave was sent to the House of Peers unto them under the hand of the Clerk of the Star Chamber by them and Sir Edward Hobby with some Bills but nothing appeareth to have been done touching the said Information against Belgrave In the mean time a servant of Mr. Huddleston a Knight of the Shire for Cumberland being arrested in London upon a Writ of Execution the Plaintiff and Serjeants denying to release him because it was after Judgment they were upon complaint to the House committed to Prison the Serjeant released paying the Serjeant at Arms Fees and the Plaintiff paying them as well as his own was ordered to remain three days in the Serjeants Custody For a like Judgment was cited to have been given by the House of Commons in the case of the Baron of Wilton in that Parliament Upon Thursday December the 7th Sir Edward Hobby shewed that the Parliament was now in the wain and near ending and an order was taken touching the Information delivered to this house viz. the House of Commons in Mr. Belgraves case but nothing done therein and as it seemeth by not taking out the Process no Prosecution of the Cause is intended against the said Mr. Belgrave he thought it fit because the chief Scope of the said Information seemeth to be touching a dishonour offered to this House that it would please the House that it might be put to the question being the original and first horrid fashion of their afterward altogether course or manner of voting and making their own pretended Liberties whether he hath offended this House yea or no If he hath he desireth to be censured by you and if he hath not it will be a good motive to this Honourable House here present who are Judges in this Court and yet he might have remembred what long and learned debates and disputes there had lately been amongst themselves whether the Custom of that House was or had been in cases of grievance to proceed by Bill or Petition to the Queen and it was resolved that it was the most proper and dutiful way to proceed by Petition which was done accordingly in clearing the Gentleman of that offence when it came before them which had then no higher esteem in Sir Edward Hobbyes opinion than to be previous to an after disquisition which that Law and the Queens Writ and the Election of that part of the people that brought them thither neither did or could give them any greater authority than ad faciendum consentiendum to do and perform that which the King and Lords in Parliament should ordain to be done and performed and when all should be rightly considered was an offence too often by more than one or once since practised to procure a Membership indirectly in an House of Commons in Parliament committed by Mr. Belgrave that should as little have been countenanced as there was any just or legal Warrant for it wherein Mr. Comptroller said I know the Gentleman to be an honest Gentleman and a great Servant to his Prince and Countrey I think it very fit to clear him I wish it may be put to the Question I will be ready to vouch your sentence for his offence when it comes there but if any other matter appears upon opening the Cause with that we have nothing to do Mr. Secretary Cecil who had not long before said in the same House he was sorry to see such disorder and little do you know how for disorder this Parliament is taxed I am sorry I said not slandered I hoped that as this Parliament began gravely and with Judgment
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
House of Commons in Parliament being in his coming to Parliament beaten and wounded by one John Savage the Record declareth that videtur cur quod non est necesse quod Inquiratur per patriam quae dampna praedictus Richardus Chedder qui venit ad Parliamentum in Comitiva c. Et verberatus vulneratus fuit per Johannem Savage sustinuit occasione verberationis set magis cadit in discretionem Justic Ideo per discretionem cur consideratum est quod dictus Richardus recuperet dampna sua ad centum marc similiter centum marc And though he was a Servant to a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament was committed to the Marshal quousque sinem faciat cum Domino Rege per minatoriis datis Juratoribus appunctuat ad inquirend And if there had been any Priviledge due to the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament besides and other than that which their Speakers do at their admittance by our Kings and Princes claim in their behalf being no more than freedom of Access to their Persons and from arrest of their Persons and moenial Servants ever since or in the 22 year of the Raign of King Edward the first for in the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the third when that King was a Prisoner to Simon Montfort and his Partner Rebels those few that were sent as Members of that not to be called a Parliament claimed not any Priviledges from the beginning of our verily long lasting Monarchy until that their distempered and unhappy framed Writ for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come to Parliament in 49 H. 3. nor can it be made appear that any of the Commons were before ever Elected to come as Members of Parliament the Writs ex gratia Regis allowed for the Levying of their Wages being no Priviledge given by the King but rather the Gift and Wages of the Counties and Places that Elected them And the Priviledges of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal besides those of the Earls and higher Degrees of the Nobility whose Patents and Charters about the Raign of King Richard the 2d gave them their Priviledges of having vocem locum sedem in Parliamento concilio generali Regis and before had their Titles of Earls by a Charter of the third penny or part of the Fines and Amerciaments of the County of Oxford as the Creation of Alberick de vere Earl of Oxford by King Henry the 2d hath demonstrated and some Authentick Historians have told us that King John made two Earls per Investituram cincturae gladii who waited upon him immediately after as he sate at dinner gladiis cincti and by reason of the Grandeur and Honour of their Estates and Priviledge to advise their King needed no protection from Arrests and their Ladies and Dowagers do enjoy the like Priviedges and when they should in extraordinary affairs be summoned to Parliament to be advised withal by our Kings whereunto when they were travelling through any of his Forrests they might kill a Deer so as they or any of them gave some of the Keepers notice thereof by blowing of an Horn and leaving a piece thereof hanging upon a Tree A Baron may speak twice to a Bill in Parliament in one day when a Member of the House of Commons can but once they neither need or choose any Speaker for the Chancellor or the Keeper of the Kings great Seal of England is the only Speaker of that House where the King doth not do it himself or commissionates some other to officiate in the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keepers place or time of sickness Every Baron or other Lord of Parliament in any Action where the Defendant pleadeth he is no Baron it shall not be tryed at the Common Law or by Jury nor by Witnesses but by Record their Bodies shall not be arrested and neither Capias or Exigent shall be awarded against them and their bodies are not subject to torture in causa laesae Majestatis Are not to be sworn in Assises Juries or Inquests if any Servant of the King in Checque Roll compass the Death of a Baron or any of the Kings Privy Councel it is Felony in any Action against a Baron in the Court of Common Pleas or any of the Courts of Justice two Knights are to be impannelled of the Jury he shall have a day of grace shall not be tryed in cases of Treason or Felony or misprision of Treason but by their Peers and such as are of the Nobility who are not sworn but give their verdict only upon their honour super fidem ligeantiam domino Regi debitam and by an Act of Parliament made by Queen Elizabeth are exempt from the taking of the Oath of Supremacy which the Members of the House of Commons are ordained to take before their admittance the Writs of Summons to a Parliament are directed only to themselves who are not Elected as the Members of the House of Commons who are but as the Attorneys and Procurators for those that sent them ad faciendum consentiendum to do and obey what the Lords shall ordain who sub fide ligeancia Domino Regi debita do represent only for themselves and the cause saith Sir Edward Coke of the Kings giving the Nobility so many great Priviledges is because all Honour and Nobility is derived from the King who is the true fountain of Honour and Honours the Nobility also two was as 1. Ad consulendum and anciently gives them Robes 2dly A Sword Ad defendendum Regem Regnum and the Oath of Allegiance is and ought to be imprinted in the heart of every Subject scil Ego verus fidelis ero veritatem praestabo Domino Regi de vita membro de terreno honore vivendum moriendum contra omnes gentes c. Et si cognoscam aut audiam de aliquo damno aut malo quod domino Regi evenire poterit revelabo c. And their Wives and Dowagers enjoy the same Priviledges in the time of Parliament and without and their Sons and Daughters a praecedency which those of the House of Commons have not the Lords can in case of Absence by the Kings License make their proxy but the Members of the House of Commons cannot the Lords at any conference with the Members of the House of Commons do sit covered but the Commons do all the while stand uncovered the Lords have a certain number of Chaplains in time of Parliament and with a Priviledge of enjoying more than one Benefice but the Members of the House of Commons none the Lords in the case of breach of Priviledge by arresting any of their Moenial Servants in the time of Parliament do by their own order punish the offenders which the House of Commons should not without the assistance of the King by his Writ out of his Court of Chancery the Lords and some others
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
the Romans those Cordatissimi Mortales as the learned Pettus Cunaeus hath stiled them and most watchful of their Priviledges the wary long lasting Republick of Venice or the later Confederates of the United Provinces ever trouble themselves or any other with such reasonless incredible Whimsies it being impossible that Subject and Soveraignty should constare vel consistere in uno eodenque Subjecto neither when Jeroboam drew away the Ten Tribes of Israel from the Obedience of Rehoboam and made as the Holy Scripture saith all Israel to sin was there any such opinion amongst their Cabalistical Doctrines The Republicks of Venice Holland could not be capable of Leagues and Treaties with Monarch and Forreign Princes as unto War and commerce nor the little Common-wealths of Genoa and Geneva or those many Imperial free Cities or Towns in or near Germany or the Electors of the Empire or the Hanse Towns should they give entertainment unto such Fancies and Fopperies as a Soveraignty in the people neither would the Cantons of of Helvetia or Switzerland think themselves well used to be obliged to such a Parcel of unpracticable folly And if those Egregious Cavillators can find no way of retreat for those their notorious follies but to fly for Succour unto praescription that will if they could as they will never be able to prove it yeild them as little comfort for a Rebellious electing of some few Members into the House of Commons first formed as unto a small number of them during the Imprisonment of King Henry the third by Montforts Army of Rebels that would not mount unto a Prescription quia mala fide and if it could have come up to any thing like a Prescription there would be no reason or need for an Election of Members to be in the House of Commons in Parliament by the Sheriffs by the Mandate or Warrant of the Kings Writs or how could a party drawn out of such a pretended inhaerent Soveraignty in the people rationally subsist when those their untruly supposed Rights or Priviledges cannot upon the most exact enquiry be found or discerned amongst all the Records Charters and Patents of our Kings and Princes or those of any of our Neighbour Nations of Christendom or of any other Nation White Black or Tawncy but do plainly contradict it and declare the quite contrary and will manifest it to be the greatest Cheat and Villany that ever was put upon the Sons and Daughters of mankind either as unto a pretended inhaerent Soveraignty or a third Estate or the figment of a Modus tenendi Parliamentum Or how could any of our Kings Rightly and Justly stile them a third Estate when they could not choose a Speaker without their License nor leavy their Wages without his Writs directed to the Sheriffs for that purpose nor punish any that had arrested any of them or their maenial Servants whilst they attended the King in their Service for him and their own good and at all conferences either in their own House or in the House of Peers were to stand uncovered when the Lords sate covered could not grant Tax or Aid without the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and in King Edward 1. His Raign and some of our after Kings have refused to intermeddle or give advice in matters of Peace and War but desired that the Councel of the Lords as the most able might be taken therein In the 34 and 35. H. 8. the Knights and Burgesses of Chester had no title of Estates but the same King in the Act of Parliament declaring in what Order and Manner the Lords should sit in the House of Peers in Parliament made no appointment for or concerning any of the House of Commons as if they had been no Essential part of Parliament that in the great case of Mr. George Ferrars a Member of the House of Commons as wel as a Servant of that Kings upon a complaint that he had been imprisoned and the Kings Serjeant at Arms attending their Speaker was beaten and abused the House of Commons in Parliament complained to the House of Lords who remitted it to them again and no remedy or punishment could be had until it came to the King himself who without any mention or Title given unto them of a third Estateship was pleased to grant it And in Queen Maries Raign 39. of their Members were Indicted by her for not attending the Parliament yet none either claimed a third Estateship or to be tryed by their Peers Queen Elizabeth imprisoned some and at several times charged them and their Speaker not to intermeddle with matters of Church or State but all the Masters of any Understanding Reason or Common sense ought to understand them to be no other than Petitioners and her Leige-men And it is well known that King James in his Instructions to his Son Prince Henry and his learned answer to Cardinal Peronius does assert the Jus Regium to be the Right of Kings from God immediately without any notice taken of a third Estate But if those Kingly Government or Monarchy Reformers would but give their contemplations and designs some little Respite they might easily perceive the frailty of the Materials out of which they mould would the Members of the House of Commons into a third Estate and might find Evidenee Records Reason and Law enough if they have not forsworn them to desist from such an impossibility And it might better become their own busying themselves in the government of the Kingdom wherein they have no manner of skill or knowledge to consult the consequences and the Events and having no knowledge of the causes Mediume contengencies or treacheries too much or too often attendant in Princes affairs not seldom also miscarrying for the Sins of the people or of some Jonas in the Ship deserving a punishment ought more seriously to weigh and consider how little the people of England will think themselves hereafter beholding or obliged unto them when in a popular and aboundance of Ignorance accompanied with sin and wiekedness they advised King Charles the Second to dissolve by Act of Parliament these Nerves and Sinews of the Crown which the Judges of England in the Raigns of King James the first and King Charles the first upon several consults have declared to be so inseparable to the Crown of England as the most potent and binding Act of Parliament that could be made will never be able to disunite them when they have thereby against their wills converted those Tenures of Honour and safety to their King and Protection peace and plenty to his people and the Releifs and Herriots due and payable to the King into a Chimney-Money granted afterwards by another Act of Parliament and what a profitable bargain they have made by forfeiture of all the Lands which they held by and under their Feudal Laws converted into Socage when by a Law made by King Athelstan ever plow Land in Socage was to find in Service
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
wanting and necessary to be done for the prefervation thereof Authorizing us to examine the present State and Condition of the said Records and peruse as well the Orders for regulating of the Orders of the Keepers of the said office of Records as the Orders made by Sir Algernon May Keeper of the said Records the first day of December then last past and to consider what additions and allowances they shall judge fit to be made either in the said Orders or Queries or what otherwise occurs to them fit to be offered for the better ordering methodizing preservation and safe keeping of the said Records and that they make report thereof unto us with all convenient speed and their opinion what is necessary to be done in order to the attaining the ends asoresaid in obedience whereunto Sir William Dugdale and I have not only made a Certificate and report unto their Lordships what we had done under our hands but afterwards at the aforesaid Office of the Records have given a meeting to some that were appointed by their Lordships and after that in the absence and sickness of the said Sir William Dugdale by the Command of the said Earl of Anglesey I did attend his Lordship and the Lord Chancellor and divers of the said Lords of his late Majesties Privy-Councel to the said Office of Records in the Tower of London those Scrinia Sacra Publicae Tabulae which our Great Selden faith is a Religio to preserve and the Commons in Parliament in the 42 year of the Raign of King Edward the 3d petitioned to have a free access unto because they contain the peoples evidence and might also have said their Kings and Princes Rights and Power to protect them and therefore to have them well looked unto and preserved must needs be an universal concernment both unto our Kings and their People and though here in England in the time of our long and factious Parliament Rebellions and Miseries when I first began to search into the Original of our before happy Government and continuance of our Laws Peace and Plenty and the excellent frame and constitution of our Government founded upon no other than the Feudal Laws which unto any that will take the pains to peruse and examine them will make it easily appear that our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Laws and those of all our succeeding Kings and Princes and the Process Proceedings Maxims Rules and Methods in and through all the parts thereof have until our late unfortunate Factious and Seditious times and Parliament Rebellion the tricks of Attorneys unskilful Clerks and subordinate and corrupt Officers since those times of unhappiness only excepted had no other source or fountain and that the Civil and Caesarean Laws being long ago accompted to be the universal reason of the World are and have been in their Patroni and Clientes near allied to our Feudal Laws whereof the learned Craguis wrote his Book de Feudis in the year 1655. applicable to his own Countrey of Scotland where they yet remain notwithstanding our unthrifty exchange of the Nerves and Ligaments of our Kings Crown and Dignity for an Excise upon Ale Beer and Syder would not permit me to stand still and let my King and Country be destroyed by suffering our Feudal Laws the basis and foundation of our Government to be drencht or washt in the River Lethe or lake of Oblivion or the wild Boars and Foxes to destroy and lay wast and cause our once flourishing Kingdom under the Guard and protection of those Laws to be more transformed and abused than many of the sacred Laws of God given to his once beloved people of the Jews have been by their Masorites when they had a better excuse and Apology to make by their captivity of seventy years in Babylon until they had forgotten the language in which their Laws were written than our Gentlemen of Innovation or Reformation as it hath been Nicknamed or miscalled of Good into Bad or Better into Worse for their own only advantage here upon earth happen what will when they shall be able to attain unto or provide for themselves And in these my Labours and impartial observations with no little danger and sorrow to see my King and Countrey so ill used have been as tender as the res Acta or matters related or inquired into would permit without praeprejudice or hurt unto the truth or my Loyalty unto my Soveraign with all due Reverence unto the Judges many or the most of whom when the fire of that Rebellion which had lain kindling and smoaking in its Embrio's in the years 1637 1638 1639 and 1640. began every where almost discernably to flame and be very apparent and visible were either then in prima Lanugine or had but scarcely saluted the Ostia or Limina Legum stept over the Treshold or Door of it as the vulgar term it and intend as I have never failed to do not only to do but write and speak of them with all Reverence becoming me and all others according to the Reason and Rule which the great and prudent Prince King Edward the first ordained when he declared in these words Et quia sunt honor Reverentia quae ministris ipsius Regis ratione officii sui fiant ipsi Regi attribuuntur sic dedecus ministris suis eidem domino Regi infertur and in my Relations concerning that high and very honourable very useful and profitable for the weal publick Houses of Parliament no man should think or speak dishonourably so long as they permit Parliaments to be what Parliaments according to their right use and Institution were nor ought to be no more than Colloquium or Commune Concilium as may be further evidenced by that great Princes severe punishment of that great Baron William de Breause for contumelious words spoken to a Judge And King Edward the 3d had such a care of his Justices and their authority as he punished severely the Bayliffs of Ipswich by the loss of their places caused their Staves of Office to be broken in the Court of Kings Bench and their Liberties to be seised and forfeited because they had suffered an unruly multitude to feast and revel with certain malefactors who had been there condemned by the Justices of Assise and after their departure made a kind of mockgame or interlude to be Acted upon the Tribunal where the Judges had sitten and in mockery fined and amerced the Justices and their Clerks And for that I would willingly be as much as I could Instrumental to recal a factious seditious and Rebellious party out of their Errours that they may neither persist therein themselves or by erecting Schools of rebellion magnify and think themselves to be no small persons in the propagation thereof and in those my travails not having the help as the learned Dr. Brady hath had of the publick Libraries of the University and Collegiate Libraries of the University of Cambridge but
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
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
ipsa impediri possit quoquomodo vel differri ubi praedicti Barones gravari et quod sive pacem procurare possit sive non quod omni occasione et dilatione postposita usque ad festum Nat ' beatae Virginis prox futur ' tota die ipsa sibi data revertetur ad castrum Dovor ' et ibi ponet se in manibus praedicti Henr ' de Monteforti tanquam Obsidem eodem modo et sub eadem forma sicut erat ante recessum suum ità tamen quòd si pro negotii consummatione ultra terminum praedictum per duos aut tres dies ad pius moram ipsius longior necessaria fuerit pro tanti temporis morâ dummodo Baron ' infra tempus praedictum super hoc premuniverit post biduum triduum redierit nullatenùs occasionetur Dominus verò de Nigol Dominus P. le Chamberlens Magister Henricus de Verdel ' Nuntii praedicti Domini Regis Franciae Manu coeperunt quod dictus Henricus de Almannia in regno Franciae quo minus termino predicto liberè reverti possit à quoque non detinebitur invitus voluit autem Henricus de Almannia concessit expressè quòd si praedictae non observaverit vel contrà ea vel eorum aliquod quoquomodo venire praesumpserit hoc ipso terras suas omnes tenementa possessiones quae in regno nostro habet vel habere poterit jure hereditario vel quovis alio modo totaliter perdat eisdem ipso facto perpetuò privatus existat nullo jure Sibi aut Haeredibus suis in posterum competente In eisdem ad haec praedicti Domini Episcopi electus immo Episcopus Bathon ' pro praefato Henrico de Almannia manu coeperunt quod infrà terminum praedictum revertetur in eodem statu se reponet in quo erat tempore recessus sui nisi casu fortuitò inevitabili fuerit praepeditus hoc promiserint sub poena viginti millium Marc ' argenti singuli insolidum commitend ' praefat ' Henrico de Monteforti Custodi ejusdem Henr ' de Almannia cum effectu ab eisdem Episcopis exigend ' si infra praedictum tempus reversurus non fuerit obsidem se reddiderit ut praedictum est In cujus c. Teste Rege apud Cantuariam quarto die Septembris And in their Marching to and fro with their King a prisoner in a victorious powerful undisbanded and undisturbed Army thought it would be convenient for their evil Purposes to attract as much as they could the good Will and Hopes of the Clergy by an Embrio or Promise made amongst themselves the Sixth day of October in the Forty-eighth year of that over-power'd King's reign of some Act or Order of Parliament when they should be at leisure to obtain it in these words viz. Purveu est per comun assentement du Roi des Prelaz des Contes des Barons de la tere ke les trespas ke fait sont contre seinte Eglise en Engleterre par acheson de trublement de la guerre ke adeste en Reaume de Engleterre soient amendez en ceste forme Soint esluz des Contes des graunz gentz de la tere par la volente l'assentement des Prelaz trois Evesques ki des amendes resnables ke sont a foire pur les avantditz forfez ke ont este fait contre seinte Eglise aient plein poeer de establir de purver kanqe bone sera renable chose ceusque escomenge seront trovez soient assous en forme de Droit par ceus qui Poeer averont La Poeer des Prelaz soit affirmee en ceste manere promis soit en bone fai des Contes e de la Justice des autres lais qui sont du Counseil le Roi e autres graunz Barons du Reaume ke totes les choses ke les Prelaz ke eleus seront purverunt renablement en nun des amendes garderont pur soi e metteront peine e bone fei de fere garder des autres de ce â—ndoignâ—nt â—or lettres overtes Derechef as Prelaz puis kil seront esluz soit done pleine poeer du Roi e de la Communaute des Contes des Barons de graunz honmes de la tere a purver les choses kee besoignables sont e profitables a plein Reformement dec Estat de seint Eglise al Honur deu a la Foi nostre Seinur le Roi e au profit du Reaume cco soit premis en bone soi par le Roi par les Contes les avantdiz Barons par les autres graunz hommes de la tere si en facent lec ' lettres overtes cest assaver des choses ke unt este faites pus la Pasch ' dereine dont un an ce est assaver le an nostre Seignor le Roi. Si nul soit trove ke ne voile ester al ordenement e la purveiaunce des avandiz Prelaz en les choses avont dites e selom les formes avant dites sont destreint par sentence de seinte Eglise E si mester est soient destreint per la Laie force E que ceste chose se puisse meuz faire eit la justice cent ou plus Chevalers ou Seriaunz Soudeers eluz a destreindre les meffesours quant il serra requis par les avanditz Prelaz Citens Soudeers de bens Communs de seinte hglise soient sustenuz taunt com il sont en cele besoine E cest ordenement durge sovans a un an ou a deus Dekes les choses soient ben en pes e les purveaunces de Prelaz la pes de la tere bien meintenue Purveu est ke les bens des Benefites de seinte Eglise des aliens e des autres ke ont est contre la tere soient celui e sauvement garde par les mains des Prelaz deserves a taunt ke soit purveu par comun Conseil ke leu devera faire E a fermete en tesmoinaunce de ceo le Roi les hauz Homes de la tere ont mis lur seus a cest escrit Teste Rege apud Cantuar ' Sexto die Octobris The 30 th day of that October Anno. 49. of his sorrowful Raign which began October 19. Annoque Domini 1216. they caused a Letter to be written in his name to the King of France for a safe Conduct for the King's Envoyes with the Messengers of the Barons to treat of a Peace with him and the Pope's Legats concerning the State of the Kingdom as followeth Egregio Principi Domino Consanguineo suo karissimo Domino Lud. Dei gratiâ Regi Franciae Rex c. Cùm nuper quosdam de fidelibus Nostris ad praesentiam vestram ad venerabilem Patrem G. Sabin ' Episcopum Apostolicae sedis Legatum nec non
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
Nobis tenemini firmitèr injungentes quòd vos ipsi in propria persona vestra ad Nos sine omni dilatione accedatis Castrum praedictum nobis reddituri vel talem loco vestro mittatis plenam habeat potestatem reddendi Nobis Castrum praedictum in forma supradicta hoc sub poena praedicta mullatenùs omittatis Teste Rege apud Westm ' 60 die Aprilis per Com. Leic. Justic. P. de Monteforti R. de S ti Johanne alios de Consilio The first day of May in the Year aforesaid the said Henry de Borham not abstaining from the Office and business of a Judge whilst he continued under the sentence of Excommunication aforesaid the King commanded him not to intermeddle therein until he should be absolved as the Writ following signified Rex Henrico de Borham salutem Quia per Assertionem venerabilis Patris H. London Episc. intelleximus quòd meritis vestris exigentibus Excommunicationis sententia estis innodati per qued ab omnibus arctius vitari debetis nolumus quòd Placitis Nos sequentibus aut aliis quibuscunque placitis Nostris intendatis nec quod de aliquo quod ad Justic. pertinet vos intromittatis donec beneficium Absolutionis merueritis aliud à Nobis receperitis in mandatis Teste Rege apud Gloucester primo die Maii. per R. Com. Leic. Justic. omnes de Consilio tunc aqud Gloucester existentes The 5 th day of that May a Memorandum was entred upon the close Rolls of the Chancery in these words viz. Die Jovis prox post festum S ti Johannis ante portam Latinam hora prima Magister Thomas de Cantilup Cancellarius Regis tradiderit Rand ' de Sandwic custod ' de Garder Regis sigillum Domini Regis in praesentia ipsius Domini Regis assistentibus Hug. Le Despencer Justic. Angliae Petro de Monteforti custodiend ' usque ad reditum ipsius Thomae sub hac formâ viz. Quod idem Rad ' sigill in Garder ' Regis custodiat sub signo alicujus infrascript ' P. de Monteforti Rogero de S to Johanne Egidii de Argentin vel alicujus eorum Et quòd Signo signantis fracto signabit idem Rand ' brevia illa quae sunt de cursu in ipsius praesentia si abesse voluerit ea tamen quae sunt de praecepto non nisi in praesentia Signantis sigillabit de ejus assensu brevibus tà m de cursu quà m de praecepto sigillum Regis sub sigillo suo eodem sigillo Regis subsignato idem Rand ' tunc reportet in Garder ' praedict sic illud usque ad reditum ejusdem Thomae custodiet in Garder ' Regis ista facta fuerit apud Gloucester 5 o die Maii. The Prince having the Command of the Judaisme or Bank of the usuring Jewes as also the Mannor Town and Castle of Stamford assigned unto him and being about the 30 th day of May in the Year aforesaid escaped out of the Castle of Hereford where he had been long a Prisoner the King continuing a Prisoner to his Rebel-Barons to save his own life did command the Treasurer and Chamberlaines of the Exchequer that taking with them Thomas Cantelup his Chancellour they should collect for his use the Tallage or Tax lately laid upon the Judaisme and to remove Adam de Winton and Thomas de Cropp two of their Justices and put into that Office William Haselbeck and command the said Justice not to obey the Prince his Son and prohibit all the Jewes in England to do the like for that the Prince his Son Spreto concilio of the King and his faithful Barons subitò inopinatò had joyned himself to the Rebellious Party to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom Rex Thesau Camerariis suis salutem Quia Edwardus Filius Noster cum Judaismum vestrum sicut nostis ad tempus commisimus Nostro prorsus Magnatum fidelium Nostrorum spreto Consilio Subito ex inopinato jam recessit ad quosdam Rebelles Nostros se transferendo qui Nos gravare pacem Regni Nostri perturbare proponunt dictum Judaismum cepimus in manum Nostram ideò vobis mandamus quòd assumpto vobiscum Magistro Thom ' de Cantilupo Cancellario Nostro si adhuc London existit Talliagium nuper assessum super Judaismum praedict per Thomam de Ippegrave ad hoc assignatum per praedictum Filium Nostrum videri illud ad opus Nostrum colligi salvo custodiri fac donec aliud inde praecipimus Adam vero de Winton socium Roberti de Cropp ' ab Officio suo amoveatis loco suo Will ' de Haselbech substituatis ità quod iidem Will ' Robertus Officio Justiciariae Jud ' à modo intendant donec alitèr inde duxerimus ordinandi eisdem Justic. firmitèr injungatis ex parte Nostra nè praefato Filio Nostro vel suis in aliquo intendant quod ab omnibus Judaeis Angl. hoc idem scire faciant hoc non omittatis Teste Rege apud Herefordiam tricesimo die Maii. And the same day having been enforced to stile his Loyal Barons Rebels sent his Writs to the Sheriffs of Herefordshire Shropshire and Staffordshire to proclaim that no Faires and Markets should be kept within their Liberties and Baylewicks untill he should give further Order and that all Victuals to be sold should be brought to Hereford or wheresoever the King should be in these words Rex Vicecom ' Hereford salutem Praecipimus tibi firmitèr injungentes quòd per totam Ballivam tuam firmitèr inhibere fac ex parte Nostra nè aliquae Feriae vel Mercata de caetero teneantur in Balliva praedicta donec aliud inde mandavimus sed ubiquè proclamari fae ex parte Nostra quòd omnia Victualia venalia ad Nos usque Hereford veniant exindè Nos sequantur talitèr te habeas in hoc mandato Nostro exequendo quòd diligentiam tuam meritò commendare possimus T. ut supra Eodem modo mandatum est Vic. Salop. Staff And directed another Writ for the seizing of the Town and Castle of Stamford which was the Princess's as followeth viz. Rex Thomae de Blund Custodi terrarum Thomae de Ferrar ' salutem Quia Edwardus filius Noster cui villam de Stamford unà cum Castro ejusdem villae nuper commâ—sâ—â—us 〈◊〉 â—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostrum sicut nostis Nostro prorsus M 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostror ' spreto consilio Subito inopinato jam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebelles Nostros se transferendo qui Nos gravare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nostri perturbare propo 〈…〉 vâ—bis Mandamus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd Villam praedictam sine dilatione capiatis in ma 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cam salvo custodiatis ità quòd de exitibus inde prove 〈…〉 Noâ—is respondeatis Teste ut supra The King being inforced to make
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
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
to his people that they shall have Election of their Sheriff in every Shire where the Shrievalty is not of Fee if they list which would have been very prejudicial both to the King and his people as to the collecting of his revenue and Executing his Justice by his Mandates Writs and Process if the confirmation allowance or disallowance thereof had not been by Law lodged in the King and his Supream authority What persons shall be returned in every Jury the King Willeth and Commandeth For a remedy against Conspirators False Enformers and Embracers of Juries the King hath provided a remedy Against Mainteynors of Suits it is said the King willeth but it may not be understood hereby that any person shall be prohibited to have Councel of Pleaders or of Learned Men in the Law for his Fee or of his Parents or next Friends What distress shall be taken for the Kings debts and how it shall be used the King willeth What sort of Persons the Commons of shires shall chuse for their Sheriffs forasmuch as the King hath granted it is said the King willeth That Baylewicks and Hundreds shall not be let too dear to charge the people with contribution In summons and attachments in plea of land the writ shall contain 15 daies it is in like manner to be understood In like manner against false retornes of writs The King willeth that the Statute of Winchester shall be read 4 times in the year and put in execution The King willeth that Escheators shall commit no wast in Wards lands In an act of Parliament declaring in what cases the owner shall have his lands delivered out of the King's hands with the issues it is said the King willeth In an Act of Parliament that vessels of gold shall be assayed it is said to have been ordained and that notwithstanding all those things before-mentioned or any point of them both the King and his Councell and all that were present at the making of that Ordinance meaning the Judges and Assistants of that Honourable Court will and intend that the right and prerogative of his Crown shall be saved to him in all things In the Statute de Escatoribus 29. E. 1. at the Parliament of our Lord the King at Lincoln in his Councell it was agreed and also commanded by the King Himself and this order shall be held from henceforth in the Chancery notwithstanding a certain ordinance lately made by our Lord the King concerning lands and tenements taken into his hands by his officers and not to be delivered but by the King himself and as it is conteined in a Certain dividenda or indenture made betwixt the King himself and his Chancelor whereof one part remaineth in the Custody of the Chancelor In the new Statute of Quo Warranto made Anno 30. E. 1. it is recited that the King himself in the 6 year of his Reign providing for the wealth of his Realm and the more full administration of Justice as to the Office of a King belongeth the more discreet men of the Realm as well high as of low degree being called thither it is provided and ordained but in the writs framed to enquire by what warrant the Liberties were granted to the people they are said to be in Parliamento nostro per nos concilium nostrum 31. E. 1. In an ordinance for Measures it is said that by the consent of the whole Realm of England the King's measure was made In the Statute of 33. E. 1. Touching protections granted by the King it is said to have been provided In the ordinance or definition of Conspirators made in the aforesaid Year it is declared that this ordinance and final definition of Conspirators was made and aworded by the King and his Councell in Parliament In the Statute of Champerty made in the 33d year of the Reign of the aforesaid King it is recited that whereas in our Statute it was contained and provided by a common accord the writ framed thereupon mentioneth that law to be the Kings Ordinance In the Ordinance for enquests made in Parliament the same year it is said to have been agreed and ordained by the King and all his Councell In the ordinatio Forestae made in the year aforesaid whereas certain people have by great men made request to our Lord the King that they may be acquitted of their charge and the demand of the Foresters our Lord the King answered that when he had granted Pour lieu he was pleased it should stand as it was granted albeit the thing was sued and demanded in an evill point Nevertheless he willeth and intendeth that all his demeasne lands which have been of the Crown or returned unto it by Escheat or otherwise shall have free chase and free warren and in right of them that have lands and tenements disafforested for the said Pourlieus and such as demand to have Common within the bounds of forests the intent and will of our Sovereign Lord the King is c. And if any that were disafforested would rather be in the Forest it pleaseth the King very well and our Lord the King willeth and commandeth the Justices of the Forest c. In Anno 34. of his Reign there being an Ordinance for measuring of Land In the same Year the King by his Letters-Patents with the Teste meipso certifying the Statute de Conjunctim Feoffatis declared that it was no new thing that among divers establishments of Laws which he had ordained in his time upon the great and heinous mischiefs that happen in Writs of Novel disseisin chiefly above others he as if he neither did know or believe any co-ordination or that he was to be tutored by a Conservatorship had devised a more speedy remedy then was before and willeth and granteth that that Statute shall take his effect the morrow after the feast of St Peter ad Vincula next coming In the Statute for Amortising of Lands tempore E. 1. the King commandeth c. In Ca. 4. Which seemeth to be about the 27th Year of that Kings Reign in the confirmation of all our Laws Liberties and Customes it is said that the King willeth and granteth if any Statutes have been made or any customes brought in contrary thereunto that such Statutes and Customes shall be void for evermore And for the more assurance of this thing we will and grant that all Archbishops and Bishops for ever shall twice in the year cause to be openly read in their Cathedralls the said Charters and denounce curses against the willing infringers thereof and the Archbishops Bishops c. have voluntarily Sworn to observe the tenor thereof In the ordinatio pro Statu Hiberniae made by him at Nottingham by the assent of his Councel there being in Ca. 6. in what cases the Justices of Ireland may grant pardon of Felony c. and where not there is an exception so always that there
before mentioned Congress at Montpelier in France understand that he knew how to perform what he had promised and undertaken And it was high time to do it and look about him when the Benificiarii his Tenants in Capite would not be content to be gratefull and allways keep in remembrance the Obligations incumbent upon their Lands Estates Ancestors and Posterities past or to come and their Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy grounded thereupon unless they might so work upon the favours Indulgence and many times necessities of their Kings and Princes as to procure as much as they could of their Regall power and Authority into their hands as an addition to the many Manors and Lands formerly bestowed upon their forefathers severall Precious Flowers of the Crown as Fines and Amerciaments Assize of Bread and Beer Felons and Outlaws Goods Year Day and Wast Deodands Waifs Estreats and Herriot fossa furtas Pillory and Tumbrell c. And the then over-powering Clergy with their Multitudes of Abbotts Priors and several orders of Monks Fryars and Nuns working upon our former Kings and Princes Devotions and Liberalities heightned and procured by their too many tales and fictions of Miracles and Relicques attracted unto themselves and their several Houses and Societies as much of their Kings Regalities as could with any Justice to themselves or the rest of their Subjects and people or any reason be required or asked of them And were Anciently so fearfull to loose what they should not in that manner have gained as the Charter and Patent-Rolls of many of our ancient Kings never wanted the company of the many Confirmations of such kind of unbecoming grants and it may moreover justly be attributed unto the over-much Clemency and Indulgence of our Common Parents Kings and Princes that in their many Acts of Resumptions of no small quantities of Manors and Lands aliened from the Crown of England which as to its real Estate in Lands is almost reduced to an Exinanition or much too little for a Royal Revenue they have notwithstanding without any diminution permitted their Feudatories to enjoy those very many Regalities which made them live like so many Subreguli or Petty Kings or Princes under them and leave them so far exceeding the Old Saxon Heptarchy as Ten thousand Manors in England and Wales unto their great Regalities and Liberties can amount unto no less then a strange kind of Poliarchy in a Monarchy which like Esau and Jacob Strugling in the Womb never after agreed together which that great Prince King Edward the 1. suis aliorum miseriis edoctus did endeavour to prevent and leave it to his Heirs and Successors as it ought to be a most Ancient great and entire Monarchy Was so exact and carefull in the Causing of Justice to be done unto his people and Subjects as by himself or his Justices Itinerant and Juries Impannelled to enquire according to certain Articles given unto them in writing unto which they were to answer negatively or affirmatively not as is now used by the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench twice every Year upon the Impannelling of the grand Juries of the County of Middlesex or by the Judges in their several Circuits to the Grand Juries of the several Counties or places by their Learned speeches and recommending unto them what they should enquire and present what they know and not tarry untill by chance or malice it be brought unto them which for the most part proves to be as little effectual as if they should be required to have a care of their Bill of Fare or what good provision of Meat and Wine was to be had at Dinner from whence well Luxuriated and Tobaccoed as unto not a few of them if they get home at any reasonable time of the night they have done their Countrey service that they have and all is well and for the little that they know is like to continue But it was not thought to have been enough in that our great Justiciar King Edward the first his Reign when he Commissionated some of his Justices to Impannell Juries in every Ward of London where it was found and returned upon their Oaths in Anno 3. of his Reign Quod Civitas London cum suis pertin cum Com. Middlesex tenetur in Capite de Domino Rege pro certa Annua pentione soluta ad Scaccarium Dominum Regis per Vicecom London Quod Dominus Radolphus de Berners Mil. ten unum messuagium duo molend aquatic cum pertin in paroch Sancti Botolphi extra Algate quae vocantur the Knights fee quod quidem Tenementum debet invenire Domino Regi unum servientem Armatum in uno Turretto Turris London per xl dies tempore guerra ad proprios sumptus in ultima guerrae fecit defalc c. Dicunt etiam quod in Com. Midd. sunt 7 Hundred Wapp Tithing pertin ad Civit. London Palat. Westminster Keneton Judaismum Turrim Civit. London in manu sua Inquisitio facta per 12 Jur. de Warda Anketili de Alneranzo Civis Aldermanni London super certis Articulis ex parte Domini Regis E. Anno ejusdemtertio apud Sanctum Martinum magnum London eisdem Jur. tradit In which dicunt quod Civit. London Turr. ejusdem Westm. Com. Midd. sunt de Dominico Domini Regis quod reddant Domino Regi per Annum 400l Item dicunt quod Wynton Northampton Southampton Oxon Bristoll Ebor. al. Civitat Burg. quorum nomina ignorant sunt de Dominico Domini Regis reddunt certam pecuniae Summam annuatim sed quantum ignorant Et quod Dominus Johannes quondam Rex Angliae pater Domini H. Regis dedit Elianorae tunc temporis Reginae Angliae Ripam Regiam in Civitate London quae fuit de Jure est de Dominico Domini Regis In which that great princes inquisitions and desire of administring Justice to his people It is not to pass unobserved that amongst all his Quo Warranto's what Liberties were Claimed in every part of the Nation and every man that would enjoy them driven not to conceal but Claim them there was untill the 22 year of his Reign when the disused house of Commons first erected in and by Simon Montfort's aforesaid Rebellion was again ordained to be elected with some modification there was not any claim of Parliament Liberty nor in any of our after Kings Reigns nor is it at any time to be called a Liberty to be Crowded under that Denomination for that it was but Transitory not fixt to any person or Land and was but vaga incerta that opinion of a would be Learned Lawyer and Recorder in the County of Surry reprehended openly by a Judge that it was a privilege or liberty of Parliament to use some Art by a Counterfeit Deed or otherwise to make himself to be a Freeholder with an Intent to be a Parliament-man Which Jury presented Pourprestures in stopping up the way
the King that some of the Lords might be sent to confert with them at all their conferences with them do stand uncovered whilst the Lords dosit covered when any of their Members are by the King's grace and favour created Barons or Earls and called into the House of Peers are to receive others to be Elected in their places cannot of or by themselves redress undue Elections could not go home without licence of the King nor have their Wages levied and paid by their countrys without his Order and Writs And being with those requisites and precautions come unto the Parliament to do and consent unto such things as by the King and the Lords Spirituall and temporall should be in Parliament ordained did not Certainly sit in one Room Chamber or Place together But whither they did sit in one and the same house or Place or not will but little contribute to the extravagant fancies of our now State-Moulders SECT XXIII That the Members of the House of Commons being Elected and come to the Parliament as aforesaid did not by Virtue of those Writs of Election sit together with the King and the Lords Spirituall and Temporall 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 inferr that they were or are cor-ordinate or had or have an equall power in their Suffrages and decisions WHich they may dream of from the beginning of the World unto the End thereof and never be able to Evidence and if it had been so will be such an ill Shaped argument that the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament are thereby to be believed to be co-ordinate with the King and House of Peers or superior unto either of them as any one that was but within a little of a madman would be ashamed to propound or put it to the decision of the over-circumspect inhabitants of Gotham For who but such disciples or proselites can find the way to imagine or believe that when King William Rufus dined at his Marble table where the Court of King's-hencb now sitteth in his large Westminster-Hall and his Nobility and many of his Court attendants sat at their meat at their many lower table in the same hall could perswade themselves or others to suppose an equality in degrees and Power or that the King because they did all sit but in one room or House was no more then co-ordinate with them For in the grand feasts of the Inns of Courts Houses Colleges or Societies for the study of our Law the Judges Benchers Barristers and utter Barristers are not so ill used as to be in danger of any the like argument because one Common hall or room contained them all and the honor of the King or his Privy Councel are not diminished because there are greater or lesser degrees amongst them sitting in one and the same Councell Chamber Howsoever if they will keep their words and promise to acquiesce in proofs that are negative to what they are so willing to affirm and should be sufficient to convince their insane conclusions they need not want them when Mr Pryn and many good Anthors will give us large and abundant evidences to manifest the errors of such their fond and reasonless assertions For in the very many Councels or Parliaments of our Kings reckoned by Mr Pryn from Anno Domini 673. unto the 1st Year of King John there were no Knights Citizens or Burgesses for the Commons as he positively and confidently affirmed either Summoned Elected to those many Councells or Parliaments or present at any of them and being not there at all there needs not to have been any question or controversy whether they Sate in one House or Room together And when King John in the 17th Year of his Reign at the Meeting and Rebellious Convention at Running-Mede of some of his unruly Baronage which some of the Liberty Coyners would imagine to be a Parliament where those Barons were in the head of a mighty Army of their own Party and the King had but a very few unarmed attendants with him Mathew Paris saith they did in that conference or treaty for a Peace seorsim considere and notwithstanding that Sr Edward Coke hath without any good Warrant averred that the Lords and Commons in Parliament Sate together and that the surest mark of the division of both Houses was when the House of Commons had at the first a continual Speaker which he mistakenly refers to Ro. Parl. 50. E. 3. m. 8. wherein a Loyal Learned Gentleman hathâ— against his will by misinformation been led into an Error that our three Estates the King excepted as they have been sometimes and but sometimes called in our Records State together and that our Records bear Witness that they according to the French custom have sate in one House or Room that is to say the Lords Spirituall and Temporall within the Barrand the Commons without for Mr Pryn in his Animadversions upon that and other of his Errors saith that the King's Writs to Summon the Prelates and Peers interesse nobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus Regni sui did not intend the Commons Knights or Burgesses tractaturi vestrumque concilium impensuri neither did in all probability direct or intend that the Commons should joyn or sit with them as both the Writs and practice have ever since evidenced and that all that that Roll of 50. E. 3. doth import is but that the Commons came to the Lords House and had sometimes conference with them but that they sate or debated together is no way proved but contsadicted by many Parliament Rolls as Parl. 5. E. 3. Nu. 5. compared with Nu. 6. E. 3. Si aleront mesme les Praelats Procurators de Clergy par eux mesmes les ditz Counties Barons Grauntz par eux mesmes whose report being drawn up and then read before the King les Prelatz Chivalers de Counties les gentz des Commun furent pleysantz a eux touz par nostre Seigneur le Roy Prelatz Countes Barons autres Grauntz auxuit par les Chivalers des Countes Gentz des Commun furent pleinement assentuz accordez at a Parliament in the 6th Year of the said King he requiring the advice of his Parliament touching the French affairs and his voyage thither they treated and deliberated C'est assavoir les Prelatz par eux mesmes les ditz Countes Barones autres grauntz par eux mesmes auxuit les Chivalers des Countes par eux mesmes and then gave their advice so in the Parliament reassembled at York in the Utas of St Hillary in the same Year the Prelates Earls Barons and great men by themselves et les Chevalers des Countes Gentz des communs par eux mesmes treated of the business propounded unto them and in the Parliament holden at York
custome of the House of Lords was that when any Bills or messages were sent to them the Lord Keeper and some of the Lords were to â—rise from their places and from thence to go unto the Barr and receive the said Bills or messages but contrarywise when any answer is to be delivered by the Lord Keeper in the name and behalf of the Lords the Commons sent were to stand at the Barr and the Lord Keeper is to receive the Bills or answer the messages with his head covered and all the Lords were to Keep their places with which the Lower House was satisfied and the same order hath been ever since observed accordingly Anno 39. Eliz. There being in former times a custom in the house of Commons to have a bill read before the house did arise the same could not now be done at that time because her Majesty and the upper House had adjourned the Parliament untill Saturday Sennight at Eight of the Clock in the Morning which being signified by their Speaker he said all the Members of the House might depart and so they did Eodem Anno. At the ending of the Parliament after they had given the Queen subsidies and prayed her assent to such laws as had passed both Houses she gave the Royall assent to 24 publick Acts and 19 private but refused 48 Bills which had passed both the Houses Anno 43. Eliz. John Crook Esq. Recorder of London being chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament disabling himself desired the Queen to command the House of Commons to choose another but his excuse received no allowance The Lord Chief Justice of the Queens bench and Common pleas together with the Lord Chief Baron and Attorney Generall were ordered to attend a Committee of Lords and Bishops Sr John Popham Lord Chief Justice Francis Gaudy one of the Justices of the Kings bench George Kingsmill one of the Common pleas Dr Carew and Dr Stanhop were constituted Receivers of petitions for Gascoigne and other lands beyond the Seas Sr Edmond Anderson Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common pleas Sr William Peryam Lord Chief Baron Thomas Walmisley one of the Justices of the Common pleas Dr Swale and Dr Hone. Tryers of petitions of England the Archbishop of Canterbury Marquis of Winchester Earls of Sussex Lord Marshall Lord Admirall and Steward of the Queens Houshold Earls of Nottingham and Hertford Bishops of London Durham and Winchester Lords Zouch and Cobham calling unto them the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer and the Queens Serjeants at Law Great fault was found by many of the House of the factouring and bribing of too many of the Justices of the Peace and it was by one of the members alleadged that the five bills â—arely passed against Swearing Drunkenness and for the making of good Ale would be as much worth to those kind of Justices of the Peace as a Subsidy and two Fifteens Mr Conisby Gentleman Usher of the House of Peers complained that forasmuch upon the breach of any Priviledge of that House he only was to be employed and not the Serjeant at Arms the House ordered a Committee to consider of Presidents and settle it a motion was made by the Lord Keeper and approved of by the Lords that the Ancient course of the House might be kept by certifying the Excuses for the absence of any of the Peers by the Peers and not by others The House being offended with Sr Walter Rawleigh for some words and crying to the Barr Mr Brown a Lawyer stood up and said Mr Speaker par in parem non habet Imperium we are as members of one body and we cannot Judge one another whereupon it being put to the question it was resolved in the negative that he should not stand at the Barr. The Speaker of the House of Commons at the ending of the Parliament of 44. Eliz. humbly desired of the Queen that certain Acts may be made Laws by her Royall assent which giveth life unto them Unto which the Lord Keeper answered that as touching her Majesties pioceeding in the making of Laws and giving her Royall assent that should be as God directed her Sacred Spirit and delivered her Majesties commandement that as to the Commons proceedings in the matter of her Prerogative she is persuaded that Subjects did never more dutifully observe and that she understood they did but obiter touch her Prerogative and no otherwise but by humble petition but she well perceived that private respects are privately masked under publique pretences Admonished the Justices of the Peace some whereof might probably be of the House of Commons that they should not deserve the Epithetes of prowling Justices Justices of Quarrells who counted Champerty good Conscience Sinning Justices who did suck and consume the good of this Commonwealth and likewise all those who did lye if not all the Year yet at the least Three Quarters of the Year in the City of London Anno 43. Eliz. One Mr Leigh of the House of Commons complained that whilst the Speaker of the House of Commons was presented to the Queen he was denyed entrance into the House of Peers which the Lords excused by saying it was the ignorance of some of the Grooms or attendance in the choosing of a Speaker Mr Knolls the Comptroller alleaged that it was not for the State of the Queen to permit a confused multitude to speak unto her when it might often happen that one or some might move or speak that which another or some or many would contradict or not allow The Queen being sate in her State in the House of Lords the House of Commons were sent for to present their Speaker who in a modest pretence of disability prayed her Majesty to command the House of Commons to choose one more able but had it not allowed And she in her grant of freedom of speech gave a caution not to do it in vain matters verbosities contentions or contradictions nor to make addresses unto her but only in matters of consequence and prohibited their retaining or priviledging desperate debtors upon pain of her displeasure and desired a Law might be made to that purpose Which done the Lord Keeper said for great and weighty causes her Highness's pleasure was that the Parliament should be adjourned untill the Fryday following At which time the House of Commons did appoint a Minister every morning before the House sate to officiate and use a set form of prayer specially ordained to desire Gods blessing upon their Councells and preserve the Queen their Sovereign The Ancient usage of not coming into the House of Commons with spurs was moved by the Speaker to be observed others moved that they might not come with Boots and Rapiers but nothing was done therein Sr Robert Wroth a Member of the House of Commons did in his own particular offer 100 l. per Annum to the Wars Sr Andrew Noel Sheriff of Rutlandshire having returned himself to be a Knight of the shire for that
that granted them and was to be vouched to warranty which was in common and ordinary matters very usual in our Laws and reasonable Customs and therefore to him only as the Grantor and Protector of their Parliament Priviledges and not to themselves the gratitude and acknowledment was only due And the House of Commons until this our present unruly Age or Century did not adventure to take upon themselves or endeavour by any pretended Authority of their own to punish any the violators of their aforesaid Priviledges but supplicated Aid of their Kings and Princes that were the donors and granters of them And therefore in the Raign of King Henry the fourth it was adjudged that as the Record witnesseth Videtur Cur. quod non For in Anno 8 H. 6. William Lark a Servant of William Wild Burgess of Parliament being arrested upon an Execution during the Parliament the Commons petitioned the King to give order for his discharge and that no Lords Knights Citizens or Burgesses nor their Servants coming to the Parliament may be Arrested during the Parliament unless it be for Treason Felony or Breach of the Peace The King granted the first part of the Petition Et quant al residue le Rei sa avisera The Commons prayed that Edmond Duke of Somerset Alice Poole the late Wife of William Poole Duke of Suffolk William Bishop of Chester Sir John Sutton Lord Dudley the Lord Hastings James de la Barre one of the Kings Secretaries and 20 or 22 Knights and Esquires particularly named amongst which was Thomas Kemp Clerk of the House of Commons which the Commons themselves and their own Clerk had not them found to be either a Liberty or Priviledge of their own to punish might be banished from the King during their Lives and not to come within twelve Miles of the Court for that the People do speak evil of them To which the King answered He is of his own meer motion contented that all shall depart unless only the Lords and a few of them whom he may not spare from his presence and they shall continue for one year to see if any can duly impeach them In Anno 31 H. 6. The Commons made a Request to the King and Lords that Thomas Thorp their Speaker and Walter Roil a member of their house who were in Prison might be set at liberty according to their Priviledges The next day after the Duke of York who was then a Rival for a long time but after a publick Competitor for the Crown and President of the Parliament came before the Lords not the Commons and shewed that in the vacation of the Parliament he had recovered damage against the said Thomas Thorp in an action of trespass by Verdict in the Exchequer for carrying away the goods of the said Duke out of Durham House for the which he remained in Execution and prayed that he might continue therein Wherein the Councel of the Judges being demanded they made Answer it was not their part to Judge of the Parliament which was Judge of the Law wherein surely they might rather have said what they should have most certainly have believed then as Sir Edward Coke did long after that the King was principium caput finis Parliamenti and only said that a general Supersedeas of Parliament there was but a special supersedeas in which case of special supersedeas every Member of the Commons House ought to enjoy the same unless in cases of Treason Felony Surety of the Peace or for a condemnation before the Parliament After which the Lords determined that the said Thomas Thorp should remain in execution and sent certain of themselves to the Commons who then had so little power to free themselves from Arrests and imprisonment as they could not deliver their own Speaker out of Prison but were glad to follow the direction of the King and Lords to chuse and present unto the King another Speaker the which they did and shortly after certain of the Commons were sent to the Lords to declare that they had in the place of the said Thomas Thorp chosen for their Speaker Thomas Charleton Esquire Walter Clark a Burgess of Chippenham in the County of Wilts being committed to the Prison of the Fleet for divers condemnations as well to the King as to others was discharged and set at Liberty at the Petition of the Commons to the King and Lords without Bail or Mainprise At the Petition of the Commons William Hill a Burgess of Chippenham aforesaid being in Execution in the Kings-Bench was delivered by a Writ of the Chancery saving the Plaintiffs right to have Execution after the Parliament ended It was enacted by the universal Vote and Judgment as well of the Commons as the Lords that John Atwil a Burgess for Exeter being condemned during the Parliament in the Exchequer upon 8 several informations at the suit of John Taylor of the same City shall have as many Supersedeas as he will until his returning home King Henry 8. in the case of Trewyniard a Burgess of Parliament imprisoned upon an Outlawry after Judgment caused him to be delivered by a Writ of Priviledge upon an Action brought against the Executors and a demurrer it was resolved by the Judges to be Legal George Ferrers Gent. servant of the King and a Burgesse of Parliament being arrested in London as he was going to the Parliament-house by a Writ out of the Court of Kings Bench in execution at the Suit of one White for the sum of 200 markes being the debt of one Walden which arrest being signifyed to Sir Tho. Moyle Knight Speaker of the House of Commons and to the Knight and Burgesses there an order was made that the Serjeant of the Mace attending the Parliament should go to the Compter and Demand the Prisoner which the Clerks and Officers refusing from stout words they fell to blows whereof ensued a fray not without hurt so as the said Serjeant was forced to defend himself with his Mace and had the Crown thereof broken off by bearing off a stroak and his Servant struck down which broil drawing thither the 2 Sheriffs of London who did not heed or value the Serjeants complaint and misusage so much as they ought but took their Officers parts so as the Serjeant returning without the Prisoner informed the Speaker of the House of Commons how rudely they had entertained him who took the same in so ill part that they all together some of whom were the Kings privy Councel as also of the Kings privy Chamber resolved to sit no longer without their Burgess but left their own house and went to the House of Peers and declared by the mouth of their Speaker before Sir Thomas Audley Knight then Lord Chancellor and all the Lords Judges there assembled the whole matter such no Estates they believed themselves to be who Judging the contempt to be very great referred the punishment thereof to
words following in a Parenthesis viz. but never intended to have any share in the government And they that heretofore did take it for an especial honour to wear many of the Peers and Nobilities Liveries and glad to be reteyners to them were so modest as to be unwilling to assume the Title of an Estate in Parliament when in Parliament conferences passing of Bills Messages or other occasions the House of Peers sate covered that third Estate if it could be so called stood and are to stand uncovered And Mr. Pryn one of their greatest Champions that did more than he should to magnify their Customs and Priviledges was at length constrained to acknowledge that in all the Parliaments of King Edward the third Richard the second Henry the fourth fifth and sixth Edward the fourth and Richard the third the Commons in Parliament never claimed nor exercised an such Titles or Jurisdictions as of late years have been usurped by them or given unto who never until they ran mad with Rebellion who never presumed or pretended to make Print or Publish any Act Ordinance or order whatsoever relating to the People or their own Members without the King and Lords Assent and Concurrence never attempted to impose any Tax Tallage Charge Excise or Duty upon the people without the King and Lords consent never adventured to appoint any Committee or subcommittee to hear and determine any particular business or complaint without the report thereof to the whole House of Commons without the privity or Assent of the House by way of transmission or impeachment to their superior Authority and Judicature of the House of Peers never attached fined imprisoned or censured any person by their own authority without the Lords as they have hundreds of late years done And that very famous Ancient and Great Republick of Venice Crowning their Doge with an Imaginary Crown for Venice and two other real and very Crowns the one for Cyprus and the other for Candy both Kingdoms revera in their actual possession yet as the lesser in the greater bound up and captivated under a strange diversity of Forms and Cantons hath not the Priviledge to read a Letter without the Privity or overlooking of the grand Consiglio or Venetian Nobility hath besides their many great Varieties and Fragments of Magistracy Offices and Parts of Governments cut into as many Parcels as they can to give every one as much Relish and hopes as their largely extended dominions can afford are not without at the first 150 since augmented into the number of 3000 of those which they stile Nobility and makes a principal part of the first quality or concern in their government as our Bishops and Lords Temporal the former being Barons as much as the latter for their lives although not as the latter in Fee or Fee-Tail and amongst the many particles or pieces of their mangled government can allow their Doge to be the Superior and more than Co-ordinate with all or any of the Avogardoit di Communite the Pregadi that are to guide their chief affairs of Estate and consist of 120 Noblemen some whereof have their rights of the Lottery or Balloting Box their greatest Councel consists of the Doge Consiglieri the Consiglio di dioci the third Consigliera de bassa the three Lords of the Raggioni Vecchio the three Lords of the Raggioni Nuevo the Cattaveri or the Inquisitors of truth the two Censori the three Provisori delli dieci Savii or special wisemen and that which should be the wonder the Colledge of the Savii are to have no Vote in the Pregadi and they of the Pregadi can take no resolution except there be in it four Consiglieri or at least 60 of the Nobility be of the Quorum or that they do ordinarily give order to their Embassadors in all parts of the World whither they have been sent to Register and give an accompt to their State or Senate or whatever they can be called of the the several forms of government in other Nations and Kingdoms and yet omitting the Feudal the best of all governments happily experimented in the most of their Neighbour Nations and Kingdoms so pertinatiously as they do and have such an hotch potch or Gallimaufry of mixtures as we say in England as if they were again to be dislocated or taken in pieces that great republick planted betwixt the two great Empires of the West and East would in all probability be on a sudden in as great misery distress and confusion or greater than it was when they fled from the Ravage and Fury of the Huns and Vandals into the Arms and Bosom of the Gulf of the Adriatique Sea and Mr. Selden hath informed us that in England in the Saxons time and long after the middle Thanes and the Valuasers were not honorary as the greater Thegnes or Barons were And it may be worthy our observation that although Mr. Pryn in his careful recapitulation before mentioned of the Lords Spiritual the Bishops and the Earls and Barons the Lords Temporal excluding the Commons until after th 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. doth altogether negatively conclude that there were no Commons then present yet when he comes to rectify as he calleth it the mistakes of the abridger doth in Anno 5. E. 3. relate that the Estates in full Parliament do agree that they shall not retain sustain or avow any Felons or Breakers of Houses which the King having commanded before is truly and properly to be understood of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal And in another place of the said record mentioneth that the whole Estate prayed the King to be gracious unto Edward the Son of Roger Mortimer Earl of March which could not inforce the King to be one of the Estates or that there were any other or more Estates than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Anno 6. E. 3. were Proclaimed the Articles agreed in the last Parliament and 1 2 3. in another Parliament intended to be at York it is said that most of the Estates were absent Sir Jeffry le Scroop by the Kings Command shewed the cause of summoning the Parliament but for that most of the Estates were absent which might consist only of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the King ordained new Writs of Summons to be issued In a reassembly at York in the same year Articles of the last Parliament were proclaimed by the Steward and Marshal of the King and the Commons not then said Estates had license to depart and the Lords commanded to attend until the next day at which time the Parliament was dissolved In Anno 8. E. 3. It was petitioned that no pardons be granted unto outlawed persons by any Suggestions or means but only by Parliament To which the King answered the Statutes made shall be observed That all men may have their Writs out of the Chancry paying nothing but the fees for the Seals without any fine
Secretaries of State two Chief Justices and Chief Baron not being to be ranked with the Peers may always be chosen by the approbation of both Houses of Parliament the House of Commons being never before accompted equal with the House of Peers in Birth Honour Wisdom Education Alliance or Estate and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Assent of the Major part of the Councel in such manner as was before expressed in the choice of Councellors which in a matter of a much less consequence in the Government of the Kings Houshold was so little endured by the Nobility of England in the 10th year of the Raign of King Richard the 2d as it was adjudged an incroachment upon Regal Authority and high Treason and some great Lords suffered in their Persons and Estates for it and others glad to receive their Pardons for being confederate or Privy thereunto 4. That he or they unto whom the Government or Education of his Children shall be committed shall be approved by both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of his Council in such manner as was before expressed in the choice of Councellors and that all such Servants as are now about them against whom both Houses shall have any just exception shall be removed which before they had disclaimed as Mr. Rushworths Historical Collections Printed and allowed by them not long before had informed us 5. That no Marriage shall be concluded or treated for any of his Children with any Forreign Prince or any Person whatsoever abroad or at home without the consent of the Parliament under the penalty of a Praemunire unto such as shall conclude or treat any Marriage as aforesaid which they had as aforesaid disclaimed and the said penalty shall not be pardoned or dispenced with but by the consent of both Houses of Parliament that lower House never having before or since any power of pardoning or dispensation nor that higher without the Sanction or Authority of their Soveraign 6. That the Laws in force against Jesuits Priests Papists and Recusants be put in execution without any Toleration or Dispensation to the contrary and that a course may be enacted by Authority of Parliament to hinder them from making any disturbance in the State or Law by Trusts or otherwise 7. That the Votes of Popish Lords in the House of Lords may be taken away so long as they continue Papists and that his Majesty would consent to such a Bill as shall be drawn for the Education of Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion which was to take away the Priviledge of Barons holding by Tenure without conviction for Treason and of Earls Viscounts Marquesses or Dukes which ever since the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the 2d were by that and all succeeding Kings Letters Patents to have vocem locum sedem in Parliamentis 8. That his Majesty would be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise wherein they do intend to have consultation with Divines as is expressed in their Declaration to that purpose and that his Majesty will continue his best assistance unto them for raising of a sufficient maintenance for Preaching Ministers through the Kingdom when there was no want of the Orthodox more Loyal and better sort and that his Majesty would be pleased to give his consent to Laws for the taking away of Superstitions and Innovations and of pluralities and scandalous Ministers which in their accompt were only of the Church of England and Loyal 9. That his Majesty would be pleased to rest satisfied with the course that the Lords and Commons have appointed for the ordering of the Militia until the same shall be further setled by a Bill and that his Majesty would be pleased to recal his Proclamations and Declarations against the Ordinance made by the Lords and Commons concerning it which was to take away the Tenures the Power of the Sword and defence of his People 10. That the Members of either Houses of Parliament as have during the time of this present Parliament been put out of any Places or Offices may either be restored to their Place or Office or otherwise have satisfaction for the same upon the Petition of that House whereof he or they are Members 11. That all Privy Counsellors and Judges may take their Oath the form thereof to be agreed on and setled by Act of Parliament for the maintaining of the Petition of Right which was in many things more than ever they could claim or ever had or could by Law have any Right unto and of certain Statutes made by this Parliament which shall be mentioned by both Houses of Parliament as if they were in all Duty and Loyalty bound to make him a glorious King thought they could never have unking'd him enough and brought him to their murdering ever to be abhorred Tribunal and that an inquiry of all the Breaches and Violations of all those Laws may be given in charge by the Justices of the Kings Bench and by the Justices of Assize in their Circuits and Justices of the Peace at their Sessions to be presented and punished according to Law 12. That all the Judges and Officers placed by approbation of both Houses of Parliament may hold their places quam diu se bene gesserint 13. That the Justice of Parliament may pass upon all Delinquents whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the sentence of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by his Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such persons as his Majesty shall appoint with the approbation of his Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Major part of the Council in such manner as is before expressed in the choice of Councellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces attending his Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future he will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of Actual Rebellion or Invasion an Imposition and Vassalage was never put upon any thing that was like a King in Christendom for the Kings of Scotland whilst seperate from England and did homage to our Kings had when there was cause enough of fear and jealousie as now there was none no such unkingly Vassalage put upon him King David had 24000 men for his Guard who every Month came up to Jerusalem and our Saxon King Alured had his Guards by monthly courses 17. That his Majesty would be pleased to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the united Provinces and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and
signified to the Speaker of the House of Commons that in some things they had spent more time then needed but she perceived some men did it more for their satisfaction then the necessity of the thing deserved Misliked that such irreverence was shewed towards her Privy Councellors who were not to be accompted as Common Knights and Burgesses of the House that are Councellors but during the Parliament whereas the others are standing Councellors and for their Wisdom and great service are called to the Councell of State Had heard that some men in the case of great necessity and aid had seemed to regard their Country and made their necessities more then they were forgetting the urgent necessity of the time and dangers that were now eminent she would not have the people feared with reports charged them that the Trained Bands should be ready and well supplied thanked them for their subsidies and assured them that if the Coffers of her Treasure were not empty and the revenues of the Crown and other Princely ornaments could supply her wants and the charge of the Realm she would not in the words of a Prince have now charged them or accepted what they gave After which the Queen sitting in her Chair of State amongst other things speaking of the injustice of the King of Spains Wars and the Justice of her own said I heard say that when he attempted his last Invasion some upon the Sea coast forsook their Towns flew up higher into the Country and left all naked and exposed to his entrance but I swear unto you by God if I knew those persons or any that shall do so hereafter I will make them know and feel what it is to be so fearfull in so urgent a cause Declared unto them that the subsidy which they gave her was not so much but that it is needfull for a Prince to have so much allways lying in her Coffers for your defence in time of need and not to be driven to get it when we should use it Upon which the Clerk of the Parliament having read the Queens acceptance and thanks for the subsidies given did upon the reading of the pardon pronounce the thanks of the House in these words les Prelates Seigneurs Communes en ce Parlement assembles au nom de toutz vous autres Subjects remerc erent tres humblement vostre Majesty prient a Dieu que il vous donne en sante bonne vie longue The assent of the Sovereign is never given to a bill of subsidy because it is the guift of the Subject nor to an Act of generall pardon for that is the Kings free guift after which ended followed the dissolution of the Parliament in these words Dominus Custos magni sigilli ex mandato dominae Reginae tunc praesentis dissolvit praesens Parliamentum The names of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses are at the beginning of the Parliament delivered to the Clerk of the Crown who always attends in the House of Lords and entred into his book After the Lord Keepers speech ended her Majesty calling him unto her commanded him to give the Lower House Authority to choose their Speaker and present him the Thursday following unto which day he adjourned the Parliament At which day Sr Edward Coke Knight being chosen and admitted Speaker the Queen allowed his petitions for access unto her Majesty privileges and liberty of speech with a caution that they should not speak irreverently either of the Church or State and then the Lord Keeper by the Queens command adjourned the Parliament untill the Saturday following When the House of Commons being again assembled Mr Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a petition to the Lord Keeper therein desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be supplicants with them of the Lower unto her Majesty for the entailing of the Succession to the Crown whereof a bill was ready prepared With which her Majesty being highly displeased charged the Councell to call the parties before them whereupon Sr Thomas Heneage sent presently for them commanded them to forbear going to the Parliament and not to go out of their severall lodgings and the day after they were called before the Lord Treasurer Burleigh the Lord Buckhurst and Sr Thomas Heneage who informing them how highly her Majesty was offended told them they must needs commit them Mr Wentworth was sent prisoner to the Tower Sir Henry Bromley and one Mr Stevens to whom he had imparted it and Mr Welch the other Knight of the shire for Worcestershire to the Fleet. A bill being offered by Mr Morris Attorney of the Court of Wards against the usage of Ecclesiasticall discipline by the Prelates with an intent that the House might be suitors to her Majesty to allow it he was sent for to the Court and committed to the keeping of Sir John Fortescue a Parliament man And she sent for the Speaker and by him sent a message to the House of Commons which he did not omit to deliver in her very words that it was in her and her power to call Parliaments it was in her power to end and determine the same and it was in her power to assent or dissent to any thing done in Parliament And her Majesties pleasure being by the Lord Keeper delivered unto them that it was not meant that they should meddle with matters of State or causes Ecclesiasticall she wondred that any should be of so high a Commandment to attempt a thing contrary to that which she had so expressly forbidden and therefore with this she was highly displeased and charged the Speaker upon his Allegeance that if any such bill be exhibited not to receive it An Act was sent up by the Commons to the Lords who amended somewhat therein but what they amend cannot be altered by the Commons but the Lords will give their reasons for such their amendment The Commons complaining of a Breach of Privilege that the Lord Keeper did in the behalf of the Lords give answers unto their messages and did not come down unto hose that were sent to the Bar after a great debate and much advice and consultation it was resolved that the Lord Keeper or Lord Chancellour ought to sit in his place covered when he gave them answers and that if it had been lately otherwise done it was by error and mistake but ought not which then Lordships by Mr Attorney Generall and Serjeant Harris signifying to the Lower House desired them to send some of their House to receive their Lordships answer whereunto they seemed to assent and returned some of their Knights and Burgesses with those that beâ—ore demanded satisfaction to receive their answer which being declared unto them they by the mouth of Sr William Knolles one o◠〈◊〉 House of Commons protested that they had no Commission to receive an answer in that form after which upon a conference betwixt both Houses upon great debate and arguments it was resolved that the order and