Councels in this kind but what we borrow in the Rolls of Summons wherein the form stood various according to the occasions until it grew constant in the form it is now about the entrance of Rich. 2. The Journal Rolls being spoiled by the injury of times or private ends This King in the fifth of his Raign called a Parliament and therein advised with his Lords and Commons for suppressing of Llewellen Prince of Wales and hearing that the French King intended to invade some pieces of his Inheritance in France he summoned a Parliament Ad tractand ordinand faciend cum Praelatis Proceribus aliis Incolis Regni quibuslibet hujusmodi periculis excogitatis malis sit objurand Inserting in the Writ that it was Lex justissima provida circumspectione stablita That Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur In 34. Super ordinatione stabilimento Regis Scotiae he made the like Convention His Son the second Edward pro solennitate Sponsalium Coronationis consulted with his people in his first year in his sixth year super diversis negotiis statum regni expeditionem Guerrae Scotiae specialiter tangentibus he assembled the State to advise the like he did in the eighth The French King having invaded Gascoin in the thirteenth year the Parliament was called super arduis negotiis statum Gasconiae tangentibus And in 16. To consult ad refraenand Scotorum obstinentiam militiam Before that Edward the 3. in his first year would resolve whether Peace or War with the Scotish King he summoned the Peers and Commons super praemissis tractare consilium impendere The Chancellor in Anno quinto declareth from the King the cause of that Assembly And that it was to consult and resolve whether the King should proceed with France for recovery of his Signiories by alliance of marriage or by war And whether to suppress the disobedience of the Irish he should pass thither in Person or no The year following he re-assembleth his Lords and Commons and requireth their advice whether he should undertake the Holy Expedition with the French King that year or no The Bishops and Proctors of the Clergy would not be present as forbidden by the Canons such Councels the Peers and Commons consult applauding the Religious and Princely forwardness of their Sovereign to this holy enterprize but humbly advise a forbearance this year for urgent occasions The same year though at another Sessions the King demanded the advice of his people Whether he should pass into France to an enterview as was desired for the exepediting the treaty of marriage The Prelates by themselves the Earls and Barons by themselves and the Knights of the Shires by themselves consulted apart for so is the Record and in the end resolved That to prevent some dangers likely to arise from the North it would please the King to forbear his journey and to draw towards those parts where the perils were feared his presence being the best prevention which advice he followed In the following Parliament at York the King sheweth how by their former advice he had drawn himself towards the North parts and now again had assembled them to advise further for his proceedings to which the Lords and Commons having consulted apart pray further time to resolve until a full assembly of the State to which the King granting adjourneth that Sessions At the next meeting they are charged upon their Allegiance and Faith to give the King their best advice the Peers and Commons consulting apart deliver their opinions and so the Parliament ended In the 13. year the Grands and Commons are called to consult and advise how the Domestick quiet may be preserred the Marches of Scotland defended and the Sea secured from forrein Enemies the Peers and Cammons having apart consulted the Commons after their desire not to be charged to counsel in things Des quenx ils mont pas cognizance answer That the Guardians of the Shires assisted by the Knights may effect the first if pardons of Felony be not granted The care of the Marches they humbly leave to the King and his Counsel and for the safeguard of the Seas they wish that the Cinque Ports Marine towns discharged for the most part from the main burthens of the In-land parts may have that left to their charge and care and that such as have lands neer the Coasts be commanded to reside on those possessions The Parliament is the same year reassembled Avisamento Praelatorum procerum necnon communitatis to advise de expeditione guerrae in partibus transmarinis at this Ordinances are made for provision of Ships arraying of men for the Marches and defence of the Isle of Jersey naming such in the Record as they conceive fit for the imployment The next year De la Pool accompteth in Parliament the expences of the wars a new aid is granted and by several Committees in which divers are named that were no Peers of Parliament the safeguard of the seas and defence of the borders are consulted of In the 15 year De assensu Praelatorum Procerum aliorum de consilio the Kings passage into France is resolved of Anno 17. Badlesmere instead of the Councel declareth to the Peers and Commons That whereas by their assents the King had undertaken the wars in France and that by mediation of the Pope a truce was offered which then their Soveraign forbore to entertain without their well allowance the Lords consult apart and so the Commons returning by Sir William Trussel an answer their advice and desire is to compose the Quarrel approve the Truce and the Popes mediation The Popes undertaking proving fruitless and delays to the French advantage who in the mean space allied with Scotland and others practized to root out the English Nation in France This King again assembled the year following in which the Peers and Commons after many days meditation resolve to end it either by Battel or Peace and no more to trust upon the mediation or message of his Holiness In the 21 year the chief Justice Thorpe declaring to the Peers and Commons that the French Wars began by their advice first the True after by their assents accepted and now ended the Kings pleasure was to have their Counsels in the prosecution the Commons being commanded Que ils se deveroyent trait ensemble se quils ensenteroient monstrer au Roy aux gravitur de son consilio Who after four days consulting humbly desire the King to be advised by his Lords and others more experienced then themselves in such affairs To advise the King the best for his French imployments a Parliament was summoned Anno 25. Herein the King for a more quick dispatch willeth the Commons to elect 24. or 30. of their house to consult with the Lords these to relate to their fellows and the conclusion general by
the Lords to the King In the 27 a Great Counsel is assembled many of the lay Peers few of the Clergy and of the Shires and Burroughs but one a peece This was for the prosecution of the French wars when honorable peace could not be gotten but the year following a Truce offered the King forbore to entertain until he had the consent of the Peers and Commons which they in Parliament accorded unto before the Popes Notary by publick Instrument The dallying of the French King in conclusion of peace and the falling off of the Duke of Brittany having wrought his end with France by reputation of the English succour is the year following declared in Parliament and their advice and aid required for the Kings proceeding In the 36. year he calleth a Parliament to consult whether war or peace by David King of Scots then offered should be accepted In the 40. the Pope demanding the tribute of King John the Parliament assembled where after consultation apart the Prelats Lords and Commons advise the denyal although it be by the dint of Sword In 43. The King declares to the Peers and Commons that the French against the Articles of the Truce refused payment of the moneys and delivery of the Towns summoning La Brett and others the Kings Subjects in Gascony to make at Paris their appeals and had forraged his of Bontion requiring whether on their breach he might not again resume the stile and arms of France The Lords and Commons had apart consulted they advised the King to both which he approving altered the inscription and figure of his Seal Two years after it was declared to the Peers and Commons that by their advice he had again resumed the stile and quarrel of France and therefore called their advice for the defence of the realm against the French securing of the Seas and pursuing of the Warre of which they consult and resolve to give the King an aid the like of Councel and supply was the year succeeding In the 50 a Parliament to the purposes of the other two was summoned and the year following the King in Parliament declaring how the French combined underhand against him with Spain and Scotland required their advice how Peace at home the Territories abroad Security of the Sea and charge of the War might be maintained I have the longer insisted in observing the carriage of these times so good and glorious after ages having not left the Journal entries of Parliament so full which with a lighter hand I will pass through Richard his Grand child succeeded to the Crown and troubles having nothing worthy his great fortunes but his great birth the first of his Raign he pursued the Steps of his wise Grandfather advising with Peers and Commons how best to resist his Enemies that had lately wronged many of his Subjects upon the Sea coasts In the second year he again consulted with his people how to withstand the Scots who then had combined with the French to break the Truce In the third he called the advice of Parliament how to maintain his regality impaired by the Popes provision how to resist Spain France and Scotland that had raised Wars against him how to suppress his Rebells in Guyen and Ireland and how to defend the Seas The like in the fourth year following at Winsor the year succeeding at a great Councel the King having proposed a voyage Royal into France now called the Parliament to determine further of it and it is worthy observation for the most before any proposition of War or Peace were vented to the Commons a debate thereof proceeded in the great Councel to stay it fitter to Popular advice The quarrel of Spain continuing the Duke of Lancaster offered a voyage against them so that the State would lend him money after consultation they granted aid but not to bind them to any continuance of Wars with Spain In the sixth the Parliament was called to consult about defence of the borders the Kings possessions beyond Sea Ireland and Gascoyne his subjects in Portugall and safe keeping of the Seas and whether the King should proceed by Treaty of Alliance or the Duke of Lancaster by force for the Conquest of Portuguall the Lords approve the Dukes intention for Portuguall and the Commons advise that Thomas Bishop of Norwich having the Popes Croiceris should invade France The same year the State was re-assembled to consult whether the King should go in person to rescue Gaunt or send his Army the Commons after two dayes debate crave a conference with the Lords the effect is not entered in the Roll only they bid Sir Thomas Puckering their speaker protest that Counsells for War did aptly belong to the King and his Lords yet since the Commons were commanded to give their advice they humbly wished a voyage Royal by the King if not that the Bishop of Norwich ought with the advantage of the Popes Croiceris be used in that service who accepted the Charge with ill success he further for the Commons prayed that the Kings Unkle should not be spared out of the Realm before some peace be setled with the Scots and that the Lord de la Sparre sent with Propositions from Spain may first be heard The Chancellor in the seventh year in the name of the King willeth the Lords apart and so the Commons to consult whether Peace or War with Scotland or whether to resist or assail the Kings adventure with Spain France or Flanders Their opinion is not entered in the Rolls an omission usual by the Clarks neglect only their Petition is recorded that the Bishop of Norwich may accompt in Parliament the expence of the monies and be punished for his faults in the service he undertook both which are granted At the next Sessions the same year the Commons are willed to advise upon view of Articles of Peace with the French whether War or such a Unity should be accepted They modestly excused themselves as too weak to consult in such weighty affairs But being charged again as they did tender the honour and right of the King they make this answer Quils intendent que ancunes sermâ—s terres que mesme lour Leeige auroit â—it pur cest accord in Guien si serront tenns dobt Roy Francois par homage service mars ne persont uny que lour dit Leeige voiroit assenter trope legierement de temer dicens Francois pertiel service la villa de Callis aultres terres conquises des francoise per lespreneve verroit la comen ense faest fait si autrement lour perroit bien faire giving their opinions rather for Peace than War Peace with France not succeeding the eighth year the body of the State was willed to advise whether the King in his own person or by sending of forces against the French Spain Flanders and Scotland should proceed This King having assembled at Oxon
his great Counsel to advise whether he should pass the Seas or no with an Army Royal and they not daring to assent without greater Counsel A Parliament the tenth year to have the advice of the Commons as well as of the Lords was called and how the Realm should be governed in their Sovereign his absence The truce with France was now expired the Parliament was called in the 13th to advise upon what conditions it should be renewed or otherwise how the charge of the War should be susteined at this assembly and by consent of all the Duke of Lancaster is created Duke of Aquitaine the Statute of provisions now past the Commons a party in the Letter to the Pope The year succeeding a Parliament is called for the King would have advice with the Lords and Commons for the War with Scotland and would not without their Counsels conclude a final peace with France The like assembly for the same causes was the year ensuing the Commons interesting the King to use a moderation in the Law of provisions to please at this time their holy Father so that the Statute upon their dislike may again be executed and that to negotiate the peace with France the Duke of Aquitaine may rather than another be imployed To consult of the Treaty with France for Peace the King in the seventeenth calleth a Parliament the answer of the Lords is left unentred in the Roll the Commons upon their faith and allegiance charged advised that with good moderation homage may be made for Guien an appenage of the French Croine so it trench not to involve the other pieces of the English Conquest their answer is large modest and worthy to be marked Now succeedeth a man that first studied a popular party as needing all to support his titles He in the fifth year calleth a Parliament to repress the malice of the Duke of Orleance and to advise of the Wars in Ireland and Scotland neither Counsels or supplies are entred in the Roll and to resist an invasion intended by France and Brittain he assembleth the State again the like was the second year following for France In this the Commons confer with for guard of the Sea and make many Ordinances to which the King assenteth the peace with the Merchants of Bruce and Foins is debated and a Proclamation published as they resolved by the Speaker the Commons complain of 96 pieces of importance lost in Guien the year before need of the defence of the borders and Sea coasts to suppress the Rebellion in Wales and disloyalty of the Earl of Northumberland they humbly desire that the Prince may be dispatched into those parts with speed and that the Castle of Manlion the key of the three realms might be left to the care of the English and not to Charls of Navarre a stranger and to have a vigilant eye of the Scotish prisoners In the tenth the Parliament is commanded to give their advice about the Truce with Scotland and preparation against the malice of the French His Son the wife and happy undertaker advised with the Parliament in the first year how to cherish his Allies and restrain his Enemies for this there was a secret Committee of the Commons appointed to conferr with the Lords the matter being entred into a schedule touching Ireland Wales Scotland Callis Gunien Shipping Guard of the Seas and War provision to repulse the Enemies In the second he openeth to the Parliament his Title to France a quarrel he would prosecute to death if they allowed and ayded death is in his Assembly enacted to all that break the Truce or the Kings safe conduct The year following peace being offered by the French King and the King of the Romans arrived to effect the work the King refuseth any conclusion until he had thereunto advice and assent of the Lords and Commons for which occasion the Chancellor declareth that Assembly In the fourth and fifth no Peace being concluded with France he calleth the State together to consult about the Warr concluding a Treaty of amity with Sigismund King of the Romans by allowance of the three Estates and entred Articles into the Journal Rols The same year by the Duke of Bedford in the Kings absence a Parliament was called to the former purposes as appeareth by the Summons though in the Roll omitted The like in the seventh The Treaty with France is by the Prelates Nobles and Commons of the Kingdom perused and ratified in the 11. of his Raign His Son more holy then happy succeeded adviseth him the second year with the Lords and Commons for the well keeping the Peace with France consulteth with them about the delivery of the Scottish King and the conclusion of it is confirmed by common assent And in the third year they are called to advise and consent to a new Article in the League with Scotland for change of Hostages And in the ninth conclude certain persons by name to Treat a Peace with the Dolphin of France The Treaty at Arras whither the Pope had sent as Mediators two Cardinals not succeeding The King in Parliament Anno 14. sheweth he must either lose his Title Stile and Kingdom of France or else defend it by force the best means for the prevention thereof he willeth them to advise him He summoneth again the next year the State to consult how the Realm might be best defended and the Sea safe kept against his Enemies In the twentieth the Commons exhibite a Bill for the Guard of the Sea ascertain the number of Ships assess wages and dispose prizes of any fortune to which the King accordeth and that the Genoways may be declared enemies for assisting the Turks in the spoyl of the Rhode Knights and that the privileges of the Pruce and Hans Towns Merchants may be suspended till compensation be made to the English for the wrongs they have done them to which the King in part accordeth The King by the Chancellor declareth in Parliament Anno 23. That the Marriage with Margaret the King of Sicils Daughter was contracted for enducing the Peace made with France against which the Lords as not by their advice effected make Protestation and enter it on the Roll. In the 25. the King intended to pass in Person into Franch and there to treat a Peace with the King adviseth with the Lords and Commons in Parliament and Letters of Mart are granted against the Brittains for spoyle done to the English Merchants The Lord Hastings and Abbot of Gloucester declare in Parliament Anno 27. the preparation of the French the breach by them of the Peace the weak defence of Normandy and the expiration shortly of the Truce requiring speedy advice and remedy In the 29. it was enjoined by Parliament to provide for defence of the Sea and Land against the French It was commanded by the King
fear of some disorder likely to ensue of this information if it be not aforehand taken up by a fair legal tryal in that High Court Neither want there fearful examples in this kind in the Ambassadors Genoa upon a far less ground in the time of Parliament and is house demolished by such a seditious tumult The Parliament therefore as well to secure his Lordships person followers and friends from such outrages to preserve the honour of the State which needs must suffer blemish in such misfortunes they were sent thither to require a fair discovery of the ground that led his Lordship so to inform the King that they might so thereupon provide in Justice and Honor and that the reverence they bear unto the dignity of his Master may appear the more by the mannerly carriage of his Message The two that are never imployed but to the King alone were at this time sent and that if by negligence of this fair acceptance there should happen out any such disaster and danger the World and they must justly judge as his own fault If upon the delivery of this Message the Ambassador shall tell his charge and discover his intelligence then there will be a plaine ground for the Parliament to proceed in Examination and Judgment But if as I believe he will refuse it then is he Author Scandali both by the Common and Civil Laws of this Realm and the Parliament may adjudge it false and untrue and declare by a public Act the Prince and your Grace innocent as was that of the Duke of Gloucester 2 Rich. 2. and of York in Henry the sixth his time then may the Parliament joyntly become Petitioners to his Majesty first to confine his Ambasiador to his house restraining his departure until his Majesty be acquainted with his offence and aswell for security as for further practice to put a Guard upon the place and to make a Proclamation that none of the Kings Subjects shall repair to his house without express leave And to send withal a Letter with all speed of complaint against him to the King of Spaine together with a Declaration under the Seals of all the Nobility and Speaker of the Commons in their names as was 44 Hen. 3. to the Pope against his Legat and 28 Edw. 1. Requiring such Justice to be done in this case as by the Leagues of Amity and Law of Nations is usual which if the King of Spain refuse or delay then it it Transactio Criminis upon himself and an absolution of all Amity and friendly intelligence and amounts to no less then a War denounced Thus have I by your leave and command delivered my poor opinion and ever will be ready to do your Grace the best service when you please to command it THAT THE KINGS OF ENGLAND Have been pleased usually to consult with their Peers in the Great Councel and Commons in Parliament of Marriage Peace and War Written by Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet Anno 1621. LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. That the Kings of England have been pleased usually to consult with their Peers in the Great COUNCIL c. TO search so high as the Norman Conquest it is necessary to lay down the form and Government of those times wherein the state of affairs then lead in another form of publick Councels for the people brought under by the Sword of William and his followers to subjected vassallage could not possess in such assemblies the right of their former liberties division and power having mastered them and none of their old Nobility being left either of credit or fortune what he retained not in providence as the Demesnes of the Crown or reserved not in piety for the maintenance of the Church he parted to those Strangers that sailed along with him in the Bark of his adventure leaving the Natives for the most part as appeareth by his survey in no better condition then Villenage He moulded their Customs to the manner of his own Country and forbore to grant the Laws of the Holy Edward so often called for To supply his occasions of men mony or provisions he Ordered that all those that enjoyed any fruit of his Conquest should hold their lands proportionably by so many Knights fees of the Crown and admitted them to infeoff their followers with such part as they pleased of their own portions which to ease their charge they did in his and his Sons time by two infeoffments the one de novo the other de veteri This course provided him the body of his War the money and provision was by Hydage assessed on the common people at the consent of their Lords who held in all their Signiories such right of regality that to their Vassals as Paris saith quot Domini tot Tyranni and proved to the King so great a curb and restraint of power that nothing fell into the care of Majesty after more then to retrench the force of this Aristocracy that was like in time to strangle the Monarchy Though others foresaw the mischief betimes yet none attempted the remedy until King John whose over hasty undertakings brought in those broyls of the Barons Wars There needed not before this care to advise with the Commons in any publick assemblies when every man in England by tenure held himself to his great Lords will whose presence was ever required in those Great Councels and in whose assent his dependent Tenants consent was ever included Before this Kings time then we seek in vain for any Councel called he first as may be gathered though darkly by the Record used their Counsels and assents in the sixth year of his Raign Here is the first summons in Records to the Peers or Barons Tractaturi de magnis arduis negotiis it was about a War of defence against the French And that the Commons were admitted at this time may be fitly gathered by this Ordinance viz. Provisum est assensu Archiepiscoporum Comitum Baronum omnium fidelium nostrorum Angliae quod novem militis per Angliam inveniend decimarum c. and this was directed to all the Sheriffs in England the ancient use in publishing Laws From this there is a breach until the 18 Hen. 3. where the next summons extant is in a Plea Roll of that year but the Ordinances are lost From hence the Records afford us no light until the 49 of the same King where then the forme of summons to Bishops Lords Knights and Burgesses are much in manner though not in matter to those of our times This Parliament was called to advise with the King pro pace assecuranda firmanda they are the words of the Writ and where advice is required consutation must needs be admitted To this King succeeded Edward his Son a wise a just and fortunate Prince his Raign and so long to the fourth of his Grandchild we have no light of publick
Abbots Earls and chief Nobility of the Kingdom present for so are the words of the Records the cause between Arsast Bishop of Norway and Baldwyne Abbot of Bury was also argued Et ventilata in publica jubet Rex teneri Judicium Causis auditis Amhorum The diligence of his Son the Learned Henry the first in executing of this part of his kingly function is commended to posterity by Walter Mape a Learned man trained up and in favour with Henry the second in these words Omnia Regali more moderamine faciebat neminem volebat agere justitia vel pace Constituerat autem ad tranquilitatem omnium ut diebus vacationis vel in domo magna subsidio copiam sui faceret usque ad horam sextam which was till twelve as we now accompt secum habens Comites Baronet Proceres Vavasores to hear and determine causes whereby he attained the surname of Leo Justitiae in all stories and so out-went in quiet guidance of the State his best progenitors The next of his name that succeeded is remembred every where for his debates and his disputes he had in person with Thomas the Archbishop and others of his part at the great Counsels both at London Clarendon and Northampton for redress of the many complaints of the Commons against the outrages and extortions of the Clergy one thousand five hundred and fifty seven Die Penticostis apud sanctum Edmundum the same King Diademate Insignitus with the Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons of the Kingdome sate daily himself and heard all the debates concerning the Liberties and Charters of Battle Abbey The interlocutory Speeches as well of the King as Lords and parties are at full related in a Register of that Church The sute between the Church of Lincolne and Saint Albanes in praesentia Regis Henry Archepiscop Episcop omnium Angliae Comitum Baronum Regni was at Westminster debated and ended And had alone of memory and truth been a protector of the publick Records of the State as awe of the Clergies sensure was a guard to theirs in tempestuous times we had not been now left to the only friendship of Monkes diligence for example in this kind At Lincolne the Archbishops some Bishops but all the Earles and Barons of the Realme una Cum Rege Johanne Congregati ad colloquium de concordia Regis Scotiae saith the Register of that Church This use under King Henry the third needeth no further proofe than the Writ of summons then framed expressing that Kings mind and practise It is Nobiscum Praelatis Magnatibus nostris quos vocari fecimus super praemissis tractare Consilium impendere which word Nobiscum implieth plainely the Kings presence what the succeeding practise was from the fifteenth year of the second Edward the proper Records of this inquiry the Journall Books being lost I am enforced to draw from out the Rolls of Acts wherein sometimes by chance they are remembred Edward the second was present in Parliament in the fifteenth year of his Raigne at the complaint against the Spencers and at the second Parliament that year for the repeale of that banishment In the fourth of Edward the third the King was present at the accusation of Roger Mortimer but not at the Tryall And the next year in the treaty of the French affaires In the sixth year Intererat Rex in Causa Johannis de Gray Willielmi de Zous The same year the second day in Parliament the King was present at the debate about his Voyage into Scotland In the fifteenth year the King in the Painted Chamber sitting with the Lords in consultation the Archbishop after pardon prayed that for better clearing himself he might be tryed in full Parliament by his Peers which was granted In the seventeenth in Camera Alba now the Court of requests Rex cum magnatibus conveniunt Communes super negotiis Regni In the tenth of Richard the second the King departed from the Parliament in some discontent when after some time Lords are sent to pray his presence and informe his Majesty that if he forbear his presence amongst them fourty dayes that then Ex antiquo Statuto they may returne absque doâ—igerio Regis to their severall homes Henry the fourth began his first Parliament the first of November and was the twenty seventh of the same moneth at a debate about the Duke of Brittany the thirtieth day the Cause of the Archbishop of Canterbury was before him proposed only The third of November he was at the debate whether the Commons had right of Judicature yea or no. On the tenth he was with the Lords in their consultation about the expedition against the Scots the creation of the Duke of Lancaster and prohibition of a new sect for entring his Kingdom Some Ordinances were at this time consulted of before him about the staple and the sentence against Haxey after dispute revoked This King began his second Parliament the twentieth of January and on the ninth of February was present to make agreement betwixt the Bishop of Norwich and Thomas of Erpingham On the twentieth day of the same moneth he was present at Counsell for repressing the Welch Rebells for revocation of stipends and concerning the Priors Aliens On the 26. they advise before the King of the Cistertians order On the second of March of the Statute of Provisions the Keeper of the privy Seal of relieving the two Universities And on the ninth of March they mediate before the King a reconciliation betwixt the Earl of Rutland and the Lord Fitzwater He also began a Parliament in the fifth year upon the fifteenth of January and on the twentieth they advise before the King of guarding the Seas and the Welsh rebellion On the eighth of February the Earl of Northumberland is charged before the King and in his presence and by his permission divers of whom he knew no harme were removed from the Court. The next day at the Petition of the Commons he took upon him to reconcile the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland And on the two and twentieth of February of the Earles of Northumberland and Dunbarre In a Parliament of 27 of Hen. the 6. a Challenge of seate in Parliament betwixt the Earles of Arundell and Devonshire was examined and appointed by the KING with the advice of the Lords In that great capitall cause of the Duke of Suffolke the 28 of Hen. 6. I finde not the King once present at the debates but the Duke appealing from his tryall by Peerage to the King is brought from out of the house of Lords to a private Chamber where the King after the Chancellor in gross had declared his offence and his refusall the King himself but not in place of judgement adjudged his banishment By the Rolls of Edward the fourth it appeareth that he was many dayes
besides the first and last of Parliament and there was entred some Speeches by him uttered but that of all the rest is most of remark the reporter then present thus tells it This of the Duke of Clarence and the King Tristis disceptatio inter duos tantae humanitatis Germanos nemo arguit contra ducem nisi Rex nemo respondit Regi nisi dux some other testimonies are brought in with which the Lords are satisfied and so Formârunt in eum sententiam damnations by the mouth of the Duke of Buckingham the Steward of England all which was much distasted by the House of Commons The Raigne of Henry the seventh affords us upon the Rolls no one example The journall Bookes are lost except so much as preserves the passages of eight dayes in the twelfth year of his Raigne in which the King was some dayes present at all debates and with his own hand the one and thirtieth day of the Parliament delivered in a bill of Trade then read but had the memorials remained it is no doubt but he would have been as frequent in his Great Councell of Parliament as he was in the Starre-Chamber where by the Register of that Court it appeareth as well in debate of private causes that toucheth neither life nor Member as those of publique care he every year of all his raign was often present Of Henry the eighth memory hath not been curious but if he were not often present peradventure that may be the cause which the learned Recorder Fleetwood in his preface to the Annalls of Edward the fifth Richard the third Henry the seventh and Henry the eighth hath observed in the Statutes made in that Kings dayes for which cause he hath severed their Index from the former And much lay in the will of Wolsey who ever was unwilling to let that King see with his own eyes Edward the sixth in respect of his young years may be vvell excused but that such was his purpose it appears by a memorial of his own hand vvho proportioning the affairs of Councell to several persons reserved those of greatest vveight to his own presence in these vvords These to attend the matters of State that I will sit with them once a week to hear the debating of things of most importance Unfitness by sex in his two succeeding sisters to be so frequent present as their former Ancestors led in the ill occasion of such opinion and practise Most excellent Majesty your most humble servant in discharge of obedience and zeal hath hastned up this abstract vvhich in all humility he offers up unto your gracious pardon Presumption to enter the Closet of your Counsell is far from his modesty and duty vvhat hath been your powerfull Command he hath made his Work vvhat is fit to be done vvith it is only your divine judgment He dares not say Presidents are vvarrants to direct The success is as vvorthy observation as the knowledge of them sometimes have made ill example by extension of Regal power through ill Counsels vvith ill success Some as bad or vvorse vvhen the people have had too much of that and the King too little the danger no less To cut out of either of these patterns to follovv vvere but to be in Love vvith the mischief for the example The clearer I present this to your Highness the nearer I approach the uprightness of your heart the blessed fortune of your happy Subjects Pardon most Sacred Majesty that I offer up unto your admired vvisdome my vveak but dutifull observations out of all the former gathering In Consultations of State and decisions of private plaints it is clear from all times the King not only present to advise and hear but to determine also in Cases Criminal and not of Bloud to bar the King a part vvere to exclude him the Star-chamber as far from reason as example The doubt is then alone in Crimes meer Capital I dare not commend too much the times that lost these patterns either for the Causes or Effects but vvish the one and other never more To proceed by publick Act of Commons Peers and King vvas most usuall Appeals are given by Lavv of Hen. 4. of this in novv debate the vvay I fear as yet obscure as great advice to State is needfull for the manner as for the Justice The example in the cause of the Duke of Suffolke 28 Hen. 6. vvhere the King gave judgement vvas protested against by the Lords That of the Duke of Clarence of Edw. 4. vvhere the Lords and the high Stevvard the Duke of Buckingham gave judgement vvas protested against by Commons in both of these the King vvas sometimes present but vvhich of those may suit these times I dare not guess That of Primo Rich. 2. of Gomeneys and Weston accused by the Commons plaint for Treason vvas tried by the Lords in absence of the King but sentenced by the Lord Scroop Stevvard for the King The Accused vvere of the rank of the Accusers Commons and not Lords Hovv this vvill make a President to judg in causes Capital a Peer of Parliament I cannot tell But if I should conceive a vvay ansvverable as well to Parliament as other Courts if the King and the Lords vvere Tryers and the Commons assenters to the judgment to hear together the Charge and evidence The Lords as doth the Jury in other Courts to vvithdravv to find the Verdict and then the Stevvard for the King to pronounce the Sentence It passeth so by vvay of Act and Course that carrieth vvith it no exception and likely to avoid all curious questions of your Highness presence there If your humble servant hath in this expression of his desire to do you service presumed too far his Comfort is that vvhere zeal of duty hath made the fault benignity of goodness vvill grant the Pardon A DISCOURSE OF THE LAWFULLNES OF COMBATS To be performed in the presence of the KING or the Constable and Marshall of ENGLAND Written by Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet 1609. LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. A DISCOURSE OF THE LAWFULLNES OF COMBATS To be performed in the presence of the KING c. COMBAT WHere difference could not be determined by legal proof or testimony there was allowed the party his purgation Which was either Canonicall or Legall The first by Oath and called Canonicall because it is Lawfull The other which was either Per aquam candentem ferrum ignitum or Duellum called vulgare because it was brought in by the barbarous people without the pretext of any Law untill the Gothish and Lombard Kings seeing their Subjects more addicted to Martiall Discipline than to Civill Government reduced those trialls to Form and Rule Which Constitutions are now incorporated in the Civill Law From the Northern Nations of which the Saxons and Normans or Northmanni are part it was brought into this Land And although it grew long ago both by the Decrees of
the short account yielded the King of such Ecclesistiacal tenths and duties as were often or Annually paid unto the Pope in former times and now by Statute invested in the Crown for in former times the See of Rome received them not as only out of the meer Spiritualities but also from out of all the Temporalities of Spiritual persons which Land being now divided from the Church into the hands of the Laity yet ought they to pay this duty since they were settled in the Crown by a former Law and no subsequent ever hath discharged them AN ANSVVER TO CERTAIN ARGUMENTS Raised from Supposed Antiquity And urged by some MEMBERS of the lower HOUSE of PARLIAMENT To prove that Ecclesiastical Laws Ought to be Enacted by Temporal Men. Written by Sir ROB. COTTON Knight and Barronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. AN ANSVVER TO CERTAIN ARGUMENTS Raised from Supposed Antiquity And urged by some Members of the Lower House of PARLIAMENT To Prove that Ecclesiastical Lawes Ought to be Enacted by Temporal Men. WHat besides self-regard or siding faction hath been the main reason of the lower Lay-house labour in Parliament to deal with Lawes of the Church the milder Members have yielded a Right which they would maintain by former Presidents raising the same from 1. Primitive use 2. Middle practise 3. Interrupted continuance Professing the same by the Laws of 1. The Roman Empire 2. The Saxon Kings 3. The English Parliaments so to do Which since it may raise a prejudice to the Church's peace or to the Soveraign's power unopposed I will make way in a word or two to the better answer of some other Pen. What they say is not to be denied that in course of civil Laws under the Christian Emperours there be often constitutions Ecclesiastical and in the Councels of the Church frequent the Soveraign's power and sometimes the presence of lay-Ministers yet may their assertion admit to the first this answer of Justinian Principes Sapientes Episcoporum monita pro fide Religione Christiana Leges Synodicis Canonibus conformes edidere recte judicantes Sacerdotum Sanctiones merito Majestatis Regiae nuturoborari So that those decrees of the Civil Lawes will prove but confirmative of former Canons as may be gathered by that of Volentinian and Martian Emperours who wrote unto Paladius their Praefectus Pratorii that all constitutions that were against the Canon of the Church should stand void And to the second that their presence was to dignifie and not to dispute the direction proveth that the Emperor Theodosius gave to Candidianus an Earl by him to the Ephesian Councel sent Non ut Quaestiones seu Expositiones communicaret cum sit illicitum quia non fit in ordine sanctissimorum Episcoporum Ecclesiasticis tractatibus intermisceri And Valentinian the elder though petitioned by the Bishops to be present at their Synod said Sebi qui unus e Laicorum numero esset non licere hujusmodi negotiis se interponere And by the Council of Carth. and Affrican likewise it appeared that even Princes would intermeddle with these matters but Saepius rogati ab Episcopis And the Emperor Gratian taught as Zozimus saith Omnes Laicos nihil potestatis inres Ecclesiasticas posse sibi vindicare And the former Emperor enacted In causa Ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis cum judicare debere qui nec manere impar est nec jure dissimilis Sacerdotes de Sacerdotibus judicare According to that Saying of Constantine the Great Vos enim a Deo nobis dati estis Dii conveniens non est ut homo judicet Deos. Thus then stood the practice of the primitive Church which when it was in those times otherwise as under Constantius the Arrian Athanas saith of him Haereseos veneno imbutos milites Sicarios Eunuchos Comites faciebat Sacerd. Judices cogebat umbratiles Synodas quibus ipse cum monstris illis praesiperet Whereas otherwise that Emperor even in the height of Pagan Greatness ascribed to their Pontifices and Sacerdotes in Common Right Propter Religionem comitia habere propria and that Stabili Sententiâ rarum erat quod tres Pontifices communi decreto statuissent The second Objection Ecclesiastical Laws enacted in Parliament To the second as it is in the former true that many Canons of the Church are interlaced with the Common-wealths although the Saxon Laws and that the establishment should be by Parliament which they infer out of the Frontispian of Inas Statutes in these words Ego Inae Rex ex tractatione Episcoporum et omnium Aldermannorum meorum seniorum sapientu◠Regni mei confirmatione Populi mei do ordain c. Yet may receive this answer First that the Commons did but confirm and not dispute which to this day is in their summons comprized only ad consuet udinen But whosoever shall collate the transcript copy with the original called Textus Roffensis will find these ordinances not called Leges but Synodalia and almost all by the King and Church-men onely made Neither was it new in this Isle that Priests directed alone the government when as the best Record of our eldest memory saith that the Druides a religious Pagan order not only divinis intersunt Religiones interpretantur but de omnibus as Caesar saith controversis publicis privatisque confirment sive de heridet amento sive de finibus praemia paenas constituunt And if any sive privatus aut populus decreto eorū non stererit sacrificiis interdicunt And this excommunication amongst them was paena gravissima Neither did the times of Christianity here bereave the Church of all such will For in the Saxon time they intermedled in the framing of the Temporal Lawes and ought as appeareth by an Ordinance of that time de Officiis Episcopi Cum seculi judicibus interesse ne permittent si possint ut illinc aliqua pravitatum germina pullulaverint And surely since these time until of late the inferiour Ministers of the Church aswel as Bishops had suffrage in Parliament For John de Rupescissa a story as old as King John's time saith Anno 1210. Convocatum est Parliamentum Londoniae Presidente Archiepiscopo cum toto Clero tota secta Laicali And in the 8. of Edward the 3. the Members of Parliament defective in their appearance the King chargeth the Arch-bishop to punish the defaults of the Clergie as he would the like touching the Lords and Commons And in third of Richard the second against a Petition in Parliament contradicting Provisions the Prelates and whole Clergy make their protestations And to a demand of the Lay-Commons for the King's aide the year following the whole Clergy answered that they used not to grant any but of their free will And in the eleventh of the same King the Archbishop of Canterbury made openly in
in Henry 8. time had first the ground in Parliament it is manifested by the dates of their Acts in convocations that they all had properly in that place the first original And that this was the use of old nothing will leave it so clear as to observe the fruitless success of the Laity in all their endeavours to establish Ecclesiastical Laws And this I will manifest by the Kings answer out of Record so far as the Rolls of Parliament will admit me successively Until the 11. of Edward the first there is no Record extant but in that the Commons petition to the King that a Law may be made against Usurers The King gave answer that it must be remedyed coram Ordinariis And when they desired remedy de multimodis injustis vexationibus eis factis per Officiales alios ministros Ecclesiae The King replyed Cancellarius emendat in temporalibus Archiepiscopus faciâ—t in spiritualibus From hence there is a lack of Record near to the 8. of Edward 3. In which Parliament the Commons desire an Act to restrain the Clergie in their trivial citations whereunto they received from the King but this answer onely That the King will charge the Bishops to see it remedyed And the first of Richard the 2. preferring the like petition against corruption of Ordinaries to do according to the Lawes of Holy Church And in the fifth of the same King they complain against abuses in Ecclesiastical Courts Respons The King will charge the Clergy to amend the same And in the 15. year when they required an Act to declare the age of the titheable Wood they had for answer The King would move the Bishops for order between this and the next Parliament And in the 17 of Richard 2. when they petiotioned for a residing learned Ministry so as the Flock for want might not perish they had replyed That the King willeth the Bishops to whom that Office belongeth to do their duties Henry the 4. in his second year desired by the Lords and Commons to pacify the Schisme of the Church Answereth he will charge the Bishops to consider the same And in his fourth year being importuned for an Act for residency of Ministers replyed Le Roy command an Prelats et perentrecy ils empurvoient de remedie And in the eleventh of the same King to the like petition Respons Ceste matiere appartient a St. Eglise et remede en la darraine Convocation In Parliament under the 5. Henry and his first year the King answereth the Commons petition against oppressing Ordinaries If the Bishops do not redtess the same the King will And in Anno 3. Henry 6. to a Petition that Non-Residents should forfeit the profit of their living gave answer that he had delivered the Bill to my Lord of Canterbury and semblably to my Lord of York charging them to purvey meanes of remedy And in the year following to a petition that Patrons may present upon Non-Residencie Respons There is remedy sufficient in the Law spiritual Since then it is plain by these rehearsed answers that from the Conquest they have received but weak admittance And by the edict of the first King William in these words a sharp restraint Defendo et mea authoritate interdico ne ullus laicus homo de legibus quae ad Episcopum pertinent se intromittat And that the Saxon Synodals are rather Canon-Laws then Lay-mens Acts. And the practise of the primitive Church if well understood but a weak prop to their desire It may not seem distastful from the King walking in the Steps of his Ancestors Kings of this Land to return as formerly the Commons desires to their proper place the Church-mans care And to conclude this point in all Parliaments as Martian the Emperor did the Chalcedon Councel Cessat jam profana contentio nam vere impius sacrilegus est qui posttot sacerdotum sententiam opinionisuae aliquid tractandum reliquit And with the Letter of Gods Law Qui superbicrit nolens obedire sacerdotis imperio ex decreto Judicis morietur hono THE ARGUMENT Made by the COMMAND Of the House of COMMONS Out of the Acts of Parliament and Authority of Law expounding the same at a CONFERENCE with the LORDS CONCERNING THE LIBERTIE of the person of every FREEMAN Written by Sir ROB. COTTON Knight and Barronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. THE ARGUMENT Made by the COMMAND Of the House of COMMONS Out of the Acts of Parliament and Authority of Law expounding the same at a Conference with the LORDS Concerning the Liberty of the person of every FREEMAN My LORDS VPon the occasions delivered by the Gentlemen your Lordships have heard the Commons have taken into their serious consideration the matter of the personal liberty and after long debate thereof of on divers dayes aswell by solemn Arguments as single proportions of doubts and answers to the end no scruples might remain in any mans breast unsatisfyed They have upon a full search and clear understanding of all things pertinent to the question unanimously declared That no Freeman ought to be committed or detained in Prison or otherwise restrained by the command of the King or the Privy Councel or any other unless some cause of the commitment deteinor or restraint be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained And they have sent me with other of their Members to represent unto your Lordships the true grounds of such their resolution and have charged me particularly leaving the reasons of Law and Presidents for others to give your Lordships satisfaction that this Liberty is established and confirmed by the whole State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons by several Acts of Parliament the authority whereof is so great that it can receive no answer save by interpretation or repeal by future Statutes And those that I shall mind your Lordships of are so direct to the point that they can bear no other exposition at all and sure I am they are still in force The first of them is the grand Charter of the Liberties of England first granted 17. Johannis Regis and revived 9. Hen. 3 and since confirmed in Parliament above 30. times The words are these cap. 29. Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur aut disseisetur de libero tenemento suo vel Libertatibus vel liberis consuetudinibus suis aut ut lagetur aut exuletur aut aliquo modo dâ—struatur nec super eum ibimus nec super eum mittemus nisi per leg ale â—udiciuâ— parium suorum vel per legem terrae These words Nullus liber homo c. are express enough Yet it is remarkable that Mathew Paris an Author of especial credit doth observe fol. 432 that the Charter 9. Henry 3. was the very same as that of the 17. of King John in nullo
great Debts high Engagements and present wants The noise whereof I wish may ever rest inclosed within these Walls For what an incouragement it may be to our Enemies and a disheartning to our Friends I cannot tell The danger of those if any they have been the cause is great and fearful It was no small motive to the Parliament in the time of Henry 3. to banish the Kings half-Brethren for procuring to themselves so large proportion of Crown Lands Gavâ—ston and Spencer for doing the like for themselves and their followers in Edward the 2. time and the Lady Vâ—ssy for procuring the like for her Brother Beaumont was banished the Court. Michael de la Poole was condemned the 20. of Richard 2. in Parliament amongst other Crimes for procuring Lands and Pensions from the King and having imployed the Subsidies to other ends then the grant intended His Grand-Child William Duke of Suffolk for the like was censured 28. Henry 6. The great Bishop of Winchester 50. Edward 3. was put upon the Kings mercy by Parliament for wasting in time of Peace the Revenues of the Crown and gifts of the People to the yearly oppression of the Common-VVealth Offences of this Nature were urged to the ruining of the Last Duke of Somerset in Edward 6. time More fearful Examples may be found too frequent in Records Such Improvidence and ill Council led Henry the third into so great a strait as after he had pawned some part of his Forreign Territories broke up his House and sought his Diet at Abbies and Religious houses ingaged not onely his own Iewels but those of the Shrine of Saint Edward at Westminster he was in the end not content but constrained to lay to pawne as some of his Successors after did Magnam Coronam Angliae the Crown of England To draw you out to life the Image of former Kings extremities I will tell you what I found since this Assembly at Oxford written by a Reverend man twice Vice-Chancellour of this place his name was Gascoign a man that saw the Tragedy of De la Poole He tells you that the Revenues of the Crown were so Rent away by ill Councel that the King was inforced to live de Tallagiis Populi That the King was grown in debt quinque centena millia librarum That his great Favourite in treating of a Forrieign Marriage had lost his Master a Forreign Dutchie That to work his ends he had caused the King to adjourn the Parliament in Villis remoti partibus Regni where few People propter dâ—fectum hospitii victualium could attend and by shifting that assembly from place to place to inform I will use the Authors words illos paucos qui remanebunt de Communitate Regin concedere Regi quamvispessima VVhen the Parliament endeavoured by an Act of Resumption the just and frequent way to repair the languishing State of the Crown for all from Henry 3. but one till the 6. of Henrry 8. have used it this great man told the King it was ad dedecus Regis and forced him from it To which the Commons answered although vexati laboribus expensis Quod nunquam concederent taxam Regi until by authority of Parliament râ—suâ—eret actualiter omnia pâ—rtinentia Coronae Anglioe And that it was magis ad dedecus Regis to leave so many poor men in intolerable VVant to whom the King stood then indebtad Yet nought could all good Councel work until by Parliament that bad great man was banished which was no sooner done but an Act of Resumption followed the inrollment of the Act of his Exilement That was a speeding Article against the Bishop of Winchester and his Brother in the time of Edward 3. that they had ingrossed the person of the King from his other Lords It was not forgotten against Gaveston and the Spencers in Edward 2. time The unhappy Ministers of Richard 2. Henry 6. and Edward 6. felt the weight to their Ruine of the like Errors I hope we shall not complain in Parliament again of such I am glad we have neither just cause or undutiful dispositions to appoint the King a Councel to redress those Errors in Parliament as those of the 42. H. 3. We do not desire as 5. H. 4. or 29. H. 6. the removing from about the King of evil Councellors We do not request a choise by name as 14. E. 3. 3. 5. 11. R. 2. 8. H. 4. or 31. H. 6. nor to swear them in Parliament as 35 E. 1. 9. E. 2. or 5. R. 2. or to line them out their directions of rule as 43. H. 3. and 8. H. 6. or desire that which H. 3. did promise in his 42. year se actâ—oâ—nia per assensum Magnatum de Concilio suo electorum sine eor assensu nihil We only in loyal duty offer up our humble desires that since his Majesty hath with advised Judgement elected so wise religious worthy Servants to attend him in that high imployemnt he will be pleased to advise with them together a way of remedy for those disasters in State led in by long security and happy peace and not with young and single Councel A SPEECH Made by Sir ROB. COTTON Knight and Baronet before the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable PRIVYCOVNCEL At the Councel Table being thither called to deliver his Opinion touching The ALTERATION OF COYNE 2. Sept. Annoque Regni Regis Caroli 2. LONDON Printed in the Year 1672 A SPEECH Touching the ALTERATION OF COYNE My LORDS SInce it hath pleased this Honourable Table to command amongst others my poor Opinion concerning this weighty Proposition of money I must humbly ctave pardon if with that Freedome that becomes my duty to my good and gratious Master and my obedience to your great command I deliver it so up I cannot my good Lords but assuredly conceive that this intended Project of enhauncing the Coyne will trench both into the Honour the Justice and the Profit of my Royal Master very farre All Estates do stand Mag is Famâ quam Vi as Tacitus saith of Rome and Wealth in every Kingdome is one of the Essential marks of their Greatness and that is best expressed in the Measure and Puritie of their Monies Hence was it that so lohg as the Roman Empire a Pattern of best Government held up their Glory and Greatness they ever maintained with little or no charge the Standard of their Coine But after the loose times of Commodus had led in Need by Excess and so that Shift of Changing the Standard the Majesty of that Empire fell by degrees And as Vopiscus saith the steps by which that State descended were visibly known most by the gradual alteration of their Coine And there is no surer Symptome of a Consumption in State then the corruption in money What renown is left to the Posterity of Edward the first in amending the Standard both in purity and weight from that of elder and more barbarous times must stick
entaile of the Crown by King Henry 4. in the 8. year of his Reign for all the Commons The Banishment of the two Spencers in 15. E. 2. Praelati Comites Barones les autres Peeres de la terre Commons de Roialme give Consent and Sentence to the Revocation and Reversement of the former Sentence the Lords and Commons accord and so it is expressed in the Roll. In the first of Edward the third when Elizabeth the Widdow of Sir John de Burgo Complained in Parliament that Hugh Spencer the younger Robert Baldock and William Cliffe his Instruments had by duress forced her to make a writing to the King whereby she was dispoiled of all her inheritance Sentence was given for her in these words Pur ceo que avis est al Evesques Counts Barones autres Grandes a tout Cominalte de la terre que le dit escript est fait contre ley tout manere de raison si fuist le dit escript per agard delparliam dampue elloques al livre ala dit Eliz. In the 4th of Edward 3. it appears by a Letter to the Pope that to the Sentence given against the Earl of Kent the Commons were parties as well as the Lords and Peers for the King directed their proceedings in these words Comitibus Magnatibus Baronibus aliis de Communitate dicti Regni as Parliamentum illud congregates iuâ—unximus ut super his discernerent judicarent quod ratione justitiae conveniret habere prae oculis solum Deum qui cum concordi unaenimi sementia tanquam reum criminis laesoe majestatis morti abjudicarent ejus sententia c. When in the 50th of E. 3. the Lords had pronounced the Sentence against Richard Lyons otherwise than the Commons agreed they appealed to the King and had redress and the Sentence entred to their desires When in the first year of R. 2. William Weston and John Jennings were arraigned in Parliament for surrendring certain Forts of the Kings the Commons were parties to the Sentence against them given as appeareth by a Memorandum annexed to that Record In I H. 4. although the Commons refer by protestation the pronouncing the sentence of deposition against King Richard the Second unto the Lords yet are they equally interessed in it as appeareth by the Record for there are made Proctors or Commissioners for the whole Parliament one Bishop one Earl one Abbot one Barronet and Two Knights Gray and Erpingham for the Commons and to infer that because the Lords pronounced the sentence the point of Judgment should be only theirs were as absurd as to conclude that no authority was left in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer than in the person of that man solely that speaketh the Sentence In the Second of Hen. the 5th the Petitions of the Commons importeth no less than a Right they had to act and assent to all things in Parliament and so it is Answered by the King And had not the Journal Roll of the Higher House been left to the sole entry of the Clerk of the upper house who either out of neglect to observe due form or out of purpose to obscure the Commons right and to flatter the power of those he immediately served there would have bin frequent examples of all times to clear this doubt and to preserve a just Interest to the Commonwealth And how conveniently it suits with Monarchy to maintain this form lest others of that well-framed body knit tinder one head should swell too great and monstrous it may be easily thought For Monarchy again may sooner groan under the weight of an Aristocracy as it once did then under a Democracy which it never yet either felt or feared R C B. FINIS Titus Livius 2. doc Livius Acta Triden Concil August de legibus Antiq. Roman Benedict in vita Hen. 2. Record in Scaccar Wâ—st Claus Edw. â— Lewes in the Paper Chart. 1523 William the Conqueror Malmsbury Ex lib. feod in Scacc. Hen. 1. Ex lib. pub in Scacc. Chron. de Dunstable Mat. Paris Benedictus Monachus in vita Hen. 2. Gervas Dorch Roger Wendâ—ver King John Claus 6 Iob. in 3. Dorso Petit. 18. Hen. 3. Claus 49. Hen. 3. in 11. Dors Edw. 1. Ex Rot. Parl. in Archivis London Claus 9. Edw. 1 in 12. Rot. Parl. Anno 7 Edw. 1. Claus 7 Edw. 1. in 3. Dors Claus 34. Ed. 1. in dors Edw. 2. Claus 1 Edw. 2. in 19. in dors Claus 6 Ed. 2. in 3. in dors Claus 8. in 3. in dors Claus 13 E. 2. in 13. in dors Claus 16. E. 2. in 27. in dors Ddw 3. Claus 1 Ed. 3. in dors Rot. Parl. 5 Edw. 3. Parl. 6 Ed. 3. Rot. Parl. 6 Ed. 3. Saff 2. in 6. Rot. Parl. 7 Ed. 3. Rot. Parl. 7 E. 3. Sess 2. Parl. 7 E. 3. in 6. Rot. Parl. 13 E. 3. Rot. Parl. 13 E. 3. Sess 2. Parl. 14. E. 3. Rot. Parl. 18 E. 3. Ro. Parl. 21 E. 3. Parl. 25 E. 3. Parl. 27 E. 3. Parl. 27 E. 3. Parl. 29 E. 3. Paâ—l 36 E. 3. Parl. 40 E. 3. King John Parl. 43 E. 3. Parl. 45 E. 3. Parl. 46 E. 3. Par. 50 Ed. 3. Rich. 2. Par. 1 Rich. 2. in 5 6. Parl. 1 Rich. 2 in 7. Parl. 3 Rich. 2. in 4. 5. Par. 4 Rich. 2. n 2 3. Parl. 5 Rich. 2. in 3. Parl. 5. Sess 2. Parl. 6. Rich. 2. Parl. 6 Sess 2. Par. 7 Rich. 2. Parl. 7 Sess 2. Par. 8 Rich. 2. Claus 9 Rie 2. Par. 10 Rich. 2. Parl. 13 Ric. 2. Rot. Claus 13. Ric. 2. Far. 14 Ric. 2. Parl. 17 Ri. 2. Henry 4. Parl. 5. Hen. 4. Parl. 6. Hen. 4. Parl. 7. 8. Hen. 4. in 19 20. Claus 7 H. 4. ln 33. In 57. In 59. Hen. 5. Parl. 1 Hen. 5. In 2. In 4. Parl. 2 Hen. 5. Parl. 3 Hen. 5. Parl. 4 5. Hen. 5. Parl. 5 Hen. 5. Parl. 7 Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. 6. Rot. Pa 3 H. 6. Rot. Pa. 9 H. 6. Rot. Parl. 14 Hon. 6. Rot. Parl. 15 Hen. 6. Parl. 20 H. 6. Parl. 23 H. 6. Rot. Parl. 25 Hen. 6. in 3. N. 6. Parl. 27 H. 6. Parl. 29 H. 6. Parl. 33 H. 6. Edward 4. Parl. 7. E. 4. Parl. 12 E. 4. Henry 7. Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 7. Henry 8. Parl. 3 H 8. Rot. Parl 32. Hen. 8. Ex iustrumen Orig. Tractat. matrimonial 1510. Ex literis orig legator Ex tract Hen. 8. Maximilian 1511. Ex tract orig Ex tract orig Ex liiteris Ric. Pace Legat. Reg. Anglia Ex literis Car. Sedunensis Ex literis Carol Reg. Hisp Ex literis Car. Imperat. original Extract Wind. 1522. Ex instru orig jurament Ex literis Richardi â—ace lohannis Russel Ex tract Madristensi 526. Ex Rot. Com. Russel Pace Ex iustru orig Carol. 5. Ex instru H. 8. Bryano Gardinen Ex
Cottoni Posthuma DIVERS CHOICE PIECES OF THAT Renowned Antiquary Sir ROBERT COTTON Knight and Baronet Preserved from the injury of Time and Exposed to publick light for the benefit of Posterity By J. H. Esq LONDON Printed for Richard Lowndes at the White Lion in Duck Lane near Smith-field and Matthew Gilliflower at the Sun in Westminster-Hall 1652. To his worthily Honoured Friend Sir Robert Pye Knight at his House in Westminster SIR THe long interest of Friendship and nearness of Neighbourhood which gave you the opportunity of conversing often with that worthy Baronet who was Author of these ensuing Discourses induced me to this Dedicatory Address Among the Greeks and Romans who were the two Luminaries that first diffused the rayes of Knowledge and Civility through these North-west Clymes He was put in the rank of the best sorts of Patriots who preserv'd from putrefaction and the rust of Time the Memory and Works of Vertuous Men by exposing them to open light for the generall Good Therefore I hope not to deserve ill of my Country that I have published to the World these choice notions of that learned Knight Sir Robert Cotton who for his exact recerchez into Antiquity hath made himself famous to Posterity Plutarch in writing the lives of Others made his own everlasting So an Antiquary while he feels the pulse of former Ages and makes them known to the present renders Himself long-liv'd to the future There was another inducement that mov'd me to this choice of Dedication and it was the high respects I owe you upon sundry obligations and consequently the desire I had that both the present and after times might bear witness how much I am and was Sir 3. Nonas April 1651. Your humble and truly devoted Servant James Howell To the Knowing Reader touching these following Discourses and their AUTHOR THe memory of some men is like the Rose and other odoriferous flowers which cast a sweeter and stronger smell after they are pluck'd The memory of Others may be said to be like the Poppie and such Vegetalls that make a gay and specious shew while they stand upon the stalk but being cut and gather'd they have but an ill-favour'd scent This worthy Knight may be compared to the first sort as well for the sweet odor of a good name he had while he stood as also after he was cut down by the common stroke of Mortality Now to augment the fragrancy of his Vertues and Memory these following Discourses which I may term not altogether improperly a Posie of sundry differing Howers are expos'd to the World All who ever knew this well-weighed Knight will confess what a great Zâ—lâ—t he was to his Countrey how in all Parliaments where he fervid so often his main endeavours were to assert the publick Liberty and that Prerogative and Priviledge might run in their due Channels He would often say That he Himself had the least share in Himself but his Countrey and his Friends had the greatest interest in him He might be said to be in a perpetual pursuit after Vertue and Knowledge He was indefatigable in the search and re-search of Antiquity and that in a generous costly manner as appears in his Archives and copious Library Therefore he may well deserve to be ranked among those Worthies Quorum Imagines lambunt Hederae sequaces For an Antiquary is not unfitly compar'd to the Ivie who useth to cling unto ancient fabriques and Vegetals In these Discourses you have 1. A Relation of proceedings against Ambassadors who have miscarried themselves and exceeded their Commission 2. That the Kings of England have been pleased to consult with their Peers in Parliament for marriage of their Children and touching Peace and War c. 3. That the Soveraigns Person is required in Parliament in all Consultations and Conclusions 4. A Discourse of the legality of Combats Duells or Camp-fight 5. Touching the question of Precedency between England and Spain 6. Touching the Alliances and Amity which have interven'd betwixt the Houses of Austria and England 7. A Discourse touching Popish Recusants Jesuits and Seminaries 8. The Manner and Means how the Kings of England have supported and improv'd their States 9. An Answer to certain Arguments urg'd by a Member of the House of Commons and raised from supposed Antiquity to prove that Ecclesiastical Laws ought to be Enacted by Temporal men 10. The Arguments produc'd by the House of Commons concerning the Priviledge of every Free-born Subject 11. A Speech delivered in the House of Commons Assembled at Oxford in the sirst year year of the last King 12. A Speech delivered before the Councell Table touching the alteration of Coyn. 13. Valour Anatomized in a Fancy by Sir Philip Sidney 14. A brief Discourse concerning the Power of the Peers and Commons of Parliament in point of Judicature 15. Honesty Ambition and Fortitude Anatomized by Sir Francis Walsingham 16. The Life and Raign of Henry the Third complied in a Criticall way These Discourses being judiciously read will much tend to the enriching of the understanding and improvement of the Common stock of Knowledge A RELATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST AMBASSADORS Who have miscarried themselves c. IN humble obedience to your Grace's Command I am emboldened to present my poor advice to this the greatest and most important cause that ever happened in this State the Quiet of the Kingdom the Honour of the Prince the safety of the Spanish Ambassadors Person exposed hereby to the fury of the People all herein involved A consideration not the least for the reputation of the State and Government though he little deserved it The information made to his sacred Majesty by him That your Grace should have plotted this Parliament Wherein if his Majesty did not accord to your designs then by the Authority of this Parliament to confine his sacred Person to some place of pleasure and transfer the Regal Power upon the Prince This Information if it were made by a Subject by the Laws of the Realm were high Treason to breed a rupture between the Soveraignty and the Nobility either by Reports or Writings and by the Common Law is adjudged no less The Author yet knowing that by the representing the Person of a soverain Prince he is by the Law of Nations exempt from Regal tryal all actions of one so qualified being made the Act of his Master until he disavow And injuries of one absolute Prince to another is Factum hostilitatis and not Treason The immunity of whom Civilians collect as they do the rest of their grounds from the practice of the Roman State deducing their Arguments from these Examples The Fabii Ambassadors from Rome were turned safe from the Chades with demand of justice against them onely although they had been taken bearing Arms with the Ethrurian their Enemies The Ambassadors of the Tarquines Morte affligendos Romani non judicârunt quanqnam visi sunt ut hostium loco essent justamen Gentium voluit
And where those of Syphax had plotted the murder of Masinissa Non aliud mihi factum quà m quod sceleris sui reprehensi essent saith Appian The Ambassadors of the Protestants at the Counsell of Trent though divulging there the Doctrine of the Churches contrary to a Decree there enacted a crime equivalent to Treason yet stood they protected from any punishment So much doth public conveniency prevail against a particular mischief That the State of Rome though in case of the most capital crime exempted the Tribunes of the people from question during the year of office And the Civilians all consent that Legis de Jure Gentium indictum est eorum corpora salva sint Propter necessitatem legationis ac ne confundant jura comercii inter Principes The redress of such injuries by such persons the example of Modern and best times will lead us to Vivia the Popes Legate was restrained by Henry the Second for exercising a power in his Realm not admitted by the King in disquiet of the State and forced to swear not to act any thing in Praejudicium Regis vel Regni Hen. 3. did the like to one of the Popes Ambassadors another flying the Realm secretly fearing timens pelli sui as the Record saith Edward 1. so restraining another until he had as his Progenitors had informed the Pope of the fault of his Minister and received satisfaction of the wrongs In the year 1523. Lewis de Pratt Ambassador for Charles 5. was commanded to his house for accusing falsly Cardinal Wolsey to have practised a breach between Hen. 8. and his Master to make up the Amity with the French King Sir Michael Throgmorton by Charles the 9. of France was so served for being too busie with the Prince of Condy in his faction Doctor Man in the year 1567. was taken from his own house in Madriil and put under a Guard to a straiter Lodging for breeding a Scandal as the Conde Teri said in using by warrant of his Place the Religion of his Country although he alledged the like permitted to Ghusman de Silva their Ambassador and to the Turk no less then in Spain In the year 1568. Don Ghuernon d' Espes vvas ordered to keep his house in London for sending scandalous Letters to the Duke d' Alva unsealed The Bishop of Rosse in the year 1571. vvas first confined to his house after to the Tower then committed for a good space to the Bishop of Ely his care for medling with more business then belonged to the place of his imployment The like was done to Dr. Alpin and Malvisett the French Ambassadors successively for being busie in more then their Masters affairs In the time of Philip the second of Spain the Venetian Ambassador in Madrill protecting an offendor that fled into his house and denying the Heads or Justices to enter his house vvhere the Ambassador stood armed to vvithstand them and one Bodavario a Venetian whom they committed to Prison for his unruly carriage and they removed the Ambassador unto another house until they had searched and found the Offendor Then conducting back the Ambassador set a guard upon his house to stay the fury of the people enraged The Ambassador complaining to the King he remitted it to the Supreme Councel they justified the proceeding condemning Bodavario to lose his head and other the Ambassadors servants to the Galleys all vvhich the King turned to banishment sending the whole process to Inego de Mendoza his Ambassador at Venice and declaring by a publick Ordinance unto that State and all other Princes that in case his Ambassadors should commit any offence nnworthily and disagreeing to their professions they should not then enjoy the privilege of those Officers referring them to be judged by them vvhere they then resided Barnardino de Mendoza for traducing falsly the Ministers of the State to further his seditious Plots vvas restrained first and after commanded away in the year 1586. The last of Spanish Instruments that disquieted this State a benefit vve found many years after by their absence and feel the vvant of it now by their reduction Having thus shortly touched upon such precedent examples as have fallen in the vvay in my poor observation I humbly crave pardon to offer up my simple opinion what course may best be had of prosecution of this urgent cause I conceive it not unfit that vvith the best of speed some of the chief Secretarries vvere sent to the Ambassador by vvay of advice that they understanding a notice of this information amongst the common people that they cannot but conceive a just fear of uncivil carriage towards his Lordship or his followers if any the least incitement should arise and therefore for quiet of the State and security of his person they vvere bound in love to his Lordship to restrain as vvell himself as followers until a further course be taken by legal examination vvhere this aspertion begun the vvay they onely conceived secure to prevent the danger this fear in likelyhood vvill be the best motive to induce the Ambassador to make discovery of his intelligence when it shall be required I conceive it then most fit that the Prince and your Grace to morrow should complain of this in Parliament and leaving it so to their advice and justice to depart the House the Lords at the instant to crave a conference of some small number of the Commons and so conclude of a Message to be sent to the Ambassador to require from him the charge and proofs the Persons to be sent the two Speakers of the two Houses vvith some convenient company of either to have their Maces and ensigns of Office born brfore them to the Ambassadors Gate and then forborn to shew fair respect to the Ambassadors then to tell them that a relation being made that day in open Parliament of the former information to the King by his Lordship they vvere deputed from both Houses the great Councel of the Kingdom to the vvhich by the fundamental Law of the State the chief care of the Kings safety and public quiet is committed they vvere no less the high Court of Justice or Supersedeas to all others for the examining and correcting all attempts of so high a nature as this if it carry truth That they regarded the honour of the State for the Catholicks immoderate using of late the Lenity of Soveraign Grace to the scandal and offence of too many and this aspersion now newly reflecting upon the Prince and others meeting vvth the former distaste which all in publique conceive to make a plot to breed a rupture between the King and State by that party maliciously layd hath so inflamed and sharpned the minds of most that by the access of people to Term and Parliament the City more filled then usual and the time it selfe neer May day a time by custom apted more to licentious liberty then any other cannot but breed a just jealousie and
to the States assembled Anno 33. to advise for well ordering of his House payment of the Soldiers at Callis guard of the Sea raising of the siege of Barwicke made by the Scots against the Truce dispoiling of the number of 13000 Soldiers arrayed the last Parliament according of differences amongst the Lords restraining transportation of Gold and Silver and acquitting the disorders in Wales of all which Committees are appointed to frame Bills Edward the fourth by the Chancellor declareth in his seventh year to the Lords and Commons that having made peace with Scotland entred League with Spaine and Denmark contracted with Burgundy and Britany for their ayd in the recovery of his right in France he had now called them to give their Counsels in proceeding which Charge in a second Sessions was again proposed unto them The like was to another Parliament in his twelfth year After this time their Journalls of Parliament have not been well preserved or not carefully entred for I can find of this nature no Record untill the first of Hen. 7. wherein the Commons by Thomas Lovell their Speaker Petition the King to take to Wife Elizabeth Daughter to Edw. 4. to which the King at their request agreeth The next is the third of Hen. the 8. in which from the King the Chancellor declareth to the three Estates the cause of that Assembly The first to devise a course to resist the Invasion of the Scots next how to acquit the quarrel between the King of Castile and the Duke of Geldres his Allie lastly for assisting the Pope against Lewis King of France whose Bull expressing the injuries done the Sea Apostolick was read by the Master of the Rolls in open Parliament The Chancellor the Treasurer and other Lords sent down to the Commons to confer with them The last in the 32d of the same year where the Chancellor remembring the many troubles the State had undergone in doubtful titles of Succession declareth that although the Convocation had judged void the marriage of Anne of Cleve yet the King would not proceed without the Counsel of the three Estates The two Archbishops are sent to the Commons with the Sentence sealed which read and there discussed they pass a Bill against the Marriage In all these passages of publick Counsells wherein I have been much assisted by the painful labour of Mr. Elsings Clerk of the Parliament and still observe that the Soveraign Lord either in best advice or in most necessities would entertain the Commons with the weightiest causes either forrain or domestique to apt and bind them so to readiness of charge and they as warily avoyding it to eschew expence their modest answers may be a rule for ignorant liberty to form their duties and humbly to entertain such weighty Counsells at their Soveraigns pleasure and not to the wild fancy of any Factious spirit I will add one forrain example to shew what use have been formerly made by pretending Marriages and of Parliaments to dissolve them their first end served Maximilian the Emperour and Ferdinand of Spain the one to secure his possessions in Italy the other to gain the Kingdom of Navarre to both which the French King stood in the way projected a Marriage of Charls their Grand-child with Mary the King of Englands sister it was embraced and a Book published of the benefits likely to ensue the Christian world by this match upon this Ground Ferdinando beginneth to incite Henry the 8th to war with France presents him with succours and designs him Guien to be the mark and Dorset sent with men and munition to joyn with the Spanish forces then on the Borders of Navarre the noise is they came to assist Ferdinand in the conquest of that Kingdom which though false gained such reputation that Albred was disheartned and Ferdinand possesed himself of that his Successors since retained his end served the English Army weak and weather-beaten are returned fruitless Maximilian then allureth the young and active King to begin with France on the other side Turwin and Turney is now the object whither Henry goeth with victory but better advised with that pittance makes an end by peace with France whose aim and heart was set on Millain A new bait the old Emperour findeth out to catch the Ambitious young man he would needs resign unto him the Empire too heavy for his age to bear The Cardinal Sedunensis is sent over to sign the Agreement which he did and France must now again be made an Enemy To prevent this danger Francis released his Title to Naples and offereth Laogitia his Daughter to Maximilians Granchild Charls at Noyon this is acted in the dark and at Arno the French Commissioners came up the back stairs with 60000 Florins and they engrossed Covenants when the abused King of Englands Ambassador Pace went down the other the good Cardinal returneth home meeteth by the way this foul play of his Master and writ to the King of England not in excuse but in complaint Contra perfidiam Principum an honest Letter Ferdinand and Maximilian dead Francis and Charls are Competitors for the Empire Henry the 8th is courted for his help by both the one with the tye of Alliance for the Infant Dolphin had affyed Henry the 8ths Daughter the other with the like and Daughter he will make his Daughter a Queen in praesente which the Dolphin cannot do and by his favour an Empress To further France was but to win Ambition to prey upon all his Neighbours the English King is won and winneth for Spain the Imperial wreath which Charls in two Letters I have of his own hand then thankfully confessed From Aquisgrave he cometh Crowned in haste to England wedded at Windsor the Kings Daughter contracteth to joyn in an invasion of France to divide it with his Father in Law by the River of Rodon and sweareth at the Altar in Pauls to keep faith in all Bourbon is wrought from France and entreth the Province with an Army paid with King Henries money Suffolke passeth with the English Forces by Picardy But Charles the Emperour who should have entred Guyen-faileth drawing away Burbon from a streight siege Marseilles to interrupt Francis then entred Italy and so the enterprize of France is defeated the French King as it Pavie taken Prisoner by Pescaro led to Grone hurried into Spain by the Emperours Galleys and forced at Madrid to a hard bargain without privity of Henry the 8th or provision of him who had been at the greater charge of that War Now the Emperour affecteth that Monarchy that hath ever since as some say infected the Austrian Family Rome the fatal old Seat of Government must be the Seat of his Empire Burbon and after Moncado are directed to surprize it Angelo the observant Fryer is sent before the Pope consigned by the Emperours Election who meant as his own
instructions warrant to restore that right again to the Imperial Throne Charls will follow him from Barcellona with an Army but before he must call a Parliament at Toledo whether by election or affection I dare not divine that Assembly maketh Protestation against their Masters Marriage with England and assign him Isabella of Portugal for a wife the Instruments are sent signed by the Imperial Notary to Henry the 8th And Charls bemoneth the streight he is forced into by them but before all this he had wrought from Rome a Dispensation for his former out-hand Marriage sending not long after Gonzado Ferdinando his Chaplain to invite the Earl of Desmon to rebell in Ireland And to invite James the First by promise of a Marriage to Christian of Denmarks Daughter his Neece to enter the English Borders to busie the English King for asking a strict accompt of that indignity Henry the 8th with Providence and good success over-wrought these dangers and by the League of Italy he forced him to moderate Conditions at the Treaty of Cambray 1529. He being made Caput foederis against the Emperour I may end your Honours trouble with this one Example and with humble prayers That the Catholique may have so much of Princely sincerity as not to intend the like or my good gracious Master a jealous vigilancy to prevent it if it should c. THAT THE SOVERAIGNS PERSON is Required in the Great COUNCELLS OR ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATE As well at the Consultations as at the Couclusions Written by Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. THAT THE SOVERAIGNS PERSON is Required in the Great COUNSELS OR ASSEMBLIES OF THE STATE c. SInce of these Assemblies few Diaries or exact Journal Books are remaining and those but of late and negligently entred the Acts and Ordinances only reported to Posterity are the Rolls this question though clear in general reason and conveniency must be wrought for the particular out of such incident proofs as the Monument of Story and records by pieces leave us And to deduct it the dearer down some essential circumstances of name time place occasion and persons must be in a general shortly touched before the force of particular proofs be laid down This noble body of the State now called the houses in Parliament is known in several ages by several names Consilia the Counsels in the old times after Magnum Commune and Generale Consilium Curia Magna capitalis and Curia Regis sometimes Generale Placitum and sometimes Synodi and Synodalia decreta although aswell the causes of the Common-wealth as Church were there decided The name of Parliament except in the Abbots Chapters not ever heard of until the raign of King John and then but rarely At the Kings Court were these Conventions usually and the Presence Privy Chamber or other room convenient for the King in former times as now then used for what is the presenst House of Lords but so as at this time and was before the fyring of the Pallace at Westminster about the seventeenth of Henry the eighth who then and there recided Improbable it is to believe the King was excluded his own Privie Chamber and unmannerly for guests to barre him the company who gave to them their entertainment It was at first as now Edicto Principis at the Kings pleasure Towards the end of the Saxons and in the first time of the Norman Kings it stood in Custome-Grace to Easter Whitsontide and Christmas fixed The Bishops Earls and Lords Ex more then Assembled so are the frequent words in all the Annalls the King of course then revested with his imperial Crown by the Bishops and Peers assembling in recognition of their pre-obliged faith and present service until the unsafe time of King John by over-potent and popular Lords gave discontinuance to this constant grace of Kings and then it returned to the uncertain pleasure of the Soveraigns summons The causes then as now of such Assemblies were provisions for the support of the State in Men and Money well ordering of the Church and Common wealth and determining of such causes which ordinary Courts nesciebant judicare as Glanvill the grand judge under Henry the second saith where the presence of the King was still required it being otherwise absurd to make the King assentor to the Judgments of Parliament and afford him no part in the consultation The necessity thereof is well and fully deduced unto us in a reverent monument not far from that grave mans time in these words Rex tenetur omni modo personaliter interesse Parliamento nisi per Corporalem agritudinem detineatur Then to acquaint the Parliament of such occasion of either house Causa est quod solebat Clamor Murmur esse pro absentia Regis quia res damnosa periculosa est toto Communitati Parliamenti Regni cum Rex à Parliamento absens fuerit Nec se absentare debet nec potest nisi duntaxat in Causa supradicta By this appeareth the desire of the State to have the Kings presence in these great Counsels by express necessity I will now endeavour to lead the practise of it from the dark and eldest times to these no less neglected of ours From the year 720. to neer 900. during all the Heptarchy in all the Councels remaining composed Ex Episcopis Abbatibus Ducibus satrapis omni dignitate optimatibus Ecclesiasticis scilicet secularibus personis pro utilitate Ecclesiae stabilitate Regni pertractand Seven of them are Rege praecedente and but one by deputy and incongruous it were and almost non-sence to bar his presence that is president of such an Assembly The Saxon Monarchy under Alfred Ethelred and Edgar in their Synods or Placita generalia went in the same practise and since Thus Ethelwald appealed against Earl Leofrick From the County and generale Placitum before King Ethelred and Edgira the Queen against Earl Goda to Eldred the King at London Congregatis Principibus sapientibus Angliae In the year 1502. under Edward the Confessor Statutum est placitum magnum extra Londinum quod Normanni ex Francorum consuetud Parliamentum appellant where the King and all his Barons appealed Goodwin for his Brother Alureds death the Earl denyed it and the King replyed thus My Lords you that are my liege men Earls and Barons of the Land here Assembled together have heard my Appeal and his Answer unto you be it left to do right betwixt us At the great Councel at Westminster 1072. in Easter week the cause of the two Archbishops Lanfrank and Thomas ventilata fuit in praesentia Regis Willielm And after at Winsor finem accepit in proesentia Regis At the same feast in the year 1081. the usual time of such Assemblies the King the Archbishops Bishops
instant Vortigern a Native of this Isle first established here a free Kingdom four hundred and fifty years after Christ and so left it to the Saxons from whom her Majesty is in discent Lineal and it is plain that as we were later then Spain reduced under the Roman yoak so we were sooner infreed Subsequence of Spain Spain since the dissolution of the Roman Empire entituled no King till of late for Attalaricus from whom they would upon slender warrant ground their dissent was never stiled Rex Hispaniae but Gothorum and the Kingdom of Castile wherein the main and fairest antiquity of Spain rested begun not before the year of Christ 1017. whereas they were but Earls of Castile before so that the Kingdome of the English began which was alwayes as Beda observeth a Monarch in a Heptarchie 460. years at the least before the Kingdom of Castile or Spain Precedency of England in respect of Antiquity of Christian Religion JOSEPH of Aramathea planted Christian Religion immediately after the passion of Christ in this Realm And Aristobulus one of them mentioned by Saint Paul Romans 6. was Episc Brittanorum and likewise Simon Zelotes The first Christian King in Europe was Lucius Surius The first that ever advanced the papacy of Rome was the Emperour Constantinus born at Yorke Of whom in the Roman Laws near his time is written Qui veneranda Christianorum fide Romanum munivit imperium And to him peculiarly more than to other Emperours are these Epithitons attributed Divus Divae memoriae divinae memoriae orbis Liberator quietis fundator Reipublic instaurator publicae libertatis auctor Magnus Maximus Invictus Restitutor urbis Romae atque orbis And there have been more Kings and Princes of the bloud Royall Confessors and Martyrs in England than in any one Province in Europe And from Ethelbert King of Kent Converted Anno 596 untill this day Christianity hath been without interruption continued Subsequence of Spain In the time of Claudius Saint James preached in Spain but gained only nine Souls So did he in Ireland as Vincentius saith and they cannot count Christian religion to be then planted in Spain which shortly after was first tainted with the heresie of Priscilian then with Gothish Arianism and after defaced with Moorish Mahumetism from 707 years after Christ in continuance 770 years untill Ferdinando King of Arragon and Castilia utterly expelled the Moors Precedency of England in respect of the more absolute Authority Politicall THe Queen of Englands power absolute in acknowledging no superior nor in vassallage to Pope or Emperour For that subjection which by King John was made to Innoâ—entius the third after in Parliament Per praeceptum Domini Papae septimo Julii Cum fidelitate homagio relaxatur omnino Sir Thomas Moore in his debellation saith the Church of Rome can shew no such deed of subjection neither that the King could grant it of himself And Engubinus in his defence of Constantines dodation nameth not England where he recited all the foedary Kingdomes of the Papacy the Peter-pence were not duties but Eleemosina Regis neither the Rome-Scot but Regis larga benignitas Parem non habet Rex Angliae in Regno suo multo fortius nec superiorem habere debet saith Bracton Ipse non debet ess e sub homie sed sub Deo habet tantum superiorem Judicem Deum Likewise in appointing Magistrates pardoning Life Appeal granting privileges taking homage and his Jura Majestatis not limited in censu nummorum Bello judicando Pace ineunda Eleutherius the Pope 1400 years ago in his Epistle to Lucius King of Brittain stiled him Vicarius Dei in Regno suo so is the King of England in Edgars Lawes and Baldus the Lawyer saith Rex Angliae est Monarcha in regno suo and Malmesbury Post conversionem ad fidem tot tantas obtinuit Libertates quot imperator imperia Subsequence of Spain The King of Spain hath no Kingdom but is foedory either to France or Castila enthralled by oath of subjection and vassallage from King Henry to Charles the fifth of France 1369. Ex foedere contracto And for the Netherlands there is homage due to the French King or the Papacy as Arragon to Innocentius the third by King Peter 1204. confirmed by Ferdinand and Alphonsus 1445. and from James by the like oath 1453. And to Sardinia and Corsica the King of Arragon from the Bishops of Rome were under oath of subjection invested Ex formula fiduciae The Kingdom of Portugall in vassallage to the Pope under an Annuall Tribute And the Canaries Hesperides and Gorgon Islands subjected to the See of Rome under the chief Rent of four hundred Florins by Lewis King of Spain 1043. Of both the Indies Alexander did reserve the regalities of Sicilia the Church is chief Lord. And Granado and Navarre were made foedary to the Pope under Julius the second Naples at every change sendeth a Palfrey as a Heriot due to the Church of Rome and of the Empire he holdeth the Dukedom of Millaine So that it is questionable among Civilians whether he be Princeps which holdeth in feodo all of others His absolute authority restrained in Arragon by Justitia Arragonica In Biscay and other places by particular reservations And his Jura Majestatis in Censu Nummorum Bello judicando Pace ineunda c. Limited by the priviledges of the State as at Brabant and elsewhere in his Spanish Territories Ex propriis constitutionibus privilegiis Precedency of England in respect of more absolute authority Ecclesiastical HEr Majesties power more absolute in this confirmed by ancient Custome and privilege than any other Christian Prince For no Legat de Latere in England de jure allowed but the Archbishop of Canterbury If any admitted by courtesie he hath no Authority to hold plea in the Realm contrary to the the Laws thereof Placita 2 Hen. 4. and before he was admitted and entered the Realm he was to take oath to do nothing derogatory to the King and his Crown Placita Anno primâ— Henri 7. No man might denounce the Popes excommunication nor obey his authority on pain to forfeit all his goods without assent of the King or his Counsel Placita 23 and 34 Edw. Rot. Dunelm Henry the First called a Provincial Councel so did Canutus and others No appeal to Rome without the Kings licence Anno 32 34 Edw. 1. Inventure of Bishops and Churchmen in the Kings hand Ex Matt. Paris Hen. Huntington De gestis Pontific Donelm Placita 32 Edw. 1. and in the 32 Edw. 3. Where the reason of the Kings Ecclesiastical authority to suspend or bestow Church livings is yielded Quia reges Angliae unguntur in Capite Subsequence of Spain The King of Spain can prescribe no custome to prohibit the Popes Legat nor useth any Authority Penall over the Clergy Spain can
close and foul play entertaineth an overture made by the Duke de Longavil then prisoner in England for a Marriage of Mary his Sister with the French King which effected the two subtile Princes failed of their ends Lewis dead and Francis succeeding he made his first entrance a league with England the recovery of Millane which he did the protection of his neighbours and reduction of the Swisses from the Imperial side for which he imployed to them the bastard of Savoy Maximilian and Ferdinand seeing by this all their new purchases in danger and that they had now no disguised marriage again to entertain the credulity of Henry the eighth they work upon his youth and honour The Emperor will needs to him resign his Emperial Crown as wearied with the weight of Government and distraction of Europe which needed a more active man then his old age to defend the Liberty of Subjects and Majesty of Princes from the Tyranny of France That he had made the way already for him with the Electors that he would send the Cardinall Sedunensis with ample commission into England to conclude the resignation which was done That at Aquisgrave he will meet Henry the eighth and there give up his first Crown from thence accompany him to Rome where he should receive the last right of the Imperiall dignity putting Verona into his protection then assailed by the Venetians and giving him the investiture of Millane in feodo more Imperiali then in possession of the French to tye his aid the faster against these States Hereupon Henry the eighth concluded a defensive league with the Bishop of Mesa and Count Daciana authorised Commissioners from the Emperor Arragon Castile and sendeth his Secretary Master Pace with money for Maximilian had already borrowed and broken to entertain the Swissers into pay and confederacy against France Charles the Grandchild must feign a difficulty to sway his League untill the Emperor at Henry the eighths cost was fetched from Germany to the Netherlands to work his Nephew to it who in the interim had closely contracted a peace by the Grandfathers consent with France No sooner had Maximilian received ten thousand Florins of the English King to bear his charge but the Treaty of Noyon was closely between him Arragon and Castile concluded whereby the ten thousand Crowns for recognition of Naples was passd from France to the Emperor and Charles himself affianced to Loysia the French Kings daughter and also darkly carried that when Master Pace at Agno came down from the Emperor with his Signature of the confederacy the French Kings Ambassador went up the back Stairs with six thousand Florins and the transaction of the Pension of Naples to Maximilian and there received his confirmation of the Treaty at Novon notwithstanding the same day the Emperor looking upon his George and Garter wished to Wingfield Henry the eighths Ambassador that the thoughts of his heart were transparent to his Master So displeasing was this foul play to the Cardinall Sedunensis the Emperors chief Counsellor that he writ contra perfidiam Principum against the falshood of his own Lord a bitter Letter to the English King who finding again how his youth and facility was overwrought by these two old and subtill Princes his vast expences lost his hopes of France lesned and that of the Emperor vanished for Maximilian is now conferring the Title of Rex Romanorum to one of his Nephues concludeth by mediation of the Admiral of France a peace with that King a marriage for the Dolphin Francis with the Lady Mary and the re-delivery of Tournay for a large Summe of Money Not long after Maximilian dieth leaving the Imperial Crown in Competition of France and Castile Charles whose desire was as his Ancestors to weave that vvreath for ever into the Austrian Family began to fear the power of his corrivall vvith vvhom the Pope then sided and the English King stood assured by the late marriage of their two Children To draw off the Pope he knew it vvas impossible he vvas all French To vvork in Henry the eighth he found the inconstancy of his predecessors and the new match to lie in the vvay To clear the one he is fain in his Letters into England to load his two Grandfathers vvith all the former aspertions his years and duty then tying him more to obedience then truth but that he vvas a man and himself now that mutuall danger vvould give assurance vvhere otherwise single faith might be mistrusted France vvas in it self by addition of Britany more potent than ever this man had rejoyned to it some important pieces in Italy and should his greatness grow larger up by accession of the Imperiall Crown how easie vvere it to effect indeed what he had fashioned in Fancy the Monarchy of Europe As for the young Lady who was like to lose her husband if Henry the eighth incline to this Counsell and assist Castile in pursute of the Emperor he was contented for Loisia of France espoused to him by the Treaty at Noyon was now dead to make up the loss of the Lady Mary by his own Marriage with her a match fitter in years for the Dolphin was an infant as great in dignity for he was a King and might by the assistance of her father be greater in being Emperor Thus was Henry the eighth by fears and hopes turned about again and Pacy forthwith sent to the Electors with instructions money who so wrought that Charles was in July chosen Emperor and that it was by the sole work of Henry the eighth himself by Letters under his hand acknowledged From Aquisgrave he commeth Crowned the next year for England weddeth at Winsor the Lady Mary concludeth by league the invasion of France and to divide it with Henry the eighth by the River of Rodon making oath at the high Altar at Pauls for performance of both those Treaties Hereupon France is entred by the Engâ—ish army and Burbon wrought from his Allegiance by a disguised promise of this Emperor of Elianor his Sister for wife to raise forces against his Master which he did but was paid by the English King The French King to carry the wars from his own doors maketh towards Milan whereby Burbon and his forces were drawn out of Province to guard the Imperialls in Italy At Pavie they met and the French King was taken prisoner and forthwith transported into Spain where at Madrid the Emperor forced his consent to that Treaty whereby he gained Burgundy and many portions in the Netherlands leaving Henry the eighth who had born the greatest charge of all that Warre not only there unsaved but calling a Parliament at Toledo taketh by assignment of his States Isabella of Portugall to wife procuring from Pope Clement a Bull to absolve him of his former oaths and Marriage working not long after by Ferdinandus his Chaplain the Earl of Desmond to Rebell in Ireland and James the fifth of
to condemn good Counsels if the event prove not Fortunate lest many be animated to advise rashly and others disheartned to Counsell gravely Illi mors gravis incubat qui notus nimis omnibus ignotus moritur sibi August 11. Anno Domini 1613. THE MANNER AND MEANES HOW THE KINGS ENGLAND Have from time to time SUPPORTED And repaired their ESTATES Written by Sir ROB. COTTON Knight and Barronet Anno nono Jacobi Regis Annoque Domini 1609. LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. The Manner and Means how the KINGS OF ENGLAND Have from time to time SVPPORTED AND REPAIRED THEIR ESTATES THe Kings of England have supported and repaired their Estates First by an Annual proportioning their Issues and Expences with their certain and Casual Revenues And that either by Advice of their PRIVIE COVNCEL or by PARLIAMENT Secondly by abating and reforming the Excess of houshold c. Thirdly by raising of Money and improving the Revenues of the Crown First for proportioning of the Issues c. Henry 4. Anno 12. When the Revenue and profits of the Kingdome together with the Subsidy of Wool and Tenth of the C lLergie amounted to no more then 48000l of which 24000 marks were alotted for expence of House most of the rest to the Guard of the Sea and defence of this Kingdome the Realme of Ireland and Dominions in France In this estimate the profits by Wards and Marriage was but 1000 l. And then an Ordinance was made by the King Prince and all His Counsel there named in the Roll. The like was Anno 11. when for the charge of house was appointed 16000 l. and 7000l to the City of London in discharge of the Kings debt to them Henry 5 Anno 2. did the like as his Father entring upon the Roll as an Ordinance in future that the Treasurer of England or the Exchequer shall Annually make declaration of the state of their Office and the Revenue of the Realme together with the charge of the Kings House Chamber Wardrobe Garrisons Navy and Debts Anno 3. Henry 5. the like Assignments were made proportionable to the Revenue which in the great Custome of Woolls the petty Custome Tunnage and Poundage revenue of Wales and the Dutchie of Cornwall the Hamper the accounts of Sheriffs Escheators the Exchange of Bullion and the benefit of Wards and Marriage then rated at but one thousand marks apiece rose not to above 56966. l. And being at such time as he undertook the Conquest of France Anno 9. Henry 5. the revenue of the Kingdome amounting to 55743. l. 10. s. 10. d. was so by the King with advise of his Counsel ordered as before And by this Record it appeareth that that Clerks of the Navy and not the Treasurer was the Officer only for that place Henry 6. anno 12. in Parliament Cromwell then Treasurer delivering up an Account of the Exitus and introitus of the Exchequer setled the Estate of his expence of which there was allowed for his house 16978. l. and to his Chamber and Wardrobe 2000 l. The rest to defray the debts and necessary occasions of the State Queen Elizabeth anno 12. At which time besides the Wards and Dutchy of Lancaster the profit of the Kingdome was 188197. l. 4. s. the payments and assignments 110612. l. 13. s. of which the Houshold was 40000. l. privy Purse 2000.l Admiralty 30000. l. which by an estimate 1. May anno 1604. was 40000. l. And is now swolne to near 50000l yearly by the errour and abuse of Officers SEcondly by abating and reforming the Excess 1. Of Houshold 2. Of Retinue and Favorites 3. Of Gifts and Rewards First for abating and reforming the Excess of Houshold either by Parliament or Councel Table 1. By Parliament Anno 3. Edward 2. An Ordinance was made prohospitio Regis in ease of the people oppressed with Purveyance by reason of the greatness thereof and the motive of that ordination was A l'honneur de Dieu et a honneur et profit de sainct Eglise et a l'honnâ—ur de Roy et a son profit et au profit de son peuple selon droit et resonel serment que le dist nostre Signeur le Roy fist a son Coronement And about this time was the King's house new formed and every Officer limited his charge and salary Anno 36. Edward 3. the houshold was reformed at the petition of the People Anno primo Richard 2. the houshold was brought to such moderation of expence as may be answerable to the revenues of the Crown And a Commission granted at the Petition of the Commons to survey and abate the houshold which not taking desired effect Anno 5. the Commons petition that the excessive number of menial servants may be remedied or otherwise the Realm will be utterly undone and that his houshold might not exceed the ordinary revenues of the Realm Anno 4. Henry 4. The People crave a reformation of the Kings house And Anno 7. that he would dismiss some number of the retinue since it was now more chargeable but less honourable then his progenitors and that the Antient Ordinances of the houshold in ease of the people might be kept and the Officers of the houshold sworn to put the ordinances and statutes in due execution and so consider the just greifs of his subjects by unjust Purveyance contrary to the statute That hereafter vous poiez vivre le voz biens propres en ease de vostre peuple which the King willingly doth as appeareth by an ordination in Councel whereby the charge of the houshold is limited to 16000 Markes Annis 12. 18. Henry 6. The charge of the Kings house is reduced to a certainty and lessened by petition and order in Parliament Anno 12. Edward 4. The King promiseth to abate his houshold and hereafter to live upon his own So setling a new forms his Court which is extant in many hands intuled Ordinations for the Kings house And to ease the charge of the Kings house the Queens have allowed a portion of their joynture suting to their own expence to the Treasurer of the houshold Thus did Philip the wife of Edward 3. and likewise Henry 4. wife anno 7. And Henry 6. wife allowed 2000. l. a year out of her Estate 2. Excess of the houshold abated and reformed by the Councel-Table Edward 2. caused his houshold to be certain in allowances making thereof a book by way of ordinance which is called Aul. Regis Henry 4. causeth his Son the Prince and the rest of his Councel to ordain such moderate governance of his house that may continue au plaisir de Dieu et du peuple Henry 6. anno 27. reduced his charge of house to 12000. l. whereof 2000. l. was out of the Queens joynture Edw. 4. anno duodecimo reformeth it again and publisheth a book of orders for their better direction
Which after Cardinal Woolsey for the more honour and profit of the King amendeth and that still remaineth the ground-work of the present government Which being now so much corrupted it may seem fit either to put down the Tables and leave all attendants to allowance of money as France and Spain doth or else â—y setting up the Hall again reduce the houshold to the best first and most magnificent order So all things being spent in publique will be to the Kings honour and the secret waste by Chamber diet and purloining prevented to the Kings benefit For there is never a back-door in Court that costs not the King 2000. l. yearly and few mean houses in Westminster that are not maintained with food and firing by the stealth of their Court-Instruments By abating and reforming the excess of Retinue and favorites Thus did Henry 2. with William de Ipre Earl of Kent a Netherlander and all his Countreymen and followers when they grew heavy and a burthen to this State unable to foster more then her own natural children Thus Richard 1. did with Otho Earl of York and all the Bavarians although he was the sonne of his Sister taking from him that Earldome for that the People opposed it and giving him in exchange the title of Poictife Thus Henry 3. did with his half-brethren the Earl of Pembroke and the Bishop of Winchester and all the Poictons theit followers Thus did Edward 2. by this Ordinance Que tout le lignage Sire Pieres de Gaveston soit entirement ouste de estre entoines le Roy et de son service Item Burgois de Til soit ouste et son fias que est mereschal del ' Eschequer Item que Bertram Assabi et son Frere et ceux de Gascoigne et Aimyrick de Friscomband soint oustre et ses terres prises en le main le Roy. Thus Richard 2. did with the Bohemians anno 10. by an Act of Parliament at the petition of the people surcharged Thus Henry 4. did likewise with the Gascoignes and Welch overburthening and impoverishing the King and Realm with perpetual suits so that in Courts as the Record saith there were ne ad mill substance des personnes vaylantes et suffesants Si Besoigne seroit mes de Rascaile pur la grendre part By abating and reforming the excess of Gifts and Rewards Hence was it that the wisdome of former time foreseeing the mischief that the open hand of the Soveraign may bring the State made a Law 21. Richard 2. that whatsoever cometh to the King by Judgement Escheate Forfeiture Wardship or any other wayes shall not be given away and that the procurer of any gift shall be punished This the Parliament continued 7. Henry 4 until the King were out of debt making frustrate the grant and ordaining a penalty of double value to every mover or procurer of any such The like anno 11. Henry 4. And that no petition for any thing should be delivered the King but in the presence of the Councel who might examine it least the King's wants should light upon the Commons And to keep the hand of Henry 6. from wasteful giving the Councel induced him to convey to the Arch Bishop of Canterbury and others all profits by Wards marriages reliefs escheats and forfeitures to defray the charge of his house It is one of the greatest accusations against the Duke of Somerset for suffering the King to give away the possessions and profits of the Crown in manner of a spoil for so are the words of the Record And it was made the first and cheifest Article to depose Richard 2. for wasting and bestowing the lands and revenues of the Crown upon unworthy persons and thereby over-charging the Commons by exaction THirdly Raising of money and improving the Revenues of the Crown Either by the Grant of the Subject Or Power absolute in the Soveraign 1. Grant of the Subject which is General as in Parliaments Or Particular by Lones Compulsive Or Benevolent General as in Parliaments wherein they give the King part of their own by way of Retribution only as For Defence of the State Hence grew the Scutage granted to Hen. 2. Richard 1. John and Henry 3. to Edward 1. divers Fifteens and Tenths for his wars against the Scots and Welshmen The Subsidie of Woolls and other Contributions to Edward 3. for his Wars And the like granted to Richard 2. annis 2. 3. 7. so they may be imployed in the Wars and particular Treasurers to accompt in Parliament So in the 8. and 9. of Henry 4. on the like condition Tunnage and Poundage begun the 45. Edward 3. had hence its original and therefore 13. Henry 4. and 1. Henry 5. they are granted so in express words and that they proceed of good-will and not of duty Presidents of this nature are plentifull in all the Rolls For maintenance of Religion and the Church As in the Year 1166. to Henry 2. was given twelve pence in the pound and in the 18. Edward 1. a fifteenth was granted to expel the Jews And Anno 4. Richard 2. a tenth of the Clergie and a fifteenth of the Commons for his help to suppress the Wicklivian heresie For support of the Laws and liberty of the Common-Wealth So did the State to Henry 3. anno 27. for confirmation of the great Charter for the like anno 15. was granted 29. Edward 1. and 13. Edward 3. and 7. Henry 4. That the Laws may be executed against Purveiors For redress of the Agrievances As in the 15. Edward 3. so that the King would perform their petitions or else they held themselves not bound to pay the ninth they had given The like was the 7 8 9 10. and 11. Richard 2. The 10. and 15. granted the 4. and 7. of Henry 5. is upon condition that the King laid no impositions upon the State And 7. Edward 4. the State releiveth the King so he will promise to live hereafter upon his own and not burthen the State the which he there protesteth to perform And it is to be observed that to improve the grants of Subsidies to the extreamest value there were new Commissioners appointed to survey and advance mens fortunes above the estimate of the former taxes and Commissions have been granted out as 3. Richard 2. Or to enable him out of his own by an Act of Resumption of Lands offices annuities Thus did Henry 3. anno 6. and Edward 2. anno 5. to 9. 10. by an ordination of the Prelates Earles and Barons All grants made by Edward 3. to unwornthy persons Richard 2. resumed anno primo and by Henry 4. anno 6. All Pattents for life or years since 4. Edward 3. were resumed At the petition of the people Hen. revokes all grants out of the principality made to unworthy persons and all annuities out of the customes of wools deducting out 10000.
second if looking upon the several rates of the Kings Lands exposed to Fee-farm sales we find some at 50. other at 21. years as to the late contracters and make out of these extreams a medium of the largest 40. years and set on the other side the Common and current estimate for dead Rents 15. years purchase We must find that 50 l. Land sold un-improved respectively to the like trebled by a Fee-farm will be 250. l. loss to his Majesty in the sale As for Regalities though it may adde somewhat to a Subject in increasing such his petty command it can nothing to a Sovereign whose transcendent power drown'd in it all such subordinate dependances regards But if we consider besides the former improvement the increase of casual advantage and diminution of certain charge we shall have just cause not to continue this course for if the Commissioners in this business may be ordered by instruction to reserve upon every Mannor of above 30. per Annum a tenure in Knight-service by half a Fee and of above 50. l. in Capite by an intire Fee and of the purchase to pay his Rent into the receipt himself half yearly and strike there his Tally the former will advance the revenue accidental of the Crown in Wardships primier seisin alienation and aides and the latter cut off at once so many their unnecessary Receivers Auditors Stewards Bayliffs and Clerks as stand the King in yearly above 12000. l. As for other dues or casual Revenues which now fall under the charge of these Officers the Collection and payment may be as it hath been with the rest from the time of Henry 2. until of late dayes laid on the Sheriffs of the Shire and all the accounts left to the 2. Auditors of the press to draw up and Clerk of the Pipe to enter in Magno rotulo as in former time for it must seem strange to all men of judgement that it should be with those Officers who had their beginning but since the 25 year of Henry 8. by addition of his new revenue of 150000. l. from the suppressed Monasteries otherwise then with all things in nature and reason Cessante Causa cessat effectus not to be discontinued when as all Crown-annexed lands that gave them their just imployment are for the most part passed from the Soveraign into the subjects possession Besides this of the general disposing in Fee-farm there hath been a project in particular to infranchise the Copy-holders in the several Mannors which I should hold to be of more prejudice to his Majesty then the others bringing with it all the former inconveniences loss of Fines Regalities and advantages of sale and being without many of the advantages as Wardships Primiers Seisein alienation and aids for no man will buy quillets but in soccage and discontinuance or Officers who must still remain though they can bring the King but little benefit Kings raise money and improve their Revenues by Farming out for years Lands casualties or wastes As in the 7. Henry 4. the State held it more just to help the King out of his own then to burthen the Common-Wealth and therefore gave way by Parliament to the King to improve up his Lands though in Lease provided that the Leassee should have refusal of the bargain if he would Edward 1. anno 2. granted a commission to farm out all such wastes Quod absque iniuria alterius fieri potest And in anno 15. asserted a great part of his Woods for rent and disforrested in most Counties of England for a summe of money they gave him And it was not the least of charitable thrift in the King to reduce much of his waste to habitation of Christians especially the remote Forrests which would increase many thousand Families for his service and bring many thousand pounds to his Coffers But in the carriage of this business there must be much caution to prevent commotion for in them there are many that have right of common sans nombre And the resolution in agreement with them must be suddain and confident for multitudes are jealous and inconstant And the instruments to effect this must be such as are neighbours interessed and popular not strangers And the first demise to the inhabitants and at under and easie values Kings raise money and improve the Revenues of their Crown by manuring of Lands Thus did Henry 3. anno 13. in removing out of most of his Parks as Gillingham Brigstock Cliff Woodstock Haverel c. all mens Cattle pro bobus pro Lardaria Regis in Parcis praedictis impinguendis And Edward 1. commanded all the Escheators in England Excolere seminare appropriare ad maximum Regis proficuum ownes terras quae regi coronae suae devenerint per mortem aliquorum vocationem Episcopatium c. KIngs raise money and improve the Revenues of their Crown By Merchandise 1. Trading themselves 2. Licencing others to trade in Commodities 3. Improving Customes Lawful or unlawful 1. Trading themselves Thus did Edward 1. anno 22. seise into his hands all the Wools in the Kingdome as the Merchants were lading them in the Ports giving them security of payment at a long day and a short price and then transporting them to his own best and readiest sale Thus did Edward 3. anno 12. with all the Tin And Henry 6. anno 20. by advice of his Councel took up by way of purveyance great store of Grain and transported it into Gascoigne where by reason of a dearth the price was extream In anno 31. he arrested all the Tin in Southampton and sold it to his own present use and in the year following using the advantage of the Statute which bound all men to trade the staple Commodities to no other place but Callâ—ce vented himself many Sacks of Wool to other Ports of better advantage And the late Queen anno 1567. causeth by warrant of Privy Seal a great proportion of Beer to be purveyed transported and sold to her use beyond the Seas KIngs raise money and improve the Revenue of their Crown By licencing others to trade Commodities Lawful Or Vnlawful 1. Lawfully but solely Thus did Henry 6. by approbation of Parliament with all the trade of Allome for two years granted to the Merchants of Southampton for 8000. 1. And again for the like sum to those of Genoway 2. Unlawful or Prohibited Thus did many of the Kings after such time as the heavy burthen of imposition began in the miserable necessity of Henry 3. called then by no better name then Maltolt and continued until the 15. year of Richard 2. by divers intermissions for then I find the last petition of many in Parliament against it was altogether taken away For when Richard 2. and his Successors found the Revenue lessened by the importunate cry of their People whereby impositions were laid aside they began to advise another supply out of the unbounded power
but it must value in pecunia quantum in massa And Silver is a Commodity as other Wares and therefore holdeth his estimation as they do according to the goodness And the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in Anno 1561. when the currant of State-Councel affected an abasement of Coine after a grave deliberation advised the Queen from it and never would give way to any such resolution in his time But that benefit which truly the King might more make of Bullion then now he doth is to erect again Cambium Regis his own exchange An office as antient as before Henry 3. and so continued unto the middle of Henry 8. the profit of it being now ingrossed among a few Gold-Smiths and would yield above 10000. l. a year if it were heedfully regarded and then should the King himself keep his Mint in continual work and not stand at the devotion of others to supply Bullion and should never want the materials if two things were observed The one to permit all men bringing in Bullion to trade outward the value thereof in domestick Commodities at an abated Custome The other to abate the mighty indraught of forreign manufactures and unnecessary Wares that the outward trade might over-balance the inward which otherwise will as it hath done draw on this desperate consumption of the Common-Wealth Which anno 27. Edward 3. was otherwise for then the Exitus exceeded the Introitus by far and in the last times of the late Queen as in anno 1573. For at this time the unmeasurable use of luxurious Commodities was brought in as Wines Spices Silk and fine Linnens c. for of the latter sort of above ten groats the Ell there is above 360000. l. yearly spent which is half the value of our cloths transported maketh the State to buy more then they do sell whereas a good Father of a family ought to be vendacem and not emacem Besides the condition of our People is now such that the greater part neither get nor save which in a private house is an apparent argument of ruining and must be no less in a Common-Wealth And it is observed generally that hence the want of Bullioin now is such that there is not money in Specie sufficient to pay the lenders their principal so that usury is paid for money upon supposition and not really If then his Majesty shall be pleased by advise of his Councel to advantage himself any otherwise by coinage it will be safer to do it upon a simple mettal then by any implyant or beater suite which well governed States both modern and antient used For Rome in her increase and greatest pitch of glory had their money aere argento auro puto puro and so have all the Monarchies absolute at this day in Christendome And I believe it may be wrought to his Majesty of good value and to the State of much ease if it may be put in practise with discreet caution and constant resolution for the danger onely may be in the venting of the quantity which may clogge the State with useless money or extension of the example which may work in by degrees an embasement of Bullion The proportion that I would hold beneficial and safe should be in the Mass at first 120000. l. by which his Majesty should gain 10000. clearly the increase annual 12000. l. in which his Majesty should gain 1000. And the limitation that none be enforced to take any but in summes under 20 s. and then but the twentieth part proportionably Against this some may object that it will either not advantage the King so much as it projected either from the difficulty in venting or facility in Counterfeiting or else prejudice the estate with a worthless money The benefit to the King will easily fall out if he restrain Retailers of victual and small Wares from using their own tokens for in and about London there are above 3000. that one with another cost yearly 5. l. apiece of leaden Tokens whereof the tenth remaineth not to them at the years end and when they renew their store which amounteth to above 15000. l. And all the rest of this Realm cannot be inferiour to the City in proportion And the form and figure may with an Engine so subtilly be milled that the charge will prevent all practise of false play For the prejudice since London which is not the 24. part of the People of the Kingdome had in it found above 800000. by a late inquiry by order of the late Queen and so falleth out to be 2 d. a person in the intire state it may nothing either of loss by the first uttering being so easie nor burthen any with too great a Mass at a time since continual use will disperse so small a quantity into so many hands But on the other side will be to the meaner sort except the Retailers that made as much advantage formerly of their own Tokens as the King shall now of necessary use and benefit For the buyers hereafter shall not by tyed to one Seller and his bad Commodities as they are still when his tokens hereafter made currant by authority shall leave him the choise of any other Chapman and to the Poor in this time of small charity it will be of uch relief since men are like to give a farthing Almes that will not part with a greater sum Besides it cannot but prevent much waste of Silver that is by the minting pence and half pence occasioned there will be no cause hereafter to cut any Bullion into proportion so apt for losse what that hath been may be conjectured if we mark but of the great quantities from the peny downward since Henry 8. time stamped how few remain whereas of all the Coines from three pence upward which are manual plenty pass still in dayly payment Regalities mixt As for restitution of the temporalities of Abbots and Bishops For which Henry 7. received great sums Corrodies in Cathedral Churches And having in every Cathedral and Collegiate Church as incident to his Crown a Corradary made money of it at the highest rate he could Vacancy of Bishopricks The benefit at the vacancy of any Bishop some Kings have used to their best advantage making a circular remove of as many as in reputation and profit was inferiour to the place void Concurrent Jurisdiction as the Pope had in former times Besides there are two of no mean commodity The one is grounded upon a concurrent Jurisdiction with every Ordinary in the Diocess which the King by having the power Papall in that point invested in him by Act of Parliament may exercise by his Commission or otherwise remit to the Ordinary for some valuable respect Thus did Cardinal Woolsey with Warham the Arch-bishop and all other the Bishops of the Kingdome after he had got his Legative power And this if it were put in practise would draw to the King 20000. l. in his Coffers Tenths of the Church-Lands now in the Laity The other is
Parliament a solemne protestation for himself and the whole Clergie of his Province entered by word the effect whereof was That albeit they might lawfully be present in all Parliaments yet for that in those Parliament matters of treason were to be intreated of whereas by the Canon law they ought not to be present they therefore absented themselves saving their liberties therein otherwise And in the 21. of Richard the 2. for that divers judgements were heretofore undon for that the Clergie were not present the commons prayed the King that the Clergie would appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient authority thereunto The Bishops and Clergie therefore being severally examined appointed Sir Thomas Piercy their Proctor to assent as by their Instruments appeareth And the same year upon the devise of Sir Thomas Bussey most of the Bishops and Lords were sworne before the King again upon the Cross of Canterbury to repeal nothing in this year enacted So did sundry the Proctors of the Clergy and most of the Commons by holding up one of their hands affirmed that they the same would do In the judgement of the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Warwick the same year the name and assent of the Procurator of the Clergy alleadged And in the first of Henry 4. the Bishop of Assaph for Arch-bishop and Bishops the Abbot of Glassenbury for all Religious Persons the Earl of Gloucester for Dukes and Earls the Lord of Barkley for Barons and Barronets Sir Thomas Irpingham Chamberlain for Batchelors and Commons of the South Sir Thomas Gray for Batchelors and Commons of the North Sir William Thirming and John Mekham Justices for the whole Estates came to the Tower to King Richard to whom Sir William Thirming for and in the name of them all pronounced the sentence of deposition and the words or resignation of homage and loyalty And when it was enacted anno 6. Henry 6. by the King Lords Temporal and Commons that no man should contract or marry himself to any Queen of England without the special licence and assent of the King on pain to lose all his Goods and Lands The Bishops and all the Clergie to this Bill assented so far as it was not against the Law of God And thus far for answer to the second part The third Reason Ecclesiastical Lawes enacted in Parliament The last which they granted from Presidents Parliaments since the Conquest they infer out of the Phrase and out of the practise The first by these words Rex Wintoniae celebravit magnum Concilium coram Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus mistaking the word as intending a Provincial Synod whereas it was in those dayes equal and usual for their Parliament that French Phrase never having admission in that sence here untill the time of Henry 2. and then but rarely That great assembly being formerly instiled Magnum Consilium and until of late often enjoyed the same name And this is evident out of the words of Benedictus Abbas in the life he wrote of the 2. 2. Henry Circa festum sancti Pauli venit Dominus Rex usque Northampton magnum ibi celebravit Consilium de Statutis Regni sui coram Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus terrae suae per Consilium Militum hominum suorum Here the intent manifesteth the nature of that assembly and the fuller in that the same Author in the same year saith that Richardus Cantuar. Archiepiscopus and Rogerus Eboracensis cum Sufraganeis suis congregatis apud Westmonasterium in Capella Monachorum infirmiorum tenuerunt Consilium or their convocation which had been needless if in their first they might have done their Church-affaires Here might I enter into a large and just discourse as well of the authority as antiquity of their Convocation or Synod Provincial no less antient as Beda mentioneth then in the year 686. when Austin adjutorio Regis c. assembled in Councel the Brittain Bishops from which unto this day there is successive Record of Councels or Convocations less interrupted then of Parliament Practice Now touching our practise to ordain in Parliaments Lawes Ecclesiastical either meer or mixt although it be by Record evident yet must it admit this difference First that it sprung not from our dispute or desire but solely from the Petitions of the Church as usual is in all the Rolls of Parliament receiving their distinct Title from those of the Commons And this they did to adde Seculare Brachium to their former Cannons too weak to reach to corporal punishments as in the fifth of Richard 2. when to suppress the Schismes the Clergy became in Parliament the Petitioners to the Kings Laity where these words of their assistance are excluding the Commons from any Power of advice Habita prius bona matura deliberatione de communi Consilio ipsius Archiepiscopi Suffraganeorum suorum aliorumque Clericorum super quo idem Archiepiscopus supplicavit ut pro debita castigatione illorum qui conclusiones Schismaticas praedicare voluerint animo obstinato dignaremur apponere brachium Regiae potestatis â—idem And this aide was in order in the Conquerors time who by edict commanded that every Marshal Episcope Deo faceret rectum secundum Canones Episcopales leges Which if he doth not after excommunication Fortitudo et Justitia Regis adhibeatur And this even in the Primitive Church was thought convenient because as Saint Ambrose saith for the like intent to the Emperor Valentinian Non tantas vires sermo mecus habiturus est pro Trinitate bellum gerens quantum edictum tuum Hence it is that at this day the King's authority is annexed ever to the Convocation as in the antient Church were the like decrees of Kings as those of Eruigius ratifying the twelfth Councel of Toledo Nemo illiciator vel contemptor vigorem his Institutionibus subtrahat sed generaliter per cunctas Regni nostri provincias hoec Canonum instituta nostrae gloriae temporibus acta et autoritatis debitae fastigia praepollebunt irrevocabili judiciorum exercitie prout constituta sunt in omnibus Regni nostri Provinciis celebres habebuntur Si quis autem haec instituta contemnat contemptor se noverit damnari sententia Id est ut juxta voluntatem nostrae gloriae et excommunicatas à nostro caetâ—resiliat in super decimam partem facultatis suaefisci partibus sociandam amittat But that the Church-laws ever moved from the Lay-members I take it as far from President as it is besides nhe nature of their Commission The Bishops and Clergy being onely called in the Writ to that service the word being to come in fide delectione ad declarandum Consilium avisamentum ad consentiendum iis quae tunc de avisamento assensu Cleri nostri and not the Commons cotigerit affirmari But if any shall object unto me that many Laws as that of the Supremacy
them aswel of things done out of the Forrest of the King as for other things That it would please our said Lord to command those to be delievered that are so taken by special command against the form of the Charters and Statutes aforesaid The Answer is The King is pleased that if any man find himself greived that he come and make his complaint and right shall be done unto him 37. Edward 3. cap. 18. agreeth in substance when it saith Though that it be contained in the great Charter that no man be taken nor imprisoned nor put out of his Freehold without process of the Law Nevertheless divers People make false Suggestions to the King himself as well for malice or otherwise whereof the King is often grieved and divers of the Realm put in damage against the form of the the said Charter wherefore it is ordained that all they which make suggestions shall be sent with the same suggestions before the Chancellour Treasurer and his grand Council and that they there find Surety to pursue their suggestions and incur the same pain that the other should have had if he were attainted in case that his suggestion be found evil and that then process of the Law be made against them without being taken and imprisoned against the form of the Charter and other Statutes Here the Law of the Land in the grand Charter is explained to be without process of the Law 42. Edward 3. at the request of the Commons by their Petitions put forth in this Parliament to eschew mischief and damage done to divers of his Commons by false Accusers which oftentimes have made their accusation more for revenge and singular benefit than for the profit of the King or of his People which accused persons some have been taken and sometime caused to come before the Kings Council by Writ or otherwise upon grievous pains against the Law It is assented and accorded for the good governance of the Commons that no man be put to answer without presentment before Justices or matter of Record or by due process and Writ original according to the old Law of the Land and if any thing from henceforth be done to the contrary it shall be void in the Law and holden for Error But this is better in the Parliament-Roll where the Petition and Answer which make the Act are set down at large 42. Edward 3. Rot. Parl. n. 12. The Petition Item because that many of the Commons are hurt and destroyed by false Accusers who make their Accusations more for their revenge and particular gaine than for the profit of the King or his People And those that are accused by them some have been taken and others are made to come before the King's Councel by Writ or other Command of the King upon grievous pains contrary to the Law That it would please our Lord the King and his good Council for the just Government of his People to ordain that if hereafter any Accuser purpose any matter for the profit of the King that the matter be sent to the Justices of the one Bench or the other or the Assizes to be enquired and determined according to the Law and if it concern the Accuser or Party that he take his Suit at the Common Law and that no man be put to answer without presentment before Justices or matter of Record or by due process and Original Writ according to the antient Law of the Land and if any thing henceforward be done to the contrary that it be void in Law and held for error Here by due process and Original Writ according to the antient Law of the Land is meant the same thing as per legem terrae in Magna Charta And the abuse was that they were put to answer by the Commandment of the King The King's answer is thus Because that this Article is an Article of the Grand Charter The King will that this be done as the Petition doth demand By this appeareth that per legem terrae in Magna Charta is meant by due process of the Law Thus your Lordships have heard Acts of Parliament in the point But the Statute of Westminster the first cap. 15. is urged to disprove this opinion where it is expresly said that a man is not replevisable who is committed by command of the King Therefore the command of the King without any cause shewed is sufficient to commit a man to Prison And because the strength of the Argument may appear and the answer be better understood I shall read the words of that Statute which are thus And forasmuch as Sheriffs and others which have taken and kept in Prison persons detected of Felony and oftentimes have let out by Replevin such as were not replevisable because they would gaine of the one party and grieve the other And forasmuch as before this time it was not certainly determined what persons were replevisable and what not but onely those that were taken for the death of a man or by commandment of the King or of his Justices or for the Forrest it is provided and by the King commanded that such Prisoners as before were outlawed and they which have abjured the Realm Provers and such as be taken with the manner and those which have broke the Kings Prison Theives openly defamed and known and such as be appealed by Provers so long as the Provers be living if they be not of good name and such as be taken for burning of Houses feloniously done or for false money or for counterfeiting the Kings Seal or Persons excommunicate taken at the request of the Bishop or for manifest offences or for treason touching the King himself shall be in no wise replevisable by the common VVrit or without VVrit But such as be Indicted by Larceny by Inquests taken before Sheriffs or Bayliffs by their Office or of light suspition or for petty Larceny that amonnteth not above the value of 12 d. if they were not guilty of some other Larceny aforetime or guilty of receipt of Felons or of commandment or force or of aid in Felony done or guilty of some other Trespass for which one ought not to lose Life or Member and a man appealed by a Prover after the death of the Prover if he be no common Thief nor defamed shall from henceforth be let out by sufficient Surety whereof the Sheriff will be answerable and that without giving ought of their Goods And if the Sheriff or any other let any go at large by Surety that is not replevisable if he be the Sheriff Constable or any other Bayliff of Fee which hath keeping of Prisons and thereof be attained he shall lose his Fee and Office for ever And if the Under-Sheriff Constable or Bayliff of such as hath Fee for keeping of Prisons do it contrary to the will of his Lord or any other Bayliff being not of Fee they shall have 3. years imprisonment and make a fine at the King's pleasure And if any
auctoritate Parliamenti A SPEECH Delivered in the Lower House of PARLIAMENT Assembled at OXFORD In the first year of the Reign of KING CHARLES I. By Sir ROBERT COTTON Knight and Barronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. A SPEECH Delivered in the Lower House of PARLIAMENT Assembled at OXFORD In the first year of the Reign of King CHARLES Mr. SPEAKER ALthough the constant VVisdome of this House of Commons did well and worthily appear in censuring that ill advised Member the last day for trenching so far into their antient Liberties and might encourage each worthy Servant of the publique here to offer freely up his Council and opinion Yet since these VValls cannot conceal from the Ears of captious guilty and revengful men withouâ— the Councel and debates within I will endeavour as my clear mind is free from any personal distaste of any one so to express the honest thoughts of my Heart and discharge the best care of my trust as no person shall justly taxe my innocent and publick mind except his Conscience shall make him guilty of such Crimes as worthily have in Parliament impeached others in elder times I will therefore with asmuch brevity as I can set down how these disorders have by degrees sprung up in our own memories how the Wisdom of the best and wisest Ager did of old redress the like And lastly what modest and dutiful course I would wish to be followed by our selves in this so happy Spring of our hopeful Master For Mr. Speaker we are not to judge but to present The redress is above ad Querimoniam Vulgi Now Mr. Speaker so long as those attended about our late Soveraign Master now with God as had served the late Queen of happy memory debts of the Crown were not so great Commissions and Gâ—ants not so often complained of in Parliaments Trade flourished Pensions not so many though more then in the late Queens time for they exceeded not 18000. l. now near 120000. l. All things of moment were carryed by publick debate at the Council-Table No honour set to sale nor places of Judicature Lawes against Priests and Recusants were executed Resort of Papists to Ambassadors houses barred and punished His Majesty by daily direction to all his Ministers and by his own Pen declaring his dislike of that Profession No wastful expences in fruitless Ambassages nor any transcendent power in any one Minister For matters of State the Council-Table held up the fit and antient dignity So long as my Lord of Somerset stood in state of grace and had by his Majesty's favour the trust of the Signet Seale he oft would glory justly there passed neither to himself or his Friends any long Grants of his Highness Lands or Pensions For that which himself had he paid 20000. l. towards the Marriage-Portion of the King's Daughter His care was to pass no Monopoly or illegal Grant and that some Members of this House can witness by his charge unto them No giving way to the sale of Honours as a breach upon the Nobility for such were his own words refusing Sir John Roper's Office then tendred to procure him to be made a Baron The match with Spain then offered and with condition to require no further toleration in Religion then Ambassadours here are allowed discovering the double dealing and the dangers he disswaded his Majesty from and left him so far in distrust of the Faith of that King and his great Instrument Gondomar then here residing that his Majesty did term him long time after a Jugling Jack Thus stood th' effect of his power with his Majesty when the Clouds of his misfortune fell upon him VVhat the future advices led in we may well remember The marriage with Spain was again renewed Gondomar declared an honest man Poperie heartened by admission of those unsure before conditions of Conveniencie The forces of his Majestie in the Palatinate withdrawn upon Spanish faith improved here and beleived by which his Highness Children have lost their Patrimony and more money been spent in fruitless Ambassages then would have maintained an Army fit to have recovered that Countrey Our old and fast Allies disheartened by that tedious and dangerous Treaty And the King our now Master exposed to so great a peril as no wise and faithful Councel would ever have advised Errors in Government more in misfortune by weak Councels then in Princes The loss of the County of Poyntiffe in France was laid to Bishop Wickham's charge in the first of Richard the 2. for perswading the King to forbear sending aid when it was required a Capital crime in Parliament The loss of the Dutchie of Maine was laid to Dela Poole Duke of Suffolk 28. Henry 6. in single and unwisely treating of a Marriage in France A Spanish Treaty lost the Palatinate VVhose Councel hath pronounced so great power to the Spanish Agent as never before to effect freedome to so many Priests as have been of late and to become a Sollicitor almost in every Tribunal or the ill-affected Subjects of the State is worth the enquiry VVhat Grants of Impositions before crossed have lately been complained of in Parliaments As that of Ale-houses Gold-Thred Pretermitted Customes and many more the least of which would have 50. Edward 3. adjudged in Parliament an heinous crime aswel as those of Lyons and Latymer The Duke of Suffolk in Henry 6. time in procuring such another Grant in derogation of the Common Law was adjudged in Parliament The gift of Honours kept as the most sacred Treasure of the State now set to saile Parliaments have been Suitors to the King to bestow those Graces as in the time of Edward 3. Henry 4. and Henry 6. More now led in by that way onely then all the merits of the best deservers huve got these last 500. years So tender was the care of elder times that it is an Article 28. Henry 6. in Parliament against the Duke of Suffolk that he had procured for himself and some few others such Titles of Honour and those so irregular that he was the first that ever was Earl Marquess and Duke of the self same place Edward the first restrained the number in pollicie that would have challenged a Writ by Tenure and how this proportion may suit with profit of the State we cannot tell Great deserts have now no other recompence then costly Rewards from the King For we now are at a vile Price of that which was once inestimable If worthy Persons have been advanced freely to places of greatest trust I shall be glad Spencer was condemned in the 15. of Edward 3. for displacing good Servants about the King and putting in his Friends and followers not leaving either in the Church or Common-Wealth a place to any before a Fine was paid unto him for his dependance The like in part was laid by Parliament on De la Poole It cannot but be a sad hearing unto us all what my Lord Treasurer the last day told us of his Majesties
how many delays there were we may easily see that such a sum by Parliament granted is far sooner and more easily gathered If any will make the successes of times to produce an inevitable necessity to enforce it levied whether in general by excise or imposition or in particular upon some select persons which is the custom of some Countreys and so conclude it as there for the publick State Suprema lege he must look for this to be told him That seeing necessity must conclude always to gather money as less speedy or assured then that so practised which cannot be fitter then by Parliament the success attendeth the humors of the heedless multitude that are full of jealousie and distrust and so unlike to comply to any unusual course of Levy but by force which if used the effect is fearful and hath been fatal to the State whereas that by Parliament resteth principally on the regal person who may with ease and safety mould them to his fit desire by a gracious yielding to their just Petitions If a Parliament then be the most speedy assured and safe way it is fit to conceive what is the safest way to act and work it to the present need First for the time of the usual Summons reputed to be 40. days to be too large for the present necessity it may be by dating the Writ lessened since it is no positive law so that a care be had that there may be one County day after the Sheriff hath received the Writ before the time of sitting If then the sum to be levyed be once agreed of for the time there may be in the body of the Grant an Assignment made to the Knights of every County respectively who under such Assurance may safely give Security proportionable to the Receipts to such as shall in present advance to the Publick service any sums of money The last and weightiest consideration if a Parliament be thought fit is how to remove or comply the differences between the King and Subject in their mutual demands And what I have learned amongst the better sort of the Multitude I will freely declare that your Lordships may be the more enabled to remove and answer those distrusts that either concern Religion Publick safety of the King and State or the just liberties of the Common-Wealth For Religion a matter that they lay nearest to their conscience they are led by this groâ—â—d of jealousie to doubt some practise against it First for that the Spanish match which was broken by the grateful Industry of my Lord of Bucking out of his Religious care as he there declares that the Articles there demanded might lead in some such sufferance as might endanger the quiet if not the State of the reformed Religion here Yet there have when he was an Actor principal in the Conditions with France as hard if not worse to the preservation of our Religion passed then those with Spain And the suspect is strengthened by the close keeping of this Agreement in that point there concluded It is no less an Argument of doubt to them of his Affections in that his Mother end others many of his Ministers of neer imployment about him are so affected They talk much of his advancing men Papistically devoted some placed in the camp of nearest service and chief Command And that the Recusants have gotten these late years by his power more of courage and assurance then before If to clear these doubts which perhaps are worse in fancy then in truth he took a good course it might much advance the Publick service against those squeymish humors that have more violent passion then setled judgment are not the least of the opposite number in the Common-Wealth The next is The late misfortunes and losses of Men Munition and honour in our late Vndertakings abroad Which the more temperate spirits impute to want of Councel and the more sublime wits to practise They begin with the Palatinate and by the fault of the loss there on the improved credit of Gondomar distrusting him for the staying of supplyes to Sir Horace Vere when Colonell Cecill was cast on that imployment by which the King of Spain became Master of the King's Children's Inheritance And when Count-Mansfield had a Royal Supply of Forces to assist the Princes of our part for the Recovery thereof either plot or error defeated the Enterprize from Us to Spains great advantage That Sir Robert Mansfield's expedition to Algiers should purchase only the security and guard of the Spanish Coasts To spend so many hundred thousand pounds in the Cales Voyage against the advice of Parliament onely to warn the King of Spain to be in a readiness so to weaken our selves is taken for such a sign of ill affection to him amongst the multitude The spending of so much Munition Victuals and Money in my Lord Willoughbie's journey is conceived an Vnthrifty Error in the Director of it to disarm our selves in fruitless Voyages nay to some over-curious seems a plot of danger to turn the quarrel of Spain our antient enemy that the Parliament petitioned and gave supply to support upon our Ally of France and soon after a new happy Tye gave much talk that we were not so doubtful of Spain as many wish since it was held not long ago a fundamental Rule of Their security and Our's by the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh That nothing can prevent the Spanish Monarchy but a fastness of the two Princes whose Amity gave countenance and courage to the Netherlands and German Princes to make head against his Ambition And we see by this dis-union a fearful defeat hath happened to Denmark and that party to the great advantage of the Austrian Family And thus far of the Waste of publick Treasure in fruitless Expeditions An important cause to hinder any new supply in Parliament Another fear that may disturb the smooth and speedy passage of the King's desires in Parliament is the late waste of the Kind's Lively-hood Whereby is like as in former times to arise this Jealousie fear That when he hath not of his own to support his ordinary charge for which the Lands of the Crown were setled unalterable and called Sacrum Patrimonium Principis that then he must of necessity rest on those Assistances of the people which ever were only collected consigned for the Common-Wealth From hence is is like there will be no great labour or stiffness to induce his Majesty to an act of Resumption since such desires of the State have found an easie way in the will of all the Princes from the third Henry to the last But that which is like to pass deeper into their disputes and care is the late pressures they suppose to have been done upon the publick libertie and freedom of the Subject in commanding their Goods without assent by Parliament confining their persons without especial cause declared and that made good against them by the Judges lately and pretending a Writ
to make the Body a Stranger to Pain both in taking from it the Occasion of Diseases and making the outward Inconveniences of VVant as Hunger and Cold if not delightful at least suffareble Fr. Walsingham A Brief DISCOURSE Concerning the Power of the PEERES AND COMMONS OF PARLIAMENT In point of JUDICATURE Written by Sir Robert Cotton at the request of a Peer of this REALM LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. A Brief DISCOURSE Concerning the POWER Of the PEERS c. SIR To give you as short an accompt of your desire as I can I must crave leave to lay you as a ground the frame or first model of this State When after the Period of the Saxon time Harold had lifted himself into the Royal Seat the great Men to whom but lately he was no more than equal either in fortune or power disdaining this Act of Arrogancy called in William then Duke of Normandy a Prince more active than any in these Western Parts and renowned for many Victories he had fortunately atchieved against the French King then the most potent Monarch of Europe This Duke led along with him to this work of Glory many of the younger Sons of the best Families of Normandy Picardy and Flanders who as Undertakers accompanied the Undertaking of this fortunate Man The Usurper slain and the Crown by War gained To secure Certain to his Posterity what he had so suddenly gotten he shared out his purchase retaining in each County a portion to support the Dignity Soveraign which was stiled Domenia Regni now the antient Demeans And assigning to others his Adventurers such portions as suited to their quality and expence retaining to himself dependency of their personal service except such Lands as in free Alms were the portion of the Church these were stiled Barones Regis the Kings immediate Free-holders for the word Baro imported then no more As the King to these so these to their followers sub-divided part of their shares into Knights Fees and their Tenants were called Barones Comites or the like for we find as the Kings write in their Writs Baronibus suis Francois Anglois the Soveraigns Gifts for the most part extending to whole Counties or Hundreds an Earl being Lord of the one and a Baron of the inferiour Donations to Lords of Townships or Mannors AS thus the Land so was all course of Judicature divided even from the meanest to the highest portion each several had his Court of Law preserving still the manner of our Ancestors the Saxons who jura per pagos reddebant and these are still termed Court Barons or the Freeholders Court twelve usually in number who with the Thame or chief Lord were Judges The Hundred was next where the Hundredus or Aldermanus Lord of the Hundred with the chief Lords of each Township within their limits judged Gods People observed this form in the publique Centuriones Decani judicabant plebem onni tempore The County or generale placitum was the next This was so to supply the defect or remedy the Corruption of the Inferiour Vbi Curiae Dominarum probantur defecisse pertinent ad Vicecomitem Provinciarum The Judges here were Comitos Vicecomites Barones Comitatus qui liberas in eo terras hâ—bent The last and supream and proper to our question was Gener ale Placitum apud London Vniversalis Synodus in Charters of the Conqueror Capitalis Curia by Glanvile Magnum Commune consilium coram Rege Magnatibus suis In the Rolls of Hen. the third it is not stative but summoned by Proclamation Edicitur generale placitum apud London saith the Book of Abingdon whither episcopi Duces Principes Satrapae Rectores Causidici ex omni parte confluxerunt ad istan Curiam saith Glanville Causes were referred propter aliquam dubitationem quae emergit in Conitatu cum Comitatus nescit dijudicare Thus did Ethelweld Bishop of Winton transfer his Suit against Leoftine from the County â—d generale placitum in the time of King Ethildred Queen Edgin against Goda from the County appealed to King Etheldred at London Congregatis principibus sapientibus Aogliae A Suit between the Bishops of Winton and Durham in the time of Saint Edward Coram Episcopis Principibus Regni in praesfentia Regis ventilata finita In the 10. year of the Conqueror Episcopi Comites Barones Regia potestate e diversis Provinciis ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis tractandis convocati saith the Book of Westminster and this continued all along in the succeeding Kings Reigns until towards the end of Henry the third As this great Court or Councel consisting of the King and Barons ruled the great affairs of State and controlled all inferiour Courts so were there certain Officers whose transcendent power seemed to be set to bound in the execution of Princes Wills as the Steward Constable and Marshal fixed upon Families in Fee for many Ages They as Tribunes of the People or Ephori amongst the Athenians grown by an unmannerly Carriage fearful to Monarchy fell at the Feet and mercy of the King when the daring Earl of Leicester was slain at Eversham This Chance and the dear experience Henry the third himself had made at the Parliament at Oxford in the 40. year of his Reign and the memory of the many streights his Father was driven unto especially at Runny-mead near Stanes brought this King wisely to begin what his Successors fortunately finished in lessening the strength and power of his great Lords And this was wrought by searching into the Regality they had usurped over their peculiar Soveraigns whereby they were as the Book at St. Albans tearmeth them Quot Domini tot Tyranni and by weakening that hand of power which they carried in the Parliaments by commanding the service of many Knights Citizens and Burgesses to that great Councel Now began the frequent sending of Writs to the Commons their assents not only used in Money Charge and making Laws for before all Ordinances passed by the King and Peers but their consent in Judgements of all natures whether Civil or Criminal In proof whereof I will produce some few succeeding Presidents out of Record When Adomar that proud Prelate of Winchester the Kings half Brother had grieved the State with his daring power he was exised by joynt sentence of the King the Lords and Commons and this appeareth expresly by the Letter sent by Pope Alexander the fourth expostulating a revocation of him from Banishment because he was a Church-man and so not subject to Lay Censures In this the Answer is Si Dominus Rex Regni majores hoc vellent meaning his revocation Communitas tamen ipsius ingressum in Angliam jam nullatenus sustineret The Peers subsign this Answer with their names and Petrus de Montford vice totius Communitatis as Speaker or Proctor of the Commons For by this stile Sir J. Tiptoft Prolocutor affirmeth under his Arms the Deed of