for two yeares during which time the Marriners of the West proffered the Parliament to make an Army on the Sea Provided alwaies that the money thereof comming be wholly imployed for the keeping of the Sea and no part elswhere the receivers and keepers whereof were appointed likewise that the people keeping of the Sea Armie shall have all the lawfull prizes shared among them And that the Admirall and others of the said Army should giue assurance to save the Kings friends and Allies without danger to be done to them or any of them by any meanes which if they doe and it be proved they shall put them in grievous paines to make amends 4. Ed. 4. 12. Ed. 4. cap. 3. the Commons of the Realme of England granted a Subsidie to the King called Tunnage during his life for the defence of the Realme and especially for the safeguard of the Sea they are the words of the said Act repeated which Act was continued and revived 40. H. 8. by Act of Parliament 6. H. 8. cap. 14. which grants him Tunnage and Poundage all his life 1. Ed. 6. cap. 1. 3. Mar. cap. 18. 1. Eliz. cap. 20. for the granting of Tunnage and Poundage all severally recited H. 8. H. 7. have had granted to them being Princes and their noble progenitors Kings of England for time being by common assent of Parliament for defence of the Realme and the keeping and safeguard of the Seas for the entercourse of Merchandize safely to come in and passe out of the Realme certaine summes of money named Subsidies of all manner of Goods or Merchandize comming into or growing out of the Realme The words of the forenamed Act are these First for asmuch as we the poore Commons c. now we your poore Commons wishing that such furniture of all things may be had in readines for time to come when necessitie shall require for the speedy and undelayed provision and helpe of the suppressing of such inconveniences and Invasions humbly desire of your most excellent Majestie lovingly and favourably to take and accept and receive their poore graunts hereafter ensuing as granted of true hearts and good wills which we bore to your Highnesse towards the great costs charges and expences which may be laid out by your Majestie for the causes beforesaid when need shall require Secondly no Dismes Quadrismes or grand Customes and such like ayd can be imposed the act of Tunnage and Poundage 1 Iac. cap. 33. which graunts this Subsidie to your Majesties Royall Father during his life makes the same recitall word for word If then the subsidie of Tunnage and Poundage have been already granted as a Tax upon his Subjects for guarding of the Sea both against enemies and Pirats by Act of Parliament and not otherwise and all your Royall Progenitors have accepted of it in this manner by a grant in Parliament and not imposed any such annuall Tax as now by Writ for the defence of the Seas by your Prerogative royall we humbly conceive that your Majestie cannot now impose it upon by Law rather because your Majestie ever since your comming to the Crowne hath taken and received this Tunnage and Poundage and still takes it and claimes it for a defence onely of the Seas professing in your royall Declaration to all your loving Subjects by your speciall command A. 7. pag. 44. that you tooke this dutie of Five in the Hundred for guarding of the Sea and defence of the Realme to which you hold your selfe still charged as you declared Now since your Majesty receives this dutie at your Subjects hand to this very end and purpose the moity of which is abundantly sufficient to defend the Seas in these dayes of peace with all neighbour Princes and Nations and by reason whereof you hold your selfe still obliged to it wee humbly conceive you cannot in point of Law and Justice neither will you in point of honour and conscience receive the said Dutie sufficient with an overplus to defend the Seas and yet impose this heavy Tax and burthen upon your Subjects and lay the whole charge of guarding the Seas in these dayes of peace on them as if no Tunnage or Poundage were taken for that purpose which none of your royall Progenitors ever yet did Fourthly against most of the Acts of Parliament for the severall Subsidies of the Clergie and Commonaltie in all your Royall Progenitors Reignes and your owne too who when the annuall revenues of the Crowne and your Customes and Subsidies granted them for the guarding of the Realme and Seas by reason of open warres aforesaid and defensive or both were not able to supply and defray the extraordinary expences never resorted to such Writts as these for the levying of Ship-money especially in times of peace but ever to the Parliament to supply for the defence of the Seas and Realme by grant of Subsidies Impositions Dismes Quadrismes rated and taxed by Parliament and not by your owne authoritie royall That is evident by all the Acts of Subsidies Taxes Ayds and Customes granted by your royall Progenitors and especially by the 14. E. 3. cap. 21. Stat. 2. 15. E. 3. Stat. 3. cap. 1. 23. 18. Ed. 3. Stat. 2. Pron. Stat. cap. 1. 25. E. 3. Stat. 7. 36. E. 3. cap. 14. 11. Rich. 2. 9. H. 4. cap. 7. 11. H. 4. cap. 10. 32. H. 8. cap. 23. 37. H. 8. cap. 24. 2. 3. E. 6. cap. 35. 36. 1. Ed. 6. 6. 12. E. 5. P. M. cap. 10. 11. 5. Ed. 6. cap. 29. 13. Ed. 3. 27. 28. 17. Eliz. 22. 23. 23. Eliz. cap. 14. 15. 27. Eliz. cap. 28. 29. 29. Eliz. cap. 7. 8. 31. Eliz. 14. 15. 35. Eliz. cap. 12. 13. 39. Eliz. cap. 26. 27. 43. Eliz. cap. 17. 18. 3. Jac. 26. 21. Jac. cap. 33. 1. Car. cap. 5. 6. 3. Car. cap. 6. 7. expresly recite the Ayd and Subsidie therein granted were for the defence of the Kingdome by Sea and Land the maintenance of the Navy and so forth If now these Princes that would part with no title of their just Prerogative and your Majesty your selfe have from time to time resorted for supplyes by Sea and Land to Parliament when Tunnage and Poundage and your owne ordinary revenewes would not suffice which they would never have done might they have supplyed themselves by such Writs of Ship-money as these are wee humbly conceive it to be against the common Law and that your Majesty ought to run the same course againe and may not by your Prerogative Impose this Tax of Ship-money without common consent in Parliament contrary as we beleeve to the Petition of Right confirmed by your Majesty as our undoubted Rights and Liberties and as the Tax of Ship-money is against the severall recited Statutes so wee humbly conceive it to be against the very common Law and Law books First by the Common Law every severall Dutie and service which concernes the subjects in generall or greatest part of them that is uncertain and
indefinite not reduced to any positive certainty ought to be rated and imposed by a Parliament onely not by your Majesty as the partie whom it concerns as appeareth by two notable instances pertinent to the present purpose whereof the first is that of Taxes uncertaine which though a dutie to the King and other Lords heretofore upon every voyce royall against the Scots yet because it concernes so many it could not be taxed but by Parliament Litt. 2. 97. 98. 100. 102. F. N. B. 8. Cooke on Litt. sect. 97. 101. 102. Secondly in Case of Ayd to marry the Kings or Lords Daughter and to make his sonne a Knight which though a Dutie yet taxed and reduced to a certaintie by a Parliament not left arbitrary 3 E. 3. cap. 35. 25. E. 3. Stat. 5. cap. 11. F. M. B. 82. If then these uncertaine services and duties to avoid opposition and Injustice ought to be taxed in Parliament much more the uncertaine and indefinite Tax being no dutie nor debt at all and not yet prescribed or reduced to any certainty by any Law Secondly no Dismes Quadrismes or grand Customes and such like can be imposed by the very common Law though usually subsidies and supplyes but by Act of Parliament as appeareth by all them in Fitz and Brookes Abridgements titles Quadrismes 9. H. 6. 13. grand Cust. 26. 4. E. 4. 3. 4. 5. Fitz Bar. 304. 14. E. 3. 21. 26. E. 3. cap. 11. 45. E. 3. 4. 11. Rich. 2. 9. Dyer 45. 6. 165. therefore much lesse the unusuall and extraordinary Taxes of Ship-money amounting the first yeare to ten fifteenes and this yeare to three subsidies a man of which there is not one syllable or tittle in any of our Law Books Thirdly No Law can be made within the Realme to binde the Subjects either to the losse of Libertie Goods or member by your Majesties absolute power nor yet by your Majestie nor the Lords in generall without the Commons consent in full Parliament as is resolved in these common Law Bookes 11. H. 6. 17. Ployd 74. M. 19. E. 3. Fitz Iurisdict 28. Annum the very reason why Acts of Parliament binde all is because every man is partie and consenting to them 3. E. 4. 2. 2. E. 4. 45. or 4. H. 11. 22. H. 1. 5. Ployd 59. and 396. If then no Lawes can be imposed on the Subjects but such as are made and consented unto by them in Parliament because every Law that is penall deprives them either of their liberties person by imprisonment or the propertie of their Goods by Confiscation much lesse then any Tax or the Tax for Ship-money for the which their goods shall be and are distreined the persons imprisoned in case they refuse to pay it contrary to Magna Charta promis Stat. Fourthly every subject hath as absolute propertie in his Goods by the common Law as he hath in his lands and therefore as your Majestie cannot lawfully seize any of your Subjects lands unlesse by some just title or forfeit upon a penall Law or Condition infringed or by the parties voluntary consent so cannot you seize upon his Goods unlesse by some Grant from the partie himselfe either mediately as in Parliament or immediately for some debt or either granted you in like manner therefore not for Ship-money unlesse granted by common consent in Parliament Fiftly it is a Maxime in all Lawes civill and common and a principle of reason and nature Quod tangit dom ab omnibus debet approbari Regis Iac. 11. 9. This Rule holds in all naturall and politique bodies nothing is or can be effected by the head hand or foot alone unlesse the other parts of the body or faculties of the soule assent In all elections popular where there are diverse Electors there must either be a generall consent of all or of the maior part or otherwise the election of the fewest or one onely is a meere nullitie in all Parliaments Colledges Synods Cities Cathedrals in Laws Canons Ordinances or by Laws neither Levies nor Taxes can be imposed but by all or the Maior part The Bishop or the Deane without the Clergie the Major without the rest of the Corporation the Abbot without the Covent the Master of the Colledge without the fellowes the Master or Wardens of Companies without the Assistants the Lords of the Parliament without the Commons nor the lesser part without the consent or against the greater part in all these can doe nothing either to binde or charge the rest by the Common or Civill Law Your Majestie therefore by the same Reason being but a member of the body politique of England though the most excellent and supreame above all the Rest can impose no Lawes or binding Taxes on your Subjects without the common consent in Parliament especially now in times of peace when a Parliament may be called and summoned to helpe these Sixtly if your Majestie shall grant a Commission to imprison or to seize any of your Subjects Goods without any Indictment or Proces of Law that hath been adjudged voyde and against Law 42. H. 8. tit. 5. Br. Commission 15. 16. therefore your Majesties Writts to distreine mens Goods and imprison their persons or bodies for Ship-money must be so too And as your Majesty by your Letter cannot alter the Common Law 6. H. 4. 5. 10. H. 4. 23. so neither can you doe it by your Writts 11. H. 4. 91. Br. Prerog. 15. 49. ass 37. H. 6. 27. 3. H. 9. 15. 18. Ed. 4. 76. 5. H. 4. 21. Ed. 4. 79. Book pat 25. 52. 41. 53. 69. 79. 73. 100. Descent 57. Dangilt 9. Fitz-toll Seaventhly it is a Maxime in Law that no man ought to be Judge in his owne Case and therefore no man can have Cognizance of Pleas where himselfe is Judge and partie And if a Lord of a Mannor prescribe in a Custome to distreine all beasts that come within his Mannor damage fezant and to deteine them untill Fine be made to him for the damages at his will this prescription is voyde because it is against reason that he be Judge in his owne Case for by such meanes though he had damage but to the value but of old he might asseise and have a hundred pound Tit. 31. Iac. 2. 11. 212. Cau. ibm 3. E. 3. 24. 4. E. 3. 14. 10. E. 3. 23. 28. E. 3. Plac. 20. H. 4. 8. Br. Lett. 12. 7. H. 6. 13. 9. H. 6. 10. the same holds in reason concerning Ship-money if it lay in your Majesties power to impose what summe they pleased upon your people you should be Judge in your own Cause and so your Majestie by your Officers mis-information for their owne private lucre might levy farre more than need requires for your service yea so much and so often as would soone exhaust your whole estates which is against both reason and justice and therefore this concurrent assent in Parliament is requisite that no more be demanded then shall appeare to be necessary to avoyde
opposition both in frequency of the opposition the quantitie of the summe collected and the undue and unequall Taxing thereof Eightly if your Majesty by your absolute authoritie might impose such Taxes as there at your pleasure might be fulfilled on your subjects you may doe it as often and raise them as high as you please for what Law is there to hinder you from it but that which denies you any power at all to doe it Now if you may impose these Taxes as often and raise them as high as you please even from a hundred to two hundred Shippes every yeare aswell as fortie or fiftie in times of peace and distreine upon all your Subjects Goods and imprison their bodies for it then all their Goods Lands and Liberties will be at your Majesties absolute disposition and then are we not free-borne Subjects but villaines and rascalls and where then are our just ancient Rights and Liberties confirmed by your Majesty in the Petition of Right which you have protested you are bound in conscience to performe and keepe inviolable Ninthly it hath beene adjudged in auncient time that the Kings of England cannot by their prerogative create a new Office by Pattent in Charge of the people neither can they graunt Murage or any such tallage to or demand it of any one by Writ or Pattent because that it is in Charge of his people Que ne part est sans parliament 13. H. 4. 14. Br. Pat. 12. 37. H. 8. Pat. 100. therefore by the same reason that Tax that layes a farre greater Charge upon the Subject than any new Office Murage Tallage Travers or thorow Toll cannot be imposed but by Act of Parliament Tenthly admit your Majesty by your absolute prerogative might enforce the Subjects to set out Ships to guard the Sea yet we conceive humbly as things now stand you cannot doe neither in Honour nor Justice nor yet in that way and proportion as it is now demanded For first we humbly conceive that your Majesty cannot impose this annuall charge on your Subjects and wholy because you receive Tunnage and Poundage of your Subjects on purpose to guard the Seas and ease your Subjects of this burthen which is sufficient to discharge the service with a large surplusage besides to your Majesty either therefore your Majesty must now both in Justice and Honour release the Tax of Ship-money or els your Tunnage and Poundage since either of them are sufficient for the service and one of them not due if the other be taken Secondly we humbly conceive that you cannot demand it now in a generall peace when there is no feare at all of forraigne enemies or open warre proclaimed against any neighbour Prince or State there being as we beleeve no president for any such Tax in the time of peace Thirdly we conceive that since the Writ enjoyned every County to furnish a Ship of so many Tunnes for so many moneths First that no Counties can be forced to furnish or hire any Ships but those that border on the Seas and have Shipping in them Secondly that they cannot be compelled to furnish out any other Ships of any other burden than such as they have for the present unlesse they have convenient time allowed them to build others Thirdly they cannot be compelled to levie so much money to returne it to your Exchequer or to any of your Officers hands as now they doe when they cannot call them to account to see how the money is imployed but that they may and ought to appoint their owne Officers Treasurers and Collectors to make their owne estimates proportions and provisions at the best and cheapest Rates as every one doth that is charged and over-rated in their estimates and put to almost double expence by your Majesties Officers who are not neither can be compelled to give your Subjects any accompts as those Officers may be that collected the Subsidies of Tunnage and Poundage anciently were to doe 5. R. 2. cap. 3. Fourthly that they cannot be compelled to hire your Majesties Ships at such rates and with such furniture and provisions as your Officers shall seeme meet to have and appoint for them for by the same reason your Majesty may enforce those Gentlemen and grand Souldiers who are bound to keepe Launces and light Horses or to provide Armes in every Countie though they have Armes and Horses of their owne which are serviceable to buy or hire your Majesties Horses and Armes every yeare at such Rates as your Officers please and lay by their owne at your owne Officers rates and your Merchants that traffique onely in your Majesties Ships not in their owne at your owne Officers rates there being the same reason in both But your Majesty as we suppose cannot enforce your Subjects to the one to hire your Horses Armes or Ships to trayne or trade with therefore not to the other Fiftly that they cannot be compelled to contribute money to set out forty seven Ships as they did the last yeare and yet but twenty seven and some of them of lesse burden then limited in the Writts to be set out by your Officers and so scarce halfe the pretended number imployed and not that money collected disbursed in that pretended service Sixtly that they cannot be enforced to provide forty forty five fifty shot round of Powder and Bullets for every Piece in the Ship now there is a generall peace and no likelihood of Sea-fights when fifteene twenty or twenty five at most round is sufficient and no more was allotted in eighty eight when the Spanish Fleet came against us and was of purpose as may seeme to put them to double charge Seaventhly that they cannot be enforced to pay for new Rigging Cables Anchors Carriages Powder and Shot Matches Pikes Muskets that every yeare when little or nothing at all of that provision provided and payd for by them the first and last yeare both is spent but onely victualls and wages and all the other provision at the end of the service taken into your Majesties store-house and so to buy their owne Powder when the twenty seaven Ships were set out and thereby at the first gained foure pence in every pound of Powder when they were so set out all which were taken into your Majesties store-houses at their returne but what was vainely shot and spent away the last yeare and bought againe afresh amounts to sixteene pence cleere gaine in every pound and if this third yeare were brought over againe as it is likely according to a new estimate will be two shillings foure pence cleere gaine in every pound the like doubled and trebled againe will be now and every subsequent yeare if this Tax proceed upon Powder Shot and Match Carriages and so forth and all such victualls the onely provision that is spent the most part of the rest returning which if your Subjects found and provided at the best rate and tooke againe into your owne stores upon the Ships returne one quarter of that
more at their private lucre and sinister ends then at your Majesties Honour and service or your kindreds welfare upon which we most humbly supplicate your Majestie to be exonerated of it since for the premised reasons we neither can nor dare contribute any more to it Now because these men who have put your Majesty upon these projects pretend some auncient president for the lawfulnesse of this Tax for the Ship-money thereby to induce your Majesty whose Justice and integritie they know is such as will never consent to any the least taxations unjustly to oppresse your Subjects withall contrary to the just rights and liberties confirmed by your Majesty and your owne Lawes to impose it and exact it as a just dutie and lawfull tallage wee shall here for the opening of the unlawfulnesse of it give a briefe Answer to the chiefest of these presidents which they produce and suggest to your Majesty to manifest the illegalities of it In generall we give this Answer to all the presidents they produce to justifie this Tax That there is no direct president in point of Law to compell the Subjects to finde Ships to guard the Seas or if there be any one such president yet that never ruled neither was adjudged lawfull upon solemne debate either in Parliament or any other Court of Justice Secondly the presidents produced that have any colour at all to prove the Tax just and legall were before Magna Charta and the Statutes afore-cited Taxes and Tallages without consent of Parliament or at least before Tunnage and Poundage were granted for guarding of the Seas and not since Thirdly that they were onely in times of warre and open hostilitie not of peace as now this will sufficiently answer all presidents that can be produced Fourthly that they were onely either in times of warres and open hostilitie or that they were by assent in Parliament or els withstood and complained of as grievous if otherwise Fiftly that they were onely for suppressing and taking off Ships upon the Kings hire and wages not for setting out of Ships on the Subjects proper Costs or els for stay of Ships for a time and so impertinent to the Case in question Sixtly that these presidents were not annuall or for sundry yeares together but rare once perchance in an age and that on speciall occasions in time of eminent danger and will not prove pertinent if duly examined These generall Answers now premised wee shall descend to the most materiall particular presidents the answering which alone will cleere all the rest A maine president they insist on is that auncient Tax of Dangilt they say the same was lawfully imposed by his Majesties royall progenitors on his Subjects by meere royall authoritie without act of Parliament to defend the Seas and Realme against the Danes Therefore his Majesty may now impose on his Subjects the like Tax by his royall Prerogative To this objected president we answer that there was a double kinde of tribute called Dangilt memorized in our Chronicles and Writers The first Wigorniensis and Mathew of Westminster Anno 983. 986. 994. 1002. 2007. 1011. 871. 873. 1041. Polichronic lib. 1. cap. 5. lib. 7. cap. 15. 16. Fabian part 6. cap. 194. 200. Graston pa. 162. 164. 165. Master Speeds Hist. lib. 7. cap. 44. sect. 20. 14. 22. 25. lib. 8. cap. 2. sect. 12. William Malmesbury de Justicia regnt Angl. lib. 2. cap. 12. pag. 76. 77. John Salisbury de luctis Anglie lib. 8. cap. 22. Ad finem Spilman glossar pag. 199. 200. Floud An. pa. 10. 428. Rastalls tearmes de ley Lit. Dangilt Minshaws Dictionary title Dangilt Seldens Mare Clausum lib. 2. cap. 11. 15. Imposed by and paid to the Danes themselves as to conquering enemies by way of Composition tribute to the which the King himselfe did contribute as well as the Subjects This Composition was first begun by Pusillamenus King Ethelbert by ill advice Cretineus Archbishop of Canterbury and other Nobles Anno 991. This tribute came to ten thousand pound Anno 983. to as much 986. to 16994. to the like 102. to fourteene thousand pound Anno 1607. to 300. out of Kent alone Anno 1012. to twenty eight thousand pound Anno 1014. so Mathew of Westminster and others write that Ethelbert at five severall times paid the Danes 113000. pounds and there was granted to him an annuall tribute of 48000. pounds to be exacted of all the people which properly was called Dangilt which tribute was exacted and collected by Hardicanute whose Officers were slaine at Worcester in gathering up this exonerable tribute and importable as Mathew of Westminster and Malmesbury terme it De hostibus regni Angl. lib. 1. cap. 12. pag. 76. 77. And when King Swanus the Dane exacted this tribute from Saint Edmondsbury out of King Edwards Lands which pleaded exemption from it he was stabbed to death with King Edwards sword in the middest of his Nobles as our Historiographers report Nay the Dangilt which may be so termed because it did gelt much and pare mens estates and emasculated their spirits hath no Analogie with this Tax of Ship-money For first it was not payd to a King but to a conquering Enemy Secondly it was payd by the King himselfe as well as by his Subjects and that not as a debt or dutie but a composition or tribute most unjustly imposed and exacted by an usurping and greedy Enemy Thirdly it was exacted by force and violence not by Law or Right Fourthly it was payd by the joynt composition and agreement both of King and people not by the Kings absolute power that is evident by Florentinus Wigorniensis and Mat. Westminster Anno 983. Danis omnes portus regni infestantibus dum nesciretur ubi eis occurri deberet decretum est à viris prudentibus ut vincerentur argento qui non poterant ferro Itaque decem millia librarum soluta Danorum avaritiam expleverunt Anno 991. Quo audito datum est ijs tributum decem millia librarum per Consilium Syricii Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi aliorum nobilium Regni ut a crebis rapinis cremationibus hominum caedibus quae circa maritima agebant cessarent Anno 994. Tunc Aethelredus per Consilium suorum nobilium dedit iis pensionem de tota Anglia collectam 16000. librarum ut à cadibus hominum innocentium cessarent Anno 1002. Rex Aethelredus Consilio suorum ob multas Injurias à Danis acceptas tributum illis statuit taxati Angli fuere ut pacem cum eis firmam tenerent cujus postulationem Concesserunt ex eo tempore de tota Angliae sumptus illis tributum quod erat 36000 lib. persolvebatur Anno 1012. Dux Edvardus omnes Anglia primates utriusque ordinis ante Pascha Londini congregati sunt ibi tam diu morati sunt quousque tributum Danis promissum quod erat 45000. l. persolverent By all which it is evident that this tribute was not
imposed by the Kings absolute power and will but by the common consent of all the Peeres in Parliament Fiftly it was payd to save and ransome their lives and liberties from a conquering Enemy not to a Gracious Prince to secure them from an Enemy Sixtly it was then thought and called by all our Historians an Intolerable grievance and oppression which as Speed saith in his History of Great Britaine lib. 7. cap. 44. sect. 147. and others emptied all our Land of all our Coine in the Kingdome Therefore in all these respects no warrant at all of the lawfulnesse of this Tax but a strong Argument against it to prove it both an Intolerable grievance and an unjust vexation The second Tax called Dangilt intended in the Objection is thus defined in Edward the Confessors Lawes Cap. 28. by that famous graund Inquest of twelve of the principall men out of every Countie of England appointed by William the Conquerour in the fourth yeare of his Reigne as Hoveden pag. 602. 603. Dangilt was enacted to be payd by reason of Pirats infesting the Countrey who ceased not to waste it all they could To represse this their Insolency it was enacted that Dangilt should be yearely rendred to wit one shilling out of every Plough land throughout England to hire those that might resist or prevent the occasion or eruption of Pirats The black Booke of the Exchequer Lib. 1. cap. 11. thus defines it to repulse the Danes It was enacted by the Kings of England in Parliament that out of every hide of Land by a certaine perpetuall Rent two shillings should be payd to the use of Valiant men who had diligently and continually should guard the Sea Coasts should represse the force and the assaults of the Enemy because therefore two shillings rent was principally instituted for the Danes it was called Danes gelt But that president of the second sort of Dangilt most insisted upon is so farre from warranting of the lawfulnesse of this present Tax that in truth it is an unanswerable argument against it if well considered For the first it was not imposed upon the subject by the Kings absolute Prerogative as this is but granted and imposed by Parliament with the peoples consent as Tunnage and Poundage hath been since This is evident by the Lawes of the Confessor Et ad eam insolentiam reprimendam statutum est dare geldum reddi conjunctim c. If therefore at first enacted to be payd yearely one shilling out of every hide of Land to finde men to guard the Sea and Sea Coasts against the Danes and Pirates that then this was certainly granted and enacted by Parliament since the King alone by his absolute power much lesse to such a Writ as now issueth could make no such Act or annuall Law Secondly by this the blacke Booke of the Exchequer H. 1. cap. 11. Ad injurias igitur arcendas à Regibus Angliae to wit in Parliament where the Kings of England are said onely to enact Lawes and the Lawes then enacted are said to be the Kings Lawes and Acts because his assent is unto them binding Statutum est ut de singulis hidis Iure quodam perpetuo duos solidos argenti solverent ad usus nostros cum factum hoc legitur antiquâ lege c. If then this were enacted by a certaine perpetuall Law and payd by an annuall Law as by this Exchequer Record appeares then certainly by an Act of Parliament Thirdly by an addition to the Lawes of King Edward the Confessor Cap. 12. cited in Hoveden likewise Annalium posteriorum pag. 603. which saith that every Church wheresoever situated is exempted from this Tax untill the dayes of William Rufus because they put more confidence in the prayers of the Church than in the defence of Armes Donec tandem à Baronibus Angliae auxilium requirebatur ad Normandiam requirendam retinendam de Roberto sue fratre cognomine Curt. concessum est ei non lege sanctum atque firmatum sed hoc necessitatis causa erat de unaquaque hide quatuor solidos ecclesia non excepta dum vero collectio census fieret proclamabat ecclesiae suae reposcens libertatem sed nihil profecit by which exemption of the Church and Church Lands from this Tax and this request of William Rufus to his Barons to grant him their Ayd to gaine and retaine Normandy which they did grant unto him onely for their present necessitie but did not annually establish and confirme the graunt of foure shillings on a hide land by Law as Dangilt first was granted and that upon the lands of the Church as well as others it seemes most apparent that Dangilt and this Tax succeeding in lieu of it and then taken by graunt was first granted by Parliament and that then no such Tax could be imposed by Kings even in times of warre and necessitie to regaine and preserve their proper Inheritance but by Parliament Fourthly by Sir Henry Spilman in his authorized Glossary 1626. title Dangelt pa. 2009. 201 Mr. Selden in his Mare clausum 1636. dedicated to your Majesty and published by your Majesties speciall cōmand 6. 2. cap. 11. 15. who both include to this opinion that the Dangelt was most imposed by royall authority but given by the peoples full consent in Parliament and that the taxes which succeeded were not annually granted nor paid but onely in time of Warre sc. Consult etiam magnatibus Parliament secundum authoritatem the advice of the great men of the Kingdome and by the authority of Parliament If then this taxe of Dangelt to defend the Seas was granted and imposed by Parliament onely with these taxes that succeed it not by the Kings royall prerogative without a Parliament This taxe for the Shipmoney also ought to be thus imposed and not otherwise even by thefe present Examples Secondly the Dangelt was not imposed or enacted in times of Peace but if Warre ceased the taxe also ceased in point of Law and it is Iustice according to the Law and Philosophers rule cessante causa cessat effectus that the taxe lasted and was granted and lawfully taken onely during the warres with the Danes is most apparant by the fore-recited orders of Edw. the Confessors Lawes cap. 12. by the black booke of the Exchequelib 1. cap 11. which addes moreover that when the land had the taxe being vnder Wm. the Conquerour Noluit hoc annuum solvi quod erat urgenti necessitate bellicis tempestatibus exactum non tamen omnino propter Importunarum causas dimitti rerum igitur temporibus ejus vel successoribus ipsius solutum est hoc cum ab exteris periculis bella vel opiniones bellorum fuere which Sir Henry Spilman in the very same words in librum Glossarii If then this Dangelt though granted by Parliament was due and collected by right on the subjects onely in time of forraigne Warres not in dayes of peace we have neither open Warre nor
Tax but a most pregnant Evidence against it having no cōtinuance or allowance at all from any Parliament as Dangelt had Fiftly admit that the tax of Dangelt were not imposed by Parliament but onely for Regall power and that lawfull in these antient times as is pretended all which we have manifestly proved voyd yet it is no Argument at all to prove the lawfulnesse of this present taxe of Ship-money and that in these respects First that Dangelt was first imposed in time of Warre and destruction before the government of the Kingdome was setled by good lawes therefore no president for this in time of Peace nor in this setled estate of the Realme so long continued in wholsome Lawes Secondly it was before any extant Statutes made against the imposing of any Taxe tallage aide or benevolence without common consent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and Commons in Parliament this and divers fore-recited Acts of this nature against it are ratified by your Majesty in the Petition of Right Thirdly it was before any subsidie of Tonnage and poundage granted to guard the Seas and Sea Costs to exempt the subject from these and all other taxes for that purpose and in truth it was the Tonnage and poundage of those times that after Tonnage and Poundage granted to guard the Seas c. Fourthly it was certaine first 1s afterwards 2s every hide land and that certainly limited this arbitrary and incertainly now rated by any Parliament Fiftly that was onely charged vpon lands not goods this on goods and those that have no lands Sixtly it was not alwaies annually paid but in times of warres as Spil Glossary pa. 200 and diuers others fore-recited authors have it thus Now for 3. yeares together in time of peace in these respects therefore we humbly declare vnto your Majesty that this principall president of Dangelt is no warrant of all for lawfulnesse of this taxe of Shipmoney but a cleere and vndeniable authority against it in answering whereof we have deseated and cleered and so answered most other presidents The next Presidents that are objected are those out of ancient stories Mat. Westm. Anno 874 writes of King Alfred that when the Danesinvaded the Realme with two Navies having prepared a Navy to set it to Sea tooke one of the Enemies ships and put sixe more to flight Anno 877. the enemies then encreasing in all parts the King commanded Galies and Galeas 2 long as naves fubricari per Regnum prelio hostili adventantibus obcurrit imposit is que piratio in illis viis maris custodiendis commisit Anno 877. 992 that King Alfred appointed guardians in severall parts of the Realme against the Danes quo etiam tempore fecit Rex Alfridus totum Navile quod terrestre prelio Regni sui tranquillitati providerat that Anno 1008. Rex Ethelberdus jussit parari 310. hadis navem vnam ex orto hi tum galeam vnam loricam that Anno 1040. Rex Hardecanutus vnumquemque reminisci suas classes orto mencos singulis rationibus decem naues de tota Angl. pendi precipit vnde cuncti qui ejus advent prius oraverunt exosus est effectus It is added with all that those Kings imposed ships and ship-money on the subjects therefore your Majesty may doe the like To these presidenrs we answer First that they are onely in time of open Warre and invasion by enemies for the Kingdomes necessary defence not in times of peace Againe the three first of them are onely that the King provided a Navie commanded ships to be builded through the Kingdome to guard the Seas and encounter the enemy as well by Sea as by Land but speakes not that this was done at the subjects owne charge nor that any tax was laid upon them for it or that the Command of his was obeyed or that he might lawfully impose a charge on his subjects without their common consent The fourth of them Anno 1008. saith of Ethelbert that he commands one ship to be provided for out of every two hundred and tenne Acres but saith not that this command was not by the King absolute power onely for it might be by common consent in Parliament agreed upon for ought appeares or that this command was just and lawfull neither doth he informe us that they were built Wigorniensis Anno 1008. addes that they were accordingly prepared and that the King put these souldiers into them with Victuals that they might defend the Coasts of the Kingdome from the incursion of Forreyners so that the subjects were not onely at the charge of the building of the ships the King for the Victuals Marriners souldiers and wages and in truth when all was done they had but bad successe for the same Historian saith that a great storme arose which tore and bruised the ships and drove them a shore where Holuo thus burnt them sic totius populi maximus labor periit yet this president though nearest of all comes not home to the present cause First because it was onely to build ships in the case of necessity for defence of the Realme where there wanted ships to guard it but now thankes be to God we have ships enough already built to guard the Sea against all the World Secondly every 100 and ten Acres to build a ship of 3 Oares unam triremem Wigorne writes but not taxed to pay so much to build one as now Thirdly the ships built were set out not at the subjects but at the Kings charge and cost therefore no president for this Taxe to set out ships built at ours Fourthly the charge was certaine and equall every hide land being equally charged this altogether uncertaine and unequall Fifthly this was after the time of Dangelt was set on foot therefore not done by the Kings absolute power but by common consent in Parliament as we have proved Dangelt to be granted Sixthly this president proves onely that such a thing was there commanded to be done by the King not that the King might or did lawfully command or enforce the subjects to doe it without the common consent Seventhly that was no annuall charge put on the subjects as that now but extraordinary not drawne into practice since for ought that appeares therefore differeth from this Tax of Ship-money Eightly no corporation or goods were then charged but onely lands and all were ruled by the land they held therfore this extēds not to justifie the tax of ship-money which is laid upon Corporations Goods and such as have no Land at all Ninthly no man was enjoyned this under pain of Imprisonment nor his goods distrained or sold if he refused it for of this there is not a syllable therefore no president to warrant the present imprisonment and destreining of these mens goods who now refuse to pay the tax for that of Hardicanutus not to be just and lawfull but an illegall and tyrannicall Act which saith Mat. Westm. Anno 1040. made