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A33923 VindiciƦ juris regii, or Remarques upon a paper, entitled, An enquiry into the measures of submission to the supream authority Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. 1689 (1689) Wing C5267; ESTC R21083 43,531 52

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first of Edward the Fou●h which Act continues still unrepealed I shall proceed to prove the Norman Conquest for I need go no higher which I shall make good from the best Historians who lived either in or near that time from Doomeseday Book and Acts of Parliament 1. From Historians c. Eadmer Hist. Nov. Fol. 6. a Monk of Canterbury at the time of the Conquest and very intimate with Arch-bishop Lanfrank and with him when News came of the Conqueror's Death Writes That William designing to Establish those Laws and Usages in England which his Ancestors and Himself observed in Normandy made such Persons Bishops Abbots and other Principal Men who could not be thought so unworthy as to be guilty of any incompliance with his new Model knowing by whom and to what Station they were raised All Religious and Secular Affairs He managed at his pleasure And after the Historian had related in what Points he disallowed the Authority of the Pope and Archbishop he concludes thus But what he did in Secular Matters I forbear to Write because it 's not to my purpose and likewise because any one may guess by what has been delivered already at what rate He ordered the State. The next Testimony shall be fetched out of Ingulph Abbot of Croyland an English Man born Secretary to William when Duke of Normandy and made Abbot by him This Author informs us That by hard Usage He made the English submit that He gave the Earldems Baronies Bishopricks and Prelacies of the whole Nation to his Normans and scarce permitted any English Man to enjoy any place of Honour Dominion or Power Hist. Croyl f. 512. But Gervace of Tilbury a considerable Officer in the Exchequer in the Time of Henry the Second and who received his Information from Henry of Blois Bishop of Winchester and Grand-child to the Conquerour is more full to this purpose which he thus delivers After the Conquest of the Kingdom and the just Subversion of Rebels when the King himself and his great Men had viewed and surveyed their new acquests there was a strict Enquiry made who there were which had fought against the King and secured themselves by Flight From these and the Heirs of such as were Slain in the Field all hopes of Possessing ei●er Lands or Rents were cut off for they counted it a great Favour to have their Lives given them But such as were called and solicited to Fight against King William and did not if by an humble Submission they could gain the Favour of their Lords and Masters they then had the Liberty of Possessing somewhat in their own Persons but without any right of leaving it to their Posterity Their Children enjoying it only at the Will of their Lords To whom when they became unacceptable they were every where outed of their Estates neither would any restore what they had taken away And when the miserable Natives represented their Grievances publickly to the King informing him how they were spoiled of their Fortunes and that without Redress they must be forced to pass into other Countries At length upon Consultation it was Ordered That what they could obtain of their Lords by way of Desert or Lawful Bargain they should hold by unquestionable Right but should not Claim any thing from the Time the Nation was Conquered under the Title of Succession or Descent Upon what great Consideration this was done is manifest says Gervace For they being obliged to compliance and obedience to purchase their Lords Favour therefore whoever of the Conquered Nation Possessed Lands c. Obtained them not as if they were their Right by Succession or Inheritance but as a Reward of their Service or by some Intervening Agreement Gervase of Tilbury or the Black Book in the Exchequer Lib. 1. Cap. de Murdro de necessar observ The next Testimony I shall produce is out of Gulielmus Pictaviensis who lived about the time of Ingulph This Writer speaking of King William's Coronation adds cujus Liberi atque nepotes c. i. e. whose Children and Posterity shall Govern England by a just Succession which he Possessed by an Hereditary Bequest Confirmed by the Oaths of the English and by the Right of his Sword Gul. Pict fol. 206. Farther Ordericus Vitalis who lived in the Reign of William the Second tells us How William the First Circumvented the Two great Earls of Mercia and that after Edwin was Slain and Morcar Imprisoned then King William began to show himself and gave his Assistants the best and most considerable Counties in England and made Rich Colonels and Captains of very mean Normans Oder Vital fol. 251. The same Author relates That after the Norman Arms overcame England and King William had reduced it under the Government of his own Laws he made Fulcard a Monk of St. Omers Abbot of Thorney Ibid. fol. 853. Henry Arch-deacon of Huntington who lived in the Reign of King Stephen is full to the same purpose Anno Gratiae 1066. perfecit Dominus Dominator c. i. e. In the Year c. the great Ruler of Kingdoms brought that to pass which he had long intended against the English for he delivered them over to be destroyed by the Rough and Politick Nation of the Normans fol. 210. And in another place more particularly When the Normans had Executed the just Decree of God upon the English and there was not any Person of Quality of English Extraction remaining but all were reduced to Servitude and Distress insomuch that it was Scandalous to be called an English Man William the Author of this Iudgment dyed in the Twenty first Year of his Reign Ibid. fol. 212. Matthew Paris Who wrote towards the end of the Reign of Henry the Third agrees with the forementioned Testimonies his Words are these fol. 5. Dux Normannorum Willielmus c. i. e. Duke William having fortified the Cities and Castles and Garrisoned them with his own Men Sailed into Normandy with English Hostages and abundance of Treasure whom when he had Imprisoned and Secured he hastened back into England that he might liberally distribute the Lands of the English who were forcibly disseized of their Estates amongst his Norman Soldiers who had helped him at the Battle of Hastings to subdue the Country and that little that was left he put under the Yoak of perpetual Servitude And in another place he tells us That King William brought Bishopricks and Abbys under Military Service which before that time had been free from all Secular Servitude but then every Bishoprick and Abby was Enrolled according to his Pleasure and charged how many Knights or Horse-men they should find for him and his Successors in times of War fol. 7. I might add many more Authorities of Antient Historians but these I suppose are sufficient As for Modern Writers I shall only cite Mr. Cambden who thus delivers his Sence of this matter Britan. p. 109. Victor Gulielmus c. i. e. William the Conqueror as it were to make his
Victory the more remarkable Abrogated the greatest part of the English Laws brought in the Customs of Normandy and ordered the Pleadings to be in French And outing the English of their Antient Inheritances Assigned their Lands and Mannors to his Soldiers Yet so as he reserved the Paramount Lordship to himself and his Successors by Homage That is that they all should hold their Estates by the Feudal Laws and that none but the King should be Independent Proprietors but rather a sort of limited Trustees and Occupants in Tenancy From these Citations we have all imaginable Marks of an entire Conquest The Laws and Tenures and in some measure the Language of the Country were changed The Saxons were Transplanted into Normandy and dispossed of their Estates as appears not only from the forementioned Historians but from Doomse-day Book where we find that almost all the great Proprietors were Normans Now this Survey was made at the latter end of the Conqueror's Reign many Years after his taking the Oath which is by some so much insisted upon as appears from Ingulphus If it 's Objected that William the First granted King Edward's Laws To this I Answer 1. That most of King Edward's Laws were only Penal and respected Criminals as we may learn from Ingulph Hist. Croyland in fine Secondly These Laws of King Edward were not granted by the Conqueror without his own Amendments and Refinings upon them as is evident from the Charter of Henry the First as it stands in Matthew Paris fol. 55. Lagam Regis Edvardi vobis reddo cum eis Emendationibus quibus Pater eam Emendavit Consilio Baronum suorum i. e. I Grant you King Edward ' s Laws with those Amendments which my Father made in them by the advice of his Barons And that these last Words may not be thought to weaken the Testimony it 's not improper to observe that these Alterations are said to be made only by the Advise not by the Authority of the Barons and yet these Barons were Normans too as is sufficiently plain from what has been discoursed already But To Conclude the proofs of this Argument several of our Parliaments acknowledge William the First a Conqueror The Acts all of which it would be very tedious to name run thus in the Preamble Edward V. g. by the Grace of God the Fourth after the Conquest c. Now this is a plain Concession that the Rights of the Subjects were derived from the Crown and in all likelihood was intended to hint as much And therefore unless the Norman Conquest had been evident and unquestionable the Lords and Commons who were always very Tender of their Liberties would never have consented that the Statutes should have been Penned in such a Submissive Style If it be Objected That the Conqueror took an Oath to observe the Laws of the Realm In Answer to this I observe 1. That we have seen already in some measure what sort of Laws these were and how they were managed by him Secondly Neither Pictaviensis Eadmerus Ordericus Vitalis Henry of Huntington or Matth. Paris Write of any Oath taken by the Conqueror Florence of Worcester is the first that mentions it Flor. Wigorn. fol. 635. The Words of the Oath are these Se velle Sanctas Dei Ecclesias ac Rectores earum defendere nec non cunctum Populum sibi subjectum justa Regali Providentia Regere rectam Legem Statuere tenere Rapinas Injustaque Iudicia penitus interdicere i. e. That he would protect Holy Church and the Hierarchy that he would Govern all his Subjects fairly and take a Royal care of their welfare That he would make Equitable Laws and observe them and wholy Prohibit Rapine and Perverting of Iustice. From this I observe Two things First That the Legislative Power was all of it lodged in the Conqueror Why else did he Swear to make Equitable Laws For if the Constitution had been settled as it is at present the Parliament could have hindred him from making any other Secondly The Oath is Couched in very general Terms and admits of a great Latitude of Exposition so that the Conqueror was in a manner left at his liberty to interpret the Obligation as he thought fit Thirdly This Oath was voluntarily taken by the King some Years after he had forced the whole Nation to Swear Allegiance to him We are therefore if it were only for this reason to interpret the Oath to his advantage And to suppose that he would not Swear himself out of his Conquest and Reign at the Discretion of those he had so entirely Subdued so that it should be in their Power to Unking him either upon a real or pretended Breach of his Oath Fourthly We may observe that the Kings of England are in full Possession of the Crown immediately upon the Death of their Predecessors and therefore King Iohn Edward the First and Henry the Fifth had Allegiance Sworn to them before their Coronation From whence it follows that as Swearing does not make them Kings so neither can Perjury though truly Objected un-make them again which will appear more evidently if we consider Fifthly That Perjury in it self does not imply a forfeiture of any Natural or Civil Right Indeed the dread of it ties up a Man's Conscience faster and if he proves guilty makes him lyable to a severer Vengance from God Almighty than simple unfaithfulness upon which account an Oath is counted a considerable security for the performance of a promise And therefore for the greater satisfaction of their Subjects Princes usually Swear to observe those Stated Measures of Justice which were either fixed by themselves or their Predecessors And if they happen to fail in the performance though they forfeit their Honor and the Divine Protection yet there accrues no Right from thence to the People to re-enter upon their fancied Original Liberty For the Duty of those under Authority except where it 's expresly conditional is not Cancelled and Discharged by the mis-behaviour of their Superiors For Example supposing a Father Swears to remit some part of his Authority in the Family and that he will Govern only by such a prescribed Rule his forgeting his Oath afterwards does not void or lessen his Power nor excuse the Children in their Disobedience And to make the Instance more direct if possible The Kings of Persia were Soveraign Monarchs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch calls them and were Worshiped as the Images of God and could never be set aside but by Death Yet these Princes took an Oath at their Inauguration as Grotius observes from Xenophon and Diodorus Siculus Neither was it lawful for them to alter certain Laws as appears from Daniel and Iosephus The Kings of Aegypt likewise as Grotius relates from Diodorus Sic. had a full and unaccountable Authority they did as he speaks summo Imperio uti yet they were bound to the observance of a great many things which if they neglected to perform they could not be