Monast de belle Abbotts Earles and Barons of the Kingdome sate daily himselfe and heard all the debates concerning the Liberties and Charters of Batteli Abbie the interlocutory speeches aswell of the King as the Lords and parties are at full related in a Register of the Church The suit between the Church of Lincoln and S. Albans Regist Linc in praesentia Regis H. Archi-episcoporum Episcoporum omnium Angliae comitatum Baronum Regni was at Westminster debated and ended and had the love of memory and truth bin a Protector to the publick Records of the State as the awe of the Clergy censure was a guard to theirs in tempesteous times we had not been left to the friendship of Munks diligence for example in this kind At Lincolne the Archbishop some Bishops but all the Earles and Barons of the Kingdome Vna cum Rege Joanne congregati ad colloquium de concordia Regis Scotiae saith a Register of that Church This use under King Hen. 3. needeth no farther proof than the Writt of Summons then as some report framed expressing both the Kings mind and practise It is Nobiscum prelatis magnatibus nostris quos vocari fecimus super premisses tractare consillium impendere which word Nobiscum implyeth plainely the Kings presence What the succeeding practise was from the 15th yeer of Edward the fourth the proper Records of this Inquiry the Journall Bookes being lost I am enforced to draw from out the Rolls of Acts wherein sometimes by chance they are remembred Edw the second was present in Parliament the fifteenth yeer of his Raign at the complaint against the Spencers and at a second Parliament that yeer for the repeale of their banishment In the fourth of Edward the third the KING was present at the Accusation of Roger Mortimer but not the triall and the next yeere in the Treaty of the French Affairs Rot. Parl. 4. Rot. P. 5. In the sixt yeer Intererat Rex in Causa John S. De Gray Gulielm De La-Zouch and the same yeer 2. Die Parliamenti the King was present at the debate about his Voyage into Scotland In the fifteenth yeer the King in the Painted-Chamber sitting with the Lords in Consultation the Archbishop after pardon prayes that for better cleering himselfe he may be tryed in full Parliament which was granted In the seventeenth in Camera alba now called the Court of Request Rex cum magnatibus convenimet comunes super negotiis Regni In the tenth yeer of Rich the second the King departed from the Parliament in some discontent when after some time Lords were sent to pray His presence and to informe His Majesty that if he forbore his presence amongst them forty dayes that then ex antiquo Statuto they may return absque domigero Regis to their severall home Henry the fourth begun his first Parliament the first of Novemb. and was the 27th day of the same Moneth 〈◊〉 debate about the Duke of Brittaine the thirtieth day the cause of the Archbishop was before him proposed onely 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 the prohibition of a new Sect from entring this Kingdome some Ordinances were at this time consulted of concerning the Stapples and the sentence against Haxey after dispute revoked This KING began bis 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 Councell for suppressing of the Welsh Rebells for revocations of stipends and concerning the Priors Allens On the twenty six they advise before the King of the Sestertian Order On the second of March of the Statute of provisions the Keeper of the privy Seale and relieving of the two Universities On the ninth of March the mediate before the King a Reconciliation betwixt the Earle of Rutland and the Lord Fitzwaters He also began a Parliament in his first yeer upon the tenth of January and the eighteenth they advise before the King of guarding of the Seas and the Welsh Rebellion On the eight of February the Earle 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 tooke upon Him to reconcile the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland And on the twenty two of Feb Of Northumberland and Dunbar In a Parliament of the twenty seventh of Hen. 6th A challenge of Seat in Parliament betwixt the Earles of Arundell and Devonshire was examined and appointed by the King with the advise of the Lords In that great Capitall Cause of the Duke of Suffolke 28. H. 6. I find not the King once present at the debate but the Duke appealing from his triall by Peerage to the King is brought from out the House of Lords to a private Chamber where the King after the Chancellor in grosse had declared his offence and refusall Himselfe but not in place of Judgement adjudged his banishment By the Rolls of Edw the fourth It appears that he was many dayes besides the first to last in Parliament and there are entered some Speeches by him uttered but that of all the rest is most of marke◠the report or then present tells it thus of the Duke of Florence and the King Tristis disceptatio inter duos tantae humanitatis Germannos Nemo arguit contra Ducem nisi Rex nemo respondet Regi nisi Dux Some other testimonies were brougt in with which the Lords were satisfied And so Formarunt meum sententiam damnationis by the mouth of the Duke of Buckingham then Steward of England All which was much distasted by the House of Commons The Raigne of Hen. the seventh affords upon the Rolls no one example the Journall Bookes being lost except so much as preserves the passages of eight dayes in the 12. of his Raign in which the King was some dayes present at debates and with his own hand the one and thirtieth day of the Parliament delivered in a Bill of Trade there read but had the memoriall remained it is no doubt but he would have beene found as frequent in his great Councell of Parliament as he was in the Star-chamber whereby the Register of that Court appeareth aswell in debate at private causes that touch neither life nor member as those of publique care he every yeear of all his Raigne was often present Of Hen. 8. Memory hath not beene envious but if he were not often present peradventure that may be the cause of the disarder which the learned Recorder Fleetwood in his preface to the Annalls of E. 5. R. 3. Hen. 7.8 Hath observed
NO PARLIAMENT Without A KING SInce of these Assemblies few Dieries or exact Journall Books are remaining and those but of late and negligently entered the Acts and Ordinances onely reported to posterity are the Rolls This Question though cleer in generall reason and convenience must be wrought out of such incident proofs as the monument of story and Records by pieces learne us and to deduce it the cleerer down some essentiall circumstances of name time place occasion and person must be in generall shortly touched before the force of particular proofs be layd down This Noble body of the State now called the Houses of Parliament is knowne in severall ages by severall names Concilia Ex concilliis Reg Saxon Cantuar the Councells in the eldest times afterwards Magnum Commune generale Concillium Curia magna capitalis curia Regis sometimes generale placitum Glanvile and sometimes Synodus and Synodalia decreta Leges Etheldredi Regis although aswell the causes of the Common-wealth as Church were there decided The Name of Parliament except in the Abbotts Chapters was never heard of unto the Raign of King John Ingulphus Croylanden and then but rarely At the Kings Court those Conventions were usually Regist Monaster and the presence Privy-chamber and other Rooms convenient for the Kings in former times as now then used for what is the present House of Lords but so at this day and was before the firing of the Palace at Westminster about 17. Hen. 8 who then and there recided Improbable it is to believe the King excluded his own presence and unmannerly it is for guests to barre him their company who gave to them their intertainment It was at first as now Edicto principis at the Kings pleasure Regist Elense Towards the end of the Saxon Amnles Mon and in the first time of the Norman King it stood in Customegrace in Easter Witsuntide and Christma fixed the Bishops Earls and Lords ex more then assembled so are the frequent words in all the Annalls Lib de bello the Kings of course vested with his Imperiall Crown by the Bishop and the Peers assembling in Recognition of their obliged faith Regist Wig present duty and service untill the unsafe time of King John by over potent and popular Lords gave discountenance to this constant grace of Kings and then it returned to the uncertaine pleasure of the Soveraigne summons The causes then as now of such Assemblies were provision for the support of the State Mat Paris or men and money and well ordering of the Church and Common-wealth and determining of such Causes which ordinary Courts nesciebunt judicare as Glanvill the grand Judge under Hen. 2. saith where the Presence of the King was still required it being otherwise absurd to make the King assent to the judgement of Parliament and afford him no part of the consultation The necessities hereof is well and fully deducted unto us in a reverend monument not farre from that grave mans time in these words Rex tenetur omn mido personal ter interesse Parliamento nisi per corporalem aegritudinem detineatur and then to acquaint the Parliament of such occasion by severall Members of either House Causa est quod solebat clamor rumor esse pro absentia Regis quia res damnosa periculosa est toti communitati Parliamento Regno cum Rex a Parliamento absens fuerit nec se absentare debet nec potest nisi duntaxat in causâ supradictâ By this appears the desire of the State to have the Kings presence in these great Councells by expresse necessity I will now endeavour to lead the practise of it from the dark and eldest times to these no lesse neglected of ours From the year 720 to near 920 during all the Heptarchy in all the Counsell remaining composed Ex Episcopis Abbatibus Ducibus Satrapis omni dignitate Optimatibus Ecclesiasticis Secularibus personis pro utilitate Ecclesiae stabilitate Regni pertractatum Seven of them are Rege praesidente and but one by deputy and incongruous it were and almost nonsense to bar his presence that is President of such an Assembly The Saxon Monarchy under Alfred Etheldred Ex Synodis et Legibus Alfredi Etheldredi et Edgari Edgar in their Synods or placita generalia went in the same practise and since Thus Ethelwold appealed Earle Leofrick from the County ad generale placitum before King Etheldred and Edgyra the Queen against Earl Goda to Eldred the King at London Congregatis principibus sapientibus Angliae In the year 1052 under Edward the Confessor Statutum est placitum magnum extra Londinum Gesta Ed Galice quod Normani ex Francorum consuetudine Parliamentum appellant where the King and all his Barons appealed Godwyn for his brother Alrveds death The Earle denyed it and the King replyed thus My Lords you that are my Liege-men Earles and Barons of the Land here assembled together have heard my appeale and his answer unto you be it left to doe right betwixt us At the great Councell at Westminster 1072. Regist Cantuar in Easter week the cause of the two Archbishops Lanfrank and Thomas Ventilata fuit in presentia Regis Gulielm and after at Windsor finem accepit in presentia Regis At the same Feast Anno 1081. the usuall time of such Assemblies the King the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Earls and chief Nobility of the Kingdom were present for so are the words of the Record The cause between Arsast Bishop of Norway and Baldwyn Abbot of Burie Regist Sanct Edmundi was also argued Et ventilata publico Rex jubet teneri judicium causis auditis amborum The diligence of his son the learned Henry the first in executing of this part of the Kingly function is commended to posterity by Walter Naps Walter Mapâ—â— a learned man trayned up and deare in favour with Hen. the second in these words Omnia Regali more decentique moderamine faciebat neminem volebat egere justitia vel pace consbituerat autem ad tranquillitatem omnium ut diebus vocationis vel in domo magna sub dio copiam sui faceret usque ad horam sextam which was till 12. as we now account secum habens Comites Barones Proceres vavasores Hen Hunting Malmsbury to hear and determine causes whereby he attained the sirname of Leo Justitia in all Stories and so out-went an quite quiddance of thestate his bestprogenitors The next of his name that succeeded is remembered every where for the debates and disputes he heard in person with Thomas the Archbishop and others of his part at the greatest Councells both at London Clarendon and Northampton for the redresse of the many complaints of the Commons against out-rages and exortions of Clergy-men In the yeer 1057. Die Penticostae apud S. Edmundum the same King diademate insignitus with the Bishops Regist
in the Statutes made in the Kings dayes for which cause he hath severed their Index from the former and much lay in the Will of Wolsey who was over unwilling to let that King see with his owne eyes Edward the sixt in respect of his young yeers may be well excused but that such was his purpose appears by a memoriall of his owne hand who purposing the affairs of Councell to severall persons reserved those of greatest waight to his owne presence in these words These to attend the matters of State that I will sit with them once a weeke to heare the debating of things of most importance Unfitnesse by Sex in his two succeeding Sisters to be so frequently present as their former Ancestors led in the ill occasion of such opinion and practise In consultations of State and decisions of private plaints it is cleer from all times the King was not onely present to advice and heare but to determine also In the cases criminall and not of blood to barre the King a part were to seclude him but the doubt is allowed in crimes meer Capitall and if in such a case the King sits not and yet the judgement of the two Houses be lawfull why may they not be lawfull in other cases without the King seeing the King refuseth to joyne with them The example in the cause of the Duke of Suffolke 28. H. 6. Where the King gave judgement was protested against by the Lords That of the Duke of Carence 6. E. 4. Where the Duke of Buckhingham the high Steward and the Lords gave judgement was protested against by the Commons in both of these the King was sometimes present But which of these wiâ—l suit these times I dare not ghesse However this I dare affirme as inevitably consequent from these precedent Presidents so anciently derived unto these present times that the Kings personall absence from the station of highest power is inconsistant with the power it selfe and so long as there is a Triple coordination in that Estate to wit of Supream Judicature there ought to be no personall absence whatsoever either of Head or Member especially of the Head except in case of sicknesse or the like for as it is prejudiciall to the power it selfe and incongrous to the nature thereof so it is an infringment of a trust committed and of obnoctious consequence to the Common wealth for whose good onely those powers that are are ordained of God Therefore if the unite existence be taken away with it the essentiall Triplicity or triple being thereof ceaseth and those that have thus unnaturally laboured vi a mis to make this Triplicity at odds by this Capitall seperation are murtherers of that body whereof He is the Head which though it be the Receptacle or Cabbinet of the sences and vitall Spirits yet the body thus wounded it must needs be in a languishing and expiring condition so that the Authors of this decollation are the Kings executioners and Butchers of the Kingdome however their faire pretences for King and Parliament carry another face Now the power of consultation and consent committed to this Judicatury or mixt Monarchy aswell Head as Members and the Sword of Justice to the unity thereof it will follow that a voluntary separation or division there from of one or the other is unwarrantable either by ancient Presidents or common reason and the party thus seperated cannot retain the unity and mixture of that power for t is impossible that that Unity should move out of its Centure of Triplicity must remaine inseperable though violated with them who continue stedfast in that station what enormities soever accrue upon it or them which neither can nor are a few in case of such Division How necessary then the Soveraigns Persons is required in the present Councells or Assemblies of the state aswell at consultations as at the conclusions let the rationall man judge and how healthfull to the weale-publicke of the Land let the bleeding miseries of our present condition tell Let all therefore who love the good of King or Kingdom or of themselves or their posterity dayly pray and labour that all instigation in this unhappy devision both of one side and the other may cease that welcome PEACE may set a period to this division and that through a blessed Union both present and succeeding Ages May behold No Parliament without A KING FINIS