other Mannors Lands and vast Possessions in the Right of Alice Daughter and Heir of Lacy Earl of Lincolne appertaining to that Earldom gave costly Liveries of Furrs and Purple to Barons Knights and Esquires attending in his House or place of Residence and paid in the 7th Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Six Hundred Twenty-Three Pounds Sixteen Shillings Six Pence when a little Money went as far as a great deal now to divers Earls Barons Knights and Esquires for Fees and being in great Discord with King Edward the Second his Nephew concerning Gaveston the two Despencers Father and Son his Favourites and some Grievances of the Nation complained of and the Pope having sent two Cardinals into England to endeavour a Pacification betwixt them they with the King Queen Arch-Bishop of Canterbury all the Bishops Cum Comitibus Baronibus Magnatibus Regni went to Leicester to have an Enterview and Treaty with the said Thomas Earl of Lancaster whither the King being come saith the Historian Occurrit ei Thomas Comes Lancaster die ei ex hac parte praefixo apud Sotisbrig stipatus pulcherrimâ multitudine hominum cum equis quod non occurrit quempiam retroactis temporibus vidisse aliquem Comitem duxisse tà m pulchram multitudinem hominum cum equis sic benè arraitorum scilicet 18. mille cùmque Rex Comes obviarent sine magna difficultate osculati sunt facti sunt chari Amici quòad intuitum circùm astantium In Anno 46. Henry the Third the King granted to John Earl of Richmond the Honor and Rape of Hastings in com' Sussex and in Anno 29. the Honor of Eagle and Castle of Pevensey in com' Sussex to whose Ancestors William the Conqueror had before granted all the Northern part of the County of York called Richmond being formerly the Possessions of Earl Edwyn a Saxon. Percy a great Baron in Northumberland and the Northern parts had thirty-two Lordships in Lincolneshire in Yorkshire eighty-six besides Advowsons Knights Fees free Warrens c. and was on the King's part at the Battle of Lewes Richard Earl of Cornewall had in the 11th of Henry the Third a Grant of the whole County of Rutland in Anno 15. of the Castle and Honor of Wallingford with the Appurtenances and the Mannor of Watlington all the Lands in England which Queen Isabell the King's Mother held in Dower the whole County of Cornewall with the Stanneries and Mines the Castle and Honor of Knaresburgh in the County of York the Castle of Lidford and Forrest of Dertmore the Castle of Barkhamsteed with the Appurtenances in the County of Hartford with many Knights Fees Advowsons free Warrens Liberties c. In the Raign of Henry the Third William de Valence afterwards Earl of Pembroke was seized of the Castle of Hartford with the Appurtenances of the Mannors of Morton and Wardon in com' Glouc ' Cherdisle and Policote in com' Buck ' Compton in com' Dors ' Sapworth Colingborow Swindon Jutebeach and Boxford in com' Wilts ' Sutton and Braborne in com' Kanc ' and of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Surrey and Sussex Robert de Todeney Father of William de Albini built the Castle of Belvoir and had seventy-nine Mannors with large Immunities and Priviledges thereunto belonging Beauchamp of Elmeley of whom the Earls of Warwick of that Name were descended had by the Grant of King Henry the First bestowed upon him all the Lands of Roger de Wircester with many Priviledges to those Lands belonging and likewise the Shrievalty of Worcestershire to hold as freely as any of his Ancestors had done had the Castle of Worcester by Inheritance from Emelin de Ubtot the Mannors of Beckford Weston and Luffenham in com' Rutland executed the Shrievalty of Warwickshire in 2d Henry the Second so also in Gloucestershire from the 3d. to the 9th Inclusive for Herefordshire from the 8th to the 16th certified his Knights Fees to be in number Fifteen had by Marriage and his Inheritance the Honor and Castle of Warwick with Wedgenock Park and all those vast Possessions of the Earldom of Warwick enjoyed by Earl Walleran or Mauduit Baron of Hanslap his Heir Bolebeck of the County of Buckingham at the time of William the Conqueror's Survey was seized of Ricote in com' Oxon ' Waltine in com' Hunt ' and of Missedene Elmodesham Cesteham Medeinham Broch Cetedone Wedon Culoreton Linford Herulfmede and Wavendon in com' Buck ' and in 11th Henry the Third one of that Family certified his Knights Fees holden of the King to be eight of the Earl of Buckingham twenty Another of the same Name and Family in the County of Northumberland was enfeoffed of divers Lordships by King Henry the First one of whose Descendants in 12. Henry the Second certified his Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento to be four and a half and three and two Thirds de novo and left Issue by Margaret his Wife one of the Sisters and Coheirs of Richard de Montfichet a great Baron of Essex Hugh de Bolebeck who in 4. Henry the Third was Sheriff of Northumberland and possessed of twenty-seven Mannors in that County with the Grange of Newton and the Moyety of Bywell The Lord Clifford and his Descendants was then and not long after seized of the Borough of Hartlepole in the Bishoprick of Durham three Mannors in Oxfordshire three in Wiltshire Frampton and part of Lece in com' Glouc ' seven in com' Heref ' Corfham Culminton and three other Mannors in com' Salop ' the Castle of Clifford in com' Heref ' Mannor of Temedsbury or Tenbury and five other Mannors in com' VVigorn ' Castle and Mannor of Skipton in Craven Forrest of Berden the Chase of Holesdon the Towns of Sylesdon and Skieldon with the Hamlets of Swarthowe and Bromiac third part of the Mannor and Priory of Bolton in com' Eborum ' Mannors of Elwick Stranton and Brorton in com' Northum ' Castles and Mannor of Apleby Burgh Pendragon and Bureham the Wood of Quintel twenty-four Mannors and the Moiety of the Mannor of Maltby in the County of Cumberland the Mannor of Duston and eighteen other Mannors in the County of VVestmoreland together with the Shrievalty of that County to him and his Heirs descended unto him from the Baron of Vipont VVilliam de Peverell an illegitimate Son of VVilliam the Conqueror had in the 2d Year of his Raign when all places of Trust and Strength were committed to the King 's chiefest Friends and Allies the Castle of Nottingham then newly Built given unto him and with it or soon after divers Lands in several Counties of a large Extent for by the general Survey it appears that he had then forty four Lordships in Northamptonshire two in Essex two in Oxfordshire in Bedfordshire two in Buckinghamshire nine in Nottinghamshire fifty-five with forty-eight Trades-Mens Houses in Nottingham at Thirty-Six Shillings Rent per Annum seven Knights Houses and Bordars of
his to come into England but such only as the King and the Lords should like The Poictovins landing at Boloign had much-a-do to gain passage into their own Countreys by reason that Henry de Montfort Son to the Earl of Leicester whose power was very great in France had followed them thither Rumours were spread amongst the people in England that the Earl of Gloucester was attempted to have been poyson'd and one of his Servants executed upon no other proof but presumption and every one that would complain of the Poictovins wanted no encouragement Richard Gray whom the Lords had made Captain of the Castle of Dover intercepted as much as he could of what the Poictovins carried over and enriched himself thereby The new Chief-Justice Hugh Bigod Brother to the Earl Marshal being chosen in the last Parliament by publick voice procured an order that four Knights in every Shire should enquire of the poor oppressed by great men and certifie the same to the Baronage under their hands and seals which were never found to have been certified And made an Order that no man should give any thing besides Provisions for Justice or to hinder the same and that both the corrupter and corrupted should be grievously punished Notwithstanding which pretended care the Lords enforceing the service of the King's Tenants which dwelt near unto them were as totidem Tyranni furnished the especial Fortresses of the Kingdom with Garrisons of their own sworn to the common State and took the like assurance of all Sheriffs Bailiffs Coroners and other publick Ministers with strict Commissions upon Oath to examine their behaviour And to make the King and his actions the more odious and their own more popular it was rumoured that the King's necessities must be repaired out of the Estates of his people and he must not want whilst they had it Whereupon the King to defend himself from such scandals was constrained to publish his Declaration to desire the people to give no credit to such false suggestions for that he was ready to defend all Rights and Customs due unto them Howsoever Montfort Gloucester and Spencer who had by the late constitution of the twenty-four Conservators drawn the entire managing of the Kingdom into their hands enforced the King to call a Parliament at London where the authority of the twenty-four Conservators was placed in themselves and order taken that three at the least should attend at the Court to dispose of the custody of Castles and other business of the Kingdom of the Chancellor Chief-Justiciar Treasurer and all other Officers great and small and bound the King to release to them their legal Obedience whensoever he infringed his Charter In the mean time the Earl of Cornwal King of the Romans being dispossest of that Kingdom or not well liking it returning into England the Barons send to know the cause of his coming and require of him an Oath before he should land not to prejudice their late established Orders of the Kingdom which he sternly refused saying He had no Peer in England being the Son and Brother of a King and was above their power and if they would have reformed the Kingdom they ought first to have sent for him and not so presumptuously have attempted a business of so high a nature The Lords upon return of such an answer sent to guard the Ports came strongly to the Coast prepared to encounter him and the King Queen and their Son Edmond in a more loving manner go to Dover to receive him but neither they nor the Earl of Cornwal were by them permitted to enter into the Castle for that it was the chief Fortress of the Kingdom But finding the Earl of Cornwal's Train small they suffered him to land and did upon his promise to take the propounded Oath bring him and the King into the Chapter-house at Canterbury where the Earl of Gloucester standing forth in the midst in the presence of the King called forth the Earl not by the name of King but Earl of Cornwal who in reverend manner coming forth took his Oath That he would be faithful and diligent with the Barons to reform the Kingdom by the counsel of wicked persons over-much disordered and to be an effectual Coadjutor to expel Rebels and disturbers of the same under pain of losing all the Lands which he held in England After which both parties strengthening themselves all they could the King for the assurance of the King of France ex praecepto consilio Domini Regis Angliae totius Baronagii sent the Earls of Gloucester Leicester Peter de Subaudia John Mansel and Robert Walerand to the Parliament of Paris de arduis negotiis Regna Angliae Franciae contingentibus carrying with them a resignation of the Dutchy of Normandy and the Earldoms of Anjou Poicteau Turaine and Mayne for which the King of France was to give him three hundred thousand pounds with a grant of all Guyen beyond the River of Garonna all the River of Xantoigne to the River of Charente and the Counties of Limosin and Quercy to him and his Successors dong his Homage and Fealty to the Crown of France as a Duke of Aquitain and a Peer of that Kingdom After whose return Montfort as he had incensed others so had he those that animated him against the King as Walter Bishop of Worcester and Robert Bishop of Lincoln who enjoyned him upon the remission of his sins to prosecute the cause unto death affirming that the peace of the Church of England would never be established but by the Sword But the people being oppressed and tired at length with those commotions part-takings and discords which by the provisions wrested from the King at Oxford and so many mischiefs and inconveniencies had harassed and almost ruined them and did help to increase rather than decrease those troubles and controversies which afflicted the Nation it having never been easie to bring those that were to be governed to rule with any modesty or moderation those that had enjoyed a governing power in authority established and appointed by God in a well-temper'd Monarchy and succession for many Ages or those that were to govern to obey the giddy and unjust dictates of those who were to obey them or to unite in any contenting harmony the various ambitions envies revenges hatreds partialities self-interests and designs of many or a multitude or such enforcements and contrivances to be lasting durable or pleasing and that all could not well rule or agree how to do it The King and Queen keeping their Christmas in the Tower of London cum suis consiliariis saith Matthew Paris elaboratum fuit tam à Regni Angliae pontificibus quam à Regni Franciae ut pax reformaretur inter Regem Angliae Barones ventumque est ad illud ut Rex Proceres se submiserunt ordinationi Regis Franciae in praemissis provisionibus Oxoniae nec non pro depraedationibus damnis utrobique
other the Lords Marchers soon raise a powerful Army multitudes of the Counties of Hereford Worcester Salop and Chester coming to his aid took the Castle and City of Worcester had the Castle of Monmouth delivered unto him which he demolished surprized the Town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire whither young Simon de Montfort had brought up many of the Northern Barons of that Party to the number of 20 Banners took no less than Thirteen of the chief of them young Simon and others escaping into the Castle In the mean time the said Symon Earl of Leicester carrying the King along with him as his Prisoner upon Lammas day being the first day of August receiving intelligence that the Prince was at Worcester and not knowing that Kenilworth was taken marched towards Evesham about break of the day on purpose to meet with those Barons which his Son had brought out of the North of which the Prince being advertised advanced speedily after him and got betwixt him and Kenilworth Mortimer and the Earl of Gloucester so disposing the Forces which they commanded as that he was almost invironed Seeing himself therefore in that streight he forthwith drew out his men and prepared for Battell it being then the Nones of August and ascending the Hill discovered Prince Edward and his Army on the top thereof which was divided into three parts the first led by Himself the second by the Earl of Gloucester the third by Mortimer the business being so ordered that no other Colours appeared then the Banner of young Symon and the rest taken at Kenilworth which caused the Earl to suppose that many of them had been of his own Party but upon further View he understood the contrary for the Prince afterwards took down those Colours and instead of them erected his own and the Earl of Gloucesters Banners on the one side and Mortimers towards the West which unexpected sight caused such a Discouragement in the Army of the Barons as that the Welsh betook themselves to flight and the rest being over-powerd were totally routed so that few escaped the Slaughter Of those who were Slain and not taken Prisoners were as to the Principal Persons Symon de Monfort Earl of Leicester himself whose Head Hands and Feet being cut off were sent to the Lady Mortimer then at Wigmore Castle Henry de Montfort his Eldest Son Hugh le Dispencer then Justice of England Ralph Basset of Drayton Thomas de Astely Peter de Montfort William de Mandeville John de Beauchamp of Bedford Guy de Baliol and divers other persons of Quality with a multitude of the common Sort Of those that were wounded and taken Prisoners the Chief were Guy de Montfort a younger Son of the said Symon de Montfort John Fitz-John Humphry de Bohun the younger John de Vescy Peter de Monfort Junior and Nicholas de Segrave And it was said that when the Earl of Leicester discerned the Form of the Princes Battalia he swore by the Arm of St. James his usual Oath they have done discreetly but this they have learned of me let us therefore commend our Souls to God because our Bodies are theirs and encouraging his men told them they were to Fight for the Law of the Land yea the Cause of God and Justice and advising Hugh le Despencer Ralph Basset and some others to flie and reserve themselves for better times they refused so to do but rather chose to die with him Who although he was an Arch-Rebell and in that a Pest or Plague unto the Nation yet the deluded People could not think it enough to honour and follow him in his Life time but would in the Fame of his supposed Miracles have worshipped him for a Saint after his Death if the King had not prohibited them SECT IX Of the Proceedings of King Henry the Third after his Release and Restauration until his Death THE long imprisoned and sadly misused King thus happily released out of his Thraldome but yet with the Loss of some of his Own as well as too much of his Subjects Blood by a Wound casually received in the battle was now rid of his Jaylor whom he feared and hated as he said himself more than any man living and he that before was forced to write and speak as Montfort and the rebellious Barons would dictate unto him obey their Orders as soon as they were proposed declare his Son and Loyal Subjects Rebels and the Rebels his most faithful Councel could like a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler when he was at liberty and had escaped their Tyranny give them their proper Names and Titles call their whole business a Rebellion and made them glad to receive their Pardons under the Character of his Enemies as in the Pardons of John Fitz-John Basset and others and with the Victorious Prince the Redeemer of him and the Kingdom went to Winchester where a Parliament being convoked all who adhered to Simon de Montfort were disinherited and their Estates conferred upon others at the King's pleasure the Liberties of London forfeited and taken from them in which year that valiant Prince his Son as Mat. Paris hath recorded it fought a single Combat with Adam de Goâ—rdon the Out-law near Farneham where finding him in the Woods and personally engaging with him the fight continued so long and with such Animosity and Courage on both sides as they as well as the Spectators marvailing at each others extraordinary unwearied Valour the sturdy Out-law was at last content upon the Prince's offer to procure his Pardon to throw down his Arms and was restored to Favour and his former Estate And the King notwithstanding the Success at the Battle of Evesham and his Advantages gained thereby continuing his Endeavours to free his Kingdom from the Danger Damage and Disturbance of any further Rebellion having gathered together a formidable Army treated upon Hostages given with young Simon de Montfort for a Peace to be granted unto him as to his own particular and for the delivering up of the Castle of Kenilworth wherein he had despitefully behaved himself by cutting off the hand of one of his Courriers whom he had intercepted and sending it unto him in a ridiculous jeeâ—ing manner not only from himself but some of his Complices that were forfeited and disherited But they that were in the Castle denying to surrender it either to the King or Symon in regard that they were intrusted by the Countess of Leicester who was beyond the Seas and without her Order they would not do it In the mean time whilst the King besieged Killingworth Castle which held out half a year a great Party of those that were disherited growing desperate retired to the Isle of Ely which they did begin to fortifie and from thence making Incursions into the adjacent parts did great Mischief Which to repress â—aith Mathew Paris citantur Communium Communes ad â—os vallandos eorum egressum impediendum which in great numbers
disobliging unto any of them was to fall foul or out of the favour of all their great Alliances Friends Kindred numberless Tenants Servants Retainers Dependants and well-Wishers many of which being their own Relations Friends or Kindred might either help on and bring upon them a most certain and inevitable Ruine or put their small and fainting Estates into a languishing Condition when any the least Offences taken or given would be sure to effect it in the Displeasure of those who until the Reign of King Edward the First and some Ages after were so high and potent As that Ferrers Earl of Darby an Opposite to King Henry the Third in the Baron's Wars had Twenty Lordships in Barkeshire Three in Wiltshire in Essex Five in Oxfordshire Seven in Warwickshire Six in Lincolnshire Two in Buckinghamshire Two in Gloucestershire One Herefordshire Two Hantshire Three Nottinghamshire Three Leicestershire Thirty-Five Derbyshire One Hundred and Fourteen Staffordshire Seven of which was Chedley a parcel whereunto that part of Staffordshire appertained and besides had the Castle and Borough of Tudbury in that County together with many Advowsons Patronages c. and Knights Fees holding of him in those and other parts of England An Ancestor of Gilbert de Gaunt a partaker of the Norman Conquest another Opposite of King Henry the Third had in the Conquerors Survey One Lordship in Barkshire Three in Yorkshire Six in Cambridgeshire Two in Buckinghamshire One in Huntingtonshire Five in Northamptonshire One in Rutland One in Leicestershire One in Warwickshire Eighteen in Nottinghamshire One Hundred and Thirteen in Lincolnshire with Folkingham which was the Head of his Barony besides Knights Fees of those that held of him Patronages and Advowsons Fairs Markets Assize of Bread and Beer Pillory and Tumbrel c. Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester was in the right of Amicia one of the Sisters and Co-heirs of Robert Fitz Parnel a Norman Earl of Leicester Lord high Steward of England in Fee an Office of Large Authority and Esteem had in Warwickshire Sixty-Four Lordships in Leicestershire Sixteen in Wiltshire Seven in Northamptonshire Three in Gloucestershire One besides many Knights Fees of those that held of him Advowsons Patronages Fairs Markets and the priviledges of Pillory Tumbrel and the Assize of Bread and Beer The Earl of Gloucester and Hartford had Thirty-Eight Lordships in Surrey Thirty-Five in Essex Three in Cambridgeshire Halling and Bermeling Castle in Kent Haresfeild in Middlesex Sudtime in Wiltshire Leviston in Devonshire Ninety-Five in Suffolke besides Thirteen Burgages in or near Ipswich of which Clare was one from whence that Family took their Surname or it from them had the Town and Castle of Tunbridge in Kent the Castle of Brianels in the County of Gloucester and whilst the King and his Son Edward were Prisoners at Lewis obtained a Grant under the Great Seal of all the Lands and large Possessions of Iohn Warren Earl of Surrey to hold at the King's Pleasure except the Castles of Rigate and Lewis was one of the Chief that extorted a Commission from the King authorizing Stephen Bishop of Chichester Symon Montfort and himself to nominate Nine as well Prelates as Barons to manage all things according to the Laws and Customes of the Kingdom until the Determinations should be made at Lewis and others which they better liked should take Effect Awbrey de Vere in the general Survey of William the Conqueror had Cheviston now Kensington Geling and Emingford in com Hunt Nine Lordships in Suffolk Fourteen in Essex whereof Colne Hengham and Bentley were part in Warwickshire Six in Leicestershire Fourteen in Northamptonshire Six in Oxfordshire Two and in Wiltshire Ten a Descendant of whom had in the Raign of King Stephen together with Richard Basset Justice of England custodiam Comitatus and executed the Sheriffs Offices of Surrey Cambridge Huntington Essex Hartford Northampton Leicester Norfolk Suffolk Buckingham and Bedford had by the Grant of Maud the Empress and King Henry the Second her Son by inheritance the Earldom of Oxford granted unto him and his Heirs and Mannor and Castle of Caufeild in the County of Essex and the Office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England in Fee with the Castles of Hengham or Hedingham and Campes to be holden by that Service and divers other Lands and Possession of a great yearly Value had before the Fourth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bulbeck many Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Buckingham and Cambridge and by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of Gilbert Lord Sanford the Inheritance of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Essex and Hartford and a Grant in Fee to be Chamberlain to the Queen die Coronationis suae with divers Priviledges and One Hundred Knights Fees holden of them one whereof was by the Heirs of Mordaunt for Lands in Essex to come compleatly Armed as Champion to the Heir of the Family and Earls of Oxford in the great Hall of Hedingham Castle upon the day of his Nuptials to defy and fight with any that should deny him to be Earl of Oxford and another for the Mannor of Horseth in the County of Cambridge holden by the Family of Allington now the Lord Allington of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Service of holding the Earl of Oxford's Stirrop die nuptiarum which was actually performed in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the day of the Marriage of Edward Earl of Oxford with the Daughter of the Lord Burghley Roger Bygod in the Conquerors Time did possess Six Lordships in Essex and One Hundred Seventeen in Suffolk had a Grant in the Raign of King Henry the Second of the Mannors of Ersham Walsham Alvergate and Aclay and the Honour of Eye in the County of Suffolk the Custody of the Castle of Norwich and a Grant of the Office of high Steward of England to hold and enjoy in as ample manner as Roger Bygod his Father had held it in the time of King Henry the First was Earl Marshal of England by Inheritance and had thereby a great Command and Authority in the King's Armies and all his Martial Affairs registred in his Marshals Rolls those many Thousands who as Tenants in Capite came into the Army to perform their Service by which also they were enabled to receive Escuage after of those that were their Under-tenants and held of them and did not come to do their Service was in times of Peace as in War to appease Tumults to Guard the King's Palace distribute Liveries and Allowances to the Officers thereof attend at the doing of Homages have a Fee of every Baron made a Knight and to receive of every Earl doing Homage a Palfry and Furniture Hugh de Montfort Ancestor of Peter de Montfort one of the Twenty-Four enforced Conservators for the Kingdom in the said Raign of King Henry the Third had in the general Survey Twenty-Eight
Mannors in Kent besides a large proportion of Rumney Marsh Sixteen in Essex Fifty-one in Suffolk and Nineteen in Norfolk a Descendant of whom had in 12. Henry the Second holden of him Ten Knights Fees and a Fourth part de veteri feoffamento and was seized of the Mannor of Wellesborne in com Leic which Peter had in 12 Henry the Third the Mannor of Beldesert in Comitat ' Stafford in Anno 35 Henry the Third was Governor of Horeston Castle in Derbyshire in Forty-One Warden of the Marches of Wales towards Montgomery and also of the Castles of Salop and Bruges was Sheriff of the Counties of Salop and Stafford and so likewise for the next ensuing Year had the Custody of the Castles of Bruges and Ellesmere in Anno 47. Henry the Third was Governor of the Castles of Corff and Shirburne and of the Castle and Mannor of Seggewick and was in Anno 49. Eiusdem Regis made by that King 's Imprisoned Seal Governor of Whittenton Castle in Shropshire Gilbert de Segrave the Son of Hereward held the Mannor of Segrave in Com' Leic ' with the Fourth part of a Knight's Fee had a Grant of the King of the Lands of Stephen de Gaunt in the Counties of Lincolne and Leicester in the 5th of Henry the Third was Sheriff of the Counties of Essex and Hartford and the Two next ensuing Years in the 6th of Lincolnshire for Three parts of the Year and to the 8th in 11th Henry the Third Sheriff of Buckingham and Bedfordshire and continued until the 18th in the 10th of Henry the Third was a Justice itinerant for Nottingham and Derby-shires purchased Mount Sorrel in the County of Leicester in the 16th Henry the Third had the Custody of the Castle of Northampton and of the Counties of Buckingham Bedford Warwick and Leicester for the term of his Life taking the whole Profits of all those Counties for his Support in that Service excepting the ancient Farms which had been usually paid in the Exchequer with the Encrease which in King Henry the Seconds time had been answered for them was Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas in 2d Henry the Third when upon the removal of Hubert de Burgh he was made Cheif Justice of England and had likewise the Mannor of Almonsbury in com' Huntington Hugh Despencer was in the Eighth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third constituted Sheriff of the Counties of Salop and Stafford Governor of the Castles of Salop and Bridgenorth in the 10th of Henry the Third Sheriff of Berkshire and Governor of Wallingford Castle and in the 17th of Bolsoner Castle in com' Derby in 44th was by the rebellious Barons made Chief Justice of England after the Battle of Lewes Governour of Oxford Castle in Suffolk the Devises in Wiltshire Oxford and Nottingham Castle Bernard in the Bishoprick of Durham and one of the Twenty-Four Conservators for managing the Affairs of the Realm was seized of the Mannor of Ryhal in com' Rotel ' Leghere and Wykes in com' Essex Bernewell in com' Northampton Wycomb in com' Buck ' Soham in com' Cant ' Berewick Winterborne Basset in com' Wilts Speke in com' Berk whose Grand-child Hugh le Despencer in the Raign of King Edward the Second was possessed of no less than Fifty-Nine Lordships in several Counties Twenty-Eight-Thousand Sheep One Thousand Oxen and Steers Twelve Hundred Kine with their Calves Sixty Mares with their Colts Two Years old One Hundred Sixty draught Horses Two Thousand Hogs Three Hundred Bullocks Sixty Tuns of Wine Six Hundred Bacons Eighty Carkases of Martilmas Beef Six Hundred Muttons in the Larder Ten Tuns of Cider with Armes Plate Jewels and ready Money to the value of Ten Thousand Pounds Thirty-Six Sacks of Wool besides a Library of Books Humfrey de Bohun whose Descendant joyned with the Barons against King Henry the Third had in Anno 12. Henry the Second Thirty and a half Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento and Nine and a half de novo was Earl of Hereford and Constable of England by descent from his Mother his Son Henry de Bohun answered Fifty Marks and a Palfreâ— to the King for Twenty Knights Fees belonging to the Honor of Huntington had the Earldom of Essex and a very great Estate of Lands belonging thereunto descended unto him by Maud Countess of Essex his Mother together with a great Estate of Lands which came unto her from Isabel third Daughter and Co-heir of William Earl of Gloucester had likewise Lands in Haresfeild in com' Glouc ' holden by the service of Constable of England the Mannors of Shudham and Wâ—tnorst Kineton in com' Hunt ' and Walden in com' Essex Vescy one of the Barons against King Henry the third was at the time of the Norman Conquest seized of one Mannor in com' Northtamp ' two in Warwickshire seven in the County of Lincoln nine in Leic ' the Castles and Baronies of Alnewick in com' Northumberland and Multon in com' Eboru ' had besides vast Possessions bestowed on him by King Henry the first the Mills of Warner Bodele and Spilsham with eleven Mannors divers Lands and Tenements in the City of York and whatsoever he held of David King of Scotland and Henry his Son the Arch-Bishop of York Bishop of Duresme of the Earl of Richmond Geffry Estcland and Richard fitz Paine Roger de Moubray William Fossard William Paganell the Earl of Albemarle Roger de Clare Gilbert de Gant Roger de Beauchampe Henry de Campaine Ralph the Son of Bogan the Earl of Chester Abbess of Berking William de Sailley and of all the Fee of Thurstane the Son of Robert de Mansfeild had likewise the Mannors of Ellerton and Cansfeild and was Governour of the Castle of Bamburgh in com' Northum ' seized of the Mannors of Brentune Propertime Pecheston and Sornneston Burgh and Knaresburgh in the County of York Barony of Halton and Constabulary of Chester a Descendant whereof had in the Raign of King Henry the Second twenty Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento and many de novo that held of him had in 32d Henry the third in the Right of Agnes his Wife one of the Daughters of William de Ferrers Earl of Derby partition of the Lands in Ireland which did belong to William Marshal Earl of Pembroke Whose Ancestor had in the 2d Henry the Second Lands of a great Yearly value in Westcombe Marleburgh and Criâ—l in com' Wilts ' given unto him by the King with the Office of Earl Marshal and all other Lands holden of him in England or else-where had a Grant of the Mannor of Boseham in com' Suff ' with the Lastage and Hundred the Lordships of Westive and Bodewin with the Hundred of Bodewin all the Lands which the Earl of Eureux held in England except the Mannor of Marlow all the Lands of Hugh de Gournay lying in the Counties of Norfolk and Suff ' Kaule and Castre and all the Lands of Hugh
Expedition into Gascoigne and that he might levy the like upon his Tenants gave One Hundred Twenty Pounds more And of no less Power and Authority with and over the Common People were the rest of our English Nobility which took up Armes with the King or stood Neutrals or at a Gaze until they saw what would become of him witness that of the Earl of Chester who executed the Office of Sheriff by his Deputies for the Counties of Salop and Stafford in the 2d 3d 4th 5th 7th and part of the 8th of Henry the third for the County of Lancaster in the 3d. 4th 5th 6th and the latter end of the 16th was seized of the whole County and Lands of Chester with Royal Jurisdiction Tenenda per Gladiune it à liberè sicut Rex ipse tenebat Angliam per Coronam at the time of the general Survey of the Conqueror was Count Palatine thereof had nine Mannors in Barkshire in Devonshire two in Yorkshire seven in Wiltsshire six in Dorsetshire ten in Somersetshire four in Suffolk thirty-two in Norfolk twelve in Hantshire one in Oxfordshire five in Buckinghamshire three in Gloucestershire four in Huntingtonshire two in Nottinghamshire four in Warwickshire one in Leicestershire twenty-two fifteen great Men of Estate in Cheshire his Barons holding Lands of him and his Heirs as Willielmus Malbane Gislebertus de Venables Rad Venator c. and was seized of that Mountainous part of Yorkshire and Westmoreland called Stanemore Unto one of whose Descendants or Family King Stephen gave the City and Castle of Lincolne with License to Fortify the Town thereof and to enjoy it until he rendred unto him the Castle of Tickhil in Yorkshire granted likewise unto him the Castle of Belvoir with all the Lands thereunto belonging all the Lands of William de Albini Grantham with all its Soke thereunto belonging Newcastle in Staffordshire with the Soke of Roely in com' Leic ' Corkeley in Lincolnshire the Town of Derby with the appurtenances Mansfield in com' Nott ' Stonely in Warwickshire with their appurtenances the Wapentake of Oswardbeck in com' Nott ' and all the Lands of Roger de Busty with the Honour of Blythe and all the Lands of Roger de Poictou from Northamptom to Scotland excepting that which belonged to Roger de Montbegon in Lincolnshire all the Lands betwixt the Rivers of Ribble and Merse in Lancashire the Lands which he had in Demesne in the Mannor of Grimsby in com' Lincolne and all the Lands which the Earl of Gloucester had in Demesne in that Mannor the Honour of Eye Nottingham Barony and Castle Stafford and the whole County of Stafford except the Fees of the Bishop of Chester Earl Robert Ferrers Hugh de Mortimer Gervase Paganel and the Forrest of Canoc the Fees of Alan de Lincolne Ernise de Burun Hugh de Scoteny Robert de Chalz Rafe Fitz Oates Norman de Verdun and Robert de Staford Odo Bishop of Baieux William the Conquerors half Brother had one hundred eighty-four Mannors given him in Kent thirty-nine in Essex thirty-two in Oxfordshire in Hartfordshire thirty-three in Buckingham thirty in Worcestershire two in Bedfordshire eight Northamptonshire twelve in Nottinghamshire five in Norfolk twenty-two in Warwickshire six in Lincolnshire seventy-six amounting in the whole to Five Hundred Forty-Nine whereof two hundred eighty he gave saith Mr. Selden to his Nephew de Molbraio Earl John afterwards King of England had in the Life time of King Richard the First his Brother the Earldomes of Cornwall Dorset Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with the then large Possessions thereof and had in Marriage with Isabel Daughter and Heir to the Earl of Gloucester that Earldom together with the Castles of Marleburgh Ludgersel Honours of Wallingford Tickhil and Eye John Earl of Surrey and Sussex had in Yorkshire the great Lordship of Connigsburgh in the Soke whereof were near twenty-eight Towns and Hamlets Westtune in Shropshire in Essex twenty-one Lordships in Suffolk eighteen in Oxfordshire Maple Durham and Gaddington in Hantshire Frehinton in Cambridgeshire seven in Buckinghamshire Brotone and Cauretelle in Huntingtonshire Chevevaltone with three other Lordships in Bedfordshire four and in Norfolk one hundred thirty-nine and the Castle of Rigate in Surrey Yale and Bromfeild with their large Extents in Shropshire and was at the Battle of Lewes on the King's part Ralph de Mortimer had given him by the Conqueror in Berkshire five Mannors in Yorkshire eighteen besides divers Hamlets in Wiltshire ten in Hantshire thirteen in Oxfordshire one in Worcestershire four in Warwickshire one in Lincolnshire seven in Leicestershire one in Shropshire fifty in Herefordshire nineteen besides the Castle of Wigmore And Roger de Mortimer Earl of March a Descendant of the same House and Family was in the Raigns of King Edward the First and Second besides their former large Estates in Lands seized of the Town of Droitwick and Chace of Malverne in com' Wigorn ' the Chase of Cors in com' Glou ' the Castle of Trym in Ireland with its large Territory and Appurtenance and in VVales the Castles of Kentlies Dominion of Melenith and Comott of Duder Castle of Radnor with the Territory of VVarthre and Mannors of Prestmede or Presteigne and Kineton Castles of Ruecklas and Pulith Castles and Lordships of Bledleveny and Bulkedinas Castle and Mannor of Nerberth Comots of Amgeid and Pennewick Castles and Dominions of Montgomery and Bulkedinas Mannor and Hundred of Cherbury Castle of Dolvaren and Territory of Redevaugh Town and Territory of Ewyas Castles of Kery and Rodewin Castle of Dynebegh Castle and Cantred of Buelch Comots of Ros Rowenock Konuegh and Diomam and in Somersetshire the Castle of Brugwater with three Mannors Bayliwick of the Forrests of North Pederton Exmore Noreech Chich Mendip and Warren of Somerton three Mannors in Kent one in com' Buck ' and one in Staffordshire and kept in his House a constant Table in imitation of King Arthurs Round Table for one hundred Knights King Henry the Third after the Battle of Evesham gave unto his Son Edmond to hold to him and the Heirs of his Body the Earldom Honour and Lands of Leicester and Stewardship of England the Earldom Honour and Lands with the Castles Mannors and Lands of Robert de Ferrers Earl of Derby and Nicholas de Segrave the Custody of the Castles of Caermarden and Cardigan and Isie of Lundy the Castle of Sherborne in com' Dors ' the Castle of Kenilworth in com' VVarwick with all the Lands thereunto belonging the Honour Earldom Castle and Town of Lancaster and was Count Palatine thereof with their Appurtenances together with the Castle of Tutbury with its great Appurtenances in the County of Stafford the Honour and Castle of Monmouth the Honour Town and Castle of Leicester with all the Lands and Knights Fees which Symon de Montfort had Whose Son and Heir Thomas Earl of Lancaster having as an addition to the great Estates in Lands remaining unto him after his Father divers
great Barons and Lords Spiritual and Temporal could not imagine would ever be able either to forget the Good which they and their Fore-Fathers had received and they and their after-Generations were like to enjoy under them or get loose from those many great Ties and Obligations of a never-to-be-forgotten Gratitude which they had upon them but thought themselves very secure from any danger that might happen by any of their Incroachments or Usurpations by placing any Power or but a Semblance of Authority for once in the lower Ranks of the People nor could have believed that the common People of England after their solemn Protestations to preserve them and the Government could after the Murder of their King in their last horrid Rebellion have Voted them to be useless and dangerous and being unwilling to leave any of the Divels their Masters business unfinished did solemnly enforce the deluded Seditious People under as many severe Penalties as they could lay upon them not any more to submit to any Government by a King and House of Lords to whom our Kings had given no Power to make their own Choice but lodged and onely entrusted it in the Sheriffs many of which the rebellious Barons had by Usurpation of the King's Authority provided before hand to be at this present of their own Party or were like to be so or under their Awe and Guidance wherein they were perceived by the King some Years before upon their ill-gained Provisions at Oxford to have been very diligent in making Sheriffs of their own Party those great Offices being in those times and many Years before and some few Years after alwayes put into the Hands and Trust of the Baronage or Men of great Estate and Power Whose Number by Tenures and Summons by Writs to our King 's great Councels or Parliaments Creations or Descents accounted in the Raign of King Henry the Third to be no less than Two Hundred and Forty if not many more and like the tall and stately Cedars of our Nation might well deserve the Titles of Proceres and Magnates especially when many or most of them were in their Greatness Goodness and Authority in their several Stations like the Tree which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his Vision high and strong The height whereof reached to the Heaven the leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowles of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof and as ex pede Herculem the Length and Greatness of Hercules's Foot declared the vast Proportion and Magnitude of the residue of his Body it was easy to compute how little were then the Common People how great the Nobility whom the Brittaines ancient Inhabitants of our Isle as the Learned Francis Junius the Son of the no less Learned Francis Junius hath observed justly stiled them Lhafords Lords and their Wives Lhafdies Ladies because they usually gave Bread and Sustenance to those that wanted it gave License of Marriage to the Widdows of their Thanks by Knight Service punished their Tenants so holding their Lands by Writ Cessavit per Biennium and a Forfeiture if not redeemed was Entituled to a Writ of Contra formam Collationis for not performing the Duties and Offices of their Endowments and the large Revenues and Emoluments appropriated thereunto And with the many Accessions and Devolutions of other Mannors Lands Revenues Estates Baronies Titles of Honour and Offices of State by Marriages Descents in Fee or remainders in Fee-tail munificent Guifts and Grants of their Kings and Princes upon Merit and great Services done for them and their Country or by Purchases guarded by the strength of the Statute De donis Conditionalibus made in the 13th Year of the Raign of King Edward the First with the Tye and Obligation of their Tenures and the Restraints of Alienation made them to be such Grantz Magnates as the common People did in their Disseisins Intrusions and Outrages done one unto another which in the elder times were very frequent colour and Shelter those Injuries by or under some Title or Conveyances made unto some of the Nobility or great Men of the Kingdom which caused some of our Kings to grant out Commissions of Ottroy le Baston vulgarly called Trail Baston to find out and punish such Evil doings and by the making of some of our later Laws to restrain the giving of Liveries so as until the Writs of Summons granted by King Edward the First in the 22d Year of his Raign to Elect some Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses to give their Assent in Parliaments to such Laws and Things as by the advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal should advise should by him be ordained there having been an Intermission of those or the like kind of Writs of Summons from the first Contrivance thereof in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign it was and ought to be believed as a matter or thing agreeable to Truth right Reason and the Laws and Records of the Kingdom that the Commons and Freeholders of England were long before and for many Ages past as ancient as the British Empire and Monarchy were to be no part of our Great Councels or Parliaments were never Summoned or Elected to come thither but had their Votes and Estates and well Being as to those great Councels included in the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and as to their assent or dissent good or ill liking represented by them and retaining their well deserved Greatness were so potent and considerable as Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester could after the Battle of Evesham where he had Fought for the King March with a formidable Army composed for the most part of his own Servants Tenants Reteiners and Dependants from the Borders of Wales to London quarrel and capitulate with his King that had been but a little before extraordinary Victorious and with John Warren Earl of Surrey did after the Death of King Henry the Third before the Return of his Son Prince Edward from the Wars in the Holy-Land to take the Crown upon him at the Solemnization of the Funeral of the deceased King in the Abbey-Church of Westminster with the Clergy and People there Assembled without their License and Election go up to the high Altar and swear their Fealty to the absent King Edward the First his Son So beloved feared and followed as the great Earl of Warwick was said in some of our Histories to have been the Puller down and Setter up of Kings could with the Earl of Oxford in the dire Contests betwixt King Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth for the Crown of England rescue and take by force King Henry the Sixth out of the Tower of London where he was kept a Prisoner attend him in a stately and numerous Procession to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul the one carrying up his Train and the other
those Writs of Summons to Parliaments to be made Howbeit most certain it is saith Sir William Dugdale That those Writs of Election made in the Name of King Henry the Third to send Knights and Burgesses to the Parliament were by a Force put upon his Great Seal of England as much as upon himself when they had him as a Prisoner of War in their Custody and kept him so as our Chronicles Historians and Annals have Recorded it for an Year and a quarter carrying him about with them to countenance their rebellious Actions for the Battle of Lewis wherein he was made a Prisoner was upon the 14th of May in the 48th and that of Evesham which released him the 4th day of August in the 49th Year of his Raign And there is no Testimony or Record to be found of any other the like Writ of Election made afterwards untill the 22d Year of King Edward the First although there were several Parliaments or Magna Concilia convocated and held in the mean time and if our Ancestors had not been so misled and abused by the Rebels in the Raign of King John and his Son King Henry the Third there are enough yet alive who can sadly remember how a more transcendantly wicked hypocritical Party have since adventured to make out and frame until they had Murthered him counterfeit Writs Commissions and Summons of Parliament in the Name of our Religious King CHARLES the Martyr and make as much as they could His Royal Authority to Fight against His Person And there is no Certainty or pregnant Evidence saith Mr. William Pryn who being a Lawyer and a long and ancient Member of the House of Commons in Parliament did so much adore the Power and Preheminence thereof as adventuring the Loss of his Estate Body and Soul with them therein could find no better a Foundation or Pedigree to bestow upon them than the Captivity and Imprisonment of a distressed unfortunate King but saith That there were not any Knights Citizens Burgesses or House of Commons in the Confessors or Conquerors Raigns or any of our Saxon or Danish Kings nor before the latter end of King Henry the Third's Raign for although Polydore Virgill and others do refer the Original of our Parliaments to the Council holden at Salisbury in the 16th Year of King Henry the First there is not one Syllable in any of our ancient Historians concerning Knights Citizens and Burgesses present in that Councel as saith the Learned Sir Henry Spelman in these words viz. Rex perindè qui totius regni Dominus est Supremus regnumque universum tà m in personis Baronum suorum quà m è subditorum Ligeancia ex jure Coronae suae subjectum habet Concilio assensu Baronum suorum Leges olim imposuit universo regno consentire inferior quisque visus est in persona Domini sui Capitalis prout bodiè per Procuratores Comitatûs vel Burgi quos in Parliamento Knights and Burgesses appellamus Habes morem veteram quem Mutâsse ferunt Henricum Primum Anno regni sui sextodecimo plebe ad concilium Sarisberiense tunc accitâ haec vulgaris opinio quam typis primus sparsit Polydorus Virgilius acceptam subsequentes Chronâ—graphi nos ad authores illius seculi prouocamus And refuting that Opinion by Neubrigensis who lived about that time and relates the purpose of that Great Councel in these words Facto concilio eidem Filiae suae susceptis vel suscipiendis ex eis nepotibus ab Episcopis Comitibus Barombus omnibus qui alicujus videbantur esse momenti and likewise by Florentius Wigorniensis Eadmerus and Huntington further saith Ludunt qui Parliamenta nostra in his quaerunt sine ut sodes dicam collegisse mecentenas reor conciliorum coitiones tenoresque ipsos plurimorum ab ingressu Gulielmi 1 mi ad excessum Henrici 3 i existentium nec in tanta multitudine de plebe uspiam reperisse aliquid ni in his delituer it Seniores sapientes populi which he conceives to be only Aldermanni Sapientes or Barones Magnates regni not the Commons And it hath been well observed by the learned Author of the Notae Adversaria in historiam Mathaei Parisiensis That in the ancient Synods before the subduing of England by William Duke of Normandy conficiebantur chartae donationum publicae de gravaminibus Reipublicae brevitèr inter Regem Magnates Episcopos Abbates consultabatur id enim tunc dierum erat Synodus quod nunc ferè Parliamentum nisi quod non rogabantur leges per plebiscita nec sanciebantur Canones per suffragia minoris Cleri And was as novel and new as it was unexpected no such Writ having ever before been framed or made use of to such or any the like purpose And Mr. Selden likewise saith That the Earls and Barons mentioned or directed by those compelled then Writs of Summons to come to that pretended Parliament were only the Earls of Leicester Gloucester Oxford Derby Norfolk Roger de Sancto Johannis Hugh le Despencer Justiciar ' Angliae Nicholas de Segrave John de Vescy Robert Basset G. de Lucy and Gilbert de Gaunt Of which the Earls of Leicester Gloucester Norfolk Oxford and Derby were notoriously known to have been in open Armes and Hostility against the King The whole Number of the Temporal Lords therein named not amounting unto more than Twenty-Three with a Blank left for the Names of other Earls and Barons which have not been yet inserted or filled up And all the other which were in that constrained Writ of Summons particularly and expresly named were no other than H. de le Spencer Justicar ' Angliae John Fitz-John Nicholas de Segrave John de Vescy Rafe Basset de Drayton Henry de Hastings Geffery de Lucie Robert de Roos Adam de Novo Mercato Walter de Colvill and Robert Basset de Sapcott which together with the then Bishops of London and Worcester Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and Steward of England H. de Boun juvenis Peter de Monteforti S. de Monteforti juvenes Baldwin Wake William le Blond William Marescallus Rafe de Gray William Bardolff Richard de Tany or Tony and Robert de Veteri Ponte made up the Number of the opposite Party to that King in the aforesaid Reference to the King of France And Mr. Selden hath observed That the Preambles of the ancient Parliament-Writs for the Snmmoning of the Baronage sometimes so varied that some eminent occasions of the calling of the Parliament were inserted in the Writs to the Spiritual Barons that were not in those to the Temporal and often times no more than a general and short Narrative of our King's Occasion of having a Parliament with much variation in the Writs of that nature with many differences of slighter Moment expressed and sometimes in all a Clause Against coming attended with Armes and that until the middle of the
Writs or in that which Mr. Elsing hath left unto the World In formâ praedictâ subscribitur Abbatibus Prioribus subscriptis c. without any Christian Names or Additions formerly used Sub data apud Woodstock 14. die Decembris In formâ praedictâ mandatum est Comitibus aliis Subscriptis dat' apud Woodstock viz. Comiti Leicester Comiti Glou ' Comiti Norff ' Marescal ' Angliae Comiti Oxon ' Comiti Derby Rogero de sancto Johannis Hugo de Spencer Justiciar ' Angliae Nich ' de Segrave Johanni de Vescy Robert Basset G de Lucie Gilbert de Gaunt of which the Earls of Leicester Gloucester Norfolk Oxford and Derby were notoriously known to be in open Armes and Hostility against the King the whole number of the Temporal Lords therein named not amounting unto more than Twenty-Three with a Blanck left for the names of other Earls and Barons which have not been yet inserted or filled up And all the other which were in that constrained Writ of Summons particularly and expressly named were no other than H de le Spencer Justiciar ' Angliae John Fitz John Nicholaus de Segrave John de Vescy Rafe Basset de Drayton Henry de Hastings Geffery de Lucy Robert de Roos Adam de novo Mercato Walter de Câ—lvill and Robert Basset de Sapcott those which together with the then Bishops of London and Worcester Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and Steward of England H. de Boun Juvenis Peter de Monte forti S. de Monte forti Juvenes Baldwin Wake William le Blond William Marescallus Rafe de Gray Will ' Bardoff ' Richard de Tany or Tony Robert de â—â—teri Ponte made up the Number of the opposite Party to the King in the aforesaid Reference to the King of France And Mr. Selden hath observed That the Preambles sometimes so varied that some eminent Occasions of the calling of the Parliament were inserted in the Writs to the Spiritual Barons that were not in those to the Temporal and oftentimes no more than a general and a short Narrative of the Resolution of having a Parliament with much variation in the Writs of that nature with many Differences of slighter Moment sometimes against making of Proxies and at other times a Licence to make them and sometimes in all a Clause against coming attended with Armes and saith That until the middle of the Raign of King Richard the Second when Dukes Earles and Barons were created by Letters Patents of our Kings that the names of the Barons to be Summoned to Parliament were Written from the King's Mouth at his Direction and Command and in that agreeth with Mr. Eâ—sing who saith it was ad libitum Regis for surely none but the King can Summon a Parliament and that is the Reason that Henry the Fourth having taken King Richard the Second his Leige Lord Prisoner the Twentieth of August in the 21st Year of his Raign did cause the Writ of Summons for the Parliament wherein he obtained the Crown to bear Date the Nineteenth day of the same Month and the Warrant to be per ipsum Regem Concilium and himself to be Summoned by the name of Henry Duke of Lancaster And the Warrants have been divers sometimes per breve de privato sigillo but commonly per ipsum Regem or per ipsum Regem Concilium SECT XV. That the Majores Barones or better sort of the Tenants in Capite Justly and Legally by some of our Ancient Kings and Princes but not by any positive Law that of the enforced Charter from King John at Running Mede being not accounted to be such a Law were distinguished and separated from the Minores or lesser sort of the Tenants in Capite FOR it could be no design in the Framers or Contrivers of his Charter to make any distinction betwixt the Majores or Minores Barones of the Kingdom or to leave to Posterity a definition of either of them or a Rule for after Ages for that would have unpolitickly very much disturbed and distracted that rebellious Assembly at Running Mede or could be likely to obtain any more thereby as to their meeting in our Kings great Councels the word Parliament being not then in use amongst us than to have a Common Councel shortly called to settle the manner of Assessment of Aides upon Knights Fees and to that only end to Summon the Tenants in Capite which were not all of that sort being not the Majores or Magnates then and yet understood by our Nation to be the Barons long before and ever since at the good Will and Pleasure of our Kings usually Called and Summoned by them to their Great Councels upon urgent Occasions the Majores Barones being to be there present to advise thereupon Which for after Assemblies of that nature constantly to be holden would have been very Numerous Troublesom Chargeable and Dangerous if the Tenants in Capite had been Threescore Thousand as Ordericus Vitalis hath Recorded them or but Thirty Two Thousand as our great Selden hath more probably estimated them And although the Learned Sir Henry Spelman was enclined to believe that the distinction betwixt the greater and lesser Baronage had its Foundation in that Charter and the Learned Cambden from a very good Authority as he thought asserted That King Henry the Third Post Magnas perturbationes enormes vexationes inter ipsum Symonem de Monte forti ex tanta multitudine quae seditiofa turbulenta fuit Optimates quosque rescripto ad Comitia evocaverit yet Mr. Selden saith That in all that he hath met with since the making of that Charter he found no mention of any Interest which those other Tenants in Chief eo nomine had in our Kings Great Councels or Parliaments who doubtless were the Persons that were excluded from it and was perswaded to give little Credit unto the Author cited by Mr. Cambden but rather to conclude That not long after that grand Charter of King John like enough in that time some Law was made that induced the utter Exclusion of all Tenants in Chief from Parliaments besides the Ancient and Great Barons and Baronies which Mathew Paris saith King Henry the Third reckoned to be Two Hundred and Fifty and such other as the King should in like sort Summon and that there were Barons by Writ as well as Barons by Tenure cites a Testimony out of Mathew Paris who speaking of King Henry the Third saith That in the Twenty Nineth Year of his Raign Rex edicto publicè proposito de submonitione generaliter factâ fecit certificari per totam Angliam ut quilibet Baro tenens ex Rege in Capite haberet prompta parata Regali praecepto omnia servitia Militaria quae ei debentur tam Episcopi Abbates quà m Laici Barones Barons holding in Capite as if some held not so which must be such as were Barons by Writ only
Durham Earls of Northampton Arundel Warwick Oxford Suffolk and Hugh le Despenser Lord of Glamorgan to the whole so misnamed Estate of Parliament when the King could not be one of them not at all being present purporting that whereas the King at his Arrival at Hoges in Normandy had made his Eldest Son the Prince of Wales Knight he ought to have of the Realm forty Shillings for every Knights Fee which they all granted and took Order for the speedy levying thereof 25 E. 3. Sir John Matravers pardon was confirmed by the whole missettled Estates whereof the King could not be accompted any of them for he granted the pardon 28 E. 3. Richard Earl of Arundel by Petition to the King praying to have the Attainder of Edmond Earl of Arundel his Father reversed and himself restored to his Lands and Possessions upon the view of the Record and and the said Richard Earl of Arundels Allegation that his Father was wrongfully put to death and was never heard the whole Estates saith that ill Translator adjudged he was wrongfully put to Death and Restored the said Earl to the benefit of the Law which none could do but the King who was petitioned and having the sole interest in the forfeiture was none of those which were wrongfully called the whole Estates 37 E. 3. Where it is said that at the end of the Parliament the Chancellor in the presence of the King shewed that the King meant to execute the Statute of Apparel and therefore charged every State to further the same the King could not be understood to charge himself After which he demanded of the whole Estates so as before mistaken whether they would have such things as they agreed on to be by way of Ordinance or of Statute they answered by way of Ordinance for that they being to take benefit thereby might amend the same at their pleasure And so the King having given thanks to all the as aforesaid miscloped Estates for their pains taken licensed them to depart which should be enough to demonstrate that the Granter and Grantees were not alone or conjoynt and that the King giving thanks to the Estates did not give it to himself 42 E. 3. The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Kings behalf gave thanks to the whole in the like manner mis-termed Estate for their Aids and Subsidies granted unto the King wherein assuredly the Archbishop of Canterbury did not understand the King to be any part of the whole Estate which the King gave thanks unto The Commons by their Speaker desiring a full declaration of the Kings necessity require him to have consideration of the Commons poor Estate The King declared to the Commons that it was as necessary to provide for the safety of the Kings Estate as for the Common-wealth Anno 6. Regis Richardi 2. after Receivers and Triers of Petitions named Commandment was given that all persons and Estates which imported no more being rightly understood than conditions or sorts of men miscalled as aforesaid should the next day have the cause of summoning the Parliament declared 11 R. 2. The Parliament was said to have been adjourned by the common Assent of the whole Estates the first time of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being called the Estates without or with the Commons joyned with them no such names or words appellations or Titles were either known or in use nor any such words or Titles as Estates being to be found in the Originals or Parliament Rolls before Anno 11 R. 2. for no more appeareth in the Original than in and under these expressions viz. Et mesme le vendredi auxint a cause ce fest solempnite de pasch estoit a progeno ii coveient le Roi les Seigneurs tautx autres entendre a devotion le Parlement coe assent le toutz Estats le Parlement estoit continez del dit vendredi tanque Lindy lendemain de la equinziesme de Pasch adonquez prochem ensuent commandez per le Roy a toutz les Seigneurs Communs du dit Parlement Quils seroient a Westminster le dimengo en la dite quinzieme de pascha a plustaid sur ceo noevelles briefs furent â—aiots a toutz les Seigneurs somons au dit parlement de yestre a la dite quinzieme sur certaine peine a limiter per les Seiguro qui seroient presents en dit Parlement a la quinzieme avant dite le quel Limdy le dit Parlement fust recommence tenat son cours selont la request des Communs grant de nostre Seigur le Roi avant ditz And then but the inconsiderate hasty new created word of the Clerks in a distracted time when the great Ministers of State in two contrary Factions to the ruin of the King and many of themselves as it afterwards sadly happened were quarrelling with each other and all the Bishops so affrighted as they were enforced to make their Protestation against any proceedings to be made in that so disturbed a Parliament In Anno 21. R. 2. The Bishop of Exeter Chancellor of England taking his Theme or Text out of Ezechiel Rex unius omnibus erat proved by many Authors that by any other means than by one sole King no Realm could be well governed For which cause the King had assembled the Estates in Parliament to be informed of the rights of his Crown withheld which Oration afterwards was to the same effect seconded by Sir John Bussey Knight Speaker of the House of Commons King Richard the second being as a Prisoner in the Tower of London made the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Hereford his Procurators to publish his Rem 〈…〉 of the Kingdom to the whole Estates Which whether at at that time distinguished or divided into three doth not appear viz. into Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons could not comprehend the King who was not to be present but gave the direction and authority to his said Procurators and could never have been understood to have been present or one of them himself or to have made such a prosecution against or for himself After the claim made unto the Crown of England in Parliament by Henry Duke of Lancaster and a consultation had amongst the Lords and Estates not expressing that the Commons were a 3d. or any part thereof it being then altogether improbable that King Richard the 2d or any other representing for him was there present and to make one of the said pretended Estates as much out of the reach of probability that King Richard himself was one or a Person then acting against himself the Duke of Lancaster himself then affirming that the Kingdom was vacant And when the Usurping King Henry the 4th openly gave thanks to the whole Estates wherein is plainly evidenced that himself neither was or could be understood to be then or at any other time one of the said Estates The first day of the Parliament the Bishop of London
ruine all those that really and heartily wishout any other ends than that of duty and endless Loyalty came to help her and not by so many Plots and Conspacies against your Government and Monarchy and the lives of your Majesty and Royal Brother give a far greater disturbance thereunto than the unhappy severely punished Corah Dathan and Abiram did to the Government of Moses and Aaron who did but only murmure against them saying Ye do take too much upon you but did not plot or contrive Treasons Conspiracies or Rebellions against or to Assassinate or Murder them From all which disturbances and troubles that God will be pleased whilst you are on Earth enjoying a happy life amongst an unquiet as unto too many of them never to be contented people to free your Majesty your Heirs and Successors shall as it hath ever been be the prayers of Your Majesties always Constant and Obedient Subject FABIAN PHILIPPS THE PREFACE TO THE READERS THey that have read and duly considered though but with an ordinary compassion and sense of humanity the dismal Effects of Wars Rebellions and Discords in Kingdoms and Republicks and the little gain more than a Sacrifice to the Devil and the Ambition Revenge Self-Interest and the Ruine of Kingdoms Commonwealths Families and Estates might if there had been no other evidence have clearly and lamentably seen it in those once very famous Republicks of Athens and Sparta in the Peleponesian Wars ingaging most of the little Republicks of Achaia to run the adventure with them and did in the conclusion bring them all together under the Tyranny of the Ottoman Empire in those also of the Merciless Proscriptions of Sylla and Marius at Rome and the bloody Pharsalian Fields or Battels fought betwixt Julius Caesar and Pompey too nearly allied to have made such a quarrel or bustle to disturb so great a part of the World for Empire that of the Guelphes and Gibelines happening near about the time of our King John when the Pope so domineered over him as he constrained him to do homage unto him for England and Ireland and pay him a then great yearly Tribute that of our two great contending Families in England York and Lancaster under the several Badges or Liveries of the White Rose the Red to the destruction of many of the Nobility and Gentry taking their several parties that of the German Wars betwixt the Duke of Saxony and the Emperour Charles the 5th that of the Sicilian Vespers that of the King of Spain and the Netherlands or united Provinces of the Holy League in France and the cruel Massacre of so many thousand Protestants in Ireland and that our Incomparable late Rebellion of all the Rebellions the Devil had ever abused and Cheated a Nation withal the most hypocritical horrid and abominable and the just care that every pious and good man ought to have of his King and Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and the Blessings of God to attend his posterity might cause them to make as much hast as the dumb Son of King Craesus did to save the life of the King and therein prevent the Ruine of his Countrey And therefore I may hope that a Minimus Apostolorum one of the least Professors of the Law though of an ancient standing may be permitted without the reproach of Arrogance or scribling quiddities or Impertinences or troubling the World with the Idea's of Plato Aristotle Solon Licurgus or the unquiet Commonwealth of Rome until they were after the Experiments of divers sorts of Governments constrained to be more quiet and content with that of the Empire and Monarchy or Theocracy ordained by God be permitted to lay or bring before the Reverend Judges and Sages of the Laws of England and the Professors and Students of the Laws therein what may be found in the Records Annals and approved Authors and Historians concerning the ancient Feudal and Monarchick Government thereof without any Additions Omissions wtested Interpretations Forgeries Impostures or the fond and often abused credulity of Monkish and feigned lying Manuscripts may incite others to approve and like better of it than they have done that have to the hazard of their Estates in this World and the World to come done all that they could to pull in pieces that ancient Government upon which all our Laws reasonable Customs and Constitutions with Remedies for publick grievances have been built and founded which Sir Edward Coke hath before the dissolution of our Tenures in Capite the Ligaments of the Crown of England and the nerves sinews and strengths thereof when he was better pleased with his Soveraign not unjustly called the Quintessence of all Laws expended very near 1000 l. Sterling in my labours and travails therein and other matters concerning the Government without any penny profit or recompence either from or by the Stationers or any others more than an Employment as Deputy Comptroller of the Law Tax wherein I endeavoured all I could to serve his late Majesty and the Farmers thereof and may hope it was acceptable when his Majesty not long before his departure out of this World was by his principal Secretary of State Sir Leoline Ienkins Knight graciously pleased to declare that he had a particular regard for me and was sensible of the many Services which I had done unto the Crown which in the greatest of truth humility and modesty I might have said was done by me one of the smaller sort of the Atoms in his Kingdoms as an oblation of Duty when besides my no small loss and damage in the late horrid Rebellion I did adventure with the late learned George Bate Dr. of Physick and Mr. Nicholas Odeart sometimes Secretary to Sir Edward Nicholas principal Secretary to the murthered King did when the Rebels had refused to allow him in his own defence the assistance of his own or any other Councel learned in the Law at that they falsly called his Tryal when the Intercession of the French and Dutch Embassadors the Scots their Rebel partner Commissioners and some of the London factious Ministers could not prevail to rescue his sacred life did with great danger and hazard of our lives and Estates cause a small paper of Advice to be secretly delivered unto him not to acknowledge any jurisdiction to be in their highly wicked misnamed Court of Justice never before heard of or made use of in England or in any other Nation of the World And I did also after that wicked of wickedest sentence of death pronounced against my Soveraign Write and cause to be Printed and affixed upon the Posts and publick places in or about the Cities of London and Westminster a Protestation in the name of all the Loyal people of England against that most abominable sentence and did within a short time after Print and publish a Book in Justification and defence of him and the first as I believe that in print justly stiled him a Martyr for his people with some assurance
pour contempt upon our Kings and Princes and not cause them to wander in the Wilderness where there is no way but offer up our daily Prayers unto God to send help to our Jacob in all his many difficulties Elenchus Capitum OR THE CONTENTS Of the Sections or Chapters § 1. THat our Kings of England in their voluntary summoning to their Great Councils and Parliaments some of the more Wise Noble and Better part of their Subjects to give their Advice and Consent in matters touching the publick good and extraordinary concernment did not thereby create or by any Assent express or tacite give unto them an Authority Coordination Equality or share in the Legislative power or were elected by them page 1 § 2. Of the Indignities Troubles and Necessities which were put upon King John in the enforcing of his Charters by the Pope and his then domineering Clergy of England joyned with the Disobedience and Rebellion of some of the Barons encouraged and assisted by them p. 7 § 3. Of the succeeding Iealousies Animosities Troubles and Contests betwixt King John and his over-jealous Barons after the granting of his Charters and his other transactions and agreements with them at their tumultuous meeting at Running Mede with the ill usages which he had before received of them during all the time of his Raign p. 26 § 4. The many Affronts Insolencies and ill Usages suffered by King Henry 3. until the granting of his Magna Charta Charta de Foresta p. 29 § 5. Of the continued unhappy Jealousies Troubles and Discords betwixt the Discontented and Ambitious Barons and King Henry 3. after the granting of his Magna Charta Charta de Foresta p. 36. § 6. That the Exceptions mentioned in the King of France's Award of the Charter granted by King John could not invalidate the whole Award or justify the provisions made at Oxford which was the principal matter referred unto him p. 58 § 7. Of the evil Actions and Proceedings of Symon de Montfort and his Rebellious partners in the name of the King whilst they kept him and his Son Prince Edward and divers of the Loyal Nobility Prisoners from the 14th of May in the 48th year of his Raign until his and their delivery by the more fortunate Battle at Evesham the â—th day of August in the 49th year of his tormented Raign p. 66 § 8. Of the Actions of the Prince after his Escape his success at the Battle of Evesham Release of the King his Father and restoring him to his Rights p. 98 § 9. Of the proceedings of King Henry 3. after his Release and Restauration until his death p. 100 § 10. That these new contrived Writs of Summons made by undue means upon such a disturbed occasion could neither obtain a proper or quiet sitting in Parliament or the pretended ends and purposes of the Framers thereof and that such an hasty and undigested constitution could never be intended to erect a third Estate in the Kingdom equal in power with the King and his great Councel the House of Peers or consistent with the pretended Conservatorships or to be coordinate with the King and his Great Councel of Peers or to be a Curb to any of them or themselves or upon any other design than to procure some money to wade through that their dangerous Success p. 108 § 11. Of the great Power Authority Command and Influence which the Praelates Barons and Nobility of England had in or about the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. when he was a Prisoner to Symon Montfort â—d these Writs of Election of some of the Commons to Parliament were first devised and sent to summon them And the great power and Estate which they afterwards had to create and contain an Influence upon them p. 122 § 12. That the aforesaid Writ of Summons made in that Kings name to elect a certain number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses the probos homines good honest men or Barons of the Cinque Ports to appear for or represent some part of the Commons of England in Parliament being enforced from King Henry 3. in the 48th and 49th year of his Raign when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and under the power of him and his party of Rebellious Barons was never before used in any Wittenagemots Mikel-gemots or great Councels of our Kings or Princes of England p. 147 § 13. That the Majores Barones Regni and Spiritual and Temporal Lords with their Assistants were until the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. and the constrained Writs issued out for the election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses whilst he was a Prisoner in the Camp or Army of his Rebellious Subjects the only great Councels of our Kngs. p. 151 § 14. That these enforced Writs of Summons to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal accompanied with that then newly devised Engine or Writ to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses to be present in Parliament were not in the usual and accustomed form for the summoning the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to the Parliament p. 204 § 15. That the Majores Barones or better sort of the Tenants in Capite Iustly and Legally by some of our Ancient Kings and Princes but not by any positive Law that of the enforced Charter from King John at Running Mede being not accounted to be such a Law were distinguished and separated from the Minores or lesser sort of the Tenants in Capite p. 207 § 16. That the General Councels or Courts mentioned before the Rebellious meeting of some of the English Baronage and the constraint put upon King John at Running Mede or before the 49th of Henry 3. were not the Magna Consilia or generale Consilium Colloquium or Communia Consilia now called Parliaments wherein some of the Commons as Tenants in Capite were admitted but only truly and properly Curiae Militum a Court summoning those that hold of the King in Capite to acknowledge Record and perform their Services do their Homage and pay their Releifs c. And the Writ of summons mentied in the Close Rolls of the 15th year of the Raign of King John was not then for the summoning of a great Councel or Parliament but for other purposes viz. Military Aids and Offices p. 218 § 17. That the Comites or Earls have in Parliament or out of Parliament Power to compel their Kings or Soveraign Princes to yield unto their â—onsults Votes or Advices will make them like the Spartan Ephori and amount to no more than a Conclusion without praemisses or any thing of Truth Law or Right Reason to support it p. 229. § 18. Of the methods and courses which King Edward the first held and took in the Reformation and Cure of the former State Diseases and Distempers p. 286. § 19. That the Sheriffs are by the Tenor and Command of the Writs for the Elections of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses of
his elder Brother Geffry's Son being at that time not able to carry it he would endeavour to obtain the Crown and therefore the safer way to prevent confusion was that the Land should rather make him King than he make himself and that the Election would be some tie upon him Or in or by the Books if extant which that King is said to have wrote entituled Leges pro Republicâ 2d Statuta Regalia 3d. in the Epistle which he wrote Ad Innocentium Papam contra Stephanum Langton Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem 4th Ad Stephanum Cantuariensem Episcopum 5th Ad Innocentium Papam contra Barones 6th Ad Londinenses pro Praetor 7th Super Charta Obligatoria Which if the devouring teeth of Time or corruptions of their Originals have not met with them might if perused be believed to make no opposition to that which should be in a well-ordered Regal Government Or in or by the Charter at Running Mead called Magna Charta Charta de Forestae wrested and enforced from him by a mighty Army of too many of the Barons of England with their innumerable adherents upon their Oaths solemnly taken upon the Altars never to desist until they had obtained a grant of their Laws and Liberties which they pretended to have been violated which saith Daniel the Historian might be wished to have been gained by those unruly Barons in a better manner Or by any of our Laws or any of the Charters or Liberties granted by any of our Kings or Princes before or after SECT II. Of the Indignities Troubles and Necessities which were put upon King JOHN in the enforcing of his Charters by the Pope and his then Domineering Clergy of England joyned with the Disobedience and Rebellion of some of the Barons encouraged and assisted by them THat unfortunate Prince so ill used by Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury in the beginning of his Reign and as bad by Philip King of France who had given the Honour of Knighthood unto Arthur the Son of King John's elder Brother and taken his Homage for Anjou Poicteau Touraine Maine and the Dutchy of Normandy with an endeavour to make it the most advantageous for himself in regard that King John had neglected to do his Homage for those Provinces being Members of the Crown of France And in the third year of his Reign imposing 3 s. upon every Plough-land for discharge of a Dowry of 30000 Marks to be given in marriage with his Niece Blanch the collecting whereof the Archbishop of York opposed in his Province for which and refusing to come upon summons to his Treaty in France seizing his Temporalities the Archbishop Interdicted the whole Province of York and Excommunicated the Sheriff Into which County the King with his Queen Isabel afterwards making their Progress in their Journey towards Scotland and exacting great Fines of Offenders in his Forests the Archbishop his Brother refused him Wine and the Honour of the Bells at Beverly A reconciliation was notwithstanding made betwixt them by the mediation of four Bishops and as many Barons with a great sum of money and a promise to reform excesses on both parts When the King upon Easter after his return from the North was again Crowned at Canterbury and with him his Queen by the Archbishop Hubert and there the Earls and Barons of England were summoned to be ready with Horse and Armour to pass the Seas with him presently after Whitsontide but they holding a Conference together at Leicester by a general consent sent him word that unless he would render them their Rights and Liberties they would not attend him out of the Kingdom whereupon he required of them security by the delivering up unto him the principal of their Castles and began with William de Albany for his Castle of Belvoir who delivered unto him his Son as a Pledge but not the Castle And the King with the King of France being after solicited by the Popes Legate obtained a Subsidy of the fortieth part of all their Subjects Revenues for one year by way of Alms to succour the Holy Lands for the levying whereof in England Geffery Fitz-Peter Justiciar in England sent out his Writs by way of request and perswasion not as of due or by co-action to avoid example Howsoever the King of France declared for Arthur to whom he married his youngest Daughter required King John to deliver up unto him all his Provinces in France and by a peremptory day summon'd him to appear personally at Paris to answer what should be laid to his charge and abide the Arrest of his Court which he refusing was by sentence adjudged to lose all which he did hold in France of that Crown who thus beset with the King of France on the one side and his Nephew Arthur and the Barons of Anjou on the other who laid siege to Mirabel defended by Eleanor Mother of King John who by her intermedling turbulent and unquiet spirit had done him no good with great expedition relieved it by defeating the whole Army carrying away Prisoners Earl Arthur Hugh le Brun all the Barons of Anjou and 200 Knights Whereupon Arthur being shortly after murdered in Prison and the deed laid to his charge with the cruel execution of many of his Prisoners it so exasperated the Nobility of Britain and Poicteau as they all took Arms against him and summon'd him to answer in the Court of Justice of the King of France which he denying was condemned to forfeit the Dutchy of Normandy which his Ancestors had held by the space of 300 years and of that and all his other Provinces in France became wholly dispossest And with that disastrous success returning into England charged the Earls and Barons with the reproach of his losses in France and fined them to pay the fourth part of all their Goods for refusing their aid to which the feudal Laws and their tenures had obliged them Neither spared he the Church or Commonwealth in the like Imposition of which Geffery Fitz-Peter Justiciar of England was Collector for the Laity and Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury for the Clergy Which being not enough to supply his occasions for War in France where great Estates of many of the English Nobility then lay a Parliament was convoked at Oxford wherein was granted two Marks and a half of every Knights Fâ—e for Military Aid the Clergy promising to do the like on their part In anno 8o. of his Reign another Imposition was laid of the 13 th part of all the moveables of the Clergy and Laity which was again opposed by the Archbishop of York who solemnly accursed the Receivers thereof within his Province and departed out of the Kingdom Unto which also was added a miserable breach betwixt Legiance and Authority for Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury being dead a great controversy happened betwixt the King and the Pope upon the Monks of Canterbury's who were sent about it to Rome election of Stephen Langton a Cardinal who
being crowded into King John's Charter were never either granted or confirmed by King Henry III. Edward I. or any of our succeeding Kings nor as Sir Henry Spelman repeating the same omissions saith is therein that of paying the Debts of the Deceased probably of those that died leaving their Heirs in Ward to the Jews and others although Matthew Paris so much mistakes as to affirm that those Charters of King John and his Son Henry III. were in nullo dissimiles Which well-interpreted could signifie no more than that King John in his great necessities and troubles pressing upon his Tenants in capite the great Lords and others by taxing them proportionably according to their Knights Fees they endeavoured by those Charters all that they could to restrain him from any such Assesments which should go further then a reasonable aid unless in the cases there excepted and aim'd at no more then that a Common-Councel which was not then called a Parliament should be summon'd not annually of all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Earls and greater Barons and all the Tenants in capite being those that were most concerned therein nor as our Parliaments now but only as to their aids and services as Tenants in capite were upon forty days notice to appear at the same time and place given in general by the King's Sheriffs and Bailiffs sic factâ submonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatam secundum consilium eorum qui prae sentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti venerint and could not be intended of our now House of Commons in Parliament many years after first of all and never before introduced or constituted that praefiction of Forty days probably first creating that opinion which can never arrive unto any more then that every summons of such a Councel or Meeting was to be upon so many days notice or warning which Mr. Pryn upon an exact observation of succeeding Parliaments hath found to be otherwise much of the boisterousness haughty and long after unquiet minds of some of those unruly Barons being to be attributed to the over-strained promises and obligations of William the Conquerour before he was so to his Normans and other Nations that adventured with him upon an agreement and Ordinance made in Normandy before his putting to Sea which the King of France had in the mean time upon charges and great allowances made unto him undertaken to guard and long after by the command of King Edward III. then warring in France in the 20th year of his Reign was by Sir Barth Burghersh and others sent from thence in the presence of the Keeper or Guardian of England and the whole Estate declared in Parliament as a matter of new discovery and designs of the French happened in the traverse and success of those wars which probably might make the Posterity of some of them although the Ancestors of most of them had been abundantly recompenced by large shares of the Conquest Gifts and Honours granted by the Conquerour to a more than competent satiety extended to the then lower Ranks of his Servants Souldiers or Followers as that to de Ferrariis the Head afterwards and chief of a greater Estate and Family in England than they had in Normandy and might be the occasion of that over-lofty answer of John de Warrennis Earl of Surrey in his answer to some of the Justices in Eyre in the Reign of King Edward I. when demanded by what warrant he did hold some of his Lands and Liberties he drawing out a rusty Sword which he did either wear or had brought with him for that purpose said By that which he helped William the Conquerour to subdue England so greatly to mistake themselves as to think which the Lineage of the famous Strongbow Earl of Pembroke and some eminent Families of Wales in the after-Conquest of Ireland never adventured to do that the Ancestors of them and others that left their lesser Estates in Nòrmandy to gain a greater in England to be added thereunto had not come as Subjects to their Duke and Leige-Lord but Fellow-sharers and Partners with him which they durst not ever after claim in his life-time or the life of any of his Successors before in the greatest advantages they had of them or the many Storms and Tempests of State which befel them but might be well content as the words of the Ordinance it self do express That they and their Progenies should acknowledge a Sovereignty unto the Conquerour their Duke and King and yield an Obedience unto him and his far-fam'd Posterity as their first and continued Benefactors And those their Liberties and Priviledges freely granted by those Charters and not otherwise to be claimed were so welcome and greatly to be esteemed by the then Subjects of England as they returned him their gratitude and thankfulness for them in a contribution of the fifteenth part of all their Moveables with an Attestation and Testimony of the Wiser more Noble and Powerful part of the Kingdom viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury Eleven other Bishops Nineteen Abbots Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice Ten Earls John Constable of Chester and Twenty-one Barons men of Might and great Estates amongst which there were of the contending and opposite Party Robert Fitz Walter who had been General of the Army raised and fighting against his Father the Earls of Warren Hereford Derby Warwick Chester and Albemarl the Barons of Vipont and Lisle William de Brewere and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford who afterwards fought against that King and helped to take him Prisoner That those Charters were given and granted unto them and other his Subjects the Free-men of his Kingdom of his own free will and accord And as to that of being not condemned without Answer or Tryal which in the infancy of the World was by the Creator of all Mankind recommended to its imitation as the most excellent Rule and Pattern of Justice in the Tryal and Sentence of Adam and Eve in Paradise are not to be found enacted or granted in King Edward the Confessor's Laws or the Charters or Laws of King Henry I. the people of England having no or little reason much to value or relie upon the aforesaid Charters of King John gained indirectly by force about two years after his as aforesaid constrained Resignation of his Kingdom of England and Dominion of Ireland to hold of the Pope and Church of Rome by an yearly Tribute being not much above Thirty years before and not then gone out of memory SECT V. Of the continued unhappy Iealousies Troubles and Discords betwixt the discontented and ambitious Barons and King Henry III. after the granting of his Magna Charta and Charta de Forestâ ALmost two years after which the King in a Parliament at Oxford declaring himself to be of full age and free to dispose of the affairs of the Kingdom cancelled and annulled the Charter of the Forests as granted in his
Non-age when he had no power of Himself or his Seal and therefore of no validity caused a Proclamation to be made that both the Clergy and Laity that would enjoy their Liberties should renew their Charters and have them confirmed under his new Seal paying for them according to the will of Hubert de Burgh his Chief-Justiciar upon whom was laid the blame of that matter and shortly after the King and his Brother Richard Earl of Cornwal being at discord about the Castle of Barkhamstead which the Earl claimed to belong to his Earldom and the Earl being threatned to be arrested fled to Marlborough where the discontented Lords joyning unto him did cause an Insurrection and required restitution to be made without delay of the Liberties of the Forests cancelled at Oxford otherwise he should be thereunto constrained by the Sword In anno 12o. of his Reign a Parliament was assembled at Northampton where an agreement was made and the Lands of the Earls of Britain and Bologne restored unto them In the 16th year of his Reign although he put out Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice of England in which Office much of the business of the Lord Treasurer were in those times concentered and severely called him to an account for Debts due to him and his Father Rents and Profits of all his demesne Lands since the death of William Marescal Earl of Pembroke in England Wales Ireland and Poicteau of the Liberties of Forests Warrens County-Courts and other places qualitèr custodiae sint vel alienatae de priis factis pro jure suo relaxando tam in terris quà m in Nobilibus of wasts made sine commodo ipsius Regis tam per guerram quam alio modo of Liberties given unto him Bishopricks and Custodies without Warrant quae pertinent ad Dominum Regem of wrongs and damages done to the Pope's Legates and Clarks contra voluntatem Domini Regis per auctoritatem ipsius Huberti tunc Iusticiarii qui nullum concilium voluit apponere ut illa corrigerentur quod facere tenebatur ratione officii sui de pace Regis qualiter sit custodita as well concerning homines terrae suae Angliae Hyberniae Gasconiae Pictaviae quà m alios extraneos de scutagiis carucagiis donis xeniis sive custodiarum exitibus spectantibus ad Coronam de maritagiis which he had by grant of King John the day that he dyed de aliis maritagis sibi traditis tempore suo de ipsis quae ipse Rex amisit per negligentiam ipsius Huberti And so fiercely prosecuted him as he caused him by force to be dragged from the Altar in the Sanctuary Imprisoned and as Sir Henry Spelman saith did afterwards charge Stephen Segrave with many of the like and displaced him Yet the Lords threatned not to come to his Councel unless he would reform his errors And in the 17th year of his Reign a Parliament was summon'd at Oxford whither they likewise refused to come because they were despised by Strangers whereupon it was decreed that they should be a second or third time summon'd to try if they would come After which those refractory Lords were summoned to come to a Parliament at Westminster whither they denyed also to come unless he would remove the Bishop of Winchester and the Poictovins from his Court otherwise by the Common-Councel of the Kingdom they sent him express word they would expel Him and his evil Councellors out of the Land and deal for the creation of a new King whereupon Pledges being required of the Nobility for security of their Allegiance no Act passed in that Parliament though divers Lords came thither as the Earls of Cornwal Lincoln Ferrers and others But in regard that the Earl-Marshal the Lord Gilbert Basset and others were not present Writs were sent to all that held by Knights-Service to repair to the King at Gloucester by a certain day whither the Earl-Marshal and his Associates refusing to come the King without the Judgment of their Peers caused them to be proclaimed Outlaws Anno 19o. of his Reign after two years troubles and misery a Parliament was assembled at Westminster where the King consented to call back the dis-herited Lords upon the Bishops threatning to excommunicate Him and his evil Councellors Anno 20o. Henry III. a Parliament was assembled at London which the King would have there to be holden but the Barons would not come unless it might be another place whereupon a place of more freedom was propounded where many things were proposed and order taken that all Sheriffs should be removed from their Offices upon complaint of corruption and others of more Integrity put in their rooms upon their Oaths not to take any gifts When the King offering to take away the great Seal of England from the Bishop of Chichester he refused to deliver it saying He received it by the Common-Councel of the Kingdom and without their assent he would not resign it A Parliament was held at London anno 21o. Henry III. wherein he required the Thirtieth part of the Movables as well of the Laity as Clergy But it was alledged that the people were unwilling to have it given to Aliens whereupon the King promiseth never more to injure the Nobility so that they would relieve him at the present for that his Treasure was exhausted To which they plainly answer That the same was done without their counsel neither ought they to be partakers of the punishment who were free from the fault Howsoever after four days consultation the King promising to use the counsel of his natural-born Subjects and freely granting the inviolable observation of their Liberties under pain of Excommunication had yielded to him the Thirtieth part of all their Movables reserving their ready Coyn Horse and Armour to be employ'd for the defence of the Commonwealth which was ordained to be collected by four Knights of every Shire who should upon their Oaths receive and deliver the same into some Abbey or Castle there to be reserved that if the King should not perform his promises it might be again restored upon condition often annexed That the King should leave the counsel of Aliens and only make use of his natural Subjects Yet although he caused the Earls Warren and Ferrers and John Fitz-Geffry to be sworn of his Councel that could not reach to a satisfaction of those that were not so willing as they ought to be satisfied when the King also in performance of his promise to the Bishops and Nobles had in that Parliament for the salvation of his Soul and exaltation of the Church being of full age re-confirm'd the great Charter of the Liberties of the Forests attested by twelve Bishops eight Earls and Symon de Montford and William Longspee twenty-six Barons and great Men notwithstanding they were granted during his minority complaints were made of the wast and profusion of his Treasure and great sums of money raised in his time and
that the Orders concluded in Parliament were not observed in the levying and disposing of the Subsidy and over-strict courses had been taken in the valuation of mens Estates William Valence the Queens Uncle was grown the only man with him and nothing was done without him the Earl of Provence his Father a poor Prince was invited to come into England to participate of the Treasure and Riches thereof Symon de Montfort a French man born banished out of France by Queen Blanch was entertained in England preferred secretly in marriage with the King's Sister Widow of William Earl of Pembroke the great Marshal made Earl of Leicester and Steward of England in the right of his Mother Amice Daughter of Blanchmains Earl of Leicester Which incensing many of the Nobility and in them not a few of the common people did begin to raise a Commotion wherein they procured Richard Earl of Cornwal Brother to the King and Heir-apparent the King having then no Child to head their Party and manage their Grievances which amongst many pretended were That he despised the counsel of his natural Subjects and followed that of the Pope's Legate as if he had been the Pope's Feudatory Upon which harsh Remonstrance the King having sent to sound the affections of the Londoners found them to be against him Summoned a Parliament in the 22d year of his Reign at London whither the Lords came armed both for their own Safety and to constrain him if he refused to the keeping of his promises and reformation of his courses wherein after many debatements the King taking his Oath to refer the business according to the order of certain grave men of the Kingdom Articles were drawn sealed and publickly set up under the Seals of the Legate and divers great Men But before any thing could be effected Symon Montfort working a Peace for himself with the Earls of Cornwal and Lincoln with whom he and the other Barons had been before displeased the Earl grew cold in the business which the other Lords perceiving nothing more was at that time done Symon Norman called Master of the King's Seal and said to be Governour of the affairs of the Kingdom had the Seal taken from him and some others whom the Nobility maligned displaced And in the same year an Assassinate attempting to kill the King as he was in Bed instigated thereunto by William de Marisco the Son of Jeffrey de Marisco was for the Fact drawn in pieces with Horses and afterwards hang'd and quarter'd And some years after the King having a Son born his Brother the Earl of Cornwal having likewise Issue did by permission of the State which before he could not obtain undertake the Cross and with him the Earl of Salisbury and many other Noblemen The Earl of March the Queen-Mother and certain Lords of Poicteau incited the King to make a War with France to which some of the English who claimed Estates therein were very willing but the matter being moved in Parliament a general opposition was made against it the great expences thereof and the ill suceess it lately had and it was vehemently urged That it was unlawful to break the Truce made with the King of France who was now too strong for them notwithstanding many of the Peers in the hopes of recovering their Estates so prevailed as an Aid demanded for the same was granted but so ill resented by others as all the King's supplies from the beginning of his Reign were particularly and opprobriously remembred as the Thirteenth Fifteenth Sixteenth Thirtieth and Fortieth part of all mens Movables besides Carucage Hydage Escuage Escheats Amerciaments and the like which would as they said be enough to fill his Coffers in which considerations also and reckonings with the Pope's continual exactions and the infinite charge of those who undertook the Holy War were not omitted besides it was declared how the Thirtieth lately levyed being ordered to be kept in certain Castles and not to be issued but by the allowance of some of the Peers was yet unspent the King no necessary occasion for it for the use of the Commonwealth for which it was granted and therefore resolutely denyed to grant any more whereupon he came himself to the Parliament and in a submissive manner craving their aid urged the Popes Letter to perswade them thereunto but by a vow made unto each other all that was said was not able to remove their resolutions insomuch as he was driven to get what he could of particular men by Gifts or Loans and took so great a care of his poorer Subjects at or about the same time as he did by his Writ in the 23d year of his Reign command William de Haverhul and Edward Fitz-Odo That upon Friday next after the Feast of St. Matthias being the Anniversary of Eleanor Queen of Scotland his Sister they should cause to be fed as many Poor as might be entertained in the greater Hall of Westminster and did in the same year by another Writ command the said William de Haverhull to feed 15000 Poor at St. Peters in London on the Feast-day of the Conversion of St. Peter and 4000 Poor upon Monday next after the Feast of St. Lucie the Virgin in the great Hall at Westminster And for quiet at home whilst he should be absent in France contracted a marriage betwixt his youngest Daughter Margaret and Alexander eldest Son of Alexander III. King of Scotland but his expedition in France not succeeding his Treasure consumed upon Strangers the English Nobility discontented and by the Poictovins deceiving his Trust in their not supplying him with money he was after more than a years stay the Lords of England leaving him constrained to make a dishonourable Truce with the King of France and to return having been relieved with much Provisions out of England and Impositions for Escuage a Parliament was in the 28th year of his Reign assembled at Westminster wherein his Wars the revolt of Wales and Scotland who joyned together and the present occasions of the necessary defence of the Kingdom being pressed nothing could be effected without the assurance of Reformation and the due execution of Laws whereupon he came again himself in person and pleaded his own necessities but that produced no more than a desire of theirs to have ordained that four of the most grave and discreet Peers should be chosen as Conservators of the Kingdom and sworn of the Kings Council both to see Justice observed and the Treasure issued and ever attend about him or at least three or two of them That the Lord Chief-Justiciar and Lord Chancellor should be chosen by the general voices of the States assembled or else be of the number of those four and that there might be two Justices of the Benches two Barons of the Exchequer and one Justice for the Jews and those likewise to be chosen by Parliament that as their Function was publick so should also be their Election At which time the
praefatae sententiae ligentur omnes venientes contrà libertates contentas in ehartis communium libertatum Angliae de foresta omnes qui libertates Ecclesiae Angicanae temporibus Domini Regis Praedecessorum suorum Regum Angliae optentas usitatas scienter malitiosè violaverint aut infringere praesumpserint omnes illi qui pacem Domini Regis Regni perturbaverint similiter omnes qui jura libertates Domini Regis Regni diminuere infringere seu immutare praesumpserint quòd omnes venientes contrà praemissa vel eorum aliqua ignoranter legitimè moniti infra quindenam post monitionem praemissam dictam transgressionem non emendaverint ex tunc praedictae sententiae excommunicationis subjacebunt ità tamen quod Dominus Rex transgressionem illam per considerationem curiae suae faciat emendari sciendum autem quod si in scriptis super eadem sententia à quibuscunque confectis seu conficiendis aliud vel alitèr appositum vel adjectum fuerit aut articuli aliqui alii in eis contenti inveniantur Dominus Rex praedicti Magnates omnes communicatas populi protestantur publicè in praesentiâ venerabilium patrum B. Dei Gratiâ Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi totius Angliae Primatis nec non Episcoporum omnium in eodem colloquio existentium quòd in ea nunquam consenserunt nec consentiunt sed de plano eis contradicunt praetere à praefatus Dominus Rex in prolatione praefat ' sententiae omnes libertates consuetudines Regni sui autiquas usitates Dignitates jura Coronae suae ore proprio specialiter sibi Regno suo salvavit excepit In cujus rei memoriam in posterum veritatis testimonium tà m Dominus Rex quam praedicti Comites ad instantiam aliorum Magnatum Populi praesenti scripto sigilla sua apposuerunt Gascoign a great Province in France having been before the King had any Son granted by him by the counsel of the Lords to his Brother Richard Earl of Cornwal who was there received as their Lord and so continued until the King had Issue of his own after which revoking his Grant and conferring it upon his Son Edward the Earl though he were deprived of his Possession not being willing to forgo his Right the King in great displeasure commanded him to resign his Charter which he refusing to do the Citizens of Burdeaux were commanded to take and imprison but would not adventure thereon Notwithstanding money being offered and like to effect more than his command the Earl in danger to be surprized came over into England whereupon the King assembled the Nobility of Gascoign promised them 30000 Marks to renounce their homage and fealty to his Brother which being not accepted he sent Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester a rough and martial man in revenge thereof to be their Governour under him for six years and furnished him with 1000 Marks in order thereto whom Montfort by a stern Government so discontented as they and the Archbishop of Burdeaux accused him of heinous Crimes which was a cause of Montford s sending for over And the King resolute in maintaining the Gascoigners that sturdy Earl Montfort who had forgotten that he was an Alien himself and had received of the King large Gifts Preferments and Honours both in France and England unto whom the Earl of Cornwal with the discontented part of the English Baronage joyning complained as much of the Aliens viz. William of Valence Earl of Pembroke Guy de Lusignan the King's half-brothers by his Mother and the many French and Poictovins that over-much governed him and his Counsels as they did again complain of the breach of the Great Charter which was seldom omitted out of the Reer of their grievances which at last came to such an undutiful contest as Montfort upbraiding the King with his expenceful service wherein he alledged he had utterly consumed his Estate and said that he had broken his word with him the King in great rage told him That no promise was to be observed with an unworthy Traytor wherewith Montfort rose up and protested that he lyed in that word and were he not protected by his Royal Dignity he would make him repent it The King commanded his Servants to lay hold of him which the Lords would not permit wherewith Montfort growing more audacious the King told him He never repented of any thing so much as to have permitted him to enter into his Kingdom and to have honoured and instated him as he had done But shortly after the Gascoigns being again encouraged by the King against Montfort and that Province given to his Son Edward and Montfort sent thither a Governour again though with clipt wings grows enflamed as much as the Gascoigns were one against another but Montfort by his great Alliance with France overcame them who in the 38th year of the King's Reign being discharged of the Government retired from thence and refusing an offered entertainment by the French King returned into England where the King besides Gascoigny having given Ireland Wales Bristol Stamford and Grantham to the Prince and consumed all that ever he could get in that and the former expeditions which he had made which was reckoned to have cost him Twenty seven hundred thousand pounds which were said to have been more than the Lands endeavoured to have been regained were worth if they were to be sold. A Parliament was called in Easter-Term following which brought a return of grievances and complaints of the breach of Charters and a demand for former pretended rights in electing the Justiciar Chancellor and Treasurer whereupon after much debate to no purpose the Parliament was prorogued until Michaelmas next after when likewise the King's motion for money was disappointed by reason of the absence of many Peers being not as was alledged summoned according to Magna Charta In the mean time the Pope to destroy Manfred Son to the Emperour Frederick who was in possession of the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia sent the Bishop of Bononia with a Ring of investiture of the Kindom of Sicily to Edmond the King's second Son with the hopes of which his Praedecessor Innocent IV. had before deluded the King himself And the King being offered to be absolved from his Oath of undertaking the holy Wars so as he would help to destroy Manfred the Emperour Frederick's Son who being Victorious had no mind to be so ill used The Legate returned with great gifts and a Prebendary of York but could not obtain his design of collecting the Tenths in England Scotland and Ireland to the use of the Pope and the King for that the Clergy growing jealous m that the 〈…〉 g and the Pope were confederate therein protested rather to lose their Lives and Livings than to be made a prey to either the Pope in the mean time having upon that vain hope cunningly wrapt him in an obligation of 15000 Marks Upon
complaint of the Gascoigns who were under the Government of the Prince that their Wines were taken away by the King's Officers without due satisfaction and the Prince thereupon addressing himself to his Father in their behalf and the Officers in excuse of themselves informing the King that the Prince took upon him to do Justice therein when it belonged not to him the King was put in a great rage and said Behold my Son and my Brother are bent to afflict me as my Grand-father King Henry II. was And being put to his shifts to supply his necessities came himself into his Exchequer and with his own mouth pronounced and made Orders for the better bringing in of his Revenues Farms and Amerciaments under severe penalties that every Sheriff which appeared not yearly there in the Octaves of St. Michael with his money as well of his Farms and Amerciaments as other dues for the first day should be amerced five Marks for the second ten for the third fifteen and for the fourth should be redeemed at the King's pleasure all Cities and Freedoms to be amerced in the same manner and the fourth day making default were to lose their Freedoms the Sheriffs amerced five Marks for not distraining upon every man that having 20 l. Lands per annum came not to be made Knight unless he had before been freed by the King And by examinations of measures of Ale and Wine Bushels and Weights got some small sums of money and about the time of Richard Earl of Cornwal's going to Germany where he was by the privity and approbation of the Councel of State in England elected King of the Romans called a Parliament where bringing his Son Edmond clad in an Apuleian-habit he said Behold my Son Edmond whom God hath called to the dignity of Regal Excellency how fitting and worthy is he of your favour and how inhumane were it in so important a necessity to deny him counsel and aid and shewed them how by the advice and benignity of the Pope and the Church of England he had for the obtaining of the Kingdom of Sicily bound himself under the penalty or covenant of losing the Kingdom of England in the sum of 150000 Marks and had obtained the Tenth of the Clergy of all their Benefices for three years according to the new rates without deduction of expences besides their first-fruits for three years whereupon after many excuses of poverty they promised upon the usual condition of confirmation of Magna Charta to give him 32000 Marks But that not satisfying The next year another Parliament was holden at London where he pressing them again for money to pay his debts the Lords told him plainly They would not yield to give him any thing and if he unadvisedly bought the Kingdom of â—icilly and was deceived in it he was to blame himself therein And repeating their old grievances the breach of his promise contempt of the power of the Church and the Charter which he had solemnly sworn to observe with the insolency of Strangers especially of William de Valence who most reproachfully had given the lye to the Earl of Leicester for which he could not upon complaint to the King have right done him how they abounded in Riches and himself so poor as he could not repress an Insurrection of the Welsh The King thereupon promised by his Oath taken upon the Tomb of St. Edward to reform all his errours But the Lords in regard the business was difficult got the Parliament to be adjourned to Oxford and in the mean time the Earls of Gloucester Hereford the Earl Marshal Bigod Spencer and other great men confederated and provided by strength to effect their desires The King driven into necessities did the better to appease those often-complain'd-of grievances when his own were burthen enough by his Writs or Commissions sent into every County of England appoint quatuor milites qui considerarent quot quantis gravaminibus simpliciores à fortioribus opprimuntur inquirent diligenter de singulis querelis injuriis à quocunque factis vel à quibuscunque illatis à multis retroactis temporibus omnia requisita sub sigillis suis se cùm Baronagio ad tempus sibi per breve praefixum certificent which by any Record or History do not appear saith Sir Henry Spelman to have been ever certified And to obtain money procured the Abbot of Westminster to get his Convent to joyn with him as his surety in a Bond for 300 marks sent Simon Paslieu his trusty Councellor with Letters to other Monasteries to do the like but they refused And the Prince participating in the wants of his Father was for want of money constrained to mortgage the Towns of Stanford Benham and other Lands to William de Valence So that upon the aforesaid adjournment and meeting of the Parliament at Oxford in the 42d year of his Reign brake out those great discontents which had been so long in gathering whither the Lords brought with them great numbers of their Tenants by Knights-Service which were many followers dependants and adhaerents upon a pretence of aiding the King and going against the Welsh where after they had secured the Ports to prevent Foreign aids and the Gates of the City of London with their oaths and hands given to each other not to desist until they had obtain their ends began to expostulate their former Liberties and require the performance according to the Oaths and Orders formerly made the Chief-Iusticiar Chancellor and Treasurer to be ordained by publick choice the twenty four Conservators of the Kingdom to be confirmed twelve by the election of the Lords and twelve by the King with whatsoever else might be advantageous for their own security Whereupon the King seeing their strength and in what manner they required those things did swear again solemnly to the confirmation of them and caused the Prince to take the same Oath Of which Treasonable Contrivances Matthew of Westminster an ancient English Historian of good credit hath recorded his opinion in these words Haec de provisionibus imò de proditionibus Oxon dicta sufficiant And here yet they would not rest the King's Brethren the Poictovins and all other strangers were to be presently removed the Kingdom cleared of them and all the Peers of the Land sworn to see it done The Earl of Cornwal's eldest Son refusing to take the Oath without leave of his Father was plainly told That if his Father would not consent with the Baronage in that Case he should not hold a Furrow of Land in England In the end the King's Brethren and their followers were despoiled of all their fortunes and banished by order under his own hand with a charge not to pass with any Money Arms or Ornaments other than such as the Earls of Hereford and Surrey should allow and appoint with an injunction to the City of Bristol or any other Ports not to permit any strangers or Kinsmen of
Conservators without any election of a part or moity of them by the King and to be upon occasion of any breach or offence done by the King or his Justiciar ergà aliquem in aliquo vel aliquem articulorum pacis vel securitatis which clearly divides the security or Conservatorships from the Articles of Peace and Charters compelled at Running-Mead as far asunder as a disjunctive or matters of another nature sense or purpose could effect reduced to four and that which was referred to the King of France neither King John's Charter nor the collateral enforced security by the power of a Rebellious and unruly Army when he had but seven Knights to stand by him and was over-aw'd by a Clergy claiming to be independant of him and out of the power and coertion of his Laws had the Pope's Legate at their elbow and his afrighting pretence of God-like Omnipotency with their threatning to excommunicate him and his Councellors and all that should adhere unto him And as if that had not been enough practising and plotting with a discontented powerful party of the Barons against him But singly and seperately that which was the present Controversie cardo quaestionis were the provisions made at Oxford where per mensem integrum persistebant consilits armis of which and the reference to the French King thereupon Henry Knighton an Author much enclin'd to the contending part of the Baronage gives us an account in these words Publicatis Statutis executioni demandatis displicuerunt multa Regi paenituit eum sic jurâsse sed quia resistere non potuit ex arrupto dissimulavit ad tempus cùmque elapso anno non videret se ut promiserant à debitis relevari which Henry Knighton affirmeth they promised sed magis Onerari in multum condoluit missis ad Papam Nuntiis quoad sacramentum praestitum absolutionis beneficium consecutus est quoad se suos omnes absolvit etâ—am Papa indifferenter omnes ab eodem juramento ut citiùs inter se in vinculo pacis unirent siatimque absolutione opteniâ resilivit Rex à praemissis convocato Parliamento suo Oxoniae quaestionem movit magnatibus suis se quantùm ad provisiones tenendas callidè quidem inductum seductum in super quod ad sacramentum praestitum pro se suis universalitèr omnibus absolutionis benificium generalitèr impetrâsse unde petiit se ad omnia restituti sicut antiquitùs esse consuevit At illi qui convenerant Comes scilicet Leicestrensis Symon de Montforti Comes Gloucestriae Gilbertus de Clara Humfridus de Boun juvenis Comes Ferarensis Barones etiam quam plurimi scilicet Dominus filius Johannis Dominus Henricus de Hastinges Dominus Galfridus de Lucy Johannes de Vescy juvenis Dominus Nicholaus de Segrave Hugo le Spencer Robertus de Vesponte no Commons pro se siquidem suis sequacibus unanimitèr respenderunt quòd provisiones ad quas juramento astricti fuerant usque in finem vitae tenere voluerunt eò quòd pro utilitate Regis Regni communiter editae fuerant confirmatae Dumque vota sua sic mutassent in varia impacata recedere voluissent quidam Episcopi aderant qui interposuerunt partes suas ità quòd ipsis aliis amicis communibus sic cum difficuliate mediantibus compromiserunt partes utrimque se velle stare in omnibus arbitrio Regis Franciae Qui quidem Rix auditis hinc inde propositis diligenter ponderatis decrevit in fine Regi Angliae exhaereditationem fieri manifestam unde Statuta eorum quasi omnia reprobavit eidem Regi statum pristinum restitui imponens aliis silentium quantum ad jura Regalia ordinanda Motique Magnates indignantes necesserunt stare nolentes ejus arbitrio â—ò quòd pro Rege omnia Rex ipse adjudicavit Wherein the Charters of King John either as to the Forests or concerning the other Lands Liberties and Estates of the Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and Free-men of England or any the controversies raised thereupon do not appear to be any part of the matters referred to the King of France's arbitration neither are in his award thereupon mentioned in the transcript thereof remaining amongst His Majesty's Records or declared by Matthew Paris or Henry Knighton to be any parcel of the controversies referred unto him or inducing the same for the Charter of King John therein by Matthew Paris said to be excepted is in the singular number and distinguishable from that of the Forests and cannot howsoever in any probability be intended to be the aforesaid collateral over-binding security nor could that be comprehended under that notion for the Charters granted by King John have nothing therein of the after-provisions made at Oxford which were not in his said Charters mentioned nor can be accounted the same when they were not then existent but were framed hatched and brought forth forty-three years after the Charters gain d at Running Mead which were not the same with that seperate and collateral bond or unfitting security wherein the King besides those Charters did covenant to expell all aliens and strangers out of the Kingdom omnes ruptarios breakers of the peace thereof some of which were therein particularly named qui sunt ad nocumentum Regni granted a general pardon omnibus Clericis Laicis of all offences committed by reason of the said troubles and discords from Easter before which was in the â—6th year of his Reign to the making of that pacification and moreover gave unto them the Letters Testimonials and Patents of the Archbishops of Canterbury and Dublin Pandulphus the Pope's Legate and other Bishops super securitate ista concessionibus praedictis the Charters being only a grant of the King 's to to the Bishops Earls and Barons and the rest of the Freemen and Subjects of England not as if they were before free and exempt from the just Monarchical and Regal Government but contra-distinguished from Bond-men and Bond-women Copy-holders Servants c. which needed no Oaths from the Grantees or those which might be glad to receive the Benefits and Liberties granted thereby For the contrivance of that fatal and too-long-lasting Seminary of Sedition and Discord betwixt the King and those Barons and that unfitting security to pacifie their unbecoming jealousies being no part of the Charters granted by King John were but as covenants and promises extorted from an over affrighted and distressed Prince and were not the same upon which the provisions of Oxford were founded nor incorporate in them So that the provisions made at Oxford must needs be those and none other which the King of France and his Parliament and great Council upon so grand and deliberate a hearing declared to be null and void as derogatory to Kingly Government and amounting to a total dis-herison of the King therein and if they were not those provisions the maintainers
prospicere volueritis nullo modo omittatis Nos enim hoc idem caeteris Praelatis duxerimus injungendum T. R. apud Heref. 12. die Junii Eodem modo mandatum est Episcopis Lincoln Winton Cestr ' Elyen ' Sarum Coventry Litchfield Bathon ' Wellen ' cum adjectione subscripta quia tantam eorundem Malitiam sub fictae veritatis colore per diversas partes praedicari faciunt ad comâ—â—ovenda corda populorum vestrum s 〈…〉 o cordis affectu peroptamus adventum ut nostro vestro aliorum Praelatorum medianti Testimonio veritas praevalere possit evidenter pateat non Nos sed praefatos Rebelles nostros subortis jam dissentionibus clà m praefecisse ut igitur ad honorem Dei nostram vestram communem Regni Utilitatem vestro mediante Consilio quo uti intendimus possint ipsa negotia procedere gressus vestros in quantum poteritis versus Nos maturetis nè per moras dictas dissentiones augeri contingat ut sic exitium consequantur duriorem But whilst that great Rebell Montfort Brother-in-law to his King and one of the God-Fathers to the Prince his Son taking himself to be too great to be a Subject and not being able to contain himself within the limits of Gratitude and Allegiance or to resist the Intreagues of the King of France a long before dangerous and profest Enemy to his KING and Soveraign and altogether unwilling to lose the Opportunity of a Factious and discontented part of the English Baronage driving his Charriot furiously like Jehu though not with so good an Authority impowered as he thought to make every one come behind him and believing himself to be in so firme a league with his Fortune and Security and assisted by Lewelline Prince of Wales who had confederated with him to raise a Disturbance upon the Lands and Estates of Mortimer Clifford the Earl of Gloucester and other Barons Marchers so as they might not be in a condition to Aid or Relieve the King and he needed not dread any danger of losing the Prey which he had gained but might make what use he would of his haughty and domineering Spirit give Laws to his Assisting Partners and not be obliged to keep his Agreement with Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford about the Dividend of the spoil or share of the Regal Power became Taxed for doing more for his own Particular than the Publick Good usurping the Redemption of Prisoners at his pleasure and to prolong the business did not to use the means of a Parliament to end it his Sons also and Peter de Montfort his Kinsman presuming upon his Success and Greatness growing Insolent which made the Earl of Gloucester to desert him and his Party and the more Loyal Barons not well pleased to have their King led about Captive and those who had so deeply engaged with Montfort for the Provisions extorted from the King at Oxford could not well digest so great an Affront put upon him and themselves and to have the King and Kingdom governed at the Discretion of Twenty-four Conservators after reduced to a much lesser number into which every one could not be admitted calmely considering the great Confusions Envies and Ambitions which would happen by so like to be so dangerous and unquiet an Innovation were content and propounded That those Ordinances or Provisions should be made void and the King restored to his former Rights and Condition but Peter de Montfort a Principal Rebel as well as a near Kinsman of Symon de Montfort's with four others opposed it and was made Governour of Hereford not long before the Prince's escape from his Imprisonment there Which was principally contrived by the means of Roger de Mortimer who seeing His Soveraign in so great a distress and nothing but Ruine and Misery attending himself and all other the King 's Loyal Subjects could take no rest until he had by his Intelligence and Correspondency held with Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester William de Valence Earl of Pembroke newly returned into England the Lord Clifford and other the Loyal Barons Marchers wrought some way for the Deliverance of the Prince in order to that of the King Which was in this manner effected A swift Horse was sent as a Present to the Prince then Prisoner in the Castle of Hereford whither the Army had afterwards brought the King in no better a condition with intimation that he should obtain leave to ride out for a Tryal or for Recreation into a place called Widmersh and that upon sight of a Person mounted upon a White Horse at the foot of Culington Hill and waving his Bonnet which was as it was said the Lord of Croft an Ancestor of the now Bishop of Hereford of that Sir-name and Ancient Family he should hast towards him with all possible speed which being so accordingly done as he though all the Country thereabouts were thither called to prevent his Escape setting spurs to that Horse out-rid them all and being come to the Park of Culington was met by Roger de Mortimer with five hundred armed men who turning upon the many Pursuers chased them back with a great slaughter to the Gates of Hereford but by Henry Knighton and others it is related that Roger de Mortimer having sent the Prince a swift Horse for that purpose which he obtaining leave of Peter de Montfort to try if he were of use for the great Saddle first wearied out other Horses and then got on the swift Horse a Boy with two Swords whom the said Roger de Mortimer had sent being near with another Horse and turning himself to Robert de Ross then his Keeper and to others By-Standers said I have been in your Custody for a time but now I bid you farewel and so rode away the said Roger de Mortimer with his banner displayed receiving him at a little Hill called Dinmore conveyed him safe to his Castle at Wigmore Which did put Montfort and his Fellow-Rebels into such a Consternation and Care of themselves and the Custody of their Royal Prisoner as besides their many Cautions to watch his motions and stop the Princes passage into the parts beyond the Seas a Writ was sent to the Sheriff of Herefordshire in the King's Name commanding the most of the Gentry of that County amongst whom Hugo de Croft was mentioned to come Cum equis armis toto posse suo ad desensionem villae de Hereford and to the King wheresoever he should be under the pain of Forfeiture of all that they had and for ever to be disherited SECT VIII Of the Actions of the Prince after his Escape his Success at the Battle of Evesham Release of the King his Father and Restoring him to his Rights PRince Edward being thus at liberty did by the help of Mortimer Clare Earl of Gloucester the Earl Warren William de Valence Earl of Pembroke the Lord Clifford and
and that long after both by the Feudal and common Laws of this Kingdom the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were in Parliament to Assess a proportionable Escuage upon such of their Tenants who held any Capite Lands and did not go with them in Person to serve their King and Country and were not to be their own Assessors but submit unto what they should in those great Councels subordinate to their King 's determine and as they anciently were used to do when Taxes were laid upon Knights Fees when the Common People that were to pay them were not all present or any for them Or never to intend to introduce such a Party of the Common People into a Co-ordination or Fellowship with them in a Subordination to their Soveraign which might as they did afterwards entice them to encroach and believe that a License of Petitioning for Redress of any Grievances which might happen and a Liberty to give an Approbation and Obedience to what should be there ordained by the King by the Advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the publick Good should be in or unto them or their Successors an Authority or original Power to controul what their Kings by the Counsel of their Lords Spiritual and Temporal should there find necessary to Enact when they could not forget that even in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third they did in his Letters Rescripts Writs and Edicts written and sent about the Kingdom in his Name amounting to no fewer than Sixteen mention that his said Orders Acts and Commands were done by the Counsel and Advice Procerum Magnatum suorum and in some of them his Prelates Barons hautes hommes but nothing at all of the Commons And that Rebellious part of the Baronage might the easier be led into that they never meant when they had some reason to think or assure themselves that such an Election of Members or the parts of the common People would much advance the fixing and setling their Designes when they could not but acknowledge that they owed much of their Liberties and happiness under their Kings and Princes unto them and their Ancestors as in particular unto an Earl of Oxford in procuring of the King Three Hundreds in the County of Essex to be diaforrested and might be glad to entail and perpetuate their Assistances Dependencies Hospitalities Priviledges and Favours upon their Posterity and after Generations and rather return a submissive Compliance unto them well accepted than to endeavour to prejudice or in the least to make themselves equal unto them or Mastors of them but would be content to be ruled by them and not endeavour to govern or domineer over them With which doth accord that well founded Opinion and Answer of that excellent Prince and very Martyr King Charles the First our late gracious and pious Soveraign in his Answer to the haughty and undutiful Nineteen Propositions sent unto Him by the rebellious and misled Parliament the Second Day of June One Thousand Six Hundred Forty Two That the House of Commons was never intended for any share in the Government or the Choosing of them that should Govern and were not likely in those early and troublesome times to get any Root or Foundation for such an unwarrantable Pretence And might have believed that the Prelates and Baronage of England had heretofore Power and Influence sufficient to have kept them in a better Order both towards them and their Sovereign SECT II. Of the great Power Authority Command and Influence which the Prelates Barons and Nobility of England had in or about the Forty-Ninth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Monfort and those Writs of Election of some of the Commons to Parliament were first devised and sâ—nt to Summon them And the great Power and Estates which they afterwards had to create and continue an Influence upon them WHen the then Prelates by the Papal great and exorbitant Power over the Bodies and Souls of the People of England as well high as low rich or poor their Power of certifying Illegitimations Bastardy or Ne unques loyalment accouplis en Matrimony with their Fulminations Excommunications Curses Interdictions Confessions Absolutions Pardons and Dispensations Denial of Christian burial Affrights of Purgatory undenyable Commands over the inferiour Clergy and they over the People together with the great Authority which their Episcopal Function and Dignity inseparably conjoynt with their Temporal Baronies had given unto them in the Parliaments of England the greatest and highest Councels and Assembly of the Nation were in the time of King Henry the Third's Imprisonment so much allured and drawn by some of their factious and naughty Incitements to Symon de Montfort's Party by a kind of Ordinance and Agreement before mentioned of the then over-ruling-Power of the rebellious Victors as there was an undertaking to preserve from Plunder and Spoil all the Lands and Estates of the Holy-Church affirm their Authorities and all that they should have reasonable Order for amends should be performed and full Power granted unto them by the King or Generality of the Earls Barons and great Men of the Land to provide things profitable for the bettering the Estate of the Holy-Church to the Honor of God And with their temporal Baronies unto which many Mannors of a great Extent and yearly Value were annext and some other Barons holding of them and had their many Milites for service of War and Multitudes of Tenants by Tenure Lease and Copy-holding of them And the regular and monastick part of the Clergy of England many of whose Abbots and Priors were admitted to sit amongst the Peers in Parliament were so envied for their great Revenues and Estates as the Commons in a Parliament in the Raign of King Henry the Fourth wherein Lawyers were prohibited to be elected Members and therefore stiled indoctum Parliamentum did petition the King to confiscate and take into his own Revenue all their Lands which they had calculated to be sufficient to maintain One Hundred and Fifty Earls no small Estate in those times being enough to satisfy the honourable Yearly expences of one Earl and his numerous Retinue after the rate of their then living One Thousand Five Hundred Knights Six Thousand Two Hundred Esquires and erect Two Hundred Hospitals for the Relief of maimed Souldiers And in that new Frame of a great Council or Parliament wherein a part of the Commons of England were to be Assembled which can find no other Original than the Fate of that unhappy King in the battle of Lewis as the close Roll of the Forty Eight of that King will tell us there were no fewer of the then well-wishing Clergy to Symon de Mortfort Summoned unto that new modelled Parliament than One Arch-Bishop Fourteen Bishops Thirty-Five Abbots Two Priors their good Friends and Confederates and for Companies sake in such an hopeful and popular
bearing the Sword before him to the Church where they Crowned him and after a Frown of Fortune did stoutly by the help of the Lancastrian Party give Battle to King Edward the Fourth at Barnet-field where but for a Mistake of Oxford's and Warwick's Soldiers and their Banners and Badges fighting one against the other in a Mist instead of King Edward the Fourth's Men they had in all Probability prevailed against him And the Interest Alliance and Estate of that Earl of Oxford was so great notwithstanding shortly after in the Kingdom as although he had very much adventured suffered and done for King Henry the Seventh led the Vanguard for him at Bosworth field against King Richard the Third and eminently deserved of him as the Numbers and Equipage of his Servants Reteiners Dependants and Followers did so asfright that King and muster up his Fears and Jealousies as being sumptuously Feasted by him at Hedingham Castle in Essex where he beheld the vast Numbers goodly Array and Order of them he could not forbear at his Departure telling him That he thankt him for his good Cheer but could not endure to see his Laws broken in his Sight and would therefore cause his Attorney General to speak with him which was in such a manner as that magnificent and causelesly dreadful Gallantry did afterwards by Fine or Composition cost that Earl Fifteen-Thousand Marks Did notwithstanding their great Hospitalities Magnificent manner of Living founding of Abbies Monasteries and Priories many and large Donations of Lands to Religious Uses and building of strong and stately Castles and Palaces make no small addition to their former Grandeurs which thorough the Barons Wars and long lasting and bloody Controversies betwixt the two Royal Houses of York and Lancaster did in a great Veneration Love and Awe of the Common People their Tenants Reteiners and Dependants continue in those their grand Estates Powers and Authorities until the Raign of King Edward the Fourth when by the Fiction of common Recoveries and the Misapplied use of Fines and more then formerly Riches of many of the common People gathered out after the middle of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth by the spoil of the Abbey and religiously devoted Lands in which many of the Nobility by Guifts and Grants of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth in Fee or Fee-tail had very great shares brought those great Estates of our famous English Baronage to a lower condition than ever their great Ancestors could believe their Posterities should meet with and made the Common People that were wont to stand in the outward Courts of the Temple of Honour and glad but to look in thereat fondly imagine themselves to have arrived to a greater degree of Equality than they should claim or can tell how to deserve And might amongst very many of their barbarously neglecting Gratitudes remember that in the times in and after the Norman Conquest when Escuage was a principal way or manner of the Peoples Aides especially those that did hold in Capite or of Mesne Lords under them to their Soveraign for publick Affairs or Defence the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being then the only parts of the Parliament under their Soveraign the sole Grand Councel of the Kingdom under him did not only Assess in Parliament and cause to be leavied the Escuage but bear the greatest part of the Burden thereof themselves that which the common People did in after times in certain proportions of their Moveables and other Estates or in the Ninth Sheaf of Wheat and the Ninth Lamb being until the Dissolution of the Abbies and Monasteries in the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth when they were greatly enriched by it did not bear so great a part of the Burdens Aides or Taxes or much or comparable to that which lay upon the far greater Estates of the Nobility there having been in former Times very great and frequent Wars in France and Scotland no Escuage saith Sir Edward Coke hath been Assessed by Parliament since the 8th Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Howsoever the Commons and Common People of England for all are not certainly comprehended under that Notion their Ancestors before them and their Posterities and Generations to come after them lying under so great and continued Obligations and bonds of an eternal Gratitude and Acknowledgement to the Baronage and Lords Spiritual and Temporal of England and Wales for such Liberties and Priviledges as have been granted unto them with those also which at their Requests and Pursuits have been Indulged or Permitted unto them by our and their Kings and Princes successively will never be able to find and produce any Earlier or other Original for the Commons of England to have any Knights Citizens or Burgesses admitted into our Kings and Princes great Councels in Parliament until the aforesaid imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 48th and 49th Year of his Raign and the force which was put upon him by Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Party of Rebels SECT XII That the asoresaid Writ of Summons made in that King's Name to Elect a certain Number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses and the Probos homines good and honest Men or Barons of the Cinque Ports to appear for or represent some part of the Commons of England in Parliament being enforced from King Henry the Third in the 48th and 49th Year of his Raign when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and under the Power of him and his Party of rebellious Barons was never before used in any Wittenagemots Mikel-gemots or great Councels of our Kings or Princes of England FOr saith the very learned and industrious Sir William Dugdale Knight Garter King of Armes unto whom that Observation by the dates of those Writs is only and before all other Men to be for the punctual particular express and undeniable Evidence thereof justly ascribed which were not entered in the Rolls as all or most of that sort have since been done but two of them three saith Mr. William Pryn instead of more in Schedules tacked or sowed thereunto For although Mr. Henry Elsing sometimes Clerk to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament in his Book Entituled The ancient and present manner of holding Parliaments in England Printed in the Year 1663. but Written long before his Death when he would declare by what Warrants the Writs for the Election of the Commons assembled in Parliament and the Writ of Summons of the Lords in Parliament were procured saith That King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign when those Writs were made was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort and could not but acknowledge that it did not appear unto him by the first Record of the Writs of Summons now extant by what Warrant the Lord Chancellor had in the 49th Year of the Raign of that King caused
of King Edward the Fourth with the allowance of Sir Edward Coke his justly adoring Commentator hath taught us That Tenures in Capite do draw and bring along with them as incidents thereunto Homage which is the most humble and honourable Service and Reverence that a Tenant can do unto his Lord when upon his Knees with his Sword ungirt and his Head uncovered holding his hands between the Hands of his Lord he sweareth and professeth to be his Man of Life and Limb and earthly Worship and to bear him Faith for the Lands and Tenements which he holdeth of him saving the Faith which he holdeth to his Soveraign Lord the King together with Fealty Service in War or instead thereof Escuage Socage Franck Almoigne Homage Auncestrel Grand Serjeanty Petit Serjeanty Tenures in Burgage and Villeinage and then the Lord so sitting Kisseth him And where the Service is not done by the Tenant in Capite or by Knight-Service in Person the Escuage Money or Fine that is to be paid in recompence thereof is to be Assessed by Parliament and if any Controversy do arise whether the Service were done personally or not it shall be tryed saith Littleton by the Certificate of the Marshal of the King in Writing And Tenant saith Sir Edward Coke is derived from the word Tenere and all the Lands in England in the hands of Subjects are holden of the King immediately or mediately for in the Law of England we have not properly any Alodium that is any Subjects Lands that are not Holden unless saith he you will take Allodium for a Tenant in Fee Simple as it is often taken in the Book of Dooms-Day and Tenants in Fee Simple are there called Alodii or Alodiales and he is called a Tenant because he holdeth his Lands of some Superior Lord by some Service and therefore the King in this Sence cannot be said to be a Tenant because he hath no Superior but God Almighty and Praedium domini Regis est directum Dominium cujus nullus est Author nisi Deus And Alodiarius Alode seu Alodium saith Sir Henry Spelman est Praedium liberum nulli Servituti obnoxium but were never so free as to be no Subjects or exempt from Obedience to our Kings in whose Land and Dominion they lived Ideoque Feudo oppositum quod hoc semper alicui subiacet servituti Feuda enim antiquò dicuntur Servitii Fidelitatis gratia proprietate feudi penes dantem remanente usu fructu tantummodo in accipientem transeunte ut ex C. de feud cogn ' collegit Barat ca ' 1. Quamobrem nec vendi olim poterant invito Domino nec ad haeredes Vassalli transiunt nisi de ipsis nominatim dictum esset sed laesa fidelitate adimerentur dicitur à Saxon ' Leod quasi populare dicitur Alodium ab à Privitiva Leed Gallicè Leud pro Vassallo quasi sine Vassallagio sine Onere quod Angli hodie Load appellant Alodium feudo opponitur in antiqua versione LL Canuti ca ' 73. Ubi Sax ' Bocland dicitur quod in Aluredi LL ca ' 36. tota Haereditas vocatur idem esse videtur quod hodiè Fee Simple Dicitur etiam Alodium terra libera quam quis à nemine tenet nec recognoscit licet sit in alieno Districtu Jurisdictione Ita quod solum est sub Domino districtus quoad Protectionem Jurisdictionem And believes the Aloarii mentioned in Dooms-Day Book do signify no more than our Sockmanni or Socage Tenants Cum Germanis Liberos Gallis Nobiles qui militiam ex arbitrio tractantes nullius domini Imperio evocati nulloque sendali gravamine Coerciti sui Juris homines non Feudales seil qui dominium tamen agnoscerent ut locus ille e Domesday citatus plane evincit qui fidelitatem apud nos Jurarent Censum quantulumcunque augebunt siâ—t etiam qui de nomine eos tenâ—isse asserunt ac si Hunnoniorum more adeo sole suum accepissent patrimonium And du Fresue Etymologizing the word Alodiarias saith It is Praedium etiam domino obnoxium possidet tenens Domesday quando moritur Alodiarius Rex inde habet Alleniationem terrae a releife excepta terra sanctae Trinitatis Gulielmus Gemeticensis Lib. 3. Ca. 8. Abbatique locum cum tota villa quam ab Alodiariis auro redemit Thomas Walsinghamus p. 419. Et in definitione Alodialis which he saith is Idem quod Tenens mentioneth Chartam Gulielmi ducis Normanniae p. 1042. In Monasticon Anglicanum Tom. 2. p. 959. Dedi etiam Ecclesiam Radulphi villae umon Allodialem in ipsa villa dedi quoque unum Allodialem in Amundevilla quietam ab omni Consuetudine Bignenius dicit quod significat Haereditatem paternam Terram Et Dominicus de Prorogat ' Allodiorum dictum oppinatur quasi Alo Leuden id est sine Subjectione a voce Leuden quae Germanis paâ—i subire fignificat sicut subjectionem servitium Spelmannus derivat a Leod populare Saxonice Ita ut Aleod sit idem quod Praedium populare oppositum Feudo quod est Praedium dominicale And the Learned du Fresne amongst the various Opinions mustred up by him Concludeth with a Deniquè plerique è doctioribus existimant vocem esse primogeniam Gallicam vel Francicam quae Praedium ac rem proprietario Jure possessum denotat Feudum novum absque domini Concensu alienatum revocari potest a Domino Decis 14. Feudum in dubio praesumitur esse haereditarium non ex pacto providentia Decis 30. n. 22. Feudum antiquum absque concensu domini alienatum ex communi D. l. sententia a filio revocari potest n. 11. And the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service were of so high an Esteem and Value amongst the English whereby to do unto their Kings and Country that Honor and Service which was due and might be expected from them in their several Degrees and Stations as the great Lords and other Men of Note did many times purchase or obtain of each other the Homages and Servitia of so many Men or parts of Knights Fees by Deeds or Charters and so much beyond any Money or other kinds of Estate Lands or Offices as Robert Earl of Leicester's Ancestor having at the Coronation of King John agreed to pay unto Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk's Ancestor Ten Knight's Fees for the Purchase of that great Office of High Steward of England of which Seven and an half were paid and a Controversy arising afterwards betwixt the said Earls for the Satisfaction of the Remainder in the 31st Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third the King undertaking to make an Accord betwixt them adjudged Simon Montfort who afterwards ill requited him to have and execute the said Office of High Steward and that Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk who afterwards joyned in the
Rebellion with Montfort against him should bring his Action for the other Two Knight's Fees and an half From which most necessary and excellent Feudal Laws have proceeded those grand Honors fixed and appurtenant to our ancient Monarchy of England in our Kings and Princes Grant to several great Families in England in Fee or Fee-Tayl as to be Constable of England Earl Marshal of England Lord Steward of England Lord Great Chamberlain of England Chamberlain of the Queens of England Die Coronationis suae Butler to our Kings at their Coronations c. And likewise the Statute de Donis or Entailes the neglect whereof in leaving all the ruined Families of the Nobility Gentry and better sort of the English Nation to feigned Recoveries introduced about the Raign of King Edward the Fourth by an unhappy and unjust Trick of Law to make the Losers believe that they shall recover the Value of their Lands so Lost amounting in the whole unto the greatest part of all the Lands in England of the Bagbearer of the Court of Common-Pleas who in the Conclusion is only Vouchee to Warrants and to make it good out of his own Land and by the small Fees and Profits of his Office was never yet known to Inherit or to have been a Purchaser of ten Acres of Land yet walks about and is never molested or called to Account for those vast Sums of Money or his Land if he ever had or was re vera intended to have had any was to be liable by his being a Common Vouchee in all the Common Recoveries which are suffered in that Court It being in those more Obedient and Loyal Times esteemed no small Honour to serve our Kings or hold Lands by such a Kind of Tenure as it may be believed to have occasioned that Adage or Common saying in England before the ever to be lamented taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service and Pourveyance No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King and those Royal Services affixed unto Lands and Territories have been so immutable amongst other our Neighbor Nations as in the Aurea Bulla fastned upon the Empire of Germany about the 30th Year of the Raign of our King Edward the Third the Three Spiritual Electors viz. the Arch-Bishops of Mentz Cologne and Triers or Trevers do hold their Lands and Territories by their several Tenures of being Arch-Chancellors the First of Germany the Second of Italy and the Third of France the King of Bohemia to be Archipincerna Duke of Bavaria or Count Palatine of the Rhine Archidapifer Duke of Saxony Archimariscallus Duke or Marquess of Brandenburgh Archicamerarius of that Empire and might be with or amongst them exampled from our Pattern which was long before as also from the Scots who have to this day some of the like official Dignities annexed to their Lands and Estates and as in the Raign of our King Henry the First Count Tankervile was by Inheritance and Tenure of his Lands Chamberlain of Normandy And although not so ancient as the Customs of the Patroni and Clientes in the beginning of the flourishing of the vast Roman Empire which was so greatly advantageous both unto the greater and lesser part of the People the Patroni in their Popularities and Ambitions to gain and please them in their way of Advancements to Annual Magistracies not seldom exercising their Eloquence in pleading their Causes or Suits in Law before the Lawyers had for another kind of Advantages by the Gratifications of Fees and Rewards made it to be the greatest part of their Profession which before were principally employed upon seldom Occasions in matters of Difficulty in Jurisconsults and Decisions some of the more eminent sorts of them having about the Raign of the Emperor Augustus Caesar obtained Licenses of him ad respondendum Yet after the Irruption of the Goths Vandals Longobards and Hunnes with other Northern Nations into that Empire they found it to be more beneficial to do as the Germans and many other Northern Nations have done to be Feudalists and to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by Service of War and other necessaries under those grand Obligations of Interests Oaths Gratitude Homage and Fealty which proved to be better more certain and beneficial both for the Patroni and Clientes the poorer sort of the People alwayes or very often wanting the Aid and Protection of the greater from Wrongs and Oppressions like to be put upon them And the Patroni and Greater procuring to themselves thereby a more constant Observance of Duty Honour and Additions to their former Grandeur the greater and lesser thereby mutually supporting and assisting each other which in the Consequence was as it did likely to prove much better than the charge and trouble the Patroni were used to be as in the frequent courting and Humoring of the common People with their costly Epulae's and Ludi's not only to gain their own Preferments in their Annual poursuites of Offices of Magistracy but to keep the popular Votings from Mutiny and ruining them as much as themselves And howsoever that they with us in England by a great infelicity to our languishing Monarchical Government after an horrid Rebellion and murder of our late King Anno. 12. Car. 2. by an Act of Parliament made upon his now Majesties happy Restoration for the taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures in Capite and by Knight service and Pourveyance and for settling a Revenue upon His Majesty in lieu of a great part of the lands of England and Wales which the Rebels besides their great Estates had forfeited unto him which they were willing to retain to themselves and thank him as fast as they could with a more detestable Rebellion the Praeamble mentioning most unfortunately for want of a right Information and understanding thereof That the said Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures by Knight service in Capite holden of the King or others and Socage in Capite have been by consequence more praejudicial then beneficial to the Kingdome as if the Nerves and Ligaments of the Crown of England and the ancient Support and Defence of the Honour and glory thereof for more then one thousand years could any way deserve to be so Charactered and that after the Intromission of the said Court which hath been since the 24 th day of February 1645. when the Divel and his Reformation had made a large progress in the chasing Religion out of the Kingdom and washing over in blood the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first 3 Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland many Persons could not by their Will or otherwise dispose of their Lands by Knight Service whereby many Questions might possibly arise unless some seasonable remedy be taken to prevent the same Our Soveraign Lord by the Assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same did enact the taking away of the said Court
quod ministeriales praedicti de hospitio Domini Regis debent interesse in Curiâ Domini Regis cum Paribus Franciae ad judicandum Pares tunc praedicti Ministeriales judicaverant praedictam Comitissam Flandriae cum Paribus Franciae Wherein our Ancestors without any Arrest or Decree of Parliament did rather give than take the Pattern when their Bishops as Chancellors of our Kings very often and in a continued Series from the Raign of King Edward the Confessor who was not without his Reinbaldus Regiae dignitatis Vice-Câ—ncellarius when Maurice Bishop of London was Chancellor to William the Conqueror in the first Year of his Raign and other Bishops have in that high and great Office severally from thence succeeded unto the 29th of Edward the First and not a few of the other Bishops have been Treasurers and Secretaries of State and by that Right alone besides their Spiritual Rights and Temporal Baronies did sit as Peers in that great Assembly together with the Lord Privy-Seal Constable Marshal and Great Chamberlain of England Lord Steward Chamberlain of the Houshold with the Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons of England which do Illustrate that greatest of our Kings Councels attended with such of the Judges and other Assistants as their Soveraigns shall be pleased to call or permit to Sit therein Neither could those grand Officers claim a Right to be accounted by them or any others Equal or Co-ordinate with them or their Superiours or to have any Vote in the House of Peers in Parliament by their sitting there it being in the Act of Parliament made in the 31st Year of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth Entituled How the Lords in Parliament shall be placed wherein it being expressed That it appertained to his Prerâ—gative Royal to give such Honor Reputation and Place to his Câ—uncellors and other his Subjects as shall be seeming to his excellent Wisdome It was specially mentioned That the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the King's Councel Lord Privy-Seal or Chief Secretary that shall be under the degree of a Baron of the Parliament are to give no Assent or Dissent in the Parliament And it is likewise remarkable That in the Title of that Act of Parliament and all along and thorough the Body thereof the House of Peers is only stiled the Parliament and no mention is therein at all made of the House of Commons in Parliament nor any Care or Order taken for their Degrees or sitting in Parliament Neither do any of our Parliament Rolls Records or Authentick ancient Historians mention that our Kings were in those their great Councels limited or accustomed to call all their Barons thereunto Nor until the latter end of the Raign of King Richard the Second had voluntarily obliged themselves to Summon thither the Dukes Marquesses Earls and Viscounts unto those their great Councels And when it hath been truly said that Omne Majus continet in se Minus it will not be easy to believe That the Minus doth or should Continere in se Majus For in Anno 23 Edward the First there were but Sixty-three Earls and Barons Summoned and in the same Year upon another Summons but 45. King Edward the Second did not Summon all the Earls and Barons In the 6 E. 3. the like M. 22 E. 3. 6 R. 2. 11 R. 2. the like King Edward the 3d. in the 9th Year of his Raign Summoned but five Earls and Eleven Barons In the 10th E. 3. the Parliament Writs of Summons were directed but unto Fourteen of the Temporal Barons with a Memorandum entred that Brevia istis Magnatibus immediatè praescriptis directa essendi ad Parliamentum praedictum remissa fuerint concilio Regis pro eò quòd quidam ex eis in partibus Scotiae quidam ex eis in partibus transmarinis existant adnullanda 15 E. 3. there were Summoned but 26 of all sorts 16 E. 3. But a very few 21 E. 3. but 22. 45 E. 3. but thirteen Earls and Barons and not many to diverse Parliaments after the great Commune Generale Concilium rightly understood being but Synonyma's of the word Parliament and of latter times they which were in the King's Displeasure have had their Summons but with a Letter from the Lord Chancellour or Lord Keeper commanded not to come but to send a Proxy In Anno 46 E. 3. and diverse years in the Raign of King Henry the 5th few Earls and Barons were Summoned for that many of them were then busied in the Warrs of France But in the Parliament in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr John Earl of Bristol being denyed his Writ petitioned to the House of Peers for it whereupon he had it without any intercession of the House of Peers but withal a Letter from the Lord Keeper signifying his Majesties Pleasure that he should send his Proxy and forbear to come whereupon he petitioned the Parliament again shewing That that Letter could not discharge him from coming for that the Writ commanded him to come upon his Allegiance but that point was not then debated for the said Earl was presently sent for as a Delinquent and charged with High Treason the Majores Barones being men of the best Estate Extraction and Abilities and better sort of the Tenants in Capite by antient Law and Custome of the Kingdom being to be only Summoned according to the very old custome of the Romans probably learnt from thence who as Sigonius writes did in legenâ—o Senatores make choise of them according to their Birth Age Estate and Magistracy well exercised and performed And could be no less then well warranted by a constant well experimented long approved and applauded Usage thereof for more than fourteen hundred Years attested by the industrious Labours of Mr. William Pryn and others and for the times before the Conquest and the Learned Collections of Sir Robert Filmer and others since the Norman Invasion fortified by such Records which in themselves are never found to lie as the teeth of devouring Time hath left us seconded by unquestionable antient authentick classical Authors which might silence those disputes Factious and Foolish opinions and cavils which in the latter part of this last unquiet Century or age have been stirred up against that very Antient and Honourable Assembly or House of Peers which all the former ages neither durst or did lift an hand or heel against or so much as maligne or bark at So greatly are our most degenerate wickedly hypocritical worser Times altered from what they were or should be and the only Recital of whose long and Antient Successions through their so many several gradations may abundantly satisfie any that are not before so prepossessed as to resolve never to be satisfied with any thing that looks but like Truth or Reason if they shall but read as they ought to do the ensuing Series or Catalogue Wherein they may find that in the Bud or Blossom of
sed sic eas accepi quemadmodum judicaverunt omnes Optimates Regni Anglorum to wit in a full Parliament which then consisted only of the King and his Nobility Anno Domini 944. King Edmond granted many large liberties and the Mannor of Glastonbury to the Abby thereof cum concilio consensu Optimatum suorum made it seems saith Mr. Pryns in Parliament and a clear evidence that the Nobles of that age were the Kings great Councel and Parliament without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses of which he found no mention in History or Charters Anno 948. there was a Parliament or Councel holden at London under King Edred Cùm universi Magnates Angliae per Regium edictum Summoniti tà m Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates quà m caeteri totius Angliae Proceres Optimates Londini convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni in which Parliament no Knights Citizens or Burgesses are said to have been present Anno 965 or 970. King Edgar with his Mother Clito his Successor the King of Scots both the Archbishops caeterisque Episcopis omnibus Regni proceribus Subscribed his Charter granted to the Abby of Glastonbury communi Episcoporum Abbatum Primorumque concilio generali assensu Pontificum Abbatum Optimatum suorum concilio omnium Primatum suorum without any Commons present assistants and attendants only excepted Anno 975. King Edgar and his Queen Elferus Prince of Mercia Ethelinus Duke of the East-Angles Elfwold his Kinsman Arch-Bishop Dunstan cum caeteris Episcopis Abbatibus Bricknotho Comite cum Nobilitate totius Regni held a Councel at Winchester without any Commons Anno 977. in the Councel of Calne under King Edward omnes Anglorum Optimates were present together with the Bishops and Clergy but no Knights or Burgesses for ought is Recorded Anno Christi 1009. by King Ethelreds Edict Universi Anglorum Optimates at Eanham acciti sunt convenire not the Commons A Parliament was Summoned by King Edward the Confessor concerning Earl Godwyn at Gloucester where Totius Regni Proceres etiam Northumbriae Comites tunc famosissimi Sywardus Leofricus omnisque Anglorum Nobilitas convenêre Et Anno 1052. at London Rex omnes Regni Magnates ad Parliamentum apud London tunc fuerunt Mr. Pryn declaring his Opinion That the former and ancient Parliaments consisted of our Kings and their Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses Summoned to Assist or Advise with them or to Assent unto what they Enacted or Ordained In the 25th Year of his Raign granted Lands and Liberties to Saint Peters Church at Westminster Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum And from the Conquest until that forced something like but not to be accounted a Parliament in the 49th Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third divers Learned good Authors Summae incorruptae fidei no diminishing or additional Record-makers have assured and given Posterity and after Ages such an exact Account of our Parliaments as will leave no ground or foundation of Truth or Reason for any to believe That an Elected part of the Commons were before that Imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign made or Summoned to be a part of our English great Councels or Parliaments The Charter of William the Conqueror to the Abby of Battel was made Assensu Lanfranci Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis Stigandi Episcopi Cicestrensis Concilio etiam Episcoporum Baronum suorum And that great Conqueror had in the 4th Year of his Raign Concilium Baronum suorum confirmavit Leges Edwardi Confessoris posteaque Decreta sua cum Principibus constituit In the 10th or 11th Year of his Raign Episcopi Comites Barones Regni Regiâ potestate ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis tractandis convocati fuerunt Separated the Courts Temporal from the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Communi concilio concilio Archiepiscoporum suorum caeterorum Episcoporum Abbatum omnium Regni sui and in the Register of Winchelsey Arch-Bishop of Canterbury it is Recorded That Rex Angliae Gulielmus Conquestor in concilio Archiepiscoporum Abbatum omnium Procerum Regni did forbid the Leges Episcopales to be used in any Hundred or other secular Courts And in the 21st Year of the Raign of King Edward the Third Mr. Selden saith There is mention made of a Great Councel holden under the said King William wherein all the Bishops of the Land Earls and Barons made an Ordinance touching the Exemption of the Abby of Bury from the Bishops of Norwich In that great and notable Pleading for three Dayes together at Pynnendon in Kent in the Raign of King William the Conqueror who as Mr. Selden repeats it out of the Leiger Book or Register of the Church of Rochester Anglorum regnum armis conquisivit suis ditionibus subiugavit in the great Controversy betwixt Lanfranc Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Odo Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent the Conquerors half Brother for many great Mannors Lands and Liberties of a great yearly Value which Lanfranc claimed to appertain to his Arch-Bishoprick of which that potent Norman Bishop and Earl had injustly disseized him the King commanded the whole County without any delay to Assemble together as well French as English and more especially such as were well Skilled and Learned in the ancient Laws and Customs of England as Gosfridus Episcopus Constantiensis qui in loco Regis fuit justitiam illam tenuit Elnothus Episcopus de Rovercestria Aegelricus Episcopus de Cicestria Vir antiquissimus legum terrae Sapientissimus qui ex praecepto Regis advectus suit ad ipsas antiquas legum Consuetudines discutiendas edocendas in una Quadrigâ Ricardus de Tonebregge Hugo de Monte Forti Gulielmus de Acres Haymo Vicecomes alij multi Barones Regis ipsius Archiepiscopi aliorum Episcoporum homines multi whose Decisions made by many Witnesses Evidences and Reasons being certified to the King Laudavit laudans cum consensu omnium Principum suorum confirmavit ut deinceps perseveraret firmitèr praecepit Upon a Rebellion of Rafe de Guader a Norman made Earl of Norfolk by the Conqueror Confederating with some discontented English whilst he was absent in Normandy upon Notice thereof given hasted into England where omnes ad Curiam suam Regni Proceres convocavit legitimos Heroes in fide probatos Unto which may be added That in the Agreement betwixt King William Rufus and Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Brother touching his Claim to the Kingdom of England being of great Concern to the People wherein the King assured to the Duke All that he could Claim from his Father except England it is said Pactum juramento confirmârunt duodecim Principes nomine Regis and 12. Barones nomine Ducis In the 2d Year
suum Justitiarium Angliae Granted to Hugh Bishop of Durham Justitiam à fluvio Humbri usque ad terram Regis Scotiae made his Brothers John Earl of Morton and Geffry elect Archbishop of York to swear tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis that they would not come into England within three Years then ensuing nisi per licentiam illius but suddenly after released his Brother John of his Oath and gave him leave to return into England taking his Oath quòd fidelitèr ei serviret In Crastino Exaltationis Sanctâ— Crucis apud Pipewel Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum aliorum Magnatum suorum fretus concilio benignè concessit Galfrido fratri suo Archiepiscopatum Eborum circa dies istos iturus ad Terram sanctam per concilium Magnatum suorum Gerardum Archiepiscopum Auxisnem Richardum de Canvill c. Justiciarios constituit super totum navigium Angliae Normanniae Britanniae Pictaviae Et tradidit illis Chartam suam in hac forma Richardus Dei gratia Rex Anglorum omnibus hominibus suis per mare ad Terram sanctam ituris salitem Sciatis Nos de proborum concilio virorum has Justitias statuisse being certain severe Sea Laws illas Consuetudines ab omnibus observandas quòd singuli Justitiariis obedirent fecit Sacramento confirmari Eodem tempore in the Kings absence ad instanciam Comitis Johannis fratris ipsius Regis convenerunt apud Pontem de Leodune inter Radingum Windeleshores ad colloquium Magnates Angliae de magnis arduis Regis Regni negotiis tractatur ' in crastino autem tà m Archiepiscopus Rothomagensis quà m Eboracensis Episcopi omnes apud Radingum convenerunt colloquio interessent The Bishop of Roan being sent thither by the King to take and give him an account thereof Anno Domini 1290. Rex Anglorum Richardus ad natale Domini fuit in Normanniam apud Burum ibi tenuit solenne festum cum Primatibus terrae illius post natale habitum est Colloquium betwixt the Kings of France and England where the Expedition was agreed upon and a Peace made and sworn betwixt the two Kingdoms and the Comites Barones utriusque Regni none of the Commons did swear That they would remain faithful to both the Kings and make no Warr until fourty dayes after their return and the Archbishops and Bishops utriusque Regni juraverunt to denounce sentence of Excommunication against the Transgressors In which Warrs in the East for recovery of the Holy Land after many glorious Victories obtained against the Infidels King Richard being shipwrackt and with a small company escaping cast upon the Territories of the envious Duke of Austria his incensed Aemulator for that he had caused his Standard which he had set up before his at the taking of the Town of Joppa to be taken downe and thrown into a Jakes was discovered way-laid taken and delivered or sold to the Emperour of Germany for 60000l of Silver ad pondus Coloniensium And the Emperour to whom his Brother John who had in his Absence endeavoured to usurp his Kingdomes and with the King of France his Confederate offered great summs of Money whereof the latter would have paid 50000 Marks of Silver and the former 30000 to have him detained Prisoner detesting their Practises and shewing to King Richard their Letters after much Respects and Kindness to such a magnanimous Prisoner agreed to take for his Ransom 140 thousand Marks of the same kind of Money which he paid to the Duke of Austria without any thing to be paid for the Expenses of himself or any other but an Oath was first taken by the Bishops Dukes and Barons that as soon as the Money should be paid continuò liber proprium regrederetur ad regnum which being together with the Emperours Letter published in England by the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor suddenly after Exiit edictum à Justiciariis Regis ut omnes Episcopi Clerici Comites Barones Abbatiae Prioratus quartam partem Redituum suorum ad redemptionem Regis conferrent insuper ad illud Pietatis opus Calices aureos argenteos sustulerunt And upon his delivery by the Archbishops of Mentz and Cologne into the hands of Queen Elianor his Mother on the behalf of the Emperour gave Sureties or pledges until all the Money should be paid Walter Archbishop of Roan Savarick Bishop of Bath Baldwin de Wac alios multos filios Comitum Baronum suorum de pace servanda Imperatori Imperio suo omni terrae suae dominationis The Bishop of Norwich dimidium pretij de Calicibus sumpsit de rebus habitis Regi donavit and the Cistertian Monks being alwayes before by Priviledge freed from any Contributions Bona sua universa ad Regis redemptionem dederunt Anno gratiae 1200. King Richard being dead Rex Francorum Philippus Rex Anglorum Johannes inter Wailan Butavius castella ad colloquium convenerunt ubi convenit inter eosdem Reges cum concilio Principum utriusque Regni quòd Ludovicus filius Regis Francorum haeres duceret in uxorem filiam Aldefonsi Regis Castellae Neptem Regis Johannis Rex Anglorum pro hoc matrimonio contrahendo daret Ludovico cum nepte sua nomine Blanca in maritagio Civitatem Ebroicarum cum toto comitatu insuper 30000 marcarum Argenti Rex Johannes post completa negotia in partibus transmarinis transfretavit in Angliam veniens autem Londonias apud Westmonasterium Huberto Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Magnatibus Regni praesentibus Gaufridus Archiepiscopus Eborqcensis cum Rege pacificatus est quo tempore Rex Johannes significavit Willielmo Regi Scotorum ut veniret ad eum ad Lincolniam ut ibidem de jure suo sibi satisfaceret in Crastino sancti Eadmundi Ubi convenerunt Rex Anglorum Johannes Rex Scotorum Willielmus cum universa Nobilitate tà m Cleri quà m populi utriusque Regni whence he directed his Writ to the Barons and those which did hold of him in Capite to come unto him with Horse and Armes to Northampton die Dominiâ—â proximè ante Pentecosten in formâ sequente Rex c. Henrico c. Mandamus tibi quòd in fide quam Nobis debes ficut Nos corpus honorem Nostrum diligis omni occasione dilatione postpositis sis ad Nos apud Northampton die dominica proximè ante Pentecosten paratus Equis Armis aliis necessariis ad movendum cum corpore Nostro standum Nobiscum ad minus per duas quadragesimas ità quòd infra terminum illum à Nobis non recedas ut tibi in perpetuum in grates seire debeamus T. c. And in the same year Summoned the Peers but no Commons to a great Councel or Parliament not for Military Aid in these words Rex c. Episcopo Sarum Mandamus vobis
the University of Oxford was debated extitit ibidem tota ferè Angliae Nobilitas but no Commons 42. Henry the Third Rex militiam Anglorum edicto Regio convocavit venire cum equis armis contra Wallenses Et post diem Martis quae vulgaritèr Hokeday appellatur sactum est Parliamemtum Londini Rex namque multis arduis negotiis sollicitabatur where divers Altercations passing betwixt the King and the Parliament it is said Doluit igitur Nobilitas Regni in Crastino diebus sequentibus habuerunt diligentem tractatum dominus Rex Magnates diebus quoque sub eisdem constantèr praecisè respondêrunt uno quasi ore Magnates Regni in Parliamento Regi cùm urgentèr ab eis the Commons or any of them certainly not personally being present auxilium postulasset quod nec voluerunt nec potuerunt Duravit adhuc Parliamenti praelibati Altercatio inter Regem regni Magnates usque diem Dominicam proximam post Ascensionem dilatum est Parliamentum usque in festum sancti Barnabae apud Oxoniam interim Optimates Angliae utpote Gloverniae Legrecestriae Herefordiae Comes Marescallus alii praeclari Viri no Commons confoederati sunt Et prolabentibus diebus ante Parliamentum Oxoniale missi sunt solennes Nuntii videlicet de Electis Comitibus Baronibus none of the Prel 〈…〉 in Franciam ad Regem Franciae desiring him to give them Aid and not disturb them in their designs for Peace Ad diem indictum Oxoniae Magnates Nobiles terrae ad Parliamentum properabant preceperuntque omnibus qui eisdem Servitium debuerant which could not be a small number quatenùs cum ipsis venirent parati veluti ad Corpora sua contrà hostiles insultus defensuri quod fecerunt caused the Sea-Ports and their Confederate the City of London's Gates to be Guarded by their own Party where the Magnates not the Common People demanded Justice and a Confirmation to be made by the King of King John's and his own Charters Jurantes fide mediante mutùo Dextras exhibentes qùod non omitterent propositum persequi pro pecuniae vel terrarum amissione vel etiam pro vita morte sua vel suorum Recalcitrantibus Edwardus Principe Johanne Comiti Warrennae Willielmo de Valentia cum aliis and when Henry the. Son of Richard King of Alemaine began to joyn with them in the refusal he was told quòd etiamsi pater fuus adquiesceret Baronagio no Yeomanry or any other under their degree of Barons Nollet nec unum sulcum terrae in Anglia obtineret The King and his Son Edward after all the Barons had Sworn unto them were at length compelled to Swear to perform and observe all such Ordinances and Provisions as the rebellious Barons had there made who did shortly after send Messengers ex parte Universitatis Regni to the City of London whom they understood to be in themselves comprehended for the Londoners were those that were sent unto not the Barons who did send unto them qui convocaverunt totius Civitatis cives then no inconsiderable part of the English Nation either as to Number Riches or Faction quos Barones vocant no Peers of Parliament for they were as was then believed another kind of Barons in aula quae Gildehall appellatur demanded of them si Statutis Baronum vellent fidelitèr obtemperare and joyn in the resistance of those which should infringe them to which they thankfully gave their Consent Et confecerunt super hoc eis Chartam suam de communi sigillo Civitatis consignatam veruntamen non adhuc quae Statuta fuerant proposuerant publicare circa idem tempus convocati fuerunt Praelati universalitèr ut Oxonioe convenientes nè penitùs cadat Statum reformarent convenêrunt quatuor Episcopi ad hoc specialitèr deputati qui convocaverunt exemptos omnes Abbates alios alterius Ordinis vel eorum idoneos Procuratores no Laicks or vulgus scire volentes si eorum Statutis vellent acquiescere eorum defensioni sustentationi unanimitèr adhaerere sed quia quidam excusatione absentes quidam in assensu dubitantes nullum tunc potuerunt dare responsum recesserunt omnes imperfectum relinquentes Iudicium Which manifestly evidenceth that at the Parliament at Oxford the Citizens of London had no Burgesses then and there representing in Parliament for them and there appeareth no Consent there given or demanded by or from any other County City or Borough in that Parliament or given by them or any of them to the said Provisions made at the aforesaid Parliament at Oxford And the Universitas Regni at Oxford there Assembled can receive no other proper or genuine Interpretation that they were those that were Assembled at Oxford no elected Men of or for an House of Commons in the Parliament at Oxford not at all there meant or intended by the Party or Provisions made at Oxford for the aforesaid Conservatorships of which the Commons of England were never agreed to be any part or parcel but only for such as were Assembled at Oxford which were none other than the Magnates and Optimates Regni with their Milites and numerous Attendants some whereof were especially named as the Earls of Glocester and Leicester Lord High Steward of England Earl of Hereford Constable of England the Earl Marshal of England alii praeclari viri their Confederates with Letters and Statutes sent as aforesaid from the Barons at Oxford to the Citizens of London brought an imperfect Return for that some of the Citizens of London were then absent and the other were not resolved what to answer or assent unto so as the Messenger sent to London from the Barons at Oxford returned Imperfectum relinquentes Judicium Destinantur postea Nuntij solennes ad Dominum Papam ex parte Regni totius Universitatis qui nuntia sua domino Papae plenariè intimarent quà m citius possent non expectantes aliquam disputationem vel disceptationem remearent Anno verò sub eodem Philip ' Lovel Treasurer of the King Capitales Justitiarij quam plures de scaccario were removed from their places and others put therein judicio Baronagij 24. Henry the Third Fuit Rex ad Natale domini Londini ubi Magna solieitudine tractatum est inter Nobiles Regni quomodo conservato suo salubri proposito satisfacerent desiderio Regis Richardi de Alemannia The King Journeying towards the Sea to meet his Brother the King of Almaine Who was reported to have raised Forces beyond the Seas to Succour him and who the Baronage feared would come and alter what they had done Nuntii solenmes wherein certainly according to their usual Phrase they intended themselves not the Common People a Communitate Regni Angliae destinati brought an Answer from him si Nobiles Angliae which he certainly understood not to be the common People nor that they that sent
them were the common People or that the Nobility were intended to be a part of them but rather that their Wills and Actions were wholly submitted to the Peerage reformare voluissent Regnum deformatum me deberent primùm accersire In Crastino post ejus adventum in Angliam intraverunt Magnates Capitulum Cantuariense so great a Power had they then over their Tenants and the Common People ducentesque reverenter Reges Angliae Alemanniae the Earl of Gloucester stans in medio called out the King of Almaine by the name of the Earl of Cornewall to take the Oath for a general Reformation of the Kingdom Eodem Anno being 43. Henry the Third Congregati sunt Nobiles Angliae Londini prout inter se prius condixerant whither came quidam de secreto Regis Francorum concilio Decanus Bituricensis ubi non modicè tractatum fuit de negotio inter duos Reges Franciae Angliae quid in partibus transmarinis actum fuerit exinde probatum After which a Monk of St. Albans ex parte Regis Reginae Magnatibus Angliae finding the King Queen Magnatibus Scotiae in their Parliament and informing them of the cause of his coming ex parte Regis Reginae Baronum Angliae requested that the King and Queen would not fail to come into England to treat of Matters of great Concernment and Secrecy with much difficulty obtained Letters Patents from the King Queen and Nobility of Scotland Communitèr sigillatas tà m sigillo Regis quà m omnium Magnatum Scotiae ad Regem Angliae totam communitatem wherein they granted their Request dummodo se facerent Rex Angliae Magnates which explains the extent and true meaning of the preceding words Tota Communitas Angliae de scripto suo sibi prius promisso securos and returned by him Domino Regi Angliae Reginae Magnatibus terrae Literas commendatorias and did shortly after send the Earl of Bochan and other honourable Commissioners to Treat with the King of England ejus Concilio who at their coming speaking with the said Monk Nullam in publico super expeditione negotij erga Regem Regni communitatem which may in this place well be understood to intend the Baronage reliquerunt redeuntes Certificationem Eodem Anno ex concilio domini Regis Franciae Angliae totius Baronagij the Earls of Clare and Leicester John Mansell Peter de Sabaudia and Robert Wallerand were sent ad Parliamentum Magnum Regis Francorum pro pluribus negotiis regna Franciae Angliae contingentibus carrying with them a Charter or Resignation from their King to the King of France and Letters of Credence to compose with that King and his Councell super negotiis without the Commons or their Consents inter eosdem Reges eorum regna diu agitatis but for that the Countess of Leicester refused to resign that part which she held or claimed in Normandy infecto negotio cachinnantibus Francis redierunt In the mean time the Almaines perceiving how little their King elected was respected in England returned home saying Ex quo compatriotae sui ipsum non venerantur nos ipsum quomodo honoribus prosequemur And in his Absence elected another Eodem Anno King Henry the Third in Franciam transfretavit and required Restitution to be made of the Provinces in France unjustly taken away from his Father King John and detained from him unto which the French answered That the Donation of Normandy was not free but by force extorted by Rollo so as the King if he had a mind to regain it having not Money to raise an Army and especially when he did see his own Subjects ready to make War against him was enforced to yield to a Peace that pro 300000 Turonensibus parvis restitutione terrarum in France unto him ad valorem 20000 librarum in Gasconia the King was to resign and release to the King of France his Dutchy of Normandy and County of Anjou ex tunc literarum suarum abbreviavit titulum ut nec Ducem Normanniae nec Comitem Andegaviae se vocaret And fearing that he had committed Perjury in taking the Oath to observe the Provisions enforced from him at Oxford sent secretly to the Pope for an Absolution Eo tempore Symon de Monte Forti Comes Legriae Richardus de Clare Comes Gloverniae Nicholaus filius Johannis Johannes filius Galfridi multique Nobiles ipsis adhaerentes convenerunt Oxoniae equis armis sufficientèr instructi finalitèr Staâ—uentes aut mori pro pace patriae aut pacis eliminare Patriae turbatores whither came also the Bishop Elect of Winchester William de Valentia and the rest of the Poictovins stipati Magna caterva satellitum fautorum but when they understood that the English Nobility intended eos vocare standum judicio pro suis nequam factis simul communitèr jurandum cum eis ad observandum provisiones they fled to the Castle of Whitesey whither the Barons pursued them and fearing that the Bishop Elect of Winchester would carry his Complaints to Rome against them sent four Knights as their Agents to Rome with Letters under their Hands and Seals not of the Commons to complain of the Injuries which the Bishop had done to the Kingdom and the Justices itinerant of the King were at Hereford prohibited to proceed for that as was alleadged it was against the Provisions made at Oxford Anno 45. Henry the Third the King retired to the Tower of London and caused all the Citizens of London above the Age of Twelve Years to Swear unto him Fealty and made Proclamation that all that would come as Souldiers to serve him should be paid the Barons came with great Forces to the Walls of the Tower lodging in the City the Absolution being come and Prince Edward not accepting it which the Magnates not the Multitude or Commons taking notice of missis Nuntiis humilitèr rogabant ut communitèr juramentum praestitum inviolabilitèr observare vellet si quid displiceret eisdem ostenderet ad emendandum Qui nequaquam acquiescens durè minacitèr respondens dicens quòd eis à Conventione deficientibus non amplius adquiesceret sed unusquisque deinceps propriis defensionibus provideret tandèm quibusdam mediantibus it was agreed that Two should be chosen on the King's part and Two on the Barons no Commons mentioned and the Arbitrators were if they could not agree to choose a Third but by reason of Prince Edwards late return from beyond the Seas and that being returned and informed what strange Councels had been given his Father was so Angry as he absented himself from him and adhering to the Barons saith the Continuator of Matthew Paris in hac parte prout juraverat fitque conjuratio inter eos quòd malos Conciliarios eorum fautores adquirerent à Rege pro viribus alongarent which the King understanding betakes
lands and Estates where our Laws do give unto them the benefit accrewing And the honourable Peers and Judges in that Court subordinate unto the King may as to matters therein determinable be the better content therewith for that not being Sworn nor punishable as Judges in other Courts are and in what they do advise therein they neither are or can be punishable in a judicio colloquiale wherein as Paulus Screrbic hath said in his Statua Poloniae Judex in colloquiis aut Regis praesentia judicans argui de male judicato non potest And the word KUPIA as Sir Henry Spelman saith with the Greeks and Romans signifying potestas dominium and the Lord or owner of it qui potestate fretus est judiciumque exercet and the place habitaculum domini the residence or Court of the Lord or Superior ubi sana rei narratio placitum forenses vocant dicebatur autem Curia primo de Regia palatio principis inde de familia judiciis in ea habitis ritu veterrimo or the place where Kings did administer Justice surely Kings were not therein to be co-ordinate or any less then Superior And the very Learned Sir John Spelman the Son of that Excellent Learned Father writing the Life of King Alured or Alfred hath together with the unquestionable historical part and truth of the relation given us the observation that Et Comitum potestatem ad huc minuebat nam neque iis integra restabat negotiorum bellicorum tractatio Horum enim magna pars Heretochiis sive Ducibus inferioribus a plebe in Comitiis suis Electis Committebatur Hi enim recensionibus meditationibis armorumque lustrationibus praefuerunt milites in Centuriis suis coeuntes ad locum toti exercitui destinatum deducebant in bellis demum Ducum inferiorum officiis fungebantur Prout e legibus boni Edwardi aliisque locis facile colligitur Haec institutio cum a populo non Comitibus Ductores hi eligebantur non parum e Comitum potentia abstulit Comitibus ergo quorum potentia Regibus semper maxime formidabilis relinquebatur ordinaria potestas in Comitiis Comitativis praefidendi in bellis sui Comitatus militibus imperandi in Curia sive Comitatu Regis conciliis publicis suo rumque negotiis attendendi mandata Regia subditis suis communicandi quod mira celcritate post novam hanc imperii institutionem factum est Et quidem si Aelfredi nostri vestigiis posteriores Regis institissent neque tot Seditiones ortae neque tantum Sanguinis in bellis Civilibus exhaustum neque Regis ipsi toties temporibus subsequentibus periclitati fuissent Sed tam bene constituta partim bella Civilia quae statim post ejus obitum recrudescentia pene omnibus legibus executionem impediebant videantur Edvardi senioris querelae lege quarta Danique post renovatas invasiones sub canuto victores maxime vero Normanni labefactarunt Gulielmus enim sive ut Magnates in invasione regni hujus maxima momenta pro meritis pactis etiam remuneraret sive ut Anglos dominio suo efficacius subderet nobilibus suis Normannis maximam potentiam que postea tot malorum origo indulsit Henricus vero primus quantum potuit leges Aelfredi nostri instituta revocavit sed tempora consuetudinesque perversae omnia quae expedire poterant inferri non patiebantur And the authority of our Kings in Parliament were not only in the Ages before but in King Alfreds or Alureds time Superior and Super-eminent in his great Councells over his Subjects as Asser Menevensis living in his Court and Writing his Life after his Death saith that Saepissimo in concionibus Comitum praepositorum ubi pertinacissime inter se dissentiebant ita ut pene nullus eorum quicquid a Comitibus praepositis judicatum fuisset verum esse concederet qui pertinaci dissensione obstinatissimo compulsi Regis subire judicium singuli subarrabant and when Appeals and Writs of Error came before him from his Earls or Ealdermen saith Mr. Selden out of Asser Menevensis when he found Error and Injustice committed by them would Sharply reprove them For in our Monarchicall Government with the ancient long continued and well-experimented existence and constitution of the House of Peers and Peerage in the Kingdom of England the Common People were so subordinate to the Baronage and Peers as the Commons were allways understood by our Kings and our Laws and the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and by the Common People themselves to be comprehended in and under the Baronage who did for them and as they were included in them very often in our great Councells and Parliaments grant or deny aids or Subsidies and in their behalf without the Commons themselves speaking or advising alledge their poverty and disability and the Popes and Forreign Neighbour Princes in their letters and rescripts understanding it no otherwise of which Mathew Paris and Thomas of Walsingham authors of great credit living in the Reign of King Henry the 3d. and King Edward the 1st his Son have afforded us plentiful instances And all things rightly observed or Considered could not give any one the least of reason or colour of it for if our Comites Burones Bracton not mentioning the Bishops who then had great power if not too much over our Kings and Princes there then being no Dukes Marquisses and Viscounts whom our Kings then used not to create though there were many Dukes or said to be in the time of the Saxons before the Norman Conquest who by our fundamentall Laws enjoyed all their authority Subordinate unto their Parliaments and Great Councells might forfeit their Lives Estates and Lands holden of them in Capite which was the only Measure of punishment in England before the Act of Parliament in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. was made which did at the request of the Lords and Commons the Bishops not mentioned declare what should afterwards be attempted and punished as High Treason against him and his Heirs or for Counterfeiting his Great Seal which did or should bear record of the Laws and Actions and Kingly Government of our Kings Princes there having not been in that Act of Parliament or any Act of Parliament or Laws of our Brittish Saxon Danish or Norman before or since tacitly or expressly for the abolishing or taking away our Feudall Laws and Customs or that ever to be wailed unhappy Act of Parliament made by his now Majesty King Charles the 2. for the taking away of the Court of Wards and Liveries by reason of his tenures in Capite and of all homage and fealty drawn and prepared by a Learned Lawyer and a Member of that House of Commons in Parliament Dreaming of a Common-Wealth untill their man of Sin Oliver Cromwell was pleased to awake them who was in his profession well known to have been eminently skilled in
magnanimous and hardy Times wherein they disdained to tarry for the effects of Stratagems Bribery and Treacheries then little or not at all but now altogether or too much practised but universally and absolutely it being as unsafe for a King as his People and Kingdome to undertake to foretell the period of an Intestine Rebellion the power and malice of a Forreign Enemy or the sad and often Changes and events of War and to leave a King without the Power of a King and aid of his Subjects and be a King only for Forty Days and upon every Occasion or mischance of War arising from Forreign Princes or his Subjects either by Sea or Land be no longer a King then for so short a Time as if the Subjects Loyalty were to be put under such a limitation and if in that Time he cannot gain the Victory must run into an hole and hide himself in an hourly expectation of Death and a worse Destiny then that of the once mighty King Nebuchadonozers being changed into an Ox and put to grass untill the King of Kings not his Subjects or People should be pleased to restore him to his former shape and dignity which could never be understood to be the meaning of our William the Conqueror And if praxis be as it should be de Jure Gentium accompted to have been optimus legum Interpres our Tenures in Capite and by Knight service however our very learned Littleton a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas who is by Sr Edward Coke his Commentator believed to have written his book of Tenures in or about the 14th Year of King Edward the 4th and Sr Edward Coke without giving us any Record Authority or positive Law to warrant or build up their opinion for any such limitation yet it doth not appear but needeth some further Confirmation For the learned Sr Robert Cottons Collection out of the book of Doomesday hath taught us that Oxoniae Civitas tempore Regis Edwardi Confessoris geldebat nisi quando Londonium Eboracum Wintonia geldebant hoc erat dimidia marci argenti ad opus mil quando expeditio ibat per terram aut per mare serviebat haec Civitas quantum 5. hydae terrae Barnestaple vero Lydeford Totendis serviebant quantum ipsa Civitas Quando Rex ibat in expiditione Burgenses 20. ibant pro omnibus aliis vel 20. libras dabant Regi ut omnes essent liberi Omnes mansiones quae vocantur murales tempore Regis E. libera erant ab omni expeditione muri reparatione propterea vocantur murales Mansiones quia si quis fuerit Rex praeceperit murum reficerit Civitas Lodocestria tempore Regis Edwardi reddebat per Annum Regi 30. libras ad numerum de 20. merae 15. Sextarios mellis quando Rex ibat in Exercitu per terram de ipso Burgo 12. Burgenses ibant cum eo Si vero per mare in hostem eat mittebant ei 4. equos de eodem Burgo usque Londouium ad comportanda Arma vel alia quae opus essent for that great Conqueror as Sr Roger Twisden hath rightly and Judiciously observed had 3 things after that his Conquest in his purpose Cares and intention 1. ut prospicetur Regno de necessariis ad bellum 2. ut Satisfaceret Gallis periculorum suorum laborum Sociis Ita tamen ne Anglis ea occasione praeberetur Justa offensionis causa qua reddi possent ad insurrectionem seu rebellionem paratiores 3. ne Coloni utpote sine quibus Agricultura exerceri non poterit William Rufus and King Henry the First his Sons kept and established the same without any lessening or alteration as to the Time or ways King Stephen Henry the 2. and Richard the First did the like and King Richard the 1. wanted not an aid and money for his redemption out of his Captivity so did King John in his generall muster and array of all the Forces of England sub poena Culvertagii of Shame and Reproch like Deborahs Curse ye Meroz against the feared Invasion of the French King neither was it altered by King He. the 3. who mandavit vice Comitibus Wiggon Staff Salox Warr. quod venire fac ad ipsum Regem in exercitu suo usque Bery in Wallia desingulis duabus Hydis Terrae Com. suorum unum Hominem cum una bona securi c. habentem secum victualia pro â—s Diebus Edward the first did not understand himself to be manacled as unto Time and Wages when he told Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk Earl Marshall of England refusing to go with him to War into Flanders he should go or be hanged and afterwards seised the great Estates of Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England and Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and made them glad to accept his Pardon and in the 7th Year of his Reign the Praelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of this Realm did in Parliament Declare that they are bound to aid their King at all Seasons no Time or Manner at all limited King Edward the 2. left it as he found it and in hte 3. Year of the Reign of King Edward 3. it was in Parliament declared that uone shall by any Writing bebe bound to come Armed to the King for that every Subject is to be at his Commandment that in his busy Reign of gathering Triumphant Lawrells a Proclamation was made in singulis Com. Angliae quod omnes homines habentes literas Regis de pardon felon c. causa guerrae Scotiae ad Regem veniant and our Kings Richard the 2. Henry the 4th 5th and 6th Edward the 4th and Richard the 3. continued them nothing being ordered to enervate that Constitution or Law of William the Conqueror it was by an Act of Parliament made in the 11th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 7th ordained that none that shall attend upon the King and do him true Service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing by attending upon the King in his own Person and to him true and faithfull Allegiance or in any other place by his Commandment within the Land or without shall do and Perform And in the 19th Year of the said Kings Reign by an Act of Parliament it was ordained declared enacted by the advice of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall in Parliament assembled no Commons therein mentioned by Authority of the Same who shall forfeit that doth not attend the King being in his own Person in his Wars either within the Kingdom or without or depaâ—t from his said Service without the Kings Licence in Writing under his sign Manuall or Signet or Great or Privy Seal or generall Proclamation there having been no Repeal or limitation afterwards of that especiall Service either in the Reign of that King or of King Henry the 8th Edward the 6th Queen Mary Queen
pertineaut And that great King was so more then ordinarily carefull of the rights and Honor of his Crown and Regall authority which had been too much depressed and misused by the Rebellion of Simon Montfort and some Rebellious Barons and his fathers Imprisonment with the Wars and Hardships put upon them did so well provide against any the like troubles and Convulsions of State as in his return through France and abode for some time in Aquitain where he was Sumptuously feasted by the King of France he took an especiall care when he did Homage to him for Aquitain and some other Dominions he held of him in that Kingdom to limit it only unto them and except Normandy where he expended much time in the Setling of his affairs But howsoever Summus ille viz our Mr Selden was of opinion that so remarkable a provision and Monarchical Resolution of our King Edward the first and so many Emperors and Christian Kings and Princes to conserve the rights of their Crowns reported by Fleta was Prodigious and taken too much upon trust and an over facile credulity of our Carceratus Fleta as he termed him because resumptions of the Sacred Patrimonies aliened had been used here in England long before and not used at or about the same Time by Rodulphus primus the Emperor of Germany when he granted to Pope Gregory the 10th Bononia in Italy et latifunda circum quaque amplissima quae ante Imperii Romani pars insignis and permitted to be aliened to the Pope who was not then so easy to be resisted and that Choppinus and those many great and learned Doctors of the Law that had written and argued so much concerning those kind of alienations and our own Historians had been altogether silent therein yet that Decus Anglorum gentis might in his great recherches of our English Records Laws and Annalls have found that our King Edward might have been believed to have taken such Councel either from his former calamities in his his fathers Time or by a generall Consult with some or all of those Christian Princes or their Legates for that he was no sooner arrived in his own Kingdom and Dominions but he began to busy himself as much as his other great Cares and Variety of troubles would Suffer him to do in the allaying the Unquietness of the Disturbances which Humfrey do Bohun Constable of England Rigor Bigod Earl Marshall of England Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and many other the remains of his fathers more then Cammon Distresses and in his Wars with Scotland and annexing the Rights and Superiority of it to his Crown of England in the placing displacing of the Kings and Heirs thereof a Regality Superlative not to be neglected and an effect pertinent enough to that Monarchick Universall consult when in the fourth year of his Reign an Enquiry was made of all the Manors and Lands Tenements Parks Buildings Woods Tenants Commons Pastures Pawnage Honey Herbage and all other profits of Forrests Waters Moors Marshes Heaths Turbury and Wasts and how much it was worth by the year Mills Fishings Common and severall Freeholders and Copyholders by what Service they did hold their Land by Knight Service or in Socage and what reliefs what Customary Tenants and by what works or Service they did hold what rents of Assise what Cotages and Curtilages and what rents they do pay by the Year what pleas and exquisites of the Counties and of the Forrests and what they were worth by the Year what Churches of what Yearly value and who was the Patron with the yearly value of Herriotts Fairs Markets Escheats Customes Services fore Time Works and Customs and w 〈…〉 tâ—e pleas and perquisites of Courts Fines all other Casualties were worth by the Year or may fall by any of those things an Inquisition much resembling that of the Norman villains enquest in the Book of Domesday or that which long before preceded it called the Roll of Winchester and in his elaborate recherches of all the Ancient Records Annalls Historians Manuscripts and Memorialls of the Brittish Saxon Scotish and English Nations for the clear Evidence and manifestation of his Undoubted Right to Jus Superioritatis oftke Kingdom of Scotland And in the same Year what things a Coroner should enquire of purprestures or usurpation upon any of the Kings Lands and that they should be reseised A Statute of the Exchecquer touching the recovery of the Kings Debts made in Anno 10. E. 1. A Cessavit per Biennium to be brought by the Chief Lord with a forfeiture upon him that neglecteth to do his service by the space of 2 Years In Anno 17. Fined 10 of 12 of his Judges accused and indicted of taking Bribes and very great summs of Mony Statute of quia Emptores terrarum that the Feoffs shall hold his lands of the Chief Lord and not of the Feoffer And afterwards caused the Judges at their return out of their Circuits to rectify in rolls of Parchment all Fines and amercements due unto him and ordered them to receive only their then small Wages thereout curbed the Clergy that denied to give him Aids and forbad them to come to his Parliament which was holden untill their Submission with a Clero Excluso and granted his Writs contra Impugnatores Jurium Regis made 2 Statutes of Quo Warranto in 18. E. 1. that every man should shew cause how he claimed or held his Liberties Ordinatio de libertatibus perquirendis 27. E. 1. Statute of Wards and Reliefs Anno. 28. E. 1. Another Statute of Quo Warranto Anno. 30. E. 1. Ordinatio Forrestae Anno. 33. E. 1. So that pace tanti viri with all the honor and reverence that can or ought to be given to Mr Selden that Dictator of Universal Solid Learning it may be said that our Fleta which was by him so well esteemed as to have been published and caused to be printed with his learned dissertations and Comment thereupon might well have escaped his scruples and distrust when in that great Kings travail from Hierusalem or out of Aba homewards he was royally feasted by the King of Sicily one of the aforesaid Confederate Christian Kings the Pope and divers Princes of Italy And when the Pope had afterwards demanded 8 Years arrears of him for an Yearly tribute of 1000. Marks for the Kingdom of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that the Parliament was dissolved before his letter came unto his hands and that sine Praelatis Proceribus no Commons therein mentioned comunicato Concilio sanctitati suae super praemissis non potuit respondere Jurejurando in Coronatio sua prestita fuit astrictus quod Jurat regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquid quod Diadema tangit regni ejusdem no such Oath or Promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil abusque illorum requisito Concilio
and testify that the Land is holden of them and that without taking away the Fealty and repealing the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy the Duty and Oaths of the Subjects remained as they did whilst they held their Land in Capite and by Knight Service Which probably as may sadly be lamented could never have hapned if the later men of the Law in England had not by the space of something more then Forty Years last past leaped over as it may be feared they have overmuch done the successive learned labours and Books in a long process of Time in the Reign of our Regnant Kings and Princes divers Judges and Sages of our Laws Recording from Time to Time Cases Judgments Decrees and Dicisions maturely and Deliberately adjudged therein But too much neglected those guidings better guides and faithfull Directors the Civill and Feudall Laws and suffred their Studies and practice to be imployed and incouraged in the Factious Seâ—iâ—ious Rebellious principles of those Times by following the gross Mistakes of Sr Edward Coke in his Discontent malevolence and Ill will unto the necessary and legall Regalities of the Crown and Idolizing as he did those grand parcells of forgery and Imposture entitled the Mirrour of Justice and the Modus tenendi Parliamentum and their neglecting the readings of Glanvile Bracton and Britton and other good Authors And the Civil Law was the Parent and Mother of many of the maximes and principles of that which is now called our Common Law And those men of the Law who without Books subsistence or Estates when they went beyond the Seas with their Sovereign and had not there the opportunities of the Knowledge or help of the Records of the Kingdom that might have been their best Instructers were for the most part but Young Gentlemen Born and Bred in the times of our Distempered Parliaments as those were that Tarried here who walked along with the Rebellion too much adhered unto them and came Weather-beaten again with his Majesty had understood as they might have done the Originall Foundation and Continuance of our Monarchick Government But King Edward the 1. who had passed over and overcome so many Hardships Difficulties Misfortunes and Storms of State was so unwilling to be afraid of a part of his Unquiet Baronage or to Humour the popularity and ignorance of any of the Common People or to be in fear of them or of any their Factious or Seditious Machinations making what hast his affairs would permit to return into England where his father having by his Death escaped the restless conflicts of a long and troublesome Reign and his Exequies and Ceremonies of buriall performed Róbertus Kilwarby Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Gilbertus de Claro Comes Gloverinae a man that had been in Armes and opposite enough against his father and himself in the former convulsions of State and John Warren Earl of Surrey saith Samuel Daniel went up to the High Altar cum aliis Praelatis ac Regni proceribus Londiniis apud novnm Templum convenerunt Edwardum absentem Dominum suum Ligeam recognoverunt paternique Successorem honoris ordinaverunt assensu Reginae non Populi and before his return into England John Earl Warren and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester in the Abby Church of Westminster sware unto him Fealty without asking leave of the People and proclaimed him King although they knew not whether he were Living or Dead caused a new great Seal to be made and appointed six Commissioners for the Custody of his Treasure and Peace whilst he remained in Palastine where by an Assassin feigning to Deliver Letters unto him he received 3 Dangerous Wounds with a poysoned knife then said and believed to have been cured by the Love of his Lady that Paragon of Wives and Women who sucked the Poyson out of the Wound when others refused the adventure and after 3 Years Travail from the time of his setting forth many conflicts and Disappointments of his aids and Ends left Acon well fortified and manned and returned homewards in which as he travailed he was Royally feasted by the Pope and princes of Italy whence he came towards Burgundy where he was at the foot of the Alpes met by Divers of the English Nobility and being Challenged to a Tournament by the Earl of Chalboun a man of extraordinary Renown Successfully hazarded his Person to manifest his valour thence came again into England with the great advantages of his Wisdom Courage and Reputation assisted by the memory of the fortunate Battle at Evesham and his Actions in the East SECT XVIII Of the Methods and Courses which King Edward the 1. held and took in the Reformation and Cure of the Former State Diseases and Distempers KIng Edward the 1st was together with his Queen Crowned at Westminster by Robert Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander King of Scotland and John Duke of Britanny attending that Solemnity which being finished he shortly after forced Leoline Prince of Wales who had taken part with Montfort against his Father King Henry the third to do him Homage and after a Revolt imprisoned and beheaded him did the like to his brother David and United Wales as a Province to England made the Statute of Snowden considered and perused their Laws allowed some repealed others collected some and added new as he well might there do for the Prince or King which Governed Wales had always used so to do and appointed one to give his assent to the Election of Bishops and Abbots And when The Pope demanded 8 yeares arreares for the rent or tribute of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that his Parliament was dissolved before it came and that sine Praelatis et Proceribus communicato concilio sanctitati suae super praemissa non potuit respondere et Jurejurando in coronatione suam praestito fuit obstrictus quod jura Regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquod quod diadema tangat Regni ejusdem no such clause or promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil absque illorum requisito concilio faceret Sent to Franciscus Accursius Docto of laws resident at Bononia in Italy the son of the famous Accursius the Civil lawyer to come with his wife family into England by his writ to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire commanded him to deliver unto the said Doctor Accursius the King 's manor house and castle of Oxford then no mean place for him and his wife to Inhabit Did so imitate the wisdom and providence of the Roman and Caesarean laws as Augustus Caesar and other of the Succeeding Emperours had done as he gave unto men learned in the laws which was more for the peoples good then in their suits and actions at law to court and live under the protection and humours of their popular Patroni's libertatem respondendi to give councell and advice to their clients in their concernments at law and
encouraging and rewarding merit and Service for the good of the publick greatly and too much wasted and exhausted ever have been perswaded to have released so much as was done of the Tenures in Capite by a factious part of the people who designed to undermine the Monarchical Estate of the Government Or by some of the more Loyall advisers who either by ignorance or otherwise did not well understand Monarchy and the Government Or the sad and ever to be lamented Consequences and Effects that have already followed and will hereafter fatally ensue the change of the Tenure in Capite and by Knight Service to release and turn those Nerves and Sinews of the Government ligaments and ties of the Crown the Chariots and Horsmen of our Israels Glory Strength and support of it and the Loadstone of the Subjects obedience into free and common Soccage Wherein much more heed was to have been taken then formerly for that the Militia and the Sovereignty and Power of our Kings much whereof were lodged and incorporated therein were founded and built upon the Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service the Basis Foundation Life Blood Animall Spirits Soul Essence and support thereof and had not long before been by an Horrid and Hypocritical Rebellion wrested out of the hands of the late blessed Martyr King Charles the 1st by abuse and misconstruction of the Laws false arguments and the fear and flagging of some of his most Eminent Justices and Lawyers who were too little acquainted with the Feudall Laws and Laws of Nations the Records Annalls and Histories of the Kingdom and the Monarchicall Government thereof Which too much encouraged and assisted the Rebellion against him together with the murder and destruction of him and many Thousands of his Loyall and more Dutifull Subjects that fought for him Notwithstanding all which the aforesaid cares condescensions of that prudent Prince King Edward the 1. hoping for the best and not suspecting the worst In the 25th Year of his Reign requiring Bohun Earl of Hereford and Constable of England and other the Barons to go with him to the Wars in Gascoigny and Bygod Earl Marshall of England likewise refusing unless the King himself would go in Person the King swears ye shall go or Hang and the Earl answered he would neither go nor Hang and so without leave departed the King notwithstanding proceeded in his Voyage to Flanders the two Earls of Hereford and Norfolk assemble many Noblemen and other their friends to the number of 30 Bannerets so as they were 1500 men at Arms and stood upon their Guard and the King being ready to take Ship the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons and Commons sent him a Roll of the Grievances of his Subjects in Taxes Subsidies and other imposicions with his seeking to force their services by unlawfull courses to which the King answered that he could not alter any thing without the advice of his Councell who were not now about him and therefore required them that seeing they would not attend him in his journy which they absolutely refused to do though he went in person unless it were into France and Scotland that they would yet do nothing in his absence prejudiciall to the Crown promising at his return to set all things in good order but being afterwards enforced to send for more Supplies of Mony ordained a Parliament to be held at York and to the End he might not be disappointed of aid condesended to all such Articles as were demanded concerning the great Charter promising from thenceforth never to charge his Subjects otherwise then by their consent in Parliament Seized the moneys in the Popes Bankers hands to relieve his and the publick necessities gave protections from arrest and troubles in their Estates to them that should have paid it otherwise and notwithstanding the Popes Anger and Threats not in those days easily to be adventured upon did not pay and refund it within 2 or 3 Years after Seized also and took at his own price the Wools which the Merchants then had in the Ports ready to be transported and all the Lands and Great Estates of Bohun Earl of Hereford and Clare Earl of Gloucester and upon the Marriage of his Daughter the Lady Elizabeth to the first with a Gift in Tayl to them the reversion in the Crown and the like to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford by Marriage of his Daughter the Lady Joan restored them in tail as aforesaid unto them and made not only the said Humfrey de Bohun Roger Bygod Earl Marshall whom upon second failings he afterward confiscated and all others who had joined with him in refusing to serve him in his warrs according to the tenure of their lands to be glad and well content with his generall pardon In the same year granted to Hugh Kent de Galvy in Ireland and the Heirs Males of his body the liberty of enjoying the benefit of the English laws in terra sua Hyberniae as the writ ensuing wlll evidence viz. Rex omnibus ballivis fidelibus suis in Hybernia ad quos c. Salutem volentes Hugoni Kent de Galvy Hyberniae gratia facere specialem concedimus ei pro nobis haeredibus nostris quod ipse liberi sui de corpore ipsius Hugonis legitime procreati procreandi hanc habeant libertatem quod ipsi posteri eorum de extero in terra nostra Hyberniae tam in morte quam in vita legibus consuetudinibus utantur Auglicanis firmiter inhibentes ne quis eos contra hanc concessionem nostram injuste vexet in aliquo vel perturbet in cujus c. Teste Rege apud Gillingham 25 die Martii per ipsum Regem And by his letters patents constituted Johannem de Breton Custos or Warden of the City of London as followeth viz. Rex omnibus ballivis fidelibus suis ad quod c. sciatis quod dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem le Breton constituimus custodem civitatis London ad amerciandos Aldermannos alios quoscunque de civitate praedicta qui ad rationabilem praemonitionem Seu Summonitionem custodis ejusdem pro negotiis nos Civitatem illam tangentibus venire contempserent etiam ad Vicecomites Civitatis praedict ipsorum Clericos ac ministros mercedem sui Officii capientes cum super hoc modo debito convicti fuerint juxta quantitatem delictorum suorum castigandos puniendos quantum necesse fuerit quatenus sua discretio de jure viderit faciendum specialem tenore praesentium committimus potestatem quam diu nos placuerit durando in cujus c. Having before in the 13 or 14th Year of his Reign fined Gregory de Rokesly Mayor of London for that he renounced the Mayoralty and delivered the Common Seal of the Mayoralty or City to Stephen de Ashren aliis de Communitate London sine licencia ipsius Regis for which he
was glad to receive his Pardon In the 25th Year of his Reign directed his Writ Custodi Northwallia mentientes falsos rumores contra Regem castigand The like to punish conventus conventicula Another to respite the King's Debts aliorum dum in obsequio Regis With a Proclamation for the confirmation of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta and to Command that two discreet Knights be chosen in every County to Attend Prince Edward the King's Son his Lieutenant in England during the Kings absence in partibus transmarinis to procure the King's Letters-Parents for confirmation of the Peoples Liberties In the 27th Year of his Reign a Parliament being called at Westminster wherein the two Charters were confirmed with the allowance of what Deafforestation had been formerly made but with ommission of the clause Salvo jure Coronae nostrae which the King laboured to have inserted being a small return and Civility to a Sovereign whose Royall progenitors had freely granted those Liberties and Priviledges and himself willing to confirm them but by no means it would be agreed unto Was so incensed at the revolt of the Scots and so fixt in his resolution of subduing them as going to fight a battle with them whose army much exceeded his own when he was with one foot in the Stirrop getting on horseback the horse upon some great noise or shout in the Scottish army who were Marching on to engage him Started and throwing him to the ground with his hinder foot Strake him so on one side as he brake two of his Ribbs which could not so hinder either his Courage or Resolution but he again remounted the same Horse and charged with good Success as he wan the field and slew as some of their Historians mention about 60 thousand of them In the 30th Year of his Reign the Constable of Dover having upon an Order or Sentence of the Court of Sheppey which was the Magna Curia of the Cincque-Ports arrested the Abbot of Feversham pro quibusdam transgressionibus per ipsum perpetratis in laesionem Coronae regiae dignitatis was cited and excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury the King thereupon as the record mentioneth nolentes nobis super Statu regio nostro aliqualiter derogari aut ministros nostros pro hiis quae judicialiter fuerint indebite fatigari commanded the Archbishop in fide qua sibi tenetur firmiter injungentes quod hujusmodi citationibus of the Constable or his Ministers ea de causa faciendis supersedeat sententias praedictas in ipsos per ipsum ut praemittitur fulminatas faciat sine dilatione aliqua revocari ita quod non operteat nos ad hoc aliter apponere manum nostram In the claim which he made and deduced to the Pope of his right to the Superiority of the Kingdom of Scotland attested by an hundred hands and seals of the Earls and Baronage of England in a Parliament holden at Lincoln when he gave an answer to a letter of the Pope mediating in the behalf of the King of Scotland and claiming that Kingdom to belong to the Church of Rome wherein he had desired him to send his procurators and evidence to be heard and determined at Rome the historian and our records have informed us in these words that quoniam vero ad hoc quod Papa petivit quod si Rex Angliae jus haberet in regno Scotiae vel aliqua ejus parte procurators instructos mitteret fieret eis justitiae complementum Rex per se noluit respondere sed hoc commisit Comitibus aliisque terrae Baronibus who gave him a choaking and flatly denying answer on the behalf of their King And pursuing his Victories against that Nation took out of Edenburgh the Crown Scepter and Cloth of Estate with the Marble Chair wherein the King 's of Scotland used to Sit whilst they were Crowned wherein according to an old Scotch Prophecy the fate of that Kingdom so resided as wheresoever it should be the Rule and Government of that Nation should follow and offered up the same at St Edwards shrine at Westminster intending to unite the Kingdom of Scotland to England imprisoned the King of Scotland in the Tower of London where he long detained him subdued Malcolmus King of Man and the Kings of the Other Isles and was so unalterable in those his purposes as he ordered that his bones should after his death be carried along with such English Armies as should afterwards be employed against that Nation Did in the 31st year of his Reign treat with the foreign Merchants and by his Charta mercatoria without the trouble advice or assent of his great Councel or Parliament relinquish unto them his former kind of customs called Prises upon their granting unto him 3d of the pound now called the Petit Customs out of all foreign Merchandises imported except wines for every sack of wool to be exported 40d for every 300 woolfells the like and for every last of leather a demy mark over and above the duties payable by Denizens for the same commodities which grant being by the Merchants of several nations not incorporate into a body-politick of no force by the rules of the common Law the Kings Charter only made it good and maintained it untill it was confirmed by Act of Parliament in Anno. 17. E. 3. which was 50 Years after which Charter being made in England by that great and valiant Prince was afterwards by him exemplyfied and transmitted into Ireland with a speciall Writ to the Officers of the Customes there to leavy the 3d penny in the Pound and other duties mentioned in that Charter as appeareth in the Records of the Exchequer of Ireland by virtue of which writ without any Act of Parliament there the 3d penny in the pound with the other duties were ever after leavied in that Kingdom and paid to the Crown In the 32d year of his Reign he was so little afraid of his potent Nobility under whose greatness and power many of common people sheltered their Oppressions of one another by wrongfull disseisins and making themselves Tenants to their greater Landlords for those Lands which they had no right unto as he made severe Laws for the regulation thereof And in Declaratione Juris Regis in regno Scotiae protestavit se jus Coronae suae usque ad effusionem sanguinis defensarum ab quem Rex illo Anno omnia Monasteria Angliae Scotiae Walliae perscrutari faceret ad dignoscendum quale jus posset sibi competere in hac parte repertum est in Chronias mariani Scoti Willielmi de Malmesburia Rogero Hoveden Henrici de Huntingdon Radulphi de Luzeto or diceto quod Anno Domini non gentesimo decimo Rex Edwardus subegit sibi Regis Scotorum Cambrorum Item ibidem que Anno domini non gentesimo vicesimo primo praedictae gantes Eligerunt sibi Edwardum praedictum in Domium
Domino donante Rex non solum Mercor sum sed omnium provinciarum quae generali nomine Angli dicuntur did grant Cumberhto 10. Cassatas terrae cui ab antiquis nomen est indicum Husmerat juxta fluvium â—tur subscribed with ✚ Ego Aethelbald Rex Britaniae propriam donationem confirmavi subscripsi ✚ Ego Unor Episcopus consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Unilfridus Episcopus jubente Aethelbaldo Rege subscripsi ✚ Ego Aethelric subre gulus atque Comes Gloriosissimi principis Aethelbald huic donationi consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Ibrorsi magnus Abbatis consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Heardberht frater atque dux praefati Regis consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Ebbella consensum accommodans subscripsi ✚ Ego Onec Comes subscripsi ✚ Ego Oba consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Sigibrid consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Bercot consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Ealdoult consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Caila consensi subscripsi ✚ Ego Pedo consensi subscripsi And the meer consent of a Tenant to his Landlords or Lords grant by Attornment doth not encrease or enlarge his former estate but is only a consent and agreement unto that grant or as an obliging taking notice thereof And where an Archdeacon Dean and Chapter are Summoned to Parliament act tractandum they neither did do or can claim any other power beyond their obedience to what should be ordained by their Superiors The choice or Election of a Verdurer in a Forrest by the Kings Writ doth not make those that did it the owners thereof and the Election of a Coroner by the like Authority to collect and take care of the Kings rights and profits did never yet truly and rationally signify that the Electors were the Masters of them neither doth the assent of the Freeholders in a Court-Baron or Leet devest the Lord of the Manor or Court-Leet of any part of his Right Propriety or Jurisdiction therein For to assent in the aforesaid enforced Statute de Tallagio non concedendo without the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and Commons of England viz. That Tallage or Aid shall be taken or leavied by the King or his Heirs in his Realm without the assent of the Arch-Bishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land which Tallages were the prises as Walsingham mentioneth taken de bobus vaccis frumentis bladis coriis purveyance taken against his preparation for Warrs in Flanders de quibus tota Communitas Angliae gravabatur but was never granted and intended either in words express or tacite to give either unto the House of Peers or Commons Jointly or severally a Negative Vote or deniall or a Legislative power but only to free themselves from those Tallages and Prises complained of which had such a force and obligation upon them and placed in them such a reverence and awfull respect to their King and head as they did subordinately not seldom obtain their Kings Leters-Patents to license or impower them Talliare Tenentes suos de dominico suo And although the Commons in Parliament in the 2 year of the Reign of King Henry the 5th had in the Advantage which they suppose they might sasely adventure upon in a Time of Usurpation assumed and arrogated to themselves a Legislative co-ordinate power in the making of Laws which other then Petitionary as Subjects to their King none of their predecessors before or since the 48th year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. ever had or obtained untill the last Horrid Rebellion in 1642. when they would make heedless and headless ordinances instead of Statutes or Acts of Parliament without their King and would not forsake their madness untill they had Murthered that Blessed Martyr King Charles the I. yet the answer of King Henry the 5th to that Petition and claim did so manifestly deny to give any allowance thereunto as one of their greatest Champions and Underminers of our Fundamental manarchick Laws could afford without prejudice to his the grounded cause to give posterity that Kings answer thereunto but concealed it as a conviction not to be devulged to their seduced Proselites For in the making of a Bishop wherein the King is acknowledged by the laws of England truth and Right reason to be the only true and proper cause of making him a Bishop and the impositions of hands by some of the Presbyters Subservient unto him in his Diocess which was but Ceremoniall and much less then the ornaments of Aarons garments in his multifarious priestly Attire and could never make or ordain him a Bishop without the King or give him Livery of the Lands appertaining to the Bishoprick neither doth any Law or right reason of any Nation or the dictates of holy Writ enable any to believe that the assent of the Woman or Wife in the holy Rites of Matrimony could or should ever entitle her unto a command and superiority over her Husband or Annihilate the Decree of Almighty God in the framing and forming of Man and Woman kind and order of the subservient government of the World And it would be an Engine mathematicall or contrivance Worth the Enquiry or finding out if it could be possible how to settle or make our most excellently composed Monarchick Government usefull in its Legislative power if the Houses of Peers and Commons in Parliament should disagree who but their King and Superior can or could be able to reconcile their discording Votes Opinions or Resolves For our Records Histories Annals and National Memorialls have never yet found or so much as mentioned any Laws Statutes or ordinances made in Parliament or out without le Roy le voult or his fiat or grant or the grant and assent of the Custos Regni or his Lieutenant Commissionated by him made by an House of Peers or Commons or party of them as it were in Parliament untill the Devil in a Religious habit taught it unto the last most horrid of incomparable Rebellions or that any House or number of Peers ever did or attempted to do any such thing or matter without the Kings le Roy le veult fiat assent or ratification or that of his Castos Regni or Lieutenant Commissionated by him Except that which was done by Symon Montfort and his Rebell partners in Annis 48. 49. Henry the 3 against that distressed over powred Prince when they had taken and kept him a prisoner for more then a Year and by fear and by force issued out Writs in his name for an Original of an House of Commons in Parliament and owned and acted what they would have him or constrained him to do in his name and as by his sole authority neither as Ego Rex meus or Senatus populus quoÌ„ Anglicanus neither can the Eyes of any far-seeing Linx or Lynceus or any Perspicuity clearness or strength of sight or the greatest of industry search or scrutiny whatsoever of our
to be held in the Bishoprick of Durham and the Northern parts did within a few days after the appointing of the sitting of the Parliament send his Writ to command him that omitting his holding of the Assizes he should in person be at Westminster at the day appointed hoc sicut indignationem nostram grave dampnum vestrum vitare volueritis nullo modo omittatis T. R. apud Windsore 17 die Septembris per breve de privato sigillo In the 8th Year of his Reign sent his Writ to Thomas Earl of Lancaster that omnibus aliis praetermissis he should be present at the Parliament wherein amongst the Barons the Judges and others were Summoned per ipsum Regem In the 18th Year of his Reign having Summoned the Earl Marshal to be at a Parliament to be holden at Winchester Secunda Dominica Quadragesima proxime futura and being informed by some of the Nobility that by reason of the shortness of time they could not sufficiently provide themselves did prorogue the Parliament to Octabis Paschae prox futur there to consult about the Defence of Aquitaine and his passage In the 20th Year of his Reign he Summoned a Parliament to be at Westminster to treat with the King if he should be there or in his absence with the Queen and the Prince his Son In the 2d Year of King Edward the 3d the Sheriff of Yorkshire sending his precepts to Richmond and Rippon to Elect Burgesses they answered they were not bound to Elect any and would avoid the charge of their expences In the 3d Year of his Reign Termino Paschae the Bishop of Winchester was Indicted in the Kings bench for departing from the Parliament at Salisbury Anno 4. Edwardi 3. the King Summoned Thomas Earl of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England his Uncle to the Parliament with these words in the end thereof viz. quod si quid absit propter absentiam vestram dicta negotia contigerit retardari ad vos prout convenit graviter capiemus Having called a Parliament to consult about the affairs of Acquitain and Summoned the Archbishops Bishops c. to the aforesaid Parliament and a peace by the French Embassadors being made in the mean time de assensu Praelatorum Comitum Baronum did by his Letters or Writs signify to them his pleasure that they should not come Commanded the same Knights and Burgesses that had been at the Parliament at London quibusdam certis de causis recesserunt to appear at a Parliament at Westminster seu alios ad hoc idoneos In the 6th Year of his Reign by reason of some stirrs in the North-parts of England Summoned a Parliament at York commanding them to be personally there giving them notice quod propter arduitatem negotiorum praedictorum cessante impedimento legitimo praesentia vestra carere non possumus ista vice And Summoned the Prelates and Nobles to a Parliament at the same place and signified that he would not admit of any Proxies and the Archbishop of Canterbury with some Bishops not appearing to the King 's great disappointment he did by a Writ of resummons directed to the said Archbishop 17 other Bishops 13 Abbots 40 Magnatibus aliis therein-named reciting that he had demanded an ayd and advice of the Prelates Peers and Knights of the shires then present who deliberato concilio responsum dederunt quod in tam arduis negotiis sine Archiepiscopi aliorum Praelatorum Magnatum Procerum praesentia concilium assensum praebere non possent nec debent did earnestly supplicate him to continue and prorogue that Parliament ad diem Mercurii in Octabis Sancti Hillarii tunc prox Sequen interim ceteros Praelatos Proceres tunc absentes convocari faceremus ac nos quanquam hujusmodi dilatio nobis damnosa periculosa plurimum videatur eorum petitione in hac parte annuentes Parliamentum praedictum usque ad Octavas praedict duximus continuandum seu prorogandum ac Praelatis Magnatibus Militibus Civibus Burgensibus injunximus quod tunc ibidem interfuerint quacunque excusatione cessante ac omnibus aliis praetermissis ne igitur contingat quod absit dicta negotia ad nostri Regni nostri dampnum dedecus per vestri seu aliorum absentiam ulterius prorogari vobis in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini sub periculo quod incumbit districte injungendo mandamus quod omni excusatione cessant sitis personaliter apud Eborum in dictis Octabis nobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus dicti Regni nostri super dictis negotiis tractatur vestrum concilium impensur sciatis quod si per vestram contigerit dicta negotia quod absit ulterius retardari dissimulare non poterimus quin ad vos exinde sicut convenit graviter capiemus Teste Rege apud Eborum 11. die Decembris In the same Year on a Saturday the House of Commons had leave to depart and were commanded to attend untill the next day on which the Parliament was Dissolved In the several Parliaments of 6. Edwardi 3. and 2â— E. 3. the cause of Summons was declared by those that were appointed to do it by the King 's verball Command only and not by any Commission In the Year next following Receivers and Tryers of petitions were appointed par nostre Seigneur le Roy son Concill which Mr Elsing understood to be the Kings Privy-Councell 11. E. 3. an extraordinary Writ of Summons was sent to the Sheriff of the County of Stafford concerning an aid granted by the Clergy of the Diocess of Coventry and Lichfield of 20 d. upon every Mark given to the King to free them from the oppression of the laity in violently seizing upon their Wools. 14. E. 3. The Commons prayed that the Writs to the Sheriffs for the Election of Knights for the shires might have the clause que deux miltz valuez Chivalers de Countez soient esleuz envoyez ad prochein Parliament pour la Commune si que nul d'eux ne soit Viscount ou autre Minister Which was agreed unto and in the Summons of Parliament and Writs for the Electing of Knights of the shires was inserted that they should Elect deux Chivalers ceynct des Espees de chescun Countie pour estre en mesme le Parlement and thereupon the next Writ was quod de dicto Comitatu duos Milites gladiis cinctos elegi facias which continueth to this day although many times Esquiresand no Knights are chosen and by the indulgence of our Kings admitted when in a Dedimus potestatem to take a fine it will not be allowed Eodem Anno the Sheriff of Northampton was commanded quod venire fac to the Parliament de villa Northampton quatuor de corpore Comitatus sui sex Mercatores de discretioribus ditioribus Mercatoribus villae Com. praedictorum cum
or Common Freeholder or the Widdows or Feme Soles of any of them resides or is incorporate in that one Knight of a Shire or how much in the other Knight of the Shire when by the Kings Writs there were to be no more than two and by Oliver Cromwels the Usurpers Writs there was as many as six and when in his Time of Villany two English Earls Knights of the Kings Honourable Order of the Garter sate as Members of that which was miscalled the House of Commons in Parliament although it might well deserve the Question of what Nation they were or Riddle my Riddle what is this how much of them were Earls or Commons or what Epiccen or Hermophrodite kind of men they were or whom if not very Rebels they did then and there represent Or whether the Knights and Burgesses of England and Wales as they were admitted into the House of Commons from the 48th and 49th year of the Raign of King Henry 3. until the Raign of King Henry the 7th did or could represent for Ireland Gastoign the Isles and other Dominions of our Kings and sometime Scotland for which until then there were Receivers and Triers of Petitions particularly appointed for those other Dominions and places or who did represent for Wales the Bishoprick of Durham before there were Knights of the Shires and Burgesses allowed by our Kings or for the Town of Newark upon Trent so lately priviledged by his now Majesty or whether they do in one entire and complexed Body represent for all the Commons of England when as the Journals Parliament Rolls and Memoriols can inform us that sometimes the City of London as also other particular places have separately petitioned the King and not at all Times in a generality name and behalf of all the Commons of England Servants Mechanicks and Labourers c. which being no Freeholders or Electors can never be understood to have given any of the Members of the House of Commons any procurations jointly or separately to give any consent or represent for them in Parliament So that whatsoever hath or shall be done or acted in Parliament either for Lease or Copyholders villani Bordarii Mechanicks Labourers Servants c. Neither is or can be obliging to those multitudes otherwise than by the Soveraign power of the King when by the Energy and Vertue of his Royal Assent that which was before but an Embrio comes to be aminated and have as it were a Life and a Soul breathed or put into it by his sanction or giving it the force of a Law by his and no others Act of Parliament further than the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Assent or Approbation of the Commons in Parliament assembled Or how they can by or with any Law Right Reason Construction propriety of Speech or Grammar be said or believed to represent those of the Commons of England whom they have many times accused and take upon them to imprison or punish When our Parliaments have been or should be founded upon the Feudal Laws our Monarchick best of Governments and there could be no Election of Members of the House of Commons to come to Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum iis which the King by the advise of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal should there ordain not in omnibus in all matters for that was the proper care and business of our Kings and Princes and their private Councel by whose advice the Writs of Summons issued out under the Kings great Seal of England to Summon the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to a Parliament to consult not de omnibus or de omnibus arduis but de quibusdam arduis and until the 49th of King Henry 3. when Simon Montforts Rebellious Parliament and his Counterfeit Writs of Election of Members to be a then endeavoured to be constituted House of Commons in Parliament received its first foundation and gave the occasion and encouragement to many Rebellions and Mischiefs afterward and from the 21 and 22 E. 1. until that gave it some rectifyed allowance unto such a kind of Election and Convention of Members in an House of Commons in Parliament to be assembled the so Elected Members of Commons of Parliament could neither meet or assemble until there were Writs of Summons issued out to assemble the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as Peers not unto the King but one unto the other in Parliament for when the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are not to be assembled by the Kings Writs of Summons the Commons cannot be Elected to attend the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for to meet without so much as unto Markets or Fairs or Indulgent allowance of our Kings would be a breach of the Kings Peace which should be so sacred and ever was accompted to be of so great a concernment unto him and his people as when he pardoned any of his offending Subjects against his Laws the ancient forms of our Kings pardons were only without enumerating or particular specification of the Crimes damus concedimus pacem nostram and gives us the reason that all our Parliaments as well relating either to the upper or lower House do specially except Treason Felony or breach of Peace which seemeth certainly to be no other than a necessary Clause added by our Kings in their priviledges of Parliament And otherwise it would be an unread unheard unintelligible mixture of a Supremacy or Soveraignty that a King deriving his Soveraignty only from God and his People and Subjects sworn unto him by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and obliged unto him for their Estates and Self-preservation at the same time be invested with a Soveraignty which is to be certainly placed amongst the most puzling Riddles of Madam Sphinx and none of the over-turning Republicans can give us no manner of solution until all the Vulgus or Rabble multitude of the World can be persuaded to be of one mind and for many years continue therein and all impossibles come to be possible And there cannot be a greater absurdity offered to the Common Intellect or understanding of mankind than to endeavour to perswade them that there is a plurality of Soveraigns and that all the Subjects of England do or can represent the King and are his Soveraigns or that he is the Subject or general Servant of so many Millions of people as he is rightfully King of and are sworn unto him by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy but are conditionally only his Subjects until some fair opportunity to Arraign him at the suit of his own Subjects cut off his head and extirpe him and his Illustrious Family by no other Warrant than to set up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ who never yet gave them any Order or Authority to attempt any such egregious Villany And should not have been so locked up in their Morphaeus commonly erring wandring dreams or imaginations as to think that two or three necessary priviledges only
upon less overt-acts and Praesumptions have been accompted and punished as High Treason § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any Authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed delinquency whatsoever FOR if Monarchy hath been by God himself and the Experience of above 5000 years and the longest Ages of the World approved as it hath to have been the best and most desirable form of Government And the Kingdom of England as it hath been for more than 1000 years a well tempered Monarchy and the Sword and Power thereof was given to our Kings only by God that ruleth the Hearts of them The means thereunto which should be the Power of Punishment and Reward can no way permit that they should be without the Liberty and Prerogative of Pardoning which was no Stranger in England long before the Conquest in the Raign of King Athelstane who did thereby free the Nation from four-footed Wolves by ordaining Pardons to such Out-Laws as would help to free themselves and others from such villanous Neighbours the Laws of Canutus also making it a great part of their business to enjoyn a moderation in punishments ad divinam clementiam temperata to be observed in Magistracy and never to be wanting in the most Superior none being so proper to acquit the offence as they that by our Laws are to take benefit by the Fines and Forfeitures arising thereby and Edward the Confessors Laws would not have Rex Regni sub cujus protectione pace degunt universi to be without it when amongst his Laws which the People of England held so sacred as they did hide them under his Shrine and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of the Conqueror that they should be observed and procured the observation of them especially to be inserted in the Coronation-Oaths of our succeeding Kings inviolably to be kept And it is under the Title of misericordia Regis Pardonatio declared That Si quispiam forisfactus which the Margin interpreteth rei Capitalis reus poposcerit Regiam misericordiam pro forisfacto suo timidus mortis vel membrorum per dendorum potest Rex ei lege suae dignitatis condonare si velit etiam mortem promeritam ipse tamen malafactor rectum faciat in quantumcunque poterit quibus forisfecit tradat fidejussores de pace legalitate tenenda si vero fidejussores defecerint exulabitur a Patria For the pardoning of Treason Murder breach of the Peace c. saith King Henry the First in his Laws so much esteemed by the Barons and Contenders for our Magna Charta as they solemnly swore they would live and die in the defence thereof do solely belong unto him super omnes homines in terra sua In the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Peirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwal being banished by the King in Parliament and all his Lands and Estate seized into the Kings hands the King granted his Pardons remitted the Seizures and caused the Pardon and Discharges to be written and Sealed in his Presence And howsoever he was shortly after upon his return into England taken by the Earl of Warwick and beheaded without Process or Judgment at Law yet he and his Complices thought themselves not to be in any safety until they had by two Acts of Parliament in the seventh year of that Kings Raign obtained a Pardon Ne quis occasionetur pro reditu morte Petri de Gaveston the power of pardoning being always so annexed to the King and his Crown and Dignity And the Acts of Parliament of 2 E. 3. ca. 2. 10 E. 3. ca. 15. 13 R. 2. ca. 1. and 16 R. 2. ca. 6. seeking by the Kings Leave and Licence in some things to qualifie it are in that of 13 R. 2. ca 1. content to allow the Power of Pardoning to belong to the Liberty of the King and a Regality used heretofore by his Progenitors Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justiciar of England in the Raign of King Henry the third laden with Envy and as many deep Accusations as any Minister of State could lie under in two several Charges in several Parliaments then without an House of Commons had the happiness notwithstanding all the hate and extremities Put upon him by an incensed Party to receive two several Pardons of his and their King and dye acquitted in the Estate which he had gained Henry de Bathoina a Chief Justice of England being in that Kings Raign accused in Parliament of Extortion and taking of Bribes was by the King pardoned In the fifieth year of the Reign of King Henry the third the Commons in Parliament petitioning the King that no Officer of the Kings or any man high or low that was impeached by them should enjoy his Place or be of the Kings Council The King only answered he would do as he pleased With which they were so well satisfied as the next year after in Parliament upon better consideration they petitioned him that Richard Lyons John Pechie and lice Pierce whom they had largely accused and believed guilty might be pardoned And that King was so unwilling to bereave himself of that one especial Flower in his Crown as in a Grant or Commission made in the same year to James Botiller Earl of Ormond of the Office of Chief Justiciar of Ireland giving him power under the Seal of that Kingdom to pardon all Trespasses Felonies Murders Treasons c he did especially except and reserve to himself the power of pardoning Prelates â—arls and Barons In the first year of the Raign of King Henry the fourth the King in the Case of the Duke of Albemarle and others declared in Parliament that Mercy and Grace belongeth to Him and his Royal Estate and therefore reserved it to himself and would that no man entitle himself thereunto And many have been since granted by our succeeding Kings in Parliament at the request of the Commons the People of England in Worldly and Civil Affairs as well ever since as before not knowing unto whom else to apply themselves for it So as no fraud or indirect dealings being made use of in the obtaining of a Pardon it ought not to be shaken or invalidated whether it were before a Charge or Accusation in Parliament or after or where there is no Charge or Indictment ant cedent The Pardon of the King to Richard Lyons at the request of the Commons in Parliament as the Parliament Rolls do mention although it was not inserted in the Pardon was declared to be after a charge against him by the Commons in Parliament and in the perclose
said to be per Dominum Regem And a second of the same date and tenor with a perclose said to have been per Dominum Regem magnum Concilium John Pechies pardon for whom that House of Commons in Parliament was said to intercede only mentioneth that it was precibus aliquorum Magnatum 15 E. 3. The Archbishop of Canterbury before the King and Lords humbling himself before the King desired that where he was defamed through the Realm he might be arraigned before his Peers in open Parliament Unto which the King answered that he would attend the Common Affairs and afterward hear others 5 H. 4. The King at the request of the Commons affirmeth the Archbishop of Canterbury the Duke of York the Earl of Northumberland and other Lords which were suspected to be of the confederacy of Henry Percy to be his true Leige-men and that they nor any of them should be impeached therefore by the King or his Heirs in any time ensuing 9 H. 4. The Speaker of the House of Commons presented a Bill on the behalf of Thomas Brooke against William Widecombe and required Judgment against him which Bill was received and the said William Widecombe was notwithstanding bound in a 1000 pound to hear his Judgment in Chancery And the many restorations in blood and estate in 13 H. 4. and by King E. 4. and of many of our Kings may inform us how necessary and beneficial the pardons and mercy of our Kings and Princes have been to their People and Posterities The Commons accuse the Lord Stanley in sundry particulars for being confederate with the Duke of York and pray that he may be committed to prison To which the King answered he will be advised And Pardons before Indictments or prosecution have not been rejected for that they did anticipate any troubles which might afterwards happen For so was the Earl of Shrewsburys in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth for fear of being troubled by his ill-willers for a sudden raising of men without a warrant to suppress an insurrection of Rebels Lionell Cranfeild Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer of England being about the 18th year of King James accused by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for great offences and misdemeanours fined by the King in Parliament to be displaced pay 50000 l. and never more to sit in Parliament was in the 2d year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr upon his Submission to the King and payment of 20000 l. only pardoned of all Crimes Offences and Misdemeanors whatsoever any Sentence Act or Order of Parliament or the said Sentence to the contrary notwithstanding For whether the accusation be for Treason wherein the King is immediately and most especially concerned or for lesser Offences where the people may have some concernment but nothing near so much or equivalent to that of the Kings being the supreme Magistrate the King may certainly pardon and in many pardons as of Outlaries Felonies c. there have been conditions annexed Ita quod stent recto si quis versos eos loqui voluerit So the Lord Keeper Coventry in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr to prevent any dangerous questions touching the receiving of Fines and other Proceedings in Chancery sued out his Pardon The many Acts of Oblivion or general Pardon granted by many of our Kings and Princes to the great comfort and quiet of their Subjects but great diminution of the Crown Revenue did not make them guilty that afterwards protected themselves thereby from unjust and malicious Adversaries And where there is not such a clause it is always implyed by Law in particular mens cases and until the Soveraignty can be found by Law to be in the People neither the King or his people who by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are to be subordinate unto him are to be deprived of his haute ex basse Justice and are not to be locked up or restrained by any Petition Charge or Surmise which is not to be accompted infallible or a truth before it be proved to the King and his Council of Peers in Parliament and our Kings that gave the Lords of Mannors Powers of Soke and Sake Infangtheif and Outfangtheif in their Court Barons and sometimes as large as Fossarum Furcarum and the incident Power of Pardons and Remissions of Fine and Forfeitures which many do at this day without contradiction of their other Tenants enjoy should not be bereaved of as much liberty in their primitive and supream Estates as they gave them in their derivatives And though there have been Revocations of Patents during pleasure of Protections and Presentations and Revocations of Revocations quibusdam certis de causis yet never was there any Revocation of any Pardon 's granted where the King was not abused or deceived in the granting thereof For in Letters Patents for other matters Reversals were not to be accounted legal where they were not upon just causes proved upon Writs of Scire facias issuing out of the Chancery and one of the Articles for the deposing of King Richard 2d being that he revoked some of his Pardons The recepi's of Patents of Pardon or other things were ordained so to signifie the time when they were first brought to the Chancellour as to prevent controversies concerning priority or delays made use of in the Sealing of them to the detriment of those that first obtained them And the various forms in the drawing or passing of Pardons as long ago His testibus afterwards per manum of the Chancellour or per Regem alone per nostre Main vel per manum Regis or per Regem Concilium or authoritate Parliamenti per Regem Principem per Breve de privat sigillo or per immediate Warrant being never able to hinder the energy and true meaning thereof And need not certainly be pleaded in any subordinate Court of Justice without an occasion or to purchase their allowance who are not to controul such an Act of their Sovereign Doctor Manwaring in the fourth of sixth Year of the Raign of King Charles the Martyr being grievously fined by both Houses of Parliament and made incapable of any place or Imployment was afterwards pardoned and made Bishop of St. Asaph with a non obstante of any Order or Act of Parliament So they that would have Attainders pass by Bill or Act of Parliament to make that to be Treason which by the Law and antient and reasonable Customs of England was never so before to be believed or adjudged or to Accumulate Trespasses and Misdemeanors to make that a Treason which singly could never be so either in truth Law right reason or Justice May be pleased to admit and take into their serious consideration that Arguments a posse ad esse or ab uno ad plures are neither usual or allowable and that such a way of proceeding will be as much against the Rules of Law Honour and Justice as of Equity and good
Citizens or Tradesmen nor can all the Members of the Body Politick be equally wounded in their Estates or concernments by the vain imaginations causless fears and jealousies and bugbears of other seditious or fanciful Mens own making And to men that have not yet proceeded so far in the School of Revelation as to be sure of the Spirit of Prophesie it may prove a matter of ill consequence that the universality of the People should have occasion ministred and continued to them to be apprehensive of utmost dangers from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection And a Wonder next a Miracle from whence the Premisses to such a trembling and timorous conclusion can be fetched or how a People whose valiant and wiser Fore-fathers were never heretofore scared with such panick fears nor wont to be affrighted with such Phantasmes should now suspect they can have no Protection from the Crown when some of them do at the same time labour all they can to hinder it Or how it should happen in the long Rebellious Parliament that after Mr. Chaloner a Linnen Draper of London was hanged for Plotting a Surprize of the City of London and reducing it to the Kings obedience honest Mr. Abbot the Scrivener should be pardoned without any such discontent and murmuring of the People or that Oliver Cromwel should not be debarred of his Power of Pardoning in his Instrument of Government and be allowed to Pardon the Lord Mordant for a supposed Treason against his usurped Authority and our King deriving his Authority legally vested in Him and His Royal Ancestors for more than one thousand years before may not adventure to do it without the utter undoing and ruine of his Subjects in their Properties Lives and Estates by His pardoning of some Capital Offenders Or why it should not be as lawful and conveninent for the King to grant Pardons to some other Men as to Doctor Oates or Mr. Bedlow When no Histories Jewish Pagan or Christian can shew us a People unless in Cases of intollerable Villanies Petitioning their Kings that they would not Pardon when all are not like to be Saints or Faultless and it will ever be better to leave it to the Hearts of Kings and God that directs them than to believe Tyranny to be a Blessing and Petition for it And the most exact search that can be made when it findeth the Commons petitioning in Parliament to the King or House of Peers that they may be present at some Tryals there upon their Impeachments cannot meet with any one President where they ever desired or were granted such a reasonless Request pursued and set on by other Mens Designs to have one Mans Tryal had before another and by strugling and wrestling for it expose the King and Kingdom to an utter destruction And therefore in those their fond importunities might do well to tarry until they they can find some Reason why the Lords Spiritual may not Vote or Sit as Judges or Peers in Parliament in the Case of the five Lords as well as of the Earl of Danby Or any President that it is or hath been according to Parliamentary proceedings to have any such Vote or Request made by the Commons in Parliament Who neither were or should be so omnipotent in the opinion of Hobart and Hutton and other the learned Judges of England as to make a Punishment before a Law or Laws with a Retrospect which God himself did never allow but should rather believe that Laws enacted contrary to the Laws of God and Morality or that no Aids or Help are to be given to the King pro bono Publico or that there should be no Customs or Prescription or that the King should be governed by His People would be so far from gaining an Obedience to such Laws or Acts of Parliament as to render them to be ipso facto null and of none effect When the King hath been as careful to distribute Justice as his Mercy without violence to his Laws and well inform'd Conscience hath sometimes perswaded him to Pardon to do Justice or to cause it to be done in a legal and due manner and is so appropriate to the Office and Power of a King so annext appendant and a part of it as none but His Delegates are to intermeddle or put any limits thereunto and if it should not be so solely inherent in Him would be either in abeyance or no where For the House of Commons are not sworn to do Justice and if they were would in such a case be both Judges and Parties and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are not as to particular proceedings sworn but meerly consultive So as Justice can vest in none but the King who is by his Coronation-Oath only sworn to do it if His Right of Inheritance and greater Concernments than any of his Subjects did not abundantly ingage and prompt Him thereunto and is therefore so every way and at all times obliged to do Justice and Protect the Lives Estates Peace and Liberty of His Subjects as he is with all convenient speed and hast to Try or bring to Judgment a Subject accused of Treason by the Houses of Lords and Commons both or either of them in His Court of Kings-Bench before the Justices thereof or by special Commission by a Lord High Steward in or without the time of Parliament And the King may acquit which amounteth to a Remission or Pardon by a more Supream Authority than any of His Judges some particular Cases wherein Appeals are or may be brought only excepted do ordinarily by an authority derived from no other not to be debarred by probabilities or possibilities or by consequences not always to be foreseen or avoided For a Man pardoned for Man-slaughter may be so unhappy as in the like manner afterwards to be the death of five or ten more 20000 Rebells pardoned at a time as in the Insurrections of Wat Tyler Jack Cade c. may be guilty of the like Offence twenty or forty years after The Lord Mayor of London that hath an allowance of Tolls and Profits to take a care of the City and wholsomness of Food might be as they are too much careless and undo them in their Health and well being The Judges may as those in the Raign of King Edward the First and Thorp in the Raign of King Edward the Third be guilty of Mildemeanours yet that is not to bereave us of that good which better Men may do us in their administration of Justice our Kings have granted Priviledges to certain Cities and Towns not to pay Subsidies and granted Pardons as their Mercies and right reason inclined them in the course of their several Raigns for many Ages last past yet have not acquitted or left unpunished all the Offenders ever since there being a greater likelyhood that they would not be so easie in pardoning where they were to gain so much by Attainders Fines and Forfeitures And therefore panick and
Parliament and that learned and pacifique Prince having been much tempted thereunto in his great want of Money by an offer of 200000 l. per annum which was more than the whole profits of the Excise upon Ale Beer Cider Coffee c. All the Salaries Cheats Charges and Allowances Filchings Lurches and False Accompis deducted could or did amount unto that kind of Revenue being since his late Majesties death to be no more than a moyety thereof And these Tenures in Capite were so inherent in the Crown of England as divers of the learned Judges of England in their Arguments in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr made no Scruple to assert that the Tenures in Capite were of so high a nature that they could not be taken away by any Act of Parliament And to take away from our Kings and Princes the love and honour of the people as well as they had done the Tenures in Capite the Nerves and Sinews of our Monarchick Government it was the especial work and design of those Enemies of our former happiness to take away also the Honour of his Crown and Hospitality and could not think they had done all their work until they had thrown the Pourveyance into the bargain of the Tenures in Capite which nothing but the value of the Kingdom it self could make an Equivalent recompence or purchase and the unhappy contrivers thereof might have put a better value upon it when in Michaelmas Term in the third year of the Raign of King James the first all the Judges of England did certify that it was a Praerogative of the King at the Common Law and that all the Statutes which have been made to correct abuses in the Purveyances took not away the Purveyances but confirmed them Et qui tollit Iniquitatem firmat proprietatem confirmat usum And all those mischiefs done by one that unhappily might have taken more heed of an Assembly which some flatteringly called the Collected Wisdom of the Nation when he could not well esteem them so to be when by Fudling Drinking Bribing and all the base Cheats imaginable they had procured themselves to be made Members of that much miscalled Parliament And yet after his late Majesties miraculous restoration being advanced unto great preferments and at the last a Grand Minister of State did so think well of his own doings as he publickly at the Table of Sir Harbottle Grimston Master of the Rolls in Chancery-Lane in the hearing of many worthy persons Sir Nicholas Strode John Hern Esquire and others one of them yet living ready to testify it what a most especial Service he had done for the King and Kingdom when he was a Member in Parliament and known to be the Kings Sollicitor General by a motion without any the Kings privity or direction to dissolve and destroy the Tenures in Capite and accept a Recompence for them which Serjeant Glyn a former Grand Rebel to his Majesty and after his Restauration crept in as the most of them did and got to be Members of Parliament was ready to assist by the offer of a Recompence by an Excise upon Ale Beer Sider and Coffee a Limb of that Dutch Devil which they had made use of in their Rebellion and time of his late Majesties and now Majesties persecution At which the Company standing amazed and Sir Nicholas Strode said that he should never have fought for the late blessed Martyr or come to his setting up his Standard at Nottingham if he could have foreseen it the most of the Nation at that time and almost ever since verily believing that it had been the folly and evil doing of Sir Edward Hyde the late Lord Chancellor afterwards Earl of Clarendon and therefore was sufficiently railed upon Cursed and Banned for it and yet he was so Faultless and Innocent therein as it can be witnessed by the now Earl of Clarendon his Son Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Lord privy Seal in the Kingdom of England that this overbold presumptuous motion of a Servant and Councel at Law of that unfortunate weather-beaten Prince not being at all informed how or by whom the project came to be first hatched or moved his late Majesty calling together his privy Councel and advising upon that most unhappy proposition wherein the Rebel Parliament in February 1647. had made some Vote Act or Ordinance against the aforesaid Tenures under the notion of the Court of Wards being but two years before his Royal Fathers Murther and Oliver Cromwel had made some Act of his Worships miscalled Parliament some few years after as it behoved for the destruction of those Tenures in Capite when he intended as much as he could to take away the Kingship and Monarchy until he could make himself fit to govern a foolish besotted rebellious people they having before not at all made any mention or request to have the said Court of Wards put down or the Tenures in Capite by their High and mighty 19 Propositions nor were any complaints of grievances made thereby nor in all our Parliament Records or Journals or Historians since or before the Raigns of King Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror doth there appear to have been any Petitions in Parliament against them neither in that as it were intended deposing Remonstrance of the 15th of December 1641. wherein nothing was omitted that might injure or calumniate per fas aut nefas the Kings Authority or Government there appears to have been nothing against either the Tenures in Capite or Court of Wards And it can be proved that the Royal Martyr during his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight had designed that if ever he came again to his Rights he would upon all his Crown or Chequer Leases reserve some military Services notwithstanding all which his late Majesties great want of present Money and some setled Revenue perswaded him to hearken more than otherwise his own great Judgment would have done The Earl of Radnor was much against their dissolution alledging that the constitution it self was good and was not in it self to be cast away by any Male-administration Sir Geffery Palmer was very much for the preservation of the Tenures and so were many other and the Lord Chancellor Clarendon very much and so greatly as he called to the said Sollicitor General and said will you also put down the Pourveyances saying with some passion by God we seem to be against the late Commonwealth and yet are acting for it And his late Majesty was so unwillingly drawn to be in Love with that ever to be deplored Parliament contrivance to decapitate the Monarchy and not only that but Ireland and render all the Inferiour part thereof to be in a paralitique or dead palsical over-benummed in its Members as before that Act passed he sent for one Mr. Darnel an ancient and experienced Clerk and Attorney in the Court of Wards and Liveries to propose some expedient for the Regulation of
without any wiser Body to regulate or take care of their Actions would deem it to be a brave Sport and Liberty to play with the Fire until they had set the whole House on fire and burnt themselves into the bargain and if after he had by his practice and study of the Common Law which was nothing but our Feudal Laws too much forgotten or unknown unto those that would be called our Common Lawyers and gaining 10000 l. per Annum Lands of Inheritance made his boast that he had destroyed the so fixed and established Deeds of Entail and the Wills and Intent of the Donors as nothing of Collusion Figments or other Devices should prejudice and no Gentleman or Lover of Honour Gentry or Families would ever have had an hand in such a destruction Levelling Clowning Citizening and Ungentlemanning all or too many of the Ancient Families of England And if he could have lived to have seen or felt the tossing plundering and washing in Blood three great and flourishing Kingdoms would have wept bitterly and lamented or with Job have cursed the hour or time of his birth that he should ever have given the occasion or been Instrumental in the promoting or being a Contributor unto those very many dire Confusions and Disasters that after happened for if he had well read and weighed the History and Records both before shortly after the gaining of that Act of Parliament de Tallagio non concedendo without the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled and how much that great and prudent Prince King Edward the first was pressed and pinched when his important affairs caused his sudden transfrecation by the overpowering party of three of his greatest Nobility viz. Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and Bigod Earl of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England all whom and their Ancestors had been advanced to those their Grandeurs by him and his Royal Progenitors had so catched an advantage upon him and were so merciless in their demands as they not only would not allow him a saving of his Jure Regis very usual and necessary in many of our Kings and Princes grants as well in the time of Parliaments as without but enforced an Oath upon him which he took so unkindly as he was constrained shortly after to procure the Pope to absolve him of for that it had been by a force put upon him which a Protestant Pope might have had a Warrant from God Almighty so to have done but did after his return into England so remember their ill usage of him as he seized their three grand Estates and made the two former so well to be contented with the regaining of his favour as Bohun married the one of his Daughters and Clare the other without any portions with an Entail of their Lands upon the Heirs of the Bodies of their Wives the Remainder to the Crown laid so great 〈…〉 Fine and Ransom upon Bigod the Earl Marshal as he being never able to pay it afterwards forfeited and lost all his great Estate and be all of them so well satisfied with his doings therein as they were in the 34th year of his Raign glad to obtain his Pardon with a Remissimus omnem Rancorem And they and Sir Edward Coke might have believed that that very prudent Prince might with great reason and truth have believed his Regality safe enough without a Salvo Jure Regis when the Law and Government it self and the Good and Interest of every Man his Estate and Posterity was and would be always especially concerned in the necessity aid and preservation of the King their common Parent appointed by God to be the Protector of them And our singularly learned Bracton hath not informed us amiss when he concluded that Rex facit Legem in the first place Lex facit Regem in the second giveth him Authority and Power to guard that Regality which God hath given him for the protection of the People committed to his charge who are not to govern their King but to be governed by him and should certainly have the means to effect it for how should he have power to do it or procure his People to have a Commerce or Trade with their Neighbour People or Princes if he as their King had not any or a just Superiority over them c. and must not for all that have and enjoy those Duties Rights and Customs which not only all our Kings Royal Progenitors but their Neighbour Princes and even Bastard and self-making Republiques have quietly and peaceably enjoyed without the Aid and Assistance of any the Suffrage of the giddy Rabble and vulgar sort of the People controuling in their unfixt and instable Opinions those of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the wiser and more concerned part of the People of which and the Rights and Customs due and payable to our Kings and Princes Sir John Davies a learned Lawyer in the Raign of our King James the first hath given us a learned full and judicious Account which well understood might adjudge that Petition of Right to deserve no better an entertainment than the Statute of Gloucester made in 15 E. 3. which by the Opinion of the Judges and Lords Spiritual and Temporal was against the Kings Praerogative and contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England and ought not to have the force and strength of a Statute and Sir Edward Coke might have remembred that in the Raign of King Edward the Third the Commons of England did in Parliament complain that Franchises had for time past been so largely granted by the King that almost all the Land was enfranchised to the great arreirisment estenisement of the Common Law which they might have called the Feudal Law and to the great oppression of the People and prayed the King to restrain such Grants hereafter unto which was answered The Lords will take order that such Franchises as shall be granted shall be by good Advice And that if by any Statute made in the 25th year of the Raign of King Edward 3. it was ordained that no man should be compelled to make any Loan to the King against his will because such Laws were against Reason and the Franchise of the Land that Statute when it shall be found will clearly also appear to be against our Ancient Monarchick Government Fundamentally grounded upon our Feudal Laws that our Magna Charta Charta de Foresta are only some Indulgence and Qualification of some hardship or Rigour of them that the Excommunication adjudged to be by the Statute of 25 E. 1. ca. 4. And the aforesaid dire Anathema's and Curse pronounced in that Procession through Westminster-Hall to the Abbey Church of Westminster against the Infringers of those our Grand Charters are justly and truly to be charged upon the Violaters and Abusers of our Feudal Laws and
Ancient Form of Government who ought better to assert them and that the Coronation-Oaths of all our many Kings and Princes swearing to maintain the Laws of King Edward the Confessor which have for those many Ages past so highly satisfied and contented the Common People and good Subjects of England do enjoin no other than our Kings and Princes strict observation of the Feudal Laws and their Subjects Obedience unto him and them by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and his and their Protection of them in the performance thereof and from no other Laws or Customs than the Feudal Laws have our Parliaments themselves derived their original as Eginard Secretary unto Charles the Great or Charlemain who Raigned in the year after our blessed Saviours Incarnation 768. consisting of Lords Spiritual and Temporal if not long before had their more fixt beginning How then can so grave and learned a Professor of our Laws and after an eminent Administrator of the Laws and Justice of the Kingdom so either declare to the World that he hath not at all been acquainted with our Feudal Laws but gained a great Estate out of a small in a Government and Laws he knew no Original thereof and make many things to be grievances of the People which are but the Kings Just Rights and Authority and the Peoples Duty and their grievances in doing or suffering their Duties to be done as if disobedience which in our Nation hath too often hapned were a Franchise of the Land and a Right to be Petitioned for by the People But howsoever Mr. Will. Pryn being better awake could be so kind a Friend unto the truth as to give us notice that the Abridger of the Parl. Records left out much of what he should have mentioned viz. The Prelates Dukes Earls Barons Commons Citizens Burgesses Merchants of England in the Parliament Petitioned the King not only for a Pardon in general and of Fines and Amerciaments before the Justices of Peace not yet Levyed in special but they likewise subjoin a memorable request saith Mr. Pryn omitted by the Abridger that in time to come the said Prelates Earles Barons Commons Citizens and Burgesses of the Realm of England may not henceforth be charged molested nor grieved to make any Common Aid or sustein any charge unless it be by Common Assent of the Prelates Dukes Lords and Barons and other People of the Commons of the Realm of England as a Benevolence or Aid given to their King in his want of Money wh 〈…〉 h King Henry the 3d. sometimes had when he went from Aboey to Abbey declaring his Necessities and King Richard the Third that Murthered his Brothers Sons to Usurp the Crown flattered the People they should no more be troubled with when it was never 〈…〉 ked before the Raign of King Henry 3d or 〈◊〉 by any of our Kings or Princes until the urgent Necessities of our blessed Martyr for the preservation of his People caused him once to do it Or such as the imprisoning of some few wealthy Men as obstinately refused to lend him 〈…〉 e and small Sums of Money because they would force him to call such a Reforming and Ruining Parliament as that which not long before hapned in Anno 1641. Or such as their heavily complained of Charges levied upon the People by the Lord Lieutenants or Deputy Lieutenants in some seldom Musters or Military Affairs which a small acquaintance with our Feudal Laws might have persuaded the Gentlemen of the misnamed Petition of Right to have been lawful or that some imprisoned were not delivered upon Writs of Habeas Corpus when there were other just Causes to detain them at least for some small time of Advice And if they will adventure to be tryed by Magna Charta will be no great gainers by it for Magna Charta well examined notwithstanding the dissolution of the Tenures in Capite is yet God be thanked holden in Capite and loudly proclaims our Feudal Laws to be both the King and the Peoples Rights and disdains to furnish any contrivances against their Kings who were the only free givers and granters thereof And the Statute of 28 E 3. And all or the most of our Acts of Parliament do and may ever declare the usefulness of our Feudal Laws and that Reverend great Judge might have spared the complaints of Free-quartering of Land-Soldiers and Marriners or of punishing Offenders by Martial Law and will hardly find any to commend him or any Lawyer for their proficiency in their amassing together so many needless complaints And that in full Parliament The King then lying sick at Sheene whereof he died and divers of the Lords and Commons in Parliament coming unto him with Petitions to know his pleasure and what he would have done therein nor no Imposition put upon the Woolls Woolfels and Leather having as they might think as great an opportunity and advantage as the three great Barons Bobun Clare and Bigod had when they forced the Statute aforesaid de Tallagio non concedendo upon King Edward the first and would not suffer him to insert his Salvo Jure Regis or any the Annaent Custom of Wooll half a Mark and of three hundred Woolfels half a Mark and of one Last of Skins one Mark of Custom only according to the Statute made in the 14th year of his Raign saving unto the King the Subsidy granted unto him the last Parliament for a certain time and not yet Levied Unto which the King gave answer That as to that that no Charge be laid upon the People without common Assent The King is not at all willing to do it without great necessity and for the defence of the Realm and where he may do it with Reason For otherwise all Monarchies may be made Elective and the Will and great Example and Approbation of God disappointed where the Subjects and People will not be so careful of their own preservation as to help their King when his and their Enemy hath invaded the Kingdom and the People may as often as they please change or depose their Kings when they shall resolve to stand still and not help to aid him as the cursed and bitterly cursed Moroz did and be as wise to their own destruction as the Citizens of London were in the late general Conflagration of their City or a foolish fear of breaking Magna Charta which could never be proved to have been any cause of it they would to save and keep unpulled down or blown up ten houses and save some of their goods leave that raging and merciless Fire to burn twenty thousand houses in their City and Suburbs And it was no bad Answer also that that great and victorious King Edward the third as sick as he was made likewise unto that other part of their Petition that Impositions be not laid upon their Woolls without Assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and other People of the Commons of his Realm That there was a
upon their Soveraign at his Court at the three great Feasts of the year viz. Christmas Easter and Whitsontide as the excellently Learned Sir John Spelman hath informed us where the Bishops might give an accompt as in so many Parliaments which needed no Summons Prorogations or Adjournments for it was not to be doubted but that almost every man might understand when those Grand Feasts or Solemnities began or ended what had been done or was to be done in their several Diocesses and the Earls within their several Counties and Provinces of which Anciently they had a Subordinate Government and were to render accompts thereof When though not praecisely the very same in number as to the Festivals of the year wherein our Old King Alfred and many of our succeeding Kings and Princes used to be yearly attended by their Bishops Earls and Nobility whereby they might the better often understand the Circumvolutions and various Accidents in their Kingdom in every year might have some resemblance with that of the great Charles or Charlemain the hugely as Eginard who was his principal Secretary witnesseth powerful valiant and vertuous King of France which Kings Daughter Bertha our Saxon King Ethelbert is said to have married and at her Instance upon the preaching of Augustine the Monk to have converted himself and all his Subjects to the Christian Faith and Religion and celebrated with great Solemnity and Magnificence the great Festivals of Christmas and Easter which with the addition of another being the Feast of Pentiost was never omitted to be sumptuously kept by all our succeeding Kings until the latter end of the Raign of our K. H. the 3d. The French with great Solemnity holding their Parl. or great Coun at their 2 great Festivals of Christmas Easter Unless any other great Affairs caused them to summon those their great Councels at other times which coming after the Raign of 〈…〉 H. 3. to be 10 laid aside by reason of their many voyages into Normandy long lasting often Wars with France or Scotland troubles discords at home as Parliaments especially when after the 48th year of the Raign of King Henry the third the attendance upon Parliaments was much more troublesom to the Commons in Parliament after their admissions into that great assembly though they had their charges and expences in going tarrying and returning allowed them by King Edward the first which was first begun 〈◊〉 mon Montfort and his rebellious partners only in 〈◊〉 H. 3. When the King was their Prisoner in the 〈◊〉 two Knights of the Shire for the County of York wh 〈…〉 those that were afterwards permitted to be present by 〈◊〉 Edward 1. in the 22 year of his Raign and in the Raign of our succeeding Kings did esteem it to be a damage to to them in their other employments affairs and loss of time better becoming their capacities until the impressions and effassinations of Pride Fear Flattery Ambition and Self-Interest had within a small time after their aforesaid admission into Parliament incited or inticed them to be packt by Roger Mortimer Earl of March in the Raign of King E. 2. to Grant Aids to help to advance his wicked and accursed purposes as is expressed in one of the Articles and Charges against the said Earl in the 4th year of the Raign of King E. 3. or to set up for a Trade or Factory for themselves or their Friends or such as they could purchase as a lamentable experience hath of late years told us And we find no such Doings or Factorings before that or 49. of King Henry the 3d. For King Athelstone held a Parliament at Exeter and the succeeding Saxon and Danish Kings Summoned and held their Parliaments at several places and Dissolved and Met again as their occasions and the more weighty and extraordinary Affairs of the Kingdom required The Norman Conquerour and William Rufus and Henry the 1. other than at their aforesaid Grand Festivals did neither restrain themselves to certain times or places either as to the Summoning Continuing Proroguing or Adjourning of their more than common or ordinary business which requiring short Councels and an hasty Prosecution or putting into Actions what their deliberate Advices had resolved upon could necessarily produce no long continuances but were not seldom without Prorogations or Adjournments as Mr. Pryn and all our Ancient and Contemporary Writers and Historians have plentifully testified In the 9th year of the Raign of King Henry the 2d A Parliament was called at Westminster where by reason of the frowardness of the Archbishop Becket and his Suffragan Bishops the King was displeased and the Parliament ended In the 20th year of the Raign of that King he called a general Assembly of the Bishops and Nobility at Clarendon where John of Oxford the Kings Clerk was President of that Councel and a charge was given for the King that they should call to memory the Laws Ecclesiastical of his Grandfather King Henry the 1st and to reduce them to writing which was done the Archbishop and Bishops putting their Seals thereunto and taking much against the Arch-bishops will their Oaths to observe them In the 33th year of his Raign a Councel of Bishops Abbots Earls Barons both of the Clergy and Laity was holden at Gaynington sub Elemosinae titulo vitium rapacitatis included therein saith Walsingham requiring Aid towards the Wars of Jerusalem the Kings of England and France resolving to go thither in Person the King of England taking upon him and wearing the white Cross. A Parliament was called at Nottingham by King Richard the first after his return from his Captivity which continued but four days a Parliament in 7. Johannis a great Councel or Parliament was holden at London and Adjourned to Reading whither the King not coming at the day appointed it was three days after Adjourned to Wallingford In the Raign of King Henry the 3d. His Great Councels or Parliaments were many times Prorogued or Adjourned in whose Raign the Popes Nuncio Summoning the Praelates of England to give an Aid to the Pope they excused themselves and alledged that the King was sick and the Arch-bishops and Bishops were absent and that sine iis respondere non possunt nec debent whereupon the Nuncio endeavouring to adjourn that Convocation they refused to come again after Summons without the Kings License in 6 H. 3. a Parliament 7. a Parliament in 8. a 3. Anno 10. a 4th Anno 11. a 5th a Parliament in 16. another in 17. Anno 19. a Parliament Anno 21. a Parliament Anno 22. a Parliament Anno 25. a Parliament Anno 28. 2 Parliaments Anno 35. a Parliament 36. a Parliament 37. a Parliament in 38. another being called in Easter Term which by reason of the absence of some Lords who pretended they were not Summoned according to Magna Charta was Prorogued to Michaelmas following Anno 42. another Parliament at London
and stablish for him and his heirs and Successors by the Assent of the Praelates Earls Barons and Commons wherein if the Commons had in themselves an inhaerent Right of Soveraignty they would neither have been troubled with any such fears of the French Government or needed any such provision against it of his Realm of England in this present Parliament in the 14th year of his Raign of England and first of France that by the cause or Colour of his being King of France and that the said Realm to him pertaineth or that he came to be named King of France in his Stile or that he hath changed his Seal or Arms nor for the Commandments which he hath made or shall make as King of France his said Realm of England nor the people of the same of what Estate or condition they shall be shall not at any time to come be put in Subjection nor in obeysance of him or his Heirs nor Successors as Kings of France nor be subject or obedient but shall be free and quit of all manner of obeysanee as they were wont to be in the time of his Progenitors For that Trick or Engine of metamorphosing the Soveraignty of the King into that of the people and by excluding the Bishops and Lords Spiritual out of the House of Peers in Parliament unto which ab ultimo Antiquitatis seculo since Christianity abolished Paganisme they were as justly as happily entituled and put our Kings and their Regalities in their places whereby to create unto themselves a co-ordination and from thence by the Intrigues of Rebellion a Soveraignty in themselves which was not in the former and better Ages ever entertained or believed by our Parliaments when no Original pact or agreement hath been or can yet be discovered how or when the House of Commons came to be entituled unto their pretended inherent Soveraignty or to be seized thereof by their representation of the people or from whom they had it or who gave it unto them when it may be believed God never did it for he that never used or was known to contradict himself hath in his holy word declared and said per me Regis regnant which should not be misinterpreted and believed to be conditionally if the people should approve or elect them for which the Gentlemen of Egregious Cavillations if they would be believed should search and see if in all the Books of God and Holy Writ they can find any revocation of what God himself hath said and often declared for an undeniable truth or that he ever discharged and renounced it by as infallible Acts and Testimonies But if any one that believes Learning and the inquires after Truth Right Reason and what our impartial Records and Historians will justify how or from whence that Aenigna or mystical peice of Effascina of the Members of the House of Commons making themselves to be a 3 Estate of the Kingdom and a Creed of the late Factioâ—s and Rebelling ever to be deplored Parliament or from what Lernean Lake or Spawn of Hydras came It may besides the Pride and Ambition of many that were the fomenters or Nurses of them be rationally 〈◊〉 understood to have none other source or Original besides don Lancifer himself then for Sir Edwards Cokes unhappy stumbling upon his reasonless admired forged Manuscript and Imposture called Modus tenendi Parliamentum in Anglia in King Edward the Confessors Raign there having been neither any Author or Record as Mr. Pryn hath truly observed to Justify or give any credit thereunto but was as he hath abundantly proveâ— a meer Figment and Imposture framed by Richard Duke of York 31. and 32. H. 6. by the Commons Petition and the Duke of Yorks Confederates by the Rebellion and Insurrection of Jack Cade and his Rebellious levelling party to make him that Duke of York Protector and Defender of the People which ended in the dethroning of King Henry 6. and though Mr. Hackwel of Lincolns-Inne a learned Antiquary hath adventur'd to say that he hath seen an Exemplification of a Record sent from England into Ireland to establish Parliaments there after the form or Method of that Modus yet when the learned Archbishop Usher pressed him much to see it he could neither shew the exemplication nor the Record it self neither of which are yet to be seen in England or Ireland only Sir Edward Cokes Copy remains but when or from whence he had it he was never yet pleased to declare 13. E. 3. At the request of the whole Estate which may most certainly have been thought to have been made to the King not to themselves those Articles were made Statutes and the Conditions were read before the King and the Chancellor Treasurer Justices of both Benches Steward of the Kings Chamber and others were all sworn upon the Cross of Canterbury to perform the same 17. E. 3. The cause of summoning the Parliament being declared amongst the other things to be touching the Estate of the King who was often absent in the Wars of France and for the good government which they whom the erring Abridger hath stiled the 3 Estates viz. 1. The Lords Spiritual 2. The Lords Temporal 3. The Commons in Parliament were to consult of so as if the Commons could be a third Estate the King and his Estate and the government were necessarily and only then and always to be understood and believed to be the 4th Estate principal Superior and Independent 18. E. 3. At which Parliament and Convention sundry of the Estates saith that ill Phrasing Abridger or Translator whoever he was were absent whereat the King was offended and charged the Archbishop of Canterbury for his part to punish the defaults of Clergy and he would do the like touching the Parliament whereof Proclamation was made and being not absent was neither likely to be angry with himself or resolving to punish himself The Chancellor in full Parliament declaring the cause of summoning the Parliament viz. The Articles of the Truce with the French King the breaches in particular thereof the whole Estates mistakenly so stiled were willed the King that willed or commanded being no part of them unless it could be believed that himself willed or commanded himself as well as others to advise upon them give their opinion thereof by the Monday next following 20 E. 3. After the reading of the Roll of Normandy and that the King of France his design to extirpate the English Nation the Messengers that were sent by the King required the whole Estate no such Title being in the Original whereof the King could then be no part if it was said to be the whole Estate without him for he could not be with them when he was absent in France and had sent his Messengers unto them to be advised what Aid they would give him for the furtherance of his Enterprise And Mr. John Charleton one of the Messengers aforesaid likewise bringing Letters from the Bishop of
themselves they with a parcel of conscience not of God did treat with the particular Lenders of the Money to King James and for ten l. or a very little in every hundred comed and took up their Privy Seals but were unwilling to trouble the King with the thoughtâ—s thereof to the damage of him and disherision of the Crown of England and being taken notice of and complained of a Commission was granted unto the Lord ottington Sir Henry Vane and Sir Charles Harbord the Kings Surveyor to enquire thereof and certify the King thereof wherein they were so kind hearted and the matters so managed as noâ—hing more was heard thereof but the City of London continueth in possession of the said Manors and Lands or have spent the same in assisting the late horrid Rebellion against him and together with it the CityOrphans Mony for which it hath been reported they are willing to pay them by composition after the rate of 6d per. ponnd caused a Bill to be exhibited by his Attorney General in his Court of Starr Chamber against John Earl of Clare and Mr. Selden for having only in their Custody two Books or Manuscripts directed unto him by Sir Robert Dudley an Englishman living in Florence and stiling himself a Titular Duke of that Countrey endeavouring to instruct him in the method of raising Money by a Tax upon all the Paper and Parchment to be used in England caused Sir Giles Allington to be fined in the High Commission Court for Incest and the Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven to be arraigned in the Court of Kings Bench for Sodomy whereupon after Tryal by his Peers he was Condemned and Beheaded suffered a great Arcanum Imperii in his Praerogative in taxing or requiring an Aid of Ship Money or for setting out a Navy of Ships when the Kingdom was in danger to be disputed in the Exchecquer Chamber by Lawyers and Judges which King Henry the fourth of France by a constant Rule in State Policy would never yeild to have done imitated by Queen Elizabeth who in some of her Charters or Letters Patents as unto Martin Forbisher a great Sea-Captain declared de qua disputari nolumus upon the case or question of 10 s. charged upon Mr. Hamdens Estate in Buckinghamshire of 4000 l. p. Annum wherein all that could be raked out of or by the Records of this Kingdom was put together by Mr. Oliver St. John and Mr. Robert Holborn theformer being after made Cheif Justice of the Court of Common Pleas by Hambden and the Rebel party and the later taking Arms for the King faithfully adhered unto him whereupon that cause coming to be heard all that could be argued for the not paying or paying of it of twelve Judges that carefully considered the Arguments and gave their opinions there were ten concurred in giving Judgment for the King and only two viz. Justice Hatton and Justice Crooke who having before under their hands concurred with all the other and suffered their subscriptions to be publickly inrolled in their several Courts at Westminster could find the way to be over-instrumental in setting our Troy Town all in Flames whilst that pious Prince being overburdened with his own more than common necessities did not omit any part of the Office of a Parens Patriae but taking more care for his People than for himself too many of whom proved basely and wickedly ingrateful called to accompt Lionel Cranfield whom he had made Earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer of England fined him in vast sums of money ordered him during his life never more to sit in the House of Peers in Parliament received a considerable part of his Fine and acquitted him of the residue And being desirous as his Father was to unite the Kingdom of Scotland in their Reformed Religion as the more happy Church of England was both as unto Episcopacy and its Liturgy that attempt so failed his expectation as a mutiny hapned in the Cathedral Church of Edenburgh and an old Wife sitting upon a Stool or Crock crying out that she smelt a Pape at her Arse threw it at the Ministers Head whereupon a great mutiny began and after that an Insurrection which to pacify the King raised a gallant Army of Gentry and Nobility with all manner of warlike provision and marched unto the Borders but found them so ill provided for defence as they appeared despicable yet the almost numberless Treacheries fatally encompassing that pious King persuading him not to beat or vanquish them when he might so easily have done it he returned home disbanding his Army and a close Favourite of Scotland was after sent to pacify them but left them far more unruly than before shortly after which Philip Nye a Factious Minister that should have been of the Church of England but was not with some other as wicked Persons were from England delegated to Scotland to make a Coâ—enant of Brotherly Rebellion against the King and accordingly the Scots being well assured that their Confederates in England would not hurt them marched into England with a ragged Army with Petitions to the King and Declarations of Brotherly Love unto too many of their Confederates seised by the cowardise or carelesness of the Inhabitants the Town of Newcastle upon Tine notwithstanding a small Army ill ordered was sent to defend it better than they did so as the Scotch Petitioning Army quartering there and in the Northern parts the King hastening thitherwards with Forces was persuaded to summon at Rippon a great Council of many of his Nobility whither too many of them that came being more affected to the Scotch Army that came like the Gibeonites with old Shoes and mouldy Bread were allowed to be free-quartered and a Parliament suddenly to be summoned at London whereby to raise money for the discharge of their Quarters Army charges in the mean time the Scotch their Commissioners with their Apostle Alexander Henderson have license to visit London where they are lamented feasted and visited and almost adored as much as St. Paul was amongst the Macedonians or the Brethren who cryed up their holy Covenant and Religion to be the best the Church of England with her Ceremonies Common Prayers and Potage not to be compared unto it the Parliament would help all and the Scots Commissioners were so popular and in request as they seemed for that time to govern both the City of London and Parliament and by their peace pride and plenty had generated Sedition and Faction and that combustible matter in England burst into a Fire which could not be quenched the Kings Privy Council could not please the five Members nor Kimboltons Ambition and Envy be satisfied without being made a great Officer of State but proved after to be a general of some associated Counties against the King God might be worshipped with a thriving Conscience and the people taken care for by plundering Sequestration Decimation Killing Slaying or Impoverishing the Common Wealth or Weal Publick Pym
respectively which had their Original contradistinct Powers and Customs to judge and determine such Errours and Offences in Words or Actions that shall be committed by any of their Members in the handling or debating any matter depending which was contradicted by Queen Elizabeth when she charged the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament not to intermeddle in matters of Church or State or receive any Bills of that nature and severely punished some Members that attempted to do otherwise Yet they complained in their so strange a claim of those their never to be found Priviledges that they were to their great grievance broken by the Kings endeavouring to put a Salvo Jury to their Bill or Act of Parliament forbiding the pressing of Souldiers at that instant when there was so great an occasion for the Wars in Ireland and went much higher than the great Earls the Constable and Earl Marshal of England and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester did when in a Parliament of King Edward the first they denyed him his accustomed Salvo Jure where he or his Privy Councel or Councel at Law adjudged it necessary And therefore humbly intreated his Majesty by his Royal Power and Authority whereof it may 〈◊〉 they would leave him as little as possibly they couldâ— to protect them in those and all other their Priviledges of Parliament And for the time to come would not interrupt the same and that they may not suffer in his Majesties favour when he should be so greatly obliged unto his Subjects as to restore again to his knowledge and Judgment after the end of such a Parliament never before known in England or any other Nation of the Christian World such a kind of Priviledge neither being possible to be found or heard of on Earth or amongst the Antipodes or in the discovery which Gonzagua's Geese made of the Countrey of the Moon where the Servants are reported to govern the Masters and the Children their Parents And that his Majesty would be pleased to nominate those that have been his Advisers that they may receive such condign Judgment as may appertain unto Justice And this his most faithful Councel shall advise and desire as that which will not only be a comfort to themselves but of great advantage to his Majesty by procuring such a confidence between him and his People as may be a Foundation of honour safety and happiness to his Person and Throne And probably had never adventured to fly so high a pitch if some of the Lords and Commons in Parliament had not upon the Scotch petitioning Rebellion and entring into England borrowed 150000 l. upon their several personal securities to pay their quarters whilst they were here which Parliament Manacles of their King would have amounted to more than the aforesaid Sir Edward Cokes figment of a modus tenendi Parliamentum used as he beleived in Edward the Confessors time And in the absence of Parliaments might have the Name and Title of King until they should make an occasion to Print a Remonstrance against him or arraign him And as a Prologue to their intended Remonstrance the next day they seeming not a little to congratulate his safe coming from Scotland did beseech him to give more Life and Power to the faithful Councel of his Parliament and being necessitated to make a Declaration of their grievances and the corruption of some of his Bishops especially such as are in a near trust and employment about him and were divers of them of his Privy Councel and about the Prince his Son and have thereby a dangerous operation in his Councel and Government in this time of a preparation for War betwixt his Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland which was then but procured and fomented by confederacy Insurrection of the Papists and Bloody Affairs in Ireland for prevention whereof they have ingaged themselves and their Estates in the sum of 150000 l. Sterling or thereabouts for the necessary supply of his Majesty in his dangerous Affairs therefore they prayed 1. That he would concur with the desires of his Parliament for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament which was the one half of that grand Fundamental of the Laws and Government of England in the House of Peers in Parliament and abridge their immoderate power usurped over the Clergy to the hazard and prejudice of the Laws Liberty and Religion of his Subjects and the taking away oppression in Church Government and Discipline punishing such Loyal Subjects as join together in Fundamental Truths against the Papists and by the oppressions of unnecessary Ceremonies 2. Remove from his Councel all the promoters thereof and to imploy such persons in his great Affairs and trust as his Parliament may conside in which was to govern him both in times of Parliament and without when he hath at his Coronation taken his Oath to govern according to his Laws not any of the Peoples 3 That he would not alienate any of the forfeited Irish Lands which begot good bargains for some of the ungodly contrivers when they after purchased their Rebel perjured Soldiers arrears for xvj d. per pound Which being fulfilled they his most great and faithful Councel upon these conditions â—â—all by the blessing of God as they would have it cheerfully undergo the expence of the War and apply themselves to such other means and Councels as shall support him and make him glorious both at home and abroad In order whereunto the contrary way they did the 15th day of December 1641. notwithstanding his earnest request unto them print and publish it wherein besides some of their own or their instigators unquiet Spirits ambitious or evil designs to misuse and Govern their Soveraign plainly appearing may be seen and the many greivances of their own making in the oppressing of each other and undertaking to determine of matters and Mysteries of State and the Arcana's and necessities of State of which they could not possibly without necessary Praecognita's be competent Judgâ—s they made a great addition to that prologue to their subsequent Rebellion and abominable consequence of the murder of that excellently pious Prince insomuch is it may be over and over again a wonder to be ranked amongst the greatest in what untrodden or dark inaccessible Caverns of the Earth these unknown and never accustomed Priviledges of the Parliaments of England could lurk or lye hidden when in all the Conservatorships of liberties devised at Running Mede forced upon King John the â—ovisions made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the 3d. neither any thing in the Raigns of King Edward the 2d 3. 4. and Richard 2d Henry 4 5 6. Richard the 3d the Usurper Henry the 7th King Henry 8. E. 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and and King James had never such shackles desired or claimed to be put upon any of them unto which those Parliament Remonstrants were the more incouraged by that oppressed Princes having his three Kingdoms
amount unto no more than the breeding of Factions and dislike of his Majesties mild and tender hearted Government lampooning and scandalizing him robbing and pilfering his Royal Revenue whereby to encompass him with all manner of importunate necessities as if the cheating and misusing of Kings had been no small part of their Praerogative contrived a most abominable Association upon him and his Royal Brother his now Sacred Majesty to murder and ruine them as they were to come thorough a narrow Lane from Newmarket to London in the same Coach and being disappointed therein proceeded to infect as much as they could the Parliament that should have been his best and most wholsom Counsel to make and enter into an Association upon their Oaths without their King to exclude and banish his Royal Brother his now present Majesty and his Heirs and Successors from the Royal Succession for that he was suspected to be addicted to the Religion of the Church of Rome Which being by the King and major part of the House of Lords contradicted a Force and Insurrection was contrived and enough as they hoped listed and made ready to accomplish it but it being discovered by some that had been persuaded to assist therein and some of the Nobility being according to Law attainted of High Treason and forfeited they would not leave prosecuting of him with their Plots and Designs until God the Appointer of Kings had called him to his mercy from them that would have no mercy for him And having thus long abused their Kings with their Rebellions and brought a long lasting Series of mischief and miseries upon their seduced Followers could not rest satisfied if they should not give more Credit to their New Commonwealth-Mongers that would entitle them to the only power of summoning proroguing adjorning or dissolving of Parliaments and manackling of their Kings and Princes and did not think they had enough established it and themselves if they had not when for Loyalty or any such matter they were to eject any of their Fellow-Members caused them to receive their Sentence upon their Knees although they had committed no Offence neither supplicated for any pardon or had it And another being as willing as some others to adore his own fancy without any evidence of Truth Law or Right Reason in his Wringing Wresting and Torturing of Tropes Metaphors Allegories Improprieties of Words or Phrases beyond their Right or common use or what he had picked together out of some lying Manuscripts and abused Records by omissions of truths whereby to put his vain and groundless imaginations into some frame and method hath in his Book Printed and Published endeavoured to make the House of Commons to be an Essential and Constituent part of Parliament and to have a votum Decisivum therein and hath therein committed more dangerous errors than the late Author of the Theory of the Earth in his endeavouring to prove Noahs Flood to have been more from natural causes than the product of God Almighty's Will and Infinite Power declared by his more especial Servant Moses sufficiently confuted by the Reverend Father in God Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford And it must needs be said that he hath over-dangerously handled Joves Thunder-bolts and made himself as instrumental as he could to take the Soveraignty from the King and bestow it upon the People whom he and his Opiniotretees would suppose to be represented in Parliament whereas he should have only said it was a constituted part of the Parliament from the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d sub modo forma during that Kings Imprisonment under Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Rebel Associates and were neither in Authority or Degree the same with the more Honourable and better Estated House of Peers although in that then constituted House of Commons in Parliament there were to be four Knights out of every County in England to be Elected and sent thither few of them appearing and that more or less they might have claimed as they have lately done the summoning of the Peers and the Nobility of the Kingdom Electing the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and they representing all the People might more easily have continued and maintained their Post and Station of a never to be proved senseless and reasonless Soveraignty which was not to be seen heard or read in this Kingdom either in the time that it had been a Roman Colony or of the Great Arthur or the Saxon Heptarchy Norman Conquest and our many since succeeding Kings and Princes and is and hath ever been attended with so many possibilities of setting People together to kill destroy and ruin one another as hath no where in the habitable World but in our late English Frenzy and Infatuation and most egregious Hypocritical pretences of Religion whilst they for almost fifty years together imployed their Godless time in murdering of their Kings and Laws and the one half or more of their Fellow-Subjects Lives and Estates and that Author can never prove that there are two Supreams nor find any way to agree them which should be uppermost or which the lowermost And what pro Deus atque hominum fidem could those liberties be that they by a pretence of Reformation of grievances of their own making had usurped upon their King to mould themselves and their wicked fellow Complotters into a Republick as they would have it stiled when it proved to be nothing but a Society of Rapine plunder and villany whereof their Regicide Oliver Cromwell had afterwards cheated them and was almost as great a mistake in what a very learned Judge had said when he was Member of the House of Commons that the King was primarily a Trustee for the People yet it could not be so affirmed by any Truth Rule or Law of God or man as immediately from or by them but only as immediately from or by God commanded to take care of his People And a wrongfull misinterpretation hath been endeavoured to be put upon some part of our Reverend Mr. Hookers Book of Ecclesiastical Policy as if he had positively affirmed that the King was a Trustee for his People as he is doubtless for his protection when the late learned Dr. Sanderson Bishop of Lincoln hath affirmed unto me that he having heedfully perused the Book written with Mr. Hookers own hand could discover no such words therein So here is complexedly met and united a Systeme and a Mass of the Conspiracies Factions Seditions Treasons and abominable confusions put together and agitated sometimes at one time and after at others from the later end of the Raign of King Richard the first until the Raign of King Charles the 2d in the dream of the Election of our Kings and Princes in the Rebellion at Running Mede some Barons in the Raign of King Henry the third threatning to choose another King and enforcing of Conservators of the Liberties of the People in
3. Daniels Hist. 184. 191 192. Statute Coronatoris Anno 4. E. 〈◊〉 Statute de Bigamis eodem Anno. Statute of the Exchequer or Ruthland Westminster 2. 13. E. 1. ca. 16. Quia Emptores terr 18. E. ca. 1. Inter record apud recept Socii tempore E. 2. 18. E. 1. 27. E. 1. 28. E. 1. 30. E. 1. 33. E. 1. Daniel in the Life of King E. 1. 3. E. 1. Ro Claus 〈◊〉 9. Seldens t is of honor Ro part 1. mo E. 4. Ro. Vascon 22. E. 1. Recneil de tons les traiter entre les potentats de l'Europe a Nimegne Coke Comment â—up Littleton 1 part Instit. ca 5. tit Socage Walsingham Hist. E. Sa. Daniel Hist. E. 1. Daniel in the Life Reign of King E. 1. Plowdens Comment in le case inter Buâ—kley Rico Thomas 3. E. 1. Ro Claus m 9. vide Seldens tit of honor Ro. pa. 4. E. 1. m. 35. Seldeni dissertatio ad Fletam 526. For sterus de juris prudentia Rom. 3. E. 1 ca 29. Ro. Claus. 3. E. 2. Ro. pat de An. 3. E. 1. m. 10. de Statutis legend proclamand in Cum. Cest alibi 4. E 1. ro cart m 3. parte 17. aut potius parte 3. m. 37. Clause Anno 4. 〈◊〉 1. m. 15. dorso Dugdales or juâ—idic 56. c. Seldeni noiae in Hengham Breton 6. E. 1. Britton 1 ca. 15. 19. Sir Richard Bakers Chronicle Speeds Hist. of Great Britain Speeds Hist. of England in the Reign of King Edward the 1st and Spelmans glos in catalog Justiciar Walsingham ypodigma Neustria 491 492. 493. 494. 7. E. 1. ro pat m. 13. 1. E. ro claus m. 1. 10. E. 1. ro pat m. 2. 20. E. 2. ro pat m. 4. 12. E. 1. ro Cart. m. 3. 13. E. 1. ro Claus. m. 9. 13. E. 1. Mich. 18. E. 1 Norf. ro 46. placit Parl. 18. E. 1. n. 4. Râ—leyâ— placit Parl. 6. 7. Pryns aurum Regin ro claus 20. E. 1 ro fin m. 25. ro pat ejusdem anntâ—m 5. 17. Cokes 8. report Beechers case in Anno. 6. Jac. rot Justâ—itin tempore E. 1. inter record apud recept Scrii de tempore E. 1. praliâ—a in itinere apud Glou. tempâ—â—â— H. 2. ro I. 242. Spelmans glos in diatriâ—a de Justi Anglia 334. Pryn in his Preface to the abridgement of the records in the Tower of London Dugdales Baronage Ro. vascon 22. E. 1. Ro. Claus. 22. E. 1. 〈◊〉 6. in dorso Claus. 23. E. 1. m. 9. in Claus. 23. E. 1. m. 2. in dorso Sam. Daniel in the Life of King E. 1. Ro Clause tempore E 1. Sam. Daniel in viea ejusdem Regis Ro pat 25 E. 1. parte prima 〈◊〉 9. Ro pat 25. E. 1. parte 1. in 3. 13. vel 14. E. 1. ro 8. E. 2. Ro. Claus 25. E. 1. Speeds History of England in the Life of King Edward the 1. Ro. Claus. 30. E. 1. m. 13. Walsingham Ipodigma Neustria 491. 492. 493 494. 495. Speeds Chronicle 654. Walsingham Ipodigma Neu. Hist. E. 1. M. S. Sr John Divies argument upon the question of Impositions Walsingham in vita E. 1. p. 50. Pryn's 4. pâ— of a Register of Parliament Writs 22. 23. Ryleys placit Parl. 43. 44. Ro. Claus. 33. E. 〈◊〉 m. 13. Cedul ordinat per Dominum regem de stabilitate terrae Scotiae Mich. 33. 34. E. 1. ro 103. in banco Regis In placitis adjudicat tempore E. 1. in banco regis coram rege Wallia Ro. Claus. 34. E. 1. m. 11. in dorso Mich. 33. 34. E. 1. coram regero 71. Mich. 34. E. 1. incipiend ro 113. Coram rege concilio in banco regis Ib. 46. Ib. 48. 56. 57. Ib. 51. Walsingham Hist. Angliae sub E. 1. p. 55. 56. 57. Walsingham ib. 60. 61. Midd. 〈◊〉 Anno. 35. E. 1. Walsingham Hist. E. 1. F. 89. 3. E. 1. ca. 1. Ca. 2. Ca. 5. Ca. 6. Ca. 13. Ca. 14. Ca. 29. Ca. 37. Ca. 38. Ca. 45. Ca. 48. Exposition of the Statute of Glocester Ca. 4. Ca. 5. Ca. 6. Walsingham Hist. E. 1. 75. 76. Ca. 2. Ca. 3. Ca. 4. Ca. 6. Ca. 7. Ca. 8. Ca. 9. Ca. 10. Ca. 11. Ca. 12. Ca. 13. Ca. 14. Ca. 15. Ca. 16. Ca. 17. Ca. 18. Ca. 19. Ca. 20. 33. F. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ca. 3. Ca. 4. Ca 5. Ca. 6. Ca. 2. Ca. 3. Ca. 4. Dr. Brady in his Answer to Mr. Petitâ— Essential and Constituent Rights of the House of Commons in Parliament fo 117. Et ro 10. E. 1. Ro. Scotiae abinde ad 19. E. 1. Ro. Scutag 31. E. 1. m. 2. Dugdales Origines Juridic Catalog Justic. Leges Anglo-Saxoniae translatae per Abrahâ—◠〈◊〉 Whilocuâ— Brompton legibus S â—icis Ch 〈…〉 Liâ—hfielden LL. Gulielmi Conquest In Bagâ— de Quo Warranto in R 〈…〉 l. extract de vereditis Civit. London pro Rege tempore E. 1. 3. E. 1. ca. 39 Cokes 4th Institutes ca. 55. tit Parliament fo 6. Elsiugs ancient and present manner of hâ—lding Parliaments ca. 1. 57. Cromptous Jurisdictien of Courts 11. Pryns brevia Parliamentaria redi viva 145. 148. Daltouâ— officium Vicecomitum 417. 〈◊〉 Cokes 4 pars Instituts 〈◊〉 parliament Dier fo 6â— Plowdens Com ment in the Case of the Earl of Leicester Register of Writs 177. Register of Writs Fitz-Herberts nat bre 170. E. 1. 3. Articuli Cle. 2. 25. Register of Writs in the Case of an Abbot 294. Burnetts hist. of the reformation of the Church of England 1. part 11. Ro. Claus. 4. E. 3. Fitz-Herberts natura brevium 170. Elsings ancient present manner of holding Parliaments in England Ca. 1. 65. 66. Ro. Claus. 7. R. 2. in dorso m. 32. Ro. Claus. 7. R. 2. 28. Register of Writs 177. 178. 1. 〈◊〉 1. Ro. Claus. 1. part Claus 36. E. 3. m. 2. 3. in dorso Pryns 4 part Regist. of Parliamentary Writs 259. 260. 261. Idem in his Plea for the House of Lords 394. 395. Sir Robert Filmers Patriarcha or the natural power of Kings p. 60. Pryn's brevia Parliamentaria rediviva 223. 224. 225. 2â—6 〈◊〉 §. 8. Pryn's brevia Parliamentar rediviva 226. 227. Crompton's Jurisdiction of Courts tit Parliament Pryn's brevia Parliamentar rediviva 64. 229. 265. Ro. Parl. 4. 5. 36. E. 3. Pryn's bre 〈…〉 Parliamentâ—ria rediviva 152. 153. 154. Pryn's brevia Parliamentarrediviva 28. 143. Pryn's brevia Parliamentar 315. Pryn's brevia Parliamentâ—â— rediviva 227. 305. Pryn's brevia parl rediviva Ro. parl 18. E. 3. 5. R. 2. ca. 4. Cokes 4th institutes 6. H. 8. ca. 16. 1. El. 1. ca. 5. El. 1. 3. Jac. Ro. parl 4. E. 3. passim in regnis subsequentium regum 40. E. 3. Essings manner of holding Parliaments 213. Pryns animadversions upou Cokes 4 institutes tst Parliament Ms. of Mr. Noy Cokes 4 〈…〉 institutes Elsings ancient and modern way of holding