Officers of the Bench made in the second year of the King Nor was there so much as an Apprehension of any evil in them in the Parliament of 4 H. 4. where the Commons pray that The Act of Parliament of the 1 of E. 3. that none shall be distrained to go out of their Counties but only for the Cause of necessity of suddain coming of strange Enemies into the Realm and the Statute made in the 18 th year of the Reign of the said King That men of Armes Hoblers and Archers chosen to go in the Kings Service out of England shall be at the Kings wages from the day that they do depart out of the Counties where they were chosen and also that the Statute made in the 25 th year of the Raign of the said King that none be compelled to find Men of Arms Hoblers nor Archers other than those which hold by such services unlesse it be by common assent and grant made in Parliament be firmly holden and kept in all points it was upon the granting of their desires and an Act of Parliament made for that purposâ— as the Declaration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament against the Kings Commission of Array in an 1642 mentioneth especially provided that by force or colour of the said supplication nor of any Statute thereupon to be made the Lords nor any other that have Lands or Possessions in the Counties of Wales or in the Marches thereof shall in no wise be excused of their Services and Devoires due of their said Lands and Possessions nor of any other Devoier or things whereunto they or any of them be especially bound to the King though that the same Lords and others have other Lands and Possessions within the Realm of England nor that the Lords or other of what Estate or Condition soever they be that hold by Esâ—uage or other Services due to the King any Lands and Possessions within the said Realm be no way excused to do their Services and Devoirs due of the said Lands and Possessions nor that the Lords Knights Esquires nor other Persons of what Estate or Condition they be which hold and have of the Grant or Confirmation of the King Lands Possessions Fees Annuities Pensions or other yearly profits be not excused to do their Services to the King in such manner as they are bound because of the Lands Possessions Fees Annuities Pensions or Profits afâ—resaid And might challenge their quietus est or Proclamation of acquittall when there were no complaints made against them in the former ages when there were so many Taxes laid upon Knights Fees as 20 shillings then a great sum of money as much almost as 20 markes is now upon every Knights Fee imposed by King R. 1. toward his ransome 26 s. 8 d. upon every Knights Fee by King Iohn and another also of the same sum towards his expedition into Wales 20 s. upon every Knights Fee towards his Charges in Normandy an Escuage of 20 s. upon every Knights Fee to be paid the one half at Easter and the other at Michaelmas besides the Escuage which he had upon the marriage of his Sister Isabel to the Emperor Frederick two Escuages imposed by H. 3. and an Escuage upon the marriage of his Daughter the Lady Margaret to Alexander King of Scots 20 s. of every Knights Fee by H. 4. the many services in person done by those which held in capite and Knights Service in forinseco servitio in all the expeditions and Wars in France from the time of the Norman Conquest to the end of the Raign of E. 4. and at home in the Wars betwixt England and Wales and betwixt England and the Scots where very many Inhabitants of the Counties of Cumberland Westmeâ—land and Northumberland that held by Cornage a kind of Knight Service to blow a horn upon the invasion or incursion of the Scots and to help to repell them and had their Lands sometimes at the Will of the Lords conferred and given to the younger and more lusty Sons who were able to undergo that service could before King James his accession to the Crown of England the pacification of the English and Scottish hostilities placing them under one obedience scarce rest in their beds by reason of the Scots sudain or nightly alarmes and depredations driving or stealing their Cattell and spoiling all that they had And in all the troubles of England before and since the Barons Wars upon any Rebellions and inquietudes of the people when those that held by Knight service were frequently and hastily summoned to come to the King cum Equis Armis and the great charges trouble hazard and expences which the Lords Mâ—sne were put unto by Assessements of Escuage and otherwise And that immediately upon the death of the Kings Tenants in capite by Knight Service the Escheators did usually seise not only the Lands of the greatest of the Nobility Gentry and meaner men But the Stock and Cattell upon their grounds and the Goods in their Houses insomuch as their Executors were many times constrained to Petition and obtain the Kings Writs and Allowance to have the Stock and personal Estate delivered unto them And yet no complaints made at all against those Tenures or necessary defences of the Kingdome nor against Tenures by grand or Petit Serjeanty in the thirty confirmations of our Magna Charta upon as often Breaches to be supposed of it Never complained off in the making of thirty six Acts of Parliament concerning Wardships and Tenures in the several times and Ages from 8 H. 3. to this present nor at the making of the Act of Parliament in 32 H. 8. for the erection of the Court of Wards Nor in so many thousand Petitions which have been in 186. several Parliaments for almost four hundred years last past or before 9 H. 3. or ever since this nation could remember any thing either in our Parliaments Micel-gemots Wittena-gemots conventus sapientum or Magna Concilia where all the Grievances and Complaints of the people not to be remedied else where came as to the Pool of Bethesda for help and relief and wherein if any in some one or more Parliaments should so much neglect their duty and the more than ordinary business and concernments of their Kings themselves and Countries with which they were intrusted and to which their Oaths of Allegiance if nothing else must needs be their Monitors it cannot without a supposition and belief which will never be able to find entertainment in any rational mans understanding be imagined that the whole Nation for so many Ages past and in so many Assemblies of those that should be the Sons of Wisdome should be bound up under such a fate of Stupidity or Ignorance as to represent those that were sick and not know of it or that all or any of them should propter imbecillitatem vel pernegligentiam by a to be pitied weakness or negligence not either seek or
ages in the Managing Collecting and Improveing of the Kings Revenue in England whether certain or casual The strict Inquiries Orders and the care of every thing which might make a profit or prevent a damage which made some of the Kings of England to be so litle wanting money as King Canutus as the Abby Book of Ramsey hath recorded it was able out of his Hanaper or travailing Trunk when he lodged at Vassington in Northamptonshire to lend the Bishop Etheruus who sâ—bita pulsus occasione had a great occasion to use it good store of money And that in William the Conquerours time and in the height of his plenty and prosperity no repairs of Castles and Houses were made but upon accompt by Oath Inquiries were made by some of the succeeding Kings and their Officers after windfalen trees a few trees were not given nor Cheverons nor Rafters allowed towards the repairing of a Grange or Farm without the warrant of the great Seal of England Judges commanded to look to the Fines imposed in the Eyreâ— or Circuits and in all the Eyres Circuits a Clark who kept particular Rolles or Duplicates of the Judges Rolles or Records of their Proceedings was for the King especially appointed and attended and as smal a sum as 2 d. accompted for a Deodand Nor was any thing as far as Humane vigilance Industry or Providence might foresee prevent or remedy suffered to be done or continue that might endammage or lessen the Royal Revenue which King Henry the 3 d. could so watch over as the Court of Exchequer hath sometimes seen him there sitting and taking his own accompts Which kinds of wariness and care have been so much disused or neglected by many of his Successors as though by time and the course thereof the alteration of the value of mony Coyne from twenty pence the ounce to five shillings a peny the ounce of Silver the prizes rates of Provision and Commodities to be bought with it almost yearly raised and inhaunced and the more chargeable way of living which followed thereupon might have put them in mind to have given lesse or demanded more for what was justly their own when as in the 14 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3 d. 40 shillings per diem was thought by the King and his Councel to be a royal and sufficient expence for Edward Baliol King of Scots his train whilst he tarried at London and 6 s. per diem when he travailed And in the reign of King H. 6. Medow-ground in Leicestershire was valued but at eight pence an Acre and that as appears by a Remonstrance made in Parliament in or about the 11 th year of the reign of that King who was King in possession of France as well as of England now not above 227 years agoe he did right worshipfully as the Record saith maintain the charge of his houshold with sixteen thousand pounds Sterling per annum and could not then defray it with less than Twenty four thousand pounds per annum which now cannot well be done under ten times as much when an Annuity or Pension of ten pounds or twenty marks per annum which was then sufficient for the Kings better sort of Servants is now scarce enough for a Foot-man and the most ordinary sort of inferior Servants Did notwithstanding not lessen their bounty or raise the Rents or Rates of their Revenues but permitted their Escheators in matters of Tenures and Wardships to adhere unto their former courses and find the value of the Lands in their Offices or Inquisitions at the old or small yearly values the rule which the Escheators took for the finding of the values of the Lands upon Inquisitions being at the highest but the tenth part of the true yearly value which was the guide also for the rate of the primer seisins where they were to be taken as much lower as the unwarrantable kindness of too many of those which were trusted and should have looked better unto it could perswade them The Feodaries also upon their Surveys seldom raising the yearly value to more than about a third part of such a gentle value as he should be entreated to adde to that which the Jurors and Escheators had friendly found it So as somtimes a Mannor of above one hundred pounds per annum was found but at thirteen shillings four pence per annum and other times if mingled with other lands of a great yearly value at no more than forty shillings per annum And no longer agoe than in the reign of King Chaâ—les the first above one thousand poundâ— per annum hath been found to be but of the yearly vaâ—ue of twenty Marks And an Estate consisting of very few Mannors and as few Coppyholders but most in Fâ—rms and demâ—snes upon an improved and almost racked Rent worth six thousand pounds per annum found at no greater yearly value than one hundred eighty three pounds eleven shillings which is lesse than the thirtieth parâ— â—hough the Escheators with Knights and Gentlemen and sometimes men of greater mark and quality were Commissioners the Jurors made up somtimes of Gentlemen and most commonly of substantial Freeholders and all of them such as might better have understood an Oath who takeing an ill custom to be warrant enough for a bad Conscience did when they were by the Writ to enquire upon their Oaths de vero Annuo valore of the true yearly value of the Lands thâ—nk that they did honestly and well enough to find it at a very small or low yearly value because they were sure it was weâ—l worth so much Neither were the paymâ—nts o◠〈◊〉 of Homage so troublesom as to make a complaint of when as by an Order made in 13 Eliz. by virtue of her privy Seal by the Lord Burghley Lord Treasurer and the Chancellour and Barons of the Exchecquer which the Lords and Commons of England in primo Jacobi did pray and procure to be enacted by Parliament It was after such an easy and old fashioned rate or value of the Lands as it was but in every fifth Term to be paid in the Exchecquer by a rate and apportionment and might have been saved by an actual doing of Homage as was antiently used to be done upon their Livery and first coming to their Lands and their respit of Homage and howsoever may as well be taken to be a favour as they do of their mesne Lords or one to another in paying three shillings four pence per annum as a quit Rent for respit of suit of Court And that it was therein and thereupon also enacted that no processe ad faciendum Homagium or fidelitatem scire facias Capias or distresse should issue out of the Exchequer but upon a good ground And that the Clerks of the Treasurers Remembrancer in the Exchequer shall pay all issues that any shall loose after he hath paid ordinary Fine for respite of Homage
the broaching of this project ever adventure to ask or give such demands any room or entertainment in their imaginations and is more then the Athenians and Romans ever aimed at who in all their popular and restlesse turmoils seditions and agitations by the people or their Tribunes concerning the Agrarian Laws and making and changing of many other Laws and several forms of Government did never seek to take away or root out those long lasting monuments of benefits and the acknowledgements and returns of gratitude which ought to be made of them More then the people of France in those hard Conditions which they would have put upon the Daulphine of France afterwards Charles the fifth of France in the troubles and imprisonment of his Father King John in England in the Raign of our King Edward the third and the strange and insolent behaviour of the Citizens of Paris towards him when the Provost or Mayor put his own hood half blew half red upon his head compelling him to wear his Livery did all that day wear the Daulphines being of a brown black embrodered with gold in token of his Dictatorship did ever demand nor did in those great afflictions wants which were upon Charles the seventh when he was reproached by his Subjects and the English had so much of France in their possession in the Raign of our King H. 5. and King H. 6. who by their numerous Armies and the gallantry of their nobility and Tenants in Capite and by Knight Service were Masters of the Field as well as of that Crown as he was in disgrace called the King of Berry being a small Province wherein he made what shift he could to defend himself when his Table failed him so that he eat no more in publick but sparingly in his Chamber attended by his domestical Servants had pawned the County of Gyan for mony ever require to be discharged of their Homages and Tenures and the duties and incidents which belonged to them Neither did the Justices or domineering Officers of State in Arragon in their height and extravagancy of power which for some time until by its own weight their Tyranny or the subtile politique patience of their Kings it came to be dissolved into the Royal proper Rights of that Crown Government they excercised over their Kings ever make that to be any part of it nor did the wants of John King of Arragon when he had pawned the County of Roussilion to Lewis the eleventh King of France nor of Ferdinand the Second Emperor when within these forty years in those devouring and destroying Wars of Germany when the pale horse of death and the red of destruction rid up to the bridles in blood he pawned Lusatia and Silesia to the Duke of Saxony and the upper Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria beget any such motion of the people or Condiscention of their Princes And that unhappy project and design had in all probability no more disquieted our old Albion or Brittain sitting upon a Rock mediis tranquilla in undis in the midst of all our late Storms and Tempests which had broken the bag of Eolus getting loose vied with the raging waves of a distempered Sea who should be most destructive and play the Bedlam Had not a necessity of the Parliament in An. 1645. and their want of mony to maintain their Wars put them again in mind of that way of raising mony all other that could be almost thought upon as far as the mony which should be spared by one meal in every family in a week having been before put in Execution so dangerous and of fatal consequence are sometimes but the attempts or beginning of designs and then as the vote tells us the house of Commons having received the report from the grand Committee which was ordered to consider of raising of monyes for supply of the whole Kingdom after some debate thereupon ordered that the Court of Wards and Liveries with the Primer Seisins Oustres les maines and all other profits arising by the said Court should be fully taken away and be made null and voyd And that the Sum of one hundred thousand pounds per Annum should be raised in this Kingdom instead of the Revenue thereof to be disposed for the good of this Kingdom and that the proceedings of the said Court should continue Statu quo prius untill an Ordinance for taking away the said Court and paying the yearly Sum of 100000 l. be brought in and past both Houses Which might well have been forborn when no general or extraordinary and not otherwise to be prevented evils but only want of mony for ought yet appears did or could perswade them unto it for a Subversion of so grand a Fundamental of the Government Regality and Laws will never be able to avoid the dangerous consequences which will inevitably follow thereupon and though it should be done by Act of Parliament will but produce and usher in many numberlesse mischiefs and inconveniences to the King Kingdom Nobility Gentry and the most substantial and considerable part of the people And will never be recompenced by the benefits hoped for or which may happen by the intended dissolution of that Court and alteration of those Tenures which in the prospect or event will appear if so many to be no more than these Chap. V. The Benefits or Advantages which are expected by the people in the putting down of the Court of Wardes and Liveryes and changeing the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and common Socage BY taking away the Service of Warre without the Kingdom when the King or his Lieutenant goeth to warre for forty dayes bearing the Charge of a man and Horse and the payment of Escuage to be assessed by Parliment if he neither go nor send one in his place Respites of Homage petit Serjeanties Fines for Alienation Wardships and payments of Fines for the marriage of the Heirs in minority a rent for the Lands in the interim Reliefs primer seisins Oustre les maines Mesne Rates Liveries and assignment of Widdow Dower The troublesome and powerfull process of the Exchequer costly and long pleadings of their Evidences to avoid seisures for not sueing out Licences of Alienation thereby enforcing them to procure pardons and to plead them Costly Attendance upon Escheators and Feodaries finding of Offices or Inquisitions post mortem producing and finding if the party hath a mind to it of their Evidences Compositions chargeable passing and obtaining grants of the custody of the body and Lands of Wards Trouble and charge of Writs of diem clausit extremum quae plura melâ—us inquirendum Processe of privy Seals Messengers Informations Bills Demurrers as the Case may happen Answers Traverses Replications Rejoynders Commissions Examinations Depositions of Witnesses Orders Hearings Decrees Injunctions all which are but to help to recover or defend the Wards rights and if not in that Court would be
tenendi Parliamentum so beleived to be true that King John caused it when he sent our English Laws into Ireland to be exemplified and sent thither under the Great Seal of England it is said that every Earldom consisteth of 21 Knights Fees and every Barony of 13 Knights Fees and a third part of a Knights Fee and were of such a value and esteem as they were wont heretofore to bring Actions and Assizes for them and their Homage and Services And so litle lesse in France as the wealth of that great and populous Kingdom is not as may be rationally supposed enough to purchase of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom the transmutation of their Fiefs nobles into the Roturier or Feifs ignobles nor are the Princes or Nobility of Germany likely to be perswaded out of their antient Rights and Tenures into that of the Boors or common sort of People The Nobility and Gentry of England when their Military Tenures and Dependencies shall be taken from them will not upon necessities of War and Danger according to the Tenures of their Lands their Homages and Oaths of Allegiance and their natural and legal Allegiance be able to succour or heâ—p their Prince and Father of their Country their Defender and Common Parent as they have heretofore done when as they stoutly and valiantly helped to guard their Standard and Lions but for want of those which held Lands of them and the Tenures by Knight service will be forced to abide with Gilead beyond Jordan and not be able to imitate their noble Ancestors nor each or any of them bring to his Service three Bannerets sixty one Knights and one hundred fifty four Archers on Horseback as Thomas de Bello campo Earl of Warwick did to E. 3. in anno 21. of his Raign at the Seige of Caleis or as the Earl of Kildare did to King E. 3. in the 25 th year of his Raign when he besieged Calice when he brought one Banneret six Knights thirty Esquires nineteen Hoblers twenty four Archers on Horseback and thirty two Archers on foot It will take away the subjection of the Bishop of the Isle of Man who holdeth of the Earl of Derby as King of the Isle of Man and not of the King of England and therefore cometh not to Parliament Take away from the King Nobility and Gentry who have Lands holden by Knight service all Escheats of such as die without Heirs or forfeit or be convicted of Felony and the Kings Annum diem vastum year day and wast where the Lands are holden of Mesne Lords the Escheats of those that held of Kings imediately being so considerable as the Castle of Barnard in Cumberland and the Counties of Northumberland and Huntington which the Kings of Scotland sometimes held of England came again to the Crown by them and the power which King Edward 1. had to make Baliol King of Scots and to determine the competition for that Kingdom was by reason it was held of him the Earldoms of Flanders and Artois were seised by Francis the 1. as forfeited being Fiefs of the Crown of France Flanders and many other Provinces forced to submit themselves upon some controversies to the Umpirage of France of whom they held Enervate at least if not spoil our original first Magna Charta which was grante by H. 3. tenendum de se heredibus suis and all our Liberties and the many after confirmations of that Magna Charta will be to seek for a support if it shall be turned into Socage the Libâ—rties also of the City of London all other antient Cities and Boroughs and such as antiently and before 9 H. 3. did use to send Burgesses unto Parliament Alter if not destroy the Charter of K. R. 1. granted to the City of London for their Hustings Court to be free of Toll Lastage through all England and all Sea-Ports with many other Priviledges which were granted to be held of the King and his Heirs and the same with many other immunities granted confirmed by King John with a Tenure reserved to him and his Heirs for where no Tenure is reserved nor expressed though it should be said absque aliquo inde reddendo it shall be intended for the King and the Law will create a new Tenure by Knight service in Capite A Socage Tenure for Cities and Boroughs which have no Ploughs or intermedle not with Husbandry will be improper when as there is not any fictio juris or supposition â—in Law which doth not sequi rationem so follow reason or allude unto it as to preserve the reason or cause which it either doth or would signify but doth not suppose things improper or which are either Heterogeneous or quite contrary Put into fresh disputes the question of precedency betwixt Spain England which being much insisted upon by the Spaniard at the treaty of peace betwixt the two Kingdoms in anno 42. of Q. Eliz. at Calice occasioned by the contests of the Embassadour of Spain and Sir Henry Nevil Embassadour for England it was argued or adjudged that England besides the arguments urged on its behalf viz. Antiquity of Christian Religion more authority Ecclesiastical more absolute authority Political eminency of royal dignity and Nobility of blood ought to have precedency in regard that it was Superiour to the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland and the Isle of Man which held of iâ— that Spain had no Kingdom held in Fee of it but was it self Feudatory to France and inthral'd by oath of Subjection to Charles the fifth King of France in anno 1369. holds a great part of the Netherlands of France Arragon both the Indies Sicily Granado and Navarre Sardinia Corsica and the Canary Islands of the Pope Portugal payeth an annual Tribute to him and Naples yearly presents him with a white Spanish Genner and a certain Tribute Lessen and take away the honour of the King in having the principality of Wales Kingdom of Ireland Isle of Man Isles of Wight Gernesey and Jersey holding of England as their Superiour in Capite Enervate or ruine the Counties Palatine of Chester Lancaster Durham and Isle of Ely if the Tenures should be Levelled into Socage Very much damnifie all the Nobility and Gentry of England who hold as they have antiently divers Mannors and Lands or Offices by grand Serjeanty as for the Earls of Chester which belongeth to the Princes of Wales and the eldest Son of the King to carry before the King at his Coronation the Sword called Curtana to be Earl Marshal of England and to lead the Kings Host to be Lord great Chamberlain of England which is claimed by the Earl of Oxford to carry the Sword called Lancaster before the King at his Coronation due to the Earl of Derby as Kings of the Isle of Man to be grand Faulconner or Master of the Hawks claimed by the Earl of Carnarvon and the Kings Champion at his Coronation claimed
and be admitted Turn the Tenures in Capite which are only so called from the duty of Homage and the acknowledgement of Soveraignity and Headship in the King into a Tenure in Socage which is so far from acknowledgeing the King to be chief or to ingage as the other doth their Lands to do him service as it is but a Tenure as it were a latere is no more then what one Neighbour may acknowledge to hold or doe to another for his Rent or money be a Lease for a Life or one or more years or as Tenant at will and levels and makes rather an equality then any respect of persons which if ever or at all reasonable or fit to be done is in a democratical or popular way of Government but will be unexampled and is not at all to be in Monarchy may make many of the people which are not yet recovered out of a gainful Lunacy to beleive they were in the right when they supposed themselves to be the Soveraigns Ireland which in the subverting Olivers time was to have their Swords by the like Tenure turned into Plow-shares though their warres and taxes were never intended to leave them was to pay but 12000 l. per annum to turn their better Tenures Conditions into worse will if they be not come again to their wits expect the like prejudicial bergain Bring many inconveniences and mischiefs to the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland if their Tenures in Capite and Knight service and those which are holden of them as Mesn Lords shall as ours be taken away with their services and dependencies Licences of Alienation benefits of Investitures infeodations and the like it being amongst others as a reason given for Wardships in that Kingdom in the Laws of Scotland in the reign of their Malcombe the 2. which was before the Conquerours entring into England Ne non suppeterent Regiae Majestatis facultates to the end that the King should have where-withall to defend the Kingdom And a letting loose of a fierce and unruly people who are best of all kept in awe order by a natural long well enough liked subjection to their Mesne Lords and Superiours into a liberty which cannot be done without a disjointing and over-turning all the Estates of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom and may like our late English Levellers either endeavour to do it or bring themselves and the whole Nation to ruine by a renversing of the fundamental Laws and that antient order and constitution of that Kingdom wherein the estates and livelyhood of all the Nobility and Gentry and better part of the people are hugely concerned And besides a great damage to the King in his Revenues and profits arising out of such Tenures if not recompenced by some annual payment Will howsoever take away that antient Homage and acknowledgement of Superiority which from that Kingdom to this of England cannot be denyed to be due and to have been actually and antiently done and presidented and not in one but several ages fidem obsequium ut vassallos Angliae Regibus superioribus dominis jurejurando promisisse to have done their Homage and Fealty as vassals to our English Kings and bound themselves by oath thereunto as namely to Alfred Edgar Athelstane William the Conqueror William Rufus Maud the Empresse Henry the second and Edward the first the later of whom with all the Baronage of England in a Letter to the Pope did upon the search of many Evidences and Records stoutly assert it Will be no small damage and disturbance to the Kings other Regalities and Prerogatives and in the Tenures of the Cinque Ports who are to provide fifty ships for the guarding of the Seas and the Town of Maldon in Essex one the Town of Lewis in Sussex as the Book of Doomsday informeth where King Edward the Confessor had 127 Burgesses in dominio eorum consuetudo erat si Rex ad Mare custodiendum sine se suos mittere voluisset de omnibus hominibus cujuscunque terrae fuissent colligebant 20 sâ—lidos hos habebant qui in manibus arma custodieâ—ant had 127 Burgesses in his demeâ—ne of the King and when he sent any of his men to guard the Seas they were to gather 20 s. a man which was to be given to those that manned the Ships in Colchester where the custom then was that upon any expedition of the Kings by Sea or Land every house was to pay six pence ad victum soldariorum Regis towards the quarter or livelyhood of the Kings Souldiers and likewise prejudice him in his grand and Petit Serjeanties and many thousand other reservations of honour and profit by and upon Tenures in Capite and Knight service which revived and called out of their Cells wherein those that are to do and pay them are content they should sleep and take their rest for ever would go near to make and maintain an Army with men and Provisions The King when the Tenures in Capite shall be taken away shall never be able to errect his Standard and to call thereunto all that hold Lands Fees Annuities and Offices of him to come to his assistance according to the duty of their Tenures and the Acts of Parliament of 11 H. 7. chap. 18. And 19. H. 7. chap. 1. of forfeiting the Lands and Offices holden of him under the penalties which was the only means which the late King his Father had to protect as much as he could himself and his Subjects or to manifest the justice of his Cause in that War which was forced upon him and was very useful and necessary heretofore for the defence of the Kings of England and their People and proved to be no otherwise in the Bellum Standardi so called in the reign of King Stephen where some of the Barons of England and some of the English Gentry gathered themselves to the Royal Standard and repelled and beat the King of Scotland and in several Kings reigns afterwards repulsed the Scotch and Welch Hostilities and Invasions and at Floddon Field in King H. 8 ths time when the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey and diverse of the Nobility and Gentry which accompanied them vanquished and slew the King of Scots The benefit whereof the Commons of England had so often experimented as in diverse Parliaments they Petitioned the King and Lords to cause the Lord Marchers and other great men to repair into their Counties and defend the borders and was so necessary in France to assemble together the Bans and Arrierebans which were but as our Tenants in Capite as it helped King Charles the 7 th of France to recover that Kingdom again out of the hands and possession of our two Henries the 5. and 6. Kings of England And if any Rebellion or Conspiracy shall hereafter happen When Cum saepe coorta Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Fury and Rage of
Seisins and Liveries and all other incidents belonging to the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service be reserved and continued to the King and Mesne Lords and the Mariages of the Wards be put to a just apportionment and rate not to boxing or bidding with every pretender or such as shall be procured on purpose and was thought by the Sons of Rapine to be a parcel of godliness according to two years present value of the Estate and a moderate Rate or Rent for the Lands And if that they do not like to sue or be sued in that Court may do it either in the Exchequer or Chancery and try which of those Courts they shall like the better There being no Reason to be shown why Wardships Rents and Marriage Money should not be paid as quietly or without the Noise or Clamour of Oppressioon by some orderly Course to be taken in the collecting of it as the first Fruits of Arch-bishoppricks Bishoppricks and all the Clergyes Benefices which was at first derived from the Popes Usurpations and afterwards setled in the Crown or as the Tenths of all the Monasteryes and Religious Lands which by Act of Parliament were setled in the Crown for the Support and Maintenance thereof And now all the Lines are come in and meet in one Center we may aske the Days that are past and demand of the Sons of Novelty how it should happen or where the Invisible Cause or Reason lurketh that a People at least too many of them not long agoe covenanting whether his late Majesty would or no to preserve his Honor Rights and Iurisdâ—ctions and calling God to witness that they had no Intention to diminish them should presse or perswade the King to part with the vitals of his Regalitie or let out the blood thereof to take in water instead of it which that learned John Earl of Bristol who in his many Travails and Embassies to forrein Princes had observed the several Strengths Policyes and defects of Governments of all the Kings and Princes of Christendom could think no otherwise of that high and just Prerogative of Kings then that to discharge the Tenures in Capite would be consequently to discharge them of their Service to the Crown When as their can be neither Cause nor Reason to make any such Demands and that all the Lords of Mannors in England who may already find the Inconveniences of making too many small sized Freeholders and I wish the Kingdom may not feel it in the Elections of Parliament men and Knights of the Shire as well as it doth already by the Faction and Ignorance of such as choose Burgesses in Towns and Corporations who many times choose without eyes ears or understanding would not be well content to have the many perplexed and tedious Suits at Law betwixt them and their troublesome Tenants about Customs and Fines incertain which in every year do vex and trouble the Courts in Westminster Hall or that which the late feavorish Fancies of some would call Norman Slaveryes should be either a Cause that they must be forced or over intreated to part with their Copy-hold Estates Herryots Fines for Alienations and all other Incidents thereunto belonging or that it would be a good Bargain to have no Compensation or Recompence at all for them or no more than after the Rate of what might Communibus Annis one year with another be made of them Whenas to have the intended Recompence for the Court of Wards paid as is now proposed by a part of the Excise or Curses of the People or to have the poor bear the burden of the rich or those to bear the Burden of it which are not at all concerned in any such purchase or Alteration and will be an Act which can have no more Justice or Equity in it then that the payment of First-Fruits which is merely Ecclesiastical should be distributed and charged for ever upon the Layety and the other part of the People as well as the Clergy That the Tenths which the Layety and some of the Clergy do now contentedly pay should be communicated and laid upon all the Kingdom in general in a perpetuity That the draining or maintaining the Banks and Sluces and Misfortunes many times of the Fenns in Lincolnshire and other particular Places should be charged upon the Estaâ—es of all the men in England that could not be concerned either in profit losse or Dâ—nger Or that in the enclosing of Commons or in Deafforrestations the Commoners should have their Compensation paid by all men in City Town and Country for that which was not 〈…〉 nor was ever like to be any Gain or Aâ—vaâ—tage to them Or that the losses of Merchants by Shipwâ—acks Pirates or letters of Reprisal should be repaired and born by all the rest of the people that went no partnership or gain with them Or which way the people of England should think it to be for their good or safety that as it was in the dayes of Saul there should not be a Sword or Spear in Israel that the Lords of England whose great Auncestors helped to maintain all our Liberties being in Parliament in the 20 th year of King H. 3. pressed by the Bishops to Enact that Children born before Matrimony when their Parents after married should be legitimate answered Nolumus mutare Leges Angliae we will not change the Lawes of England should not take the overturning so many of the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome to be the ruine or destruction of it to be of a greater concernment And that the King will not think it to be a most Christian as well as an Heroick answer of John King of France when he was a Prisoner in England to our King E. 3. and was denied his Liberty unless he would amongst other things doe Homage for the Realm of France and acknowledge to hold it of England That he must not speak to him of that which he neither ought nor would doe to Alienate a Right Inalienable that he was resolved at what price soever to leave it to his Children as he had received it from his Auncestors that affliction might well ingage his person but not the inviolable right of the Crown where he had the honour to be born over which neither Prison nor Death had any power and especially in him who should hold his life well employed sacrificing it for the Immortal preservation of France And that the people of England should not rather imitate the wisdome as well as goodness of the Elders of Israel when as Benhadad not content with Ahabs Homage had demanded unreasonable things of him Say unto the King hearken not unto him nor consent But remember that it was their fore-Fathers which in a Parliament of King E. 3. holden in the 42 th year of his raign declared that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn