Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A33923
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Vindiciæ juris regii, or Remarques upon a paper, entitled, An enquiry into the measures of submission to the supream authority
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Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing C5267; ESTC R21083
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43,531
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52
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first of Edward the Fouâ—h which Act continues still unrepealed I shall proceed to prove the Norman Conquest for I need go no higher which I shall make good from the best Historians who lived either in or near that time from Doomeseday Book and Acts of Parliament 1. From Historians c. Eadmer Hist. Nov. Fol. 6. a Monk of Canterbury at the time of the Conquest and very intimate with Arch-bishop Lanfrank and with him when News came of the Conqueror's Death Writes That William designing to Establish those Laws and Usages in England which his Ancestors and Himself observed in Normandy made such Persons Bishops Abbots and other Principal Men who could not be thought so unworthy as to be guilty of any incompliance with his new Model knowing by whom and to what Station they were raised All Religious and Secular Affairs He managed at his pleasure And after the Historian had related in what Points he disallowed the Authority of the Pope and Archbishop he concludes thus But what he did in Secular Matters I forbear to Write because it 's not to my purpose and likewise because any one may guess by what has been delivered already at what rate He ordered the State. The next Testimony shall be fetched out of Ingulph Abbot of Croyland an English Man born Secretary to William when Duke of Normandy and made Abbot by him This Author informs us That by hard Usage He made the English submit that He gave the Earldems Baronies Bishopricks and Prelacies of the whole Nation to his Normans and scarce permitted any English Man to enjoy any place of Honour Dominion or Power Hist. Croyl f. 512. But Gervace of Tilbury a considerable Officer in the Exchequer in the Time of Henry the Second and who received his Information from Henry of Blois Bishop of Winchester and Grand-child to the Conquerour is more full to this purpose which he thus delivers After the Conquest of the Kingdom and the just Subversion of Rebels when the King himself and his great Men had viewed and surveyed their new acquests there was a strict Enquiry made who there were which had fought against the King and secured themselves by Flight From these and the Heirs of such as were Slain in the Field all hopes of Possessing eiâ—er Lands or Rents were cut off for they counted it a great Favour to have their Lives given them But such as were called and solicited to Fight against King William and did not if by an humble Submission they could gain the Favour of their Lords and Masters they then had the Liberty of Possessing somewhat in their own Persons but without any right of leaving it to their Posterity Their Children enjoying it only at the Will of their Lords To whom when they became unacceptable they were every where outed of their Estates neither would any restore what they had taken away And when the miserable Natives represented their Grievances publickly to the King informing him how they were spoiled of their Fortunes and that without Redress they must be forced to pass into other Countries At length upon Consultation it was Ordered That what they could obtain of their Lords by way of Desert or Lawful Bargain they should hold by unquestionable Right but should not Claim any thing from the Time the Nation was Conquered under the Title of Succession or Descent Upon what great Consideration this was done is manifest says Gervace For they being obliged to compliance and obedience to purchase their Lords Favour therefore whoever of the Conquered Nation Possessed Lands c. Obtained them not as if they were their Right by Succession or Inheritance but as a Reward of their Service or by some Intervening Agreement Gervase of Tilbury or the Black Book in the Exchequer Lib. 1. Cap. de Murdro de necessar observ The next Testimony I shall produce is out of Gulielmus Pictaviensis who lived about the time of Ingulph This Writer speaking of King William's Coronation adds cujus Liberi atque nepotes c. i. e. whose Children and Posterity shall Govern England by a just Succession which he Possessed by an Hereditary Bequest Confirmed by the Oaths of the English and by the Right of his Sword Gul. Pict fol. 206. Farther Ordericus Vitalis who lived in the Reign of William the Second tells us How William the First Circumvented the Two great Earls of Mercia and that after Edwin was Slain and Morcar Imprisoned then King William began to show himself and gave his Assistants the best and most considerable Counties in England and made Rich Colonels and Captains of very mean Normans Oder Vital fol. 251. The same Author relates That after the Norman Arms overcame England and King William had reduced it under the Government of his own Laws he made Fulcard a Monk of St. Omers Abbot of Thorney Ibid. fol. 853. Henry Arch-deacon of Huntington who lived in the Reign of King Stephen is full to the same purpose Anno Gratiae 1066. perfecit Dominus Dominator c. i. e. In the Year c. the great Ruler of Kingdoms brought that to pass which he had long intended against the English for he delivered them over to be destroyed by the Rough and Politick Nation of the Normans fol. 210. And in another place more particularly When the Normans had Executed the just Decree of God upon the English and there was not any Person of Quality of English Extraction remaining but all were reduced to Servitude and Distress insomuch that it was Scandalous to be called an English Man William the Author of this Iudgment dyed in the Twenty first Year of his Reign Ibid. fol. 212. Matthew Paris Who wrote towards the end of the Reign of Henry the Third agrees with the forementioned Testimonies his Words are these fol. 5. Dux Normannorum Willielmus c. i. e. Duke William having fortified the Cities and Castles and Garrisoned them with his own Men Sailed into Normandy with English Hostages and abundance of Treasure whom when he had Imprisoned and Secured he hastened back into England that he might liberally distribute the Lands of the English who were forcibly disseized of their Estates amongst his Norman Soldiers who had helped him at the Battle of Hastings to subdue the Country and that little that was left he put under the Yoak of perpetual Servitude And in another place he tells us That King William brought Bishopricks and Abbys under Military Service which before that time had been free from all Secular Servitude but then every Bishoprick and Abby was Enrolled according to his Pleasure and charged how many Knights or Horse-men they should find for him and his Successors in times of War fol. 7. I might add many more Authorities of Antient Historians but these I suppose are sufficient As for Modern Writers I shall only cite Mr. Cambden who thus delivers his Sence of this matter Britan. p. 109. Victor Gulielmus c. i. e. William the Conqueror as it were to make his
First Now the Lords and Commons in their Petition to the King complain That his Majesties Subjects had been charged with Aids Loans and Benevolences contrary to Law and Imprisoned Confined and sundry ways molested for non Payment That the Subjects had been detained in Prison without certifying the Cause contrary to Law. That they had been compelled to quarter Soldiers and Marriners contrary to Law. That notwithstanding several Statutes to the contrary divers Commissions had been Issued out under the great Seal of England to try Soldiers and Marriners by Martial Law Quarto Car. 1. Rushworth's Coll. To this I might add the Levying Ship Money Coat and Conduct Money c. but I am not willing to enlarge upon so unacceptable a Subject non to discover the Misfortunes of the Father any further than Justice and Duty to the Son obliges me I say the Misfortunes which we see the best Princes through misinformation or improper advice may sometimes fall into However I must crave leave to take notice that these were other manner of Grievances than the Dispencing with Penal Laws both in respect of the Evidence and Consequences of them and yet I am sure the War which was made by the Subjects upon this Score is by our Laws declared an Horrid and Notorious Rebellion This I mention not to justifie the Conduct of the Ministers but to shew that under these Circumstances a mistake in his Majesty ought rather to be lamented than exposed and Magnified at such an enflaming Hyperbolical rate And to this modesty of Behaviour we are now more especially obliged since his Majesty has promised to Redress past Errors which is a plain Argument that some of his former Measures are unacceptable to himself as well as to his Subjects and that he will not pursue them for the future Fourthly Our Author proceeds to argue That the Law mentioning the King or those Commissionated by him shews plainly that it designed only to secure him in the Executive Power for the Word Commission necessarily imports this Since if it is not according to Law it 's no Commission From whence I suppose he infers that those who have it may be resisted Now that this Inference is wide of the Mark appears First Because when this Law was made the King was not restrained from Commissionating any Person whatever in the Field and therefore the Legislators could have no such Design in their View as the Enquirer supposes Secondly The Test Act which was made several Years after the former though it bars the King from granting Military Commands to those who refused to give the prescribed Satisfaction that they were no Papists yet this Statute only declares their Commissions void and subjects them to some other Penalty but it does by no means Authorise the People to rise up in Arms and suppress them and therefore by undeniable Consequence it leaves the other Law of Non-resistance in full force Thirdly This Law which declares it Unlawful to take up Arms against those who are Commissionated by the King was designed as may reasonably be collected from the Time to combat that pernicious distinction between the King's Person and his Authority which has been always too prevalent though in reality it 's nothing but the King's Authority which makes his Person Sacred and therefore the same inviolable Priviledge ought to extend to all those who Act under him Yet notwithstanding this it has often happened that those who pretend a great Reverence for his Person make no scruple to seize his Forts sight his Armies and destroy those who adhere to him under the pretence of taking him out of the Hands of Evil Counselors which has been the most usual and plausible Colour of subverting the Government This Act therefore which was made soon after the Restauration we may fairly conclude was particularly levelled against this dangerous Maxim which had so Fatal an Influence upon the late Distractions Fourthly and Lastly The Enquirer urges That the King imports a Prince clothed by Law with the Regal Prerogative but if he goes about to subvert the whole Foundation of the Government he subverts that by which he has his Power and by Consequence he Annuls his own Power c. First To this it may be Reply'd That bare endeavouring to do an Action though the signs of Executing may be pretty broad is not doing it in the Construction of humane Laws E. G. Drawing a Sword upon a Man is not Murther The intention of the Mind is often impossible to be known for when we imagine a Man is going to do one thing he may be going to do another for ought we can tell to the contrary or at least he may intend to stop far short of the Injury we are afraid of And supposing we had an Authority to punish him there is no reason that conjecture and meer presumption should make him forfeit a Right which is grounded upon clear and unquestionable Law. But Secondly If with reference to the present Case our Author means that the Government is actually subverted as he seems plainly to affirm pag. 7. Then I grant the King's Authority is destroy'd and so is the Property of the Subject too For if the Government is dissolv'd no Man has any Right to Title or Estate because the Laws upon which their Right is founded are no longer in Being But if the Government be so lucky as not to be dissolv'd then the King's Authority remains entire by his own Argument because it 's supported by the same Constitution which secures the Property of the Subject In his Sixteenth Paragraph we have a mighty Stress lay'd upon the difference between Male Administration and striking at Fundamentals as if it was Lawful to resist the Prince in the latter Case though not in the former But if this Distinction had been own'd by our Constitution we may be assured we should have had a plain List of Fundamentals set down in the Body of our Laws particularly we have all imaginable reason to believe that these Fundamentals would have been mentioned and saved by express Clauses and Provisoes in those Statutes which forbid Resistance For without such a direction it would be impossible for the Subject to know how far his Submission was to extend and when it was Lawful to make use of Force Such an unregulated Liberty would put it into the Power of all popular and aspiring Male Contents to corrupt the Loyalty of the unwary Multitude as often as they thought fit to cry out Breach of Fundamentals And at this rate it is easy to foresee what a tottering and unsettled condition the State must be in And therefore according to the old Maxim for which there was never more occasion Ubi Lex non Distinguit non est Distinguendum I have now gon through his Principles and I think sufficiently shewn the Weakness and Danger of them And if so his Catalogue of Grievances signify nothing to his purpose though there was much more aggravation and Truth in them than there is But time has now Expounded the great Mystery and made it evident to most Mens Understandings that our Authors Party has fail'd Remarkably in Matters of Fact as well as in Point of Right For they have not so much as attempted to make good the main and most invidious Part of the charge against his Majesty though to omit Justice Honour and Interest has so loudly called upon them to do it Their giving no Proof after such Importunity of their own Affairs is a Demonstration they never had any For how defective soever they may be in other Respects we must be so just as to allow them Common Sence THE END * Letter to the Convent