Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	richard_n	15,475	5	9.2713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26147	A treatise of the true and ancient jurisdiction of the House of Peers by Sir Robert Atkyns ...	Atkyns, Robert, Sir, 1621-1709.	1699 (1699)	Wing A4144; ESTC R31568	35,905	42

same instant make their Observation of these particulars ensuing which I conceive will evidently result and arise from them 1. First That the Supreme Power of Legislature and the Supreme Power of Judicature which yet are distinct things in themselves for it is one thing jus dare and another thing jus dicere both these high Powers I say under our several Ancient Kings resided in one and the same Assembly consistting of the very same Persons but with different methods in their way of proceeding that is whoever had an hand in the Legislature was not excluded from the Judicature wherein it differs from our present Constitution which is that the House of Peers who have but a share in the Legislature yet now claim to themselves the sole power of Judicature as the last resort 2. Secondly Another thing that I shall observe out of the several Precedents and Authors that I shall mention is this That the great Convention and Assembly that anciently had these Two great Powers of Legislature and Judicature were but one entire great Body and Assembly not divided into two or more parts nor distinguish'd as now into Two Houses or by the names of Lords and Commons but these Powers resided equally in them Tota in Toto 3. Thirdly That all or the far greatest part of the Members of these great Assemblies came not thither by the choice or at the will and pleasure of the Prince as he thought fit to single them out by name as Peers are made usually nor did they all come by Election or Office though there were some of both those sorts viz. The Bishops and the Burgesses of the Burroughs but the far greatest part came by a certain Right they had to meet in those Assemblies but what gave them their Right or qualification or capacity so to meet doth not so clearly appear to an hasty Reader of our History and Antiquities It is evident it was not any meer Title of Honour or Dignity for Anciently in England there were not any Dignities but what were also accompanied with Offices and ceased with the Office But it did proceed from their Lands and Posessions which as they gave them Honour so they gave them Power and Authority in those Ancient Times And this they learnt from the Romans whose Example was followed herein by most of those Nations that had fallen under their Conquest 4. Fourthly These Assemblies were very great and numerous far exceeding in number both Houses of Parliament at this day were they both put together so that they cannot with any colour of Reason be thought an Assembly of Lords only as our Novel Writers would impose upon us for it is absurd to think that so great a number should be all Lords for then there would be none left in the Nation to bear the Character of Commons save only the Plebs or Faeces Populi And the Title or Distinction of Lords cannot subsist without a body of some Inferiors from whom the Lords may be distinguish'd Tolle Relatum tollis Correlatum 5. Fifthly Though the Freeholders of the several Counties did not then as now meet in those Assemblies by their Representatives duly chosen so that any Assembly could properly be said to be the Representative of all the Commons of England which is much insisted on by our new fort of Authors who would decry and depress the House of Commons as being but of yesterday in comparison with the Antiquity of the House of Lords that is but from the Nine and Fortieth year of King Henry the Third whereas the Lords have been as they affirm from time immemorial and co-aeval with the Nation it self yet which is more in Vindication of the Antiquity of the Commons in Parliament it will appear that the Freeholders generally met there themselves in the great Assemblies then used in their own proper persons undistinguish'd by any such Terms of Lords and Commons and all were upon the same level A Representative is but of the Nature of a Deputy or Delegate to supply the place of one that is absent such as in the House of Lords they call Proxies who sometimes have been such as were no Members of that House and such as in the Convocation of the Clergy they call'd procuratores Cleri But the great Freeholders as being the Principals rightly called may more properly and in a true genuine sense be stiled The National Assembly Those met in their own proper personal Capacity for the Land-Interest in the hands of the true Owner the Freeholder is the only true stable permanent fixed Interest of the Nation The Farmers and Copy-holders were at first and in Ancient Times look'd upon and accounted but as Servants and Dependants upon the Freeholders and little regarded by the Common-Law And for those that followed Merchandize and Trade though they ever sent to these great Assemblies by Election the Manufacture of Woollen Cloth greatly flourishing in the Reigns of King Henry the Second and King Richard the First which gave occasion to those Ancient Guilds or Societies that were setled in Lincoln York Oxford and other Cities and Ancient Burroughs in England which Trade was wholly lost in the troublesome times of King Iohn Henry the Third Edward the First and Edward the Second And then our Trade ran in Woolls Wooll-fels and Leather carried out in Specie till recover'd again by the peaceable times of King Edward the Third as the most Learned in the Law the late Chief Justice Hales does assert in his Origination of Mankind yet those Ancient Burroughs were not then so numerous in those Elder times nor were the Traders then in so great Esteem as having to do in Moveables only and a transient Interest and as we use to say Here to day and gone to morrow and were therefore of an Inferior account and made no great Figure And it was then a Legal Disparagement for the Guardian in Chivalry to marry the Ward being the Heir of a Freeholder that held by Knights's Service to the Daughter of the Burgess of a Burrough 6. Sixthly The last Observation shall be this That the Freeholders encreasing at last in their number by the sub-dividing of their posessions and tenures and thereupon growing seditious and tumultuous and an unwieldly Body and less valuable and venerable in their Individuals and particulars Mole ruebat suâ they came to be divided and the greatest part of them at last discontinued their coming to these Assemblies and so they broke in two and fell into two Houses and their Powers became parted between them and one part assum'd or had assign'd to them some of the Powers and the other part what was left Cúm quercus decidit unusquísque ligna colligit Yet there is reason to think that it was thus distributed and determin'd by Agreement in a National Assembly These Observations and Conclusions I have thought fit and proper to propose before I peruse the Precedents and cite my Authors That the Reader may take notice by the