the Parliament of England to do this homage And escuage was first invented for them and the Scots as Ployden saith against whom War was made by the Kings of England as rebels not as enemies for that they were subject to England and were within the Sea And so those of Wales were subject to the King of England Vide Ploid fol. 129. B. though they were not parcel of the body of the Realm of England And hence was it that Henry the third upon the often revolts of the Welch endeavoured to assume the territory of Wales as forfeited to himself and conferred the same upon Edward the Longshank his Heir-apparent who took upon him the name of Prince of Wales yet could not obtain the possession or any profit thereby for the former Prince of Wales continued his government for which cause between him and the said Edward Wars did rage whereof the said Edward complaining to King Henry his Father An. 1257. fol. 914. who made him this answer as Mathew Paris reciteth it Quid ad me tuâ— terra ex dono meo est Exerce vires primitivas famam excita juvenilem de caetero timeant inimici c. What is your territory to me it is of my gift Advance your primitive forces stir up your juvenile renown and as for the residue let your enemies fear you c. which according to his Fathers Heroical incouragement he fortunately enterprised for as the Comaedian to that purpose Vt quisque filium suum vult esse Terent. ita est And not long after sundry Battails were fought between the said Edward both before and after he was King of England with Leolan the last Prince of the Welch blood and David his brother until both the said Prince and his said Brother were overcome by the said Edward after he was King of England who thereby first made a conquest of Wales and afterwards annexed it to the Crown of England The territory of Wales being thus united the said King Edward used means to obtain the peoples good will thereby to strengthen that which he had gotten by effusion of blood with the good will and affection of his subjects who promised their most harty and humble obedience if it would please the King to remain among them himself in person or else to appoint over them a governour that was of their own Nation and Countrey Whereupon the cunning King projecteth a pretty policy and sendeth his Queen being then great with child into Wales where she was delivered of a Son in the Castle of Carnarvon The King thereupon sent for all the Barons of Wales and remembred them of their submiss assurance tendred according to their former proffers if they should have a governour of their own countrey and who could not speak one word of English whose life and conversation no man was able to stain or blemish and required their offered obedience whereunto they yeilding the King presented unto them his said Son born at Carnarvon Castle whom thereupon the Barons unanimously embraced for their Prince and afterwards made their homage to him at Crester Anno. 29. Edw. 1. as Prince of Wales And though the Welch Nation do not willingly acknowledge the aforesaid conquest but refer it rather to this composition yet as Sir John Davis saith Edward the first made a conquest of the Dominion of Wales Davys vep fol. 41. B. as it is expressed in his charter or statute of Rutland where it is said Divina providentia terram Walliae cum incolis suis prius nobis jure feodali subjectam in proprietatis nostrae dominium convertit coronae Regis nostri annexit And thereupon according to the course and power of conquerours as the same Author saith he changed their Laws and customs as it is also expressed in the said charter or statute For as to the Laws and customs he saith Quasdam illarum de concilio procerum regni nostri delevimus Quasdam correximus etiam quasdam alias adjiciendas faciend as decrevimus c. Some of them by the council of the Peers of our Realm have we expunged some have we corrected and also some have we determined to be made and added and as another saith divided some parts thereof into shires and appointed Laws for the government of that people Yet though the King had gained the property of that Kingdom and that the Inhabitants of it de Alto Basso as it is recited in the said charter had submitted themselves to his will yet it appears that he did admit all those who would be ruled and governed by the common Law of England which he had established among them by the said charter to have Frank Tenement and Inheritance in their Lands for there he prescribeth a form of the writ de Assize de novel disseisin de mort Dauncaster de dower to be brought of Lands in Wales according to the course of the common Law of England and when they wanted a writ of form to supply the present case they used the writ Quod ei deforceat 2. E. 4.12 A. Thus was the Dominion of Wales united to the crown of England by the valour and wisdome of Edward the first and the principality of it hath constantly since appertained to the Eldest Sons of the Kings of England Ployd Com. fol. 126. B. as Ployden saith from all time that there hath been a Prince of Wales or as Sir John Doderidge to the eldest Son or the next succeeding Heir For Henry the third first made Edward the first his eldest Son Prince of Wales and gave to him the Dominion and dignity of it and also Edward the second after he was King of England created Edward the third in his life time Prince of Wales and the Lady Mary eldest Danghter of King Henry the eight Doderidge principality of Wales fol. 39. and afterwards Queen of England did carry the title of Princess of Wales Et Sic de Similibus Yet notwithstanding this conquest by Edward the first and general submission of the Welch were there divers insurrections fomented by them against the former established Government and especially one which happened in his Raign raised by Rice up Meredick who rebelled against the King upon which all the lands of the said Meredick were confiscated as forfeited and seised by the said King Doderidge Prince of Wales fol. 8 and nominally given by his successour Edward the third to Edward the black Prince Prince of Wales for his better maintenance and honourable support and though after the death of the Father they assisted Edward the second his son in his Wars against the Scots Herbert Hen. 6. and got victories for Edward the third and stood firm during all the differences in this realm to his Grandchild Richard the second yet when the unfortunate and fatal Wars happened between the two Houses of York and Lancaster the Welchmen fell from their fidelity to the Crown hoping upon that disasterous
that Edward the first contrary to the Roman Garbe upon his first conquest did admit all of them to the possession and inheritance of their Lands and goods which would be ruled and governed by the common law of England and did forbear to settle a Militia or deduce Colonies among them thereby to restrain them from future Commotions which the Parliament of England prudently observing were induced to put in practise the old Roman rule Parcere subjeciis debellare superbos And ordained that all persons whatsoever that were in actual Rebellion in the said insurrections and all other persons that have willingly by council or force assisted the same or contributed any money's horse or armes amuâ—ition or other aid or assistance thereof are adjudged delinquents and that their estates be sequestred and that the Commissioners named and appointed in the said ordinance or such persons as they shall appoint do seize the estates real and personal of all and every the said persons delinquents aforesaid and also to make sale receive and dispose of all and every the Goods Chattels Debts Rents and personal estates of all and every the said Delinquents and let set and improve their Lands at the best rate they can according to the ordinance of sequestration c. And on some of their Ieaders did they inflict capical punishment therein also pursuing the justice of the antient Roman Empire Grot. de J. B. P. l. 9. c. 11. Qui de captis hostium civibus vindictam morte sumebant who did take revenge of the Captains of their enemies which were taken by death for which Constans the Son of Constantine is commended in the Panegyrick And further for the securing of the Parliament and mutual defence and safety of each other did they settle and constitute the Militia in those parts which had a resemblance of the Roman Colonies and at this present are there military Garrisons continued in the chiefest Cities of Wales by which means ever since that countrey hath been kept and maintained in peace and tranquility without the suspicion of any insurrection and a constant unity setled between these two Nations The conquest of Scotland in regard of it's vicinity with England is in the next place to be considered and especially for that deadly feud and perpetual wars have time out of mind raged between these two Nations Nam rara est inter eos pax dum illi propagari Hist Britâ— fol. 7. hi retinere imperium student for peace was rare between them while they endeavoured to propagate their Empire and these to retein it which though the English for many Ages with all their skill and force have contended to vanquish yet could they not until these latter times accomplish So difficult a task it was to conquer that valiant Nation and by force to bring it to an union for as the same Author saith Eadem utrisque in bellâ— ferocia And as an other Gens virorum fortium fuit quam frugum feracior It was a countrey more abounding in proper men then in goodly fruits A fierce Nation indeed which was never subjugated by the Romans as Tertullian who lived in the second Age according to the Christian computation intimateth Apolog. saying Evangelium diffusum est in omnes orbis partes etiam in Britanniam usque eamque Insulae partem quâ—m Romanae vires nunquam penetrarunt The Gospel was diffused through all the parts of the world also into Britany and even into that part of the Island which the Romans never pierced meaning that part of the Island which is now called Scotland But the Romans attempting it were continually rebutted and repulsed by them and in fine were foreed to frame walls trenches and bulwarks to defend their Province from their terrible incursions which were first built by Adrian as Aelius Spartianus then by Antoninus Pius as Julius Capitolinus and thirdly by Severus thereby to stop the furious invasions of the Scots of which Claudian doth mention Venit extremis legio praetentae Britannis Quae Scoto dat fraena truci But whereas Buchanan a partial Trumpeter of his countrey praises De jure regni apud Scot. saith Nos regnum exiguum quidem sed jam bis mille annos ab exterarâ—m gentium imperio liberum tenemus we hold our Kingdom a little one indeed but now for the space of two thousand years free from the Dominion of forreign Nations yet to the contrary saith Matthew of Westminster Quod Reges Angliae Jure Superioris directi Dominii ab antiquissimis temporibus regno Scotiae ipsius regibus praefuerunt ab ipsiâ— illorum prâ—ceribus regalia homagia receperunt fidelitatis debita juramenta that the Kings of England by the right of a more superior direct Dominion from the most ancient times had their preheminence over the Kingdom of Scotland and their Kings and have received legall homages from them and their Nobles and due Oaths of fidelity For after the Saxons had made a Conquest of the Britans and reduced their Heptarchy into a Monarchy changing it's name into England Scotland by the power of their victorious Armes Hollingshed Ed. 3. was compelled to do homage and fealty to England and to be tributary to their sueceeding Kings for Edward the son of Alured â—ad it under his Dominion Herb. Hen. 8. And Athelstane made one Constantine King thereof Eldreck took homage of Ericus and Edgar of Kinulph Kings of Scots Malcome did homage to Knuto and Edward the confessor gave the Kingdom to Malcome who did homage to William the Conquerour and to William Rufus and Edgar did homage to Henry the first and David did homage to Matilda the Empress which were without intermission transacted by the succeeding Kings of Scotland to the succeeding Kings of England Herb. ib. even to the reign of Henry the seventh which incited Henry the eighth to claim homage and fealty of James the fourth which was partly the cause of the quarrel and famous Battail between him and the King so as the aforesaid homages fealties made by the Kings of Scots were not only for the Earldom of Huntington as the Scots pretend For David King of Scots having married the Daughter and Heir of the Earl of Huntington and Northumberland and received the investiture thereof did not onely do homage and owe fealty for the Earldom of Huntington as also his son Malcome did but the said David did also homage and made fealty for the Kingdome of Scotland to Matilda the Empress as also all the succeeding Kings of Scotland did according to the former expression But of all the Kings of England none equalled Edward the first and none as Sir Francis Bacon saith is more celebrated with the commendations of War and Wisedome and especially for his purpose and enterprise for the conquest of Scotland bending his mind not to glorious conquests abroad but to the setlement by conquest of a solid union between those
two discordant Nations as before he had done between Wales and England For which his heroick Acts the Fame of his vertue so wrought on the minds of the Scots that great contention intervening between them concerning the succession to the crown Alexander the King of Scots leaving no Heir there being twelve competitors Hollingshed who by several titles laid claim unto the crown all of them referred the decision of that royal case without any constraint and of their own good will as in the Reference is expressed to the final sentence of Edward the first who after six years discussion adjudged the case on Baliols side who indeed had the best title but upon promise to subject the crown of Scotland to him and to swear fealty and homage to him as his sovereign Lord and thereupon is Baliol crowned King of Scotland which being done King Baliol comes to Newcastle upon Tyne where King Edward then lay and there with the chief of the Nobility did swear fealty and do homage to him as their sovereign Lord except Bruce who was the next Heir to the crown King Edward thus became the sovereign Umpire and supreme Judge of Scotland to whom the Nobles as the King himself before had done appealed for Justice against the King And because King Edward would not permit King Baliol a Procurator but caused him to defend his cause himself in the Ordinary place in a rage at his return he defyeth King Edward renounceth his allegiance as illegally made without the Consent of the States Hollingshed For which King Balioll being summoned to appeare at Newcastle and refusing to come King Edward triumphantly with a mighty army invaded Scotland Barwick is first taken and afterwards the Castles of Dunbar Roxborrough Edinborrough Sterling and St. Johns and John Warren Earle of Sussex and Surrey is made Warden of all Scotland Sir Hugh Cressingham Treasurer and Bransly Chief Justice to take in his name the homages and fealties of all such at held Lands of the Crown and to be General Guardian of the whole Kingdom And notwithstanding Balioll in Parliament with the consent of the States of Scotland did tender his submission and did homage and swear fealty unto King Edward as his soveraign Lord yet is he for his former infidelity secured and sent into England but not long after though the Scots were without an head their King being in England and all their great men in captivity and subjection yet they wanted not an heart to shake off servitude and animated by one William Wallis a poor private Gentleman though nobly descended made an audacious and dangerous attempt who with a forlorn and desperate rabble like himself fell suddenly on the English Officers and slew Sir Hugh Cressingham with six thousand English recovered many Castles and regained the Town of Barwick And seconded by success so increased by ranging and rowling up and down many of the nobler sort resorting to him that within a short space his forces amounted to a copious and Warlike Army and was in a propinque possibility to have freed his countrey from subjection if the speedy succour of King Edward had not anticipated him who removing his Court to York and making that City his imperial Seat as the Roman Emperours heretofore did that with the more convenience he might quell the insulting Scots there raised an exquisite and choice Army and with three thousand men of Armes on barded horses and four thousand others armed on horse without bards and with an Army of foot answerable he encountred the confident Army of the Scots who on the onset made such terrible shouts that King Edwards Horse frighted therewith cast him off and brake two of his ribs yet neverthelesse he gets up again goes on and gains the victory In which battel Sexaginta Scotorum millia occisa fuerunt threescore thousand Scots were slain as William of Westminster numbers them among which there were two hundred Knights whereupon a Parliament being called at St. Andrews most of the great men of that Kingdome except Wallis who had escaped by flight prostrated their homage and fealty to King Edward as their supream head and King of which William of Westminster giveth this character Arma parant Scotus regno dolet esse remotus And King Edward the better to keep some in subjection and deter others from insurrection did confer most of the estates of the Earls and Barons of scotland with their titles that stood out on the English as a reward of their valour and vertue Hollingshed Ed. 3. And now it would seem that Scotland was quite conquer'd and subjected to the Crown of England they having no King nor Heir in Scotland but the King of England But as Cambden saith est Natio servitutis Impatientissimae Cambd. Brit. It is a Nation impatient of servitude and a breeder of stubborn and refractory spirits wich to their power would not stoop to the English Yoke for though they were twice overthrown by King Edward and thrice swore fealty unto him yet did they as many times falsify their faith which in military affaires is principally to be maintained Postremum est primumque tâ—eri Inter bella fidem And now again go about to contrive new commotions rejectiâ—â— Balioll their natural King for thâ— he received the Crown upon condition to subject the Crown of Scotland to the Crown of England fâ—â— which they recalled their allegianâ—â— that they had given to him and received Robert Bruce come of thâ— second branch for their King because as one of their own writer saith he had basely condiscendeâ— to enslave that Nation to whom their liberty had alwaies been 〈◊〉 dear In the History of the reformation of the Church of Scotland that they have willingly and chearfully undergone all hazard of life and means which if they should have suffered they had nothing lefâ— whereby they might be called menâ— and consequently armed with this resolution under their new head and King forced all the Wardens of Scotland to retire to Barwick whereof as soon as the King heard he sends the Earl of Pembroke and the Lord Clifford with a strong power to relieve the Wardens of Scotland whilst he prepares a potent Army to sollow making a vow that either alive or dead he would pour vengeâ—ince on the perfidious Scots In which expedition that magnaninous King falling into a sickness at Carlile adjured his son and all the Nobles about him upon their fealty that if he died in this journey they should carry his corps with them about Scotland and not suffer it to be interred until they had finally conquered the Scots As Matthew of Malmesbury Jussit corpus suumâ—ibi temauere insepultum dum tota Scotia esset finaliter acquisita An heroick resolution worthy the spirit of a conqueror but he that never stooped to enemy was forced to submit to Fate and he that was alwaies victorious was overcome by death Quae sola ultricibus armis Elatâ—s
no other way to make his victory permanent but by his valour But after the Norman conqueror had brought under his yoke and subjection the utmost parts of this Island and by his continual victories tamed the minds of his formidable enemies he like a Roman victor with all diligence laboured by imposition of Laws to reduce the English and the Normans into a peaceable and sociable union and accordingly propounded to himself an exact survey of all the antient Laws as the old Laws of the Saxons which where compounded of the British customs and their own which mention the Danish Law Danellage the Mercian Law Mercemlage and the West Saxon Westsaxonlage All these being considered by William the conquerour comparing them with the Laws â— Norway Ibid. which he most affected as Mr. Selden supposeth because by them a Bastard of a Concubine â—â— himself was had equal inheritance with the most legitimate son as Gerâ—â—se of Tilburyâ— in this dialogue de Seaccario saith Quasdam reprobarit quasdam autem approbans illis transmarinas Neustriae leges quae ad regni pacem tuendam efficacissimae videbantur addidit some he rejected and some he approving to them he added the forraign Norway Laws which seemed most efficacious for the preserving of the peace of the kingdom And such laws as he in writing allowed though by Roger Hovendon and Iugulphus they were called Leges Edwardi regis yet by Mathew Paris are they properly called Bonae approbatae antiquae regui leges the good and approved antient Laws of the Kingdom by denomination from the greater part And sometimes the Laws and customs of King William For clearly diverse Norman customs were in practise first mixt with them and to these times continue as Mr. Selden asserteth as that of Coverfeu which was constituted to prevent conspiracies combinations and robberies which were then very frequent and commonly contrived and practised in the night And therefore it was ordained that in all townes and villages a bell should be rung at eight of the Clock in the evening and that in every house they should then put out their fire and lights which bell was therfore called Coverfeu and then to go to bed which among many other was one of the laws much conducing to the preservation of peace By which so great a peace was setled in the Kingdom as by Henry of Huntington he is stiled the Author of peace whose words are these Pacis author tantus quod puella auro onusta regnum Angliae transire possit impune He was so great an Author of peace that a Virgin laden with gold might without danger passe through the Kingdome of England And seeing his people to be part Normans Bacon uses of the law fol. 31. and part Saxons the Normans he brought with him the Saxons he found here he bent himself to conjoin them by marriages in amity and for that purpose ordains that if those of his Nobles Knights and Gentlemen should die leaving their Heir within age a Male within one and twenty and a Female within fourteen years and unmarried then the King should have the bestowing of such in such a Family and to such persons as he should think meet which was commonly to his Normans which interest of marriage went still imployed and doth continue at this day in every tenure is called Knights service Then he also commanded all his laws to be written in French and all causes and matters of law to be prosecuted pleaded and dispatched in the French language as the Romans did in Latin that the English thereby might be invited to addict their minds to the knowledge of that Language That whereas they were made by Laws as it were one people so by this constitution they might be brought to be of one Language In this manner through the prowess and prudence of the Norman Conquerour were the English and the Normans so entirely united that they seemed one Nation and one people without any difference or distinction of respect and honour as Dido promised the Trojans Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur Which may more effectually be applied to him for he and his Progeny reigned over them so united for the space of five hundred years The next bordering Principality to England is Wales and therefore first in order by the English to be conquered according to the Roman Example as indeed it was A stout and hardy Nation Bellicosissima gens as Cambden and indeed the reliques of the auntient Britans who because they would not subject themselues to the Tyranny of the Saxous as the other English did were forced by their armes to retreat into the Western Region of that Island for refuge surrounded with the muniments of nature as mountaines and armes of the Sea which antiently was called Cambria as the people at this present Cambro-Britauni In so much as the Saxons were unable by their force to make way unto them and to overcome them And though by some of the Saxon Kings a ditch of a wonderfull work was framed which was called King Offa his ditch by which they divided that Country from England and called them Walshmen that is to say unto them strangers yet did they continually with fire and sword spoile and depopulate their fieldes and Cities And when the Heptarchy of the Saxons was devolved into a Monarchy could they onely by Athelstane that victorious King be made tributary nay William the Conqueror the terror of his time Cujus nomen as William of Westminster exterae remotae gentes timebant whose ruine and downfall the Welch also conspired And therfore as the said William saith though he raised a Copious army against the Welch with an intention to subject them to his sword as he had done the English yet did he meâ—â— with such martiall resistance that he was content to accept of their homage with faithfull hostages to pay him tribute though after upon their restless commotions he placed divers of his Norman Nobility upon the confines towards Wales and gave a power unto the persons thus placed to make such conquests on the Welch as they by their own strength could accomplish whereby divers of those parts were won by the Sword from the Welchmen which were planted with English Colonies and called Barons Marches Which though his Son William Rufus seconded yet was it a great glory for him only to conquer the Shire of Pembroke which was a very ancient Shire of Wales so as this parcel of this Island called Wales was no parcel of the Dominion of the Realm of England but was distinguished from the same and was as it were a Realm of it self not governed by the laws of England Ployd Com. 192. as the Books of the laws of this Realm do testifie yet nevertheless afterwards was the same Dominion of Wales holden in chief and in Fee of the Crown of England and the Prince thereof being then of their own Nation was compellable upon Summons to appeare in