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
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
the Common-wealth of England which by vertue of that conquest have therein Placed Garrisons and English Colonies according to the Roman Rule to contein them in subjection peace and union But to apply my Pen to the other rule which is the union by laws and though it is in the power of the Conqueror at his pleasure to alter and change the laws of the conquered Kingdom Cok. L. 7. Calvins case f. 17. and that without a Parliament as Edward the first did by his Charter of Rutland but until he doth make an alteration of laws the ancient laws of that Kingdom do still remain yet certainly it is the greater victory to alter and change the Laws of the conquered with their consent that there may be a more intimatc and intire union between them And therefore did the Parliament in December 1651. to the end that the people of Scotland should be united with the people of England into one Commonwealth and under one Government send Commissioners into Scotland to invite the people of that Nation unto such an happy union who proceeded so far therein that the Shires and Burroughes of Scotland by their deputies appearing at Dalkeith and again at Edenborough did accept of the said union and assent thereunto which was seconded by the late Protector of the Commonwealth of England who by the advice of his council ordained April 5. 1654. That all the Dominions of Scotland of the Isles and Territories thereunto belonging are and shall be and are hereby incorporated into constituted and confirmed one Commonwealth with England and in every Parliament held successively for the said Commonwealth thirty persons shall be called from and serve for Scotland which Ordinance was confirmed by the Parliament in the year 1657. So many Knights and Burgesses as before was expressed who were called and summoned according to the said Ordinance were admitted to sit in the said Parliament and did vote joâ—n with the English in the making and enacting of Laws which Laws so made or hereafter to be made by them in Parliament do bind and oblige the Commons of Scotland as well as the Commons of England because the Knights and Burgesses of both Countries being chosen by the Assent of the Commons of either Countrey do represent the estates of the several and distinct Commons of either Countrey And therefore as St. German saith every statute there made Doct. Slud li. 2. c. 46. is of as strong effect in law as if all he commons were then present personally at the making thereof There are many more particular clauses in the aforesaid Ordinance contained which concurr to the more full effecting of the said union all which I refer to the consideration of the supream council of this Nation And though the constitutions of the countreys of England and Scotland be such that there can hardly in all things be such an obsolute reconciling and uniting of their laws no more then there hath been between other country's subject to the obedience and allegiance of the Kings of England as Normandy and Aquitany had several lawes different to the lawes of England Garnesey and Jersey have yet their several lawes which for the most part were the antient lawes and customs of Normandy Kent and Cornwall have also their several Laws and customs and so hath the county of Palatine of Chester yet do not these several Laws make any differences in matter of subjection and obedience and are no markes of disunion or several allegiances Howsoever as Sir Francis Bacon saith Discourse of the union of England and Scotland it is to be wished that the Scottish Nation was governed by our Lawes which with some conducement are worthy to govern if it were the world or else that Scotland be in the like degree and conditions with Wales as hath been for many hundred years those Laws and customs onely being in force which are reasonable and agreable to the Laws and customs of England for it is a matter too curious to extirpate all particular customs which are consonant to reason and it sufficeth that there be a uniformity in the fundamental Laws For language it is not needful to infist upon it because both Kingdomes are of one language though of several dialects and the difference is so small between them as Sir Francis Bacon saith Ibid. that it promiseth rather an enriching of our language then a continuance of two so as it may seem convenient that as they Originally participate of one language they should likewise be under one Government as heretofore by antient Histories they are reported to have been which is now revived and like to continue the premised Roman rules being observed But now to waft Englands conquering forces over into Ireland which though it was first conquered is placed in the Arrear for that it is more remote and separated from it by the Sea yet is it by Ptolomy stiled Britaunia Minor as an adjacent Island and is another Brittain as Brittain is said to be another world it being not inferiour to any part of Britanny for affinity and fertility as Tacitus solum Coelumque ingenia haut multum a Britannia differunt Vita Agr. And indeed is endowed with many dowries of nature with the fruitfulness of the soyl and plenty of all provision with the ports the quarries the woods and other worthy materials But yet it is under question what King first subjugated that Island Sir Edward Coke maketh mention of an antient Charter of King Edgar Cokes pre l. 4. 4th Book of Reports in which he blesseth the altitonant and omnipotent God for all his victories and that he had subjected all the Kingdomes of the Island of the Sea unto Norway with their fiercest Kings and the greatest part of Ireland with its most noble City of Dublin to the Kingdome of England and Henry of Huntington saith there were five Kingdomes in Ireland of which the great or greatest part was conquered by King Edgar Gambd Britttan â— which Cambden also affirmeth Quod maximam Hiberniae partem devicit yet because Henry the second made a more absolute conquest of it the honor of that conquest is ascribed to him and was the first was intituled Rex Angliae Dominus Haberniae and as Henry of Huntington Historieth it at his Arrival with a potent Army into Ireland the King of Cork the King of Limmerick the King of Oxery and the King of Meth submitted themselves to his summons recognizing him to be totius Hiberniae dominum only the King of Conagh stood out which Pope Alexander confirmed to him and his Heirs and which afterwards by his power was possessed and detained by English Colonies Yet was there no alteration of their Lawes till the reign of King â—ohn who as Sir Edward Coke saith 〈◊〉 the twelfth year of his raign went â—â—to Ireland and there by advice 〈◊〉 grave and learned men in the â—â—aws whom he carried with him 〈◊〉 a Parliament de
Communi omniâ—â— de Hibernia consensu enjoyned and established that Ireland should be Governed by the Laws of England Cok. Com. f. 1. a. 6. which he left in writing under his seal in the Exchequer of Dublin and which afterwards was confirmed by the Charter of Henry the third Davis rep f. 37. a 6. in the thirtieth year of his reign wherein is declared that for the common utility of the Lands in Ireland and the unity of those Lands that all the Laws and customs that are holden in the Kingdome of England be holden in Ireland and that the same Lands be subject to the same Laws and be ruled by them as King John when he was there did firmly enjoyn and therefore willed that all the writs of the common Law which run in England likewise run in Ireland and accordingly was it resolved Trin. 13. Edw. 1. Coram rege in Thesaurie in lenge placite that the same Laws ought to be in the Kingdome of Ireland as in the Kingdome of England and therefore as Sir John Davis saith every County Palatine as well in Ireland as in England was originally parcel of the Davis rep f. 6 7. B. same Realm and derived of the Crown and was alwaies governed by the Law of England and the Lands there were holden by services and tenures of which the common law took notice although the Lord had a several jurisdiction and a signiory separated from the Crown upon consideration of which Sir Edward Coke inferreth this conclusion Cok. Com. f. 14. B. that the unity of Laws is the best means for the unity of Countries as before hath been premised Yet many of the Irish soon after absolutely refused the English Laws preferring their Irish customs which they call their Brehon Law because the Irish call their Judges Brehons and therefore in the Parliament Anno 40. Ed. 3. Cok. ib. In the Parliament holden at Kilkenny in Ireland before Lionell Duke of Clarence being the Lieutenant of that Realm the Brehon Laws were declared to be no Law but a lewd custom which fot that reason were abolished Quia malus usus est abolendus And though that by that statute the Brehon Law which was the common Law of the Irish was declared to be no Law yet was it not absolutely abolished among the meer Irish Davis reports f. 39 but only prohibited and forbidden to be used among the English race and the meer Irish were left at large to be ruled by their barbarous customs as before And therefore for that by those customs bastards had their part with the legitimate women were altogether excluded from Dower that the daughters were not inheritable though their Fathers dyed without Males by the same statute it was Enacted that no compaternity Education of Infants or Marriages be made or had between the English and others in peace with the King with the meer Irish And though the statute made by King John in Ireland and the Ordinance and writ of King Henry the third were general yet is it manifest by all the antient Records of Ireland that the Common Law of England was onely put in execution in that part of Ireland which was reduced and devided into counties and possessed by the English Colonies Vid. Davis 39. a. o. and not in the Irish Counties and territories which were not reduced into Counties until the time of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth For King John made but twelve Counties but the other provinces and territories which are divided into 21. Counties at large being then inhabited for the most part by meer Irish were out of the limits of any Shire ground by the space of three hundred years after the making of the former twelve Counties for it was impossible that the common Law of England should be executed in those Counties or territories for the Common Law of England cannot be put in execution where the writ of the King doth not run but where there is a County and Sheriffe or other Ministers of the Law to serve and return the writs of the King and for this cause were the meer Irish out of the protection of the King because the Law of the King and his writs as Littleton saith Littl. Tom. f. 43. are the things by which a man is protected aided and therefore the meer Irish who had no the benefit of the Law until the time of Henry the eight where any mention is made of the Wars of Ireland are culled enemies the english rebels but by the 33. H. 8. c. 1. by which it is recited that because the King of England did not assume the name stile of King the Irish Inhabitants have not been so obedient to the King of England and his Laws as of right they ought to have been It was Enacted that King Henry the eight his Heirs and Successors shall be for ever Kings of Ireland and shall have the name stile and title of the King of that land with all the honors prerogatives and dignities appertayning to the State and Majesty of a King as united and annexed to the imperiall Crown After which royall union the said difference of the English rebells and Irish enemies is not to be found on Record but all those meer Irish were afterwards reputed and accepted subjects and Leigemen to the Kings and Queens of England and had the benefit and protection of the law of England And afterwards the Irish were more averse from Rebellions and more ready to forsake their Brehon laws and to be ruled by ours the stile and title of the King of Ireland being more pleasing acceptable to them then Lord of Ireland the one denoting a tyrannical arbitrary Government Tholos Syntag. li. 13. c. 1. the other a limited power according to law and equity For such Princes as arrogate to themselves the name of Lords seem to usurp an arbitrary and plenipotentiary power over their subjects which are Proprietors of nothing but at the will of their great Lord. And therefore did the wisest of the Boman Emperors refuse to take upon them that arrogant and absolute title Davis f. 40. B. it properly appertaining only to God but under a King the subjects are free men and have property in their Goods and Frank tenements and inheritance who doth not domineer over them according to his will and pleasure but ruleth them according to Law for as Bracton Non est Rex ubi dominatur voluntas Lib. 1. c. 4. fol. 9. non Lex And accordingly the Kings and Queens of England to the intent that the Laws of England might have a free course in and through all the Realm of Ireland as is expressed in the statute of 11. Eliz. c. 9. did they provide in several Parliaments to wit 3. 4. Ph. and Mary c. 3. and 11. Eliz. c. 9. that Commissions should be awarded to reduce into Shires and hundreds all the Irish Land which were not Shire ground before And
mutation to regain their pristine liberty For as Sir John Baker Hist of England fol. 139. It was always a custom with that Nation at every change of the Princes of England to try conclusions hoping at one time or another to have a day of it and to change their yoke of bondage into Liberty as upon the aforesaid opportunity they began to lift up their hands and heads and under the aspiring command of Owen Glendoer waged a terrible War with Henry the fourth who through the combination and confederacy of the Earl of March and the Lord Firrcy swallowed in his ambitious mind all Wales and the Lands beyond Severn Westwards which were assigned to him for his part but the King being a skilful souldâ—er having ordered and disposed his Army suddenly marched towards the Lords having aâ—â—especial care that they should by no means join with the Welch and so encountering the Lords singly obteined an universal victory and the Welch thereupon abandoned Owen Glendoer who hirking in the Woods was there famished And after the Fate of Henry the fourth Henry the fifth his son knowing the fashion of the Welch Bakers Hist f. 241 that in time of change they would commonly cake advantage to make Inroads upon the borders caused forts and bulwarks in fit places to be erected and placed Garrisons in them for the preventing or repelling any such Incursions yet so prompt and captious were they continually upon the least opportunity to such insurrections Vt nullo modo induci potuerunt as Cambden saith ut servitutis jugum subirent nec ulla ratione res componi Funestissimum inter gentes odium restingui potuit donec Henricus 7. ab illis oriundus salutarem manum jacentibus Britannis perrexerit Henr. 8. eos in parem juris libertatisque conditionem atque nos ipsi Angli sumus acceperit that by no means they could be induced to undergo the yoke of servitude neither by any reason could matten be compounded and the moâ— mortal hatred between those two Nations be extinguished until Henry the Seventh descended of them had extended his soveraign hand to the forlorn Britans and Henry the Eight had received them into the equal condition of right and liberty even as we Englishmen are And indeed Heâ—â—y the Seventh was descended of Owen Tuder who is said to be descended of Cadwallader a Prince of Walâ— wherein the Welch prophecy seemed to them now to be fulfilled that one of the Princes of Wales should be Crowned with the Diadem of Brute which Prince Leolin before vainly aferibed unto himself who therefore was chearfully assisted by the Welchmen to the title of the Crown Herbert H. 8. f. 369 they being desirous according to the former pâ—oposition made by them to Edward the first to have a Prince of their own Nation to rule over them Yet were not the Welchmen fully satisfied with this union but expected a more entire union by laws for notwithstanding the Laws which were established in that Country by Edward the 1. there were 141 Lordships of Marchers which were then neither any part of Wales though formerly conquered out of Wales neither any part of that Shire of England who by the license of the Kings then Reigning Davis cep f. 61. B. had Royall signiories in their severalter itories 9. H. 6.12 152. 11. H. 4.40 and a kind of Palatine jurisdiction and a power to administer Justice to their tenants in every of their territories revoking their own Laws and customs at their pleasure that the writs of ordinary justice out of the Kings court were not for the most part current among them and substituted Officers at their pleasure Herb. H. 8. fo 369. who practised strange and discrepant customs and committed such rapins that nothing was almost safe nor quiet in those parts for by reason of the flight of the offendors from one Lordship to another they had escaped due and condign punishment whereupon the noblest and eldest of that Nation supplicating Henry the eight Herb. ibid. did crave to be received and adopted into the same Laws and priviledges which his other subjects of England enjoyed which moved the King to make the statute of 27. H. 8. c. 26. by which is ordained and enacted that the Principality and Dominion of Wales shall be incorporated united and annexed to the Realm of England altering in many parts the former jurisdiction and Government thereof bringing the same to the like administration of justice as was and yet is usual in England appointing that the Laws of England should take place there and all Welch Laws sinister customs and tenures not agreeing to the laws of England should be thenceforth ever abrogated and abolished and therefore whereas before there had been eight several Shires in Wales besides the County of Monmouth and that some other territories in Wales were then no Shire grounds by reason whereof the laws of England could have no currant passage therein by the said Act there were erected in Wales four other namely the several Shires of Radnor Brecknock Mountgomery and Denbigh by which means the Laws of England there also might be put into execution And further the said Lord Marchers grounds by the same Act were annexed and united partly to the Shires of England and partly to the Shires of Wales next adjoyning as thought then by reason of the vicinity of the place and otherwise most convenient to prevent the perpretating of the aforesaid enormities and odious offences by just and lawful punishments And to make the Union the more honourable and that the noblest of the Welch Nation might participaâ—e of the highest priviledges and chiefest dignities of England according to the Roman precedent it was also ordained that out of the said Shires of Wales there should be one Knight and out of every of the Shire Towns in Wales named in the said Act there be one Burgesse elected after the English manner which Knights and Burgesses so elected and duely upon summons of every Parliament in England returned should have place and voice in the Parliament of England as other the Burgesses and Knights of England used to have And though the said statute doth not make mention of the penalty given upon the Sheriffs false return for such Knights and Burgesses as shall be lawfully elected in Wales and not returned but that those were given by the statute of 23. H. 6. c. 15. against the Sheriffs of England yet shall the Knights and Burgesses of Wales so elected and not returned have the benefit of it by the statute of 27. H. 8. because that statute grants that the Countrey of Wales shall have enjoy inherit all rights priviledges laws within it's Dominions as other subjects of the King born in this Realm for the general words of the statute make all the laws of England aswel Common laws as Statute laws to be of effect in Wales and shall take place there and that the Welchmen shall