Lord rather to be commended as preparing against all danger of Innovation COUNS. It should be so but call your observation to accompt and you shall find it as I say for indeed such a jealousie hath been held ever since the time of the Civill wars over the Military greatness of our Nobles as made them have little will to bend their studies that wayes wherefore let every man provide according as he is rated in the Muster Book you understand me IUST Very well my Lord as what might be replyed in the perceiving so much I have ever to deal plainly and freely with your Lordship more fear'd at home popular violence then all the forreine that can be made for it can never be in the power of any forraigne Prince without a Papisticall party rather to disorder or endanger his Majesties Estate COUNS. By this it seems it is no lesse dangerous for a King to leave the power in the people then in the Nobility IUST My good Lord the wisdome of our own age is the foolishnesse of another the time present ought not to be preferr'd to the policy that was but the policy that was to the time present so that the power of the Nobility being now withered and the power of the people in the flower the care to content them would not be neglected the way to win them often practized or at least to defend them from oppression The motive of all dangers that ever this Monarchy hath undergone should be carefully heeded for this Maxime hath no posterne Potestas humana radicatur in voluntatibus hominum And now my Lord for King Edward it is true though he were not subject to force yet was he subject to necessity which because it was violent he gave way unto it Potestas saith Pithagoras juxta necessitatem habitat And it is true that at the request of the house he discharged and put from him those before named which done he had the greatest gift but one that ever he received in all his dayes to wit from every person man and woman above the age of fourteen years 4d of old mony which made many Millions of Groats worth 61. of our mony This he had in generall besides he had of every benificed Priest 12d And of the Nobility and Gentry I know not how much for it is not set down Now my good Lord what lost the King by satisfying the desires of the Parliament house for assoon as he had the money in purse he recalled the Lords and restored them and who durst call the King to accompt when the Assembly were dissolued Where the word of a King is there is power saith Ecclesiasticus who shall say unto him what doest thou saith the same Author for every purpose there is a time and judgement the King gave way to the time and his judgement perswaded him to yeeld to necessity Consularius nemo melior est quam tempus COUNS. But yet you see the king was forc'd to yeeld to their demaunds JUST Doth your Lordship remember the saying of Monsier de Lange that he that hath the profit of the war hath also the honour of the war whether it be by battaile or retreate the King you see had the profit of the Parliament and therefore the honour also what other end had the King then to supply his wants A wise man hath evermore respect unto his ends and the King also knew that it was the love that the people bare him that they urged the removing of those Lords there was no man among them that sought himself in that desire but they all sought the king as by the successe it appeared My good Lord hath it not been ordinary in England and in France to yeeld to the demaunds of rebels did not King Richard the second graunt pardon to the outragious rogues and murtherers that followed Iack Straw and Wat Tâ—ler after they had murthered his Chancellor his Treasurer Chief Iustice and others brake open his Exchequer and committed all manner of outrages and villanies and why did he do it but to avoid a greater danger I say the Kings have then yeelded to those that hated them and their estates to wit to pernicious rebels And yet without dishonour shall it be called dishonour for the King to yeeld to honest desires of his subjects No my Lord those that tell the King those tales fear their own dishonour and not the Kings for the honour of the King is supreame and being guarded by Iustice and piety it cannot receive neither wound nor stain COUNS. But Sir what cause have any about our King to fear a Parliament IUST The same cause that the Earle of Suffolke had in Richard the seconds time and the Treasurer Fartham with others for these great Officers being generally hated for abusing both the King and the Subject at the request of the States were discharged and others put in their roomes COUN And was not this a dishonour to the King IUST Certainly no for King Richard knew that his Grandfather had done the like and though the King was in his heart utterly against it yet had he the profit of this exchange for Suffolke was fined at 20000 markes and 1000l lands COUNS. Well Sir we will speak of those that fear the Parliament some other time but I pray you go on with that that happened in the troublesome raigne of Richard the second who succeeded the Grandfather being dead IUST That King my good Lord was one of the most unfortunate Princes that ever England had he was cruell extreame prodigall and wholly carryed away with his two Minions Suffolk and the Duke of Ireland by whose ill advice and others he was in danger to have lost his estate which in the end being led by men of the like temper he miserably lost But for his subsedies he had given him in his first year being under age two tenths and two fifteenes In which Parliament Alice Peirce who was removed in King Edwards time with Lancaster Latimer and Sturry were confiscate and banished in his second year at the Parliament at Glocester the King had a marke upon every sack of Wooll and 6d the pound upon wards In his third year at the Parliament at Winchester the Commons were spared and a subsedy given by the better sort the Dukes gave 20 markes and Earles 6 markes Bishoppes and Abbots with myters six markes every marke 35. 4d and every Knight Iustice Esquire Shrieve Person Vicar Chaplaine paid proportionably according to their estates COUNS. This me thinks was no great matter IUST It is true my Lord but a little mony went far in those dayes I my self once moved it in Parliament in the time of Queen Elizabeth who desired much to spare the Common people I did it by her Commandement but when we cast up the subsedy Books we found the summe but small when the 30l men were left out In the beginning of his fourth year a tenth with a fifteen were granted upon
still called Impost because it was imposed after the ordinary rate of payement had lasted many years But we do now a dayes understand those things to be impositions which are raised by the command of Princes without the advice of the Common-wealth though as I take it much of that which is now called custome was at the first imposed by Prerogative royall Now whether it be time or consent that makes them just I cannot define were they just because new and not justified yet by time or unjust because they want a generall consent yet is this rule of Aristotle verified in respect of his Majestie Minus timent homines in justum pati à principe quem cultorem Dei putant Yea my Lord they are also the more willingly borne because all the world knows they are no new Invention of the Kings And if those that advised his Majestie to impose them had raised his lands as it was offered them to 20000l more then it was and his wards to asmuch as aforesaid they had done him farre more acceptable service But they had their own ends in refusing the one and accepting the other If the land had been raised they could not have selected the best of it for themselves If the impositions had not been laid some of them could not have their silks other pieces in farme which indeed grieved the subject ten times more then that which his Majestie enjoyeth But certainly they made a great advantage that were the advisers for if any tumult had followed his Majesty ready way had been to have delivered them over to the people COUNS. But think you that the King would have delivered them if any troubles had followed IUST I know not my Lord it was Machiavels counsell to Caesar Borgia to doe it and King H the 8. delivered up Empson and Dudley yea the same King when the great Cardinall Woolsey who governed the King and all his estate had by requiring the sixt part of every mans goods for the King raised a rebellion the King I say disavowed him absolutely that had not the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk appeased the people the Cardinall had sung no more Masse for these are the words of our Story The King then came to Westminster to the Cardinals Palace and assembled there a great Councell in which he protested that his mind was never to aske any thing of his commons which might sound to the breach of his Laws Wherefore he then willed them to know by whose means they were so strictly given forth Now my Lord how the Cardinall would have shifted himself by saying I had the opinion of the Iudges had not the rebellion been appeased I greatly doubt COUNS. But good Sir you blanch my question and answer me by examples I aske you whether or no in any such tumult the people pretending against any one or two great Officers the King should deliver them or defend them IUST My good Lord the people have not stayed for the Kings delivery neither in England nor in France Your Lordship knows how the Chancellour Treasurer and Chief Iustice with many others at severall times have been used by the Rebels And the Marshals Constables and Treasurers in France have been cut in pieces in Charles the sixt his time Now to your Lordships question I say that where any man shall give a King perilous advice as may either cause a Rebellion or draw the peoples love from the King I say that a King shall be advised to banish him But if the King do absolutely command his servant to do any thing displeasing to the Common-wealth and to his own perill there is the King bond in honour to defend him But my good Lord for conclusion there is no man in England that will lay any invention ether grievous or against law upon the Kings Majesty and therefore your Lordships must share it amongst you COUNS. For my part I had no hand in it I think Ingram was be that propounded it to the Treasurer IUST Alas my good Lord every poor waiter in the Custome-house or every promooter might have done it there is no invention in these things To lay impositions and sell the Kings lands are poor and common devices It is true that Ingram and his fellows are odious men and therefore his Majesty pleas'd the people greatly to put him from the Coffership It is better for a Prince to use such a kind of men then to countenance them hangmen are necessary in a common wealth yet in the Netherlands none but a hangmans sonne will marry a hangmans daughter Now my Lord the last gathering which Henry the seventh made was in his twentieth year wherein he had another benevolence both of the Clergy and Laity a part of which taken of the poorer sort he ordained by his testament that it should be restored And for King Henry the eight although he was left in a most plentifull estate yet he wonderfully prest his people with great payments for in the beginning of his time it was infinite that he spent in Masking and Tilting Banquetting and other vanities before he was entred into the most consuming expence of the most fond and fruitlesse warre that ever King undertook In his fourth yeare he had one of the greatest subsedies that ever was granted for besides two fifteens and two dismes he used Davids Law of Capitation or head money and had of every Duke ten marks of every Earl five pounds of every Lord four pounds of every Knight four marks and every man rated at 8l in goods 4. marks and so after the rate yea every man that was valued but at 401 paid 12d and every man and woman above 15. yeares 4d He had also in his sixt yeare divers subsedies granted him In his fourteenth their was a tenth demanded of every mans goods but it was moderated In the Parliament following the Clergie gave the King the half of their spirituall livings for one yeare and of the Laity there was demanded 800000l which could not be leavied in England but it was a marvellous great gift that the king had given him at that time In the Kings seventeenth yeare was the Rebellion before spoken of wherein the King disavowed the Cardinall In his seventeenth yeare he had the tenth and fifteenth given by Parliament which were before that time paid to the Pope And before that also the moneys that the King borrowed in his fifteenth yeare were forgiven him by Parliament in his seventeenth yeare In his 35. yeare a subsedy was granted of 4d the pound of every man worth in goods from 20s to 5l from 5l to 10l and upwards of every pound 2s And all strangers denisens and others doubled this summe strangers not being inhabitants above 16. yeares 4d a head All that had Lands Fees and Annuities from 20. to 5. and so double as they did for goods And the Clergy gave 6d the pound In the thirty seventh yeare a Benevolence was taken not voluntary but rated by
published that all men might plead it for their advantage but a Charter was left in deposito in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time and so to his successours Stephen Langthon who was ever a Traytor to the King produced this Charter and shewed it to the Barons thereby encouraging them to make war against the King Neither was it the old Charter simply the Barons sought to have confirmed but they presented unto the King other articles and orders tending to the alteration of the whole commonwealth which when the King refused to signe the Barons presently put themselves into the field and in rebellious and outragious fashion sent the King word except he confirmed them they would not desist from making war against him till he had satisfied them therein And in conclusion the King being betrayed of all his Nobility in effect was forced to grant the Charter of Magna Charta and Charta de Forestis at such time as he was invironed with an Army in the Meadowes of Staynes which harters being procured by force Pope Innocent afterward disavowed and threatned to curse the Barons if they submitted not themselves as they ought to their Soveraigne Lord which when the Lords refused to obey the King entertained an army of strangers for his own defence wherewith having mastered and beaten the Barons they called in Lewes of France a most unnaturall resolution to be their King Neither was Magna Charta a Law in the 19. of Henry the 2d but simply a Charter which hee confirmed in the 21. of his reigne and made it a Law in the 25. according to Littletons opinion Thus much for the beginning of the Great Cbarter which had first an obscure birth from usurpation and was secondly fostered and shewed to the world by rebellion JUST I cannot deny but that all your Lordship hath said is true but seeing the Charters were afterwards so many times confirmed by Parliament and made Lawes and that there is nothing in them unequall or prejudicial to the King doth not your Honour think it reason they should be observed COUNS. Yes and observed they are in all that the state of a King can permit for no man is destroyed but by the Lawes of the land no man disseized of his inheritance but by the Lawes of the land imprisoned they are by the prerogative where the King hath cause to suspect their loyalty for were it otherwise the King should never come to the knowledge of any conspiracy or Treason against his Person or state and being imprisoned yet doth not any man suffer death but by the Law of the land JUST But may it please your Lordship were not Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins imprisoned being no suspition of Treason there COUNS. They were but it cost them nothing JUST And what got the King by it for in the conclusion besides the murmure of the people Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins having greatly overshot themselves and repented them a fine of 5 or 600l. was laid on his Majesty for their offences for so much their diet cost his Majesty COUNS. I know who gave the advice sure I am that it was none of mine But thus I say if you consult your memory you shall find that those Kings which did in their own times comfirme the Magna Charta did not onely imprison but they caused of their Nobility and others to be slain without hearing or tryall JUST My good Lord if you will give me leave to speak freely I say that they are not well advised that perswade the King not to admit the Magna Charta with the former reservations For as the King can never lose a farthing by it as I shall prove anon So except England were as Naples is and kept by Garrisons of another Nation it is impossible for a King of England to greaten and inrich himself by any way so assuredly as by the love of his people For by one rebellion the King hath more losse then by a hundred years observance of Magna Charta For therein have our Kings been forced to compound with Roagues and Rebels and to pardon them yea the state of the King the Mouarchie the Nobility have been endangered by them COUNS. Well Sir let that passe why should not our Kings raise mony as the Kings of France do by their letters and Edicts onely for since the time of Lewes the 11. of whom it is said that he freed the French Kings of their wardship the French Kings have seldome assembled the states for any contribution JUST I will tell you why the strength of England doth consist of the people and Yeomanry the Pefants of France have no courage nor armes In France every Village and Burrough hath a castle which the French call Chasteau Villain every good City hath a good Cittadell the King hath the Regiments of his guards and his men at armes alwayes in pay yea the Nobility of France in whom the strength of France consists doe alwayes assist the King in those leavies because themselves being free they made the same leavies upon ther Tennants But my Lord if you marke it France was never free in effect from civill wars and lately it was endangered either to be conquered by the Spaniard or to be cantonized by the rebellious French themselves since that freedome of Wardship But my good Lord to leave this digression that wherein I would willingly satisfie your Lordship is that the Kings of England have never received losse by Parliament or prejudice COUNS. No Sir you shall find that the subjects in Parliament have decreed great things to the disadvantage and dishonour of our Kings in former times JUST My good Lord to avoid confusion I will make a short repitition of them all then your Lordship may object where you see cause And I doubt not but to give your Lordship satisfaction In the sixt year of Henry the 3d there was no dispute the house gave the King two shillings of every plough land within England and in the end of the same year he had escuage payed him to wit for every Knights fee two marks in silver In the fifth year of that King the Lords demaunded the confirmation of the Great Charter which the Kings Councell for that time present excused alleadging that those priviledges were exhorted by force during the Kings Minoritie and yet the King was pleased to send forth his writ to the Sheriffes of every Countrey requiring them to certifie what those liberties were and how used and in exchange of the Lords demaund because they pressed him so violently the King required all the castles and places which the Lords held of his and had held in the time of his Father with those Manors and Lordships which they had heretofore wrested from the Crown which at that time the King being provided of forces they durst not deny in the 14 year he had the 15. peny of all goods given him upon condition to confirme the Great Charter For by reason
delivered in English Histories and indeed the King not long before had spent much Treasure in aiding the Duke of Britain to no purpose for he drew over the King but to draw on good conditions for himself as the Earle of March his father in law now did As the English Barons did invite Lewes of France not long before as in elder times all the Kings and States had done and in late years the Leaguers of France entertained the Spaniards and the French Protestants and Netherlands Queen Elizabeth not with any purpose to greaten those that aide them but to purchase to themselves an advantageous peace But what say the Histories to this denyall They say with a world of payments there mentioned that the King had drawn the Nobility drie And besides that whereas not long before great summes of money were given and the same appointed to be kept in four Castles and not to be expended but by the advice of the Peeres it was beleeved that the same Treasure was yet unspent COUNS. Good Sir you have said enough judge you whether it were not a dishonour to the King to be so tyed as not to expend his Treasure but by other mens advice as it were by their licence IUST Surely my Lord the King was well advised to take the money upon any condition and they were fooles that propounded the restraint for it doth not appear that the King took any great heed to those overseers Kings are bound by their pietie and by no other obligation In Queen Maries time when it was thought that she was with Child it was propounded in Parliament that the rule of the Realme should be given to King Philip during the minoritie of the hoped Prince or Princesse and the King offered his assurance in great summes of money to relinquish the Government at such time as the Prince or Princesse should be of age At which motion when all else were silent in the House Lord Daâ—res who was none of the wisest asked who shall sue the Kings Bonds which ended the dispute for what other Bond is between a King and his vassals then the Bond of the Kings Faith But my good Lord the King notwithstanding the denyall at that time was with gifts from particular persons and otherwise supplyed for proceeding of his journey for that time into France he took with him 30 Caskes filled with Silver and Coyne which was a great Treasure in those dayes And lastly notwithstanding the first denyall in the Kings absence he had Escuage granted him to wit 20s of every Knights Fee COUNS. What say you then to the 28th year of that King in which when the King demanded reliefe the States would not consent except the the same former order had bin taken for the appointing of 4 overseers for the treasure as also that the Lord chief Iustice and the L. Chancelor should be chosen by the States with some Barons of the Exchequer and other officers JUST My good Lord admit the King had yeelded their demands then whatsoever had been ordained by those Magistrates to the dislike of the Common-wealth the people had been without remedie whereas while the King made them they had their appeal and other remedies But those demands vanished and in the end the King had escuage given him without any of their conditions It is an excellent vertue in a King to have patience and to give way to the furie of mens passions The Whale when he is strucken by the fisherman growes into that furie that he cannot be resisted but will overthrow all the Ships and Barkes that come into his way but when he hath tumbled a while he is drawn to the shore with a twin'd thred COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament in the 29th of that King IUST I say that the Commons being unable to pay the King relieves himself upon the richer sort and so it likewise happened in the 33. of that King in which he was relieved chiefly by the Citie of London But my good Lord in the Parliament in London in the 38th year he had given him the tenth of all the revenues of the Church for 3 years and three marks of every Knights Fee throughout the Kingdome upon his promise and oath upon the observing of Magna Charta but in the end of the same year the King being then in France he was denyed the aides which he required What is this to the danger of a Parliament especially at this time they had reason to refuse they had given so great a summe in the beginning of the same year And again because it was known that the King had but pretended war with the King of Castile with whom he had secretly contracted an alliance and concluded a Marriage betwixt his Son Edward and the Lady Elenor. These false fires do but fright Children and it commonly falls out that when the cause given is known to be false the necessitie pretended is thought to be fained Royall dealing hath evermore Royall successe and as the King was denyed in the eight and thirtieth year so was he denyed in the nine and thirtieth year because the Nobilitie and the people saw it plainely that the K. was abused by the Pope who as well in despite to Manfred bastard Son to the Emperour Frederick the second as to cozen the King and to waste him would needes bestow on the King the Kingdome of Sicily to recover which the King sent all the Treasure he could borrow or scrape to the Pope and withall gave him letters of credence for to take up what he could in Italy the King binding himself for the payment Now my good Lord the wisdome of Princes is seen in nothing more then in their enterprises So how unpleasing it was to the State of England to consume the Treasure of the Land and in the conquest of Sicily so far off and otherwise for that the English had lost Normandie under their noses and so many goodly parts of France of their own proper inheritances the reason of the denyall is as well to be considered as the denyall COUNS. Was not the King also denyed a Subsidie in the fortie first of his reigne IUST No my Lord for although the King required money as before for the impossible conquest of Sicily yet the House offered to give 52000 marks which whether he refused or accepted is uncertain and whilst the King dreamed of Sicily the Welsh invaded and spoyled the borders of England for in the Parliament of London when the King urged the House for the prosecuting the conquest of Sicily the Lords utterly disliking the attempt urged the prosecuting of the Welshmen which Parliament being proroged did again assemble at Oxford and was called the mad Parliament which was no other then an assembly of rebels for the royal assent of the King which gives life to all Lawes form'd by the three estates was not a royall assent when both the King and the Prince were constrained to yeeld to the
the North the fift penny In the two and thirtyeth year he had a subsedy freely granted In the three and thirtyeth year he confirmed the great Charter of his own Royall disposition and the states to shew their thankfulnesse gave the King for one year the fift part of all the revenues of the land and of the Citizens the sixt part of their goods And in the same year the King used the inquisition called Trai le Baston By which all Justices and other Magistrates were grievously fined that had used extortion or bribery or had otherwise misdemeaned themselves to the great contentation of the people This Commission likewise did enquire of entruders barators and all other the like vermine whereby the King gathered a great masse of treasure with a great deal of love Now for the whole raigne of this King who governed England 35 years there was not any Parliament to his prejudice COUNS. But there was taking of armes by Marshall and Hereford JUST That 's true but why was that because the King notwithstanding all that was given him by Parliament did lay the greatest taxes that ever King did without their consent But what lost the King by those Lords one of them gave the King all his lands the other dyed in disgrace COUNS. But what say you to the Parliament in Edward the Seconds time his successor did not the house of Parliament banish Peirce Gaveston whom the King favoured JUST But what was this Gaveston but an Esquier of Gascoine formerly banisht the Realme by King Edward the first for corrupting the Prince Edward now raigning And the whole Kingdome fearing and detesting his venemous disposition they besought his Majestie to cast him off which the King performed by an act of his own and not by act of Parliament yea Gavestones own father in Law the Earle of Glocester was one of the chiefest of the Lords that procured it And yet finding the Kings affection to folow him so strongly they all consented to have him recalled After which when his credit so encreased that he dispised and set at naught all the ancient Nobility and not onely perswaded the King to all manner of outrages and riots but withall transported what he lifted of the Kings Treasure and Iewels the Lords urged his banishment the second time but neither was the first nor second banishment forced by Act of Parliament but by the forceable Lords his Enemies Lastly he being recalled by the King the Earle of Lancaster caused his head to be stricken off when those of his party had taken him prisoner By which presumptuous Act the Earle and the rest of his company committed Treason and murder Treason by raising an Army without warrant murder by taking away the life of the Kings Subject After which Gaveston being dead the Spencers got possession of the Kings favour though the younger of them was placed about the King by the Lords themselves COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament held at London about the sixt year of that King JUST I say that King was not bound to performe the acts of this Parliament because the Lords being too strong for the King inforced his consent for these be the words of our own History They wrested to much beyond the bounds of reason COUNS. What say you to the Parliaments of the White wands in the 13th of the King JUST I say the Lords that were so moved came with an Army and by strong hand surprized the King they constrained saith the story the rest of the Lords and compelled many of the Bishops to consent unto them yea it saith further that the King durst not but grant to all that they required to wit for the banishment of the Spencers Yea they were so insolent that they refused to lodge the Queen comming through Kent in the Castle of Leedes and sent her to provide her lodging where she could get it so late in the night for which notwithstanding some that kept her out were soon after taken and hang'd and therefore your Lordship cannot call this a Parliament for the reasons before alleadged But my Lord what became of these Lawgivers to the King even when they were greatest a Knight of the North called Andrew Herkeley assembled the Forces of the Countrey overthrew them and their Army slew the Earle of Hereford and other Barons took their generall Thomas Earle of Lancaster the Kings cozen germane at that time possessed of five Earledomes the Lords Clifford Talbort Moubray Maudiut Willington Warren Lord Darcy Withers Knevill Leybourne Bekes Lovell Fitz williams Watervild and divers other Barons Knights and Esquiers and soon after the Lord Percy and the Lord Warren took the Lords Baldsemere and the Lord Audley the Lord Teis Gifford Tucoet and many others that fled from the battaile the most of which past under the hands of the hangman for constraining the King under colour and name of a Parliament But this your good Lordship may judge to whom those tumultuous assemblies which our Histories falsely call Parliaments have been dangerous the King in the end ever prevailed and the Lords lost their lives and estates After which the Spencers in their banishment at York in the 15th of the King were restored to the honors and estates and therein the King had a subsedy given him the sixt penny of goods throughout England Ireland and Wales COUNS. Yet you see the Spencers were soon after dissolved IUST It is true my Lord but that is nothing to our subject of Parliament they may thank their own insolencie for they branded and dispised the Queen whom they ought to have honored as the Kings wife they were also exceeding greedy and built themselves upon other mens ruines they were ambitious and exceeding malicious whereupon that came that when Chamberlain Spencer was hang'd in Hereford a part of the 24th Psalm was written over his head Quid gloriaris in malitia potens COUNS. Well Sir you have all this while excused your self upon the strength and rebellions of the Lords but what say you now to King Edward the third in whose time and during the time of this victorious King no man durst take Armes or rebell the three estates did him the greatest affront that ever King received or endured therefore I conclude where I began that these Parliaments are dangerous for a King JUST To answer your Lordship in order may it please you first to call to mind what was given this great King by his subjects before the dispute betwixt him and the house happened which was in his latter dayes from his first year to his fift year there was nothing given the king by his Subjects in his eight year at the Parliament at London a tenth and a fifteenth was granted in his tenth year he ceased upon the Italians goods here in England to his own use with all the goods of the Monkes Cluniackes and others of the order of the Cistertians In the eleaventh year he had given him by Parliament a notable
pleas'd notwithstanding that the great Officers should take an oath in Parliament to do Iustice. Now for the Parliament of Westminster in the 17th year of the King the King had three markes and a half for every sack of Wooll transported and in his 18th he had a 10th of the Clergie and a 15th of the Laity for one year His Majestie forbare after this to charge his Subjects with any more payments untill the 29th of his reigne when there was given the King by Parliament 50 for every sack of Wool transported for six yeares by which grant the King received a thousand markes a day a greater matter then a thousand pounds in these dayes and a 1000l a day amounts to 365000l a year which was one of the greatest presents that ever was given to a King of this land For besides the cheapenesse of all things in that age the Kings souldiers had but 3d. a day wages a man at armes 6d a Knight but 2s In the Parliament at Westminster in the 33th year he had 26s 8d for every sack of Wooll transported in the 42th year 3 dismes and 3 fifteens In his 45th year he had â—0000l of the Laity and because the Spiritualty disputed it and did not pay so much the King chang'd his Chancellour Treasurer Privy Seal being Bishops and placed Lay men in their roome COUNS. It seems that in those dayes the Kings were no longer in love with their great Chancellors then when they deserved well of them JUST No my Lord they were not and that was the reason they were well served and it was the custome then and in many ages after to change the Treasurer the Chancellour every 3 years and withall to hear all mens complaints against them COUNS. But by this often change the saying is verified that there is no inheritance in the favour of Kings He that keepeth the figge-tree saith Solomon shall eate the fruit thereof for reason it is that the servant live by the Master JUST My Lord you say well in both but had the subject an inheritance in the Princes favour where the Prince hath no inheritance in the Subjects fidelity then were Kings in more unhappy estate then common persons for the rest Solomon meaneth not that he that keepeth the figge tree should surfet though he meant he should eat he meant not he should break the branches in gathering the figs or eat the ripe and leave the rotten for the owner of the tree for what saith he in the following chapter he saith that he that maketh hast to be â—ich cannot be innocent And before that he saith that the end of an inheritance hastily gotten cannot be blessed Your Lordship hath heard of few or none great with Kings that have not used their power to oppresse that have not growne insolent and hatefull to the people yea insolent towards those Princes that advanced them COUNS. Yet you see that Princes can change their fancies IUST Yea my Lord when favorites change their faith when they forget that how familiar soever Kings make themselves with their Vassals yet they are Kings He that provoketh a King to anger saith Solomon sinneth against his own soul. And he further saith that pride goeth before distruction and a high mind before afall I say therefore that in discharging those Lucifers how dear soever they have been Kings make the world know that they have more of Iudgement then of passion yea they thereby offer a satisfactory sacrifice to all their people too great benefits of subjects to their king where the mind is blown up with their own deservings and to great benefits of Kings conferr'd upon their Subjects where the mind is not qualified with a great deal of modesty are equally dangerous Of this later and insolenter had King Richard the second delivered up to Iustice but three or four he had still held the love of the people and thereby his life and estate COUNS. Well I pray you go on with your Parliaments IUST The life of this great King Edward drawes to an end so do the Parliaments of this time wherein 50 years raigne he never received any affront for in his 49th year he had a disme and a fifteen granted him freely COUNS. But Sir it is an old saying that all is well that ends well Iudge you whether that in his 50th year in Parliament at Westminster he received not an affront when the house urged the King to remove and discharge from his presence the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Latimer his Chamberlaine Sir Richard Sturry and others whom the King favoured and trusted Nay they pressed the King to thrust a certain Lady out of Court which at that time bare the greatest sway therein IUST I will with patience answer your Lordship to the full and first your Lordship may remember by that which I even now said that never King had so many gifts as this King had from his subjects and it hath never grieved the subjects of England to give to their King but when they knew there was a devouring Lady that had her share in all things that passed and the Duke of Lancaster was as scraping as shee that the Chancellour did eat up the people as fast as either of them both It grieved the subjects to feed these Cormorants But my Lord there are two things by which the Kings of England have been prest to wit by their subjects and by their own necessities The Lords in former times were farre stronger more warlike better followed living in their Countries then now they are Your Lordship may remember in your reading that there were many Earles could bring into the field a thousand Barbed horses many a Baron 5. or 600. Barbed horses whereas now very few of them can furnish twenty fit to serve the King But to say the truth my Lord the Iustices of peace in England have oppos'd the injusticers of war in England the Kings writ runs over all and the great Seal of England with that of the next Constables will serve the turn to affront the greatest Lords in England that shall move against the King The force therefore by which our Kings in former times were troubled is vanisht away But the necessities remain The people therefore in these later ages are no lesse to be pleased then the Peeres for as the later are become lesse so by reason of the trayning through England the Commons have all the weapons in their hand COUNS. And was it not so ever IUST No my good Lord for the Noblemen had in their Armories to furnish some them a thousand some two thousand some three thousand men whereas now there are not many that can arme fifty COUNS. Can you blame them But I will onely answer for my self between you and me be it spoken I hold it not safe to mantain so great an Armory or Stable it might cause me or any other Nobleman to be suspected as the preparing of some Innovation IUST Why so my
condition that for one whole year no subsedies should be demanded but this promise was as suddenly forgotten as made for in the end of that year the great subsedy of Poll mony was granted in the Parliament at Northampton COUNS. Yea but there followed the terrible Rebellion of Baker Straw and others Leister Wrais and others IUST That was not the fault of the Parliament my Lord it is manifest that the subsedy given was not the cause for it is plain that the bondmen of England began it because the were girevously prest by their Lords in their tenure of Villenage as also for the hatred they bate to the Lawyers and Atturneyes for the story of those times say that they destroyed the houses and Mannors of men of Law such Lawyers as they caught slew them and beheaded the Lord chief Iustice which commotion being once begun the head mony was by other Rebels pretended A fire is often kindled with a little straw which oftentimes takes hold of greater timber consumes the whole building And that this Rebellion was begun by the discontented slaves whereof there have been many in Elder times the like is manifest by the Charter of Manumission which the King granted in hec verba Rich. Dei gratid c. Sciatis quod de gratiâ nostrâ spirituali manumissimus c. to which seeing the King was constrained by force of armes he revoked the letters Pattents and made them voide the same revocation being strengthened by the Parliament ensuing in which the King had given him a subsedy upon Woolls called a Maletot In the same fourth year was the Lord Treasurer discharged of his Office and Hales Lord of St. Iohns chosen in his place in his fift year was the Treasurer again changed and the Staffe given to Segrave and the Lord Chancellour was also changed and the staffe given to the Lord Scroope Which Lord Scroope was again in the beginning of his sixt year turned off and the King after that he had for a while kept the Seal in his own hand gave it to the Bishop of London from whom it was soon after taken and bestowed on the Earle of Suffolke who they say had abused the King and converted the Kings Treasure to his own use To this the King condiscended and though saith Walsingham he deserved to loose his life and goods yet he had the favour to go at liberty upon good sureties and because the King was but young that the reliefe granted was committed to the trust of the Earle of Arundell for the furnishing of the Kings Navy against the French COUNS. Yet you see it was a dishonour to the King to have his beloved Chancellour removed IUST Truly no for the King had both his fine 1000l lands and asubsedy to boot And though for the present it pleased the King to fancy a man all the world hated the Kings passion overcomming his judgement yet it cannot be call'd a dishonour for the King is to believe the generall counsell of the Kingdome and to preser it before his affection especially when Suffolke was proved to be false even to the King for were it otherwise love and affection might be called a frenzie and a madnesse for it is the nature of humane passions that the love bred by fidelity doth change it self into hatred when the fidelity is first changed into falshood COUNS. But you see there were thirteen Lords chosen in the Parliament to have the oversight of the government under the King IUST No my Lord it was to have the oversight of those Officers which saith the story had imbezeled lewdly wasted and prodigally spent the Kings Treasure for to the Commission to those Lords or to any six of them joyn'd with the Kings Counsell was one of the most royall and most profitable that ever he did if he had bin constant to himself But my good Lord man is the cause of his own misery for I will repeat the substance of the commission granted by the King and confirmed by Parliament which whether it had bin profitable for the King to have prosecured your Lordship may judge The preamble hath these words Whereas our Sovereigne Lord the King perceiveth by the grievous complaints of the Lords and Commons of this Realme that the rents profits and revenues of this Realme by the singular and insufficient Councell and evill government as well of some his late great Officers and others c. are so much withdrawen wasted given granted alienated destroyed and evill dispended that he is so much impoverished and void of treasure and goods and the substance of the Crown so much diminished and destroyed that his estate may not honorably be sustained as appertaineth The King of his free will at the request of the Lords and Commons hath ordained William Archbishop of Canterbury and others with his Chancellour Treasurer keeper of his privy seal to survey and examine as well the estate and governance of his house c. as of all the rents and profits and revenues that to him appertaineth and to be due or ought to appertain and be due c. And all manner of gifts grants alienations and confirmations made by him of lands tenements rents c. bargained and sold to the prejudice of him and his Crown c. And of his jewels goods which were his Grandfathers at the time of his death c. and where they be become This is in effect the substance of the commission which your Lordship may read at large in the book of Statutes this commission being enacted in the tenth year of the Kings reigne Now if such a commission were in these dayes granted to the faithfull men that have no interest in the sales gifts nor purchases nor in the keeping of the jewells at the Queens death nor in the obtaining grants of the Kings best lands I cannot say what may be recovered and justly recovered and what say your Lordship was not this a noble act for the King if it had been followed to effect COUNS. I cannot tell whether it were or no for it gave power to the Commissiouers to examine all the grants IUST Why my Lord doth the King grant any thing that shames at the examination are not the Kings grants on record COUNS. But by your leave it is some dishonour to a King to have his judgement called in question IUST That is true my Lord but in this or whensoever the like shall be granted in the future the Kings judgement is not examined but their knavery that abused the King Nay by your favour the contrary is true that when a King will suffer himself to be eaten up by a company of petty fellows by himself raised therein both the judgement and courage is disputed And if your Lordship will disdain it at your own servants hands much more ought the great heart of a King to disdain it And surely my Lord it is a greater treason though it undercreep the law to tear from the
inhabitants that assisted the Lords in his Minority of the 17. shires which offence he had long before pardoned his blank Charters and letting the Realme to farme to meon persons by whom he was wholly advised increased the peoples hatred towards the present government IUST You say well my L. Princes of an ill destiny do alwayes follow the worst counsell or at least imbrace the best after opportunity is lost Qui consilia non ex suo corde sed alienis viribus colligunt non animo sed auribus cogillant And this was not the least grief of the subject in generall that those men had the greatest part of the spoil of the commonwealth which neither by virtue valour or counsell could adde any thing unto it Nihil est sordidius nihil crudelius saith Anto Pius quamsi Remp. iâ— arrode qui nihil in eam suo labore conferent COUNS. Indeed the letting to farm the Realm was very grievous to the subject IUST Will your Lordship pardon me if I tell you that the letting to farm of his Majesties Customes the greatest revenue of the Realm is not very pleasing COUNS. And why I pray you doth not the King thereby raise his profits every third yeare one farmer outbids another to the Kings advantage IUST It is true my Lord but it grieves the subject to pay custome to the subject for what mighty men are those Farmers become and if those Farmers get many thousands every yeare as the world knows they do why should they not now being men of infinite wealth declare unto the King upon oath what they have gained and henceforth become the Kings collectours of his Custome did not Queen Elizabeth who was reputed both a wise and juft Princesse after she had brought Customer Smith from 14000l a yeare to 42000l a yeare made him lay down a recompence for that which he had gotten and if these Farmers do give no recompence let them yet present the King with the truth of their receivings and profits But my Lord for conclusion after Bullingbrook arriving in England with a small troop Notwithstanding the King at his Landing out of Ireland had a sufficient and willing army yet he wanting courage to defend his right gave leave to all his Souldiers to depart and put himself into his hands that cast him into his grave COUNS. Yet you see he was depos'd by Parliament IUST Aswell may your Lordship say he was knock't in the head by Parliament for your Lordship knows that if King Richard had ever escaped out of their fingers that deposed him the next Parliament would have made all the deposers traitours and Rebels and that justly In which Parliament or rather unlawfull assembly there appeared but one honest man to wit the B. of Carlile who scorned his life and estate in respect of right and his allegiance and defended the right of his Soveraigne Lord against the Kings elect and his partakers COUNS. Well I pray goe on with the Parliaments held in the time of his successor Henry the fourth IUST This King had in his third year a subsedv and in his fift a tenth of the Clergy without a Parllament In his sixt year he had so great a subsedie as the House required there might be no record thereof left to posterity for the House gave him 20s of every Knights Fee and of every 20l. land 20d and 12d the pouud of goods COUNS. Yea in the end of this year the Parliament prest the King to annex unto the Crown all temporall possessions belonging to Church-men within the land which at that time was the third foot of all England But the Bishops made friends and in the end saved their estates IUST By this you see my Lord that Cromwell was not the first that thought on such a business And if King Henry the 8. had reserved the Abbeyes and other Church lands which he had given at the time the revenue of the Crown of England had exceeded the revenue of the Crown of Spaine with both the Indies whereas used as it was a little enriched the Crown served but to make a number of pettifoggers and other gentlemen COUNS. But what had the King in steed of this great revenue IUST He had a 15th of the Commons and tenth and a half of the Clergy and withall all pensions graunted by King Edward and King Richard were made void It was also moved that all Crown lands formerly given at least given by King Edw and King Richard should be taken back COUNS. What think you of that Sir would it not have been a dishonour to the King and would not his Successors have done the like to those that the King had advanced IUST I cannot answer your Lordship but by distinguishing for where the Kings had given land for services and had not been over reached in his gifts there it had been a dishonour to the King to have made void the graunts of his predecessors or his graunts but all those graunts of the Kings wherein they were deceived the very custome and policy of England makes them voyd at this day COUNS. How mean you that for his Majestie hath given a great deal of Land among us since he came into England and would it stand with the K. honour to take it from us again IUST Yea my Lord very well with the Kings honour if your Lordship or any Lord else have under the name of 100l land a year gotten 500l land and so after that rate COUNS. I will never believe that his Majesty will ever doe any such thing IUST And I believe as your Lordship doth but we spake e're while of those that disswaded the King from calling it a Parliament And your Lordship asked me the reason why any man should disswade it or fear it to which this place gives me an opportunity to make your Lordship answer for though his Majesty will of himself never question those grants yet when the Commons shall make humble petition to the King in Parliament that it will please his Majesty to assist them in his relief with that which ought to be his own which if it will please his Majesty to yeild unto the house will most willingly furnish supply the rest with what grace can his Majesty deny that honest suit of theirs the like having been done in many Kings times before This proceeding may good Lord my perchance prove all your phrases of the Kings honour false English COUNS. But this cannot concern many and for my self I am sure it concerns me little IUST It is true my Lord there are not many that disswade his Majestie from a Parliament CO. But they are great ones a few of which will serve the turn wel enough IUST But my Lord be they never so great as great as Gyants yet if they disswade the King from his ready and assured way of his subsistence they must devise how the K. may be elsewhere supplied for they otherwise â—â—nne into a dangerous fortune COUNS.
Commissioners which because one of the Aldermen refused to pay he was sent for a souldier into Scotland He had also another great subsedy of six shillings the pound of the Clergy and two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shillings the pound upon Lands In the second yeare of Edward the sixt the Parliament gave the King an aid of twelve pence the pound of goods of his Naturall subjects and two shillings the pound of strangers and this to continue for three yeares and by the statute of the second and third of Edward the sixt it may appear the same Parliament did also give a second aid as followeth to wit of every Ewe kept in severall pastures 3d of every weather kept as aforesaid 2d of every sheep kept in the Common 1d ob The House gave the King also 8d the pound of every woollen cloath made for the sale throughout England for three years In the third and fourt of the King by reason of the troublesome gathering of the poly money upon sheep and the tax upon cloath this act of subsedy was repeal'd and other relief given the King and in the seventh yeare he had a subsedy and two fifteens In the first yeare of Queen Mary tunnage and poundage were granted In the second yeare a subsedy was given to King Philip and to the Queen she had also a third subsedy in Annis 4. 5. Eliz. Reg Now my Lord for the Parliaments of the late Queens time in which there was nothing new neither head money nor sheep money nor escuage nor any of these kinds of payments was required but onely the ordinary subsedies and those as easily graunted as demanded I shall not need to trouble your Lordship with any of them neither can I inform your Lordship of all the passages and acts which have passed for they are not extant nor printed COUNS. No it were but time lost to speak of the latter and by those that are already remembred we may judge of the rest for those of the greatest importance are publick But I pray you deal freely with me what you think would be done for his Majesty If he should call a Parliament at this time or what would be required at his Majesties hands IUST The first thing that would be required would be the same that was required by the Commons in the thirteenth yeare of Hen. the eight to wit that if any man of the commons house should speak more largely then of duty he ought to do all such offences to be pardoned and that to be of record COUNS. So might every Companion speak of the King what they list IUST No my Lord the reverence which a Vassall oweth to his Soveraigne is alwaies intended for every speech howsoever it must import the good of the King and his estate and so long it may be easily pardoned otherwise not for in Queen Elizabeths time who gave freedome of speech in all Parliaments when Wentworth made those motions that were but supposed dangerous to the Queens estate he was imprisoned in the Tower notwithstanding the priviledge of the house and there died COUNS. What say you to the Scicilian vespers remembred in the last Parliament IUST I say he repented him heartily that used that speech and indeed besides that it was seditious this example held not The French in Scicily usurped that Kingdome they neither kept law nor faith they took away the inheritance of the Inhabitants they took from them their wives and ravished their daughters committing all other insolencies that could be imagined The Kings Majesty is the Naturall Lord of England his Vassals of Scotland obey the English Laws if they break them they are punished without respect Yea his Majesty put one of his Barons to a shamefull death for being consenting onely to the death of a Common Fencer And which of these ever did or durst commit any outrage in England but to say the truth the opinion of packing the last was the cause of the contention and disorder that happened COUNS. Why sir do you not think it best to compound a Parliament of the Kings servants and others that shall in all obey the Kings desires IUST Certainly no for it hath never succeeded well neither on the kings part nor on the subjects as by the Parliament before-remembred your Lordship may gather for from such a composition do arise all jealousies and all contentions It was practized in elder times to the great trouble of the kingdome and to the losse and ruine of many It was of latter time used by King Henry the eight but every way to his disadvantage When the King leaves himself to his people they assure themselves that they are trusted and beloved of their king and there was never any assembly so barborus as not to answer the love and trust of their King Henry the sixt when his estate was in effect utterly overthrown and utterly impoverished at the humble request of his Treasurer made the same known to the House Or other wise using the Treasurers own words He humbly desired the King to take his Staffe that he might save his wardship COUNS. But you know they will presently be in hand with those impositions which the King hath laid by his own Royall Prerogative IUST Perchance not my Lord but rather with those impositions that have been by some of your Lordships laid upon the King which did not some of your Lordships fear more then you do the impositions laid upon the Subjects you would never disswade his Majesty from a Parliament For no man doubted but that his Majesty was advised to lay those impositions by his Councell and for particular things on which they were laid the advice came from petty fellows though now great ones belonging to the Custome-House Now my Lord what prejudice hath his Majesty his Revenue being kept up if the impositions that were laid by the generall Councell of the Kingdome which takes off all grudging and complaint COUNS. Yea Sir but that which is done by the King with the advice of his private or privy Councell is done by the Kings absolute power IUST And by whose power it is done in parliament but by the Kings absolute power Mistake it not my Lord The three Estates do but advise as the privy Councell doth which advice if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings acceptation both the publick and private advices be but as empty Egg shels and what doth his Majesty lose if some of those things which concerns the poorer sort to be made free again and the Revenue kept up upon that which is superfluous Is it a losse to the King to be beloved of the Commons If it be revenue which the King seeks is it not better to take it of those that laugh then of those that cry Yea if all be conten to pay upon moderation change of the Species Is it
not more honourable and more safe for the King that the Subject pay by perswasion then to have them constrained If they be contented to whip themselves for the King were it not better to give them the Rod into their hands then to commit them to the Executioner Certainly it is farre more happy for a Soveraigne Prince that a Subject open his purse willingly then that the same be opened by violence Besides that when impositions are laid by Parliament they are gathered by the authority of the Law which as aforesaid rejecteth all complaints and stoppeth every mutinous mouth It shall ever be my prayer that the King embrace the Councel of Honour and safety and let other Princes imbrace that of force COUNS. But good Sir it is his Prerogative which the King stands upon it is the Prerogative of the Kings that the Parliaments do all diminish IUST If your Lordship would pardon me I would say then that your Lordships objection against Parliaments is ridiculous In former Parliaments three things have been supposed dishonour of the King The first that the Subjects have conditioned with the King when the King hath needed them to have the great Charter confirmed The second that the Estates have made Treasurers for the necessary and profitable disbursing of those sums by them given to the end that the Kings to whom they were given should expend them for their own defence for the defence of the Common-wealth The third that these have prest the King to discharge some great Officers of the Crown and to elect others As touching the first my Lord I would fain learn what disadvantage the Kings of this Land have had by confirming the great Charter the breach of which have served onely men of your Lordships rank to assist their own passions and to punish and imprison at their own discretion the Kings poor Subjects Concerning their private hatred with the colour of the Kings service for the Kings Majestie take no mans inheritance as I have said before nor any mans life but the Law of the Land according to the Charter Neither doth his Majesty imprison any man matter of practice which concerns the preservation of his estate excepted but by the law of the land And yet he useth his prerogative as all the Kings of England have ever used to for the supream reason cause to practise many things without the advice of the law As insurrections and rebellions it useth the marshall and not the common law without any breach of the Charter the intent of the Charter considered truely Neither hath any Subject made complaint or been grieved in that the Kings of this land for their own safeties and preservation of their estates have used their Prerogatives the great Ensigne on which there is written soli Deo And my good Lord was not Buckingham in England and Byron in France condemned their Peers uncalled And withall was not Byron utterly contrary to the custome priviledges of the French denyed an advocate to assist his defence For where lawes forecast cannot provide remedies for future dangers Princes are forced to assist themselves by their Prerogatives But that which hath been ever grievous and the cause of many troubles very dangerous is that your Lordships abusing the reasons of state do punish and imprison the K. Subjects at your pleasure It is you my Lords that when Subjects have sometimes need of the Kings prerogative do then use the strength of the Law and when they require the law you afflict them with the prerogative and tread the great Charter which hath been confirmed by 16 Acts of Parliament under your feet as a torn parchment or waste paper COUNS. Good Sir which of us do in this sort break the great Charter perchance you mean that we have advised the King to lay the new impositious IUST No my Lord there is nothing in the great Charter against impositions and besides that necessity doth perswade them And if necessity do in somewhat excuse a private man à fortiori it may then excuse a Prince Again the Kings Majesty hath profit and increase of revenue by the impositions But there are of your Lordships contrarie to the direct Letter of the Charter that imprison the Kings Subjects and deny them the benefit of the Law to the Kings disprofit And what do you otherwise thereby if the impositions be in any sort grievous but Renovare dolores And with all digg out of the dust the long buried memorie of the Subjects former intentions with their Kings COUNS. What mean you by that IUST I will tell your Lordship when I dare in the mean time it is enough for me to put your Lordship in mind that all the Estates in the World in the offence of the people have either had profit or necessity to perswade them to adventure it of which if neither be urgent and yet the Subject exceedingly grieved your Lordship may conjecture that the House will be humble suitors for a redresse And if it be a Maxime in policy to please the people in all things indifferent and never suffer them to be beaten but for the Kings benefit for there are no blows forgotten with the smart but those then I say to make them Vassals to Vassals is but to batter down those mastering buildings erected by K Henry the 7. fortified by his Son by which the people the Gentry of England were brought to depend upon the King alone Yea my good Lord our late dear Soveraign Q. Eliz. kept them up to their advantage as wel repaired as ever Prince did Defend me spend me faith the Irish Churle COUNS. Then you think that this violent breach of the Charter will be the cause of seeking the conformation of it in the next Parliament which otherwise could never have bin moved IUST I know not my good Lord perchance not for if the House presse the King to graunt unto them all that is theirs by the Law they cannot in Iustice refuse the King all that is his by the Law And where will be the issue of such a contention I dare not divine but sure I am that it will tend to the prejudice both of the King and Subject COUNS. If they dispute not their own liberties why should they then the Kings liberties which we call his Prerogative IUST Among so many and so divers Spirits no man can foretell what may be propounded but howsoever if the matter be not slightly handled on the Kings behalf these disputes will soon dissolve for the King hath so little need of his Prerogative so great advantage by the Lawes as the fear of imparing the one to wit the Prerogative is so impossible and the burthen of the other to wit the Law so weighty as but by a branch of the Kings Prerogative namely of his remission and pardon the Subject is no way able to undergo it This my Lord is no matter of flourish that I have said but it is the truth