there are yet extant the Manuscripts themselves of the Saxon Laws made in the Parliamentary Councils held by them here which are in the Language and Character of those Times and contain in them many of those things which are in the Norman Custumary It is no improbable Opinion That there was a former Establishment of our Laws in Normandy before the Time of Hen. 1. and that it was by Edward the Confessor who as all Writers of our History agree was a great Collector and Compiler of our English Laws He lived a long time with his Kinsman Duke William in Normandy who was willing to please the Confessor in hopes to be appointed by him to be his Successor wherein the Duke's Expectation did not fail him The Confessor having no Children and finding Normandy without a setled Government and wanting Laws advised with his Kinsman Duke William to receive from him the Laws of England which he had collected and to establish them in Normandy which Duke William and his Lords readily accepted for the good of their People and thereby obliged the Confessor Another proof hereof is That such Laws as the Normans had before the Time of Duke William were different from those in the Custumary and from the English Laws As their Law That the Husband should be hanged if his Wife were a Thief and he did not discover it The meaner People were as Slaves and the like and the Trial of Theft by Ordeil which then was not in England Wigorniensis reports That the Normans who came in with Queen Emma the Wife of Ethelred were so hated of the English for their injustice and false Judgment that in the Time of King Canutus they were for this cause banished and it is the less probable that they being so unjust themselves should introduce so just Laws as ours are Between the Conquest of Normandy by Rosâ—o and the Invasion of England by Duke William there were not above 160 Years that of Normandy was about Anno 912. that of England Anno 1060. It is not then consonant to Reason that those Normans Pagans a rough Martial People descended from so many Barbarous Nations should in the time of 150 Years establish such excellent Laws among themselves and so different from the French Laws among whom they were and all parts in the World except England And such Laws which were not only fit for their Dukedom and small Territory but fit also for this Kingdom which in those days was the second in Europe for Antiquity and Worth by confession of most Forreign Historians If we will give credit to their own Authors this Point will be sufficiently evinced by them These words are in the Proem of the Custumary which is entituled Descriptio Normanniae Hucusque Normannicae CONSVETUDINES LATOREM sive Datorem SANCTVM EDWARDVM Angliae Regem c. The same is witnessed by Chronica Chronicorum That St. Edward King of England gave the Laws to the Normans when he was long harboured there And that he made both the Laws of England and Normandy appears sufficiently by the conformity of them for which he cites several Particulars as of Appeals and the Custom of England ad probandum aliquid per credentiam duodecim hominum vicinorum which he saith remained in Normandy to that day Polydore forgetting himself what he wrote in another place saith of King Henry the Seventh that when a Doubt was made upon the Proposal of Marriage of his Daughter to Scotland that thereby England might in time be subject unto Scotland The King answered No and that England as the Greater will draw it to Scotland being the less and incorporate it to the Laws of England as saith the Historian it did Normandy though the owner thereof was Conqueror of England And Sir Roger Owen in his Manuscript affirms That there is not any of our Historians that lived in the space of 200 Years immediately after the Conquest which doth describe our Laws to be taken away and the Norman Custom introduced by the Conqueror Some of them and not improbably mention the alteration of some part of them and the bringing in some Norman Customs effectual for the keeping of the Peace There is yet behind the great Argument most insisted on and often urged by the Gentlemen of another Opinion which is the Title of William who is called the Conqueror from whence they conclude That by his Conquest he changed the Laws and Government of this Nation and that his Successors reckon the beginning of their Reigns from his Conquest To this is answered That a posse ad esse non valet Argumentum the Conquering of the Land is one thing the introducing of new Laws is another thing but there is direct proof to the contrary of this Argument Duke William never Sir-named himself the Conqueror nor was so called in his life-time as may appear by all the Letters Pattents and Deeds that he made wherein he is called Guilielmus Rex Dux c. never Conquestor and our Ancient Historians give him the same Titles and not that of Conqueror In the Title of Nubrigensis's Book he is Sirnamed William the Bastard Malmsbury calls him William the First Hoveden William the Elder Adam de Monmoth saith That 1. Ed. 3. this word Conquest was found out to denote and distinguish the certain Edward because two of the same name were Predecessors to this King and to the Conqueror who claimed the Crown as Heir to Edward the Confessor but saith he we call him the Conqueror for that he overcame Harold Duke William himself claimed to be King of England as Successor and Adopted Heir of the Confessor by his Will and Harold's renounceing of his Title by Oath The Register of St. Albans Matth. Paris and others attest That the Barons of England did homage to him as Successor and he relied on them in his Forreign Wars and the Check given to him by the Kentish Men and the Forces gathered by the Abbot of St. Albans brought him to engage to confirm the Laws of the Confessor and as his Successor by legal Right they admitted him to be their King. Volaterus writes That he was made Heir to the Confessor and was Vncle to him Another affirms That Edward by his Will left England to him Paulus Aemilius and Fulgasius are to the same purpose Pope Alexander the 11th sent him a Banner as Witness that with a safe Conscience he might expel Harold the Tyrant because the Crown was due to him by the Confessor's Will and by Harold's Oath Agreeable hereunto are Gemiticensis Walsingham Malmesbury Huntington Ingulphus Paris Pike Wendover Gaxton Gisburn and others The Antient Deeds of the Abby of Westminster which were sometime in my Custody do prove this King William in his Charter to them sets sorth his own Title to the Crown thus Beneficio Concessionis Cognati mei gloriosi Regis Edwardi In his second Charter dated Anno 15. of his Reign he saith in honour of King Edward who made me
his Heir and adopted me to Rule over this Nation In his Charter dated 1088. of the Liberties of St. Martins the Great in the Manuscript thereof are these words In Example of Moses who built the Tabernable and of Solomon who built the Temple Ego Guilielmus Dei dispositione consanguinitatis Haereditate Anglorum Basileus c. The Charter of Hen. 1. his Son to this Abby in honour of Edward my Kinsman who adopted my Father and his Children to be Heirs to this Kingdom c. In another Charter of Hen. 1. in the Book of Ely he calls himself the Son of King William the Great who by Hereditary Right succeeded King Edward It is true as to his pretence of Title by the Will of the Confessor Mathew Paris objecteth That the Devise was void being without the consent of the Barons To which may be answered That probably the Law might be so in Hen. 3. Time when Paris wrote and was so taken to be in the Statute of Carlisle and in the Case of King John. But at the time of Duke William's Invasion the Law was taken to be That a Kingdom might be transferred by Will. So was that of Sixtus Rufus and Asia came to the Romans by the Will of King Attalus the words by Annaeus Florus are Populus Romanus Bonorum meorum HAERES esto Bithinia came to the Romans by the last Will of their King Nicomedes which is remembred by Vtropius together with that of Libia Cicero in his Oration tells us That the Kingdom of Alexandria by the last Will of their King was devolved to Rome And Prasutagus Rex Icenorum in England upon his Death-bed gave his Kingdom to the Emperor Nero. As to Examples in this Point at Home This King William the first by his Will gave England to his younger Son William Rufus King Stephen claimed by the Will of Henry the first King Henry the eight had Power by Act of Parliament to order the Succession of the Crown as he pleased by Will. And the Lords of the Council in Queen Mary's Time wrote to her That the Lady Iane's Title to the Crown was by the Will and Letters of Edward the sixth As the case of Hen. 8. was by Act of Parliament so Duke William after he had conquered Harold was by the general consent of the Barons and People of England accepted for their King and so his Title by Will confirmed And he both claimed and governned the Kingdom as an Heir and Successor confirmed their Antient Laws and ruled according to them This appears by Chronica Chronicorum speaking of William the Bastard King of England and Duke of Normandy he saith That whereas as St. Edward had no Heir of England William having conquered Harold the Vsurper obtained the Crown under this Condition That he should inviolably observe those Laws given by the said Edward It is testified likewise by many of our Historians That the Ancient Laws of England were confirmed by Duke VVilliam Jornalensis saith That out of the Merchen-Lage West-Saxon-Lage and Dane-Lage the Confessor composed the Common Law which remains to this day Malmesbury who lived in Duke William's Time saith That the Kings were sworn to observe the Laws of the Confessor so called saith he because he observed them most religiously But to make this Point clear out of Ingulphus he saith in the end of his Chronicle I Ingulphus brought with me from London into my Monastery Crowland the Laws of the most Righteous King Edward which my Lord King William did command by his Proclamation to be Authentick and Perpetual and to be observed throughout the whole Kingdom of England upon pain of most heinous punishment The Lieger-Book of the Abby of Waltham commends Duke William for restoring the Laws of the English-men out of the Customs of their Country Radburn follows this Opinion and these Laws of Edward the Confessor are the same in part which are continued in our GREAT CHARTER of LIBERTIES A Manuscript entituled De Gestis Anglorum saith That at a Parliament at London 4. W. 1. the Lawyers also present that the King might hear their Laws he established Saint Edward's Laws they being formerly used in King Edgar's Time. There is also mention of the twelve Men out of every County to deliver truly the Estate of their Laws The same is remembred by Selden's History of Tythes and Titles of Honour and in a Manuscript Chronicle bound with the Book of Ely in Cotton's Library One of the worthy Gentlemen from whom I differ in Opinion was pleased to say That if William the Conqueror did not introduce the Laws of Normandy into England yet he conceives our Laws to be brought out of France hither in the time of some other of our Kings who had large Territories in France and brought in their Laws hither else he wonders how our Laws should be in French. Sir I shall endeavour to satisfy his Wonder therein by and by but first with your leave I shall offer to you some Probabilities out of the History That the Laws of England were by some of those Kings carried into France rather than the Laws of France brought hither This is expresly affirmed by Paulus Jovius who writes That when the English Kings reigned in a great part of France they taught the French their Laws Sabellicus a Venetian Historian writes That the Normans in their Manners and Customs and Laws followed the English Polydore Virgil contradicting himself in another place than before cited relates That in our King Hen. 6. Time the Duke of Bedford called together the Chief Men of all the Cities in Normandy and delivered in his Oration to them the many Benefits that the English afforded them especially in that the English gave to them their Customs and Laws By the Chronicle of Eltham H. 5. sent to Cane in Normandy not only Divines but English Common Lawyers by the agreement at Troys So there is much more probability that the Laws of England were introduced into France and Normandy than that the Laws of Normandy or any other part of France were introduced into England If the Normans had been Conquerors of England as they were not but their Duke was only a Conqueror of Harold and received as Hereditary King of England yet is it not probable they would have changed our Laws and have introduced theirs because they did not use to do so upon other Conquests The Normans conquered the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey yet altered not their Laws which in their local Customs are like unto ours The like they did in Sicily Naples and Apulia where they were Conquerors yet the Ancient Laws of those Countries were continued I hope Mr. Speaker I have by this time given some satisfaction to the Worthy Gentlemen who differed from me that the Laws of England were not imposed upon us by the Conqueror nor brought over hither either out of Normandy or any other part of France but are our Ancient Native Laws I must now come to indeavour
25. E. 3. of old Time used and * 42. E. 3. the Old Law whose Age made it the more venerable and gave an addition of honour to it Well having thus shewn you the Coronation of King William the First and given you the Solemn Oath he at the same time took even before his Consecration that so he might give all possible satisfaction to the English of his resolving to rule accordingly and also having made it plain that it was the same in substance with that the Ancient Saxons took before him I shall now descend briefly to set before you some of his own Charters as likewise some of William the Second's and of Henry the First 's his Children and succeeding Kings and from them evidence to you I hope demonstrably that it was not so much his Conquest he relied upon when he was setled in this Imperial Throne as his claim to the Crown of England Jure Hereditario by Right of Inheritance And for the proof of this be pleased to accept of these ensuing Instances 1. In Nomine Patris Filii Carta Antiqua litera D. N. 4. Spiritus Sancti Amen Ego Willielmus Dei Gratia Rex Anglorum Haereditario Jure Factus 2. In Nomine Patris Filii Carta 4. E. 4. m. 27. per Inspex Spiritus Sancti Amen Ego Willielmus Rex Anglorum Haereditario Jure Factus 3. In nomine Sanctae individuae Monast Anglican Vol. 1. fol. 317. Trinitatis Ego Willielmus Dei Gratia Rex Anglorum notum facio omnibus tam posteris quam praesentibus Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Baronibus omnibus fidelibus Francis Anglis Quod cum in Angliam venissem in finibus Hasting cum excercitu applicuissem contra hostes meos qui mihi Regnum Angliae injustè conabatur auferre 4. In ore gladii saith William the Carra Westm per Inspex 1. E. 4. parte septima m. 26. Mr. Seld. Review p. 483. First 's Charter Regnum adeptus sum Anglorum devicto Haroldo Rege cum suis Complicibus qui mihi Regnum cum providentia Dei destinatum beneficio concessionis Domini Cognati mei gloriosi Regis Edwardi concessum conati sunt auferre c. Come we now to his Second Son William Rufus 5. Willielmus Rex Anglorum Willielmo Carta Regis Willielmi Rufi vide Monast Anglican Vol. 1. fol. 352. Vicecomiti Filio Baldewini omnibus Baronibus suis Ministris qui habitant in Devonescira Salutem Notifico vobis quod mea condonatione Ecclesia beati Olavi Regis Martyris à Monachis belli aedificata in honore beati Nicholai quam cum omni terra quae pertinet ad Ecclesiam suprascripti Martyris meo privilegio videlicet Literis Sigillo liberam facio ita liberam quietam per omâ—ia cum saca soca thol theam infangenetheof warpeni murdro omnibus consuetudinibus operibus auxiliis sicut Pater meus liberam fecit Ecclesiam Sancti Martini de bello ubi hostem devicit ubi Coronam Regni haereditariam sibi bellando adquisivit T. Walchelino Wintoniensi Episcopo Rogero Bigot apud Wintoniam From William Rufus proceed we to his Brother Henry the First And saith he 6. In Nomine Sanctae Individuae Ex Hist Eliensis Eccles M. S. in Bibl. Bodleana inter Codices Cant. l. 58. lib. 3. fol 2. a. Monast Anglican Vol. 1. fol. 95. Trinitatis Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Anno Incarnationis Dominicae MCVIII Indictione ....... Anno vero Pontificatus Domini Paschalis Papae secundi ✚ Regni quoque mei similiter ✚ Ego Henricus providente divina clementia Rex Anglorum Normannorum Dux Willielmi Magni Regis Filius qui Edwardo Regi Haereditario Jure successit in Regnum c. 7. Again Ego Henricus Dei Gratia Monast Anglican Vol. 2. fol 845. Rex Anglorum Filius Magni Regis Willielmi qui beatae memoriae Edwardo in Regnum Successit 8. To give you one Charter more Ex MS. Domini Rogeri Owen Equit. Aurati The words of that of Henry the First to the Abby of Westminster are Pro memoria Edwardi Cognati mei qui Patrem meum liberosque illius in Regnum suum adoptivos haeredes instituit And thus have I given you as it were a three-fold Cord not easily to be snapt asunder to bind hard my Assertion and to convince those who will not suffer themselves to be over-run by an obstinate Prejudice or captivated by a byass'd Interest that our first William when he came in gained nor such an absolute Victory as is pretended over this Nation for when he came in he had not subdued the fifth part of it but came to the Crown by the Election and Consent of the Clergy and People And foedus pepigit he made a Solemn Covenant with the English to observe and keep those Laws which were bonae approbatae antiquae Leges Regni And this Sir is what I shall endeavour clearly to make out to you in my Answer to your Second Question The Second Question Whether this first William did abolish Quest 2 all the English Laws and changed the whole Frame and Constitution of the Government ANd doubtless not for as my Lord Coke saith The Grounds of Lord Coke ' s Preface to his 8th Report our Common Laws at this day are beyond the Memory or Register of any beginning and the same which the Norman Ex vitâ Abbatis Sancti Albani Conqueror then found within this Realm of England And those Laws he swore to observe which were good approved and ancient Now that these were only his Norwegian Laws sure none can or ought to believe after they have throughly examined these plain Truths which I shall here offer to their fair perusal 1. If they please to consider what was the Title of the Laws called the Laws of King William the First published by Mr. Selden with his learned Notes upon Eadmer and since with the Saxon Laws Why truly the Title was plainly this These are the Laws and Customs which William â—elden ad Endmerum fol. 173. the King granted to the Ce sont les Leis les Custumes que li Reis William grantut a tut le â—euple de Engleterre apres le Conquest de la Terre Ice les meismes que le Reis Edward sun Cosin tiht devant luy whole People of England after the Conquest of the Land. These were those which the King Edward his Cousin held before him In these Laws recited by Hoveden in the Life of King Henry the Second King Edward's Laws are confirmed in these words This we command That all Men have and hold the Law of Edward the King in all things together with those Laws which we have added for the profit of the English So that here was no abolishing of the Old
Writ to summon a County Court The Debate lasted three days before the Freemen of the County of Kent in the presence of many chief Men Bishops and Lords and others skilful in the Laws and the Iudgment passed for the Arch-bishop Lanfrank upon the Votes of the Freemen This County Court was holden by special Summons and not by adjournment as was allowable by the Saxon Law upon special occasions And this Suit was originally begun and had its final determination in the County Court. And the County Courts in those days were of so great esteem that two of the greatest Peers of the Realm one a Norman the other an Italian did cast a Title in fifteen Mannors two Lordships with many Liberties upon the Votes of the English Freeholders in a County Court and that the Sentence was allowed and commended by the King and submitted to by all But 2. The Hundred Courts were still 2. Hundred Courts continued and they were of two sorts The first whereof was holden twice a Year and all the Free-holders within the Hundred were bound to appear for the service of their Fees and was the Sheriff's Court and such appearances were called the Sheriffs Turnes where it belonged to Sheriffs to enquire of all Personal Offences and of all their Circumstances done within those Hundreds The other was the more ordinary Court belonging to the Lord of the Hundred to whom also belonged the Fines in cases there concerned This Court was to be held once in each Month and no suit to be begun in the King's Court that regularly ought to begin in the Hundred No Distringas to issue forth till three demands made in the Hundred And three Distresses then to issue forth and if upon the fourth the Party appear not execution then to be by Sale of the Distress and the Complainant to receive satisfaction 3. And so likewise were the Court Barons c. continued and the Lords held Pleas either in their own Persons or by their Stewards But not to forget Sir your Question I shall now shew you what the Soveraign Court of Parliament was and whom it consisted of in the Saxon Times and for this I think it will be needless to give you any more than one Instance which as by the way it does impreguably assert That the Commons of England were an Essential and Constituent Part of the Saxon General Councils so doth it I think fully and clearly refute and The Anoâ—imous 〈…〉 p. 20. â—n the Margin baffle that novel Erroneous Notion viz. That there are no Commons to be found in the Saxon great Councils Idem p. 13. 14. nor any thing that tends towards the proof of the Commons of those Times to have had any share in making Laws in those Councils The memorable Instance is the mighty Law of Tythes which was made and ordained A Rege Baronibus Populo Laâ—â—â—â—â—â— â—â—â—priscis 〈◊〉 Legiâ—us 〈◊〉 fol. â—39 Spelm. 〈◊〉 Tom. 1. 〈◊〉 â—â— By the King his Barons and his People Now William the First in that little time of Rest he had from Forreign Wars with the French King and his Neighbouring Princes to Normandy did apply both it and himself in the setling of Laws here which was done not ex plenitudine Regiae Potestatis no nor by the Norman Barons co-operating with that Power but by the joint Advice and unanimous Consent of the Grand Council of the Lords and wise Men of the Kingdom of England To prove which I shall produce the Testimony of Ancient Writers whom no Man of Historical understanding can modestly impeach of Partiality Faction or Interest in the Case in Question I. The first shall be taken out of the Lambard fol. 158. Chronicle of Litchfield which tells us That this William in the fourth Year of his Reign at London Consilio Baronum suorum by the Advice of his Barons caused a General Meeting or Assembly to be summoned Per universos Angliae Comitatus omnes Nobiles Sapientes suâ Lege eruditos ut eorum Leges consuetudines audiret i. e. of all the Nobility wise Men and such as were skilled in the Laws through all the Counties of England to hear what their Laws and Customs were And after this was done at the request of the English Community he did consent that they should be confirmed and so they were ratified and kept throughout all his Kingdom The words are Ad preces Communitatis Anglorum ex illo die Magna Authoritate veneratae per universum Regnum corroboratae conservatae sunt Leges Sancti Regis Edwardi prae caeteris Regni Legibus From this Testimony I think it will plainly appear 1. That the Barones sui here of William cannot absolutely exclude the English and only signify his Norman Barons upon those Authorities and Reasons I have already offered to prove That there were equally Barones Francigeni Angli nostri in his Time as you may see in my Argument under the third Question 2. That the King having by the Counsel of these his Barons summoned all the Nobility wise Men and those that were skilled in the Laws of the Land throughout all the Counties of England he then and there ratified and confirmed the Laws of St. Edward 3. And to prove that this general Assembly of the Nobility wise Men and able Lawyers were a PARLIAMENT I shall now give you the Judgment of Mr. Selden in his own words Selâ—en's Tit. of Hon. f. 580. which are these viz. That William the first in the fourth Year of his Reign or MLXX. which was the Year wherein he first brought the Bishops and Abbots under the Tenure of Barony Consilio Baronum suorum saith Hoveden p In Hen. 2. p. 343. E. Lond. out of a Collection of Laws written by Glanvill Fecit summoniri per universos Consulatus Angliae Anglos Nobiles Sapientes sua Lege eruditos ut eorum jura Consuetudines ab ipsis audiret And twelve were returned out of every County who shewed what the Customs of the Kingdom were which being written by the hands of Aldred Arch-bishop of York and Hugo Bishop of London were with the Assent of the same Barons for the most part confirmed in that Assembly which was a Parliament of that Time. And a little lower he saith This might be the same Parliament wherein the Controversy between Thomas Arch-bishop of York he was consecrated after the death of Aldred the same Year and to the same Year this Controversy is attributed and Vlstan Bishop of Worcester touching certain Possessions was determined So that from hence 't is easy to observe That 1. There were English Men in this Council by the words ANGLOS NOBILES c. And 2. Besides the Confirmation of the Laws of St. Edward here mentioned it may reasonably be supposed That the Law for bringing the Bishops and Abbots under the Tenure of Barony was first made in this Parliament And that 3. Likewise the great Case