that purpose seene themselves attended in the plenty State and greatest of Royalty of the King or Prince from which they were sent and in the mean time nothing wanting or missing in that of the Kings attendance or magnificence in his Court oâ— Family From whence at all times Carelesnes Profusenes and all manner of wast were so banished as the Porters at the Gates were charged to watch and hinder the carrying out of meat and provision by such as should not the Pastrie rated in their allowances for Spice Sugar Corance c. the servants took an oath of duty and obedience and the Treasurer and Comptroller to make due allowance and payments with favourable demeanings and cherish love betwixt the King and his people In Anno 7 Jac. Rates and orders were made and set touching the Kings Breakfast and his particular fare as to qualities and proportions for Dynner and Supper and Fish dayes for the dyet of the great Officers and all other Officers and Servants having diet and the like on the Queens side Rates for Bouche of Court for Mornings and Evenings Lights and Candles and the Yeomen of the Guards diet and Beefe ordered to be on Flesh dayes for the King Queen and Houshold In anno 16 Jac. by advice of the Earl of Middlesex Sir Richard Weston Knight Sir John Wolstenholme Sir William Pyt Knight and other discreet men very much experienced in the Affairs of the world appointed to lessen as much as might be the charges of his house many good orders were made for the regulation of the Kings Houshold some abatements made in the allowance for his Breakfast by his own order a Limitation and stint of Joynts of Meat to make Jellies and all other compositions the number and names of all Noblemen and Ladies attending the Court to be quarterly presented And that the Prince should pay for his diet at his coming to Court which the most narrow-hearted and frugall of fathers in private Families and Societies have not done and his Countrymen of Scotland and many English could not say he was according to the rates he paid at his own House and that when he should repair to any of the Kings Houses in remote places he should pay for such of the Kings provisions as he should expend there according as they should be worth at the next Market And yet in all that frugality and care to prevent wast and the daily meeting of some of the Officers of the Green-cloth in the Compting house there were 240 gallons allowed at the Buttery Bar per diem three gallons per diem at the Court gate for thirteen poor men six Services or Mess of meat and seven pieces of Beefe per diem as wast and extraordinary for the Kings honour And there was no Sunday or other day of the week but the Tables of the great Officers and Lords entertained many Lords Knights and Gentlemen which were not of the Houshold but came to see the King or make and attend their petitions and suits and few Gentlemen of quality Citizens or other persons of those multitudes whose busines or desires to see the Court brought them thither but were taken in as Guests to dinner with some of those many other Officers of the Court that had diet allowed them it having been an antient custome after the King was set to dinner to search through all the Lodgings and Rooms of the House to find out Gentlemen and Strangers fit for and becoming the invitation of the Kings Servants to the Kings meats and provision for his servants and in all those treatments and largess of house-keeping there wanted not a sober plenty of wine and beer out of the Kings Sellers and an open house-keeping with so much sobriety as if it had not been an open housekeeping wherein no drunkenness or debauchery was to be seen as is too commonly in the now almost out of fashion open or free house-keeping at Christmas or other Festivals 18 Jac. Regis Divers Ordinances were made for the diminution of the charge of the Kings house-keeping the allowances of wast to be given dayly for the Kings honour reduced to a certainty viz. 200 loaves of bread 240 gallons of beer remains of Wax and Torch-lights to be returned the number of Artificers Victualleâ—s and Landresses ascertained number of Carts for Carriages stinted and proportioned to all degrees and Offices the charge of the Stable being almost doubled to what it was in Queen Elizabeths time to be lessened as much as may be none to be sworn Servants before the number of Officers should be reduced to what was formerly no Offices or Places in the Kings House to be sold all other good Orders to be put in Execution yet could at the same time by his especiall grace and favour remit to certain places some of his compositions Nor did those contrivances and endeavors to lessen the Kings charge of house-keeping die with King James but were found to survive to his Son and Successor his late Majesty King Charles the first in the third year of whose Reign half the allowance for houshold diets was abated on fasting nights and the carriages in every office reduced to a certain number and when the composition or Country provision of Oxen or Sheep did by the Courts frugality sometimes exceed or make an overplus they were sold and exactly brought unto an accompt for the defraying of other houshold charges where as his Royal Progenitors used to doe he could in his greatest wants and care of all fitting Espargne in his own diet and houshold cause the Lord High Stewards Table in time of Parliament to be constantly abundantly and extraordinarily kept and furnished to treat and dine the then numerous nobility and persons of honour coming to the Court and Parliament But all that was of Innocency antient legall and just Rights in it backt and seconded by right Reason the Lawes and reasonable Customes of the Land the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy taken by all Magistrates Justices of Peace Officers and many of the better sort of the people and of every Freeman of every Trade and Company in London and ordered to be taken by all men in the Kingdome to defend and maintain the Rights and Jurisdictions of the King and his Crown and the interests concernments good honor safety welfare and happiness of every man in particular being involved in that of their King or Prince were not enough to perswade those who had found the sweetness of ruining him and all which were loyal and well affected to him from pursuing the sinfull and abominable ends and designes of themselves and their great Master of Delusion the Devil to murder him but whilst they hunted him like a Partridge upon the mountains and through more persecutions of mind and body and a longer time then ever the righteous and holy David endured in his greatest afflictions could take all that he had from him his Lands Revenues and Estate and so much as
many of them who having racked their Tenants to the utmost can leave their Ancestors great and stately houses in the Country as if they had been lately infected with the plague or were haunted with some Devils or Hobgoblins and employ their expences which would have been more honourably laid out in hospitality in treatments of two or three hundred pounds at a time some of our prodigal Gentry expending fifty threescore or an hundred pounds in a Suit of Apparrel can give it away after twice or thrice wearing to a Pimp Sicophant or flattering Servant and lose two hundred or five hundred pounds in a night at Dice or Cards give a hundred pounds for a needle work Band and expend two hundred pounds per annum for Periwigs and all the racked Revenue either laid out by themselves or their wives who vie who shall spend most in the wicked and vain pursuits of a detestable luxury and as if they held their Lands not as formerly by Knight service but by Lady service and their Ancestors had taken pains to leave them estates to play the mad-men withall do make sin the only Errand and employments of their lives and conversations and by their prodigal expences and confining themselves to some few dishes of meat dressed at the Common Cooks in London do leave their Foot-boys and Servants so little of it as they are many times constrained to be glad with the bones and scraps which would have been better bestowed upon Beggars and have reason enough to believe that their Masters can doe no miracles nor multiply loaves of bread or fishes But our Nobility and Gentry demeaned themselves in a more honorable noble and Christian way as may be understood by that of Thomas Earl of Lancasters expences in house-keeping in the Reign of King Ed. 2. when money was scarcer than now it is and yet the account from Michaelmas in the 7. year of the Reign of that King unto Michaelmas in the 8. year of his Reign being but for one year was in the Buttery Pantry and Kitchin three thousand four hundred and five pounds And there was paid for 6800 Stock-fishes so called and for dried Fishes as Lings Haberdines c. 41 l. 6 s. 7 d. for one hundred eighty four Tonnes and one Pipe of Clarret wine and one Tonne of white wine 104 l. 17 s. 6 d. gave costly Liveries of Furres and Purple to Barons Knights and Esquires and paid in that year 623 l. 15 s. 5 d. to divers Earles Barons Knights and Esquires for Fees The house-keeping of the Nobility being not then mean or ignoble when in the fourteenth year of that Kings Reign Hugh Spencer the elder was by Inquisition found to have been possessed of at his several Houses or Manors 28000 Sheep 1000 Oxen and Steers 1200 Kine with their Calves 2000 Hogs 300 Bullocks 40 Tons of Wine 600 Bacons 80 Carcases of Martilmas Beef 600 Muttons in the Larder and 10 Tons of Sider Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick in the Reign of King Henry the fifth had in his house oftentimes six Oxen eaten at a Breakfast and every Tavern was full of his meat and he that had any acquaintance in his house might have there so much sodden and roste as he could prick and carry upon a long Dagger Cardinal Woolsey Arch-Bishop of York in the Reign of King Henry the eighth kept no small house when as his Master Cook in the Privy Kitchin went daily in Velvet and Satten with a chain of Gold about his neck had two Clerks of the Kitchin a Surveyor of the Dresser a Clerk of the Spicery four Yeomen of the ordinary Scullery four Yeomen of the silver Scullery two Yeomen of the Pastery and two Pastery men under them in the Scalding house a Yeoman and two Grooms In the Buttery two Yeomen Grooms and two Pages In the Pantery two Yeomen and in the Waferie two Yeomen Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in the year 1532. in the 23 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth kept continually in his house one hundred Servants giving to the one halfe of them 53 s. 4 d. a piece then an allowance for a Gentleman Servant but now by an unreasonable and illegall rise and exaction of servants wages not the halfe of a Carter or Ploughmans wages and to the other 40 s. a piece and to every one of his Servants four yards of broad Cloth for his Winter Gown and for his Summer Coat three yards and a half and daily gave at his gate besides bread and drink warm meat for two hundred poor people Edward Earl of Derby in the Reigns of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth had 220 men in Checque Roll fed sixty eight aged persons twice every day besides all comers appointed thrice a week for his dealing dayes and every good Friday gave unto two thousand seven hundred poor men meat drink and money The Lord Cromwell in the declyning times of charity as Mr. John Stow well observed served twice every day at his gaâ—â— two hundred poor people with bread meat and drink sufficient all the Gentry making it to be their honor in their lesser orbes to measure their Actions by those as good and honorable patterns And proportionable to their hospitality and the state and dignity of our then Nobility were the numbers of their Servants in their houses at home or in their journies or riding abroad many of the Knights Gentlemens Sons of England making it to be the best of their breeding education and way to preferment to serve or retain unto them insomuch as notwithstanding the Statute made against giving of Liveries or Badges 1 R. 2. cap. 7. and the suspicion which some of our Kings and Princes and King Henry the seventh had of their greatness and popularities the great so called Earl of Warwick in the Reign of King Henry the sixt rode with six hundred men in red Jackets embroidered with ragged staves before and behind Thomas Audley Lord Chancellor of England usually rode with many Gentlemen before him with coats guarded with velvet and chains of gold and his Yeomen following after him in Liveries not guarded William Paulet Marquess of Winchester did ride with a great attendance in Liveries and gave great reliefe at his gate and Edward Duke of Somerset did the like John de vere Earl of Oxford in the Reign of Queen Mary notwithstanding the rigour of the Law against Liveries and Reteiners which King Henry the seventh did so turn against one of his highly deserving Ancecestors as it cost him a fine of ten or fifteen thousand marks was accustomed to ride from his Castle of Hedingham in Essex to his City House at London Stone with eighty Gentlemen in tawny velvet Liveries or Coats and Chains of Gold about their necks before him and one hundred tall Yeomen in the like Livery of Cloth following him with the cognisance of the Blew Bore embroidered on their left shoulder Which being the custome of the good
Mogende great and high and mighty Lords like a Corporation of Kings govern the people by a false perswasion of liberties under more burdens and Taxes then they ever endured under their Earles of Holland and Friesland and their German and Spanish Monarchs can in their Low-country and levelling humour and the ill measure which they take of reverence to their betters afford the Prince of Orange and his Court and Houshold which is not small a freedom from Excise upon the buying of all provisions for his house which after the rate of its griping would goe a great part of the way to as much as what the King of England saves by his Pourveyances and the like to the Queen of Bohemia her Retinue and Court when she was resident amongst them Embassadours of forraign Princes the English Company of merchants of the Staple their Armies common Souldiers when they are â—n the field or a Leaguer for all their victuals and such like provisions their ships and men of warre at sea and to the University of Leyden for their Wine and Beer The States Generall having great and fitting stipends from their several Provincâ—s whom they represent in an Assembly or standing Counsel at the Hague and the Deputies of every Province sent to the Hague when their Comitia or as it were Parliaments are there assembled have each of them four Florens or our eight shillings a day allowed them the Princes of Orange besides their great places of Captain General by Sea and by Land which yielded them great profits as well as power had 1000 pounds sterling a moneth stipend eâ— cum in castris agebant et in ipsa erat expeditione when they were in the Leagure or any service of warre had for a present given them forty thousand Florens being almost four thousand pounds sterling for a Present or Honorary magnaque pecuniae vis quâ— centum millia persaepe excedebaâ— in eundem conferebatur and a great sum of money over and above which many times was more then one hundred thousand Florens or ten thousand pounds sterling for Spies Intelligence and other necessaries without any accompt to be given for it which stipends of the Prince of Orange and the States of Holland or the Duke of Venice including their charges of Diet Servants and Retinue and all other necessaries belonging to the honor of their imployments being paid in money or raised by Taxes or Excise out of the people have no other difference with the Pourveyance or Royall provision for Kings or Princes but that the stipends are in money and a gross summe large enough to take in all occasions and necessaries and most commonly more then needs And as to that particular being a great deal more then the Pourveyance or compositions for it would amount unto many times falls more heavy upon the people in the lump then it doth or could in a Pourveyance by distribution of it into small parts for that Commonwealths and those Free States or Combinations of governing and taxing are never no loosers by making finding or taking advantage of necessities or catching opportunities of burdening the people and getting such overplus as may either help to enrich their Treasuries and furnish out their magnificence in publick or too often their private and particulars wherein our cunning Church-wardens and Epitomes of Free States in their Parishes and the Grandees of some of our Cities and Corporations are very well instructed In the German Empire now much lessened in its antient rights and preâ—ogative by granting them away to several Princes Hanse Towns and Imperial Cities by indulgences necessity of State affairs or want of money the Angariae and Parangariae duties of furnishing horses and carts upon any publick necessity are not denied to the Emperor and upon occasions of warre extraordinariae collationes prastantur que Fodron appellantur et ea appellatione non solum pabulum equorum quod Futter vocatur set et frumentum hordeum aliaeque res ad Imperatoris exercitum victui extraordinary provisions called Foder are furnished which in the German or high Dutch signifieth not only horse meat but corn barley other food for the Emperors Army Et aliorum sententia verior esse videtur qui dicunt extraordinariam collationem quae pro Imperatoris Utilitate et necessitate indicitur supra ordinarias et statas indictiones census et tributa And the better opinion is that Pourveyance or Provisions may be taken for the necessary occasions of the Emperor over and above his Tributes or what is paid unto him And as that excellently learned D. Weymondus now deceased Chancellor to the Prince Elector of Brandenburgh was pleased to inform me at his late being here together with Prince Maurice of Nassau Embassadors from that Prince Elector prae-emption and a power of ordering moderate rates and prices in the Markets is passim in tota Germania now in use in all Germany as well by the Emperor as the Electors and many other lesser Princes And if the French who have yet their Terms des droits de Bordage of provisions which Tenants were obliged to furnish for the Kings Houshold and their grand Provost de l' hostel Lord Steward of the Kings house met priz et taxe a pain vin viandes foin et avoine had in the year 1654 power to rate the prices of wine victuals hay provender and all things appertaining to the provision of the Kings House And were wont to be very wary in parting with Regalities have by any ill advice turned away the honour of hospitality and that magnificence and good which ariseth thereby to their Kings and Princes and put their Court to board-wages which falling short or coming to be ill paid or long forborn will but starve the Houseshold and so keen the appetite and projects of the Court when they shall be every day pursued by their own necessities and put in mind to make what shift they can for themselves as that Nation which is already over-spread with Taxes as with a Garment may in due time if they doe it not already easily acknowledge the difference betwixt this Kingdome and its just Laws and Liberties and the present mode or fashion of that which by departing from their antient and better Laws and Constitutions is now for the most part cut into Tallages and Commands in warre Titles and Outsides of honor and Offices granted not to the deserver but the best Chapman and betwixt making Pourveyance for the Kings Houshold and necessaries to support his Regalities and paying as many kinds of Gabels and Impositions instead of it as there be weeks in the year and the rich and plentifull living of our English Yeomen Francklins and Farmers and their Paysants whose hardship and beggerly way of living makes them to be but as Slaves to their Gentry and Nobility And the dependencie of the Noblesse or the Nobility and Gentry upon the King for charges and places making them so little able to
he or his heirs did not unto the Lord or any of his Heirs of whom the Lands were holden his services within two years was upon a Cessavit per Biennium brought by the Lord and no sufficient distress to be found to forfeit the Lands so holden And from no other source or original was derived Escuage for the Tenants by Knight service not attending the King or their Lords in the wars which as Littleton saith was because the Law intendeth and understood it that the lands were at the first for that end freely given them whence also came the Aide to make the eldest Sonne of the King a Knight and to marry the eldest Daughter and the like assistances or duties unto the mesne Lords as gratefull acknowledgements for the Lands holden of them which the Freeholders in Socage are likewise not to deny and were not at the first by any Agreement betwixt the King and his particular Tenants nor likely to be betwixt the mesne Lords and their Tenants when the Lands were given them for that some of the mesne Lords might probably be without Sonne or Daughter or both or any hopes to have any when they gave their Lands and their Grants doe frequently mention pro homagio servicio in consideration only of homage and service to be done And being called auxilia sive adjutoria Aids or Assistances to their Lords who could not be then in any great want of such helps when the portions of Daughters were very much in vertue and little in mony and the charges of making the eldest Son a Knight the King in those dayes bestowing upon all or many of them some costly Furres Robes and the other charges consisting in the no great expences of the furnishing out the young Gentleman to receive the then more martial better used and better esteemed honour of Knighthood were reckoned by Bracton in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the third inter consuetudines quae serviciae non dicuntur nec concomitantia serviciorum sicut sunt rationabilia auxilia amongst those customes which are not understood to be services nor incidents thereof if they be reasonable But were de gratia ut Domini necessitas secundum quod major esset vel minor relevium acciperet and proceeded from the good will of the Tenants to help their Lords as their occasions or necessities should require Et apud exteros saith Sir Henry Spelman non solum ad collocandas sorores in matrimonium sed ad fratres etiam Juniores milites faciendos And with some forreign Nations as the Germans old Sicilians and Neapolitans not only towards the marriage of the Sisters of their Lords but to make also their younger Sons Knights For the good will and gratefull retorns of the Subjects to their Kings and Princes and of the Tenants to their Lords were not only since the Norman Conquest but long before practised and approved by the Britains the elder and most antient Inhabitants of this our Island and other world as is manifest by the Ebidiu or Tributum paid per Nobilium haeredes Capitali provinciae domino the Heirs of the Nobility or great men after the death of their Ancestors to the Lords or chief of the Province like unto as Sir Henry Spelman saith our relief which Hottoman termeth Honorarium a free gift or offering And that learned Knight found upon diligent enquiry amongst the Welch who by the sins of their forefathers and injury of the Saxons are now contented to be called by that name as Strangers in that which was their own Country that that Ebidiu was paid at a great rate non solum è praediis Laicis sed etiam Ecclesiasticis not only by the Laity but the Church-men And being not discontinued amongst the Saxons was besides the payment of Reliefs attended with other gifts and acknowledgements of superiority as well as thanks for Gervasius Tilburiensis in the Reign of King Henry the second when the people of England had not been so blessed and obliged as they were afterwards with the numberless Gifts Grants and Liberties which in the successive Reigns of seventeen Kings and Queens after preceding our now King and Soveraign were heaped upon them found oblata presents gifts or offerings to the King to be a well approved Custome and therefore distinguished them into quaedam in rem quaedam in spem some before hand for hopes of future favours and others for liberties or other things given and granted by the King and the Fine Rolles of King John and Henry the third his Son will shew us very many Oblata's or Free-will Offerings of several kinds which were so greatly valued and heeded as King Henry the third and his Barons in or about the 23 year of his Reign which was thirteen or fourteen years after his confirming of Magna Charta did in the bitter prosecution and charge of Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent and chief Justice of England demand an Accompt de donis xeniis of gifts and presents amongst which Carucagii or carriages were numbred spectantibus ad Coronam appertaining to the Crown And upon that and no other ground were those reasonable Lawes or Customes founded that the King might by the Laws of England grant a Corody which Sir Henry Spelman ex constitut Sicul. lib. 3. Tit. 18. defineth to be quicquid obsonii superiori in subsidium penditur provisions of victuals made for superiors Et ad fundatores Monasteriorum and to the Founders of every Monastry though by the Constitutions of Othobon the Popes Legat in the Reign of King Henry the third the Religious of those houses were forbidden to grant or suffer any to be granted or allowed è communi jure spectabat corrodium in quovis suae fundationis monasterio nisi in libera Eleemosina fundaretur it belonged of common right to grant a Corrody in any Religious houses of their foundation if not founded in Franke Almoigne disposuit item Rex in beneficium famulurom suorum corrodium c. likewise the King might grant to any of his houshold servants a Corrody in any houses of the foundation of the Kings of England and as many were in all by them granted as one hundred and eleaven which that learned Knight conceived to be an argument that so many of the Monasteries were of their foundation Et issint de common droit saith the learned Judge Fitzherbert in his Natura Brevium and also of Common Right the King ought to have a reasonable Pension out of every Bishoprick in England and Wales for his Chaplain untill the Bishop should promote him to a fitting Benefice Which if the compositions for Pourveyances being reduced into contracts and a lawfull custome were or should be no other then gratitudes may be as commendable and necessary as those well approved Examples of thankfulness recorded in holy writ of Abrahams giving King Abimelech Sheep and Oxen
Praeemption Pourveyance or Compositions for it when it concerns him so much and so nearly in his honour and the daily bread and sustenance of himself and his Royal Family when he expendeth for want of his Pourveyances or compositions for them yearly more then he did when he enjoyed them as may appear by a just accompt and calculation lately made by his Majesties special command no less then seventy three thousand six hundred seaven pounds fourteen shillings and seaven pence in his Houshold and Stable provisions besides the extraordinaries of Carriages for his Navy Provisions and Ammunition and what would have been added unto it if he had as other Kings or Princes gone his Sommer Progress when the want of it is so unbecomming a King and the aspect of it when he had it was in CHAP. IV. The right use of the Praeemption and Pourveyance and Compositions for them SO lovely and very well imployed and canont by rules of truth reason and understanding be gainsaid by the most disffaected and worst of Subjects when they shall but please to take into their consideration That the magnificence and bounty of a King in his house and the method and manner used therein is no small part of the increase continuance and support of his power reverence honor and awe which are so necessary and essentiall to the good and well-being of a King and his People as they cannot be wanted but are and should be the adjuncts and concomitants of the Royall or Princely dignity and like Hypocrates Twins subsist in one another which the wisdome of the Antients as well as modern and all Nations and People under the Sun and even the naked wild and savage part of them have by a Jure Gentium and eternall Law of Nature derived from divine instinct allowance and patern in the infancy of the world and through all the times and ages of it so well approved as they could never think fit to lay aside or disuse the practise of it for it cannot be by any rule of reason supposed that the fifth Commandement being at the Creation of mankind after Gods own Image written in the heart of him and all his after Generations and justly accompted to be comprehended in those Precepts of the Law of Nature and the righteous Noah with which the world was blessed as well before the flood as afterwards and before the Children of Israel had received the Decalogue or ten Commandements in the dread and astonishment of Gods appearance to Moses in Mount Sinai there was not a distinction at the first and all along holden and kept betwixt Parents and Children and Kings or common Parents and their Subjects in the fear and reverence of Children to Parents and of Subjects to their Kings and Soveraigns when as Noah though preaching to the old world in vain and to no purpose as they made it was so mighty a man and so well beloved and observed as he could by Gods direction cause to be brought into the Ark two of every sort of the species of all irrationall living creatures in order to their preservation for the Generations which were to survive the threatned deluge which without some more then ordinary extent of power could not be compassed by him if he had been but an ordinary man or but one of the common people who hearkened not unto his preaching and had no better an opinion of his Ark or Floating-house then as a Dilirium or his too much adoring the Images of his own phantasie Pharaoh King of Egypt having those requisites and decorums which the Kings and Princes of those early dayes had appertaining to their Royall super-eminence and dignities could upon Josephs extraordinary deserts array him in fine linnen and silks put a gold chain about his neck make him to ride in his second Charriot and cause a Cry or Proclamation to be made before him that every man should bow the knee David that was but the Sonne of Jesse the Bethlemite and once a Keeper of his Fathers few sheep as his envying brother told him in the Wilderness or Common and was taken as God himself said from the Sheep-coat would not when he came to be King omit the dues and regalities which belonged unto Kings though he could in a gratefull acknowledgment say unto God Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hither but could think it comely and fitting for him as a King to dwell in a house of Cedars And King Solomon his Son who expending 7 years in the building of the Temple and House of God was thirteen years in building of his own house and another magnificent and stately house of the Forrest of Lebanon and another for the Queen his Wife which was the Daughter of Pharaoh had 300 shields of beaten gold three pound to every shield put into his house of the Forrest his sumptuous Throne of Ivory over-laid with the best gold the like whereof was not in any Kingdome drinking vessels and all the vessels of Gold in that house and kept that state and order in his Tables in the sitting of his servants at meat the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparrel and his Cup-bearers as the Queen of Sheba coming unto him with a very great Train was so much astonished thereat and the house that he had built as there was no more spirit in her and confessed that what she had seen with her own eyes was more by half then what was told her in her own Land All which being allowed by God as necessary honors for Kings conservations of respects and allurements to the obedience and esteem which were to be paid and performed by the people were not put in the Catalogue of that Prince and great Master of wisdomes failings or not walking in the wayes of God or doing that which was right in his eyes and keeping his Statutes and Judgements as his Father David did Neither were those Royal and great Feasts made long after by Ahasuerus which reigned from India unto Ethiopia over an hundred and seven and twenty Provinces to his Princes and Servants the Nobles and Princes of his Provinces for one hundre◠〈◊〉 eighty daies Or the state of that mighty King whe◠〈◊〉 shewed the honour of his Excellent Majesty when as white green and blue Hangings were fastned with cords of fine linnen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble with Beds of gold and silver upon a pavement of red blue white and black marble and gave them drink in vessels of gold according to the state of the King put under any note or character of blame But those and other due respects have so alwaies attended the world and the good order and government of it under Monarchy and Kings and Princes through all the changes and chances thereof as it may be taken to be as universall a Law of Nature and Custome or Nations as the duty and honor of
people Subjects and men of Honor in England in those more honorable more performing less complementing times but since withering and growing fruitless and out of fashion when that great commander Luxury had with his Regiments and Brigades of vices new fangles and vanities subdued and put the people to a greater contribution towards such their wicked and vain expences and all that they can now make shift for is too little to support and bear out their extravagancies It is well known and experimented to the great comfort of such as lived within the virge of the Kings houses and residence that the Hospitality of the Kingdome like the heart in the body naturall the primum vivens beginner and conservator of life beginning in the Kings house and propagating and diffusing it self in and through as many of the Nobility and Gentry as being de meliori lutâ— of a more then ordinary extraction did strive as much as became them to imitate Royal Examples would be in the Kings house the ultimum mâ—riens the last which expired And that besides the necessary grandeur and magnificence of the Kings houshold plenty and variety of meat and drink to entertain at his Officers Tables the Nobility Gentry and Citizens which had any occasion to come thither and 240 gallons of Beer allowed the poor every day at the Buttery Barre three gallons every day at the Court gate for thirteen poor men six services or messe of meat and seven pieces of beef a day as wast and extraordinarie for the Kings Honor the chippings of bread sometimes more then should be and the fragments and knapstry of broken or quarter or half joynts of meat carcases of Fowl and Poultry pieces of Pie-crust or other provisions carefully and daily gathered and put into severall Almes-baskets left at every Table and Chamber in the Court and distributed unto the poor by two Grooms and two Yeomen of the Elemosinary or Almnery who enjoy an yearly Salary and maintenance from the King for that only imployment which hath fed and supported many poor Families in and about Westminster as well as Common Beggars the Lodgings and accomodations of Nobility and Gentry resorting to the Court have so greatly enriched all the Streets and parts about it as that end of London and parts adjacent have like trees planted by the water side so very much prospered as Westminster which originally had but some scattered houses adjoyning to the Abby and the Kings Palace came aftewards to be a Burrough Town Corporation endowed with great Liberties and Priviledges and sending Burgesses to the Parliament afterwards to be a City and the people of other parts as birds haunting the woods for shelter shade or succor observing the plenty happiness which they enjoyed have built made their nests habitations as near as they could unto that place and Royal seat of bounty charity and magnificence insomuch as the swelling and increase of London at this day every where to be seen not without some admiration in her Extent and buildings hath within this and the last Century of years very much outgrown that antient City it self and as Mr. John Graunt and some others have truly and ingeniously observed extended it self Westward and as near as it could unto the Royal bitation as if that were more to be desired for a neighbourhood then the River of Thames the Exchange or Custome-house of London and places of Trade and Traffick They therefore that shall remember how his Majesties Maundie or Charity kept as his Royal Ancestors ever did upon the Thursday before Easter or Eve of Good-Friday with a Joul of Salmon a Poll of Ling 30 red Herrings and as many white garnished with â—erbs in new clean wooden dishes four six penny loaves of Court bread cloth for a Gown and a Shirt a pair of New Shoes and Stockins and a single penny with a twenty shillings piece of gold overplus put in severall little purses given to as many poor old men as the King is years old and the state and decency observed in the distributing of it after their feet washed and dried and the King with a condiscention and unexampled humility beyond the reach and example of any of his Subjects kneeling upon his knees and devoutly kissing the feet of those his Almes-men cannot certainly tell how to murmur at such an hospitality or Provisions which afforded him the means wherewith to doe it Nor should the many cures which he yearly doth unto such as are Lame Blind Diseased or troubled with the Disease called the Kings Evil because he cureth it the patience and meekness which he employeth in it and the yearly charge of at least three thousand pounds per annum which his Angel Gold of the value of ten shillings and a silk Ribbon put about the neck of every one be they rich or poor young or old which doe come to that English Pool of Bethesda to be healed and cured be forgotten or thought unworthy a gratitude or some remuneration or acknowledgements Neither can any that ever understood or read of the round Tables of our King Arthur the great Roger Mortimer and the famous Hospitality of England continued through the British Saxon and Norman times all the turmoyls and troubles of the after Generations in their greatest extremities of the Barons warres and the direfull and bloody contentions of the two great discording Houses of York and Lancaster with the vast quantities of Land given besides to Monasteries and Religious Houses to the great increase of Charity and Alms-deeds which was then the only Trade driven or thought on in the way to Cabo di buona speranza the everlasting rest of the righteous the large proportions of Lands given for Chantries in a then supposed pious care of themselves and their Progenitors great gifts and remunerations to Servants and curtesies and kindness to Neighbours and Tenants when most of our Nobility and Gentry thought themselves not great unless they were good nor a Gentleman because he had only the insignia virtutum Armories and marks of the honor of his Ancestors descended unto him without the virtuous noble and heroick qualities which were the cause or original of them when pride and interest the Devils Deputies were not the Soveraign which they most obeyed vanity and all the folliâ—s of sin the neighbours which they loved as themselves when virtue was not reckoned as it is now amongst too many a base or simple companion nor honour turned into a Pageant or nâ—men inane or only made a pretence to deceive mens expectations when almost every English Gentleman was in his Parish and amongst his Tenants like Job that good accomptant of his talents a deliverer of the poor that cried the fatherless and him that had none to help him caused the Widows heart to sing for joy was eyes to the blinde feet to the lame brake the jawes of the wicked pluckt the spoils out of his teeth grieved for the poor
pay those Thraves of Corn which would far exceed the Pourveyance charged upon that County or have compounded for them or do pay them to such as have obtained Grants of the Lands and Revenues belonging to that Hospital Or that he whose Royal Ancestor King Henry the second took a care as appears by the black book in the Exchequer that the Barons of the Exchequer who were then taken to be a part of the Kings houshold should have their provisions at easier rates then others Et de victualibus suae domus in urbibus Castellis maritimis nomine consuetudinis nihil solvunt Quod si minister vectigalium de hiis quicquam solvere compulerit dummodo presens sit serviens ejus qui suis usibus empta fuisse oblata fide probare voluerit Baroni quidem exacta pecunia restituetur inde in integro improbus exactor pro qualitate personae pecuniarum penam luet and pay nothing for custom for the victuals or provisions for their houses in Cities Castles and Maritime places and if any Officer should compell them to pay any thing for them whilstâ—their servants were ready to testifie and prove that they were bought to their use the money was to be again restored and the party so wickedly exacting it amerced or fined according to the quality of his person And that our succeeding Kings and Princes causing a Pourveyance and provision of Diet to be made for the Justices of Assize Justices of the Peace at the Assizes Sessions by the Sheriffs in every County making an allowance for the same out of the Exchequer Q. Elizabeth in Anno 1573. finding that to be troublesome inconvenient for the Sheriffs ordained that charge to be defrayed out of her Coffers as may appear by a Copy of a letter from the Lords of her Privy Councel communicated unto me by my worthy and learned friend Mr. William Dugdale and here inserted and that expence being since ordered to be defrayed out of the Fines and profits of the Counties after the rate of four shillings per diem at the Assizes Sessions to every Justice of the peace and two shillings per diem to the Clerk of the Peace and the King being at more then 10000 l. per annum charges to the Judges of the superior Courts at Westminster who by their Circuits do to save his people a great deal more charges cause a cheap and impartial Justice to be twice in every year brought into every County and is at many other yeerly expences to others in the administration of Justice for which Cromwell and his fancied Parliaments thought a large yeerly allowance to be little enough makes an yearly allowance of one thousand one hundred and six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence per annum to the Lord President of Wales and the Justices attending that Court for the provisions of their Diet with an allowance of Dyet to the Justices of Wales in their great Sessions twenty four shillings per diem to the Domestick Clerks or servants of the Lord Chancellor an allowance of Forty Marks per annum to the Kings Remembrancer in the Exchequer which may shew what cheapness was formerly for the diet of himself and of his eight Clarks who ought to table with him the like for the Treasurers Remembrancer and his twelve Clarks and to the Clark of the Pipe five pence per diem for his diet every day when he sitteth in Court and the like to the Comptroller of the Pipe should be now put to seek his own Provisions or Pourveyance at the dearest most disrespectful rates or that the Kings servants and Officers of his houshold in whose honor or dishonor the Majesty whom they serve as that of David was in the reproach of his servants or Embassadors sent to the King of Ammon is not a little concerned should now for want of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them complain that the beauty is departed from the Kings house his servants are become like Harts that finde no Pasture and they that did feed plentifully are desolate in the streets And that the servants of the Abbot of St. Edmunds Bury were in a better condition when as he could allow John de Hastings the Steward of the Courts of his Mannors who claimed the said Office by inheritance a Provision when he came at night unto him for eight horses and thirteen men with an horse load of Provender and Hey sufficient Wine and Beer twenty four Wax Candles in the Winter time and twelve in the Summer eight loaves of Bread for his Greyhounds two Hens for his Hawks pro se hominibus suis honorabilem sustentationem in Cibo potu and an honorable provision for himself and his servants in meat and drink And as those of the children of Israel which returned from the Captivity lamented the difference betwixt the glory of the first and second Temple bewail the desolation of the house wherein the Kings honor dwelled and the alteration reducing of it to what it is now from that which it was in the raigns of Queen Elizabeth King James or King Charles the Martyr And that Foraigners and Strangers who were wont so to magnifie and extoll the Hospitality state and magnificence of the King of Englands Court and house-keeping as that Philip Honorius after an exact survey of many other Kingdoms and their Policies hath publikely declared that no Nation in the world goeth beyond our Brittain in the honor of the Kings Court and houshold in maggior numero di servitori con maggior distinctioni d' officii e gradi multitude of servants Officers and distinction of degrees and cannot be ignorant of the respects and honor done by all Nations to Foraign Princes though no Monarchs or their superiors in their passages and journeys through any Towns or Cities beyond the Seas by making them presents of Wine Fish Oats and the best of houshold provisions which those places afforded and that even those mechanick souls of Hamborough and Amsterdam can think it worthy their imitation shall finde the King of England whose Ancestor Offa King of the Mercians in Anno Dom. 760. would be so little wanting to himself and his posterity in the preserving the honor and rights of Majesty as he ordained that even in times of peace himself and his successors in the Crown should as they passed thorough any City have Trumpets sounding before them to shew that the person of the King saith the Leiger book of St. Albans should breed both fear and honor in all which either see him or hear of him to be so scanted de ea sublimitate amplitudine augustaque illa Majestate in that honor and reverence which his predecessors would never abate any thing of as his Officers and servants like some Beggars who are not used to be trusted with a Mess of Pottage to be put into their hands when they buy it at the
themselves and Blaspheme abuse and crucifie him in his members And that it will be better to subscribe to that which is amongst all civilized Nations and people taken to be an Aphorisme or Maxime irrefragrable that omâ—e imperium omnisque Reipublicâ— forma validissimo munimento tuetur Auctoritate eorum penes quos simmum Imperium existit that all Kingdoms and Governments are most strongly fortified and defended by the authority of those who do govern that praeclara de Imperio existimatio sue reputatio multa efficit plura non nunquam quam vis Arma that the esteem and reputation of a King or Governor doth many times bring greater advantages then power and Armies That it is patrimonium principis as much to a King or Prince as his Patrimony or inheritance and certissima Imperii salutis publciae tutela a most certain guard and defence of a King and his people which Saul well apprehended when upon the displeasure of Almighty God threatned by Samuel he entreated him to honor him before the Elders of his people And that if a long duration of a right or custome and quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus approbatum that which is and hath been always every where and of all people so much allowed and practiced should not be enough as it hath in many other things which have a lawful prescription the reason right use and necessity of it and the avoiding of those many inconveniences which will inevitable follow the disuse of it may perswade us to recall again and revive the duties of Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them and to petition the King by our Representatives in Parliament as our forefathers did in 14 R. 2. that the prerogative of him and his Crown may be kept and that all things done to the contrary may be redressed That so our King may as Solomon who feasted all the people for seven days and seven days even fourteen days have wherewithall to maintain his own honor and the love of his people anâ— give portions of meat as the Prophet Daniel and others had in the house of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon that the people may with gladness and rejoycings enter into the Kings Palaces and the King not doubt of their affections though the waters should roar and be troubled and the mountains shake with the swellings thereof that his love unto them may from his throne exhale and attract theirs and distill it down again upon them as the raine upon the grass or showers that water the earth and that our England which was heretofore the happiest Nation that ever the Sun beheld in his journeys may be once again the land of love and happiness and that the people may be as busie in their gratitudes to their Prince as the Rivers are in the tender and payment of their Tributes to the Ocean Moribus antiquis stent res Britanna viresque FINIS ERRATA OR FAVLTS escaped in the Printing PAge 12. line 11. intersere and took only p. 13. l. 27. insert enabled p. 15. l. 10. dele had and besides insert with and l. 11. had p. 26. l. 27. intersere middle p. 27. l. 19. dele and. p. 30. l. 23. dele for a present p. 30. l. 19. dele Sir p. 42. l. 9. dele and Shoes p. 50. l. 8. dele i. in deferiendum p. 51. l. 22. intersere not only p. 62. l. 30. dele and. p. 68. l. 30. dele and intersere and. p. 71. l. 9. intersere of p. 79. l. 28. dele thereupon p. 98. l. 8. intersere to p. 100. l. 30. dele and. p. 107. l. 26. dele about p. 81. l. 7. for eighteenth read fourth p. 113. l. 13. intersere de offendi quietos dele de quietis esse p. 131. l. 23.17 pro 20. p. 133. l. 18. intersere them p. 139. l. 3. intersere if p. 142. l. 1. intersere all p. 153. l. 3. dele which p. 154. l. 9. dele and them intersere as p. 170. l. 7. dele which intersere 15. l. 25. dele pounds intersere marks p. 195. l. 22. dele and. p. 196. l. 26. dele 3. p. 198. l. 16. dele Fisher and read Flesher p. 231. l. 4. dele and. p. 236. l. 8. read delirium p. 261. l. 12. dele Ministry intersere Country p. 264. l. penulâ— dele of p. 266. l 6. dele Nobility and. p. 280. l. ult dele and read to him who p. 281. l. 21. dele all or p. 302. l. 1. read where he took all and dele that notwithstanding p. 337. l. 1. intersere being and but. p. 339. l. 14. dele or p. 365. l. 18. intersere and and l. 19. dele eighteen pence for a hen p. 374. l. 2. read so ibidem l. 28. read keep p. 377. l. 10. dele for and read from p. 391. l. 19. read still p. 450. l. 30. dele noâ— p. 455. l. 14. read Almoxariffadgos p. 456. l. 11. dele quents p. 459. l. 7 put in the mâ—rgent France p. 467. l. 26. read panes p. 468. l. 18. read out of Brescia p. 480. l. 27. intersere which and 29. read Embassadors Prov. 24.21 (b) Deut. 6 8.9.11.18 (c) Plutarch in vita Licurgi (d) Plutarch in vita Solonis (e) Prov. 8.31 (f) Jeremy 6.16 (g) Genesis 43.24 26. (h) 1 Sam. 25. 2 Sam. 8. (i) 2 Sam. 1.17 (k) 1 Reg. 4 21 22 23. (l) 1 Reg. 10.24 25. (m) Josephus de 〈◊〉 Jud. lib. 8. (n) 2 Reg. 3. () Chron. 16. (p) Ezekiel 45. 48. (q) Nehemiah 5.18 (r) Hom. Iliad (s) Boemus de moribus Gentium (t) Sigonius dâ— Repub. Athen. 540. 541. Eudaeus in Pandect 192. (u) Appâ—an l. 1. (x) Rasinus de antiquitate Rom. 993. (y) Pancirollus Comment in notitiam imperii occidentis ca. 5. (z) Rosinus de Antiquâ—tat Rom ca. 14.24 lib. 10. c. 22. (a) Annotations upon Tacitus (b) L. Julia de Magistratibus (c) Cod. tit de cursu publico Ant. Thisius de celebero Repâ—b (d) Pancirol in noâ—itiaÌ„ utriusque Imperii ca. 6. (e) Maranta speculum aureum parte 6. de executione sententiae (f) Bart. in l. jubemus uâ— nullam navem 1â— in princip (g) Novel Majoran tit 1. de Curialibus Cujat tit 48. ad librum 10. Cod. Justinian 1429. Cujacius Commentar Expositio Novel tit 63. k) Pancirollus Comment in notitiâ—m Imperii occidentis c. 65. (l) Zenopbon lib. 8. Paidiae (m) Pancirollus in â—otitia Imperii orientis (n) Spartianus cap. 6. in Seveâ—o (o) Pancirollus Comment in notitiam Imperii orient 86. (p) LL. Wisigoth lib. 9. tit 6. (q) LL. Wisigoth lib. 2. tit 9. (r) Cassiodorus variarum l. 12. (s) Ibidem lib. 11. (t) Leg. Jul. de Annon Cujacius Paratitl in lib. Cod. Justiniani (u) C. de Annon Tribut vegâ—tius (x) Lib. 1. tit de Annon Tribut (y) Cujacius in lib. 1 Cod. Justâ—niani 52. z Ridleys view of the Civil and Ecclesiasticall Lawes (a)