aforesaid Kings Some of them having long intervals and discontinuances for Ashperton in Devonshire had it's first election in 26. E. 1. and it's 2d not untill 8. H. 5. which made above 120. Years though by the Knavery Corruption and arbitrary power of Sheriffs and the ambitious designs of some that desired to be elected members of the House of Commons and the long after introducing of those of Wales Cheshire Durham and New-wark the number of all the Members of that honourable Assembly were in Mr Cromptons Time who lived and wrote in the later end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but 441. since increased to 500. or thereabouts During the Reign of King Edward the 1st there were but 70 Cities and Boroughs besides the Cinque Ports which elected and sent Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament of which number 7 made only one election and return of Burgesses In the Reign of King E. 2. there were precepts issued by Sheriffs for 19 Boroughs viz. Great Marlow in the County of Buck. Lescard and Lestithiel in Cornwall Bradneston in Devonshire Melcombe and Weymouth in Dorsetshire Ravensey and Rippon in Com. Eborum Stortford in Hartfordshire Witney in Com. Oxon Axbrigge Chard in Somersetshire Lichfield in Staffordshire Kingston in Surrey Greenested Midhurst in Sussex Cricklade Mere and Old Sarum in Wiltshire which never elected or returned Burgesses before and two precepts issued out to other new boroughs viz. Dunstable Glastonbury Aulton and Christchurch which made no elections or returns thereon Under the long Reign of King Edward the 3d there were Writs or Sheriffs precepts directed to 19 new boroughs and elections made to serve in his Parliaments or great Councels viz. Ely in Cambridgeshire for one great Councel only Barnstable Dartmouth with Hardennesse thereunto annexed Fremington Modbury Tavestock in Devonshire Poole in Dorsetshire Malden in Essex Bromyard Ledbury Ros in Herefordshire Barkhamsted in Hertfordshire Botolph in Lincolnshire for two great Councels only Dunster Langport Monteacute Stoke Curcy Were in Somersetshire and New Castle under line in Staffordshire besides precepts issued to Hodon and Richmond two new boroughs in Yorkshire who made no election or return thereupon and saith Mr Pryn neither of those ever sent Citizens or Burgesses to Parliaments or great Councels before that King's Reign for ought he could find by Records or History And as for the Ports of Dover Roâ—ney Sandwich and Winchelsey in Kent Hastings Hythe and Rye in Sussex there are no original Writs of Summons found for the election of any of their Members during the Reigns of King E. 1. or 2. In the Reigns of King Richard the 2d Henry the 4th and 5th there were no Writs or precepts to any new boroughs to send Burgesses to Parliament About the middle of the Reign of King Henry the 6th there were only Writs and precepts issued out for 5 new boroughs in 2 Counties to attend the King in Parliament as Members in the House of Commons namely Gatton in Surrey Heytesbury Hindon Westbury and Wooton Basset in Com. Wilts During the Reign of King Edward the 4th there was only one new borough Grantham in Lincolnshire who never sent any in the former Kings Reigns Since which 14 new boroughs in Cornwall namely Camilford Castlelowe Foway Graundpond St Germans St Ives Kelington St Marie's Newport St Michael Portlow Prury Saltash Bosseney and Tregonney with the boroughs of Aylesbury and Buckingham in the County of Bucks Cockermouth in Cumberland University of Cambridge Bearealston in Devonshire Corfe Castle in Dorsetshire Harwich in Essex Alderburgh Boroughbrigge Knaresbrough Thrusko in Com. Eborum Cirencester and Tewkesbury in com Gloucester Maidstone and Quinborough in Kent Botolph in Lincolnshire as to sending Burgesses to Parliament Clitheroe Liverpool Wigan in Lancashire Westminster in Middlesex which never sent one Burgess to Parliament though many have been holden in it until long after the Reign of King Edward the 4th Brackley Higham-Ferrers Peterborough in Northamptonshire East-Recford in Nottinghamshire Chester Thetford in Norfolk Barwick Morpeth in Northumberland Banbury and the Univesity of Oxford in Oxfordshire Haslemore in Surry Tamworth in Staffordshire Bishops-castle Ludlow Wenlock in Shropshire Minched in Somersetshire Christ-church Lymington Newport Newtown Peterfield Stockbride Whitchurch Yarmouth St Edmondsbury Eye Sudbury in Suffolk Beaudly Evesham in the County of Worcester in all 64. Committing the Knights Cities and Boroughs of Chester and Wales erected by Act of Parliament Annis 27. 36. and 38. H. 8. are all new and for the most part the Universities excepted very Mean Poor inconfiderable Boroughs set up by the returns and corrupt practices of Sheriffs and ambitious Gentleman which will be sufficiently evidenced by the Sheriffs frequent returns of nullum dederunt responsum non sunt aliae Civitates neque Burgi in balliva mea or in com praedict aut non curant mittere saith a Sheriff of Northumb. in 6. E. 2. or nulli electi ratione belli in 8. E. 2. or as in Northumb. in the 10th Year of the Reign of E. 3. or as in the 8th Year of the Reign of E. 2. when the Sheriff of Northumb. returned quod omnes milites de balliva sua non sufficiunt ad defensionem Marchiae and to the town of Newcastle upon Tyne quod omnes Burgenses villae praedicta non sufficiunt ad defensionem villae in the 1. E. 3. the Communitatas Com. Northumb. respondet quod ipsi per inimicos Scottae adeo sunt distracti quod non habent unde Solvere expedsas duobus militibus proficissuris ad tractatum concilium apud Lincoln tenendum and the Bayliffs of Newcastle upon Tyne returned quod ipsi tam enervantur circa salvam custodiam villae praedictae quod neminem possunt de dicta villa carere So little were the former ambitions or designs of the Gentry or Common people of the Counties or Shires to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament as Knights of the Shires or as Burgesses of Cities or Towns Corporate from the 49th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3d unto the later end of the Reign of King Henry the 5th in the course or circle of time of about 280. Years But all those the Royal cares and condescensions of King Edward the 1st to pacify a discontented part of his people and eradicate a deeply rooted Commotion and Rebellion did too soon or quickly after the expiration of the aforesaid 280. Years deviate and degenerate from the former intentions and design of those his Writs of Summons SECT XXI Who made themselves Electors for the choosing of Knights of the Shires to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after the 21st Year of the Reign of King Edward the 1st contrary to the Tenor of his aforesaid Writs of Summons made in the 22d Year of his Reign for the Election of Knights of the Shire and Burgesses to come to the Parliaments and great Councels of several of our Kings and Princes afterwards FOr so
the Parliament Cities and Burrough-Towns the only Iudges under the King who are fit and unfit to be Members in the House of Commons in Parliament and that the Freeholders and Burgesses more than by a just and impartial Assent and Information who were the fittest were not to be the Electors p. 371. § 20. Of the small numbers of Knights of the Shires and Burgesses which were Elected and came in the Raign of King Edward the first upon his aforesaid Writs of Election and how their numbers now amounting unto very many more were after encreased by the corruption of Sheriffs and the Ambition of such as desired to be Elected p. 382. § 21. Who made themselves Electors for the chusing of Knights of the Shires to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after the 21st year of the Raign of King Edward the first contrary to the Tenor of his aforesaid Writs of Summo 〈…〉 made in the 22 year of his Raign for the Election of Knights of the Shire and Burgesses to come to the Parliaments and great Councils of several of our Kings and Princes afterwards p. 387. § 22. Of the Actions and other Requisites by the Law to be done by those that are or shall be Elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend our King in their great Councils or Parliaments praecedent and praeparatory to their admission therein p. 388. § 23. That the Members of the House of Commons being Elected and come to the Parliament as aforesaid did not by vertue of those Writs of Election sit together with the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in one and the same Room or Place and that if any such thing were as it never was or is likely to be proved it cannot conclude or infer that they were or are co-ordinate or had or have an equal power in their Suffrages and Decisions p. 393. § 24. What the Clause in the Writs for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come unto the Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum do properly signifie and were intended by the said Writs of 〈◊〉 to be Members of the House of Cowmons in Parliament p. 398. § 25. Of the many variations and alterations of our Kings Writs of Summons to their great Councels or Parliaments excluding some and taking in others to be assistant in that high and Honourable Court with its Resummons Revisions drawing of Acts of Parliament or Statutes dy the Judges or the Kings learned Councel in the Laws and other Requisites therein necessarily used by the sole and individual authority of our Kings and Princes p. 411. § 26. What is meant by the word Representing or if all or how many of the people of England and Wales are or have been in the Elections of a part of the Commons to come to Parliament Represented p 548. § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed Delinquency whatsoever p. 573. § 28. Of the protection and priviledge granted unto the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament by our Soveraign Kings and â—rinces during their Attendance and Employments in their great Councils of Parliament according to the Tenor and purport of their Commissions p. 607. § 29. Neither they claim or ever were invested by any Charter or Grant of any of our Kings or Princes or otherwise of any such Priviledge or Liberty nor was or is in England any Law or Usage or Custom that a Parliament sitting cannot be Prorogued or Dissolved as long as any Petition therein exhibited remaineth unanswered or not determined p. 633. § 30. That in those Affairs peculiar only to so great and venerable an Assembly which should not be trivial or proper to lower and lesser Iurisdictions assigned for the determining of lesser matters for the publick ease and benefit our Kings and Princes have a greater burden and care upon them as Gods Vicegerents besides that of Parliaments to manage and take care of the Kingdom for the benefit and good of themselves and their people p. 637. § 31. That our Great Councils or Parliaments except anciently at the three great Festivals viz. Christmas Easter and Pentecost being ex more summoned and called upon extraordinary emergent occasions could not either at those grand and chargeable Festivals or upon necessities of State or Publick Weal and preservation ex natura rei continue long but necessarily required Prorogations Adjournments Dissolutions or endings p. 641. § 32. That Parliaments or Great Councels de quibusdam arduis concerning the defence of the Kingdom and Church of Enggland neither were or can be fixed to be once in every year or oftner they being always understood and believed to be by the Laws and Ancient and reasonable Customs of England ad libitum Regis who by our Laws Right Reason and all our Records and Annals is and should be the only Watchman of our Israel and the only Iudge of the necessity times and occasion of Summoning Parliaments p. 650. § 33. That all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament are not properly or by their original constitution intended or otherwise entituled or properly truly justly lawfully seized or to be stiled or termed Estates neither are to be so understood or believed to be and being to be no otherwise than subject to a Temporary Election and by the Authority of their Kings Writs paid their Wages and Charges by those that sent and elected them can have no Iust or Legal Right thereunto p. 656 § 34. A Series or accompt of the many Seditions Rebellions and Discords that have successively happened since the beginning of the Raign of King Henry 2. to our succeeding Kings and Princes until this present Age wherein we now live by mistaken and never to be warranted principles p. 717. A Vindication of the Antient and Present Establish'd Government of the Kingdom of ENGLAND under our Kings and Monarchs appointed by GOD from the Opinion and Claim of those that without any Warrant or ground of Law or Right Reason the Laws of God and Man Nature and Nations and the Records thereof would have it to be Originally deriv'd from the People Co-ordinate with the Houses of Peers and Commons in Parliament or by their Election SECT I. That our KINGS of ENGLAND in their voluntary Summoning to their Great Councels and PARLIAMENTS some of the more Wise Noble and better part of their Subjects to give their Advice and Consent in Matters touching the Publick Good and Extraordinary Concernment did not thereby Create Or by any Assent Express or Tacite give unto Them an Authority Co-ordination Equality or Share in the Legislative
the number of their Confederates à Civibus accepta securitate they sent their Lettess to all the Earls Barons and Knights which yet adhered to the King exhorting and threatning them as they loved Themselves their Lives and Estates they should forsake a perjured King and joyn with them to obtain their Liberties otherwise they would take them for publick Enemies turn their Arms against them destroy their Castles burn their Houses and spoil their Lands and Estates The greatest part whereof upon those threatnings did so think it to be their safer way to forsake Him and their Loyalty as they joyned with them The King finding himself fere derelictum ab omnibus and but seven Knights ex omni multitudine Regia abiding by him timuit valdè lest the Barons in castra sua impetum facientes illa sine difficultate sibi subjugarent especially when they should find nothing to hinder them sent William Marescal Earl of Pembroke and others to treat with them being then at London for a Peace with an offer to grant the Laws and Liberties demanded and thereupon statuerunt Regi diem ad colloquium in pratum inter Stains Windleshores 15o. die Junii where Rex Magnates being met and treating concerning the Liberties and a lasting Peace there being with the King besides Pandulphus and Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury his double-dealing Friends and some few others in all but Twenty-five tandem cum in varia sorte tractassent the King vires suas Baronum viribus impares intelligens sine difficultate Leges Libertates coneessit Charta sua confirmavit data per manum suam in prato quod vocatur Running-Mead inter Stains Windleshores decimo quinto die Junii anno Regni sui decimo septimo Which as Matthew Paris a Monk of St. Albans living not only at the same time but being Historiographer unto King Henry III. his Son privy to many of his affairs and wrote in the 57th year of his Reign hath faithfully related those passages and proceedings was as to the preamble thereof the exact and full tenor thereof being with it truly mentioned in his Book in these words Intuitu Dei pro salute animae meae Antecessorum omnium Haeredum suorum ad honorem Dei exaltationem sanctae Ecclesiae emendationem Regni sui per concilium Stephani Archiepiscopi Cantuarensis who prepared them and had incited the Pope and Barons against him aliorum Episcoporum ibi nominat Pandulphi Domini Papae Subdiaconi familiaris Willielmi Marescali Comitis Pembrochiae Willielmi Comitis Sarisberiensis Willielmi Comitis Warrenniae c. aliorum fidelium mera spontanea voluntate pro Me Haeredibus meis Deo liberis hominibus Angliae habendas tenendas eis Haeredibus suis de Me Haeredibus meis which our Laws no other tenure being specified will interpret to be in capite And more at length as Matthew Paris hath recorded it with a salvis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus Prioribus Templariis Hospitalariis Comitibus Baronibus Militibus omnibus aliis tà m Ecclesiasticis personis quà m Secularibus Libertatibus Liberis consuetudinibus quas prius habuerant which gave them a better security in their former Liberties than they could claim by the forced and indirect gaining of the latter and concluding in the perclose with his Testibus c. hath these words subjoyned Libertates vero de Foresta liberae consuetudines quas cum libertatibus praescriptis in una schedula pro sua capacitate continere nequiverimus in Charta subscripta continentur saith Matthew Paris In which not in the modern Language and stile of our Acts of Parliament but as Charters in the dictates of Regal Authority as that of William the Conquerour to the Citizens of London and that of dividing the Temporal and Spiritual Jurisdictions and those of King Henry I. King Stephen and Henry II. and all the Charters of Liberties and Priviledges granted by our Kings before and since to Cities Boroughs Corporations and Lords of Manors as the Charter of King Edward I. to the Citizens of London in the 6th year of his Reign and of King Edward III. in the 14th year of his Reign to all the people of England to be governed by the English Laws in case he should obtain his Right to the Kingdom of France and all our preceding Laws have used to be He granted away many of the ancient Rights of the Crown made and ordained new Laws as that amongst others of Communia placita nan sequantur Curiam nostram sed teneantur in certo loco and that of recovering the King's Debts c. Enlarged some abrogated others and gave unto the people greater Liberties and Immunities then the Laws of King Edward the Confessor and the Charter of King Henry I. put altogether had allowed them the Original whereof or the Magna Charta of King Henry III. remaining in the Library of the Archbishops of Canterbury at Lambeth at the time of the Imprisonment of that martyred great Anti-Papist William Laud Archbishop of that See and the ransacking of it preceding his Murder in the Reign of that Blessed Martyr King CHARLES I. by Hugh Peters Mr. Pryn and some others thereunto appointed by their Rebellious Masters the then miscalled Parliament was never after found and by it self in a distinct paragraph did follow as it were a Bond or Security given by King John in these words Cùm autem pro Deo ademendationem Regni nostri ad melius sapiendam discordiam inter nos Barones haec omnia concessimus volentes in integra firma stabilitate gauderi facimus concedimus securieatem subscriptam viz. That the Barons should elect Twenty-five Barons of the Realm who should be Conservators thereof pro totis viribur suis observare tenere facere observari pacem libertates quas eis concessimus and correct the King's defaults in Government Of which number Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford was one with a power that if the King or his Chief-Justiciar should trangress in any Articles of the Laws it should be lawful for any Four of them after Forty days notice given to Him or his Chief-Justiciar and no amendment to complain to the rest and joyning with Them and the People to distrain and compel him with a salvâ Personâ Regis only Reginae liberorum suorum Et isti 25o. Barones juraverunt in animabus suis Rege hoc disponente quod omni instantia his obsequerentur Regem cogerent si fortè rescipisci vellet tenere sequentes and the Earls of Gloucester Arundel and Warren with Thirty-four other Barons and great men juraverunt to obey the commands of the Twenty-five Barons and all that would might swear to assist them and the people cùm communia totius terrae might gravare eum cum eis and to that end those Conservators should have
evil Doings marching and maintaining their Army from place to place Ungarrisoning and Garrisoning divers of the King's Castles and Places of strength together with the no small Charges of their disloyal Contrivances Envoys and Ambassadours to their good Friends the King of France and the Pope Their great Necessities appearing very demonstrable in their harshly pressing the Bishops for some Arreares of the Clergy Tenths Seizing and Sequestration of the Rents and Estates as much as they could come at of the Loyal Party to the pretended Use of the King taking away the Tax and Tallage of the Judaism or Banks of the Jews the then besides the Caursini the Popes Bankers or Brokers only Usurers of the Kingdom which had been assigned to the Prince not omitting the getting into their hands the Tolls and Profits of the Markets and Fairs appertaining to his Mannor of Stamford who untill the very instant of his Escape from the Castle of Hereford where he had long lain a quiet Prisoner under their Persecution had enjoyed them All or but some of which might have given them a Temptation and Opportunity if they had had the mind or least Inclination to it to have taken those few Commons that were with them into their Association and moulded them into a neverbefore-used Form or Figure of a Parliament ever since so mistakenly called or Constitution of a third Estate and House of Commons therein when anciently and long before our Kings great Councels or Parliaments consisted only of such Lords Spiritual and Temporal as they should please to advise withal and those Commons which they had with them do not appear to have made any Act of Parliament or Ordinance for the raising of Money to support the charges of their Rebellion But that part of the Baronage appeared to have been so unwilling to take them into their Company or give them any occasion to contemn or lift themselves above their former condition as when in the Difficulties with which they wrestled upon the Prince's denying his Consent ever to have been given to a supposed Ordinance then lately as they would have as many as they could make believe it to have been made at London by the Prelates and Barons by the unanimous Assent of the King and his Son the Prince totius Communitatis Regni concerning the setling of Peace in the Kingdom the freeing of the Prince from his Imprisonment and the Discharge of the ill Opinion which many of the People had of their Actions they were constrained to send Writs in the King's Name the 12 th of June in the same year of that imprisoned King dated at Hereford unto the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Salisbury Chester Coventry and Lichfeild Bath and Wells and the rest of the Prelates who may then be understood to have been absent to come omni festinatione to advise with him at Gloucester to assist him with their Councels and be a Means to take off those Rumours which had been raised that by the Testimony of the King himself and the rest of the Prelats the Truth might appear that it was not the King himself but the Rebels as whilest he was in their Power he was made to stile his Son the Prince and his Loyal Party But none of the Commons before summoned or designed to have been summoned had any new Writs sent unto them for that purpose to meet at Gloucester which would have been very necessary if they could have born any Testimony to that supposed Ordinance which is not in any of the Records of that year or any other year those monumenta vetustatis veritatis to be seen or if they had had any Vote in that imaginary Parliament it would not have been said in that King 's Writ dated at Westminster the first day of February in the year aforesaid and in the Close Rolls of that year That although upon some Discords arising amongst the Scholars in the University of Cambridge the King had given leave that there might be an University established at Northampton yet being informed by all the Bishops of the Kingdom that it would greatly inconvenience the University of Oxford he did de concilio magnatum strictly forbid it But if there had been any Proceedings upon those Writs for the Election of Members to constitute an House of Commons for that or any long time expended in the duration thereof few of whom either came or were willing or dared to be present at that new-fancied Parliament which could not be believed to have had any Duration or long Continuance if it had at all gained a lawful beginning or could have overcome those many Obstructions which lay before them those two Knights of the Shire sent out of Yorkshire who had obtained a Writ for their Wages or Charges in coming tarrying or returning and were possibly gone homeward or shortly going would not have made such hast to be gone It being alwayes to be remembred that although King Edward the First had so subdued Wales as to make them obedient unto such Laws as he would have them obey yet King Henry the Eighth was the first that removed the Barr and accustomed distances and Enmities that had long continued between the English and the Welsh when in the 27 th year of His Reign he did incorporate his Dominion of Wales with his Kingdom of England and ordained that All that were born or to be born in Wales should enjoy the Laws of the Realm which and no other be willed should be used in Wales and that two Knights should be chosen to be Knights as Members in the House of Commons in Parliament for the County and one Burgess for the Town of Monmouth Knights and Burgesses shall be chosen in every Shire and Borough of Wales to come unto the Parliament and have the allowance of Wages as others used to have and there should be two Knights for the County of Chester chosen and two Burgesses for the City to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament Which rendred it to be not only improbable but impossible that any Knights or Burgesses for Wales and the Counties of Chester and Monmouth and the Boroughs thereof in that so New-created Parliament of Symon de Montfort's own framing in Anno 49 of King Henry the Third or in any other Parliaments better authorized until the aforesaid Reign of King Henry the Eighth And it is also remarkable and to be observed that the County Palatine of Durham and the Borough of Newark in the County of Nottingham had no Authority to send Burgesses to Parliament neither did untill His now Majesties Happy Restauration Or if that so would be called Parliament could by any stretch of Fancy have been supposed to have been itinerant with the Army it could never come up to any Probability that that King so governed against his Will by it would the fourth day of June by his Writ dated at Hereford directed to the Mayor and Bayliffs of Bristol have
Expedition into Gascoigne and that he might levy the like upon his Tenants gave One Hundred Twenty Pounds more And of no less Power and Authority with and over the Common People were the rest of our English Nobility which took up Armes with the King or stood Neutrals or at a Gaze until they saw what would become of him witness that of the Earl of Chester who executed the Office of Sheriff by his Deputies for the Counties of Salop and Stafford in the 2d 3d 4th 5th 7th and part of the 8th of Henry the third for the County of Lancaster in the 3d. 4th 5th 6th and the latter end of the 16th was seized of the whole County and Lands of Chester with Royal Jurisdiction Tenenda per Gladiune it à liberè sicut Rex ipse tenebat Angliam per Coronam at the time of the general Survey of the Conqueror was Count Palatine thereof had nine Mannors in Barkshire in Devonshire two in Yorkshire seven in Wiltsshire six in Dorsetshire ten in Somersetshire four in Suffolk thirty-two in Norfolk twelve in Hantshire one in Oxfordshire five in Buckinghamshire three in Gloucestershire four in Huntingtonshire two in Nottinghamshire four in Warwickshire one in Leicestershire twenty-two fifteen great Men of Estate in Cheshire his Barons holding Lands of him and his Heirs as Willielmus Malbane Gislebertus de Venables Rad Venator c. and was seized of that Mountainous part of Yorkshire and Westmoreland called Stanemore Unto one of whose Descendants or Family King Stephen gave the City and Castle of Lincolne with License to Fortify the Town thereof and to enjoy it until he rendred unto him the Castle of Tickhil in Yorkshire granted likewise unto him the Castle of Belvoir with all the Lands thereunto belonging all the Lands of William de Albini Grantham with all its Soke thereunto belonging Newcastle in Staffordshire with the Soke of Roely in com' Leic ' Corkeley in Lincolnshire the Town of Derby with the appurtenances Mansfield in com' Nott ' Stonely in Warwickshire with their appurtenances the Wapentake of Oswardbeck in com' Nott ' and all the Lands of Roger de Busty with the Honour of Blythe and all the Lands of Roger de Poictou from Northamptom to Scotland excepting that which belonged to Roger de Montbegon in Lincolnshire all the Lands betwixt the Rivers of Ribble and Merse in Lancashire the Lands which he had in Demesne in the Mannor of Grimsby in com' Lincolne and all the Lands which the Earl of Gloucester had in Demesne in that Mannor the Honour of Eye Nottingham Barony and Castle Stafford and the whole County of Stafford except the Fees of the Bishop of Chester Earl Robert Ferrers Hugh de Mortimer Gervase Paganel and the Forrest of Canoc the Fees of Alan de Lincolne Ernise de Burun Hugh de Scoteny Robert de Chalz Rafe Fitz Oates Norman de Verdun and Robert de Staford Odo Bishop of Baieux William the Conquerors half Brother had one hundred eighty-four Mannors given him in Kent thirty-nine in Essex thirty-two in Oxfordshire in Hartfordshire thirty-three in Buckingham thirty in Worcestershire two in Bedfordshire eight Northamptonshire twelve in Nottinghamshire five in Norfolk twenty-two in Warwickshire six in Lincolnshire seventy-six amounting in the whole to Five Hundred Forty-Nine whereof two hundred eighty he gave saith Mr. Selden to his Nephew de Molbraio Earl John afterwards King of England had in the Life time of King Richard the First his Brother the Earldomes of Cornwall Dorset Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with the then large Possessions thereof and had in Marriage with Isabel Daughter and Heir to the Earl of Gloucester that Earldom together with the Castles of Marleburgh Ludgersel Honours of Wallingford Tickhil and Eye John Earl of Surrey and Sussex had in Yorkshire the great Lordship of Connigsburgh in the Soke whereof were near twenty-eight Towns and Hamlets Westtune in Shropshire in Essex twenty-one Lordships in Suffolk eighteen in Oxfordshire Maple Durham and Gaddington in Hantshire Frehinton in Cambridgeshire seven in Buckinghamshire Brotone and Cauretelle in Huntingtonshire Chevevaltone with three other Lordships in Bedfordshire four and in Norfolk one hundred thirty-nine and the Castle of Rigate in Surrey Yale and Bromfeild with their large Extents in Shropshire and was at the Battle of Lewes on the King's part Ralph de Mortimer had given him by the Conqueror in Berkshire five Mannors in Yorkshire eighteen besides divers Hamlets in Wiltshire ten in Hantshire thirteen in Oxfordshire one in Worcestershire four in Warwickshire one in Lincolnshire seven in Leicestershire one in Shropshire fifty in Herefordshire nineteen besides the Castle of Wigmore And Roger de Mortimer Earl of March a Descendant of the same House and Family was in the Raigns of King Edward the First and Second besides their former large Estates in Lands seized of the Town of Droitwick and Chace of Malverne in com' Wigorn ' the Chase of Cors in com' Glou ' the Castle of Trym in Ireland with its large Territory and Appurtenance and in VVales the Castles of Kentlies Dominion of Melenith and Comott of Duder Castle of Radnor with the Territory of VVarthre and Mannors of Prestmede or Presteigne and Kineton Castles of Ruecklas and Pulith Castles and Lordships of Bledleveny and Bulkedinas Castle and Mannor of Nerberth Comots of Amgeid and Pennewick Castles and Dominions of Montgomery and Bulkedinas Mannor and Hundred of Cherbury Castle of Dolvaren and Territory of Redevaugh Town and Territory of Ewyas Castles of Kery and Rodewin Castle of Dynebegh Castle and Cantred of Buelch Comots of Ros Rowenock Konuegh and Diomam and in Somersetshire the Castle of Brugwater with three Mannors Bayliwick of the Forrests of North Pederton Exmore Noreech Chich Mendip and Warren of Somerton three Mannors in Kent one in com' Buck ' and one in Staffordshire and kept in his House a constant Table in imitation of King Arthurs Round Table for one hundred Knights King Henry the Third after the Battle of Evesham gave unto his Son Edmond to hold to him and the Heirs of his Body the Earldom Honour and Lands of Leicester and Stewardship of England the Earldom Honour and Lands with the Castles Mannors and Lands of Robert de Ferrers Earl of Derby and Nicholas de Segrave the Custody of the Castles of Caermarden and Cardigan and Isie of Lundy the Castle of Sherborne in com' Dors ' the Castle of Kenilworth in com' VVarwick with all the Lands thereunto belonging the Honour Earldom Castle and Town of Lancaster and was Count Palatine thereof with their Appurtenances together with the Castle of Tutbury with its great Appurtenances in the County of Stafford the Honour and Castle of Monmouth the Honour Town and Castle of Leicester with all the Lands and Knights Fees which Symon de Montfort had Whose Son and Heir Thomas Earl of Lancaster having as an addition to the great Estates in Lands remaining unto him after his Father divers
other Mannors Lands and vast Possessions in the Right of Alice Daughter and Heir of Lacy Earl of Lincolne appertaining to that Earldom gave costly Liveries of Furrs and Purple to Barons Knights and Esquires attending in his House or place of Residence and paid in the 7th Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Six Hundred Twenty-Three Pounds Sixteen Shillings Six Pence when a little Money went as far as a great deal now to divers Earls Barons Knights and Esquires for Fees and being in great Discord with King Edward the Second his Nephew concerning Gaveston the two Despencers Father and Son his Favourites and some Grievances of the Nation complained of and the Pope having sent two Cardinals into England to endeavour a Pacification betwixt them they with the King Queen Arch-Bishop of Canterbury all the Bishops Cum Comitibus Baronibus Magnatibus Regni went to Leicester to have an Enterview and Treaty with the said Thomas Earl of Lancaster whither the King being come saith the Historian Occurrit ei Thomas Comes Lancaster die ei ex hac parte praefixo apud Sotisbrig stipatus pulcherrimâ multitudine hominum cum equis quod non occurrit quempiam retroactis temporibus vidisse aliquem Comitem duxisse tà m pulchram multitudinem hominum cum equis sic benè arraitorum scilicet 18. mille cùmque Rex Comes obviarent sine magna difficultate osculati sunt facti sunt chari Amici quòad intuitum circùm astantium In Anno 46. Henry the Third the King granted to John Earl of Richmond the Honor and Rape of Hastings in com' Sussex and in Anno 29. the Honor of Eagle and Castle of Pevensey in com' Sussex to whose Ancestors William the Conqueror had before granted all the Northern part of the County of York called Richmond being formerly the Possessions of Earl Edwyn a Saxon. Percy a great Baron in Northumberland and the Northern parts had thirty-two Lordships in Lincolneshire in Yorkshire eighty-six besides Advowsons Knights Fees free Warrens c. and was on the King's part at the Battle of Lewes Richard Earl of Cornewall had in the 11th of Henry the Third a Grant of the whole County of Rutland in Anno 15. of the Castle and Honor of Wallingford with the Appurtenances and the Mannor of Watlington all the Lands in England which Queen Isabell the King's Mother held in Dower the whole County of Cornewall with the Stanneries and Mines the Castle and Honor of Knaresburgh in the County of York the Castle of Lidford and Forrest of Dertmore the Castle of Barkhamsteed with the Appurtenances in the County of Hartford with many Knights Fees Advowsons free Warrens Liberties c. In the Raign of Henry the Third William de Valence afterwards Earl of Pembroke was seized of the Castle of Hartford with the Appurtenances of the Mannors of Morton and Wardon in com' Glouc ' Cherdisle and Policote in com' Buck ' Compton in com' Dors ' Sapworth Colingborow Swindon Jutebeach and Boxford in com' Wilts ' Sutton and Braborne in com' Kanc ' and of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Surrey and Sussex Robert de Todeney Father of William de Albini built the Castle of Belvoir and had seventy-nine Mannors with large Immunities and Priviledges thereunto belonging Beauchamp of Elmeley of whom the Earls of Warwick of that Name were descended had by the Grant of King Henry the First bestowed upon him all the Lands of Roger de Wircester with many Priviledges to those Lands belonging and likewise the Shrievalty of Worcestershire to hold as freely as any of his Ancestors had done had the Castle of Worcester by Inheritance from Emelin de Ubtot the Mannors of Beckford Weston and Luffenham in com' Rutland executed the Shrievalty of Warwickshire in 2d Henry the Second so also in Gloucestershire from the 3d. to the 9th Inclusive for Herefordshire from the 8th to the 16th certified his Knights Fees to be in number Fifteen had by Marriage and his Inheritance the Honor and Castle of Warwick with Wedgenock Park and all those vast Possessions of the Earldom of Warwick enjoyed by Earl Walleran or Mauduit Baron of Hanslap his Heir Bolebeck of the County of Buckingham at the time of William the Conqueror's Survey was seized of Ricote in com' Oxon ' Waltine in com' Hunt ' and of Missedene Elmodesham Cesteham Medeinham Broch Cetedone Wedon Culoreton Linford Herulfmede and Wavendon in com' Buck ' and in 11th Henry the Third one of that Family certified his Knights Fees holden of the King to be eight of the Earl of Buckingham twenty Another of the same Name and Family in the County of Northumberland was enfeoffed of divers Lordships by King Henry the First one of whose Descendants in 12. Henry the Second certified his Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento to be four and a half and three and two Thirds de novo and left Issue by Margaret his Wife one of the Sisters and Coheirs of Richard de Montfichet a great Baron of Essex Hugh de Bolebeck who in 4. Henry the Third was Sheriff of Northumberland and possessed of twenty-seven Mannors in that County with the Grange of Newton and the Moyety of Bywell The Lord Clifford and his Descendants was then and not long after seized of the Borough of Hartlepole in the Bishoprick of Durham three Mannors in Oxfordshire three in Wiltshire Frampton and part of Lece in com' Glouc ' seven in com' Heref ' Corfham Culminton and three other Mannors in com' Salop ' the Castle of Clifford in com' Heref ' Mannor of Temedsbury or Tenbury and five other Mannors in com' VVigorn ' Castle and Mannor of Skipton in Craven Forrest of Berden the Chase of Holesdon the Towns of Sylesdon and Skieldon with the Hamlets of Swarthowe and Bromiac third part of the Mannor and Priory of Bolton in com' Eborum ' Mannors of Elwick Stranton and Brorton in com' Northum ' Castles and Mannor of Apleby Burgh Pendragon and Bureham the Wood of Quintel twenty-four Mannors and the Moiety of the Mannor of Maltby in the County of Cumberland the Mannor of Duston and eighteen other Mannors in the County of VVestmoreland together with the Shrievalty of that County to him and his Heirs descended unto him from the Baron of Vipont VVilliam de Peverell an illegitimate Son of VVilliam the Conqueror had in the 2d Year of his Raign when all places of Trust and Strength were committed to the King 's chiefest Friends and Allies the Castle of Nottingham then newly Built given unto him and with it or soon after divers Lands in several Counties of a large Extent for by the general Survey it appears that he had then forty four Lordships in Northamptonshire two in Essex two in Oxfordshire in Bedfordshire two in Buckinghamshire nine in Nottinghamshire fifty-five with forty-eight Trades-Mens Houses in Nottingham at Thirty-Six Shillings Rent per Annum seven Knights Houses and Bordars of
Fourth the Commons shewing to the King that Comme les Juggements du Parlement appurteignont seulement au Roy as Seigneurs nient as Commones si noun en case que sil plest au Roy de sa grace especile leur monstrer ses ditz Juggements pur ease d' eux que nul record soit fait en Parlement encontre les ditz Communes que sont ou serrent partyes as escunes Juggementz donez ou adonees ou apres en Parlement A quoi leur feust respondu per l' Ercevesque de Canterbire de commandement du Roy 〈…〉 ment mesmes les Commones sont Petitioners demandeurs que le Roy les Seigneurs de tout temps ont eves averont de droit les Juggementz en Parlement en manere come mesme les Comones ount Monstrez sauvez quen Statutz Affaires ou en Grauntez subsides ou tiel choses Affaires pur comon profit du Royalme le Roy voit avoir especialment leur Advys Assent que cel ordre de fait soit tenuz gardez en tout temps adveniz And the Earls and Temporal Barons were by vertue of their Tenures and Summons of Parliament since the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the Second said to be Conciliarij nati of the King and Kingdom and the Bishops to sit there then and long before by reason of their Baronies which no Member of the House of Commons is or can claim to be in our King 's great Councels or Parliament until the framing of that aforesaid novel Writ to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third and after his Release was discontinued and no more made use of until the 22d Year of the Raign of King Edward the First his Son and the Heirs by ancient Customes of that Court under and by the Kings Authority do exercise in Causes and Complaints brought before them a judicial and decisive Power And in the preceding Times and Ages until that new Writ of Elections was contrived and imposed upon that distressed and much injured Prince Certissimum est saith that learned and judicious Antiquary Sir henry Spelman that the Nobility and Barons which did hold immediately of the King in Capite judicijs praefuêre Aulae Regiae did usually sit and determine Causes or Controversies in the King's Court or Palace as the Barons of the Coife in the Exchequer who were heretofore Earls and Barons do at this day judge and determine of Matters touching the King's Revenues And as the Lords of Mannors in their Courts Barons do admit none to be Judges in those their little Courts but their Tenants who are Free-holders and do hold of them and being stiled and said to be of the Homage do subserviently manage the Affairs of their Lords therein who did very anciently use to act therein Concilio prudentum hominum militum suorum by their Presentments Advice and Judgements and are therein not much differing from the Customs and Laws of the Longobards where their Emperor commanded that Nullus Miles nobiscum saith Sir Henry Spelman Liber homo sine certâ convictâ culpâ suum beneficium perdat nisi secundum consuetudinem Antecessorum nostrorum et judicium Parium suorum In which saith Sir Henry Spelman Th 〈…〉 is an Idea of our Magna Charta the Free-holders in the Hundred Courts being thither also called Conformable to the League made by King Alfred with Guthrun the Dane wherein Homicide sive de crimine alio quod quatuor marcas excederet postularetur per duodecim ex paribus reliquos autem subditos per 11 Pares unumque ex Baronibus Regis fore judicandos And to the Laws of our King Henry the First wherein it was ordained That Unusquisque per Pares judicandus est si quis in Curia sua vel in quibuslibet agendorum locis placitum tractandum habet convocet Pares vicinos suos si inter compares vicinos sint querelae conveniant ad divisas terrarum suarum qui prior queremoniam fecerit prior rectum habeat si alias ire oporteat in Curiam domini sui eant si unum dominum habeant Soca sit ejus illic eos amicitia congreget aut sequestret judicium And may seem to be derived from the Laws and Customs of the Germans where by the Court of Peers are understood Causarum feudalium Judices à Caefare constituti qui sine provocatione cognoscebant to be Judges appointed by the Emperor to hear and determine without appeal Matters concerning their Lands and Territories where the like usage and term of Peers in their Judicatures Great Councels or Diets is at this day used the Princes of the Empire being Paribus cu 〈…〉 ae and such are those of our House of Peers in Parliament being the highest Court of the Kingdom of England where none were admitted or did administer Justice Nisi qui proximi essent à Rege ipsique arctioris fidei homagij vinculo conjuncti but such as were near unto the King and held of him in Capite which kind of Tenures howsoever they were most unhappily Dissolved by a late Act of Parliament in His now Majesties Raign for converting Tenures in Capite into free and common Socage were by an Exception and Proviso in the said Act of Parliament as to the Rights and Priviledges of the Peers in Parliament specially saved and reserved unto them who were heretofore Capitanei regni as Sir Henry Spelman saith Captains of the Kingdom and Peers obliged and bound unto their Kings by Homage and Fealty in that highest and most honourable Court of the Kingdom wherein the Judicative Power of Parliament under their King their Head and chief Resides which high and honourable Assembly reverencing and taking Care for their Head and Soveraign the only under God Protector of themselves the Church and all their worldly Concernments and Liberties Was so much used in France as saith Conringius Proceres temporibus Francorum temporibus antiquissimis Concilio interfuisse plurimis quidem testimonijs in proclivi est and cites a Book written per Theganum Chorepiscopum Trevirensem de gestis Ludovici Imper ' Ca. 6. ubi de Carolo Magno Imperatore legitur Cùm intellexisset appropinquare sibi diem obitus sui vocavit filium Ludovicum ad se Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus loco positis habuit grande colloquium cum ijs Aquisgravi eodem spectat procul dubiò Hinckmari who was a Bishop and Councellor of Charlesmaynes illud concilium Lodovico Baldo datum epistolam ut rempublicam administret ex Procerum aut Principum consensu nusquam Plebis mentione factâ unde epistolam illam claudens Ca. 10. Scribit de generalibus Ecclesiae Regni negotijs fine generali Procerum regni consensu concilio secretum dare concilium nefas etiam
of Wards and Liveries with other the Premises And all Tenures of any Lands holden of the King or any others shall be turned into free and Common Socage and be discharged of all Homage Escuage Voiages Royal Wardships and Aide Pour file marier pour faire fitz Chivaler livery ouster le maine all Statutes repealed concerning the same all Tenures hereafter to be created by the King his Heirs or Successors shall be in free and Common Socage Provided that that Act extend not to take away Rents certain Herriots or Suits of Court belong ing to any other Tenures taken away or altered by that Act or other Services incident to common Socage or any Releifes due and payable in cases of free and common Socage or of any Fines for Alienations holden of the King by any particular Customes of Lands and Places other then of Lands holden immediately of the King in Capite Nor extend unto any Tenures in Franck Almoigne or by Copy of Court Roll honorary Services by grand Serjeanty other then what are before dissolved or taken away Provided that this Act nor any thing therein contained shall infringe or hurt any Title of Honour feodal or other by which any person hath or may have right to sit in the Lords House in Parliament as to his or their Title of Honour or Sitting in Parliament and the Priviledges belonging to them as Peers And that that Act extend not to any the Rights and Priviledges of His Majesty in his Tynn Mines in Cornewal In recompence whereof the King shall have the Excise of Ale Beer Perry and Syder Strong and Distilled Waters setled by that or some other Act of Parliament touching the Excise upon the King during his Life and a Moyety only after his death to His Heirs and Successors And are by Sir Henry Spelman said to be non solùm jure positivo Sed Gentium quodammodo Naturae not only by positive but the Laws of Nations and Nature Especially when it was not to arise from any compulsory incertain way or involuntary Contribution or out of any personal or movable Estate cases of Relief only excepted but to fix and go along with the Lands as an easy and beneficial Obligation and Perpetuity upon it and was so incorporate and inherent as it was upon the matter a Co-existence or Being with it Glanvil and Bracton being of Opinion with the Emperour Justiniam that the King must have Armes as well as Laws to govern by and not depend ex aliorum Arbitrio and therefore the Prelates Earles and Commonalty of the Realm did in a Parliament in the 7th Year of the Raign of King Edward the 1st declare it to be necessarily belonging unto him and to none other Judge Hutton in his Argument in the case of the Shipmony in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr and diverse other Learned Judges and Lawyers have declared Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service to be so inseparable from the Crown as not to be aliened or dissolved by any Act or Authority of Parliament Some of whom could not forget that a Design having been presented and offered unto King James when the Scots had by their importunityes much enfeebled the Royal Revenue by some who neither understood our Fundamental Laws or the Constitution of our Government and having considerable Estates in the County of York and Bishoprick of Durham and being Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and mischievous enough in the long Rebellious Parliament a Revenue of Two hundred thousand pound per Annum to dissolve his Courts of Wards and Liveries and release his Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service and the King liked so well of those Hopes of augmenting his overwasted Revenue as he with Promises of great Rewards to the Designers ordered a Table to be purposely kept at White-Hall for them untill they had brought their undertakings to perfection unto which the Reverend Judges being summoned by the King to deliberate and give their Opinions could find neither Law or right Reason for the taking away of those Tenures with their incidents even by an Act of Parliament Insomuch as the Design and Table were laid down and no more thought of until the unhappy Fate and Misery of forsaking and destroying Fundamentals did so drive it on afterwards as it hath done by our abandoning the old ways and the Truths thereof into those very many Misfortunes which it hath brought us into already and will more and more into the Prophet Jeremiah's Lamentations And so greatly resembled that very antient way of the great Councels or Parliaments in France drawn and derived from their Ancestors the Francks and other their Northern Progenitors in and of that Kingdom long before there inhabiting until the miseries brought by the English Conquests and their own Divisions upon that people by those Warrs and their seeking in the interim to govern their Kings and Domineer over them in the midst of their Troubles Necessities and Disabilities to protect them had constrained some of their after Kings as Lewis the 11th one of their Kings to find the way to govern so Arbitrarily as they have since done with a continual so limited Parliament as it signifieth little more than an extraordinary Court of Justice and verify the Edicts of his prerogative Power with a car tel est nostre plaisir Insomuch as those kind of Tenures and beneficial Mutualites might not improbably have been here introduced by the Saxons from one and the same or a like Radix or Original before the Normans Atcheivements and Acquests either here or in France or by what they had learned or practised of the Feudal Laws in the Empire or after the Normans had brought England their long before Compatriots into subjection and in the Reigns of some of their after Kings continued Masters of Normandy Aniou Aquitaine Mayne and Poicteau and of so many other great parts and Provinces of the French Dominions as in process of time they gained a full Possession of the residue and in a short time after lost them all by our own Domestick Ambitions and Discords So as one Egg of the same kind cannot commonly be more like in it's external Form and Likeness to an other then the antient and ever-to-be-approved Method of our and their former great Councels or Parliaments were Wherein may warrantably without any suspicion of an Arbitrary Government be vouched and called the learned Sieur du Fresne a man of vast Reading and Litterature and not only Learned in all the Roman and Northern Antiquities but in our Old English Saxon Laws and the allowed classical and veritable Authors and Writers of our Nation and to whom the Learned Works of our Glanvil Bracton Littleton Fortescue Coke Stamford Spelman and Selden were no Strangers when in his Glossary or Comment upon the word Pares he represents unto us the Figure or lively Picture of our own ancient Customes and Usages in our great Councels
ad loquendum or as King Henry the 3d. in the 36th Year of his Reign did call the Londoners to Westminster about taking upon them the Cross and attending him in those Wars representing in that particular only their own Estates or Qualities When in a Parliament holden by the Queen and her Councell in his absence in France in the 38th year of his Reign though Mathew Paris and Mr Daniel have given us no intimation of a Parliament then holden wherein do not appear to have been any Commons or House of Commons the Lords gave an aid by themselves the Clergy doing the like as is evidenced by the 2 following Records in these words viz. Rex dilecto fideli suo Willielmo de Oddinggeseles salutem Cum Venerabilis pater B. Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Episcopi provinc Cant. R. Com. Cornub. frater noster R. Com. Glouc. alii Com. Barones in quindena sci Hillarii jam praetoriti apud London coram dilecta Regina nostra Consilio nostro Commorante in Anglia constituti nobis promiserunt liberaliter benigni facere auxilium decens perutile viz. quidam prelati in propriis personis quidam in pecunia Comites vero Barones in propriis personis suis potenter contra Regem Castelliae qui terram nostram Vasconiae in manu forti in quindena Pasche proxime futur hostiliter est ingressurus vos ex toto corde requirimus quod sicut supradicti Commites Barones nobis promiserunt quod erunt London A die Paschae prox futur in tres septimanas parati bene muniti sine ulla dilatione versus Vasconiam ad nos personaliter movere vos ad dictas diem et locum modo consimili veniatis omni occasione dilatione postpositis ad tendendum versus portesmum cum praefatis Magnatibus ad transfretandi cum eisdem ad nos in Vasconiam et hoc in fide qua nobis tenemini vobis firmiter injungimus sicut honorem nostrum indempnitatem corporis nostri diligitis T. per Reginam 5. die Febr. Et mand est per Henr. 3 Regem in An. 38. regni sui Archiepiscopis et Episcopis totius Angliae quatenus cum festinatione omni convocent omnes Abbates et Priores suae Diocesis cujuscunque sint ordinis inducentes modis omnibus quod nobis in praesenti necessitate subveniant manu lar 〈…〉 lua ne per defectum ipsorum vel aliorum corporis incurramus periculum et terrae nostrae jacturam quod absit quia id verteretur in vestrum ipsorum opprobium sempiternum sic igitur vestra vigilet discretio circa praedictum auxilium tam a vobis deferendum quam a subditis vestris per quirendum quod futuris temporibus vobis ipsis simus non immerito obligati Proviso quod praefatum auxilium habeamus apud Westmonasterium in quindenam Pasche proxime futuram sine defectu hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum nec non indempnitatem corporis nostri diligitis non omitatis Dirigitur etiam litera ista Archiepiscopo Cantuar cum hac clausula quod ordinariam jurisdictionem exercetis vacante sede in Episcopatu Linc. vos requirimus affectuose quatenus officiariis vestris et Archiediacono ejusdem Episcopatus scribatis attente quod tempestive convocent omnes Abbates Priores ejusdem Episcopatus cujuscunque sine ordinis ad certos dies locum abducentes eos nudis omnibus quod in hoc necessitate vestrae concilium nobis faciant subventionem And the failing to perform Military services was afterwards by the Statutes of 6. E. 1. ca. 4. 13. E. 1. ca. 21. made so Penall and fixed upon them as after a Cessavit per Biennium in the performing of their service the King or Chief Lord might by writs ordained to be granted out of the Chancery demand and prosecute to recover the same and such Tenants after Judgments had against them were to be for ever barred to demand or enjoy the same and where either the King demands Escuage of his Tenants or the mean Lords demands Escuage of their Tenants it was to be assessed in Parliament and Proved or disproved by Certificate of the Marshall of the Kings Host who is enabled thereunto by his Roll kept for that purpose When in Parliament the members of the house of Commons either holding Lands in Capite or of mesne Lords by Knights Service were not upon denying to grant Subsidies or Aydes to the King to forfeit or lose their lands according to the aforesaid Acts of Parliament or otherwise And such kind of Courts for lands holden in Capite or by Knights service should not by the most ordinary and mean Capacities be understood to be one and the same with the great Court or Councell of Parliament which many times by the Power and Authority of the King in that his Highest Court corrects and rectifies the defaults of the other Our high Courts of Parliament having the Judges of the Land subordinate to their Prince whether they have lands holden in Capite or no land summoned by his writs to give their Councell and advice as to matters of Law and the ancient customs of the Kingdom wherein the King is attended with his great Ministers or Officers of State as the Lord Chancellor Treasurer Privy Seal great Chamberlain of England Lord Steward and Chamberlain of his houshold and Lord Admirall whether of the degree of Barronage or holding of him in Capite or not with other great solemn formalities becoming the honour and State thereof with which that most honourable assembly is accompanied greatly different from those lesser Courts or Councell of summoning and calling together those that were only proper or obliged to actions of war or to know how their services were performed when our Parliaments being summoned to treat and advise of matters concerning peace and the defence of the Church and de quibusdam arduis only and have sometimes no matters of war consulted thereon Those military Councells anciently summoned for service in war and defence being in a very different form from Parliamentary Councells as for further satisfaction may be manifested by the writs aforesaid And was no more then what every Earl and Baron had in their Courts and Jurisdidictions when they summoned the Tenants holding of them by Knights service to their Courts of honour or their honorary Possessions which were in our records frequently stiled as the honors of Eagle Eye Leicester Hedingham Penerel Arundel c. to which purpose they had their Escheators Feodares and Stewards to preside or officiate therein subordinate unto them when they called their Tenants together either to ayd ride or go along with them in the wars and service of their Prince and Country or to pay them their reliefs or ayds pairfile marier which the Law Interpreteth to be only the elder or to make the eldest Son a Knight or to do their
Administration of his Justice for the good of his Subjects as in the 3 year of his Reign he did cause an Act of Parliament to be made to punish frauds and deceits in Serjeants or Pleaders in his Courts of Justice under no less a Penalty and Punishment then a Year and a Days Imprisonment with a Fine and ransome at the Kings pleasure and be never more after suffred to practise in any of the Kings Courts of Justice And if it be an Officer of Fee his Office shall be taken into the Kings hands and whether they be of the one kind of the Offenders or orher shall pay unto the Complainant the treble value of what they have received in like manner And thus that great King by the Testimony Applause of the Age wherein he lived justly merited the Honour to be Inrolled in the Records of Time History and Fame for a most Prudent and valiant Prince in his personal valour much exceeding that of the exttaordinarily Wise Solomon Alexander the great Julius Caesar the politique Hannibal the wary Fabius or his valorous and daring great Uncle Richard the first of that name King of England rendred himself equal to all the great Kings and Captains that lived before or after him And might have thought himself and his Successors to have been in some condition of safety when the Writ or Election of Members in the House of Commons in Parliament were to be only by his own Writs and Authority and the Sheriffs who were not the Parliament Officers but the Kings and by the Law to be sworn unto him not unto both or either of the Houses of Parliament and were strictly to observe and execute his Writs and Mandates SECT XIX That the Sheriffs are by the Tenor and Command of the Writs for the Elections of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses of the Parliament Cities and Burrough-Towns the only Judges under the King Who are fit and unfit to be Members in the House of Commons in Parliament and that the Freeholders and Burgesses more then by a Just and Impartial Assent and Information who were the Fittest were not to be the Electors FOr the Commissions or Mandates of Inferiour Judges Magistrates or Courts or their power and authorities over executed and further then the true Intentions and proper Significations of the words therein not overstrained or racked or not as they ought to be duly executed are in our and the Laws of most of the Nations of the World accounted to be void liable to punishment And it ought not to Escape our or any other mens observations that the County Court of a Sheriff is as Sr Edward Coke saith no Court of Record and is in it self of so Petit a Consideration as it holdeth no Plea of any Debt or Damage to the value of Forty Shilings or above or of any trespass vi armis because a fine is thereby due to the King is Called the Sheriffs County Court and the Stile of it is Curia Vicecomitibus the Writs for the Summoning of the Commons or Barons of the Cinque-Ports who have been since 49. H. 3. and the allowance thereof in 22. E. 1. after a long discontinuance accompted as Burgesses are directed to the Warden or Guardian of the Cinque-ports as they are to the Sheriffs of every County for the Choice and Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses And the Sheriffs authority as to that particular affair is so Comprised in the Writs as they are not to swerve or depart from the tenor or purport thereof which are made by the Chancellor of the King or Keeper of the Great Seal of England sometimes by a Warrant under the King 's own hand as in the fifth year of the Reign of King Eward the 3d in the words following viz. Rex Vicecomiti Eborum Salutem Quia propter quaedam magna ardua negotia nos ducatum nostrum Aquitaniae ac alias terras nostras in partibus trausmarinis pro quibus ad easdem partes nuper Solemnes nuntios nostros destinaverimus Contingentique in ultimo Parliamento nostro a quibus certis Causis terminari non potuerint Parliamentum nostrum apud Westmonasterium die Lunae in Crastino quindeux Paschae proxime futurae teneri cum Praelatis Magnatibus proceribus dicti Regni ordinavimus habere Colloquium tractatum tibi praecipimus firmiter Injungentes quod de dicto Comitatu duos milites de qualibet Civitate Comitatus illius duos Cives de qualibet Burgo duos Burgenses de discretioribus ad Laborandum potentioribus eligi eos ad dictum diem Locum venire faciatis ita quod milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se Communitate Comitatus praedicti dicti Cives Burgenses pro se Communitate Civitatum Burgorum divisim ab ipsis habeant ad faciendum Consentiendum iis quae tunc de Communi Concilio favente Deo ordinari Contigerint super negotiis antedictis ita quod pro defectu hujusmodi potestatis dicta negòtia ineffecta non remaneant quovis modo habeas ibi nominia praedictorum militum Civium Burgensium hoc bre hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum tranquilitatem quietem dicti Regni diligitis nullatenus omittatis c. T. Anno 5. E. 3. 17. Febr. per ipsum Regem Wherein none of the Spirituall and Temporal Barons or their Tenants for the Land anciently belonging unto their Baronies or the Clergy having no Lay Fee Tenants of the King and Ancient demesne though many of those kind of Tenants do take upon them to do it Abbots and Priors Monks or Fryers which latter are to be accompted as dead Persons in Law Copy-holders and Widdows are neither to be Electors or Elected nor Persons attainted of Felony or Treason Outlawed or Prisoners in execution for Debt and the Sheriffs in their returns or Indentures are not to return as they did sometimes or do now that the Freeholders elegerunt but that the Sheriff elegi fecit as was done in 8. E. 2. by a Sheriff of Roteland quod Elegifeci in pleno Comitatu per Communitatem totius Communitatis illius duos milites de discretioribus In a return of a Writ of Summons in 18. E. 3. Drogo de Barentine the Sheriff of Oxford and Berkshire returned that Richardum de Vere militem Johannen de Croxford de Com. Oxon Richardum de Walden Johannem de Vachell de Com Berk de assensu arbitrio hominumeorundum Com. nominatos premuniri feci firmiter injunxi quod sint ad diem Locum c. And a Sheriff of Leicester and Warwickshire mentioning the day when the Writ of Summons was delivered unto him saith it was per manus cujusdam exteanei de Garderoba Domini Regis q 〈…〉 nomen suum sibi nonnominavit nec billam expectavit and that he had thereupon chosen Robert
Subjoyned Writ will manifest in the form ensuing viz. Rex dilectis fidelibus suis Godfr Foliambe sociis suis Custodibus pacis nostrae in Com. Lancastr Salutem cum nuper pro eo quod super Electionem recitando usque redder et nobis Certiores ac jam intellexerimus quod praedicti Edwardus Laurentius qui locum tenentes dict vic existunt retornum brevium nostrorum Com. praedict faciunt breve nostrum praedictum penes se retinent executionem aliquam inde hactenus facere non Curarunt nihilominus vadia illa indies levari faciant in nostri deceptionem manifestam nos volentes hujusmodi deceptioni obviare vobis mandamus quod prox Sessione vestra vocatis Coram vobis militibus allis probis hominibus ejusdem Com. aliis quos noveritis evocando diligentem Informationem inquisitionem super praemissis capiatis de eo quod in hac parte inveneritis nos in Cancellaria nostra sub Sigillis vestris aut alicujus vestrum distincte aperte sine dilatione reddatis Certiores hoc breve nobis remittentes T. R. apud Westm. per ipsum Regem Et mandatum est vic Lanc. quod levationi dictorum vadiorum Supersedeat quousque aliud inde de Rege habuerit in mandatis T. ut supra per ipsum Regem Upon which Mr Pryn observeth that the King in that age not the House of Commons examined and determined all disputable and undue Elections Complained of and ordered that the Knights whose elections were unduly made should not receive their wages or expences untill the Legality of their elections were examined and that the King may cause the Elections to be examined by speciall Writts to the Sheriffs or Justices of the Peace in his default to Enquire and Certify the legality of their elections by the Testimony of their Electors or Assenters out of the whole County and untill full Examination Supersede the Levying of their Wages and in his Plea for the House of Lords and Peers saith that the Statute made in the 8th year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th and the 11th of King Henry the 6th upon the Petitions and Complaint of the Commons in Parliament to the King and Lords which Inflicted Penalties upon the Sheriffs for making undue Elections and retorns which formerly were Arbitrary at the discretion of the King and to be Tryed not by the Commons alone without Oath upon Information as now but by the Justices Assigned to take Assizes and that by enquest and due examination therein if the Sheriff be found Guilty he shall forfeit one hundred pounds to the King and the Knights unduly retorned shall lose their Wages not to be turned out saith Mr Pryn by a Committee for Privileges of the House of Commons and that the Statutes of 1. H. 5. ca. 1. 6. H. ca. 4. 8. H. 6. ca. 7. 22. H. 6. ca. 15. touching the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament do not alter the Law or Impower the House of Commons to determine the Legality of any Elections but leave them as before to the King by the advice of the Lords to redress as these Law-books viz. Dier 113. 168. Plowden 118. to 131. Old Book of Entries 446. 447. have resolved and are not to follow any late Arbitrary Precedents but the ancient usage and Law of our Parliaments and solid reason which will not Justify those late Innovations or extravagancies for when men are saith the Learned Sr Robort Filmer Assembled by an humane power the authority that doth assemble them Can also limit and direct the execution of that Power SECT XX. Of the small Numbers of Knights of the Shires and Burgesses which were Elected and came in the Reign of King Edward the first upon his aforesaid Writs of Election and how their Numbers now amounting unto very many more were after increased by the corruption of Sheriffs and the ambition of such as desired to be Elected FOr Mr. Pryn in his indefatigable and most exact searches of the Summons and Elections of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and the return of the Sheriff thereupon which he himself as well as others might have then thought unnecessary and superfluous yet are now of great use for the discovery of long hidden truths hath in all the Reigns of King Edward 1. Edward the 2. Edward the 3. Richard 2. Henry 4. King H. 5. 6. and Edward the 4th found no more then 170. Boroughs Cities and Ports either Summoned by Sheriffs or their precepts or Writs to elect or return or actually electing returning Knights Citizens Burgesses and Barons of the Cinque ports to attend in Parliament that of those 170. Glastonbury in Somersetshire Overton in Hantshire St Edmondsbury in Suffolk Hoden and Richmond in Yorkshire had only one precept issued unto them Odiham 2 precepts Alton and Basingstake in Hantshire 4 precepts to elect and send Burgesses to Parliament upon neither of which they returned any Burgesses as the Sheriffes returns of ballivi libertatis nullum dederunt responsum or nihil inde fecerunt will attest whereupon they never had any more precepts of that nature sent unto them before the end of King Edward 4's Reign Christchurch only excepted which of late Years hath elected and returned Burgesses So that in truth 20 of those 170. Namely Newbury in Barkshire Freminton Modbury South Molton in Devonshire Bromyard Ledbury Ros in Herefordshire Dunster Langeport Monteacute Stoke Cursey Matchet Ware in Somersetshire Alesford in the County of Southamton Oreford in Suffolk Gatton in Surrey Alverton Malton and Pontefract in Yorkshire elected and returned Burgesses but once for one single Parliament and no more Mere in Wiltshire and Rippon in Yorkshire upon two several precepts made only one election Five more of those antient Boroughs as Lidford in Cornewall Bradnesham Okehamtam in Devonshire Andover in Hampshire Woodstoke in Oxfordshire and that 3 of 5 Severall Precepts the Sheriffs returned quod ballivi nullum dederunt responsum Farneham in Surrey Grantham in Lincolnshire and Beverley in Yorkshire upon five precepts did but twice elect during the Reigns of the aforesaid Kings and 4 more to wit Cheping-Norton and Dodington in Oxfordshire Mulliborne port in Somersetshiee and Coventry in Warwickshire made in all the times aforesaid but 3 elections Poole in Dorsetshire Webley in Herefordshire Witney in Oxfordshire and Aixbrugh in Somersetshire upon 5 precepts had but 4 elections and returns in all those Reigns St Albans in Hartfordshire Kingston upon Thames in Surrey Wich in the County of Wigorn and Heytesbury in Wiltshire made in all that time but 5 returns and elections of Burgesses Five others viz. Honyton and Plymouth in Devonshire Chard in Somersetshlre Seaford in Sussex and Wotton Basset in Wiltshire but 7. Preston in Lancashire Stamford in Lincolnshire Hyndon and Westbury in Wiltshire but 6. Stortford in Hartfordshire only 8. and Lancaster 13. during the Reigns of the
very great was the power command and influence of the Nobility and dignified Clergy as they could from time to time as the Winds and Tydes do usually agitate and blow upon the unruly waves of the Ocean make them lacquey after their good-will and pleasure and attend their ambitions and advantages which began but to peep out and câ—awl in the later end of the Reign of King E. the 2d when Roger de Mortimer Earl of March was in a Parliament holden in the Reign of King Edward 3. Accused of Treason and accroaching to himself Royal power by procuring certain Knights of the Shires attending in the House of Commons in Parliament to give their consent to an aid to the King for his Wars in Gascoigny and the humours and interests of the Common people were so governed and influenced by the grandeur of the English Nobility and principal Clergy enticing them thereunto more by their own respects and desires to please and humour then by any particular motive or impulse of their own as in an Election of Members for the House of Commons in Parliament in the 13th year of the Reign of King Henry the 4th the Archbishop of York and Sundry Earls Barons and Ladies being said to be Suitors in the County-Court of York were by their Attorneys the sole Electors of the Knights of the Shire of that County namely by William Holgate Attorny for Ralph Earl of Westmorland William de Killington for Lucy Countess of Kent William Hesham for the Lord Peter de Malo lacu William de Barton for William Lord Roos Robert de Evedale for the Baron of Graistock William de Feston for Alexander de Metham Chivaler and Henry de Preston for Henry de Percy Chivaler who was then a Baron Earles and Barons in those times being well contented to make use of that then no disparaging Title Sectatorum communium com no other electors being then named in the Indentures betwixt the Sheriff and the County of York upon that Election and in the 2d Year of King Henry the 5th with little variation except for the persons for whom the Electors were Attorneys as namely in Yorkshire William Mauleverer Attorney for Henry Archbishop of York William Feutores for Ralph Earl of Westmorland William Archer for John Earl Marshal William Rillington for Henry le Scrop Chivaler Domino de Masham William Heshum for Peter de Malo lacu William Postham for Alexander de Metham Chivaler William Housam for Robert Roos Robert Barry for Margaret the Wife of Henry Vavasour Chivaler and Robert Davinson Attorney for Henry Percy sectatorum communium pro com Eborum No other suitors or electors being in that Election and Sheriffs Indenture then mentioned the like upon Writs for Election of Knights issued to the Sheriffs of Yorkshire were found by Indentures hereupon And in Annis 8. and 9. H. 5. And in 1. 2. 3. 5. and 7. Henry 6. the Attorneys only of Nobles Barons Lords Ladies and Knights were made the suitors who made the election of the Knights of Yorkshire and sealed the Indentures untill 25. of King Henry 6. when that undue course and way ceased and the Election and Indentures were made by the Freeholders and being Elected were not at that instant enabled by them or at any time after to act or do any thing otherwise then according to the Intent Tenor and Purport of their said Writs of Elections untill some farther Requisites were to be by them performed and done in order to the Trusts reposed in them by their King and Fellow-Subjects SECT XXII Of the Actions and other Requisites by the Law to be done by those that are or shall be Elected Knights Citizens and Burgesses to attend our King in their great Councells or Parliaments precedent and preparatory to their admission therein FOr the Sheriffs and people of the Counties were at the first so punctuall in the due performance of their Kings aforesaid Writs and Mandates in all and every the clauses and particnlars thereof and so carefull in their Elections of such as were to be trusted by and for them in affairs of so high and more then ordinary concernment as the States well-being and defence of the King the Church the Kingdom Themselves and their Posterities not only for their personal appearance but performance of the trust reposed in them and not to do less or more too short or beyond the bounds of their Commissions or Authority granted by the King as they that were elected were constrained at the same time to give pledges and main-pernors and sometimes four securities but never under two that they should not omitt what was commanded by the Tenor of those Writs insomuch as in the 30th Year of the Reign of King Edward the first John de Chetwood and William de Samtresden being elected Knights of the Shire for the County of Buckingham gave four manucaptors and the like did Robert de Hoo and Roger de Brien elected Knights of the Shire in the same Year for the County of Bedford and in that Year Andrew Trolesks and Hugh de Ferrers Elected Knights of the Shire for the County of Devon were districti per terras catalla quia Pleg invenire noluerunt And in Anno 8. E. 2. a Sheriff of Gloucester Bristow at that time being neither City or County made his return on the dorse of the Writ of Summons that the Custos libertatis villae Bristol respond quod elegi fec Robertum Wildemersh Thomam L'Espicer ad essend ad Parliamentum apud Westminster in Octavis Sancti Hillarii qui manucaptores ad essendi ad diem locum praedictos invenire recusarunt per quod propter eorum vim malitiam resistentiam executione istius mandati ulterius facienda intromittere non potuit And a Writ appeareth in that Year to have been returned for the County of Midd. that William de Brooks and Richard le Rous milites electi fuerunt per communitatem Comitatus praedict essendi coram concilio Domini Regis ad diem locum in brevi content qui potestatem habent ad faciend quod de eodem concilio Secundum brevis tenorem ordinabitur after which followed the names of their Manucaptors or sureties and was a caution in those times believed to be so necessary as in the 15th Year of the Reign of King Edward 2d when Thomas Gamel one of the Citizens of Lincoln being returned with 2 manucaptors a burgess for the Parliament and not vouchsafing to attend the Mayor and Commonalty of Lincoln they elected Alain de Hodolston in his place and desired Sr William Ermyn then Keeper of the Great Seal that he being so elected by them might be received with the other Citizen first elected with Gamel as their Busgess for that Parliament and sent that their Certificate and return under their City-Seal affixed to the Writ of Election that very ancient and necessary usage of giving Manucaptors upon Parliamentary Elections being used in
authoritative where Sentences or Judgments are not received upon the knees neither in the Ecclesiastical Courts where the Bishops in the name of God and as the Church do only give their sentences and make their decrees without the Majesty or Ceremony of kneeling unto them to be performed by those that are concerned to obey the Condemnation it may be a Quaere harder to unriddle than many of those of Sphinx how it can consist with the reason of such a repraesentation that they whom they would seem to represent should be Petitioners unto themselves and that if any of the County or place represented shall commit any offence against any single Member of the House of Commons representing for another County or place as for breach of priviledge or for words c. The persons of the other Province or place must be punished and come upon their knees and not they that represented them a Warrant sent by their Speaker for the Kings Writ to the County City or place to Elect another in that House and might have done much better to have hindred it Or if any Freeholder Gentleman or Clown that Elected them were not before accustomed to be kneeled unto as by an adoration how these enlightened over-lofty Members can compel men to adore and kneel unto them under a colour of Representation when those that they would have believe that their new-found Representation with an adoration designed to be entailed upon them would have been ashamed to have it to be done unto them and durst never claim or own it in their own Counties or places that Elected them and might be abundantly satisfied that neither the Kings Writs or their Election Indentures Letters of Attorney Procurations or any Praescription or supposed Priviledge of Parliament could entitle them unto such a kind of Majesty or how they that are no Judicature or Court of Record and have no power to give or administer an Oath to Witnesses can escape the blame or censure of Magna Charta and all the Laws Right Reason and Rules of Justice and Equity to be Parties and Judges in their own Cases or enforce their fellow Subjects and not seldom of better Births and Extractions to receive upon their knees with adorations their unjust dooms and sentences when better tryed Criminals in the Court of Kings Bench where the King as a Judge is supposed to sit himself do not likewise in his other Courts receive their Judgements upon their knees but only when they receive the Kings pardon in rendring their thanks unto him But should rather remember that the Angel in the Apocalipse would not suffer St. John to kneel unto him and that the often sawcy Plebs or Vulgus of Rome could be content with the Exorbitant power of their Tribuni Plebes in their Intercessions for Laws without any the adoration of kneeling nor are there to be found any Records or Presidents in England or any scrap of Law or Reason that any of our Kings in their licensing any of the Speakers of the House of Commons should give them any Power or Priviledge to Eject any of their fellow Members and make them on their knees receive uncivil and ungentleman-like words such as Mr. Williams a late Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament was pleased to say unto Sir Robert Peyton Knight being commanded and enforced to receive his Lawless Ejectment upon his knees in these words Go thou worst of men the House hath spewed the out or after such an Insolence to require the Kings Clerk of the Crown to make out a Warrant in the Kings name to Elect another Member in his place And our England nor any other civilized part of the World have yet found such a Parcel of Representatives or Deputies that can think themselves so to be entituled as the Author of the Character of a Popish Successor in this Kingdom of England hath been pleased to grant unto them to that which they would willingly stile their own Royal Inheritance and Sacred Succession of Power when they are not as Embassadors Repraesenting Princes sent unto or Treating with Princes but as Procurators or Attorneys employed by those that are nor ever were more than Subjects their ne plus ultra Or by what Art or refined Chymistry was such a Majesty entailed or infused into them when Kelsy a Body or Bodice-maker and Barebone a Fanatick Letherseller were Members or what or whose Charters or Letters Patents have they to entitle them thereunto when Sir Edward Coke a learned Lawyer gives them no greater Title than that of a grand Enquest and Mr. William Pryn that adventured Body and Soul for them and with great mistakings joyning them in a Supremacy conjoynt with the House of Peers in Parliament abundantly found fault with them in taking too much upon them in other matters when those designs of Majesty were not arrived or let down from Heaven as the figment of the Anciliae at Rome was believed to be or how could the Commons in Parliament charge as they did so unjustly and wickedly King Charles the first for coming unarmed without any Guard to seize Pym Hambden Haselrig and the rest of the five Members and Kimbolton then and long after guilty of High Treason if he were then in the House of Commons in his Politick or personal Capacity a distinction which the Master of Hypocrisy and Lyes had taught them when in several of his Battels in the defence of himself and his Loyal Subjects Weemes a prefidious Scot and others Levelled their Cannons at him with Perspective Glasses to be sure to hit him a Method which David had not learned when he found Saul sleeping and was afraid to touch or kill the Lords Anointed and never left persecuting him until they had cut off his Head and murdered him in both his Capacities which did not serve for a Plea in the case of Cook Hugh Peters and other his justly condemned Murderers who had not then the Impudence to plead or rely upon such a parcel of devilism when they might know that the Politick and personal capacity of a King or any subordinate Magistrate were so conjoint and inseparable as in articulo mortis that part of Kingship or Magistracy could not be severed from the natural unless it were in such an apparent and publick manner as in the self-deposing and Renunciation of our King Richard the 2d of Charles the 5th Emperor of Germany retiring into a Monastery or as some of the ancient Kings and Princes of France were when they were cheated of their Kingly Power and forced to be shaven as Monks and put into a Monastery And that notwithstanding the House of Commons new-fashioned way of their own framing since the Raign of Queen Elizabeth of making their own Committee to find out and determine such Priviledges as they would claim and have they might have discovered that in the Court of Kings Bench in the case of Richard Chedder a Servant to a Member of the
that granted them and was to be vouched to warranty which was in common and ordinary matters very usual in our Laws and reasonable Customs and therefore to him only as the Grantor and Protector of their Parliament Priviledges and not to themselves the gratitude and acknowledment was only due And the House of Commons until this our present unruly Age or Century did not adventure to take upon themselves or endeavour by any pretended Authority of their own to punish any the violators of their aforesaid Priviledges but supplicated Aid of their Kings and Princes that were the donors and granters of them And therefore in the Raign of King Henry the fourth it was adjudged that as the Record witnesseth Videtur Cur. quod non For in Anno 8 H. 6. William Lark a Servant of William Wild Burgess of Parliament being arrested upon an Execution during the Parliament the Commons petitioned the King to give order for his discharge and that no Lords Knights Citizens or Burgesses nor their Servants coming to the Parliament may be Arrested during the Parliament unless it be for Treason Felony or Breach of the Peace The King granted the first part of the Petition Et quant al residue le Rei sa avisera The Commons prayed that Edmond Duke of Somerset Alice Poole the late Wife of William Poole Duke of Suffolk William Bishop of Chester Sir John Sutton Lord Dudley the Lord Hastings James de la Barre one of the Kings Secretaries and 20 or 22 Knights and Esquires particularly named amongst which was Thomas Kemp Clerk of the House of Commons which the Commons themselves and their own Clerk had not them found to be either a Liberty or Priviledge of their own to punish might be banished from the King during their Lives and not to come within twelve Miles of the Court for that the People do speak evil of them To which the King answered He is of his own meer motion contented that all shall depart unless only the Lords and a few of them whom he may not spare from his presence and they shall continue for one year to see if any can duly impeach them In Anno 31 H. 6. The Commons made a Request to the King and Lords that Thomas Thorp their Speaker and Walter Roil a member of their house who were in Prison might be set at liberty according to their Priviledges The next day after the Duke of York who was then a Rival for a long time but after a publick Competitor for the Crown and President of the Parliament came before the Lords not the Commons and shewed that in the vacation of the Parliament he had recovered damage against the said Thomas Thorp in an action of trespass by Verdict in the Exchequer for carrying away the goods of the said Duke out of Durham House for the which he remained in Execution and prayed that he might continue therein Wherein the Councel of the Judges being demanded they made Answer it was not their part to Judge of the Parliament which was Judge of the Law wherein surely they might rather have said what they should have most certainly have believed then as Sir Edward Coke did long after that the King was principium caput finis Parliamenti and only said that a general Supersedeas of Parliament there was but a special supersedeas in which case of special supersedeas every Member of the Commons House ought to enjoy the same unless in cases of Treason Felony Surety of the Peace or for a condemnation before the Parliament After which the Lords determined that the said Thomas Thorp should remain in execution and sent certain of themselves to the Commons who then had so little power to free themselves from Arrests and imprisonment as they could not deliver their own Speaker out of Prison but were glad to follow the direction of the King and Lords to chuse and present unto the King another Speaker the which they did and shortly after certain of the Commons were sent to the Lords to declare that they had in the place of the said Thomas Thorp chosen for their Speaker Thomas Charleton Esquire Walter Clark a Burgess of Chippenham in the County of Wilts being committed to the Prison of the Fleet for divers condemnations as well to the King as to others was discharged and set at Liberty at the Petition of the Commons to the King and Lords without Bail or Mainprise At the Petition of the Commons William Hill a Burgess of Chippenham aforesaid being in Execution in the Kings-Bench was delivered by a Writ of the Chancery saving the Plaintiffs right to have Execution after the Parliament ended It was enacted by the universal Vote and Judgment as well of the Commons as the Lords that John Atwil a Burgess for Exeter being condemned during the Parliament in the Exchequer upon 8 several informations at the suit of John Taylor of the same City shall have as many Supersedeas as he will until his returning home King Henry 8. in the case of Trewyniard a Burgess of Parliament imprisoned upon an Outlawry after Judgment caused him to be delivered by a Writ of Priviledge upon an Action brought against the Executors and a demurrer it was resolved by the Judges to be Legal George Ferrers Gent. servant of the King and a Burgesse of Parliament being arrested in London as he was going to the parliament-Parliament-house by a Writ out of the Court of Kings Bench in execution at the Suit of one White for the sum of 200 markes being the debt of one Walden which arrest being signifyed to Sir Tho. Moyle Knight Speaker of the House of Commons and to the Knight and Burgesses there an order was made that the Serjeant of the Mace attending the Parliament should go to the Compter and Demand the Prisoner which the Clerks and Officers refusing from stout words they fell to blows whereof ensued a fray not without hurt so as the said Serjeant was forced to defend himself with his Mace and had the Crown thereof broken off by bearing off a stroak and his Servant struck down which broil drawing thither the 2 Sheriffs of London who did not heed or value the Serjeants complaint and misusage so much as they ought but took their Officers parts so as the Serjeant returning without the Prisoner informed the Speaker of the House of Commons how rudely they had entertained him who took the same in so ill part that they all together some of whom were the Kings privy Councel as also of the Kings privy Chamber resolved to sit no longer without their Burgess but left their own house and went to the House of Peers and declared by the mouth of their Speaker before Sir Thomas Audley Knight then Lord Chancellor and all the Lords Judges there assembled the whole matter such no Estates they believed themselves to be who Judging the contempt to be very great referred the punishment thereof to
the States of Holland West-Freisland did by a Publique Decree order that omnia Instrumenta Feudalia publica Feudalia Scrinia should be searched put kept in order And in his Epistle Ded. unto the Estates aforesaid Judges of the said Feudal Court Dated no longer ago then in the Month of Sept. 1665. from Alemar saith likewise that de qua Intromissa saepissime quaerebatur denuo instaurata fuisset adeo ut vos the Estates qui hoc tempore ejusdem reminiscentis Feudalis Curiae Senatores sive pares estis negligereaut aliis postponere non posse And yet they do think Themselves at this day to be as free a people as any in the World with an high and mighty Hoghen Moghen into the bargain And the Framers and Voters of that overturning as much as it could of our ancient Monarchy many of whom as House of Commons Members in that Parliament were Knights Baronetts Knights of the Bath and Knights Batchelors might have been something more cautious then they were and taken more care of the fatall Consequences that might and would inevitably happen yea more then by Chance by an unavoidable necessity or for the liberties of 10000 manors in England and Wales and a great many of manors liberties in Ireland which had no other originall or Foundation then Monarchy or the unrebellious Feudall Laws and it and their continuance for what could they imagine but Confusion and Villany would follow in the order of Baronetts Created by King James in the 9th Year of his Reign limited at the first unto the number of 200. now supernumerated unto almost 1500. to hold by the tenure of maintayning 30. foot-Soldiers at 8d per diem for 3 Years for the regaining of the Province of Ulster in Ireland what for any of the Honourable Knights of the Garter that have no priviledge of Peers in Parliament what for the Knights of the Bath that are to be made at the Creation of every Prince of Wales being the King of Englands eldest Son what for such as our Kings have honoured or shall be pleased to Dignify with the honor of Knighthood or the Sword or to be an Eques Auratus what care was taken in that levelling Act in the effect of turning the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and Common Socage for the honour and degree of Knighthood or of that more meritorious extraordinary one of Knight Banneretts Was it ever intended they should go all to Plow with some ill brewed Ale to wet their Whistles with their sword and guilt spurrs promiscuously some with blew or red Garters or ribbons and the rest without and could there be no Exception or proviso's inserted in that Act for those Honourable degrees which appertained so only to the Sovereign or a power derived from them as our Queens Regent in their Incapacities of wearing or brandishing a sword or personal fighting are by themselves or others commissionated by them only to grant or give those Priviledges which are not a Few and can have no other derivation or reason for their Commencement then a Militando not as Common Soldiers but ex strenua continuata militia tantum adipiscatur honor when by the Imperiall Laws Knights ex Jure concessione principis prescriptione consue 〈…〉 dine were anciently at the receiving of that honourable o 〈…〉 to swear not to reveal any thing by solemn Oath or Vow 〈◊〉 concerneth his Sovereign or his Countrey never to put on Armour against his Prince never to forsake his Generall never to fly the field of his Enemy c. had Jus Annulorum as the Equestris Ordo were amongst the Roman Knights used to be honoured with when at the Battle and overthrow of them at Cannes there were gathered amongst the slain 2 Bushell of Rings in England and other Northern Kingdoms had jus Imaginum Coate Armorius and besides what Sr Edward Coke cannot deny to be an ancient priviledge due unto Knighthood as hath been before said to be free ab omni Tallagio a Knight is not to have his Equitature or Horse distrained and taken in Execution although it be for the Kings Debt a Knight accused of any Crime Treason shall not be examined but before his Competent Judge against a Knight in warr no prescription runneth neither shall he be compelled to be Guardian to Children except they be the Children of Knights shall not suffer any Ignominious Corporall Punishment as hanging upon a Gibbet unless first Degraded nor be set at any ransome but such as he shall be able after to maintain his Degree And in time of peace hath been so much valued and esteemed as 3 Knights Associated in the Kings Commission of Oyer and Terminer might hear and determine forcible Entries and outrages in the same Country or Province A Coroner formerly an especiall officer of the Crown was to be a Knight a Sheriffs Certificate and return of the Tallies of the Kings Creditors and Monies paid as due unto them is to be accompanied with the hands of 2 Knights a Sheriff cannot remove a plaint out of an Inferiour into a Superior Court without the testimony of 4 Knights Knights and no other are to be sent by the Sheriffs to make the View de malo lecti the Knights of the shires elected to be members of the House of Commons in Parliament ought to be gladiis cincti and the Commons have in Parliament Petitioned the King and obteyned a grant that it might not be otherwise Ou autrement tiel notables Esquiers Gentilhomes del nation des mesmes les Counties come soyent ables d'estre Chivalier noul home destre tiel Chivaler que estoite enles degrees de vadlet ou Varlet saith Mr Selden de south an Infant holding his Lands in Capite or by Knight Service shall not be in Ward after he is Knighted a Knight inhabiting in any City or town Corporate shall not be Impannelled in a Jury for the Tayal of a Criminall in a Civil Action for Debt or the like wherein any of the Nobility are plaintiffs or defendents 2 Knights are to be Impannelled on the Jury A Knight shall not be distrained to serve in person for Castle guard although he do hold Lands by that Tenure A certain number of Knights are to elect a Jury in a Writ of grand Assize and none but a Knight should be permitted to wear a Coller of S. S. or Golden or Guilt Spurrs And the Dignity of Chivaler or Knight hath been in England so honorable as Earls besides their Greater Titles would many times use the Title of Chivaler only and at other times desire to receive the Honour of Knighthood from the King after they were Earls and our Kings have sometimes sent their Eldest Sons to be Knighted by other Kings And a Villain which Sr Edward Coke stileth a Sokeman or one that holdeth in Socage is not by the Law of Nations and Arms to
the Fryday before St Michael in the same Year as q'eux Prelatz ove le Clergie par eux mesmes les Counties Barons par eux mesmes Chivalers Gentz des Countes Gentz de la commun par eux mesmes en treteront imparterent temps 4. Vendredi prochein suont mesmes le Vendredi en plein Parlement les Prelatz par eux mesmes les Countes Barons par eux mesmes les Chivalers des Countes par eux mesmes puis toutz en commun responderont and the like we read of the Prelats Earls Barons and great men eux mesmes Chivalers Gentz des Countes of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses and Commons separate consultations by themselves and their several answers to the Articles and businesses propounded to them in the Parliaments of 13. E. 3. N. 6. 10. 11. part 2. N. 5. to 9. 14. E. 3. N. 6. 11. 17. E. 3. N. 9. 10. 11. 55. 58. Ro. Parl. 20. E. 3. N. 10. 11. Ro. Parl. 25. E. 3. N. 6. 7. Ro. Parl. 28. E. 3. N. 55. 56. Ro. Parl. 36. E. 3. N. 6. 7. Ro. Parl. 40. E. 3. N. 8. Ro. Parl. 42. E. 3. N. 7. Ro. Parl. 47. E. 3. N. 6. Ro. Parl. 50. 51. when the Commons had a Speaker and departed to their accustomed place in the Chapter-House of the Abby of Westminster And â—aith Sr William Dugdale at the Parliament holden at Gloucester in Anno Domini 1378. in the Reign of King Richard the 2d in refectorio de armorum legibus tractabatur aulae autem hospitium communi Parliamento erat deputata Porro in camera hospitii quae camera Regis propter ejus pulchritudinem antiquitus vocata est concilium secretum inter Magnates versabatur ac in domo capitulari concilium commune In the said Kings Reign the Knights and Burgesses were called by name in presence of the King In the great alterations betwixt the Lords and Commons and King Henry the 4th in the 9th Year of his Reign and a pacification and endeavour to reconcile the Lords and Commons the King sent unto the Commons to come before him and the Lords In a Parliament holden the 13th year of his Reign the Commons of Parliament were called at the door of the painted Chamber in the Kings Palace of Westminster and came which shews that they did not usually sit there In the 33. of King Henry the 8. The Duke of Suffolk then Lord Steward commanded the Clerk of the Parliament to call the Names of the House of Commons unto which every one answered being all in the upper house below the Barr and then the King came Nor was or is it likely to be within the verge or neighbourhood of any truth or reason that such an inferior sort of men as some citizens and Burgesses to be elected out of so many Citys and Boroughs as those enforced writs of Elections in Anno 49. H. 3. Designed when the Nobility and Gentry and the Laws of those times not only held but believed it to be a disparagement to a whole Kindred to Marry with the Daughters of Burgesses who might be understood to be either their Tenants or Dependents should presume or be allowed to Sit in one and the same Chamber room or place with their King sitting in his throne or chair of estate encompassed with his more noble and greatest councell the Lords Spirituall and Temporal the Peers in Parliament where none but the Peers themselves and their Assistants are permitted to sit and do then also sit uncovered when the civill and Caesarian Laws and the Laws and reasonable Customes of nations do so distinguish betwixt the noble and ignoble as if a Gentleman be present the ignoble or common persons shall arise from their seats and give diligent heed when he speaks and it is a peculiar honor due unto gentry to sit upon benches or seats and those who are otherwise are not to take the right hand of them or the chiefest seats in the company or to sit next the Judge before them are not to be so much valued in their testimonies and more credit ought to be given to the Oaths of two Gentlemen produced as witnesses then to a multitude of the vulgar or ignoble persons though many and great privileges are and have been in the civill Laws given and allowed to the Honorable Order of Knighthood and that our Kings and common laws have given unto them great respects and privileges which are and have been to these our dreggy and worst of times enjoyed yet it can be no disparagement to that ever to be esteemed Order and Degree to have it affirmed and believed that it hath been from the 21th year of the Reign of King Edward the 1st to this our present century and scarcely slipt out of the memories of aged men no unusuall thing that many of the Knights of the shires and Burgesses elected to be members of the house of Commons have been the Secretaries Stewards Feodaries or domestick Servants Reteyners Tenants by Knights-service or Petit Serjeanty Castle-guard or managers of some part of the Lands and Estates of the Nobility and great men of the Kingdom And as to that which some that are unwilling to Submit to the powers of truth and right reason will be ready to object that in the 3. year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th a Committee of the Lords have come into the House of Commons to confer with them and probably saith Mr Elsing might during the time of that Conference sit with them yet it was but pro hac vice and not constantly or at any other time And when King James in the 7th year of his Reign was pleased to order the Lords and Commons to sit in the Court of Requests the Lords on the right hand by themselves and the Commons on the left they did then sit distinctly as out of their separate houses to be Spectators of the creation of Prince Henry to be Prince of Wales and could be no more an argument for those contrivers who are enforced to pick up any thing that they can imagine may be for their purpose then that of the fatal over-eager prosecution of the late Earle of Strafford at the suit instance of the house of commons upon their unlucky bill of Attainder in Westminster-hall whether his late Majesty afterwards murthered and martyred had from their separate and distinct houses for that only business dislocated and transferred them SECT XXIV What the clause in the Writs for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to come unto the Parliament ad faciendum consentiendum do properly signify and were intended by the said Writs Of Election to be Members of the House of Commons in Parliament FOr Assensum dare est probari l. 2. c. de relation Consensus denotat aequalitates sententiarum cogitationis voluntatis And facere duplici modo accipitur aut
of hearing to be heard in the Starr-Chamber the morrow after the Lords were content not to sit that Morning provided that it be not drawn into a precedent but that the House being the Supream Court may sit upon a Starr Chamber day notwithstanding the absence of the Lord Chancellor Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Treasurer the Lords of the Privy-Councell great Officers of State the two Lord Chief Justices and Lord Chief Baron who do use to attend that Court and the next Starr-Chamber day the other part of the Lords House did sit in the forenoon The Lords that were absent and could not appear upon Summons of Parliament were excused if they could obtain a license of the King otherwise they were amerced as in 31. H. 6. a Duke was to be amerced 100 l. an Earl 100 Marks and a Baron 40 l. If they came not upon Summons to Parliament If the King be present in person when the cause of Summons is declared the Lord Chancellour doth first remove from his place which is on the Kings Right hand behind the Chair of Estate and conferreth privately with his Majesty And that ceremony is ever to be observed by the Lord Chancellour or those that are appointed by the King to officiate in that particular for him before he speak any thing in Parliament when the King is present The cause of which ceremony saith Mr Elsing seeming to be that as none but the King can call a Parliament so none but the King can propound or declare wherefore it was called If the King be represented in Parliament by Commission the Lord Chancellor sits on the Wool-sack after the Commission read the Commissioners go to the seat prepared for them on the Right side of the Chair of Estate then the Lord Chancellour ariseth conferreth with the Commissioners returns to his place on the Wool-sack and there declareth the cause of the Summons or Commission as was done in 28 Elizabeth The Warrants of the King for the making of the Writs of Summons to Parliaments have been divers some times per breve de privato sigillo but commonly per ipsum Regem concilium Anno 32. H. 8. Acts of Parliament were said to have been enacted with the assent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Parliament was continued by divers short prorogations and was by his Graces Authority dissolved 33. H. 8. In the Acts of Parliament no mention was made of advice or assent 34. 35. H. 8. The like Proxies were in the 20th Year of the Reign of King James under the hand and seal of an absent Lord upon a lawfull impediment signifying the Kings license in the form ensuing pro se nomine suo de super quibuscunque causis exponend seu declarand tractand tractatibus quae hujusmodi mihi factis seu faciendis concilium nomine suo impendend statutisque etiam ordinationibus quae ex maturo deliberati judicio dominorum tam spiritualium quam temporalium in eodem Parliamento congregat inactitari seu ordinari contigerint nomine suo cousentiendum eisdemque si opus fuerit subscribend caeteraque omnia singula quae in praemissis necessaria fuerint seu quo modo libet requisita faciend exercend in tam amplis modo forma prout ego ipse facere possem aut deberem si praesens personaliter interessem ratum gratum habens habiturus quicquid dictus procurator statuerit aut fecerit in praemissis A proxy cannot be made to a Lord that is absent himself The Lord Latimer made his proxy which although the Clerk of the House of Peers received it was repealed by the Lord Chancellour for that the Lord Latimers deputy or procurator was absent for if he to whom the proxy is made be absent the proxy is void neither can it be transferred by the proxy to another as was adjudged in the case of the Lord Vaux 18 Jacobi Our Kings since the force put upon King Henry the 3d by some Rebellious Barons at a Parliament at Oxford in Anno 42 of his Reign at the beginning of every Parliament by publick proclamation did use to prohibit the coming with Arms. Not any of the Kings Serjeants at Law were Summoned to Parliament untill the Tenth of Edward the Third when Robert Parning William Scot and Simon Trevise Servientés Regis were Summoned by special Writs unto 2 Parliaments after which none were Summoned untill the 20th of E. 3. Robert de Sodington Capitalis Baro Scaccarii was the First and only Baron of the Exchequer who was Summoned to Parliament as one of the Kings Councell in 12. E. 3. The Kings Attorney Generalls whose Office and impolyment was as ancient as 7. E. 1. when William de Gisilham enjoyed it and Gilbert de Thorneton was in 8. E. 1. his Attorney Generall had their First Writ of Summons in the 21. 30. 36. Henrici 8. Those that succeeded them never wanting the like priviledges And the Kings Sollicitors generalls have been in like manner Summoned The Writs of Summons to the Lords are returned and delivered to the Clark of their House those with their Indentures for the Election of members for the House of Commons to the Clark of the Crown in Chancery The Clergy of the convocation in Parliament are Elected by virtue of the Kings Writs of Summons to the Bishops and their precepts but not by any from the Sheriffs The Master of the Rolls if not Elected a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament hath a Writ of Summons to attend in the House of Lords The Masters of Chancery as necessarily appertaining to the Lord Chancellour or Keeper of the Great Seal of England have neither Writ nor patent yet do there attend The Bill or Act of Parliament signed for the Beheading the Earl of Strafford much against the will of King Charles the Martyr was by Commission And divers adjournments and prorogations in the Reign of King Charles 2d have been sometimes by Commission and at other times by proclamations The Commons were never Elected to come to Parliament before the 49th Year of King H. 3. and his imprisonment and then and from the 21st Year of the Reign of King E. 1. did but as the Lesser lights follow that greater of the Sun and could not possibly be sent for or caused to be Elected without the Peers then Summoned and convened for that they were only to consent unto and do such things as the King by the advice of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall should there ordain if the Lords were not Summoned to be there at the same time or sitting The Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold was Summoned to sit in the House of Peers in 25. 27. 28. E. 3. Masters of Ships and some Scots have for advice been Summoned to attend the House of Lords Ever since the making of the Statute of 5. Eliz. every Knight Citizen Burgess and Port Baron Elected or to
be Elected to be a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament is to take before he be admitted to sit therein or have any voice as a Knight Citizen or Burgess of or in the House of Commons an Oath upon the Evangelists before the Lord Steward or his deputy that he doth testify and declare That the Queens Majesty her Heirs and Successors is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of any Foreign Prelate Prince or Potentate whatsoever And promise that from henceforth he shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors and to his power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm Queen Elizabeth in the 31st Year of her Reign did by the advice of her Privy-Councell and of the Justices of both her Benches and other of her learned Councell prorogue and adjourn the Parliament from the 12th of November 1588. to the fourth of February then next following from which day it was continued till the Thursday following post meridiem Wherein divers of the Bishops Earls Barons Justices and masters of Chancery were Receivers and Tryers of petitions The Bishops all but 7 named each of them 2 Proctors 7 Temporall Lords sent their proxies Such as were meer attendants in the House of Peers were sometimes made joint Committees with the Lords in severall matters The Commons presenting their Speaker to the Queen he was admitted with a caution not to use in that House irreverent Speeches or to make unnecessary addresses to her Majesty and the Chancellour by Command of the Queen continuavit praesens Parliamentum usque diem Sabbati prox hora nona When the Lords sent to pray a conference with the Commons and it is assented unto one of the Judges were allways named to attend the Lords Committees In a bill for setling a jointure for the Wife of Henry Nevill Esq. Wherein all former conveyances were to be cancelled the Lords ordered that the deeds should be sealed up and brought into their house to the end that they might be redelivered again uncancelled in case the Queen should resuse to sign the Act of Parliament the House of Commons by their Speaker desired her Majesties assent to such Statutes as had been provided by both Houses Upon her gracious generall Act of Pardon les Prelats Seigneurs Commons en Parlement en nom de toutes voz autres Subjects remercient tres humblement vostre Majeste The Queens Sollicitor generall being Elected a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament they desired the Lords that he might come into the House of Commons and sit with them which was assented unto and performed In the Year 1588. and 31st of her Reign when she had most need of her Subjects aid and good will upon the Petition of the Commons against some grievances of the Purveyors and her Court of Exchecquer she answered by their Speaker that she had given orders to her Lord Steward to redress any Complaints of her purveyance and that she had as much skill and power to rule and govern her own House as any of her Subjects whatsoever to rule and govern theirs without the help of their Neighbours and would very shortly cause a collection to be made of all the Laws already made touching Pourveyance and of all the constitutions of her Houshould in that case and would thereupon by the advice of her Judges learned Councell set down such a formall plot or method before the end of that present session of Parliament as should be as good better for the ease of her subjects then what the house had attempted without her privity in which they would have bereaved her Majesty of the honour glory and commendation thereof and that she had in the 10th year of her Reign caused certain orders and constitutions to be drawn for the due course of such things in her Court of Exchequer as her Subjects seem to be grieved at And so after a Generall Pardon and some bills passed the Lord Chancellour by her Majesties command dissolved the Parliament Anno 35th the Lord Keeper by her Majesties command declared the necessity of publick aides how little the Late Subsides amounted unto by Reason of the ill gathering desired the time might not be Mispent in long orations Speeches and verbosities which some men took delight in Receivers and Tryers of Petitions were named and some Proxies delivered Their Speaker Sr Edward Coke in his Speech remembred the Queen of her speech to the last Parliament that many came thither ad consulendum qui nesciunt quid Sit consulendum and prayed that she would give her assent to such Bills as should be agreed upon The Lord Keeper in his reply alleadged that to make more laws might seem Superfluous and to him that might ask Quae causa ut crescunt tot magna volumnia legum It may be answered in promptu causa est crescit in orbe malum And after upon further instructions received from her Majesty declared that Liberty of Speech was granted but how far was to be thought on there be two things of most necessity wit and speech the one exercised in invention the other in speaking priviledge of speech is granted but you must know what priviledge you have not to speak every one what he listeth or what cometh in his heart to utter but your priviledge is to say yea or no wherefore Mr Speaker her Majesties pleasure is that if you perceive any idle heads which will not Stick to hazzard their own estates which will meddle with reforming of the Church and transforming of the Common-Wealth and do exhibit any bills to such purpose that you receive them not untill they be viewed and considered of by those who it is fitter should consider of such things and can better judge of them The daily continuing or adjorning of the Parliament was Dominus Custos magni Sigilli continuavit praesens Parliamentum After a bill for setling the lands and Estate of Sr Francis Englefeild attainted of high Treason in Parliament had been ordered by the House of Commons to be ingrossed the Lords did hear Councell on the part of Englefeilds heirs and afterwards passed it In the case of repealing of certain uses in a deed concerning the Estate of Sr Anthony Cook of Rumford in the County of Essex after the bill had been 3 times read in the House of Lords and assented unto a Proviso was added of Saving the Queens right with a note entred that it should not hereafter be used as a praecedent Acts or bills of Generall pardon do passe both Houses with once reading The Lord-Keeper by her directions
signified to the Speaker of the House of Commons that in some things they had spent more time then needed but she perceived some men did it more for their satisfaction then the necessity of the thing deserved Misliked that such irreverence was shewed towards her Privy Councellors who were not to be accompted as Common Knights and Burgesses of the House that are Councellors but during the Parliament whereas the others are standing Councellors and for their Wisdom and great service are called to the Councell of State Had heard that some men in the case of great necessity and aid had seemed to regard their Country and made their necessities more then they were forgetting the urgent necessity of the time and dangers that were now eminent she would not have the people feared with reports charged them that the Trained Bands should be ready and well supplied thanked them for their subsidies and assured them that if the Coffers of her Treasure were not empty and the revenues of the Crown and other Princely ornaments could supply her wants and the charge of the Realm she would not in the words of a Prince have now charged them or accepted what they gave After which the Queen sitting in her Chair of State amongst other things speaking of the injustice of the King of Spains Wars and the Justice of her own said I heard say that when he attempted his last Invasion some upon the Sea coast forsook their Towns flew up higher into the Country and left all naked and exposed to his entrance but I swear unto you by God if I knew those persons or any that shall do so hereafter I will make them know and feel what it is to be so fearfull in so urgent a cause Declared unto them that the subsidy which they gave her was not so much but that it is needfull for a Prince to have so much allways lying in her Coffers for your defence in time of need and not to be driven to get it when we should use it Upon which the Clerk of the Parliament having read the Queens acceptance and thanks for the subsidies given did upon the reading of the pardon pronounce the thanks of the House in these words les Prelates Seigneurs Communes en ce Parlement assembles au nom de toutz vous autres Subjects remerc erent tres humblement vostre Majesty prient a Dieu que il vous donne en sante bonne vie longue The assent of the Sovereign is never given to a bill of subsidy because it is the guift of the Subject nor to an Act of generall pardon for that is the Kings free guift after which ended followed the dissolution of the Parliament in these words Dominus Custos magni sigilli ex mandato dominae Reginae tunc praesentis dissolvit praesens Parliamentum The names of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses are at the beginning of the Parliament delivered to the Clerk of the Crown who always attends in the House of Lords and entred into his book After the Lord Keepers speech ended her Majesty calling him unto her commanded him to give the Lower House Authority to choose their Speaker and present him the Thursday following unto which day he adjourned the Parliament At which day Sr Edward Coke Knight being chosen and admitted Speaker the Queen allowed his petitions for access unto her Majesty privileges and liberty of speech with a caution that they should not speak irreverently either of the Church or State and then the Lord Keeper by the Queens command adjourned the Parliament untill the Saturday following When the House of Commons being again assembled Mr Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a petition to the Lord Keeper therein desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be supplicants with them of the Lower unto her Majesty for the entailing of the Succession to the Crown whereof a bill was ready prepared With which her Majesty being highly displeased charged the Councell to call the parties before them whereupon Sr Thomas Heneage sent presently for them commanded them to forbear going to the Parliament and not to go out of their severall lodgings and the day after they were called before the Lord Treasurer Burleigh the Lord Buckhurst and Sr Thomas Heneage who informing them how highly her Majesty was offended told them they must needs commit them Mr Wentworth was sent prisoner to the Tower Sir Henry Bromley and one Mr Stevens to whom he had imparted it and Mr Welch the other Knight of the shire for Worcestershire to the Fleet. A bill being offered by Mr Morris Attorney of the Court of Wards against the usage of Ecclesiasticall discipline by the Prelates with an intent that the House might be suitors to her Majesty to allow it he was sent for to the Court and committed to the keeping of Sir John Fortescue a Parliament man And she sent for the Speaker and by him sent a message to the House of Commons which he did not omit to deliver in her very words that it was in her and her power to call Parliaments it was in her power to end and determine the same and it was in her power to assent or dissent to any thing done in Parliament And her Majesties pleasure being by the Lord Keeper delivered unto them that it was not meant that they should meddle with matters of State or causes Ecclesiasticall she wondred that any should be of so high a Commandment to attempt a thing contrary to that which she had so expressly forbidden and therefore with this she was highly displeased and charged the Speaker upon his Allegeance that if any such bill be exhibited not to receive it An Act was sent up by the Commons to the Lords who amended somewhat therein but what they amend cannot be altered by the Commons but the Lords will give their reasons for such their amendment The Commons complaining of a Breach of Privilege that the Lord Keeper did in the behalf of the Lords give answers unto their messages and did not come down unto hose that were sent to the Bar after a great debate and much advice and consultation it was resolved that the Lord Keeper or Lord Chancellour ought to sit in his place covered when he gave them answers and that if it had been lately otherwise done it was by error and mistake but ought not which then Lordships by Mr Attorney Generall and Serjeant Harris signifying to the Lower House desired them to send some of their House to receive their Lordships answer whereunto they seemed to assent and returned some of their Knights and Burgesses with those that beâ—ore demanded satisfaction to receive their answer which being declared unto them they by the mouth of Sr William Knolles one o◠〈◊〉 House of Commons protested that they had no Commission to receive an answer in that form after which upon a conference betwixt both Houses upon great debate and arguments it was resolved that the order and
custome of the House of Lords was that when any Bills or messages were sent to them the Lord Keeper and some of the Lords were to â—rise from their places and from thence to go unto the Barr and receive the said Bills or messages but contrarywise when any answer is to be delivered by the Lord Keeper in the name and behalf of the Lords the Commons sent were to stand at the Barr and the Lord Keeper is to receive the Bills or answer the messages with his head covered and all the Lords were to Keep their places with which the Lower House was satisfied and the same order hath been ever since observed accordingly Anno 39. Eliz. There being in former times a custom in the house of Commons to have a bill read before the house did arise the same could not now be done at that time because her Majesty and the upper House had adjourned the Parliament untill Saturday Sennight at Eight of the Clock in the Morning which being signified by their Speaker he said all the Members of the House might depart and so they did Eodem Anno. At the ending of the Parliament after they had given the Queen subsidies and prayed her assent to such laws as had passed both Houses she gave the Royall assent to 24 publick Acts and 19 private but refused 48 Bills which had passed both the Houses Anno 43. Eliz. John Crook Esq. Recorder of London being chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in Parliament disabling himself desired the Queen to command the House of Commons to choose another but his excuse received no allowance The Lord Chief Justice of the Queens bench and Common pleas together with the Lord Chief Baron and Attorney Generall were ordered to attend a Committee of Lords and Bishops Sr John Popham Lord Chief Justice Francis Gaudy one of the Justices of the Kings bench George Kingsmill one of the Common pleas Dr Carew and Dr Stanhop were constituted Receivers of petitions for Gascoigne and other lands beyond the Seas Sr Edmond Anderson Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common pleas Sr William Peryam Lord Chief Baron Thomas Walmisley one of the Justices of the Common pleas Dr Swale and Dr Hone. Tryers of petitions of England the Archbishop of Canterbury Marquis of Winchester Earls of Sussex Lord Marshall Lord Admirall and Steward of the Queens Houshold Earls of Nottingham and Hertford Bishops of London Durham and Winchester Lords Zouch and Cobham calling unto them the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer and the Queens Serjeants at Law Great fault was found by many of the House of the factouring and bribing of too many of the Justices of the Peace and it was by one of the members alleadged that the five bills â—arely passed against Swearing Drunkenness and for the making of good Ale would be as much worth to those kind of Justices of the Peace as a Subsidy and two Fifteens Mr Conisby Gentleman Usher of the House of Peers complained that forasmuch upon the breach of any Priviledge of that House he only was to be employed and not the Serjeant at Arms the House ordered a Committee to consider of Presidents and settle it a motion was made by the Lord Keeper and approved of by the Lords that the Ancient course of the House might be kept by certifying the Excuses for the absence of any of the Peers by the Peers and not by others The House being offended with Sr Walter Rawleigh for some words and crying to the Barr Mr Brown a Lawyer stood up and said Mr Speaker par in parem non habet Imperium we are as members of one body and we cannot Judge one another whereupon it being put to the question it was resolved in the negative that he should not stand at the Barr. The Speaker of the House of Commons at the ending of the Parliament of 44. Eliz. humbly desired of the Queen that certain Acts may be made Laws by her Royall assent which giveth life unto them Unto which the Lord Keeper answered that as touching her Majesties pioceeding in the making of Laws and giving her Royall assent that should be as God directed her Sacred Spirit and delivered her Majesties commandement that as to the Commons proceedings in the matter of her Prerogative she is persuaded that Subjects did never more dutifully observe and that she understood they did but obiter touch her Prerogative and no otherwise but by humble petition but she well perceived that private respects are privately masked under publique pretences Admonished the Justices of the Peace some whereof might probably be of the House of Commons that they should not deserve the Epithetes of prowling Justices Justices of Quarrells who counted Champerty good Conscience Sinning Justices who did suck and consume the good of this Commonwealth and likewise all those who did lye if not all the Year yet at the least Three Quarters of the Year in the City of London Anno 43. Eliz. One Mr Leigh of the House of Commons complained that whilst the Speaker of the House of Commons was presented to the Queen he was denyed entrance into the House of Peers which the Lords excused by saying it was the ignorance of some of the Grooms or attendance in the choosing of a Speaker Mr Knolls the Comptroller alleaged that it was not for the State of the Queen to permit a confused multitude to speak unto her when it might often happen that one or some might move or speak that which another or some or many would contradict or not allow The Queen being sate in her State in the House of Lords the House of Commons were sent for to present their Speaker who in a modest pretence of disability prayed her Majesty to command the House of Commons to choose one more able but had it not allowed And she in her grant of freedom of speech gave a caution not to do it in vain matters verbosities contentions or contradictions nor to make addresses unto her but only in matters of consequence and prohibited their retaining or priviledging desperate debtors upon pain of her displeasure and desired a Law might be made to that purpose Which done the Lord Keeper said for great and weighty causes her Highness's pleasure was that the Parliament should be adjourned untill the Fryday following At which time the House of Commons did appoint a Minister every morning before the House sate to officiate and use a set form of prayer specially ordained to desire Gods blessing upon their Councells and preserve the Queen their Sovereign The Ancient usage of not coming into the House of Commons with spurs was moved by the Speaker to be observed others moved that they might not come with Boots and Rapiers but nothing was done therein Sr Robert Wroth a Member of the House of Commons did in his own particular offer 100 l. per Annum to the Wars Sr Andrew Noel Sheriff of Rutlandshire having returned himself to be a Knight of the shire for that
8th who being a Member of the House of Commons and Imprisoned the House of Commons made an address to the King for his release when they could not do it by their own power Mr Speaker said I am to deliver unto you her Majesties commandement that for the better and more speedy dispatch of causes we should sit in the afternoon and that about this day sennight her Majesties pleasure is this Parliament shall be ended At a conference with the Lords their Lordships told the Commons they would not have their Judgment prejudicated and in that conference of the House of Commons stiled themselves the Lower House There was saith Justice Hussey a whole Alphabet of paenall Laws in the time of King Henry the 7th Mr Mountague said The praerogative Royall is now in Question which the law hath over allowed and Maintained Serjeant Heale speaking somewhat that displeased the Generality of the House they all made an humming and when he began to speak again they did the like whereupon the Speaker stood up and said It is a great disorder that this should be used for it is the antient use of this House for every man to be Silent when any one Speaketh and he that is Speaking should be Suffered to deliver his mind without interruption Sr Edward Hobby upon the debate of a bill brought in for the peoples more diligent repair to Church whether the Church-Wardens were the more proper to certifie the defalters said that when her Majestie did give us leave to chuse our Speaker She gave us leave to chuse one out of our own number Mr Onslow the Clark of the House of Commons in Parliament being Sick the House gave his man leave to officiate for him every Members contributing 12d apeice for his support In the case of Belgrave depending in the Court of Star-Chamber upon an Information brought by Sir Edward Coke her Majesties then Artorney General prosecuted by the Earl of Huntington for wearing his Livery to make himself a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament after several Motions Debates and Disputes in the House of Commons a Conference was concluded to be had with the Lords thereupon the rather for that it had been said that the Lords in Parliament were reported to have directed the said Bill to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber one of their House being concerned therein and a day appointed by the Lords accordingly which failing and revived again by a motion of one of the Members of the house of Commons in their own House and the matters limitted whereupon it should consist first touching the offence committed by Mr. Belgrave whether it was an Infringement of the Liberty of the House of Commons and for the first that the Commons would do nothing therein until a Conference with them for the 2d to know the reasons of their Lordships appointment of the Information and to bring it to some end Mr. Speaker at another day certifying a message from the Lords concerning some other matters Sir Edward Hobby said We attended the Lords that morning which was appointed touching the Information against Mr. Belgrave who in the end concluded that forasmuch as it concerneth them as the House of Commons Priviledges they desired some time to consult and they would send us word of their Resolutions and some days after a Copy of the Information against Belgrave was sent to the House of Peers unto them under the hand of the Clerk of the Star Chamber by them and Sir Edward Hobby with some Bills but nothing appeareth to have been done touching the said Information against Belgrave In the mean time a servant of Mr. Huddleston a Knight of the Shire for Cumberland being arrested in London upon a Writ of Execution the Plaintiff and Serjeants denying to release him because it was after Judgment they were upon complaint to the House committed to Prison the Serjeant released paying the Serjeant at Arms Fees and the Plaintiff paying them as well as his own was ordered to remain three days in the Serjeants Custody For a like Judgment was cited to have been given by the House of Commons in the case of the Baron of Wilton in that Parliament Upon Thursday December the 7th Sir Edward Hobby shewed that the Parliament was now in the wain and near ending and an order was taken touching the Information delivered to this house viz. the House of Commons in Mr. Belgraves case but nothing done therein and as it seemeth by not taking out the Process no Prosecution of the Cause is intended against the said Mr. Belgrave he thought it fit because the chief Scope of the said Information seemeth to be touching a dishonour offered to this House that it would please the House that it might be put to the question being the original and first horrid fashion of their afterward altogether course or manner of voting and making their own pretended Liberties whether he hath offended this House yea or no If he hath he desireth to be censured by you and if he hath not it will be a good motive to this Honourable House here present who are Judges in this Court and yet he might have remembred what long and learned debates and disputes there had lately been amongst themselves whether the Custom of that House was or had been in cases of grievance to proceed by Bill or Petition to the Queen and it was resolved that it was the most proper and dutiful way to proceed by Petition which was done accordingly in clearing the Gentleman of that offence when it came before them which had then no higher esteem in Sir Edward Hobbyes opinion than to be previous to an after disquisition which that Law and the Queens Writ and the Election of that part of the people that brought them thither neither did or could give them any greater authority than ad faciendum consentiendum to do and perform that which the King and Lords in Parliament should ordain to be done and performed and when all should be rightly considered was an offence too often by more than one or once since practised to procure a Membership indirectly in an House of Commons in Parliament committed by Mr. Belgrave that should as little have been countenanced as there was any just or legal Warrant for it wherein Mr. Comptroller said I know the Gentleman to be an honest Gentleman and a great Servant to his Prince and Countrey I think it very fit to clear him I wish it may be put to the Question I will be ready to vouch your sentence for his offence when it comes there but if any other matter appears upon opening the Cause with that we have nothing to do Mr. Secretary Cecil who had not long before said in the same House he was sorry to see such disorder and little do you know how for disorder this Parliament is taxed I am sorry I said not slandered I hoped that as this Parliament began gravely and with Judgment
visit to his Tomb. The King thus vanquished by Clemency and hopes to out-reason their detestible Rebellion with all the secresie imaginable retired out of Oxford with a too much over-trusted Groom of his Bed-chamber riding out as the man with Mr. Hudson an Orthodox Loyal Minister their Journey being designed for London where the King was informed that the City Train Bands were to muster the next day after he should reach thither unto whose Protection not of the Scotch Army then quartered at Newcastle upon Tine he intended to place the safety of his Person whilst he should Treat further with his Parliament Rebels who being sufficiently infected with their Parliamentary Rebellious never to be warranted Principles would have given him as little an assistance whereof the Rebels being informed before hand by their Colonel Rainsborough that granted the King his pass and did too well understand who was the treacherous Groom of the Bed-chamber mans Master when the Loyal Party were afraid what was become of the King the Rebels could answer they would shortly hear of him who coming near unto London finding himself disappointed by the Training put off was enforced to coast about betwixt Branford and Highgate and from thence resolve to take his way to the Scotish Army and cast himself into their Protection after that he had before met with so bad an effect of their contrary Loyalty whither being come they as if they had had no manner of Intelligence of it before write their Letters to their Brother Parliament Rebels of their great amazement to see the King come unto them and desire that he may be brought home to his Parliament over which they had such an influence as they almost governed them in honour and safety who fail not to do it in promises but would have him delivered to them and sent to an house of his own at Holmby in the County of Northampton where he should not want a guard of their own whereupon the Scotish Commanders having fallen into a deeper than ordinary consideration how they could with Honour Loyalty and gude Conscience deliver their Native King into the hands of his Enemies and going to voting two great Commanders that in muckle manner had been obliged to their King for many great favours and might have ballanced the Vote with a great deal of facility in the Negative were mightily suspected to have gone privately along with them that they were certain would make up the Majority for delivering of the King up to his Parliament Adversaries but took by all means an especial care for themselves to Vote against the delivering of the King into the hands of those that would love their own ends more than any of his Rights or their Duty and a bargain came so to be made as the King was put into the mercy of the English Parliament and 200000 l. Sterling which amounted unto something more than Judas Iscariots thirty pieces of Silver for betraying Jesus Christ. And as Mickel as the 200000 l. were above the Scotch Marks or 13 d. half-penny english none or very little of it could ever after find the way to the Pockets of the Scotch Plads or blew Caps and he had not been long at Holmby but he was in a Morning betimes fetcht out of his Bed by Cornet Joice a Fanatick Tayler with some Troops of Horse sent by Cromwel and Fairfax into their Army Quarters and tossed from place to place until after 25 Treaties Letters and Messages for Peace they had from Treachery to Treachery and Villany to Villany contrived his execrable Murder The 2d of June 1642. the Lords and Commons in Parliament did offer their humble Petition and Advice having nothing in their thoughts and desires as they pretended next unto the Honour and immediate service of God more than the faithful performance of their Duty to his Majesty and this Kingdom as the most necessary and effectual means thereof to grant and accept the 19 Propositions ensuing viz. 1. That the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy Council and all such great Officers and Ministers of State either at home or abroad or beyond the Seas may be put from your Privy Council and have no Offices or Employments excepting such as shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament and that the Persons put into their Places and Employment may be approved of by both Houses of Parliament and that Privy Councellors shall take an Oath for the due execution of their Places in such form as shall be agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament 2. That the great Affairs of the Kingdom may not be concluded or transacted by the advice of private men or by any unknown or unsworn Councellors Sir Robert Cotton a great Antiquary with a well furnished Library being often consulted with by King James and that Prince in special matters but that such matters as concern the publick and are proper for the High Court of Parliament which is his Majesties great and supream Court may be debated resolved and transacted only in Parliament which was contrary to the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Parliaments in this and all other the Kingdoms of the Christian World whereby the matters and business of Monarchy and the Regal Government were limited and restrained unto arduis non omnibus arduis sed quibusdam and not elsewhere and such as shall presume to do any thing to the contrary shall be reserved to the censure and judgment of Parliament and such other matters as are proper for his Majesties Privy Council shall be debated and concluded by such of the Nobility and others as shall from time to time be chosen for that place by approbation of both Houses of Parliament which would have Incorporated and Associated the House of Commons in Parliament with the House of Lords which never was nor ought to have been otherwise than inferiour unto the House of Peers in Parliament and therefore stiled the lower House of Parliament and that no publick Act concerning the Affairs of the Kingdom as are proper for his Majesties Privy Council may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the Major part of his Council Attested under their hands and that his Council may be limitted to a certain number not exceeding 25 nor under 15. And that if any Privy Councellors place happen to be void in the intervals of Parliament it shall not be supplied without the assent of the Major part of the Council which choice shall be confirmed at the next sitting of Parliament or else to be void 3. That the Lord High Steward of England Lord High Constable of England which by Marriages and Descent had been Incorporated in the Royal Line Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Earl Marshal Lord Admiral Warden of the Cinque Ports Governour of Ireland the Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Wards
Secretaries of State two Chief Justices and Chief Baron not being to be ranked with the Peers may always be chosen by the approbation of both Houses of Parliament the House of Commons being never before accompted equal with the House of Peers in Birth Honour Wisdom Education Alliance or Estate and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Assent of the Major part of the Councel in such manner as was before expressed in the choice of Councellors which in a matter of a much less consequence in the Government of the Kings Houshold was so little endured by the Nobility of England in the 10th year of the Raign of King Richard the 2d as it was adjudged an incroachment upon Regal Authority and high Treason and some great Lords suffered in their Persons and Estates for it and others glad to receive their Pardons for being confederate or Privy thereunto 4. That he or they unto whom the Government or Education of his Children shall be committed shall be approved by both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of his Council in such manner as was before expressed in the choice of Councellors and that all such Servants as are now about them against whom both Houses shall have any just exception shall be removed which before they had disclaimed as Mr. Rushworths Historical Collections Printed and allowed by them not long before had informed us 5. That no Marriage shall be concluded or treated for any of his Children with any Forreign Prince or any Person whatsoever abroad or at home without the consent of the Parliament under the penalty of a Praemunire unto such as shall conclude or treat any Marriage as aforesaid which they had as aforesaid disclaimed and the said penalty shall not be pardoned or dispenced with but by the consent of both Houses of Parliament that lower House never having before or since any power of pardoning or dispensation nor that higher without the Sanction or Authority of their Soveraign 6. That the Laws in force against Jesuits Priests Papists and Recusants be put in execution without any Toleration or Dispensation to the contrary and that a course may be enacted by Authority of Parliament to hinder them from making any disturbance in the State or Law by Trusts or otherwise 7. That the Votes of Popish Lords in the House of Lords may be taken away so long as they continue Papists and that his Majesty would consent to such a Bill as shall be drawn for the Education of Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion which was to take away the Priviledge of Barons holding by Tenure without conviction for Treason and of Earls Viscounts Marquesses or Dukes which ever since the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the 2d were by that and all succeeding Kings Letters Patents to have vocem locum sedem in Parliamentis 8. That his Majesty would be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise wherein they do intend to have consultation with Divines as is expressed in their Declaration to that purpose and that his Majesty will continue his best assistance unto them for raising of a sufficient maintenance for Preaching Ministers through the Kingdom when there was no want of the Orthodox more Loyal and better sort and that his Majesty would be pleased to give his consent to Laws for the taking away of Superstitions and Innovations and of pluralities and scandalous Ministers which in their accompt were only of the Church of England and Loyal 9. That his Majesty would be pleased to rest satisfied with the course that the Lords and Commons have appointed for the ordering of the Militia until the same shall be further setled by a Bill and that his Majesty would be pleased to recal his Proclamations and Declarations against the Ordinance made by the Lords and Commons concerning it which was to take away the Tenures the Power of the Sword and defence of his People 10. That the Members of either Houses of Parliament as have during the time of this present Parliament been put out of any Places or Offices may either be restored to their Place or Office or otherwise have satisfaction for the same upon the Petition of that House whereof he or they are Members 11. That all Privy Counsellors and Judges may take their Oath the form thereof to be agreed on and setled by Act of Parliament for the maintaining of the Petition of Right which was in many things more than ever they could claim or ever had or could by Law have any Right unto and of certain Statutes made by this Parliament which shall be mentioned by both Houses of Parliament as if they were in all Duty and Loyalty bound to make him a glorious King thought they could never have unking'd him enough and brought him to their murdering ever to be abhorred Tribunal and that an inquiry of all the Breaches and Violations of all those Laws may be given in charge by the Justices of the Kings Bench and by the Justices of Assize in their Circuits and Justices of the Peace at their Sessions to be presented and punished according to Law 12. That all the Judges and Officers placed by approbation of both Houses of Parliament may hold their places quam diu se bene gesserint 13. That the Justice of Parliament may pass upon all Delinquents whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the sentence of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by his Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such persons as his Majesty shall appoint with the approbation of his Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Major part of the Council in such manner as is before expressed in the choice of Councellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces attending his Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future he will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of Actual Rebellion or Invasion an Imposition and Vassalage was never put upon any thing that was like a King in Christendom for the Kings of Scotland whilst seperate from England and did homage to our Kings had when there was cause enough of fear and jealousie as now there was none no such unkingly Vassalage put upon him King David had 24000 men for his Guard who every Month came up to Jerusalem and our Saxon King Alured had his Guards by monthly courses 17. That his Majesty would be pleased to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the united Provinces and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and
amount unto no more than the breeding of Factions and dislike of his Majesties mild and tender hearted Government lampooning and scandalizing him robbing and pilfering his Royal Revenue whereby to encompass him with all manner of importunate necessities as if the cheating and misusing of Kings had been no small part of their Praerogative contrived a most abominable Association upon him and his Royal Brother his now Sacred Majesty to murder and ruine them as they were to come thorough a narrow Lane from Newmarket to London in the same Coach and being disappointed therein proceeded to infect as much as they could the Parliament that should have been his best and most wholsom Counsel to make and enter into an Association upon their Oaths without their King to exclude and banish his Royal Brother his now present Majesty and his Heirs and Successors from the Royal Succession for that he was suspected to be addicted to the Religion of the Church of Rome Which being by the King and major part of the House of Lords contradicted a Force and Insurrection was contrived and enough as they hoped listed and made ready to accomplish it but it being discovered by some that had been persuaded to assist therein and some of the Nobility being according to Law attainted of High Treason and forfeited they would not leave prosecuting of him with their Plots and Designs until God the Appointer of Kings had called him to his mercy from them that would have no mercy for him And having thus long abused their Kings with their Rebellions and brought a long lasting Series of mischief and miseries upon their seduced Followers could not rest satisfied if they should not give more Credit to their New Commonwealth-Mongers that would entitle them to the only power of summoning proroguing adjorning or dissolving of Parliaments and manackling of their Kings and Princes and did not think they had enough established it and themselves if they had not when for Loyalty or any such matter they were to eject any of their Fellow-Members caused them to receive their Sentence upon their Knees although they had committed no Offence neither supplicated for any pardon or had it And another being as willing as some others to adore his own fancy without any evidence of Truth Law or Right Reason in his Wringing Wresting and Torturing of Tropes Metaphors Allegories Improprieties of Words or Phrases beyond their Right or common use or what he had picked together out of some lying Manuscripts and abused Records by omissions of truths whereby to put his vain and groundless imaginations into some frame and method hath in his Book Printed and Published endeavoured to make the House of Commons to be an Essential and Constituent part of Parliament and to have a votum Decisivum therein and hath therein committed more dangerous errors than the late Author of the Theory of the Earth in his endeavouring to prove Noahs Flood to have been more from natural causes than the product of God Almighty's Will and Infinite Power declared by his more especial Servant Moses sufficiently confuted by the Reverend Father in God Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford And it must needs be said that he hath over-dangerously handled Joves Thunder-bolts and made himself as instrumental as he could to take the Soveraignty from the King and bestow it upon the People whom he and his Opiniotretees would suppose to be represented in Parliament whereas he should have only said it was a constituted part of the Parliament from the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d sub modo forma during that Kings Imprisonment under Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Rebel Associates and were neither in Authority or Degree the same with the more Honourable and better Estated House of Peers although in that then constituted House of Commons in Parliament there were to be four Knights out of every County in England to be Elected and sent thither few of them appearing and that more or less they might have claimed as they have lately done the summoning of the Peers and the Nobility of the Kingdom Electing the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and they representing all the People might more easily have continued and maintained their Post and Station of a never to be proved senseless and reasonless Soveraignty which was not to be seen heard or read in this Kingdom either in the time that it had been a Roman Colony or of the Great Arthur or the Saxon Heptarchy Norman Conquest and our many since succeeding Kings and Princes and is and hath ever been attended with so many possibilities of setting People together to kill destroy and ruin one another as hath no where in the habitable World but in our late English Frenzy and Infatuation and most egregious Hypocritical pretences of Religion whilst they for almost fifty years together imployed their Godless time in murdering of their Kings and Laws and the one half or more of their Fellow-Subjects Lives and Estates and that Author can never prove that there are two Supreams nor find any way to agree them which should be uppermost or which the lowermost And what pro Deus atque hominum fidem could those liberties be that they by a pretence of Reformation of grievances of their own making had usurped upon their King to mould themselves and their wicked fellow Complotters into a Republick as they would have it stiled when it proved to be nothing but a Society of Rapine plunder and villany whereof their Regicide Oliver Cromwell had afterwards cheated them and was almost as great a mistake in what a very learned Judge had said when he was Member of the House of Commons that the King was primarily a Trustee for the People yet it could not be so affirmed by any Truth Rule or Law of God or man as immediately from or by them but only as immediately from or by God commanded to take care of his People And a wrongfull misinterpretation hath been endeavoured to be put upon some part of our Reverend Mr. Hookers Book of Ecclesiastical Policy as if he had positively affirmed that the King was a Trustee for his People as he is doubtless for his protection when the late learned Dr. Sanderson Bishop of Lincoln hath affirmed unto me that he having heedfully perused the Book written with Mr. Hookers own hand could discover no such words therein So here is complexedly met and united a Systeme and a Mass of the Conspiracies Factions Seditions Treasons and abominable confusions put together and agitated sometimes at one time and after at others from the later end of the Raign of King Richard the first until the Raign of King Charles the 2d in the dream of the Election of our Kings and Princes in the Rebellion at Running Mede some Barons in the Raign of King Henry the third threatning to choose another King and enforcing of Conservators of the Liberties of the People in