of his Reign for the punishment of such as committed Murder or Man-slaughter in the Kings Court or did strike any man there whereby Bloodshed ensued the Trial of such Offenders was not thought fit to be within the Cognisance or Jurisdiction of any of the Courts of Westminster-hall or of any Court inferior unto them but ordained to be by a Jury of 12 of the Yeomen Officers of the Kings Houshold before the Lord Steward or in his absence before the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Kings Houshold And the Parliament in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary repealing the aforesaid Act of the 32 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth did touching the Great Master of the Kings House notwithstanding understand it to be reasonable that the Name Office and Authority of the Lord Steward should be again established And so little the Priviledge of the Kings Servants in Ordinary seemed to be a Grievance or illegal to be first complained of to the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold which Honourable Office and Place about the King appears to have been before that Great Office of Chamberlain of England by the mention of Hugoline Chamberlain to King Edward the Confessor and the Subscription of Ralph Fitz Stephen as a Witness to a Charter of King Henry the Second granted unto the Abby of Shirburn before they were to be subjected to Arrests or Imprisonments for Debt and other Personal Actions before Execution or Judgment had against them upon their appearance and not claiming or pleading their Priviledge for then or in such a case they have not sometimes been priviledged although the cause and reason of their Priviledge was as much after Judgement and Execution as before which a submission to the Jurisdiction of another Court and not claiming their Priviledge should not prejudice or take away no more than it doth in the Case of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament and their Servants who by their Priviledge of Parliament are not to be disturbed with Executions or any manner of Process before and after Judgment as Queen Mary did in a Case depending in the Court of Common Pleas betwixt Huggard Plaintiff and Sir Thomas Knivet Defendant direct her Writ to the Justices of that Court which was but as one of the old and legal Writs of Protection or something more especial certifying them That the said Sir Thomas Knivet was by her command in her Service beyond the Seas and had been Essoined and therefore commanded them That at the time appointed by the said Essoin and day given for his appearance he should not have any default entred against him or be in any thing prejudiced which the Judges were so far from disallowing as having before searched and finding but few and that before-mentioned Privy Seal in the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth in the Case of the Kings Yeoman of the Buttery being held by them to be insufficient but declared not whether in substance or Form howsoever there may be some probability that it was allowed by the entring of it upon Record they did as the Lord Chief Justice Dier hath reported it advise and assist in the penning and framing of the Writ for Sir Thomas Knivet whereby to make it the more legal Queen Elizabeth who was as tender of her Peoples Liberties as of her own yet was upon some occasion heard to say That he that abused her Porter at the Gate of her House or Palace abused her did cause a Messenger of her Chamber to be sent unto a Defendant in the Court of Requests commanding him in her Name not to vex sue or trouble the Complainant but suffer him to come and go freely unto that Court until such time as other Order be by the Council of the said Court taken therein And in the second year of her Reign an Injunction was awarded to the Defendant commanding him to permit the Complainant to follow his Suit in that Court without Arrest upon pain of one hundred pounds In the same year Sir Nicholas Bacon that great and well-experienced Lawyer and Statesman Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and a man highly and deservedly valued both of Prince and People did in the Case between Philip Manwaring Complainant Henry Smallwood and others Defendants so well understand the aforesaid Priviledges of the Kings Servants to be just and legal as upon a Bill exhibited in Chancery by the Plaintiff to stay a Suit in the Marches of Wales he ordered That if the Complainant should not by a day limited bring a Certificate from the Officets of the Queens House or otherwise whereby the Court might credibly understand that his Attendance in the Queens Service was necessary that Cause should be determined in the Marches of Wales In the eighth year of her Reign Thomas Thurland Clerk of the Queens Closet being Plaintiff in the Court of Requests against William Whiteacres and Ralf Dey Defendants an Order was made That whereas the Complainant was committed to the Fleet by the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas upon an Execution of 600 l. the Debt being only 300 l. it hath been given this Curt to understand by divers of the Queens Highness most Honourable Privy Council that Her Majesties pleasure is to have and use the present and speedy Travel of the said Thomas Thurland in and about divers of Her Highness weighty affairs in sundry places of England and Wales for and about the Mineral Causes there to the very likely Commodity and benefit of Her Majesty and all her Subjects It is therefore Ordered and Decreed by Her Majesties Council of this Court that the said Thomas Thurland shall and may with his Keeper appointed by the Warden of the Fleet Travel into any part of the said Realm about the affairs aforesaid without the disturbance Let or Interruption of the said Defendants And to that purpose an Injunction is granted against the said Defendants their Attornies and Solicitors upon pain of one Thousand pounds and commanded that neither they nor any of them shall vex sue trouble molest or implead the said Complainant or Richard Tirrel Esq Warden of the Fleet or any other person whatsoever for the Travelling or departing of the said Thomas Thurland from the said Prison of the Fleete with his Keeper appointed as aforesaid from the day of the making of this Decree until the feast of all Saints next ensuing if the said Complainant so long shall have cause to attend about the said affairs And many Cases might be instanced where that great Supporter of Monarchy Regality and Honour in Her best of Governments would not suffer the Just Priviledges of Her Court and Servants to be violated but would be sure severely to punish the Contradictors and Infringers of them About the eighteenth year of her Raign the Earl of Leicester Master of the Horse unto that Excellent Queen and great preserver of Her Peoples
Bracton will not allow the priviledge where it is ex voluntaria causa when the party that would excuse his absence was voluntarily absent and not in the Kings service or will of his own accord without the Kings command go along with his Army yet he cannot but say that talibus non subvenit dominus nisi de gratia unto such the King would not be aiding unless he should be otherwise gratiously pleased to do it By an Act of Parliament made in the 52 year of the Raign of our King Henry the third all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and religious men and women except that their appearance be specially required for some other Causes are excused from appearing at the Sheriffs Turn Sir Edward Cook extending it to the Courts Leete and view of Franck-pledge which with the Sheriffs Turns were instituted for the Conservation of the Kings peace punishment of Nusances and where all men within the Jurisdiction of it might be summoned to take the Oath of Allegiance By an Act of Parliament made in the third year of the Raign of King Edward the first providing a remedy where an Officer of the Kings which by common intendment were then understood to be the Sheriffs Escheators or Bayliffs of the King not his menial Servants doth disseise any It is in that only case left to the Election of the Disseisee or party disseised whether that the King by office shall cause it to be amended which the parties grieved were more likely to choose when besides their just satisfaction they might be a means to punish or affright the Kings Officers so offending with the losse of their gainful as well as not smally reputed Offices or places at his complaint or that he will sue at the Common Law by writ of novel disseisin And by another act of parliament made in the same year enjoyning severe penalties against the Kings Purveyors not paying for what they take and of such as take part of the Kings debts or other rewards of the Kings Creditors to make payment of the same debts and of such as take Horses and Carts more than need a trick wherein Tacitus saith the Roman Cart-takers whilst the Romans governed here were wont to abuse the old Britains and take rewards to dismisse them it was provided that if any of Court so do he shall be grievously punished by the Marshalls and if it be done out of the Court or by one that is not of the Court and be thereof attainted he shall pay treble damages and shall remain in the Kings prison forty dayes by which it is evident that the intention of that Act of Parliament was not to deliver any of the Purveyors the Kings Servants in ordinary to any other Tribunals than that of the Marshals or other the Officers of his Houshold Britton who like the Emperor Justinians Tribonianus in compiling or putting together the pieces of the Civil Laws did by Command of that wise and Valiant Prince King Edward the first in the fifth year of his Raign write his book in the name of that King concerning divers Pleas Process and proceedings in the Kings Courts saith in the Person of that King and French of those times Countes et Barons Dedans nostre verge the Kings Palace or 12 miles round about trovesnequedent estre destreint that Earls Barons found within the virge should not be attached or distrained as ordinary men which were Debtors Et nos Serjeans or Servants de nostre hostel soient avant summons pour dette que destreyntz et attaches par leur cors les uns pour reverence de lour persones et les Autres pour reverence de nostre service of our House shall be summoned for debt before they be destreyned or Attached by their bodies the one in reverence and respect to their persons and the other in reverence to our Service By an Act of Parliament made by that prudent Prince about that time entituled Prohibitio formata de Statuto Articuli Cleri where a prohibition was framed against certain matters which concerned the Clergy and the limitting of their Jurisdiction It was declared thaâ— Proceres et magnates et alii de eodem regno temporibus Regis predecessorâ—m Regum Angliae seu Regis Authoritate alicujus non consueuerunt contra consuetudinem illam super hujusmodi rebus i. e. matters Civil or Temporal except matters of Testaments or Matrimony in causa trahi vel compelli ad comparendum coram quocunquè Judice Ecclesiastico the Noble men and others of the Kingdome in the times of the Kings Predecessors or by Authority of any of the Kings did not use contrary to the said custome in such cases to be compelled to appear before any Ecclesiastical Judg whatsoever In the 18th year of his Raign in an Action brought at the Kings Suit in Banco Regis in the Kings Bench against Robert the Son of William de Glanville and Reginald the Clark of the said William de Glanville for delivering at Norwich a panel and certain of the Kings Writs which the Kings Coroner ought to have Brought the said Reginald demurring for that Dominus Rex motu proprio de hujusmodi Imiuriis privatis personis illatis sectam habere non debet ex quo aliena actio sibi competere non potest unde petit Judicium et si hoc non sufficiat dicet aliud et si actio in hujusmodi caesu Domino Regi posset competere dicit quod hoc deberet esse per breve originale et non de judicio unde petit Judicium the King was not to bring an Action for injuries done to private persons and is not concerned in another mans suit and demanded the judgment of the Court. And if that Plea will not be sufficient will plead somewhat else And if such an Action did belong to the King it ought to have been by Writ Original and not by a Writ Judicial whereof he pray'd the Judgment of the Court but Johannes de Bosco who followed for the King dicit quod quelibet injuria ministris Regiis licet minimis illata vertitur in dedecus ipsius Regis Et licèt hujusmodi minister Justitiam assequi de injur sibi illat contempsit tamen cum hujusmodi Injuria ministris Regis illata ipsi Regi fuit ostensa competit sibi actio ad amend consequend de contemptu pleaded that every wrong or injury done to the Kings Servants though it be unto the least is a disparagement to the King And if such a Servant will not take care to prosecute such an injury yet when the King shall be informed thereof he is concerned to punish the Contempt and vouched a late President for it in a Case betwixt Robert of Benhale and Robert Baygnar and others in a Writ of wast and prayed Judgment for the King In the same year John de Waleis complaining against Bogo de Clare for that some of
Liberties did commit to Prison one that had Arrested one of Her Servants without leave and the Creditor being shortly after upon his Petition released by the said Earl who blaming him for his contempt and misdemeanor therein and being answered by the Creditor that if he had known so much before hand he would have prevented it for that he would never have trusted any of the Queens Servants was so just as to inforce that Servant of the Queens to pay him presently or in a short time after the said debt And told him that if he did not thereafter take a better care to pay his Debts he would undo all the other of the Queens Servants for that no man would trust them but they would be constrained to pay ready money for every thing which they should have occasion to buy In the six and twentieth year of Her Reign Henry Seâ—kford Esq one of the Grooms of Her Majesties Privy Chamber being Complainant against William Cowper Defendant the Defendant was in open Court upon his Allegiance enjoyned to attend the said Court from day to day until he be otherwise Licenced and to stay and Surcease and no further prosecute or proceed against the Complainant in any Action at and by the Order of the Common Law And about the Seven and twentieth year of Her Reign some controversies arising betwixt the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and Sir Owen Hopton Knight Lieutenant of the Tower of London concerning some Liberties and Priviledges claimed by the Lieutenant and his refusal of Writs of Habeas Corpora and that and other matters in difference betwixt them being by Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor of England the Earl of Leicester and other the Lords of the Council referred unto the consideration of Sir Christopher Wray Lord Chief Justice of the Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Sir Gilbert Gerrard Knight Master of the Rolls they did upon hearing of both parties and their allegations Certifie under their hands that as concerning such Liberties which the Lieutenant of the Tower claimeth to have been used for the Officers and Attendants in the Tower some of them being of the Queens Yeomen of the Guard and wearing Her Livery Coates and Badges as they do now the Kings as not to be Arrested by any Action in the City of London and Protections to be granted unto them by the Lieutenant and his not obeying of Writs of Habeas Corpus They were of opinion that such Persons as are dayly Attendant in the Tower of London Serving Her Majesty there are to be Priviledged and not to be Arrested upon any plaint in London But for Writs of Execution or Capias Vtlagatum's which the Law did not permit without leave first asked the latter of which by the Writ it self brings an Authority in the Tenor and purport of it to enter into any Liberties but not specifying whether they intended any more than Capias Vtlegátum when it was only after judgement or such like they did think they ought to have no priviledge which the Lords of the Council did by an Order under their hands as rules and determinations to be at all Times after observed Ratifie and Confirm And our Learned King James well understanding how much the Weal Publick did Consist in the good Rules of Policy and Government and the support not only of His own Honor and just Authority but of the respects due unto his great Officers of State and such as were by him imployed therein did for the quieting of certain controversies concerning Precedence betwixt the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and the Baronets and others by an Ordinance or Declaration under the Great Seal of England In the tenth year of His Reign Decree and Ordain That the Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter the Privy Councellors of His Majestie His Heires and Successors the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries the Chancellor and under Treasurer of the Exchequer Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the Chief Justice of the Court commonly called the Kings Bench the Master of the Rolls the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and all other the Judges and Barons of the degree of the Coife of the said Courts Now and for the Time being shall by reason of such their Honourable Order and Imployment have Place and Precedence in all Places and upon all occasions before the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and before all Baronets any Custom Vse Ordinance or other thing to the Contrary Notwithstanding In the four and thirtieth year of Her Reign Sir Christopher Wray Knight Lord Chief Justice of Her Court of Queens Bench Sir Edmond Anderson Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the rest of the Judges of the aforesaid Courts seeming to be greatly troubled that divers Persons having been at several Times committed without good cause shewed and that such Persons having been by the Courts of Queens Bench and Common Pleas discharged of their Imprisonments a Commandment was by certain great Men and Lords procured from the Queen to the Judges that they should not do the like thereafter all the said Judges together with the Barons of the Exchequer did under their hands Exhibit unto the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Burghley Lord Treasurer of England their Complaint or Remonstrance in these words viz. We Her Majesties Justices of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer desire your Lordships that by some good means some Order may be taken that her Highness Subjects may not be Committed or detained in Prison by Commandment of any Noble Man or Counsellor against the Laws of the Realm either else to help us to have access unto her Majesty to the end to become Suitors unto Her for the same For divers have been imprisoned for Suing Ordinary Actions and Suits at the Common Law until they have been constrained to leave the same against their Wills and put the same to Order albeit Judgement and Execution have been had therein to their great losses and griefs For the aid of which persons her Majesties Writs have sundry Times been directed to sundry Persons having the custody of such Persons unlawfully Imprisoned upon which Writs no good or Lawful cause of Imprisonment hath been returned or Certified Whereupon according to the Laws they have been discharged of their Imprisonment some of which Persons so delivered have been again Committed to Prison in secret places and not to any Common or Ordinary Prison or Lawful Officer or Sheriff or other Lawfully Authorised to have or keep a Goal So that upon Complaint made for their delivery The Queens Courts cannot tell to whom to Direct Her Majesties Writs And by this means Justice cannot be done And moreover divers Officers and Serjeants of London have been many Times Committed to Prison for Lawful Executing of Her Majesties Writs Sued forth
which was complained of being not always likely to be true would not think it just to give them leave to Arrest or Hurry the Defendants to Prison as their Pride Malice Cruelty or oppressing Designs should incite them without some pause or Interval which many times cooleth the fury of mens rage and Impetuosities in the pursuit of their causeless anger or malice or by some other way or means lays aside their intended Law Sute our Laws in the favour shewed to Defendants imitating therein the Civil Law from whose Excellent and largly streaming fountain much of their reasons and Maxims are borrowed and derived which in it's Practice and Tenets is favorabilior reo quam Actori respects more the Defendant than the Plaintiff Actor quippe potuit omnia negotia ex consilio componere antequam reum vocaret for that the Plaintiff hath commonly made all his matters readie before he complains of the Defendant or cites him to appear to his Action reus vero quadam necessitate comparendi sibi imposita ita facile saepe non potest sibi consulere ut pro voluntate quae vult exequatur but the Defendant having a necessity put upon him to appear when he is summoned cannot in that time so well provide for his defence as to do or perform what he otherwise would do which may be the cause that apud Romanos Lege cautum ut Accusatori which was then in Civil as well as in Criminal Cases in foro horae sex ad dicendum reo vero novem ad defendendum darentur a Law was made by the Romans that the Accuser should be allowed six hours at the Barrâ— or in a Court of Justice to charge the Defendant but the Defendant was for his defence to have nine that apportionment of time being afterwards contracted and abridged by Cn. Pompey unto two for the Plaintiff and three for the Defendant and long before that amongst the Athenians and Lacedemonians fuit constitutum ut aequalibus votis super vindicando facinore in diversa trahentibus pro reo judicium staret quod videbatur aequissimum it was their Law or Custom that where in a Case betwixt the Accuser or Plaintiff and the Defendant the Votes of the one side and the other sell to be equal they held it most just or equitable to absolve or free the Defendant and for that or the like reason it was that Judge Hengham said in the Reign of King Edward the first quod Curia Domini Regis neminem decipere vult that the Kings Court of Justice would not have any Defendant to be surprized or deceived that by the Statute of the 51. of King Henry the third the dayes or Retourns in the Court of Common Pleas in Real Actions for Lands had so long a time allowed as from the Octaves or eight dayes after Michaelmas which as to the day of appearance is about the 9 th day of October unto the Octaves or eight dayes of St. Hillary which is as to the day of appearance the 23. day of January next following and of five Retourns in Dower which concerned only an Estate for life from the Octaves or eight dayes of St. Hillary which is the 23. day of January unto quindena Paschae or fifteen daies after Easter which in most years doth happen about the middle of April next following and by the Statute of 32 H. 8. cap. 2. daies were given in real Actions retornable in Octabis Sancti Hillarii unto Crastino Sanctae Trinitatis which is more than four months And that there are and have been to the intent that according to our Magna Charta the Defendant as well as the Plaintiff should be heard before Sentence or Judgement given those Indulgencies of Essoins de malo vemendi that a Defendant could not coveniently come or of malo lecti that he was sick c. Such Licences or kind of leave before Actions begun or prosecuted being so essential to a right distribution of Justice as antiently the parties could not compound or agree an Action or Suit depending without a Licence from the King to agâ—ee as it is yet in praxi in the course or manner of leavying Fines upon Writs of Covenant for a certain sum of money called by the name of the Kings Silver paid to the King upon the prae-fine and another sum of monie also upon the Post-fine and sometimes though now altogether dis-used upon an Action of Debt for no greater a sum of monie than 11 l. and some odd monie nor could the Plaintiff upon any mistake in his Action amend the matter or bring another Writ without a Petition or Request ut recedat a brevi that he might forsake that Writ or Action to purchase a better all the pleadings at Law where the obtaining of a Writ is mentioned alledging that the Plaintiff impetravit breve did Petition for that Writ and the special awarding of very many of the Writs and Process of Law being in the word petit breve de inquirendo de dampnis c. that the Plaintiff prayeth that he may have a Writ to inquire of Damages c. And was not without the pattern of ancient daies and the reasons that guided or conducted them unto it when in King Davids time as we may read in the Conspiracy and Rebellion of his Son Absolom the people were coming to David with with their Petions for Justice and there were amongst the Hebrews or people of Israel God in his most righteous Laws to that Nation which Moses afterwards told them farr surpassed the Laws of other Nations ordaining ut ex praescripto res Judicarent that matters of Controversie should be judged according to certain praescript forms and rules a certain sort of Magistrates called Grammatoisogogei which prefided over the Judges qui causas quae ad se deferrentur who received Petitions for Justice recipere vel rejicere possent quas recepissent ad Judices introducerent and having authority to receive or reject them did deliver to the Judges those which they approved to which custom or course that speech of our Saviour Christ in the 12 th Chapter of St. Luke alludeth Cum vadis cum Adversario tuo ad Principem in via da operam liberari ne forte trahat te ad Judicem when thou goest with thine Adversary to the Prince or Magistrate as thou art in the way give diligence that thou may'st be delivered from him lest he hale thee to the Judge And the Athenians having afterwards used the like the Romans their wise Imitators considering that hominem homini Lupum esse verissime dici solet men are too often Wolves to one another cum vita nostra ob corruptam naturam sine litibus transigi non posset melius erat Judiciorum formulas introducere quibus Judice cognitore homines disceptarent quam ferre quod quotidianis dissidiis ad arma rixas prosilirent and the life of mankind by their corrupt
Bona Catalla sua quaecunque ac universos legales tenentes suos omnium singulorum maneriorum suorum in protectionem defensionem nostram suscepimus specialem The King to all unto whom these presents shall come sendeth greeting We considering the well accepted and laudable Services done as well unto us as our dear Mother Isabel Queen of England by our trusty John de Staunton and being therefore willing to honour him according to his deserts have made the said John a Knight of our Chamber and one of our Servants in Ordinary whilst he lives as well when he shall be absent as present And of our especial grace have taken into our special protection the said John de Staunton and all his Lands Tenements Goods and Chatels and likewise all his Tenants of his Manors Omnibus singulis nostris fidelibus tenore presentium firmiter inhibentes ne eisdem Johanni Terris Tenementis Bonis seu Catallis suis aut legalibus tenentibus maneriorum praedictorum malum molestiam prisas aut aliud impedimentum inferunt vel faciunt indebite vel injuste si quis eis injuriatum vel forissactum fuerit id eis debite reformari corrigi faciunt Streightly charging and prohibiting all our good Subjects that they do not unduly or unjustly endamage or molest the said John de Staunton his Lands Tenements Goods Chatels or his said Tenants and if any shall injure or wrong them therein that you do duly cause it to be reformed and amended And the Writs of Protection which our Kings of England have sometimes granted unto some which were imployed in their Service upon some special motives and reasons and were not his maenial or domestick Servants having been very often if not alwayes made and granted not only to protect the persons of such as were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary but specially imployed upon extraordinary occasions but de non molestando res terras tenementa homines which in the legal acceptation antiently signified their Tenants as well as their Maenial or Houshold Servants especially when instead of Rents or for some abatements made of them they Plowed and Sowed their Landlords Land Reaped their Corn and did many other Services belonging to Husbandry bona Catalla possessiones suas not to molest trouble or permit them to be troubled in their Estates Real and Personal Lands Tenements Servants Tenants Goods Chatels and Possessions and do agree with those priviledges which our Neighbour Princes of Europe and many other Nations have allowed their Servants And such or the like Protections are and have been an antient allowed priviledge not only to Foreign Embassadors but their Assistants Servants Goods and Chatels in the Dominions and Territories of Kings and Princes to whom they are sent and where they are resident Et sane quae potest tanta vis esse privilegii personae Legatorum si privilegium istis accessionibus non conceditur saith Albericus Gentilis And truly to what purpose will the priviledge of Embassadors be or enure if the Protection of their Estates as well as their persons should not attend their employments for where their persons may not be summoned cited or inforced to lay by or forsake his Service in the attendance upon the process of any of his Subordinate Courts of Justice there cannot by the rules of Common Justice and our Magna Charta that great piece of right reason and Justice be any Judgement had or obtained without appearane against them or any Execution thereupon against their Goods or Estate And it being so just and necessary for the Plaintiffs to demand Leave or Licence for the compelling of them to appear to their actions it will be as necessary becoming certainly to demand a second Leave or Licence to take out process of Execution upon any judgement obtained when as in the ordinaay course of our Laws and the intendment thereof every Plaintiff as the Records of our Courts of Justice will abundantly testifie is as it were by Petition to pray and ask leave to take out his Writ of Execution for that as the Judges may in their inferior Orbes sometimes find cause to Arrest or stay for a time some Judgements and Executions so certainly and much more in the Superior may the urgency of some present and necessary Service of the King and the Weal Publique the Kings Service and the publique being as inseparable as his Person and Authority Body Politique and Corporal require some pause or a Licence first to be demanded Such requisites and privileges drawn from the same Fountain of priviledges and reason being no otherwise in their effects then as to the joynt priviledges of Persons and Estates then the priviledges of Parliament and the Protections allowed unto the Peerage and Members of the House of Commons and their Maenial Servants in order to that publick affair and service of the King who doth not limit those favours only to their Persons and the personal service of their Servants attending upon them but do for that time comprehend and secure their Estates both Real and Personal and will not willingly permit so much as the minds of any of the Members of Parliament to be vexed by any disturbance of process or legal proceedings whilst they are employed and intended by Law to be only busied in those weighty occasions which they would be if the Real and Personal Estates of themselves or Servants which attended upon them were molested and troubled and therefore King Henry the 8th in his Speech to the Judges in the Case of his Servant Ferrers and a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament in the 33th year of his Raign said that his Learned Councel at Law had inform'd him that all Acts and Process coming out of any Inferiour Courts must for the time cease and give place to the Parliament as the highest of Courts and that whatsoever Offence or Injury is in Parliament time offered to the meanest Member of the House of Commons is to be adjudged as done both against the King and the whole Court of Parliament which was then assented unto by all the Judges of England then present saith Mr. Crompton and confirmed by divers reasons And well may it be so when it is and hath been not unusual for the Judges of the Court of Kings Bench or Common Pleas which do stand upon a less but legal Foundation to free or unattach Goods attached in the City of Lond. by their course or custom of Process of a man that had occasion to attend either of those Courts concerning some Suit or Suits there depending as to procure a Capias utlegatum against one c. and declare it to be a priviledge or liberty belonging unto those Courts in their several Jurisdictions to protect such persons in veniendo versus eandem Curiam ibidem morando inde ad propria redeundo absque arrestatione Corporum Equorum Bonorum seu Catallorum
such an entercourse betwixt England and Rome and our Kings had so much ado to guard the Rights and Priviledges of themselves and their people from the Papal attempts and usurpations and many of our Kings had in their possession Normandy Aquitain and in other Provinces of France divers Forts and Castles they might well have occasions of sending many that were not of the Houshold which were better to be spared then those of whom they had daily use of occasion of service and that where the Protections were quia moraturus it was not seldom mentioned to be about fortifying a Castle or Town or providing Victuals for them or an Army and may rather be deemed to be none of the Houshold for that in the Register of Writs some Protections are revoked by the King because they pretended to go when they were commanded but did not or followed their own occasions and affairs not the Kings which cannot be easily understood of the Kings Servants in ordinary who in those dayes would not be willing to absent themselves from such profitable and eminent services and imployments And Sir Edward Coke in his greatest aversion to the just Rights and Regalities of the Crown is positive that besides the Kings general Protection of his loyal Subjects there is a particular Protection of two sorts the one to give a man an Immunity and freedom from all Actions or Suits the second for the safety of his person Servants and Goods Lands and Tenements whereof he is lawfully possessed from violence unlawfull molestation or wrong the first is of right and by Law and the second sort are all of Grace saving one and that the Kings Protection so as it be under the Great Seal of England as well moraturus as profecturus upon any mans going or abiding in the Kings service must be regularly to some place out of the Realm of England and that in some Actions as in a Scire facias upon Recoveries Fines Judgements c. In a Writ upon the Statute of Labourers although by the Statute made in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th cap. 15. and the Statute made in the 5th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth cap. 4. no Protection is to be allowed and in a Writ of Deceit notwithstanding the rule of Law is that fraudi aut dolo Lex non patrocinatur Deceit is not to be favoured a Protection doth lye And that the Kings Protections are to be brought to the Courts of Justice where the Action is laid be they Courts of Record or not of Record and not to the Sheriff or any other Officer or Minister and are allowable not only unto men of full age but within age and for Countesses and women as nutrix lotrix or obstetrix Nurses of the Kings Children the Midwife to the Queen or Laundresses of the King or Queen Protections do lye and have been allowed where Essoines do not and denyeth not but a man having a Protection Quia moraturus and returning from beyond Sea only to provide Ammunition Habiliments of War Victuals or other necessaries for the Kings service and be arrested or imprisoned he shall enjoy the benefit of his Protection and denyeth not but that some Protections Quia nolumus because we will not that he should be molested may be granted by the King of grace and gives his opinion that where it is pro negotiis regni for the concern or business of the Kingdom jura publica ante ferenda privatis private mens actions are to give way or yield to the publick and private mens Actions and Suits must be suspended for a convenient time where it is pro bono publico the Weal-publick as certainly the necessary attendance of his Servants in ordinary either for his honour conveniency health or safety do relate unto and concern the peoples good and safety the protection of their lives and estates and the well being of themselves and their posterity and all that can be dear or near unto them And such kind of Protections of Servants in ordinary or extraordinary may be as consistent with Law or Reason as a Writ of Rege inconâ—ulto commanding a forbearance of proceedings in the case of one of the Kings Servants arrested or prosecuted at Law without leave first obtained should not be awarded as the Law and practice thereof is well contented to do it where the King is in Reversion or hath any Title to the thing or matter in demand which may be done at the prayer or request of the party concerned or of the Kings Councel or ex officio Curiae by the Court it self and as well as the Justices allowed a Supersede as to stay an Assise where the Defendant was in the service of the King in his Wars beyond the Seas or to stay Suits against divers Tenants in Northumberland upon Writs of Cessavit to forfeit their Lands for non-payment of their Rents and performing their services to their Lords in regard of the then Wars with the Scots untill the War should be ended or to save a default of the Tenant or Defendant and to adjourn the Suit or Action to another day or where one is convict of redisseisin and taken or arrested by a Capias the King commanded by his Privy Seal that no Process should issue and if any should issue that they should surcease and the Writ was thereupon staid For surely had not such or the like Protections been heretofore accounted to have been as legal as they were warrantable and usual there would not have been an Act of Parliament made in the 5th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. to forbid the allowance of them in Writs of Attaint against Jurors or in Writs of Novel Disseisin and is the first Act of Parliament which did in any case absolutely deny the allowance of the Kings Protection imitated and followed by the Act of Parliament made in the 13th year of the Reign of King Richard the 2d to prohibit Protections in the case where upon a default of the particular Tenant in a real Action he in the reversion is to be received to plead in a Suit commenced against him and the Act of Parliament and Penal Law made in the 23th year of the Reign of King Henry the 6th against such of the Kings Purveyors as did take Provisions from the people without paying for them and many an Act of Parliament and Penal Law from thence unto this present Which Protections or Tabulae â—utelares have been by Law and may be granted for a reasonable time unto any of the Kings Debtors untill the Kings Debt be paid with liberty given to their Creditors to proceed in the mean time but not to take out any Writs of Execution or to some that in unruly and troublesome times obtained their salva Guardia or Protection propter quosdam Aemulos where force or incivilities were feared or where upon sudden and unexpected Embargoes
duce venientem aut ad illum ambulantem in Itinere inquietare quamvis culpabilis sit no man ought to be molested in his journey or going to or from the Dukes Court although there might be any Action or Cause to trouble him By the Laws of the Lombards or Longobards si quis ex Baronibus nostris ad nos venire voluerit securus veniat illaesus ad suos revertatur nullus de Adversariis illi aliquam Injuriam in itinere aut molestiam facere praesumat If any of our Barons have an intent to come unto us he is safely to go and come and none of his adversaries are to do him in his Journey any wrong or Injury By some Laws made in the Raigns of the Emperors Charlemaigne and Lewis his Son nullus ad palatium vel in hostem pergens vel de Palatio vel de hoste rediens tributum quod transituras vocant solvere Cogatur That no man coming to his Palace or going against the Enemy or returning should be compelled to pay the Tribute called Passage-money The Tractatoria Evectiones allowed by the Western and Eastern Emperors that Stables and Provisions of Horse-meat and mans meat should be provided sumptu publico at the Peoples charge for such as Ride post Travailed or were sent upon the Emperors Affairs may inform us how great the difference is and ought to be betwixt the Kings Affairs and those of the Common People The Laws of the Wisigoths a People not then much acquainted with Civilities compiled about the year or Aera of our Lord 504 may teach us the value of Princes cares of their own and the Publick Affairs managed by their Servants or whosoever shall be imployed therein Quod antea ordinare oportuit negotia Principum postea populorum when they declared that the Affairs or concerment of the Prince ought to take place of those of the People Quia si salutare Caput extiterit rationem colligit qualiter Curare cetera membra possit because if it be well with the head it will be the better able to take care of the rest of the Members Et ordinanda primo negotia Principum tutanda salus defendenda vita sicquè in statu negotiis plebium ordinatio dirigenda ut eum salus componens prospicitur Regum fida valentibus teneatur salvatia populorum That in the first place the business of the Prince the safety of his life and the defence of his Person are to be heeded and the Affairs of the People so Ordered as whilst a sufficient provision is made for the safety of the Prince the good of the People may be established Of which our English Laws have such a regard as they would some few Cases only excepted dispence with any man 's not appearing or coming to Justice If he though not the Kings servant in Ordinary sent by His Attourney the Kings Writ of Protection signifying that he was sent or Imployed in the Kings Service That if any Archbishop Bishop Earl or Baron do come to the King by His Commandment passing by any of His Forrests he might notwithstanding the great severity of the Forrest Laws against such as did Steal or Kill any of the Kings Deer or Venison take or kill one or two in their going and return The Register of Writs doth bear Record that where one of the Kings Servants hath been returned of a Jury or Summoned probably to be a witness or upon some other occasion to attend some Inquisition or Inquest to be made in any other place then the Kings House or before any other Judges or Magistrates a Writ hath been sent under the Great Seal of England to excuse his absence because he was the same day to attend the Steward and Marshal of the Kings House about some affairs of the Houshold which may shew that the King had a mind aswel as reason not to permit the necessary attendance of His own Servants in or upon His Houshold occasions to be omitted to wait upon strangers or other mens busines in Courts or matters of Justice And the Law doth so much prefer the Kings business above the Common Peoples as that all Honor and Reverence is to be given to the Kings Privy Council For that as Sir Edward Coke saith they are partes Corporis Regis incorporated as it were with him are profitable Instruments of the State bear part of his cares and which is no more then what the Civil Law allows them when it terms them Administri Adjutores Adsessores helpers and Adsessors qui arcanis Principis interesse meruerunt in Contubernium Imperatoriae Majestatis adsciti and which deserve an Interess in the Princes secrets and affairs of State and are as Spartianus saith admitted as it were into the Society of Royal Majesty Where the body of a Debtor before the Statute of 25 of King Edward the third have by some been believed not to have been liable to Execution for debt at the Suit of a Common Person yet it was adjuged to otherwise in the Kings Case for that Thesaurus Regis est pacis vinculum Bellorum nervi for otherwise the King might want His Money or Treasure which is the Bond of Peace and Sinews of War Protections under the Great Seal of England have not only been granted by our Kings but allowed by their Judges to secure some Merchants Strangers from Arrests or Trouble in Corporibus rebus bonis in their Persons goods or Estates until the Debts and Money which they did owe the King should be satisfied and to suspend any Judgements or Executions had against them for other mens Debts until the King should be satisfied the monys due unto him And in the mean time taking them and their estate in their Royal Protection did prohibit any Process against them to be made in any of their Courts of Justice or that they should be Arrested or distrained for any debts or accompts the Kings debts not being satisfied And although by an Act of Parliament or Statute made in the 25 th year of the Raign of King Edward the third cap. 19. Their other Creditors might notwithstanding bring their Actions and Prosecute thereupon yet they were not by that Statute to have Execution upon any Judgements gained for their Debts unless they would undertake to pay the Debts due unto the King and then he should be authorized to sue for recover and take the Kings Debt and have Execution also for his own Debt the Preamble of that Statute mentioning that during such Protection no man had used or durst to implead such Debtors In the 8 th year of the Raign of King Henry the 6 th it was agreed in Parliament that all matters that touch the King should be preferred before all other as well in Parliament as in Council And no longer ago then in the 34 th and 35 th years of the Raign of King
with the Duty and Respects never to be denied to Superiority in order more especially to Government being as well to be allowed unto our Kings and Princes and consistent with right Reason as it was in the more ancient times of the Empire or Rome when the Magister Officiorum or Steward of the Emperors House or Palace cui totius Palatii cura pertinuit to whom the whole care of their Houshold did appertain apud quem tam in Civilibus quà m Criminalibus causis respondere tenentur and before whom all the Servants of the Houshold were obliged to answer as well in Causes Civil as Criminal could do no less then incite and advise them so watchfully to guard the necessary and allowed Priveledges of their Servants warranted by the dictates of right Reason and our own Laws as well as the Laws and Customs of many of our neighbour Nations And therefore by an Act of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Richard the second confirmed by another in the twelfth it was ordained That those that raised horrible and false lies against the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons great Nobility and great Men of the Realm as also of the Chancellor Treasurer Clerks of the Privy Seal Stewards of the Kings House being the more special and eminent part of his Domestick Servants and those that did attend him and in ancient and more respectful Times and Ages to the Servants and Honour of Princes did wear no less a Title than Proceres Palatii Lords or Men of great eminency in the Palaces of Kings and Emperors Justices of the one Bench or the other and other great Officers of the Realm whereby debates and discords might arise betwixt the said Lords or the Lords and Commons should be taken and imprisoned until they had found him that first moved it and if they could not should be punished by the advice of the Kings Council And in the ninth year of his Reign John de Leicester one of the Clerks of the Chancery being sued in the Court of Common Pleas by the name of John de Sleford of the County of Leicester for a Debt of 24 l. 16 s. and after his Writ of Priviledge out of the Chancery which commanded the Justices of the said Court of Common Pleas to surcease any further proceeding in that Action being constrained to bring his Writ of Error to reverse a Judgment thereupon notwithstanding had against him the King pro eo quòd principale placitum loquelae praedictae ad cognitionem Cancellarii nostri nullius alterius juxta consuetudinem Cancellariae merè pertinet ex consequenti ejus accessarium ad eundem Cancellarium pertinere debet volentes Jurisdictionem Privilegium Consuetudinem hujusmodi à tam longo tempore obtenta approbata Illaesa firmiter observare in regard that the principal Plea or Suit aforesaid belonged only to the cognisance of his Chancellor and none other according to the custom of the Chancery and that by consequence the cognisance of the Accessary or any thing concerning the said principal Plea or Suit belonged to the Chancellors determination and was willing to preserve the said Jurisdiction Custom and Priviledge for so long a time continued and approved commanded the Record and Process aforesaid with all which thereunto appertained to be sent and certified into the Chancery that he might do thereupon as to Justice appertaineth In the 35 year of the Reign of King Henry the sixth the Abbot of Westminster having an Action depending in the Court of Common Pleas against one of the Yeomen of the Kings Buttery and an Essoin being cast and allowed that he was in the Kings Service the King at the day appointed and given by the Essoin sent his Writ of Privy Seal to the Justices of that Court to signifie that the Defendant was in his Service before the day given by the Essoin and at the same day and every time sithence By a Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Henry the seventh it was declared to be Felony for making Confederacies though not brought to effect or not so far as to an overt act our Laws declaring that affectus non punitur thoughts and intentions only are not to be punished to imagine the death of the King or of any Lord of this Realm or any other person sworn to the Kings Council Steward Treasurer or Comptroller of the Kings House by any of the Kings Houshold Servants and ordained That such Offences should be inquired by 12 sad men of the Cheque Roll of the Kings Houshold and determined before the Steward Treasurer and Comptroller or any two of them Which may evidence the intention of that King and his greater Council the Parliament to submit as little as might be such Offences of his Menial Servants unto the Judgment and Determinations of his Court of Kings Bench which otherwise was the most proper Court and means for the Trial thereof In the Reign of King Henry the eighth George Ferrers Gentleman his Servant and a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament being arrested and taken in Execution and Sir Thomas Moyle Knight then Speaker of the House of Commons and the Knights and Burgesses in Parliament assembled sending the Serjeant at Arms attending upon them to the Compter in Breadstreet in London where the said George Ferrers was detained a Prisoner to demand him the Officers of the City and others assaulted and grievously misused him of which a Complaint being made to the King he called before him all the Judges of the Kingdom declared unto them That he being Head of the Parliament and attending in his own Person upon the business thereof ought in reason to have Priviledge for him and all his Servants attending there upon him so as if Mr. Ferrers had been no Burgess or Member of Parliament but only his Servant that in respect thereof he was to have a Priviledge as well as any other To which all the Judges declaring their assent by Sir Edward Mountague Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench the Grandfather of the now Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold an Order was made to fine the Sheriffs of London punish the Riotors and deliver Mr. Ferrers out of Prison but in compassion of the Creditor an Order was made that he should not lose his Money for which he had taken him in Execution And so great a regard was in that Kings Reign had of the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber as that great and imperious Favorite Cardinal Wolsey Archbishop of York being at Cawood Castle in Yorkshire arrested by the Kings command by the Earl of Northumberland attended by Mr. Welch one of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber of High Treason and being unwilling to obey the Earls Authority unless he would shew the Kings Commission for it which the Earl refused to do the Contest at the last
of Her Majesties Courts at Westminster and thereby Her Majesties Subjects and Officers so terrified that they dare not Sue or Execute Her Majesties Lawes Her Writs and Commandments Divers others have been sent for by Pursevants and brought to London from their dwellings and by unlawful Imprisonments have been constrained not only to withdraw their Lawful Suites but have been also compelled to pay the Pursevants so bringing such Persons great summes of money All which upon Camplaint the Judges are bound by Office and Oath to relieve and help By and according to Her Majesties Laws And where it pleaseth your Lordships to will divers of us to set down in what cases a Prisoner sent to Custody by Her Majesty or her Council is to be detained in Prison and not to be delivered by Her Majesties Court or Judges we think that if any Person be committed by Her Majesties Command from Her Person which may be understood to be so when it is by the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings house or other great Offâ—cers of the Houshold who are commonly Privy Councellors and do it by their Princes Authority or by Order from the Council Board And if any one or two of the Council Commit one for High Treason such Persons so in the Cases before Committed may not be delivered by any of Her Courts without due tryal by the Law and Judgement of acquittal had Nevertheless the Judges may award the Queens Writ to bring the Bodies of such Prisoners before them and if upon return thereof the causes of their Commitment be certified to the Judges as it ought to be then the Judges in the cases before ought not to deliver him but to remand the Prisoner to the place from whence he came which cannot conveniently be done unless notice of the cause in general or else in special be given to the Keeper or Goaler that shall have the custody of such a Prisoner In which Remonstrance or Address it doth not appear that any Commitments therein complained of were for Arresting any of the Queens Servants without leave first demanded or that any of the matters therein suggested were for that only cause or before Judgements or Execution obtained some of them being expresly mentioned to have been after Judgements and no certain evidence more than for what came directly unto those Learned Judges by the before mentioned Mandate of the Queen for the supposed grievances therein which though much be attributed to the well weighed wisdom of those grave Judges and that their Information had as much of Truth as without a hearing of all parties and legal Examination of Witnesses could be found in it cannot be presumed to be had in a judiciall way after Trials or Convictions but received and taken in from the murmur and Complaints of some Attorneys or Parties only concerned without hearing of the other side or parties or that it was so prevalent with the Queen as to make any Order or restraint or cause any Act of Parliament to be made for that purpose For it will not come within the Compass or Confines of any probability or reasonable construction that those Reverend and Learned Judges Sir Christopher Wray and Sir Edmond Anderson who together with Sir Gilbert Gerard Master of the Rolls had in the case betwixt the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and Sir Owen Hopton Knight Lieutenant of the Tower of London In the seven and twentieth year of Her Raign which was but seven years before Certified under their hands unto Sir Thomas Bromley Knight Lord Chancellor and others of Her Privy Council that such persons as are daily attendant in the Tower serving Her Majesty the which was more remote from Her Person and Presence of Her Royal Residence or Palace at White-hall Were to be Priviledged and not to be Arrested upon any plaint in London but for Writs of Execution or Capias Utlagatum or such like they did think they ought to have no Priviledge And that Master Lieutenant ought to return every Habeas Corpus out of any Court at Westminster So as the Justices before whom it shall be returned as the cause shall require may either remand it with the body or retain the matter before them and deliver the body as Justice shall require would complain of Commitments of such as Arrested any of Her Servants without leave when it might be so easily had and the Lord Chamberlain of that time was likely to be as little guilty of enforcing Creditors to withdraw their Suits or loose their debts as the Lord Chamberlain and other great Officers of the Royal Houshold have been since or are now Nor do the words of that Information import or point at the Marshalsea of the Queens Court or Her Messengers to whom as the Kings Officers or Ministers of Justice the Queens Writ might have been brought or directed the sending of Pursevants there remonstrated being more likely to have been for some other Concernments and not for Arresting without leave which for ought that appears was never yet in foro Contradictorio upon any Cause or Action argued solemnly at the Bar and Bench adjudged to be a breach of any of the Laws of England or Liberties of the Subjects or not to be any good Cause of Arresting or Imprisoning such as in despite of Majesty would in ConContempt thereof make it their business especially when they needed not to do it to violate and infringe the Royal Jurisdictions and reasonable Customs of their Sovereign and Protector and the long ago and for many ages allowed Priviledges of their Servants And therefore William Earl of Pembroke L. Chamberlain of the Kings House a man very zealous for the Peoples Rights and Liberties may be believed not to have transgressed therein when he did about the latter end of the Reign of King James give His Warrant to one of the Kings Messengers of the Chamber to take into His Custody and bring before him one Mr. Sanderson for causing Sir Edward Gorge one of the Gentlemen of the Kings Privy Chamber to be Arrested without Licence first obtained and being in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr Lord Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold did commit a Clerk or Servant to a Serjeant at Law to the Prison of the Marshalsea for Arresting one of the Kings Servants without Licence and when he was bailed by the Judges upon a Writ of Habeas Corpus committed him again and being let at Liberty the second time upon a Writ of Habeas Corpus was again Committed by him and could not be Released until he had set at Liberty the Kings Servant And Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of the King in His Most Honourable Houshold when he did the first day of November 1626. direct his Warrant to all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and Constables c. to permit Mr. Thomas Musgrave of Idnel in the County of Cumberland His Majesties Muster Master for the County of Westmerland to come
three four or five of them are yearly to set the prices of Wines And upon refusal to sell after those rates the Mayor Recorder and two antient Aldermen of the City of London not being Vintners shall enter into their Houses and sell their Wines according to those rates By an Act of Parliament made in the 7th year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th no person having not Lands or Tenements or which cannot dispend above 100 Marks per annum or is not worth 1000 Marks in Goods or Chattels not being the Son of a Duke Marquess Earl Viscount or Baron shall keep in his house any greater quantities of French Wines then 10. Gallons By an Act of Parliament made in the same year the offenders in the Assise of Wood and Fuell if they be poor and not able to pay the Forfeiture may be by a Justice of Peace or any other of the Kings Officers put on the Pillory By an Act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of Queen Mary if the Justices of Peace do not put the Act of Parliament in execution touching the repair of the Causway betwixt Sherborn and Shaftsbury in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper shall upon request grant Commissions to certain discreet persons to do it And by an Act of Parliament made in the 43th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the mis-imployment of Lands Goods Chattels or Money given to Hospitals and Charitable uses are to be reformed by the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster for the time being in their several Jurisdictions Which amongst many other may be some of the causes or reasons that the People of England and Commons in Parliament giving in former times as they ought to do those grand and more then ordinary respects and many more not here repeated unto the Great Officers of the Crown Royal Houshold and other the Servants of our Kings and Princes and lodging so many of their grand concernments in their care and trust did not trouble themselves or any of our Parliaments with any Petitions there being none to be found amongst the Records thereof against those antient rational just and legal Priviledges of the Kings Servants in Ordinary nor any Lord Steward Lord Chamberlain or other Officers of the Kings most Honourable House for allowing or maintaining it although there were some against Protections granted to some that were not the Kings Servants in Ordinary nor hath there been any Statute or Act of Parliament made to take away or so much as abridge those well deserved Priviledges which have in all ages and by so good warrant of right reason Laws of Nations and the Laws and reasonable Customes of this Kingdom appeared to be so much conducing to the Weal publique and the affairs and business of the Head or Soveraign For surely if there had been but the least suspicion of any Grievance in them meriting a remedy there would not have been such a silence of the peoples Petitioning or Complaints against it either by themselves or their vigilant and carefull Representatives in the Commons House in Parliament which heretofore seldom or never omitted the eager pursuit and Hue and Cry after any thing of Grievance which molested them And if there had been any such Petitions and Complaints in Parliament that Great and Honourable Court not giving any order or procuring any Act of Parliament against the Priviledges of the Kings Servants is and may be a convincing argument that such Complaints or pretended Grievances were causeless unfitting or not deserving the remedies required and will be no more an evidence or proof against what is here endeavoured to be asserted then the Petition of the Commons in Parliament in the 21th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3d. against the payment of 6 d. for the seal of every Original Writ in Chancery and 7 d. for the sealing of the Writs of the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas which hath ever since been adjudged reasonable and fitting to be paid then the many Petitions against the antient legal and rational payment of Fines upon Original Writs in Chancery then the Petitions of Non-conforming Ministers then the many designed and desired Acts of Parliament not found to be reasonable or convenient and therefore laid by and miscarried in the Embrios or multitudes of other Petitions in our Parliaments or then the many late Petitions for an imaginary liberty of Conscience can or will be for what was desired and not thought fit at those or any other times to be granted Which antient Priviledge of the Kings Servants not to be Arrested without leave was not so limited to their Persons but that their Lands Estates and Goods participated also of that Privilege not to be molested by any Process or Suit of Law without Licence first obtained of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings most honourable Houshold or unto such other great Officers therein to whose Jurisdiction it belonged CAP. IV. That the Priviledges and Protections of the Kings Servants in Ordinary by reason of his Service is and ought to be extended unto the Priviledged parties Estate both Real and Personal as well as unto their persons FOr if we may as we ought believe antiquity and its many unquestionable authorities and our Records which as to matters of fact judgements pleas writs therein allowed Records of Parliament and the Grants of our Kings by their Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England being the Publique Faith of the Kingdome from and under which most of the peoples Real Estates and Priviledges have had their originals and establishments not the falsely called Publique Faith which afterwards proved to be Bankrupt and was until then the Medea or Witch of the late incomparably wicked Rebellion were alwayes so impartial and credited as not to have their truth so much as suspected That Priviledge was not only indulged and allowed to their Persons but to their Lands and Estate also as will plainly appear by the course and Custome of the Law in former ages and amongst many others not here enumerated was not understood to have been either unusual or illegal in that which was granted to Sir John Staunton Knight By King Edward the 3 d. in the 29th year of his Raign in these words Omnibus ad quos c. Salutem considerantes grata laudabilia obsequia tam nobis quam Isabellae Reginae Angliae Matris nostrae charissimae per dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem-de Staunton impensa proinde Volentes personam ipsius Johannis suis condignis meritis exigentibus honorare ipsum Johannem Camerae nostrae militem familiarem quoad vixerit tam tempore quo extra curiam nostram absens quam tempore quo ibidem presens fuerit duximus retinendum Ac de gratia nostra speciali ipsum Johannem Terras Tenementa
out and Sealed by Officers and Clerks of the Court whence they issued without the privity or knowledge of the King or his Lord Chancellour or Keeper of the Great Seal of England or the Judges of the Court of Common-Pleas and that if those Writs which now and for many yeers past to the great ease of the people have been made in an ordinary way and course at smal rates and charges as anciently as the Raign of King John and King Henry the third should have been made by the privity of the Chancellour or Chief-Justice or of the King himself or granted upon Motion or Petition and read and recited in the Kings presence or in Court by or before the Chancellor or Chief-Justice when such Actions Writs or Complaints were few and seldome yet when afterwards they should appear to be mistaken too sodainly or erroniously granted or that the King or the Court have as in humane affairs it may often happen been misinformed or deceived therein such Writs or Process surprize or mistake may be revoked and rectified and the Writs and proceedings thereupon contradicted by the King or his Authority as hath been done in the Writs of Supersedeas to the Barons of the Exchequer to stay their proceedings in Common-Pleas or to the Marshalsea of matters wherein they have no Jurisdiction that known Rule of Law declaring the Kings Letters Patents of the Grant of Lands to a man in Fee or Fee Tayl to be void where the King is deceived in his Grant or as King Henry the 3d. superseded his Writ de Excommunicato capiendo to Arrest or take an excommunicated person because he was circumvented in the granting of the Writ or made void his Conge d' Eslire to the Priory of Carlisle confirmed an election upon a former Conge or licence or as is often done by that common usual way of Supersedeas made by the King upon matters ex post facto or better information or by his Justices and Courts of Justice by Writs of Supersedeas quia improvide or Erronice or datum est nobis intelligi in regard of misinformation Error or better information or in the vacating of Recoveries Judgments discharging Actions for abuse of the Courts or ill obteining of them or their Writs Process freeing of prisoners taken Arrested by Writs or Process not duly warranted And that such an indirect and feigned prosecution of the Kings Servants to the Utlary designed only to abridge the King of his regal Rights forfeit and annul the Priviledges of his Servants and obstruct and hinder his service and attendance aswell deserves a punishment as that which was usual in our Laws in the Reigns of King Henry the 3d. and King Edward the 1. for indirect recoveries or Judgments obtained by a malitious surprize falshood or non-Summons as the ensuing Writ will evidence Rex vic Salutem praecipimus tibi quod habeas coram Justitiariis nostris c talem petentem scilicet ad audiend Judicium suum considerationem Curiae nostre de hoc quod ipse per malitiam manifestam falsitatem fecit disseysiri talem de tanta Terra cum pertinentiis c. Et unde cum ipse B nullam haberet summonitionem optulit se idem A versus eum itaqd terra capta fuit in manum nostram semel secundo per quani defalt idem A terram illam recuperavit desicut illa defalta nulla fuit ut dic catalla ipsius B in eadem terra tunc inventa ei occasione praedâ—cta ablata eidem sine dilatione reddi facias restitui Praecipimus etiam tihi qd habeas coram c. ad eundem Terminum A B per quos summonitio prima facta fuit in Curia nostra Testata praeterea quatuor illos per quorum visum terra illa capta fuit in manum nostram per quos captio illa testificata fuit in Curia nostra c. etiam illos per quos secunda summonitio facta fuit testata ad certificandum Justitiarios nostros de praedictis Summonitionibus Captionibus Et habeas ibi hoc breve Teste c. The King to the Sheriff talis loci County or place sendeth greeting We command you That you have before our Justices c. such a Demandant that is to say to hear the Judgement Order of our Court in regard that he by malice and manifest fraud caused such a one the Tenant to be disseised of so much Land with the appurtenances c. whereupon when the said E the Tenant or Defendant had no Summons the said A the Plaintiff or Demandant did so prosecute that Action that the Land was taken into our hands a first and second time by which default the said A recovered the Land whereas there was no default as was alledged and took the Goods and Chattels of the said B then found upon the Land and taken from him by that means We command you that without delay you cause the same to be rendred and restored unto him that you also have before our Justices at the same time A and B by whom the first Summons was made and certified into our Court c. and likewise those by whom the second Summons was made whereby our said Justices may of the aforesaid Summons and Captions be certified and have you there this Writ Witnesse c. Or that which King Richard the Second did in Parliament in the fifteenth yeer of his Raign inflict upon Sir VVilliam Bryan for procuring a Bull of the Pope to be directed unto the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to excommunicate some that had broken his house and carried away his Writings by committing him prisoner to the Tower of London that fact and doing of his being by the Lords in Parliament adjudged to be prejudicial to the King and in Derogation of his Laws such and the like artifices and devices being so much disliked by the Commons in Parliament in the 39th yeer of the Raign of King Henry the sixth as they complained by their Petition to the King Lords that VValter Clerke one of their Members a Burges for the Town of Chippenham in the County of VVilts had been outlawed and put in Prison and prayed that by the assent of the King and Lords he might be released and their Member set at Liberty Or that which King Henry the eighth did in the Case of Trewynnard a Burgess of Parliament imprisoned upon an Utlary after Judgment in delivering him by his Writ of Priviledge which upon an Action afterwards brought against the Executors of the Sheriff and a Demurrer was resolved by the Judges to be legal And therefore Philip late Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of his late Majesties Houshold should not be blamed for causing in the yeer of our Lord one thousand six hundred thirty and seaven one Isaac VValter to
not to proceed in matters concerning his own particular without his being first consulted de Attornato languidi recipiendo to admit an Attorney for one that is sick Writs of Aâ—â—aint against Jurors falsly swearing in their Verdicts Writs de Aâ—sisa continuanda to continue the prâ—â—â—â—dings upon an Assise Audita querela to relieve one that is oppressed by some Judgment Statute or Recognisance Writs de Certioraâ—i de tenâ—re Indictamenti to be certified of the Tenor of an Indictment de Vtlagaria of an Utlary de tenore pedis Finis of the Tenor of the Foot of a Fine mittendo tenorem Assise in Evâ—â—entiam to send the Tenor of a Writ of Assise into the Chancery to be from thence transmitted by a Copy for Evidence into the Court of Exchequer Writs quod Justitiarii procedant ad captionem Assise impowring the Justices of Assise to procede in the taking of an Assise and his Commissions frequently granted in some special cases as Dedimus potestatem impowring the Judges or others to take the acknowledgements of Fines with many other kinds of Commissions a posse Comitatus ad vim Laicam amovendam to remove a force where a Parson or Minister is to be inducted into a Church or Benefice Commissions granted ob lites dirimendas to compose contentious suites of Law where the poverty of one of the parties is not able to endure them and the granting of a priviledge by some of our antient Kings to the Bishop and Citizens of new Sarum or Salisbury that the Iudges of Assize or Itinerants should in their circuits hold the Pleas of the Crown at that Town or City which King Edward the first did by his Writ or Mandates allow or cause to be observed and many more which might be here instanced which with the Laws and practice thereof and the reasonable customes of England do every where and abundantly evidence that the King doth not intrust his Courts of Justice or the Judges thereof with all his Regal power and all that with which he is himself invested in his politique capacity or hath so totally conveyed it unto them as to make them thereby the only dispensers of his justice but that the appeal or dernier ressort from all his Courts of Iustice is and resides in the King being the ultimate supreme Magistrate as from the inferiour Courts of Iustice in the Counties or Cities to the Superiour Courts of Iustice at Westminster-hall from the Court of Common-Pleas by Writ of Error to the Court called the Kings-Bench from that Court to the Parliament And as to some matters of Law fit to be tryed by action at Law from the Chancery unto the Kings-Bench or Courts of Common-Pleas or Exchequer reserving the equity when what was done there shall be returned and certified and even from the Parliament it self when Petitions there nepending could not in regard of their important affairs be dispatched to the high Court of Chancery and that appeals are made to the King in his high Court of Chancery from the Admiralty Court when as the process and proceedings are in the Name and under the Seal of the Lord Admiral and from the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury for proving of Wills and granting of Administration when the Process and proceedings are not in the Kings name but in the name and under the Seal of that Arch-bishop So as the Gentlemen of the long Robe who in the Reign of King Charles the Martyr argued against the Kings Prerogative for the just liberties of the people of England in the case of the Habeas Corpora's when they affirmed the meaning of the Statute made in the third year of the Reign of King Edward the first where there was an Exception of such not to be Baylable as were committed by the command of the King or of his Justices to be that the Kings command was to be understood of his commands by his Writs or Courts of justice might have remembred that in former times his Authority by word of mouth or in things done in his presence in matters just and legal not contradicting the established rules customes and courses of his Courts of Justice and the power and authority wherewith our Kings have intrusted them was accompted to be as valid if not more than any thing done in his Courts of Justice witness that notable record and pleading aforesaid betwixt the Prior and Bishop of Durham in the 34 th year of the Reign of that by his own and his Fathers troubles largely experienced King Edward the first which was not long after the making of that Statute concerning such as were to be bayled or not to be bayled where it was said and not denyed to be Law quod Ordinatio meaning an award or something acknowledged in the presence of the King in praesentia Regis facta per ipsum Regem affirmata majorem vini habere debet quam finis in Curia sua coram justitiariis suis levatus that any Ordinance or acknowledgment made in the Kings presence and by him affirmed was to be more credited and to have a greater force then a Fine levied before his Justices in his Courts of Justice which may be a good Foundation and Warrant for several agreements and Covenants made betwixt private persons and ratified by the King under his Great Seal of England by inspeximus and confirmations by his allowance and being witness thereunto as that of Rorger Mortimer Lord of Wigmore with Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford for the Honor and Earldome of Oxfâ—rd and the great Estate and Revenueâ—belonging thereunto forfeited by the said Earl in taking part with the Barons against King Henry the third and many others which might be instanced and are plentifully to be found in many Agreements and Covenants made betwixt Abbots and Priors and their Covents and divers of the English Nobility and great men mentioned in Master Dugdales first and second Tomes or Parts of his Monasticon Anglicanum For it was resolved in Easter Term in the fourth year of the raign of Queen Elizabeth by the then Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas the Lord Chief Baron and Whiddon Browne and Corbet Justices Carus the Queens Serjeant and Gerrard her Attorney General upon a question put unto them by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England that in case of Piracy or other the like crimes the Queen might in the intervals or vacancy of a Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England by a necessity of doing Justice without a Commission granted unto others to do it punish such offenders although the Statute made in the 28th year of the raign of King Henry the 8th Ca. 15th doth direct Piracy to be tryed by Commission And it was allowed to be Law in a Case put by King James that where an Affray or Assault was made by any in the Kings presence the King
their servants with them to be under his special protection and defencc and ought not for any debt trespass or other contract whatsoever to be arrested or any way imprisoned in the mean time And that many such men comming to Parliament with their men and Servants have been during the time of Parliament arrested by them who had full knowledge that they so arrested by them were of the Parliament in contempt of his Majesty great dammage of the party and delay of the business of the Parliament did Petition the King to establish that if any hereafter do arrest any such man comming to the Parliament as aforesaid or any of their men or servants or any thing attempt contrary to the said Custome he should make fine and ransome to the King and render treble dammages to the party grieved Which was no more than what the Aurea Bulla or Golden Bull confirmed by Charles the 4 th Emperor of Germany in his Edict touching the seven Electors of the Empire and the manner of their election of the Emperors bearing date in January 1256 did ordain that the said Electors or their deputies or Embassadors in their going to Frankfort upon the Main tarrying and retorne from thence should with 200 Horse attending each Elector be freed from all injuries molestations process or arrests and in their going and retorn have the like and a safe conduct with the like freedome and priviledge as they passed through each of the other Electors Territories and the like in their meetings or assemblies at the Comitia Diets or Parliaments of the Empire and should have their provisions and necessaries at reasonable rates and that those that should molest them in their persons or Estates should be prâ—scribed and banished and forfeit their lands and estates And it appeared to be so reasonable to the French as before the Ordinance of Moulins which was made and verified by themselves in Parliament which provided that the Counsellors Judges or Senators in the Courts of Parliament might be arrested for debt after four moneths legal notice or Summon did ad adjudge that it belonged not to a Subalterne or inferiour Judge ordonner contre la personne d' un Senateur personne privilegie que les Senateurs partem corporis principis faciebant to award process against a Senator being a person priviledged that the Senators were a part of the body politique of the Prince Qu'il estoit honteux voir en prison ceux qui en un momeat se pouvoyent seoir au senat that it would be a shame to see a Senator in Prison which might shortly after sit in the Senate that as their wages were priviledged from being arrested for a Debt so where their persons Que les Rayons de ceste Souverainete du Roy ne se ponvoient separer d'avec eux that the Rayes of the Kings Soveraignty could not be separated from them Those or the like Protections privileges immunities being in England accompted beleived to be so necessary to the service and affairs of the King and the weal publick as in the same year and Parliament the Commons did Petition the King that whereas All the Lords Knights Citizens and Burgesses and their servants coming to Pariiament by the Kings Writ are in comming staying and retorning under his protection Râ—yal and that many mischiefs and impeachments do often happen unto the said Lords Knights Citizens and Burgesses and their maenial servants at those times as by Murther Maims and Batteries by people lying in wait or otherwise for which due remedy is not yet provided and that namely and particularly in this Parliament an horrible Battery and Mischeif was committed upon Richard Chedder Esq who came to the Parliament with Sr. Thomas Brook Knight one of the Knights for the County of Somerset and Maenial with him by John Sallage otherwise called John Savage whereby the said Richard Chedder was imblemished and maimed to the peril of death that he would please to ordain upon that matter sufficient remedy and for other such causes semblable so as the punishment of him might give example and terror unto others not to commit the like mischeifs in time to come that is to say If any man shall kill or murther any that is come under the Kings Protection to Parliament that it be adjudged Treason and if any do maim or disfigure any such coming under the Kings Protection that he lose his hand and if any do assault or beat any suoh so come that he be imprisoned for a year and make fine and Ransome to the King and that it would please the King of his special grace hereafter to abstain from Chartere of pardon in such cases unless that the parties be fully agreed Upon which they obtained an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation that the said John Savage should appear and render himself into the Kings Bench within a quarter of a year after and if he did not he should pay to the party endamaged double dammages to be taxed by the discretion of the Judges of the said Bench for the time being or by Inquest if need be and make fine and ransom at the Kings will and that it should be so done in time to come in like cases Whereupon the said John Savage not appearing upon the said Proclamation and being prosecuted in the Court of Kings Bench by the said Richard Chedder and convicted and the Justices giving no full judgment therein but sending a writ of inquiry of damages several times to the Sheriffs of London who did nothing thereupon did at length upon view of his wounds and maim not think it necessary to proceed by a Jury upon a writ of inquiry of damage but according to their discretion did adjudge that the said Richard Chedder should recover against the said John Savage his damages which were taxed at one hundred marks and likewise taxed him to pay the double thereof being another hundred markes Our Statutes and acts of Parliament being then as in former times and all along until these later times usually or most commonly ushered in and introduced by Petitions to the King in Parliament as the Parliament Rolls and Journalls compared with the printed Statutes or acts of Parliament will abundantly testifie And such a care was taken of the conservation of those priviledges As in the 8 th year of the Raigne of King Henry the 6 th at the request of the Commons in Parliament one William Larke servant to William Mildred a Burgesse in Parliament for London being committed to the Fleet upon an Execution for debt was delivered by the priviledge of the Commons House and authority given by the King to the Chancellor to appoint certain by Commission to apprehend him after the Parliament ended to satisfie the said Debt and Execution In the same year and Parliament for that the prelatee and Clergy of the Realm of England called to the Convocation and their servants and families that
then Kings Mother Or the popular greatly belov'd Duke of Norfolk out of the County of Norfolk And Sir Edward Coke that great Lawyer so deservedly call'd might if he were now again in his house of clay and that Earthly Honor which his great Acquests in the Study and Practice of the Law had gained him do well to inform us that the Report of Husseys the Chief Justice who is by him mistaken and called the Attorney-General to King Henry the Seventh was any more than an Hear-say and nothing of kin to the Case put by the King whereupon they were commanded to assemble in the Exchequer Chamber whether those that had in those tossing and troublesom times been Attainted might sit in Parliament whilst their Attainders were reversing And the Case concerning the King himself whether an Attainder against himself was not void or purged by his taking upon him the Crown of England or that which in that Conference was brought in to that Report impertinently and improperly to what preceded or followed by the Reporter of that Conference was not at the most but some by discourse and not so faithfully related as to mention how farre it was approved or wherein it was gain-sayed by all or any or how many of the Judges it being altogether unlikely that if Hussey had been then the Kings Attorney-General he would have cast in amongst those Reverend Judges such an illegal and unwarrantable Hear-say of an opinion of the Lord Chief Justice Markham in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth whom that King as our Annalist Stow recordeth displaced for condemning Sir Thomas Cooke an Alderman of London for Treason when it was but Misprision said unto that King That the King cannot Arrest a man upon suspition of Treason or Felony because if he should do wrong the Party cannot have an Action against the King without a bestowing some Confutation Reason or Arguments against it which the Reporter was pleased to silence And was so weak and little to be believ'd an Opinion as the practice of all the Ages since have as well as the Times preceding disallowed and contradicted it and whether such an Opinion can be warranted by any Law or Act of Parliament And whether the King may not take any Cause or Action out of any of His Courts of Justice or Equity and give Judgment thereupon and upon what Law Reason or Ground it is not to be done For if the Answer which Sir Edward Coke made to what the King alledged That the Law was grounded upon Reason and that he and others had reason as well as others That true it was God had endued His Majesty with excellent science but His Majesty was not learned in the Laws of England and Causes which concern the Life and Inheritance or Goods of his Subjects which are not to be decided by natural Reason and Judgment of Law which Judgment requires long study and experience And when the King was therewith greatly offended and replyed That he should then be under the Law which was Treason to be said answered that Bracton saith That Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo Lege That a King ought not to be under man but God and the Law shall be compared with the Opinion of Dyâ—r Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas and the Judges of that Court in the Case betwixt Greâ—don and the Bishop of Lincoln and the Dean and Chapter of Worcester upon a Demurrer in a Quare Impedit in the eighteenth and nineteenth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth reported by Mr. Edmond Plowden as great and learned a Lawyer as that Age afforded and one whom Sir Edward Coke doth acknowledge to be no less did allow and were of opinion That the King cannot be held to be ignorant of the Law because He is the Head of the Law and ignorance of the Law cannot be allowed in the King there will be as little cause as reason to dote upon such Conclusions especially when the erronious Mis-application and evil Interpretation of that alledged out of Bracton will be obvious to any that shall examine the very place cited that his meaning was that where he said that the King was sub Deo Lege under God and the Law it was that he was onely non uti potentia sed judicio ratione And in other places of his Book speaking who primo principaliter possit debeat judicare who first and principally shall and may judge saith Et sciendum quod ipse Rex non alius si solus ad hoc sufficere possit cum ad hoc per virtutem Sacramenti teneatur astrictus And it is to be understood that the King Himself and none other if he alone can be able is to do it seeing He is thereunto obliged by His Oath Ea vero quae Jurisdicâ—ionis sunt Pacis ea quae sunt Justiciae Paci annexa ad nullum pertinent nisi ad Coronam Dignitatem Regiam nec a Corona seperari poterint cum faciant ipsam Coronam for that which belongeth to his Jurisdiction and that which belongeth to Justice and the Peace of the Kingdom doth belong to none but the Crown and Dignity of the King nor can be separated from the Crown when it makes the Crown so as those who should acknowledge the strength and clearness of a Confutation in that which hath been already and may be said against those Doctrines of Sir Edward Coke may do well to give no entertainment unto those his Opinions which nulla ratione nulla authoritate vel ullo solido fundamento by no reason authority or foundation can be maintained but to endeavor rather to satisfie the world and men of law and reason whether a Soveraign Prince who as Bracton saith habet omnia Jura sua in manu suâ— quae pertinent ad Regni gubernaculum habet etiam Justiciam Judiciam quae sunt Jurisdictiones ut ex Jurisdictione sua sicut Dei Minister Vicarius hath all the Rights in his hand which appertaineth to the Government of the Kingdom which are Jurisdictions and as His Jurisdiction belongeth unto Him as He is Gods Vicar and Minister is in case of Suspition of Treason or Felony where His ever-waking Intelligence and careful Circumspections to keep Himself and People in safety shall give Him an Alarm of some Sedition Rebellion or Insurrection and put on His Care and Diligence to a timely Endeavor to crush or spoil some Cockatrice Eggs busily hatching to send to His Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings Bench or in his absence out of the Term some Justice of Peace for a Warrant to Arrest or Apprehend the party offending or suspected which our Laws and reasonable Customs of England did never yet see or approve and when such offenders are to be seized as secretly as suddenly Or what Law History or Record did ever make mention of so unusual undecent
hinder such intollerable mischiefes as Manslaughter Sacriledge burning of Houses Spoils Depredations or Plunder and other enormities which besides the evils before Committed might happen or ensue if a sudden remedy in such a case should not be applyed Et etiam quod Dominus Rex qui est omnibus et Singulis de Regno suo Justitiae debitor non potuit in hoc casu nisi Injuriam Coronae sue intulisset dissimulasse quin concessisset breve per quod citius et celerius pervenire posset ad cognitionem veritatis rei pred â—um petitum â—uerit And likewise that the King who to all and every of the people of his Kingdom is a debtor of Justice and ought to do it could not in this case unless he should do an injury to his Crown dissemble or forbear the Punishment thereof or abstain from the granting of a Writ when it was required whereby he might the sooner come to the knowledge of the matter aforesaid and it was by the aforesaid Judges of the Kings Bench adjudged Quod breve predictum in casu isto in casibus consimilibus est necessarium et rationabile that the Writ aforesaid was in that Case and the like necessary and reasonable And as to what the Earl of Gloucester had alleaged that it ought to have been a Judicial Writ videtur consilio Domini Regis it seemed to the Judges that Dominus Rex a quo omnes ministri sibi subjecti recordum habent est superlativum et magis arduum recordum et supra omnes ministros suâ—s et processus et record rotulorum praecellens the King under whom all his ministers do derive their Authority to make their Records hath a more high and superlative Record excelling that of all his Ministers his Justices being by Sir Edward Cook so stiled Et etiam antequam Dominus Rex inhibet circumspicit et considerat Judicio interiori propter utilitatem communem ut evitetur deterius quod oriri possit et subsequi ex malo incepto nisi inhibitio interveniret et sic procedit inhibitio ex praemeditato Judicio conscientiae Domini Regis propter bonum pacis And also that the King doth before he maketh his inhibition forecast and consider within himself what may be done for the Weal publick to the end that he may prevent a worser evil or mischief which might arise or be the consequence of an evil beginning if he should not have made such an inhibition And therefore that Inhibition did proceed out of the Judgement and dictates of the Conscience of the King for the Peace and welfare of his Kingdom Contra quod Judicium si quis praesumpserit attemptare quanto citius et debitus possit habere processus ut super hoc convincatur veritas super delinquentem in hoc casu tanto honorabilius est Regi Majestati et regno et populo utilius et magis necessarium which Judgement if any shall resist or contradict by how much speedier a due Process may be had for the Conviction of the Offender by so much the more Honorable it is for the Kings Majesty and the more profitable and necessary for the People and Kingdom Per quod videtur in hac parte quod Inhibitio procedit proprie et Judicio aquo predictum breve quod vocatur Scire facias debite sumi potest maxime cum res supradictâ— specialius in hoc casu tangat Dominum Regem Coronam et Dignitatem quam aliam tertiam personam By which in this Cause it appeared to the Judges that the Inhibition was duely and well granted and had its Original from the Judgement of the King from which the aforesaid Writ which is called a Scire Facias was deduced especially when the matters aforesaid did more concern the King his Crown and Dignity than any third Person And it was the Opinion of the Judges of the Court of Kings-Bench in that before mentioned judgment in the three thirtith four thirtieth year of the Reign of that King in the Case betwixt the Prior and Bishop of Durham that any ordinance award or acknowledgement made in the Kings presence and by him affirmed was to be more believed and to have a greater force than a Fine levied before his Justices conformable to the Civil Law which saith that Principis dicto fides adhibenda plenissima si Officii ratione aliquis a se vel coram se actum vel gestum esse verbo vel literis attestatur An unquestionable Faith is to be given to what in the Office or Affairs of the King shall be done by or before Him attested by his Word or Letters In Trinity Term in the nineteenth year of the Reign of King Edward the second in a Writ of Novel Disseisin brought by Isabella the wife of Peter Crok after the Kings Writ of Prohibition to proceed Rege inconsulto obtained by the Bishop for that he pretended it to have been forfeited to the King and granted unto him saving the Reversion and She replying and issue being joyned and two hundred forty pound Damages given and the King having afterwards sent his Writ to Proceed and the Bishop bringing his Writ of Error and Errors being assigned amongst which one was that the King understanding that the Judges had taken the Assise and given Judgement had sent another Writ to Richard de la Rivere one of the Justices in the Commission commanding him that Si ita esset that if it were so he should send the Record and Process to the King and that the said Justices post receptionem brevis predict nullam potestatem in hac parte habentes ad predictum breve Regium nihil considerantes Erronice et minus rite processerunt ad Judicium predict reddend c. After the Receipt of the Writ aforesaid had no Power in that behalf but had erred in not regarding the Kings Writ and proceeded illegally unto which the said Isabella replying that after the taking of the Assise the King had sent his Writ which was inrolled in the Record that the Justices should Proceed Cum omni celeritate qua de Jure et secundum legem et consuetudinem Regni Angliae with as much speed as by the Law and Customs of England they might Quibus recitatis et plenius intellectis Record et brevibus predictis videtur Curiae quod ex quo pretextu illius brevis eis directi de procedendo ad Judicium c. Quod est de posteriori dato quam predictum breve de venire faciend Recordum et Processus c. Per quod breve de venire faciend c. Potestas Justic. eis extitit ablata nec in eadem brevi de procedendo ulla mentio fuit de allegatione ipsius Episcopi predicta nec de eo quod Dominus Rex alias eis mandavit quod post Captionem Assise predict ad Judicium inde reddend inconsulto Rege minime procederent ad Judicium predict