8. by Act of Parliament to dispose of 2 parts of his lands reserving a 3 part to the Heir and Administrations de bonis Intestati were anciently as Mr Selden saith granted by our Kings or Lords of Manors Derivatively from them 13. E. 1. Quia Emptores terr the statute 1. E. 1. compelling men of 20 l. per Annum to take the honour of the Knighthood 17. E. 2. de homagio faciendo cum multis aliis And those together with the before-mentioned Feudall Laws have been so fundamentall to our Laws and Customs of England and which hath been called our Common Law as it hath been rightly said to be velut ossa Carnibus and so Incorporate in the body thereof as it runneth like the life-blood through the veins arteries and every part thereof circulating to the heart the primo vivens ultimo moriens of our heretofore for many ages past in our very ancient body-politick and Monarchick attested and every where plainly and visibly to be met with seen and understood not only in and by our Glanvill Bracton Britton and Fleta together with our Annalls Historians and Records the latter of which as unto matter of fact do never lye or speak false but is and hath been written said and practised by in and amongst the most of Europaean Nations of Germany France and Spain if we reade and consider well the books of their learned Lawyers when too many of our now effassinated nation will not take the pains to look into former ages or if at all beyond our Inexpiated late Rebellious Age beginning at the year 1641. but scorn at Solomons large Just and Well-deserved Commendations of Wisdom and esteem the Prophet Jeremy inspired by God to be no other in his Councel or Advice State Supervias antiquas inquire veritatem then a fopp or a grave thinking Coxcomb and to be told to his face as the Prophet Jeremy was say what thou wilt we will not hear thee And it may be to our sorrow be made an Addition to our heretofore seven wonders of England that our Littleton and Sir Edward Coke his adoring Commentator should draw the water and have so little or no acquaintance with the Fountain from whence it Came and all our Year-books and Law-Reports should allow of so many of our Feudall Laws and not cite or quote or tell us from whence their Originall came in Insomuch as Littleton as Sir Edward Coke relateth speaketh of the Kings Prerogative but in 2 places in all his book viz. § 125. 128. and in both places saith it is by the Law of England And Sr Edward Coke that gave in some of his books that good and wholesome advice petere fontes non Sectari Rivules should not as he fondly did have built Altars Sacrificed his otherwise to be well esteemed abilities to the reasonless and notoriously false and vain figments of his so much adored modus tenendi Parliamentum and the mirrour of Justice and it can be no less then a marvail that so learned a Councell at Law and State as that great and Excellent Queen Elizabeth was so blest with should permit her to afflict and torment her mind in the taking away the life of her Cousin Mary Queen of Scotland for Treason who had fled unto her for protection against the persecution of her Rebellious Subjects who had driven her out of her own Kingdom and was by some Ill-affected English made use of in some of their plots and Conspiracies which were then made or Contrived by the advantage of her being here against their Sovereign and her Royall Government upon a designed Marriage betwixt her and the Duke of Norfolk and to endure the menaces and threatnings of some forreign Kings and Princes her Allies to avenge her death as a Common Concernment which his now Majestie and his blessed Father the Royall Martyr for his people could not in all their many distresses find any amongst their great Allies and kindred that would do any thing more then to make their own unjust advantages by an Early Complying with their Adversaries when the Justice of that her unwilling action in the Silence of our best and most learned Annalists and Historians who brobably might in that and other matters of our Laws think our Feudall Laws to be as unnecessary to be proclaimed in England as that there is a God when every one should believe it might have easily proved demonstrated the sentence condemnation of that unfortunate Queen being a Feudatory of our Queen Elizabeth and holding her Kingdom of Scotland of her by ancient Tenure in Capite homage and fealty of and under her Crown of England to have been agreeable unto those Laws although very unhappy unto the necessity of the one in the causing and the other in her Suffering under it and that so many of the Kings Council in the Law that should be more than the Carved Lyons about Solomons Throne if they would but read the learned Bâ—oks that have been written by some Learned Gentlemen and Divines in the defence of the Kings Just Rights from the Bars of our Courts of Justice to the Bench and from the Bench to the Bar should take so little notice of those our fundamentall Laws as only to entitle the Kings ancient Monarchick Rights to no better a Foundation and Originall then that which the miserable seduced and infatuated Common people shall be pleased to call Prerogative as if it were some new word or term of Usurpation or Tyranny to be maligned bawled and bayted at by the silly rabble or as if the name of Prerogative made every thing unjust that the King or his Ministers have either done or shall do and some of the Causes for reason amongst many of the effascinations which like the Egyptian darkness hath almost Covered all our Land of Egypt is a word too good for it may be the mischeivous quarrell betwixt our Common Lawyers and Civill or Caesarean Lawyers not reading or understanding so much as they should do the venerable mother of that which they would call the Common Laws when at the same time they can be content to make use of their Excellent Rules and Maximes in many of their Pleas Arguments Books and Reports as so many faithfull Guides and Directions And for further satisfaction unto and as far as a demonstration from what original the most of our fundamental and Principal Laws tanquam a fonte purissimo the purest fountain of Right Reason have proceeded been fixt and continued amongst us the particulars of the Feudal Laws following not before mentioned will if rightly considered abundantly Illustrate and Declare when the Feudists or Fendal Lawyers may assure us that the Feudal Laws being as a Jus gentium of all the Northern Nation of Europe from or out of which England Scotland and Ireland with their adjacent Isles and Territories are not or ever yet were to be excluded In the company whereof attended also as the
pertineaut And that great King was so more then ordinarily carefull of the rights and Honor of his Crown and Regall authority which had been too much depressed and misused by the Rebellion of Simon Montfort and some Rebellious Barons and his fathers Imprisonment with the Wars and Hardships put upon them did so well provide against any the like troubles and Convulsions of State as in his return through France and abode for some time in Aquitain where he was Sumptuously feasted by the King of France he took an especiall care when he did Homage to him for Aquitain and some other Dominions he held of him in that Kingdom to limit it only unto them and except Normandy where he expended much time in the Setling of his affairs But howsoever Summus ille viz our Mr Selden was of opinion that so remarkable a provision and Monarchical Resolution of our King Edward the first and so many Emperors and Christian Kings and Princes to conserve the rights of their Crowns reported by Fleta was Prodigious and taken too much upon trust and an over facile credulity of our Carceratus Fleta as he termed him because resumptions of the Sacred Patrimonies aliened had been used here in England long before and not used at or about the same Time by Rodulphus primus the Emperor of Germany when he granted to Pope Gregory the 10th Bononia in Italy et latifunda circum quaque amplissima quae ante Imperii Romani pars insignis and permitted to be aliened to the Pope who was not then so easy to be resisted and that Choppinus and those many great and learned Doctors of the Law that had written and argued so much concerning those kind of alienations and our own Historians had been altogether silent therein yet that Decus Anglorum gentis might in his great recherches of our English Records Laws and Annalls have found that our King Edward might have been believed to have taken such Councel either from his former calamities in his his fathers Time or by a generall Consult with some or all of those Christian Princes or their Legates for that he was no sooner arrived in his own Kingdom and Dominions but he began to busy himself as much as his other great Cares and Variety of troubles would Suffer him to do in the allaying the Unquietness of the Disturbances which Humfrey do Bohun Constable of England Rigor Bigod Earl Marshall of England Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and many other the remains of his fathers more then Cammon Distresses and in his Wars with Scotland and annexing the Rights and Superiority of it to his Crown of England in the placing displacing of the Kings and Heirs thereof a Regality Superlative not to be neglected and an effect pertinent enough to that Monarchick Universall consult when in the fourth year of his Reign an Enquiry was made of all the Manors and Lands Tenements Parks Buildings Woods Tenants Commons Pastures Pawnage Honey Herbage and all other profits of Forrests Waters Moors Marshes Heaths Turbury and Wasts and how much it was worth by the year Mills Fishings Common and severall Freeholders and Copyholders by what Service they did hold their Land by Knight Service or in Socage and what reliefs what Customary Tenants and by what works or Service they did hold what rents of Assise what Cotages and Curtilages and what rents they do pay by the Year what pleas and exquisites of the Counties and of the Forrests and what they were worth by the Year what Churches of what Yearly value and who was the Patron with the yearly value of Herriotts Fairs Markets Escheats Customes Services fore Time Works and Customs and w 〈…〉 tâ—e pleas and perquisites of Courts Fines all other Casualties were worth by the Year or may fall by any of those things an Inquisition much resembling that of the Norman villains enquest in the Book of Domesday or that which long before preceded it called the Roll of Winchester and in his elaborate recherches of all the Ancient Records Annalls Historians Manuscripts and Memorialls of the Brittish Saxon Scotish and English Nations for the clear Evidence and manifestation of his Undoubted Right to Jus Superioritatis oftke Kingdom of Scotland And in the same Year what things a Coroner should enquire of purprestures or usurpation upon any of the Kings Lands and that they should be reseised A Statute of the Exchecquer touching the recovery of the Kings Debts made in Anno 10. E. 1. A Cessavit per Biennium to be brought by the Chief Lord with a forfeiture upon him that neglecteth to do his service by the space of 2 Years In Anno 17. Fined 10 of 12 of his Judges accused and indicted of taking Bribes and very great summs of Mony Statute of quia Emptores terrarum that the Feoffs shall hold his lands of the Chief Lord and not of the Feoffer And afterwards caused the Judges at their return out of their Circuits to rectify in rolls of Parchment all Fines and amercements due unto him and ordered them to receive only their then small Wages thereout curbed the Clergy that denied to give him Aids and forbad them to come to his Parliament which was holden untill their Submission with a Clero Excluso and granted his Writs contra Impugnatores Jurium Regis made 2 Statutes of Quo Warranto in 18. E. 1. that every man should shew cause how he claimed or held his Liberties Ordinatio de libertatibus perquirendis 27. E. 1. Statute of Wards and Reliefs Anno. 28. E. 1. Another Statute of Quo Warranto Anno. 30. E. 1. Ordinatio Forrestae Anno. 33. E. 1. So that pace tanti viri with all the honor and reverence that can or ought to be given to Mr Selden that Dictator of Universal Solid Learning it may be said that our Fleta which was by him so well esteemed as to have been published and caused to be printed with his learned dissertations and Comment thereupon might well have escaped his scruples and distrust when in that great Kings travail from Hierusalem or out of Aba homewards he was royally feasted by the King of Sicily one of the aforesaid Confederate Christian Kings the Pope and divers Princes of Italy And when the Pope had afterwards demanded 8 Years arrears of him for an Yearly tribute of 1000. Marks for the Kingdom of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that the Parliament was dissolved before his letter came unto his hands and that sine Praelatis Proceribus no Commons therein mentioned comunicato Concilio sanctitati suae super praemissis non potuit respondere Jurejurando in Coronatio sua prestita fuit astrictus quod Jurat regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquid quod Diadema tangit regni ejusdem no such Oath or Promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil abusque illorum requisito Concilio
the Crown of Scotland amongst which was Erick King of Norway and received the homage of the King thereof and in his Claim to the Superiority strongly Asserted it when the Pope had by his Letter unto him mediated on the behalf of the King of Scotland and claimed that Kingdom And was so watchfull over his own Rights and what belonged to his Crown and Dignity as upon an appeal from John Baliol King of Scotland and his Parliament to the Parliament and Court of the K. of England unto which when he was Summoned personally to appear before him appearing sate with him in Parliament was Suffered no longer to sit by him but untill the Cause came to be heard when he was cited by an Officer to leave his Seat and Commanded to stand at the Barr appointed for pleading which he having no mind to do craved leave to answer by his procurator but was denied and as a Feudatory made to arise and descend to the Barr and defend his own Cause before him as his Superiour Which by the Ancient feudall Fundamentall Laws of England without the assistance of any other of our Laws concerning Treason might have excused and Justified our excellently virtuous Queen Elizabeth in her unwilling Tryall Condemning Beheading and putting to Death Mary Queen of Scotland her Feudatory not only for Usurping the Arms and Title of the Crown of England but plotting after her flying for Refuge unto her and her Kingdom of Scotlands Superior for Resuge to bereave her of her Kingdom of England and the Dominions thereof by her intended Marriage of the Duke of Norfolk for which he was likewise condemned and Executed for Treason In the same Year by his Writ commanded to be arrested Susurrones publicos predicatores contra personam Regis In the 7th year of his reign upon occasion of false rumours sent his Commissioners into severall Counties of the Kingdom ad inquirendum qui dicebant Regem inhibuisse ne quis blada sua meteret vel prata sua falcaret quod omnes tales sine dilatione in prisona custodiantur douec authores suos invenerint tunc liberent authores in prisona custodiant donec pro deliberatione corum mandatum habuerint Speciale In the 13th Year of his Reign for a fine of 20 Marks paid by W. gave him a respite de se militem faciendo Et a pres il fut amerce per les Justices itinerant parceo q'il ne leur monstre son Charter In the 10th Year of his Reign granted authority to Signify his assent to a future Abbot And in the same year impowred Edmond Earl of Cornwall to admitt in his name the Mayor of Oxon when the commonalty of the town should present him and the like for the Mayor and Sheriffs of London In the 12th Year of his Reign granted to the Citizens of London power to make Sheriffs of London and Middlesex In the 13th Year of his Reign directed his Writts to the Sheriffs in the words ensuing cum de consuetudine regni qui habent 20 libratas terrae vel feodum militis valens 20 libratas terrae vel feodum militis valens 20 libratas per annum distringerentur ad arma militaria suscipiendum nos ob servitium c. in Wallia a communitate regni nostri volumus quod non habentes tantas libratas terrae non distringantur Ordained that in Parliament certain Bishops Lords and Other their Assistants should be named of that Honourable Assembly of Parliament at the very beginning thereof which for many Ages after hath been duly observed to be receivers and tryers of the Petitions Complaints and Desires of his People to be exhibited therin whether properly to be there determined or in the Courts of Justice in Westminster-Hall or other inferior Courts In the 14th and 16 Years of his Reign made his cousin Edmund Earl of Cornwall custos regni Spared not in his Court of Kings-bench Robert the Son of William de Glanvile and Reginald the Clark of the said William for delivering at Norwich a Panell of the Kings Writs which the King 's Coroner ought to have brought Banished his Son Prince Edward from his Court Presence for 6 Months for giving reproachfull words to a great Officer of his Court or Houshold Caused the Prior of the Holy Trinity in London and Bogo de Clare a man of great power and reputation to be arrested at his suit by Peter de Chanet Steward of his houshold and Walter de Fancourt Marshall of the King for citing Edmond Earle of Cornewall to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury as he was passing thorough Westminster-Hall to the Parliament whereupon the Prior and Bogo after some pleadings in the said case submitting themselves uuto the King's Grace Will and Pleasure were committed to the Tower of London there to remain during his Will and Pleasure and being afterwards Bailed the said Bogo paid to the King a Fine of 2000 Marks and gave security to the Earl for 1000. which by the interposition of the Bishop of Durham and others of the King's Councell was afterwards remitted unto 100 l. and the Prior was left to the Judgment and process of the Court of Exchecquer In the 20th Year of his Reign praecepit singulis vice Comitibus per Angliam Justic. Cestr. quod proclamari facerent quod omnes qui habent 40. libratas terrae in feodo haereditate sumerent militaria arma In that and the Year following seized the Lands of those that would not take that Degree and made speciall respites to some during their lives Caused his Justices to certify into the Exchecquer at the return out of their Circuits by particular Rolls under their own Names the Fines and amerciaments set imposed and forfeited upon Actions of trespass rescous deceit attaints non est factum or salse Pleas untrue avowries appeals of Murder felony manslaughter meyheim Contempts and attachments upon process out of any of his Courts of Justice abuse of the Law Fictitious actions and vexatious Suits Non-suits in Actions reall and personall or when but part was found for the Plaintiff or Defendant which were in those Days as much for the advance and well ordering of Justice as they were for the Kings profit who took such a care not to have it neglected as by his Writ without an Act of Parliament he prefixt his Justices certain times for the causing the said Monies to be levied when their own then little Wages or Salaries were to be paid out of it which made them to be so exact therein as there was no fault deserving a Just Punishment could escape the Eyes and Ears apprensions and Watch of his regulated Justices insomuch as Offenders were Fined or amerced pro falso clamore or quia non invenerunt pleg for Deceipts Sheriffs for not returning of Writs Jurors for not appearing or pro falsa appretiatione or giving verdicts before
themselves to the service of their Countrey-men But he was not yet so forsaken for that he had power enough to infest though not to subdue his enemies and some faith was found amongst many of his Subjects that well executed their trusts Dover Castle with a small company held out against all the Force which Lewis could bring against it Windsor Castle did the like against the Barons Nottingham and Lincoln Castles made resolute resistance The most fertil places of the Kingdom as about Gloucester the Marches of Wales Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire Norfolk Suffolk Essex Kent and all about London were the stages of the War and the Ruins of the Kingdom were every where heard and felt which continuing all that Summer about the latter-end of October then next following that distressed King oppressed with as many sorrows as enemies and a grief conceived for the loss of his Carriages and other necessaries of War sunk in the Sands passing the Washes betwixt Lyn and Boston fell sick of a burning Feaver taken as some writers have recorded it by a surfeit of eating Peaches and drinking new Ale out of a Cup with the Venom prick'd out of a Toad put into it given him by a Monk at Swinsted Abbey in Lincolnshire who after leave given by the Abbot and assoiled or absolved from the doing thereof was content to poyson himself as he did and bringing the Cup unto the King sitting at meat said Wassail for never in all your lyfe drancke yee of so goode a Cuppe To whom the King said drincke Monch which he doing and the King having drunk a great draught did set down the Cup. The Monk retired into the Infirmatory where his Bowels brake assunder The King finding himself ill at ease and his Belly beginning to swell and being told that the Monk was dead commanded the Table to be taken away and a Truss to be provided for him of which vulgata fama Ranulphus Cestrensis Henry de Knighton the Book of St. Albans printed by Caxton in the year 1502. in his Chronicle and Mr. William Pryn in his late History of the Pope's Usurpations in England in the Reign of King John have given a probable account though many of the Monks and the then Romish Clergy fatned and grown great by the Pope's and their extravagant and never-to-be-proved Authority over Kings and Kingdoms were so unwilling to acknowledge it as they did all they could to stifle and over-cast with Lies the Truth of it Whence in great weakness he who was so little enclined to Paganism or the Religion of Miramolin King of Africk Morocco and Spain or guilty of sending Embassadors unto him after or before the surrender of his Kingdoms to the Pope with an offer to be his Tributary and of his Religion of which saith Mr. Pryn upon a most diligent search no vestigia or manner of evidence is to be found amongst the Records of this Kingdom it being a meer scandal and slanderous invective forged against him to make him odious was conveyed to Newark where after he had received the Eucharist and taken order for the succession of his Son Henry he departed this life and was buried at Worcester and such a care was taken by the Abbot of Swinsted for the safety of the poysoning Monk's Soul as five Monks until the dissolution of that Abbey which was 300 years after were from time to time stipended to sing a Requiem for it SECT IV. The many Affronts Insolencies and ill usages suffered by King Henry III. until the granting of his Magna Charta and Charta de Forestae WHich tragical end of King John although it much altered the state of the Kingdom yet not as to the miseries and troubles thereof for King Henry his Son being solemnly crowned as a King by Succession and not Election was committed to the care and tutelage of Marescal Earl of Pembroke as Good and Wise as he was Great a main Pillar of the Father and a Preserver of the Crown to his Son who with Guallo the Pope's Legate the Bishops of Winchester Bath and Worcester did work all means to bring the Barons to an accord excommunicated Lewis and his adhaerents and caused great satisfaction in the minds of some who before were disgusted with the insolency of the French and the more upon the confession of one of the Nobility of France who upon his death-bed touch'd with compunction revealed the intention of Lewis to enslave or extinguish the English Nation whom he thought not fit to be trusted in regard that they had forsaken their Sovereign Lord which wrought so great an aversion in the English as they who before were afraid for the shame of inconstancy and the danger of their Sons and Pledges carried into France and there remaining did now resolve to relinquish their Homage and sworn Fidelity and forsake him and made as much hast to send him out of England as they did to call him into it So as after a years trouble with his Wars and Depraedations and all the help the City of London could give him he was enforced to come to an accord quit the Kingdom take 15000 Marks for the charges of his Voyage abjure his claim to the Kingdom promise by Oath to procure as far as in him lay his Father to restore all such Provinces in France as appertained to the Crown of England and when he came to be King to resign them in a peaceable manner King Henry taking an Oath and for him the Legate and Protector to restore to the Barons and other his Subjects all their Rights and Heritages with their Liberties for which the Discords began between the late King and his People whereupon a general Pardon was granted and all Prisoners freed on both sides Lewis after so long abode with his Army in England being honourably attended to Dover departed the Kingdom and about Michaelmas after upon the death of his Father was received and crowned King of France and Guallo the Legate well paid for his Negotiation returning to Rome carried with him 12000 Marks a great sum of money in those times And no sooner had that provident Protector of the Kingdom the Earl of Pembroke quieted the many troubles of the Nation but as much wanted as greatly lamented by the People he dyed The Bishop of Winchester with many other great Councellors being made Protectors of the young King and his Kingdoms but the King of France being after requested to make restitution of what he had usurped answered That what he had gotten by the forfeiture of King John upon an accusation of murdering his Nephew Arthur right Heir to the Crown of England he would hold Howsoever Peace being made with Scotland to whose King the King's Sister being married Wales revolted and an Insurrection being made in Ireland did put the King to much trouble and charge who being come to some years of understanding was in a Parliament holden at London put in mind by the Archbishop of
Fourth the Commons shewing to the King that Comme les Juggements du Parlement appurteignont seulement au Roy as Seigneurs nient as Commones si noun en case que sil plest au Roy de sa grace especile leur monstrer ses ditz Juggements pur ease d' eux que nul record soit fait en Parlement encontre les ditz Communes que sont ou serrent partyes as escunes Juggementz donez ou adonees ou apres en Parlement A quoi leur feust respondu per l' Ercevesque de Canterbire de commandement du Roy 〈…〉 ment mesmes les Commones sont Petitioners demandeurs que le Roy les Seigneurs de tout temps ont eves averont de droit les Juggementz en Parlement en manere come mesme les Comones ount Monstrez sauvez quen Statutz Affaires ou en Grauntez subsides ou tiel choses Affaires pur comon profit du Royalme le Roy voit avoir especialment leur Advys Assent que cel ordre de fait soit tenuz gardez en tout temps adveniz And the Earls and Temporal Barons were by vertue of their Tenures and Summons of Parliament since the beginning of the Raign of King Richard the Second said to be Conciliarij nati of the King and Kingdom and the Bishops to sit there then and long before by reason of their Baronies which no Member of the House of Commons is or can claim to be in our King 's great Councels or Parliament until the framing of that aforesaid novel Writ to Elect Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third and after his Release was discontinued and no more made use of until the 22d Year of the Raign of King Edward the First his Son and the Heirs by ancient Customes of that Court under and by the Kings Authority do exercise in Causes and Complaints brought before them a judicial and decisive Power And in the preceding Times and Ages until that new Writ of Elections was contrived and imposed upon that distressed and much injured Prince Certissimum est saith that learned and judicious Antiquary Sir henry Spelman that the Nobility and Barons which did hold immediately of the King in Capite judicijs praefuêre Aulae Regiae did usually sit and determine Causes or Controversies in the King's Court or Palace as the Barons of the Coife in the Exchequer who were heretofore Earls and Barons do at this day judge and determine of Matters touching the King's Revenues And as the Lords of Mannors in their Courts Barons do admit none to be Judges in those their little Courts but their Tenants who are Free-holders and do hold of them and being stiled and said to be of the Homage do subserviently manage the Affairs of their Lords therein who did very anciently use to act therein Concilio prudentum hominum militum suorum by their Presentments Advice and Judgements and are therein not much differing from the Customs and Laws of the Longobards where their Emperor commanded that Nullus Miles nobiscum saith Sir Henry Spelman Liber homo sine certâ convictâ culpâ suum beneficium perdat nisi secundum consuetudinem Antecessorum nostrorum et judicium Parium suorum In which saith Sir Henry Spelman Th 〈…〉 is an Idea of our Magna Charta the Free-holders in the Hundred Courts being thither also called Conformable to the League made by King Alfred with Guthrun the Dane wherein Homicide sive de crimine alio quod quatuor marcas excederet postularetur per duodecim ex paribus reliquos autem subditos per 11 Pares unumque ex Baronibus Regis fore judicandos And to the Laws of our King Henry the First wherein it was ordained That Unusquisque per Pares judicandus est si quis in Curia sua vel in quibuslibet agendorum locis placitum tractandum habet convocet Pares vicinos suos si inter compares vicinos sint querelae conveniant ad divisas terrarum suarum qui prior queremoniam fecerit prior rectum habeat si alias ire oporteat in Curiam domini sui eant si unum dominum habeant Soca sit ejus illic eos amicitia congreget aut sequestret judicium And may seem to be derived from the Laws and Customs of the Germans where by the Court of Peers are understood Causarum feudalium Judices à Caefare constituti qui sine provocatione cognoscebant to be Judges appointed by the Emperor to hear and determine without appeal Matters concerning their Lands and Territories where the like usage and term of Peers in their Judicatures Great Councels or Diets is at this day used the Princes of the Empire being Paribus cu 〈…〉 ae and such are those of our House of Peers in Parliament being the highest Court of the Kingdom of England where none were admitted or did administer Justice Nisi qui proximi essent à Rege ipsique arctioris fidei homagij vinculo conjuncti but such as were near unto the King and held of him in Capite which kind of Tenures howsoever they were most unhappily Dissolved by a late Act of Parliament in His now Majesties Raign for converting Tenures in Capite into free and common Socage were by an Exception and Proviso in the said Act of Parliament as to the Rights and Priviledges of the Peers in Parliament specially saved and reserved unto them who were heretofore Capitanei regni as Sir Henry Spelman saith Captains of the Kingdom and Peers obliged and bound unto their Kings by Homage and Fealty in that highest and most honourable Court of the Kingdom wherein the Judicative Power of Parliament under their King their Head and chief Resides which high and honourable Assembly reverencing and taking Care for their Head and Soveraign the only under God Protector of themselves the Church and all their worldly Concernments and Liberties Was so much used in France as saith Conringius Proceres temporibus Francorum temporibus antiquissimis Concilio interfuisse plurimis quidem testimonijs in proclivi est and cites a Book written per Theganum Chorepiscopum Trevirensem de gestis Ludovici Imper ' Ca. 6. ubi de Carolo Magno Imperatore legitur Cùm intellexisset appropinquare sibi diem obitus sui vocavit filium Ludovicum ad se Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus loco positis habuit grande colloquium cum ijs Aquisgravi eodem spectat procul dubiò Hinckmari who was a Bishop and Councellor of Charlesmaynes illud concilium Lodovico Baldo datum epistolam ut rempublicam administret ex Procerum aut Principum consensu nusquam Plebis mentione factâ unde epistolam illam claudens Ca. 10. Scribit de generalibus Ecclesiae Regni negotijs fine generali Procerum regni consensu concilio secretum dare concilium nefas etiam
Rebellion with Montfort against him should bring his Action for the other Two Knight's Fees and an half From which most necessary and excellent Feudal Laws have proceeded those grand Honors fixed and appurtenant to our ancient Monarchy of England in our Kings and Princes Grant to several great Families in England in Fee or Fee-Tayl as to be Constable of England Earl Marshal of England Lord Steward of England Lord Great Chamberlain of England Chamberlain of the Queens of England Die Coronationis suae Butler to our Kings at their Coronations c. And likewise the Statute de Donis or Entailes the neglect whereof in leaving all the ruined Families of the Nobility Gentry and better sort of the English Nation to feigned Recoveries introduced about the Raign of King Edward the Fourth by an unhappy and unjust Trick of Law to make the Losers believe that they shall recover the Value of their Lands so Lost amounting in the whole unto the greatest part of all the Lands in England of the Bagbearer of the Court of Common-Pleas who in the Conclusion is only Vouchee to Warrants and to make it good out of his own Land and by the small Fees and Profits of his Office was never yet known to Inherit or to have been a Purchaser of ten Acres of Land yet walks about and is never molested or called to Account for those vast Sums of Money or his Land if he ever had or was re vera intended to have had any was to be liable by his being a Common Vouchee in all the Common Recoveries which are suffered in that Court It being in those more Obedient and Loyal Times esteemed no small Honour to serve our Kings or hold Lands by such a Kind of Tenure as it may be believed to have occasioned that Adage or Common saying in England before the ever to be lamented taking away of Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service and Pourveyance No Fishing to the Sea no Service to the King and those Royal Services affixed unto Lands and Territories have been so immutable amongst other our Neighbor Nations as in the Aurea Bulla fastned upon the Empire of Germany about the 30th Year of the Raign of our King Edward the Third the Three Spiritual Electors viz. the Arch-Bishops of Mentz Cologne and Triers or Trevers do hold their Lands and Territories by their several Tenures of being Arch-Chancellors the First of Germany the Second of Italy and the Third of France the King of Bohemia to be Archipincerna Duke of Bavaria or Count Palatine of the Rhine Archidapifer Duke of Saxony Archimariscallus Duke or Marquess of Brandenburgh Archicamerarius of that Empire and might be with or amongst them exampled from our Pattern which was long before as also from the Scots who have to this day some of the like official Dignities annexed to their Lands and Estates and as in the Raign of our King Henry the First Count Tankervile was by Inheritance and Tenure of his Lands Chamberlain of Normandy And although not so ancient as the Customs of the Patroni and Clientes in the beginning of the flourishing of the vast Roman Empire which was so greatly advantageous both unto the greater and lesser part of the People the Patroni in their Popularities and Ambitions to gain and please them in their way of Advancements to Annual Magistracies not seldom exercising their Eloquence in pleading their Causes or Suits in Law before the Lawyers had for another kind of Advantages by the Gratifications of Fees and Rewards made it to be the greatest part of their Profession which before were principally employed upon seldom Occasions in matters of Difficulty in Jurisconsults and Decisions some of the more eminent sorts of them having about the Raign of the Emperor Augustus Caesar obtained Licenses of him ad respondendum Yet after the Irruption of the Goths Vandals Longobards and Hunnes with other Northern Nations into that Empire they found it to be more beneficial to do as the Germans and many other Northern Nations have done to be Feudalists and to have Lands given unto them and their Heirs to hold by Service of War and other necessaries under those grand Obligations of Interests Oaths Gratitude Homage and Fealty which proved to be better more certain and beneficial both for the Patroni and Clientes the poorer sort of the People alwayes or very often wanting the Aid and Protection of the greater from Wrongs and Oppressions like to be put upon them And the Patroni and Greater procuring to themselves thereby a more constant Observance of Duty Honour and Additions to their former Grandeur the greater and lesser thereby mutually supporting and assisting each other which in the Consequence was as it did likely to prove much better than the charge and trouble the Patroni were used to be as in the frequent courting and Humoring of the common People with their costly Epulae's and Ludi's not only to gain their own Preferments in their Annual poursuites of Offices of Magistracy but to keep the popular Votings from Mutiny and ruining them as much as themselves And howsoever that they with us in England by a great infelicity to our languishing Monarchical Government after an horrid Rebellion and murder of our late King Anno. 12. Car. 2. by an Act of Parliament made upon his now Majesties happy Restoration for the taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures in Capite and by Knight service and Pourveyance and for settling a Revenue upon His Majesty in lieu of a great part of the lands of England and Wales which the Rebels besides their great Estates had forfeited unto him which they were willing to retain to themselves and thank him as fast as they could with a more detestable Rebellion the Praeamble mentioning most unfortunately for want of a right Information and understanding thereof That the said Court of Wards and Liveries Tenures by Knight service in Capite holden of the King or others and Socage in Capite have been by consequence more praejudicial then beneficial to the Kingdome as if the Nerves and Ligaments of the Crown of England and the ancient Support and Defence of the Honour and glory thereof for more then one thousand years could any way deserve to be so Charactered and that after the Intromission of the said Court which hath been since the 24 th day of February 1645. when the Divel and his Reformation had made a large progress in the chasing Religion out of the Kingdom and washing over in blood the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first 3 Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland many Persons could not by their Will or otherwise dispose of their Lands by Knight Service whereby many Questions might possibly arise unless some seasonable remedy be taken to prevent the same Our Soveraign Lord by the Assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same did enact the taking away of the said Court
then untill after a long intervall of time in Anno. 22. E. 1. re-continued sub eadem fo 〈…〉 a which was in no other Tenour or to any other purpose then ad faciendum consentiendum iis to those matters or things which the King by the Councell and advice of the Peers viz. the Lords Spirituall and Temporall should ordain and although there have been ab ultima antiquitate great Councells or Parliaments Now although not formerly called Parliaments in this Nation or Kingdome yet they were not materially or formally the same and if it could be proved that the members thereof consisted of 3. Estates besides the King their Sovereign Lord before the 49th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. which all our Parliament Records do deny yet they that were admitted or came under the Elections illegally forced Writs and designs of Montfort and his rebellious partners by their then only newly contrived House of Commons can never entitle themselves to the same Origene Identity purpose and usage of our former Parliaments before that House of Commons in Parliament were admitted to consent unto and do what the King by the advice of his Lords Spiritualand Temporall therein should Ordain And there might be allways reason enough found that there should be a distinction betwixt the great Councells of Parliament which were not only for extraordinary emergencies touching the defence of the Kingdom and Church and redress of grievances in Civill affairs and contingencies and that which was for Military aids and services for saith our old and learned Bracton in Rege qui recte regit necessaria sunt duo haec Arma videlicet leges quibus utrumque tempus Bellorum pacis recte possit gubernare utrumque enim illorum alterius indiget auxilio quo tam militaris res possit esse in tuto quam ipsae leges usu Armorum praesidio possint esse servatae Si autem Arma defecerint contra hostes rebelles indomitos sic erit regnum indefensum sic autem leges sic exterminabitur Justicia nec erit qui rectum faciet Judicium And our Kings whose Royal Progenitors had heretofore all the Lands in England holden of them in Capite might in their greater concernments better deserve to keep their seperate and particular Military Courts for aids and services then those many of their Subjects do that would be unwilling not to be allowed to do it in their own Estates which had no other fountain or originall then the bounty and indulgence of their Kings and Princes and Bracton hath inform'd us that quod ille homagium suum facere debet obtentu reverentia quam debet domino suo adire debet dominum suum ubicunque inventus fuerit in regno vel alibi si possit commode adiri Et non tenetur dominus quaerere suum tenentem And in the homage Secundum quosdam there is to be salva fide debita domino Regi haeredibus suis. Et quod faciet servitium debitum domino suo haeredibus suis non debet homagium facere privatium sed in loco publico communi coram pluribus in Comitatu Hundredo vel Curia ut si forte tenens per malitiam homagium vellet dedicere possit dominus facilius probationem habere de homagio facto servitio recognito Which with the aid of tenures and feudall Laws and the homage services due from the Subjects to the Crown their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and our many and excellent Laws for self-preservation and publique safety did so firm and fix the Militia and Jus gladii in our Kings and Princes ordained and appointed by God for the execution of Justice Defence and Protection of the People their Religion Persons Lives Laws Liberties and Estates as they that would by perverted wrested and falsly concluded arguments overturn our Government and have Labour'd by all the Shifts and Falsities which the Devill and his Imps could contrive and furnish to Propagate their Designs and Principles of Wickedness and Confusion may find that all the Laws Records Annalls and Historians of the Kingdom do assert and prove the Jus gladii to appertain to none but our Kings and that the attempt to take it from them hath been ever accompted and punished as a Rebellion And that they are not Masters of their Wits or are Lunatiques without intervalls that can think their Industry and Pains well bestowed to go about to prove that there ought to be or ever was an Allegiance Oath or Homage made or taken to the People universally considered or was unto them due or could be by any right rule of Law Custom or Right Reason claimed by them or any way appropriate unto them Unto which well known and allways due Rights of our Kings and Princes were very subservient those great aids and support of the Kingdom the Knights fees and lands held of our King in Capite the strength and honour whereof could neither well be preserved called upon or certified unto our Kings in their Exchecquer as the book called the Red-book in that Court kept only for that purpose will inform us without an often Summoning those necessary and useful Courts or keeping them from a disuse which heretofore were wont to serve as Prognostiques or Indications or a feeling of the strength and pulse of the Kingdom by our Kings and Princes the careful Phisitians thereof the neglect whereof by the dissolution of the Abbies Monasteries and religious Houses and those large quantities of lands being no less then a fourth part of the Kingdom and the parcelling thereof into small quantities afterwards granted with a tenure in Soccage and our Kings granting of other great quantities of the Monastick Manors and lands to be holden in free and Common Soccage of the King as of his Manor of East Greenwitch together with the carlesness of the Court of Wards and Liveries and the Eascheators and Feodaries of the after ages so little minding their Duties and Oaths as if one parcell of lands were by a Jury found to be holden in Capite they were well content to suffer all the rest to pass with a per quae servitia ignorant and the carelesness in the levying of Fines and not suing out of Writs in such cases accustomed called per quae servicia which if the tenures in Capite and by Knight service had not been so ever to be lamented unhappily exchanged for a moyety after the Kings decease of a corrupt and unwholsome Drunken Excise those Terms in Capite with their Military aids and services the quondam strength and glory of our Kings and Nobility would have dwindled and shrunk into a consumption and Tabes of our heretofore Gigantine body politique and have for a great part by themselves without the so often murmuring and unwilling taxes and assessments been too weak or feeble to preserve their grandeur and protect and defend them and their peoples properties trades and
who had a great desire to unite the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in their Laws and Religion as well as they were in their neighbourhood and to have them to be in Subjection under one and the same King and Sovereign were after long and learned Conferences and disputes constrained to forsake that impossible to be atchieved Enterprize and our great Incendiary Mr John Pym could in the Year 1641. harangue in that unfortunately seditious Parliament that our Laws which he might or should have known as to a great part of them to have been composed and derived unto us from our German and Northern Progenitors Feudall Laws intermingled with the Civill and Cannon Laws with some municipall Laws Consuetudines non Malos in se as Gavel kind and the Rescripts Edicta mandata principum Responsa adjudicata Judicum prudentum not dissonant or contradicting each other the Laws of God an rules of Right Reason were the Peoples Birth-Right and our persecuted untill he was Murthered blessed Martyr King Charles the First did in the 3. Year of his Reign when he signed that which they stiled the Peoples Petition of Right declare unto them that his maxime is that the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liherties and may when all is done if well and truly weighed in the Ballance of Right reason and understanding and what hath hapned and may come to pass hereafter easily discern that in England there never was such a Confusion and overturning of our Laws and Ancient Monarchick Government through all the Successions of our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Kings as hath been in England since the beginning of that famously infamous Rebellious Parliament and their Undermining of our Laws and Libeties and turn all into an Anarchy that they might gain a power to enrich themselves by the spoil of 3 Kingdoms and ruining of as many as would not be as Wicked Rebells as they had been And that when his Majesty had Released unto them the arrears of his profits by his Tenures and Court of Wards and Liveries a Million and a half Sterling and in his pourveyances Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds It was hugely praejudiciall to the King and beneficiall unto his Subjects too many of whom had Rebelled against his Royall Father persecuted and Murthered him Hunted and would have extirped his Royall Posterity And that it can be no otherwise accompted to be then a most Barbarously Ingratefull and unworthy Act of the Nation and People of England after many Knights fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their forefather and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the Sixty Thousand Knights fees and more reckoned by some Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at 20l. per Ann. as they may be conjectured to have been accompted in Anno. 1 Edwardi 2. they would amount unto 200000l per Ann. and if each of them have since increased but unto 300l per Ann which may be thought to be now the least improvement might amount in yearly value unto 3 Millions Sterling and if that should be multiplyed 60 times more as Ordericus Vitalis reckonet it the Yearly value thereof might swell unto one Hundred Eighty and 3 Millions Sterling besides great quantities of other Lands freely granted in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royal progenitors unto others of them their heirs to be holden of them in Socage besides 200000l per An. or a very great Yeerly sums of Mony necessarily expended upon his Military Guards for the defence of himself his people against Sedition and Rebellion-mongers more then his Royal Father progenitors needed to have done if he had kept entire his said eminent and Legall Rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service to endeavour to extinguish the Right use of them and forget their great and very great obligations to their Prince and Common parent and Royall progenitors and take away from our Kings the means whereby they should protect and defend themselves and their Subjects from damage and Injuries forreign and domestique And those Tax improvers and Advantage Catchers can as if that were not sufficient make it as too many of their Actions and business to cozen and beg all they can from him and instead of never ceasing to give him thanks for breaking the barrs of an Hell of Arbitrary power and slavery wherein their Counterfeit Commonwealth's men by their perjuries and Hypocriticall Rebellion had brought them And their Cheating Man of Sin Oliver Cromwell had by his Instrument of his own making lockt and bolted them fast enough as he hoped with a Domine quid retribuam what shall we render for all his benefits make it the greatest of their care and Imployment not only to take and keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparalleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion to pardon and forget all their Treasons and offences committed against him and his blessed Father which in a small kind of Calculation may not unprobably be believed to amount unto Sixteen Millions Sterling in arreres of his own Revenue and 2 or 3 Hundred Millions Sterling at the least for the forfeitures which our Laws would have given him with some Mercy and Moderation to boot for so small a Recompence as during his life in the Moyety or one half of the Excise to his Heirs and Successors to be drawn out of the Groans Tears Complaints and sorrows of which the main part of the Common People who never did or are like to hold any Lands of our Kings in Capite or by Knight Service And should not have forgotten how they promised him to be his Tenants in Corde and with what a Princely and Fatherly affection he told their Representatives that he was sorry to see so many of his Good People come to see him at Whitehall and had no Meat to feed or entertain them yet when he had bereaved himself of that grand and continuall part of the strength and support of his Crown Power and Dignity and those entire Rights of his Monarchick Government which our prudent second Fabius ever to be praised and remembred from Generation to Generation the late George Monke Duke of Albemarle for his military wary Conduct thorough almost insuperable Difficulties without hearkning to the Syren songs of those that pretended to be for a Common wealth or being tempted or deluded to restore his Majesty to a Cripled Monnarchy as the men of the Rebellious Rump or no Parliament with their Jugling Covenant or as many Faces as they should have occasion to impress or stamp upon it would have perswaded him to have done and that great Hero denyd to do And that ill advised framer of that Unhappy Act of Parliament to cut or take away the Arteries
and prudent King Edward the First when he did his Homage to the King of France for the Dutchy of Acquitaine carefully to except his ancient right to the Dutchy of Normandy and the French Kings denying his brave and victorious Grandchild Edward the 3. to do his Homage by proxy made him so Inquisitive into his own better Title unto that Kingdom as the French King paid dear for it and the English King at length the owner of that great and flourishing Kingdom When Fealty is conjoyned with the Oaths of Allgeance and Supremacy the true born only Legitimate Issue and Children of the Feudall Laws they will be like a 3 fold Cord not at all in Reason or Justice to be broken And in matters touching Inheritances Nobility Titles of Honour womens Dower of the 3 part of Lands and Tenements fees tenures in Capite and by Knight Service Rents Escheats Fines Felonies Forfeitures tryall by battell cum multis aliis c. our Laws being not only founded upon them but supported and guided by them It may be wondred it should be so unknown to our Common Lawyers whom a carefull reading of our Glanvil Bracton Britton and Fleta and a better acquaintance with their mother the Civill and Caesarean and Feudall Laws with a due inspection into the ever to be valued Records of the Kingdom might better instruct then the malecontent and ill affected Sr Edward Coke and some other of the later School or Edition of those which are called Common Saviors as not to believe with great assurance that that which they call so generally the Common Law is for the most part if not all the Feudall Law which they are pleased to call the Praerogativa Regis declared and acknowledged in Anno 17. E. 2. and likewise that of the view of Franck pledge the next Year ensuing and that it was therefore not unfitly wished by a Late Learned Author supposed to be a post-hume of Sr Henry Spelman that Some worthy Lawyer would diligently read the Feudall Laws and shew the severall heads from whence those of our Laws are derived wherein saith he the Lawyers beyond the Seas are diligent but ours are all for profit And An Act of Parliament in Anno 1662. made by King Charles the 2. for the Settlement of the Kingdom of Ireland wherein notwithstanding that it was in the â—3th Year of his Reign ordained that all lands and Tenements in England and Ireland should be holden of him his Heirs and Successors in Free and Common Socage there is a Proviso and Exception that all lands tenements and Hereditaments in Ireland setled or to be setled on the Soldiers who are out of said Act and not provided for shall be held of the King his Heirs and Successors by Knight Service in Capite and it is well known that our unruly Neighbours in Scotland that could never be satisfied with the Fat and plenty of our Land of Goshen untill the lean kine had eat up the fat and they had set our before happy Kingdom on fire with their Hypocriticall dissembling Illegall wicked Covenant did not in all the mischiefs and Miseries which they brought upon us and themselves in those their Rebellious Designs make it any part of their desires to change their ancient tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and Common Socage which by unhinging the Government would have set all the wild Beasts of the Forrests loose and at Liberty and made the otherwise unruly and never to be governed numerous vassalls so masterless as to tear in peices their Lords Lairds or Superiors and turn that Monarchy to do as well as it can amongst a herd of rudeness and Incivilities in their Plads and Blew Capps And the Hollandiae Zelandiae Frisiaeque principes terra marique potentes heretofore nullo externo usi milite ex veteri Longobardorum Consuitudine sub certa quadam feudalitiae necessitudinis lege hoc est mutuae inter dominicum patrocinum ac Fiduciariam Clientelam veluti pactionis nexu beneficiarii instituerentur qui Conceptis verbis interposita Juratae fidei religione pro beneficio accepto patrono suo militarem operam praeberent navarentque ut scilicet quoties usus posceret parati in armis essent id quod Jure Feudalistico proprium Feudatariorium munus atque officium est Et cum praediorum defectu in these Provinces which ingenio soli quod natura depressum ac uliginosium were naturally scituated cum incilibus passim fossis lacubusque ac paludibus intercussum haud sane faciles aditus ostentat confisa turbas Seditionum praemia converteret and therefore to untie those obligations betwixt the Lords and Tenants and enervate those strengths and promptitude to a confidence in their own Power Charles the 5th Emperour Edicto perpetuo Anno Domini 1518. officia haec militaria vulgo servitia dicta in universum abragavit vassallisque omnibus remisit Ea tamen lege ut fundi Clientelares functionibus publicis quibus hactenus Imunes fuissent in posterum non secus atque patrimoniales obnoxii existerent and having so farr inticed them out of their old into a much worse constitution with Taxes and the Spanish Inquisition managed by the Duke D'Alva in a most tyrannical arbitrary Goverment so desperated them as after a long time expended in Intercessions without any redress obteyned and those their discontents heightned and made use of by the Policies of their neighbours the English and French who had reason to fear the ambitious encrochments and evil designs of the King of Spain to oppress them that were his neighbours and by the assistance of his late Conquest of the West Indies with their Gold and Silver Mines endeavouring to make himself to be as it were the Atlas of the World and extend his Dominions to a Fifth Monarchy and a Ne plus ultra All which concurring and put together with the Conduct and Adventurous successfull care of the then Prince of Orange assisted by the united Seven Provinces whereof Holland Zealand and West Freisland were the greatest Incouragers of the other caused that faedus ultrajectinum which in a long series and continuance of Time of Years making those netherland Belgick Provinces to be a Campus Martius and field of Bloud hath with an intermission only of 12 Years Truce after that Centnry ended occasioned greater ruines effusion of blood then the Wars Joyned all together between Rome and Carthage and Caesar and Pompey in the Pharsalian Fields So long and fatall from the beginning to the ending hath been that unhappy project of the dissolving the Hollandish Zealand and West Freizland ancient Feud 〈◊〉 Laws by the altering their Tenures in Capite and by military service which howsoever they had so continued depressed during the heat and fury of that Spanish War been laid aside and intromitted saith Neostadius haec olim celeberrima Feudalis Curiae quam Oraculum Bataviae was wont to be called the Lords
and testify that the Land is holden of them and that without taking away the Fealty and repealing the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy the Duty and Oaths of the Subjects remained as they did whilst they held their Land in Capite and by Knight Service Which probably as may sadly be lamented could never have hapned if the later men of the Law in England had not by the space of something more then Forty Years last past leaped over as it may be feared they have overmuch done the successive learned labours and Books in a long process of Time in the Reign of our Regnant Kings and Princes divers Judges and Sages of our Laws Recording from Time to Time Cases Judgments Decrees and Dicisions maturely and Deliberately adjudged therein But too much neglected those guidings better guides and faithfull Directors the Civill and Feudall Laws and suffred their Studies and practice to be imployed and incouraged in the Factious Seâ—iâ—ious Rebellious principles of those Times by following the gross Mistakes of Sr Edward Coke in his Discontent malevolence and Ill will unto the necessary and legall Regalities of the Crown and Idolizing as he did those grand parcells of forgery and Imposture entitled the Mirrour of Justice and the Modus tenendi Parliamentum and their neglecting the readings of Glanvile Bracton and Britton and other good Authors And the Civil Law was the Parent and Mother of many of the maximes and principles of that which is now called our Common Law And those men of the Law who without Books subsistence or Estates when they went beyond the Seas with their Sovereign and had not there the opportunities of the Knowledge or help of the Records of the Kingdom that might have been their best Instructers were for the most part but Young Gentlemen Born and Bred in the times of our Distempered Parliaments as those were that Tarried here who walked along with the Rebellion too much adhered unto them and came Weather-beaten again with his Majesty had understood as they might have done the Originall Foundation and Continuance of our Monarchick Government But King Edward the 1. who had passed over and overcome so many Hardships Difficulties Misfortunes and Storms of State was so unwilling to be afraid of a part of his Unquiet Baronage or to Humour the popularity and ignorance of any of the Common People or to be in fear of them or of any their Factious or Seditious Machinations making what hast his affairs would permit to return into England where his father having by his Death escaped the restless conflicts of a long and troublesome Reign and his Exequies and Ceremonies of buriall performed Róbertus Kilwarby Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Gilbertus de Claro Comes Gloverinae a man that had been in Armes and opposite enough against his father and himself in the former convulsions of State and John Warren Earl of Surrey saith Samuel Daniel went up to the High Altar cum aliis Praelatis ac Regni proceribus Londiniis apud novnm Templum convenerunt Edwardum absentem Dominum suum Ligeam recognoverunt paternique Successorem honoris ordinaverunt assensu Reginae non Populi and before his return into England John Earl Warren and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester in the Abby Church of Westminster sware unto him Fealty without asking leave of the People and proclaimed him King although they knew not whether he were Living or Dead caused a new great Seal to be made and appointed six Commissioners for the Custody of his Treasure and Peace whilst he remained in Palastine where by an Assassin feigning to Deliver Letters unto him he received 3 Dangerous Wounds with a poysoned knife then said and believed to have been cured by the Love of his Lady that Paragon of Wives and Women who sucked the Poyson out of the Wound when others refused the adventure and after 3 Years Travail from the time of his setting forth many conflicts and Disappointments of his aids and Ends left Acon well fortified and manned and returned homewards in which as he travailed he was Royally feasted by the Pope and princes of Italy whence he came towards Burgundy where he was at the foot of the Alpes met by Divers of the English Nobility and being Challenged to a Tournament by the Earl of Chalboun a man of extraordinary Renown Successfully hazarded his Person to manifest his valour thence came again into England with the great advantages of his Wisdom Courage and Reputation assisted by the memory of the fortunate Battle at Evesham and his Actions in the East SECT XVIII Of the Methods and Courses which King Edward the 1. held and took in the Reformation and Cure of the Former State Diseases and Distempers KIng Edward the 1st was together with his Queen Crowned at Westminster by Robert Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander King of Scotland and John Duke of Britanny attending that Solemnity which being finished he shortly after forced Leoline Prince of Wales who had taken part with Montfort against his Father King Henry the third to do him Homage and after a Revolt imprisoned and beheaded him did the like to his brother David and United Wales as a Province to England made the Statute of Snowden considered and perused their Laws allowed some repealed others collected some and added new as he well might there do for the Prince or King which Governed Wales had always used so to do and appointed one to give his assent to the Election of Bishops and Abbots And when The Pope demanded 8 yeares arreares for the rent or tribute of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that his Parliament was dissolved before it came and that sine Praelatis et Proceribus communicato concilio sanctitati suae super praemissa non potuit respondere et Jurejurando in coronatione suam praestito fuit obstrictus quod jura Regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquod quod diadema tangat Regni ejusdem no such clause or promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil absque illorum requisito concilio faceret Sent to Franciscus Accursius Docto of laws resident at Bononia in Italy the son of the famous Accursius the Civil lawyer to come with his wife family into England by his writ to the Sheriff of Oxfordshire commanded him to deliver unto the said Doctor Accursius the King 's manor house and castle of Oxford then no mean place for him and his wife to Inhabit Did so imitate the wisdom and providence of the Roman and Caesarean laws as Augustus Caesar and other of the Succeeding Emperours had done as he gave unto men learned in the laws which was more for the peoples good then in their suits and actions at law to court and live under the protection and humours of their popular Patroni's libertatem respondendi to give councell and advice to their clients in their concernments at law and
was glad to receive his Pardon In the 25th Year of his Reign directed his Writ Custodi Northwallia mentientes falsos rumores contra Regem castigand The like to punish conventus conventicula Another to respite the King's Debts aliorum dum in obsequio Regis With a Proclamation for the confirmation of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta and to Command that two discreet Knights be chosen in every County to Attend Prince Edward the King's Son his Lieutenant in England during the Kings absence in partibus transmarinis to procure the King's Letters-Parents for confirmation of the Peoples Liberties In the 27th Year of his Reign a Parliament being called at Westminster wherein the two Charters were confirmed with the allowance of what Deafforestation had been formerly made but with ommission of the clause Salvo jure Coronae nostrae which the King laboured to have inserted being a small return and Civility to a Sovereign whose Royall progenitors had freely granted those Liberties and Priviledges and himself willing to confirm them but by no means it would be agreed unto Was so incensed at the revolt of the Scots and so fixt in his resolution of subduing them as going to fight a battle with them whose army much exceeded his own when he was with one foot in the Stirrop getting on horseback the horse upon some great noise or shout in the Scottish army who were Marching on to engage him Started and throwing him to the ground with his hinder foot Strake him so on one side as he brake two of his Ribbs which could not so hinder either his Courage or Resolution but he again remounted the same Horse and charged with good Success as he wan the field and slew as some of their Historians mention about 60 thousand of them In the 30th Year of his Reign the Constable of Dover having upon an Order or Sentence of the Court of Sheppey which was the Magna Curia of the Cincque-Ports arrested the Abbot of Feversham pro quibusdam transgressionibus per ipsum perpetratis in laesionem Coronae regiae dignitatis was cited and excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury the King thereupon as the record mentioneth nolentes nobis super Statu regio nostro aliqualiter derogari aut ministros nostros pro hiis quae judicialiter fuerint indebite fatigari commanded the Archbishop in fide qua sibi tenetur firmiter injungentes quod hujusmodi citationibus of the Constable or his Ministers ea de causa faciendis supersedeat sententias praedictas in ipsos per ipsum ut praemittitur fulminatas faciat sine dilatione aliqua revocari ita quod non operteat nos ad hoc aliter apponere manum nostram In the claim which he made and deduced to the Pope of his right to the Superiority of the Kingdom of Scotland attested by an hundred hands and seals of the Earls and Baronage of England in a Parliament holden at Lincoln when he gave an answer to a letter of the Pope mediating in the behalf of the King of Scotland and claiming that Kingdom to belong to the Church of Rome wherein he had desired him to send his procurators and evidence to be heard and determined at Rome the historian and our records have informed us in these words that quoniam vero ad hoc quod Papa petivit quod si Rex Angliae jus haberet in regno Scotiae vel aliqua ejus parte procurators instructos mitteret fieret eis justitiae complementum Rex per se noluit respondere sed hoc commisit Comitibus aliisque terrae Baronibus who gave him a choaking and flatly denying answer on the behalf of their King And pursuing his Victories against that Nation took out of Edenburgh the Crown Scepter and Cloth of Estate with the Marble Chair wherein the King 's of Scotland used to Sit whilst they were Crowned wherein according to an old Scotch Prophecy the fate of that Kingdom so resided as wheresoever it should be the Rule and Government of that Nation should follow and offered up the same at St Edwards shrine at Westminster intending to unite the Kingdom of Scotland to England imprisoned the King of Scotland in the Tower of London where he long detained him subdued Malcolmus King of Man and the Kings of the Other Isles and was so unalterable in those his purposes as he ordered that his bones should after his death be carried along with such English Armies as should afterwards be employed against that Nation Did in the 31st year of his Reign treat with the foreign Merchants and by his Charta mercatoria without the trouble advice or assent of his great Councel or Parliament relinquish unto them his former kind of customs called Prises upon their granting unto him 3d of the pound now called the Petit Customs out of all foreign Merchandises imported except wines for every sack of wool to be exported 40d for every 300 woolfells the like and for every last of leather a demy mark over and above the duties payable by Denizens for the same commodities which grant being by the Merchants of several nations not incorporate into a body-politick of no force by the rules of the common Law the Kings Charter only made it good and maintained it untill it was confirmed by Act of Parliament in Anno. 17. E. 3. which was 50 Years after which Charter being made in England by that great and valiant Prince was afterwards by him exemplyfied and transmitted into Ireland with a speciall Writ to the Officers of the Customes there to leavy the 3d penny in the Pound and other duties mentioned in that Charter as appeareth in the Records of the Exchequer of Ireland by virtue of which writ without any Act of Parliament there the 3d penny in the pound with the other duties were ever after leavied in that Kingdom and paid to the Crown In the 32d year of his Reign he was so little afraid of his potent Nobility under whose greatness and power many of common people sheltered their Oppressions of one another by wrongfull disseisins and making themselves Tenants to their greater Landlords for those Lands which they had no right unto as he made severe Laws for the regulation thereof And in Declaratione Juris Regis in regno Scotiae protestavit se jus Coronae suae usque ad effusionem sanguinis defensarum ab quem Rex illo Anno omnia Monasteria Angliae Scotiae Walliae perscrutari faceret ad dignoscendum quale jus posset sibi competere in hac parte repertum est in Chronias mariani Scoti Willielmi de Malmesburia Rogero Hoveden Henrici de Huntingdon Radulphi de Luzeto or diceto quod Anno Domini non gentesimo decimo Rex Edwardus subegit sibi Regis Scotorum Cambrorum Item ibidem que Anno domini non gentesimo vicesimo primo praedictae gantes Eligerunt sibi Edwardum praedictum in Domium
according to the great Charter nulli vendemus Justitiam unto which the King answered such as be of course shall be so and such as be of grace the King will command the Chancellour to be therein gracious Neither doth it appear that the Lords Spiritual who in the Raign of King Stephen held three several Councels in Secular Affairs and of King Henry the 2d were sundry times Mediators employed by him in Treaties betwixt him and the King of France or that the Lords Temporal the other part of the House of Peers and Baronage of England subordinate under their King and Soveraign did ever take esteem or believe the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament jointly or separately to be a 3d. Estate of the Kingdom for they neither had or enjoyed that Title or supposed Power In Anno 17. of King John in the Rencounter or Rebellion at Running Mede when in a pacification there made with some of his robustious Barons it was agreed that if the Conservators none of them which were then nominated to be the Conservators of the Kingdom being then called the Estates could not obtain a just performance of that constrained agreement by a complaint made unto the King or his Chief Justice of the Kingdom populus not then dreamed to be a 3d. Estate might â—um pravare with a salvo or exception to the Persons of him his Wife and Children do it and were not so imagined to be when the Popes Legat had by his Excommunication of that King and Interdiction of the use of Christianity in the whole Nation constrained him to do Homage to the Pope by an Investiture of the Sword Crown and Scepter and an yearly Tribute of 1000 Marks for the Kingdom of England and Ireland to the Church and See of Rome that Engine or Trick of Soveraignty Inhaerent in the People or a 3d. Estate representing for them in Parliament not then being thought necessary for a ratification of those that would magnifie themselves with that Factious and Fictitious Title of a 3d. Estate which they durst not adventure to make use of or mention in our Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta freely granted by King Henry the 3d. his Son and that more than thirty times Confirmations for the first whereof they believed they had made a good bargain when they had given unto that King the 15th part of their moveables and were not a 3d. Estate or called so in the 42 year of the Raign of that King when the Derogatory Act of Parliament to Kingly Government was enforced from him at Oxford in the 42 year of his Raign Anno 13. E. 3. The Bishop of Durham and Sir Michael de la Poole came from the King with a Message to the whole Estates which probably were then none other than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal concerning his Victories atchieved in France The Lords upon the Kings want of Money grant to the King the tenth Sheaf of Corn their Bond or Bond-Tenants excepted their 〈…〉 h Fleece of Wooll and 〈…〉 h Lamb for two years the Commons then not stiled Estates require time to go into their Countries to advise with those that sent them the Commons not Estates return their Assent and make several demands with a request that the Sheriffs of every County may in the next Summons to Parliament return two Knights girt with Swords A general Proclamation was made that all Persons having Charters of Pardon should resort to the Sea-coast for the Kings Service upon pain to forfeit the same The Commons do give the King for his Relief 30000 Sacks of Wooll upon conditions expressed in a pair of Indentures whereupon the Lords promised to send to the King to know his pleasure after long Debating the Commons promise to give presently to the King 2500 Sacks of Wooll so as if the King liked the conditions aforesaid the same should run in payment if not they would freely give it to him Remembrances of things not finished in one Parliament to be done in another They granted unto the King the ninth of their Grain Wooll and Lamb for two years to be Levyed out of all Towns-men the ninth of their Goods of such as dwelled in Forests and Wasts a Fifteenth upon condition the King would grant their Petitions contained in a Schedule so willing were the Commons to obtain and get what they could from the King and so little did they think themselves to be a 3d. Estate or an entire or any part of Soveraignty Sundry Bishops Lords and Commons were appointed daily to sit until they had reduced the aforesaid Grant into the form of a Statute and was agreed upon by the King and the whole Estates which could not be expounded that the King was one of those Estates or the other any more than the Lords Spiritual and Temporal leaving the Commons to be no more than they were in suis gradibus no 3d. Estate which beginneth To the Honour of God c. And such Articles as were to continue but for a time the King exemplified under the great Seal Know ye that with our Bishops Earls c. Certain Bishops and Lords requiring to be saved harmless against the Duke of Brabant for great sums of Money wherein they stood bound for the King if the Duke of Cornwal married not the Daughter of the said Duke which was granted and all which Letters Patents were inrolled in Chancery And for that the King in his Stile was named King of France and had changed his Arms whereby The Abridger of the Parliament Rolls or Records or Mr. Pryn the Rectifier or misuser of them hath given us a curtailed Abbreviation of the Parliament Remembrances in 14 E. 3. wherein all that the Abridger or Rectifier was pleased to give us was that Subjects were no longer bound to him than as King of France the Kings Letters Patents of Indempnity were granted beginning Edwardus c. Know ye that where some people intend c. When as in the Printed Statute according to the Parliament Record for so it may better be understood to have been the Abridger or Rectifier so miscalled might have seen that the King by the Title of King of England and France and Lord of Ireland by his Letters Patents under the great Seal of England reciting that whereas some people did think that by reason the Realm of France was devolved to him as Right Heir of the same and for as much as he is King of France the Realm of England should be put in Subjection of the King and of the Realm of France in time to come he having regard to the Estate of his Realm of England and namly that it never was nor ought to be in Subjection to the obeysance of the Kings of France which for the time have been nor of the Realm of France and willing to provide for the Surety and Defence of the Realm of England and of the Leige people of the same doth will and grant
the provisions Derogatory to Kingly Government made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the third and constrained of King Edward the second And might have happened into a question unanswerable what mischief our Magna Charta or Charta de Foresta had done unto our Nation or upon what other cause or reason those excellent Laws were granted by our King Henry the 3d and so dearly beloved as they thought themselves utterly undone if they had not with the 15th part of their Moveables obtained them eisdem modo forma without any substraction or addition the same which have been continued confirmed by their several Kings and Princes above thirty times and was such a caution in one of their Parliaments as the Bishops in their several Diocesses were impowered to Anathematize all the Infringers thereof and King Henry the 3d in that direful Procession was constrained to walk through Westminster-Hall the Abby-Church of Westminster with all the Bishops Earls Barons and Nobility of England and Wales holding burning Tapers in their hands the King only refusing after the reading of the aforesaid Magna Charta's freely granted by that King and likewise that enforced upon King John his Father and throwing down their Tapers wishing that the Souls of the Infringers thereof might so burn and fry in Hells everlasting fire being such a cursed obligation as was never enforced upon any King or Prince by their people in any Nation of the World and might if Right had been done unto that distressed King have been deeply censured in foro Animae gratitudinis And if those Magna Charta's have been such a darling of the people as they seemed to value it as their Blood and Estates how could they fall so much out of their love as they would do all that they could to be rid of them as if they had been Circe's Swine tearing them in peices when they are for the most part a compleat System or figure of our Antient Monarch Feudal Laws and every Chapter therein loudly proclaim them to be no otherwise And what have we got in Recompence of the overturning of our beneficial and ever to be praised Feudal Laws but the forfeitures of all our Lands and Estates if God and the King should be extream and mark what is done amiss Or can any man of Learning Reason or Understanding or any but one that is or hath been mad without Lucid Intervals believe that St. Edward the Confessors Laws have not deduced their Original for the most part if not all from the Feudal Laws when by the solemnest and greatest Jury of the World impannelled by King William the Conqueror they appeared sine dolo malo ingenio to be no other than our Feudal Laws by which the Soveraignty did appear to be in the King not the People by which our Kingdom had been Governed and did bear as near a resemblance thereunto as one Hen Egg doth or can unto another in shape or figure And what strange kind of Imaginary Soveraignty radically or otherwise at any time was believed to reside in the people when the Pope and his Legate Pandulphus made our affrighted King John to do homage by laying down his Crown and Scepter at the feet of his Legate multum dolente Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi saith Matthew Paris nor was the Tribute paid or thought fit to be paid thereupon for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland though demanded of King Henry the third his Son or Edward the first his Grandson but by all our Kings and Princes neglected it being an allowed Maxime in our Law that Angliae Rex nunquam moritur which could not be if all the People had been understood to have been Soveraigns Or can any man believe that our English Ancestors did not think St. Edward the Confessors said Laws to be tantum sacrae when they hid them under his Shrine in the Church of Westminster-Abby and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of him to be Governed by them Which William the Conqueror would not have granted until he had by the aforesaid grand Jury examined and compared them per sapientes viros in Lege eruditos and the People of England and Wales have ever since being about 619 years never believed their Lives Estates and Posterities to be in any kind of safety if the Conqueror and all the succeeding Kings and Princes did not at their several Coronations take their Oaths to observe most especially St. Edward the Confessors Laws which they never failed to do and hath been so taken both by his late Majesty and this our present King And it would be a strange forgetfulness of Duty and our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy upon which and no other our Feudal Laws are built to forget them and the care of our Souls which the Britaignes in Armorica in France could never do since the dread and fear of the cruel Invasion of the Scots and Picts making them forsake their Native Countrey of England and retire where they now are where they yet retain their Antient Feudal Customs used in England which is that Ligeance est ordinaire en tous fiefs la quelle de sa nature emporta obeyssance du vassal foy homage autre les droits devoirs contenus en l'infeodation anciens advouz tenures L'homage lige ce fera en ceste forme scavoir que le vassal l' Espee Esperons ostez teste nue ayant les mains entre celles de son Seigneur se enclynant dira telles paroles mon Seigneur Je deviens vostre home Lige pour telles choses lesquelles Je releve tien de vous ligement en tiel vostre fief Seigneurie lesquelles choses me sont advenues par tels moyens a cause de quoi Je vous doy la foy homage lige vous promittes par ma foy serment vous estre Loyal feable porter l' honneur obeysance envers vous me gouverner aynsi que noble homage de foy lige doit faire envers son Seigneur Le Seigneur respondra come sensuit vous devenus mon home pour rayson de tales choses par vous dites de choses en tel me promittant que vous me serra feal obeysant home vassal si que vostre fief le requier le Subject respondra Je le promets ainsi lors le Seigneur dira Je vous y recen sauf mon droit de l' autrui Insomuch as when all the aforesaid concurrences of the Laws of God and Man Records and Annals Truth and rectified Reason shall be united and laid together he must be an ill Subject and a very great INfidel that cannot with great assurance believe that the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first and his late Royal Majesty and our now Gracious Soveraign have been much wronged in their Regal Rights Revenue and Authority and had as their Blessed Father been made likewise Martyrs if
his Castles of Killingworth Northampton Nottingham and Scarborough and the Castellanies or Governours sworn to obey them and after a general pardon granted to them and all their adhaerents mutual Oaths should be taken on both sides in solemn manner for the inviolable observing the Articles and the King's Letters Patents sent to all the Sheriffs of the Kingdom to cause all men of what degree soever within their several Shires to swear to observe those Laws and Liberties granted by his Charter and was compell'd so far to suffer those Conservators to proceed in their Conservatorships as in the same yearthey took their Oaths to perform those their new Offices the Earls of Arundel Gloucester and Warren with Hubert de Burgh and many Barons and great men took their Oaths also to obey and assist them But in the mean time Gloucester and Spencer being the chief of the Twenty-four Conservators did draw the entire managing of the Kingdom into their own hands compel the King to summon a great Councel at London where the authority of the Twenty-four Conservators was deliver'd over unto themselves and it was ordained that Three of them at the least should attend at the Court to dispose of the custody of the Castles and other business of the Kingdom with those of the Chancellor Justiciar and Treasurer and of all Offices great and small and bound the King to loose and renounce to them their legal Obedience whensoever he should infringe his Charters which might as unto a great part of them be certainly believed to have been the very spawn and breed of those long-after-reviv'd high and mighty Nineteen Propositions which were endeavour'd to have been enforced upon the late Blessed Martyr King CHARLES and of the late design'd Association in the Reign of His Son King CHARLES II. But that hoped pacification being made saith the Historian Jealousies and Discontents did again kindle and break out on both sides the one part to keep what they had undutifully gained and the other to get loose of what for fear he had too much yielded unto the King wanting none to enflame the perturbations and anguish of his mind to tell him that he was now a King without a Kingdom a Lord without Dominion and a Subject of his Subjects the Discords like a Wound or Sore ill-cur'd fester'd again and broke out SECT III. Of the succeeding Jealousies Animosities Troubles and Contests betwixt King John and his over-jealous Barons after the granting of his Charters and his other Transactions and Agreements with them at their tumultuous meeting at Running-Mead with the ill usages which he had before received of them during all the time of his Reign HE retir'd into the Isle of Wight whence by Agents sent to Rome he procured a definitive Sentence to condemn and nullifie what was done and the Pope's Excommunication of the Barons who kept about the City of London and under colour of Tournments and other Martial exercises invited as many other as they could to their assistance but did not seek to surprize his Person or intercept his Agents although they had strength to do it but only to enjoy those Liberties which they had spoiled and discredited by gaining them by violence wherein the fear of the power of an enraged Prince made them the more desperately careful to defend themselves and finish their designs whilst the King tarried three months in the Isle of Wight whence the Bishop of Worcester Chancellor of England Bishop of Norwich with others were sent with his Seal to procure Foreign Forces and to bring them to Dover whither after some small prizes taken by him and he returning his Agents abroad brought him an Army of Foreigners from Gascony Lovaine Poicteau and Brabant many of them being his French Subjects with whose help notwithstanding the loss of 40000 Men Women and Children who were drowned at Sea as they were bringing unto him by Hubert de Burgh from Calice He besieged and took Rochester Castle marched over most part of the Kingdom and within half a year got in all the Barons Castles even to the borders of Scotland and was Master of all England except the City of London which he would not adventure upon in regard of the Barons united Forces which lay near unto it marched to St. Albans where he proclaimed the Pope's Excommunication of the Barons who seeing Themselves and their Wives and Children like to be ruined and depriv'd of their Estates which were given away to strangers desperately fell into another extreme solicited Lewis the French King's Son to take upon him the Crown of England wherein they promised by a free Election to invest him and to send Pledges for the performance which Message being well received a Parliament was called at Lyons by Philip the Father of Lewis and the business resolved upon whilst Lewis besides the hop'd-for the title of Election by those trusty Conservators of the Peoples Liberties for their own particular Interest more than the Peoples supposed that he had another title from his Wife Blanch Daughter of the Sister of the prosecuted King In whose behalf the Pope wrote to the King of France not to invade the King of England but rather to defend him in regard he was a Vassal of the Roman Church and the Kingdom by reason of Dominion appertaining unto it whereunto the King of France answered probably by the advice of the contending English Baronage That the Kingdom of England never was nor is nor ever shall be the Patrimony of St. Peter That King John was never lawfull King thereof and if he were he had forfeited it by the Murder of his Nephew Arthur for which he was condemned in his Court and could not give it away without the consent of the Barons who were bound in an Oath to defend the same and if the Pope should maintain this errour it would be a pernicious example Wherewith the Pope's Agents departing unsatisfied Lewis sent his Commissioners to Rome to declare his Rights and justifie his undertaking sets forth from Callis with 600 Ships and 80 other Vessels and landed with his Army at Sandwich King Iohn being then at Dover who upon notice of his great power and distrusting his Mercenaries committed the keeping of Dover Castle to Hubert de Burgh forsook the Field and with it himself and retired first to Worcester and after to Gloucester whereby Lewis having subdued the whole County of Kent Dover excepted came to London where he was joyfully received of the Barons and upon his Oath taken to restore their Laws and recover their Rights had Homage and Fealty done unto him Guallo the Pope's Agent follow'd the King to Gloucester shews him the Pope's care of him pronounced Excommunication against Lewis and all that took part with him Notwithstanding which small comforts in so many and great extremeties pressing hard upon him most of his Mercenaries left him and either returned into their own Countreys with such spoils as they had gotten or betook
his to come into England but such only as the King and the Lords should like The Poictovins landing at Boloign had much-a-do to gain passage into their own Countreys by reason that Henry de Montfort Son to the Earl of Leicester whose power was very great in France had followed them thither Rumours were spread amongst the people in England that the Earl of Gloucester was attempted to have been poyson'd and one of his Servants executed upon no other proof but presumption and every one that would complain of the Poictovins wanted no encouragement Richard Gray whom the Lords had made Captain of the Castle of Dover intercepted as much as he could of what the Poictovins carried over and enriched himself thereby The new Chief-Justice Hugh Bigod Brother to the Earl Marshal being chosen in the last Parliament by publick voice procured an order that four Knights in every Shire should enquire of the poor oppressed by great men and certifie the same to the Baronage under their hands and seals which were never found to have been certified And made an Order that no man should give any thing besides Provisions for Justice or to hinder the same and that both the corrupter and corrupted should be grievously punished Notwithstanding which pretended care the Lords enforceing the service of the King's Tenants which dwelt near unto them were as totidem Tyranni furnished the especial Fortresses of the Kingdom with Garrisons of their own sworn to the common State and took the like assurance of all Sheriffs Bailiffs Coroners and other publick Ministers with strict Commissions upon Oath to examine their behaviour And to make the King and his actions the more odious and their own more popular it was rumoured that the King's necessities must be repaired out of the Estates of his people and he must not want whilst they had it Whereupon the King to defend himself from such scandals was constrained to publish his Declaration to desire the people to give no credit to such false suggestions for that he was ready to defend all Rights and Customs due unto them Howsoever Montfort Gloucester and Spencer who had by the late constitution of the twenty-four Conservators drawn the entire managing of the Kingdom into their hands enforced the King to call a Parliament at London where the authority of the twenty-four Conservators was placed in themselves and order taken that three at the least should attend at the Court to dispose of the custody of Castles and other business of the Kingdom of the Chancellor Chief-Justiciar Treasurer and all other Officers great and small and bound the King to release to them their legal Obedience whensoever he infringed his Charter In the mean time the Earl of Cornwal King of the Romans being dispossest of that Kingdom or not well liking it returning into England the Barons send to know the cause of his coming and require of him an Oath before he should land not to prejudice their late established Orders of the Kingdom which he sternly refused saying He had no Peer in England being the Son and Brother of a King and was above their power and if they would have reformed the Kingdom they ought first to have sent for him and not so presumptuously have attempted a business of so high a nature The Lords upon return of such an answer sent to guard the Ports came strongly to the Coast prepared to encounter him and the King Queen and their Son Edmond in a more loving manner go to Dover to receive him but neither they nor the Earl of Cornwal were by them permitted to enter into the Castle for that it was the chief Fortress of the Kingdom But finding the Earl of Cornwal's Train small they suffered him to land and did upon his promise to take the propounded Oath bring him and the King into the Chapter-house at Canterbury where the Earl of Gloucester standing forth in the midst in the presence of the King called forth the Earl not by the name of King but Earl of Cornwal who in reverend manner coming forth took his Oath That he would be faithful and diligent with the Barons to reform the Kingdom by the counsel of wicked persons over-much disordered and to be an effectual Coadjutor to expel Rebels and disturbers of the same under pain of losing all the Lands which he held in England After which both parties strengthening themselves all they could the King for the assurance of the King of France ex praecepto consilio Domini Regis Angliae totius Baronagii sent the Earls of Gloucester Leicester Peter de Subaudia John Mansel and Robert Walerand to the Parliament of Paris de arduis negotiis Regna Angliae Franciae contingentibus carrying with them a resignation of the Dutchy of Normandy and the Earldoms of Anjou Poicteau Turaine and Mayne for which the King of France was to give him three hundred thousand pounds with a grant of all Guyen beyond the River of Garonna all the River of Xantoigne to the River of Charente and the Counties of Limosin and Quercy to him and his Successors dong his Homage and Fealty to the Crown of France as a Duke of Aquitain and a Peer of that Kingdom After whose return Montfort as he had incensed others so had he those that animated him against the King as Walter Bishop of Worcester and Robert Bishop of Lincoln who enjoyned him upon the remission of his sins to prosecute the cause unto death affirming that the peace of the Church of England would never be established but by the Sword But the people being oppressed and tired at length with those commotions part-takings and discords which by the provisions wrested from the King at Oxford and so many mischiefs and inconveniencies had harassed and almost ruined them and did help to increase rather than decrease those troubles and controversies which afflicted the Nation it having never been easie to bring those that were to be governed to rule with any modesty or moderation those that had enjoyed a governing power in authority established and appointed by God in a well-temper'd Monarchy and succession for many Ages or those that were to govern to obey the giddy and unjust dictates of those who were to obey them or to unite in any contenting harmony the various ambitions envies revenges hatreds partialities self-interests and designs of many or a multitude or such enforcements and contrivances to be lasting durable or pleasing and that all could not well rule or agree how to do it The King and Queen keeping their Christmas in the Tower of London cum suis consiliariis saith Matthew Paris elaboratum fuit tam à Regni Angliae pontificibus quam à Regni Franciae ut pax reformaretur inter Regem Angliae Barones ventumque est ad illud ut Rex Proceres se submiserunt ordinationi Regis Franciae in praemissis provisionibus Oxoniae nec non pro depraedationibus damnis utrobique
disobliging unto any of them was to fall foul or out of the favour of all their great Alliances Friends Kindred numberless Tenants Servants Retainers Dependants and well-Wishers many of which being their own Relations Friends or Kindred might either help on and bring upon them a most certain and inevitable Ruine or put their small and fainting Estates into a languishing Condition when any the least Offences taken or given would be sure to effect it in the Displeasure of those who until the Reign of King Edward the First and some Ages after were so high and potent As that Ferrers Earl of Darby an Opposite to King Henry the Third in the Baron's Wars had Twenty Lordships in Barkeshire Three in Wiltshire in Essex Five in Oxfordshire Seven in Warwickshire Six in Lincolnshire Two in Buckinghamshire Two in Gloucestershire One Herefordshire Two Hantshire Three Nottinghamshire Three Leicestershire Thirty-Five Derbyshire One Hundred and Fourteen Staffordshire Seven of which was Chedley a parcel whereunto that part of Staffordshire appertained and besides had the Castle and Borough of Tudbury in that County together with many Advowsons Patronages c. and Knights Fees holding of him in those and other parts of England An Ancestor of Gilbert de Gaunt a partaker of the Norman Conquest another Opposite of King Henry the Third had in the Conquerors Survey One Lordship in Barkshire Three in Yorkshire Six in Cambridgeshire Two in Buckinghamshire One in Huntingtonshire Five in Northamptonshire One in Rutland One in Leicestershire One in Warwickshire Eighteen in Nottinghamshire One Hundred and Thirteen in Lincolnshire with Folkingham which was the Head of his Barony besides Knights Fees of those that held of him Patronages and Advowsons Fairs Markets Assize of Bread and Beer Pillory and Tumbrel c. Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester was in the right of Amicia one of the Sisters and Co-heirs of Robert Fitz Parnel a Norman Earl of Leicester Lord high Steward of England in Fee an Office of Large Authority and Esteem had in Warwickshire Sixty-Four Lordships in Leicestershire Sixteen in Wiltshire Seven in Northamptonshire Three in Gloucestershire One besides many Knights Fees of those that held of him Advowsons Patronages Fairs Markets and the priviledges of Pillory Tumbrel and the Assize of Bread and Beer The Earl of Gloucester and Hartford had Thirty-Eight Lordships in Surrey Thirty-Five in Essex Three in Cambridgeshire Halling and Bermeling Castle in Kent Haresfeild in Middlesex Sudtime in Wiltshire Leviston in Devonshire Ninety-Five in Suffolke besides Thirteen Burgages in or near Ipswich of which Clare was one from whence that Family took their Surname or it from them had the Town and Castle of Tunbridge in Kent the Castle of Brianels in the County of Gloucester and whilst the King and his Son Edward were Prisoners at Lewis obtained a Grant under the Great Seal of all the Lands and large Possessions of Iohn Warren Earl of Surrey to hold at the King's Pleasure except the Castles of Rigate and Lewis was one of the Chief that extorted a Commission from the King authorizing Stephen Bishop of Chichester Symon Montfort and himself to nominate Nine as well Prelates as Barons to manage all things according to the Laws and Customes of the Kingdom until the Determinations should be made at Lewis and others which they better liked should take Effect Awbrey de Vere in the general Survey of William the Conqueror had Cheviston now Kensington Geling and Emingford in com Hunt Nine Lordships in Suffolk Fourteen in Essex whereof Colne Hengham and Bentley were part in Warwickshire Six in Leicestershire Fourteen in Northamptonshire Six in Oxfordshire Two and in Wiltshire Ten a Descendant of whom had in the Raign of King Stephen together with Richard Basset Justice of England custodiam Comitatus and executed the Sheriffs Offices of Surrey Cambridge Huntington Essex Hartford Northampton Leicester Norfolk Suffolk Buckingham and Bedford had by the Grant of Maud the Empress and King Henry the Second her Son by inheritance the Earldom of Oxford granted unto him and his Heirs and Mannor and Castle of Caufeild in the County of Essex and the Office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England in Fee with the Castles of Hengham or Hedingham and Campes to be holden by that Service and divers other Lands and Possession of a great yearly Value had before the Fourth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bulbeck many Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Buckingham and Cambridge and by the Marriage of the Daughter and Heir of Gilbert Lord Sanford the Inheritance of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Essex and Hartford and a Grant in Fee to be Chamberlain to the Queen die Coronationis suae with divers Priviledges and One Hundred Knights Fees holden of them one whereof was by the Heirs of Mordaunt for Lands in Essex to come compleatly Armed as Champion to the Heir of the Family and Earls of Oxford in the great Hall of Hedingham Castle upon the day of his Nuptials to defy and fight with any that should deny him to be Earl of Oxford and another for the Mannor of Horseth in the County of Cambridge holden by the Family of Allington now the Lord Allington of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Service of holding the Earl of Oxford's Stirrop die nuptiarum which was actually performed in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth the day of the Marriage of Edward Earl of Oxford with the Daughter of the Lord Burghley Roger Bygod in the Conquerors Time did possess Six Lordships in Essex and One Hundred Seventeen in Suffolk had a Grant in the Raign of King Henry the Second of the Mannors of Ersham Walsham Alvergate and Aclay and the Honour of Eye in the County of Suffolk the Custody of the Castle of Norwich and a Grant of the Office of high Steward of England to hold and enjoy in as ample manner as Roger Bygod his Father had held it in the time of King Henry the First was Earl Marshal of England by Inheritance and had thereby a great Command and Authority in the King's Armies and all his Martial Affairs registred in his Marshals Rolls those many Thousands who as Tenants in Capite came into the Army to perform their Service by which also they were enabled to receive Escuage after of those that were their Under-tenants and held of them and did not come to do their Service was in times of Peace as in War to appease Tumults to Guard the King's Palace distribute Liveries and Allowances to the Officers thereof attend at the doing of Homages have a Fee of every Baron made a Knight and to receive of every Earl doing Homage a Palfry and Furniture Hugh de Montfort Ancestor of Peter de Montfort one of the Twenty-Four enforced Conservators for the Kingdom in the said Raign of King Henry the Third had in the general Survey Twenty-Eight
unto the now Duke of Beaufort and by men leavyed and sent unto him from Wales in his Majesties March as far as Shrowsbury towards him the better to enjoy and be near the great assistance which he promised and performed without which and the Ancient and Legall aid and help of his tenures in Capite and by Knight-service he could not have made any defence for Himself or his Loyal Subjects but might have been taken and Imprisoned by the Sheriffes of every shire or County thorough which he was to pass in his Journey to York with his eldest Son the Prince whom they would likewise have seised upon when he was by the Faction and their Hunters driven and pursued as it were thither for Refuge as a Partridge hunted upon the Mountains from his Parliament when he had no Provision of Arms Men or Money And the Rebell-Party of that Parliament had formed and beforehand made ready a great and powerfull Army without any manner of want of Money and a seduced party of his People to march against him And our Feudall Laws were so little despised unknown or unusuall in this Kingdom as our Magna-Charta and Charta de Foresta more then 30 times confirmed by Acts of Parliament and the Petition so called of Right will appear to have no other source or Fountain as to the most of the many parts thereof then the Feudall Laws And they must be little Conversant in the reading practice and usage thereof demonstrable in and through our Records and Authentique Annalls and Historians that will not confess and believe it when they shall so manifestly almost every where see the vestigia and tracks thereof and our Saxon Laws faithfully translated and rendred unto us by the labours and industry of our learned Lambard and Abraham Whelock Arabick professor in the University of Cambridge and the glossary of our Learned Sr Henry Spelman may aboundantly be found to declare that they had for the most part no other Progenitors And could not be understood to amount unto no less then the greatest and strongest Fortifications that any Kingdom could have though not so guarded by the Sea as our Islands of Great Brittain are and have been when Seventy Thousand Horsmen gravi Armatura or not meanly Armed should as the manner of those Times were without much disturbance to their other affairs be sodainly ready upon any Emergencies of Wars Intestine or Forreign without Pay or Wages under the greatest obligations Divine and Humane to defend their Kings themselves and their Estates which in more valiant and plain dealing Times did in no longer part of time commonly determine the fate or fortune of a Kingdom as to a great part of the Event or success of a War And was so necessary to the Defence of the King and People as our William the Conqueror that did not bring but found the Feudall Laws here in England may be thought to have been very willing to have strengthend his Conquests here when he distributed amongst his great Officers in the Army his Soldiers as much of his Conquered Lands as Ordericus Vitalis hath related it Seventy Thousand Knights Fees who in regard of their service for the defence of the King had a Privilege by the Kings Writ for them and their Tenants to be free ab omni Talagio from all Taxes which priviledge or acquittal saith Sr Edward Coke discontinued Of which our Feudall Laws the Brittains the more ancient Inhabitants of England as well as the Brittains in America in France now known by the name of the Duchy of Brittain cannot be believed to have been Ignorant when the Father of our Victorious Arthur King of Brittain was a Beneficiarius and held his Lands in Cornwall of the King in Capite unto whose Kingdom were appendant the large Dominions of Norway and the Islands ultra Scanriam Islandiam Ireland Curland Dacia Semeland Winland Finland Wareland Currelam Flanders omnes alias terras Insulas Orientalis Oceani usque Russiam Et iu Luppo etiam posuit orientalem metam Regni Brittania multas alias Insulas usque Scotiam usque in Septentrione quae sunt de appendicis Scaniae quae Noricena dicitur and that Kingdom of Brittain had so large an Extent and the King of Brittain such a directum Dominium therein that upon an exact Search and inquiry into the Memorialls Antiquities Annalls and Historians thereof it was evident that in the Times of Ely and Samuel after the Siege and Destruction of Troy Brute came into this Island called it by his name and divided his Kingdom to his 3 Sons Loegria now called England to his Eldest Albania since called Scotland came to the 2 and Cambria or Wales unto his 3 Son Camber after whom was Arthurus Rex Britonium famosissimus Who subdued a great part of France and those his Noble Acts were not unknown unto some of the Roman Poets and Historians and the Laws used here in his Time may with great reason be understood to have been the same which the English or Saxons our later Ancestors Fletibus Precibus with supplications washed in Tears obtained of the Norman Conqueror to be left unto them as King Edward the Confessors Laws for his Justice and Holiness reputed to have been a Saint and together with the Mercenlage or Laws made by Mercia a Queen of Mercia or the Borders or Confines of Wales ought to be esteemed the same aggregate Laws which K. William the Conqueror of the Brittains Saxons and Normans after they had began to Intermarrie and were become as it were Populus unus Gens una were certified by the greatest most universall and most Solemn Jury and verdict that ever was Impannelled or made use of in England and under the strictest and severest Charge not by Judges delegate but by the King himself and a Conquering King that had omnia Jura et terras in manu sua which he did Consilio Baronum suorum in Anno quarto Regni sui cause to be Summoned through all the Shires Counties of England of out of the Nobiles sapientes et in Lege cendites ut eorum Leges et Jura et Consuetudines ab ipsis audiret Whereupon in singulis totius patriae Comitatibus a Jury of 12 men qualified as aforesaid Jure Jurando coram ipso Rege before the King himself no ordinary Judge but the Highest under God quo ad possent recto tramite incidentes neither turning on the Right hand nor the Left legum suarum Consuetudinum suarum patefacerent neither omitting or adding any thing by fraud or praevarication yet the King seeming better to approve of his Norway and Danish Laws which in many things affinitate Saxonum seemed to be the same with the Norway Laws except in some small difference in the heightning of the Fines and Forfeitures which when the King had heard read unto him maxime appreciutus est proecepit ut Obsequerentur per
of his Royall Ancestors had untill the aforesaid Imprisonment of his Father constantly and successively walked did Resolve as long as he could to continue therein Insomuch as 3. E. 1. Indictum est Parliamentum Londoniis ubi Leolinus princeps Walliae being summoned to come to do his Homage pretended that he durst not come without hostages which the King taking ill refused to give sed tamen dissimulato negotio inceptum Parliamentum consummavit post Parliamentum vero Rex raised an Army to subdue him hoc Anno solvit populus Regi quinto decimam bonorum quae patri suo dicebatur praeconcessa Anno. 5. E. 1. in subsidium guerrae Wallensis concessa est Regia populo vicesima pars bonorum Anno 6 tenuit Parliamentum Gloverniae in quo edita sunt Statuta quae Gloverinae appellantur and it appeareth by the Act of 7. E. 1. that the Prelates Earls and Barons were present at the making thereof 2. E. 1. Habitum est Parliamentum Salopiae in quo per deputatos ad hoc Justiciariis David the Brother of the Prince of Wales sine condemnatus tractus suspensus Eodem Anno tenuit Rex Parliamentum apud Acton Burnell ubi editum est statutum quod a loco cognominatum est 18. E. 1. Upon the death of Margaret daughter of the King of Norway by the daughter of Alexander King of Scotland ad quam jure haereditario defuncto avo patruo matre regnum Scotiae devolvi debebat quis fuit justus haeres Scotiae apud omnes in dubium vertebatur and there being many competitors amongst which there were of the English Baronage Johannes de Hastings Dominus Abergavenny Johannes de Vescy vice patris sui Nicholaus de Sules Willielmus de Ros and the Pope claiming the superiority and the determination of the Title Eodem Anno post Pascha Rex Angliae Scotiam apprcpinquans Parliamentum tenuit apud Northumbr ubi consultis Praelatis ac utriusque juris peritis wiser and fitter men then Common people use to be revolutisque priorum temporum Annalibus and the memorialls of the Abbies and Monasteries vocari fecit Praelatos Majores Regni Scotiae corameis in Ecclesia parochiali de Northumbr jus suum in superius dominium Regni Scotiae fideliter declaravit petivitque ut haec recognoscerent protestando se jus Coronae suae usque ad effusionem sanguinis suae defensurum And the Kings Right and Superiority being fully evidenced all the pretenders to that Crown did under their Hands and Seals not only acknowledge his Superiority but that they would hold that firm and stable which he should declare therein and yeild the Kingdom to such as he should adjudge which no where appears to have been done by the consent of the Common people of England and Scotland and was of the greatest concernment to those of Scotland And in another Charter of the same date declaring Cum autem non possit praefatus Rex Angliae isto modo cognitionem facere nec complere sine judicio nec indicium debeat esse sine executione nec executionem possit debito modo facere sine possessione seisina ejusdem terrae Castrorum did deliver seisin to the King as the Supream Lord untill the Right should be determined Ita tamen that before the seisin taken he should give good Security to deliver it back to such as should be adjudged to have Right to the Kingdom of Scotland cum tota Regalitate dignitate dominio libertatibus consuetudinibus Justiciis legibus usibus quibuscunque cum pertinentiis in eodem Statu c. So as an account and Restitution be made within 2 Months after to those that should be adjudged to have Right unto that Kingdom of the issues and profits thereof salvo Regi Angliae homagio illius qui Rex erit Quo facto although Ericus King of Norway did at the same time by his Attorneys or Procurators appear coram concilio Regis Angliae with his Commission omnibus inspecturis to claim 100000l Sterling a penalty for not admitting the said Margaret his daughter to be heire to the Kingdom of Scotland and 700 marks per Annum dowry which he gave with her c. who being heard and severall days given and refusing ulterius prosequi post diligentem hujus negotii disquisitionem inter caeteros competitores de assensu communi Rex Angliae without any license or confirmation of his Parliament post varias disceptationes vendicantium regnum illud adjudged it to John de Baylioll as descended from the Eldest Daughter of David King of Scotland excluso Roberto de Brus who claimed from a younger received his homage and fealty and caused him to be Crowned sitting super lapidem Regalem said by these people to have been the Stone upon which Jacob Slept when he journeyed from Barsheba to Aran. About the same time 200 Ships or Barks of Normandy sailing homewards with Wines from Gascony Domineering as if sibi solis maris cessisset libertas they were by 60 English Ships taken and 15000 of their men slain and the King of France by his Embassadours demanding Satisfaction or to have the matter determined in his Court in Gascony being of a very great concernment to the English Nation the King deliberato habito concilio sending the Bishop of London adjunctis sibi aliis viris prudentibus to the King of France suo concilio offered that if any found themselves aggrieved they should upon a safe conduct come for Justice ad Curiam suam quae nulli subjecta fuit whereupon a great contention arising betwixt the two Kings and the King of France seising divers Castles of the King of England in Gascony and citing him personally to appear at his Court at Paris to answer for that transgression which being upon a safe conduct performed and a peace thereupon concluded and that shortly after cavilled at by the King of France The King in the 22 year of his Reign convocato Londoniis Parliamento cui Johannes Rex Scotorum interfuit being in the same year and Parliament to which he had by his writs caused some of the Commons of England to come to assent unto what should be there ordained de concilio Praelatorum Procerum consentium without any mention of the Community agree that terram sub-dole ablatam recuperandam fore gladio And thereupon the King not the Parliament sent his Embassadours again unto the King of France and declared that since he had Violated the Leagues and Agreements made betwixt them and their Royall Progenitors Non videbatur sibi his great Councel and Parliament not being at all named quod ipsum Regem Angliae ducemque Aquitaniae hominem suum reputabat nâ—c ipse homagio suo astringi ulterius intendebat And mandavit Justic. suis hic breve suum patens in haec verba Edwardus Dei Gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae
Conscience And may be likewise very prejudicial to the very ancient and honourable House of Peers in Parliament for these and many more to be added Reasons viz. Former Ages knew no Bills of Attainder by Act of Parliament after an Acquittal or Judgment in the House of Peers until that unhappy one in the Raign of King Charles the Martyr which for the unusualness thereof had aspecial Proviso inserted That it should not hereafter be drawn unto Examples or made use of as a Presidâ—â—t And proved to be so fatally mischievous to that blessed King himself and His three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland as he bewailed in his excellent Soliloqâ—â—es and at his Death his consenting to such an Act and charged His late Majesty never to make Himself or â—is People to be partakers of any more such Mischief procuring State Errors The House of Commons if they will be Accusers wherein they may be often mistaken when they take it from others and have no power to examine upon Oath wild and envions Informations and at the same time a part of the Parliament subordinate to the King will in such an Act of Attainder be both Judge and Party which all the Laws in the World could never allow to be just And such a course if suffered must needs be derogatory and prejudicial to the Rights and Priviledges and Judicative Power of the Peers in Parliament unparallelled and unpresidented when any Judgments given by them shall by such a Bill of Attainder like a Writ of Error or as an Appeal from them to the House of Commons be enervated or quite altered by an Act of Attainder framed by the House of Commons whereby they which shall be freed or absolved by their Peers or by that Honourable and more wise Assembly shall by such a back or by-blow be condemned or if only Fined by the House of Peers may be made to forfeit their Estates and Posterities by the House of Commons or if condemned in the Upper House be absolved in the Lower who shall thereby grow to be so formidable as none of the Peerage or Kings Privy-Councel shall dare to displease them and where the dernier Ressort or Appeal was before and ought ever to be to the King in his House of Peers or without will thus be lodged in the House of Commons and of little avail will the Liberty of our Nobility be to be tryed by their own Peers when it shall be contre caeur and under the Control of the House of Commons Or that the Commons disclaiming as they ought any power or Cognisance in the matters of War and Peace should by a Bill of Attainder make themselves to be Judges and Parties against a Peer both of the Kings Privy Council and Great Council in Parliament touching Matters of that Nature For if the Commons in Parliament had never after their own Impeachments of a Peer or Commoner Petitioned the King to pardon the very Persons which they had Accused as they did in the Cases of Lyons and John Pechie in the 51 year of the Raign of King Edward the Third whom they had fiercely accused in Parliament but the year before the Objection that a Pardon ought not to be a Bar against an Impeachment might have had more force than it is like to have Neither would it or did it discourage the exhibiting any for the future no more than it did the many after Impeachments which were made by the Commons in several Parliaments Kings Raigns whereupon punishments severe enough ensued For if the very many Indictments and Informations at every Assizes and Quarter Sessions in the Counties and in the Court of Kings-Bench at Westminster in the Term time ever since the Usurpation and Raign of King Stephen and the Pardon 's granted shall be exactly searched and numbred the foot of the Accompt will plainly demonstrate that the Pardons for Criminal Offences have not been above or so many as one in every hundred or a much smaller and inconsiderable number either in or before the first or latter instance before Tryal or after and the Pardon 's granted by our Kings so few and seldom as it ought to be confest that that Regal Power only proper for Kings the Vicegerents of God Almighty not of the People hath been modestly and moderately used and that the multitude of Indictments and Informations and few Pardon 's now extant in every year will be no good Witnesses of such a causelesly feared discouragement And it will not be so easily proved as it is fancied that there ever was by our Laws or reasonable Customs anâ— Institution to preserve the Government by restraining the Prince against whom and no other the Contempt and Injury is immediately committed from pardoning offences against Him and in Him against the People to whose charge they are by God intrusted Or that there was any such Institution which would be worth the seeing if it could be found or heard of that it was the Chief to be taken care of or that without it consequently the Government it self would be destroyed To prove which groundless Institution the Author of those Reasons is necessitated without resorting as he supposeth to greater Antiquities to vouch to Warranty the Declaration of that excellent Prince King Charles the First of Blessed Memory made in that behalf when there was no Controversie or Question in agitation or debate touching the power of pardoning in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament wherein stating the several parts of this well regulated Monarchy he saith the King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each particular Priviledges Wherein amongst those which belong to the King he reckons the power of pardoning if the Framer of those Reasons had dealt fairly and candidly and added the Words immediately following viz. And some more of the like kind are placed in the King And this kind of excellently tempered Monarchy having the power to preserve that Authority without which it would be disabled to protect the Laws in their Force and the Subjects in their Peace Liberties and Properties ought to have drawn unto him such a respect and reverence from the Nobility and Great Ones as might hinder the Ills of Division and Faction and cause such a Fear and Respect from the People as might impede Tumults and Violence But the design being laid and devised to tack and piece together such parcels of his said late Majesties Answer as might make most for the advantage of the Undertaker to take the Power of Pardoning from the Prince and lodge it in the People and do what they can to create a Soveraignty or Superiority in them which cannot consist with his Antient Monarchy and the Laws and reasonable Customs of the Kingdom the Records Annals and Histories Reason Common Sense and understanding thereof the long and very long approved usages of the Nation and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy of those that would now not only
amaze all the men of Law and Learning in the Kingdom of England how Sir Edward Coke that hath been attempted to be a man of so great knowledge and experience in the Law and entrusted with so many weighty Charges and Offices in our Laws as Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and afterwards of the Court of Kings Bench and so great a Collector and Remembrancer of the cases and judgments in the Law with their various forms and entries should have so often read in his so greatly beloved Book of Littleton the Chapters of Homage and Homage Auncestrel and Escuage assessed in our Parliaments could think it to be the Common Law of England and that by which it had for many Centuries past been Governed and not to be by its true and original Name and Nation as well here as in all the other parts of the Christian World the Feudal Law and what else where those Feudal Laws used in England which our Learned Sir Henry Spelman and Dr. Zouch Mr. of Alban-Hall in Oxford so largely directly mentioned to have their beneficial Use and Residence amongst us allowed and repeated by the very learned the Sieur du Fresne a Baron of France and other good Authors and Historians And if those premises cannot be enough to satisfy us Sir Edward Coke if he were alive might do well to instruct us what Law that Homage and Escuage appertained unto And if there were any other Laws that this Kingdom was governed by when and by whom they were introduced and of how long continuance for it may be hoped that our Sons of Novelty will not be so impudent as to offer to obtrude upon the World the Follies and Villanies of Wat Tiler and Jack Cade our late pretended Rebuplicans or their cheating Instrument maker Oliver Cromwel Or upon what other Laws than Feudal are our Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta supported and as often as thirty times in several of our Parliaments confirmed when all our many English Rebellions troubles of State and Commotions either at home at abroad have left it as a quiddam Sacrum more than the safe guarded vestal fire amongst the Romans or can shew us in any of our Records Annals or holy Writ wrested or misinterpreted that the Dernier Resort or Appeal hath been or ought to be in the people unless they can make themselves or any others believe that there was something or more revealed to them than was in the Scripture or Holy Prophets for there was no third Estate under our Kings to assist their Councels in Parliaments subordinate unto them put upon them nor intended to be by the 25 Conservators enforced upon King John in the Rebellious Parliament and Battle at Running Mede afterwards reduced to four or when their Captain General Robert Fitz-Walter was stiled Mariscallus Exercitus dei Ecclesiae Anglicanae neither in Anno 42. H. 3. being over-powered by some of his Rebellious Barons where those 25 Conservators were turned into 24 the one half to be nominated by the King the other by the contending party at the Parliament at Oxford or when that afterwards adjudged derogatory Parliament to Kingly Authority was referred by King Henry the third and the Rebellious Barons unto the Arbitration of the King of France or sworn to abide it none of the Rebellious party were entituled Estates or in that after Rebellion and detaining King Henry the 3 and prince Edward his Son about a year and a quarter they would not adventure to form or imitate a general Councel in that captive Kings name those few that came were not called or intended to be a 3 Estate in an House of Commons nor in any of the many Rescripts or Mandates which Symon Montfort and his partner Rebels made in their Captive Kings name nor in any Parliament after his Release or in the Parliament of King Edward the first when he was pleased to suffer some of the Commons Elected by his Writs to attend in the House of Commons in Parliament neither had they the boldness in all his long Raign of 35 years or in the 17 or 18 years of King Edward the second or the fifty one years of King Edward the third or in the Raign of King Richard the 2 until the Title of Estates crept in as aforesaid and Mr. Pryn made himself after the Creator of them in his misused rectifying And having as they thought turned the Tables the wrong way in calling our Feudal Laws the Common Laws which indeed they are should be and a long time have been have so far put them out of their Right place Order and Station as they think they have changed our Feudal Laws which are should be the only Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Government thereof into a quite contrary and too many of our Lawyers have been so willing to forget them as they had rather now of late make us believe if they could the tricks of Attorneys to be our Common Laws than our more Ancient Legal Rational and Fundamental Feudal Laws Insomuch that one that thinks himself no small one hath of late been pleased to say very considerately as he thought that the Study and Knowledge of Antiquities was but like the picking up of Old Iron in the London Streets or Kennels As if the Prophet Jeremy had either mistaken or lost the Commission which our Alwise and Omniscient God had given him when he advised us Stare super vias antiquas inquirere veritatem and such Lawyers of a late Edition might find themselves hard put to it to answer the question how or from whence proceeded or were derived our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which have for so many ages past been legally taken and enjoyned and do and ought yet to continue if not from an ancient Fundamental Feudal Laws from what other Laws of God or man were they derived or any the various Customs or Usages of either Heathen or Christian fixt or established by by any other rational Custom or Usage or unfixt and left only to the divers Interests Occasions and Contingencies of every mans particular Interest and Affairs and can never be ascertained how long they shall continue in one and the same mind and good liking and where the Systeem of these Laws Usages or Customs are or may be found or what Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy have been sworn unto or upon them Whether upon the Old Custom of England of wrastling or choosing King and Queen at the Epiphany or Twelft Night at Christmas And if they would be a 3 governing Estate may think themselves not a little beholding unto such as can either think or believe that they are or ought to be so in love with them as to trust them as formerly they had done and could tell their Brethren of Scotland that their promises were but conditional and did very lovingly alter order their man of sin Oliver Cromwel to beat subdue and after their Laws and Religion
themselves they with a parcel of conscience not of God did treat with the particular Lenders of the Money to King James and for ten l. or a very little in every hundred comed and took up their Privy Seals but were unwilling to trouble the King with the thoughtâ—s thereof to the damage of him and disherision of the Crown of England and being taken notice of and complained of a Commission was granted unto the Lord ottington Sir Henry Vane and Sir Charles Harbord the Kings Surveyor to enquire thereof and certify the King thereof wherein they were so kind hearted and the matters so managed as noâ—hing more was heard thereof but the City of London continueth in possession of the said Manors and Lands or have spent the same in assisting the late horrid Rebellion against him and together with it the CityOrphans Mony for which it hath been reported they are willing to pay them by composition after the rate of 6d per. ponnd caused a Bill to be exhibited by his Attorney General in his Court of Starr Chamber against John Earl of Clare and Mr. Selden for having only in their Custody two Books or Manuscripts directed unto him by Sir Robert Dudley an Englishman living in Florence and stiling himself a Titular Duke of that Countrey endeavouring to instruct him in the method of raising Money by a Tax upon all the Paper and Parchment to be used in England caused Sir Giles Allington to be fined in the High Commission Court for Incest and the Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven to be arraigned in the Court of Kings Bench for Sodomy whereupon after Tryal by his Peers he was Condemned and Beheaded suffered a great Arcanum Imperii in his Praerogative in taxing or requiring an Aid of Ship Money or for setting out a Navy of Ships when the Kingdom was in danger to be disputed in the Exchecquer Chamber by Lawyers and Judges which King Henry the fourth of France by a constant Rule in State Policy would never yeild to have done imitated by Queen Elizabeth who in some of her Charters or Letters Patents as unto Martin Forbisher a great Sea-Captain declared de qua disputari nolumus upon the case or question of 10 s. charged upon Mr. Hamdens Estate in Buckinghamshire of 4000 l. p. Annum wherein all that could be raked out of or by the Records of this Kingdom was put together by Mr. Oliver St. John and Mr. Robert Holborn theformer being after made Cheif Justice of the Court of Common Pleas by Hambden and the Rebel party and the later taking Arms for the King faithfully adhered unto him whereupon that cause coming to be heard all that could be argued for the not paying or paying of it of twelve Judges that carefully considered the Arguments and gave their opinions there were ten concurred in giving Judgment for the King and only two viz. Justice Hatton and Justice Crooke who having before under their hands concurred with all the other and suffered their subscriptions to be publickly inrolled in their several Courts at Westminster could find the way to be over-instrumental in setting our Troy Town all in Flames whilst that pious Prince being overburdened with his own more than common necessities did not omit any part of the Office of a Parens Patriae but taking more care for his People than for himself too many of whom proved basely and wickedly ingrateful called to accompt Lionel Cranfield whom he had made Earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer of England fined him in vast sums of money ordered him during his life never more to sit in the House of Peers in Parliament received a considerable part of his Fine and acquitted him of the residue And being desirous as his Father was to unite the Kingdom of Scotland in their Reformed Religion as the more happy Church of England was both as unto Episcopacy and its Liturgy that attempt so failed his expectation as a mutiny hapned in the Cathedral Church of Edenburgh and an old Wife sitting upon a Stool or Crock crying out that she smelt a Pape at her Arse threw it at the Ministers Head whereupon a great mutiny began and after that an Insurrection which to pacify the King raised a gallant Army of Gentry and Nobility with all manner of warlike provision and marched unto the Borders but found them so ill provided for defence as they appeared despicable yet the almost numberless Treacheries fatally encompassing that pious King persuading him not to beat or vanquish them when he might so easily have done it he returned home disbanding his Army and a close Favourite of Scotland was after sent to pacify them but left them far more unruly than before shortly after which Philip Nye a Factious Minister that should have been of the Church of England but was not with some other as wicked Persons were from England delegated to Scotland to make a Coâ—enant of Brotherly Rebellion against the King and accordingly the Scots being well assured that their Confederates in England would not hurt them marched into England with a ragged Army with Petitions to the King and Declarations of Brotherly Love unto too many of their Confederates seised by the cowardise or carelesness of the Inhabitants the Town of Newcastle upon Tine notwithstanding a small Army ill ordered was sent to defend it better than they did so as the Scotch Petitioning Army quartering there and in the Northern parts the King hastening thitherwards with Forces was persuaded to summon at Rippon a great Council of many of his Nobility whither too many of them that came being more affected to the Scotch Army that came like the Gibeonites with old Shoes and mouldy Bread were allowed to be free-quartered and a Parliament suddenly to be summoned at London whereby to raise money for the discharge of their Quarters Army charges in the mean time the Scotch their Commissioners with their Apostle Alexander Henderson have license to visit London where they are lamented feasted and visited and almost adored as much as St. Paul was amongst the Macedonians or the Brethren who cryed up their holy Covenant and Religion to be the best the Church of England with her Ceremonies Common Prayers and Potage not to be compared unto it the Parliament would help all and the Scots Commissioners were so popular and in request as they seemed for that time to govern both the City of London and Parliament and by their peace pride and plenty had generated Sedition and Faction and that combustible matter in England burst into a Fire which could not be quenched the Kings Privy Council could not please the five Members nor Kimboltons Ambition and Envy be satisfied without being made a great Officer of State but proved after to be a general of some associated Counties against the King God might be worshipped with a thriving Conscience and the people taken care for by plundering Sequestration Decimation Killing Slaying or Impoverishing the Common Wealth or Weal Publick Pym
who had been Receiver of the Kings Money and had not accounted for it in Twenty years was once endeavoured to be pleased by being made Chancellor of the Exchequer Hollis one of the Secretaries of State Sir Arthur Haselrig and William Strode were to be put into great places one to be Governour of the Prince and the other as a Secretary and there being no special Office for the Lord Kimbolton the hopes of their being better Subjects and Councellors than the former begat their after Rebellion for which three Kingdoms and the ruin and desolation thereof with the life of the Blessed Martyr King Charles the first might have been spared if that Treason had been punished by Law the King having been informed that some of the well-willers to the Scotish Rebellion had before hand conveyed away their Estates the next care to be taken being to take away the Life of Thomas Earl of Strafford who was General of the Army of the King in the North against the Scots who coming up to London to accuse Pym and the rest of the five Members so called found as he was knocking at the door of the House of Peers Mr. Pym gotten in accusing him of High Treason upon which he being Arraigned was Acquitted when he was guilty of no Treason but they of abundance but that not giving satisfaction to their wicked designs they invented a way to have him again Arraigned upon a Bill in Parliament at the Suit of the Commons of England which was the first Bill in Parliament of that kind in writing that ever was before to Interest and proclaim the House of Commons to be Co-ordinate and a third Estate including the King to be in or ex se one of them many of the Preachers were found fault with for Arminianism and other Doctrines by those that understood them as little as they did the Word of God that they preacht up the Kings Power and Prerogative and Doctor Manwarring voted by the House of Commons in Parliament to be punished and sequestred whom the King afterwards made a Bishop Mr. William Pryn Mr. Henry Burton and Dr. Bastwick justly sentenced in the Court of Star Chamber the first having his Ears nailed unto the Pillory and all of them severally imprisoned in remote places were insolently voted out of Prison an attempt never before adventured upon by an House of Commons in Parliament and no such things as previous votings in order to the fixing or carrying on evil designs were ever before used to be made in any of our Kings or Princes Raigns and were by multitudes of factious Londoners of the most Common sort intermingled brought in a seditious procession on Horseback through the Streets with Rosemary in their Hats or Hands Mr. Pryn shortly after made a busy and fiery Member of Parliament the two former whereof were fanatically reported to have had miracles or visions seen upon the occasion of that they called their sufferings Bills were put upon the Corners of the Streets in London to invite People to give a meeting upon a certain day at Grocers Hall in London to some Members of the House of Commons in Parliament to prepare Petitions unto themselves some Troops of Factious Ministers made themselves the Conductors out of several Counties of many a simple Innovator with Papers in their Hats signifying no more than something they knew not what against Popery the Porters of London must put on their Sunday Cloaths and carry to the House of Commons printed Petitions against the Kings enjoying the Militia where they were only informed that it was against Watermen of London's carriying of Trunks all the Boys in a Free School at Stamford in Lincolnshire enticed by the naughty School-Master to subscribe their names to a Petition against Bishops with other numberless Cheats and trciks to make fears and jealousies and breed a Rebellion which might proceed as much as it could to break in peices never as they hoped to be repaired again our Ancient and flourishing Monarchy the King maketh a progress into his Kingdom of Scotland where they beg and importune him for the small Demesne Crown Lands which he had left and when he would have reserved enough to have defrayed the charge of his house keeping whilst he remained there they would not trust him with the Money for fear he should provide Arms with it when in the mean time a Rebellion was begun in Ireland with a Massacre from whence when he returned to London he was received by all the Citizens with the Hosanna of a Great seeming Joy but suddenly after ill managed by some Lords and Commons in Parliament their then too great Idol in a most Hypocritical way of a Remonstrance bearing Date the 14th day of December 1641. at Hampton Court wherein with all zeal and faithfulness unto His Majesty acknowledging his Royal favour and Protection to be a great blessing and security unto them for the enjoying of all these publick and private Priviledges and Liberties and whensoever any of them shall be invaded or broken And because the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament are the Birthright and Inheritance not only of themselves but the Kingdom but every one of his Subjects is interessed that is as to his protection only whilst they are his Subjects do honour and obey him are so simpliciter but not secundum quid the maintenance and preservation whereof doth very highly conduce unto the publick peace and prosperity of His Majesty and all His People they conceive themselves more especially obliged with all humbleness and care and constancy of Resolution to endeavour to maintain and defend the same as in an easie to be conceived manner of threatning Amongst other the Priviledges of Parliament they do declare that it is their undoubted Right that His Majesty ought not to take notice of any matter in agitation and debate in either Houses of Parliament but by their Information which would not only contradict but overturn the Reason Constitution Records and Annals of all our Nation And that he ought not to propound any condition provision or limitation in any Bill or Act in debate or preparation in either of both Houses of Parliament or to manifest or declare his consent or dislike of the same before it be presented to His Majesty in the course of Parliament so as they would have their King to be as a Mute until they shall have finished all they would for otherwise one Interval might thwart another how shall such a King be Master of a Judgment or have any or was God to be prayed unto to give his Judgment to the King or unto the People or by what Rule of Right Reason should the King being of full age and sanity of mind not be permitted the right use of the Faculties of his Soul And that the King ought not to conceive displeasure against any man for such Opinions and Propositions as shall be delivered in such debate it belonging to the several Houses of Parliament
respectively which had their Original contradistinct Powers and Customs to judge and determine such Errours and Offences in Words or Actions that shall be committed by any of their Members in the handling or debating any matter depending which was contradicted by Queen Elizabeth when she charged the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament not to intermeddle in matters of Church or State or receive any Bills of that nature and severely punished some Members that attempted to do otherwise Yet they complained in their so strange a claim of those their never to be found Priviledges that they were to their great grievance broken by the Kings endeavouring to put a Salvo Jury to their Bill or Act of Parliament forbiding the pressing of Souldiers at that instant when there was so great an occasion for the Wars in Ireland and went much higher than the great Earls the Constable and Earl Marshal of England and Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester did when in a Parliament of King Edward the first they denyed him his accustomed Salvo Jure where he or his Privy Councel or Councel at Law adjudged it necessary And therefore humbly intreated his Majesty by his Royal Power and Authority whereof it may 〈◊〉 they would leave him as little as possibly they couldâ— to protect them in those and all other their Priviledges of Parliament And for the time to come would not interrupt the same and that they may not suffer in his Majesties favour when he should be so greatly obliged unto his Subjects as to restore again to his knowledge and Judgment after the end of such a Parliament never before known in England or any other Nation of the Christian World such a kind of Priviledge neither being possible to be found or heard of on Earth or amongst the Antipodes or in the discovery which Gonzagua's Geese made of the Countrey of the Moon where the Servants are reported to govern the Masters and the Children their Parents And that his Majesty would be pleased to nominate those that have been his Advisers that they may receive such condign Judgment as may appertain unto Justice And this his most faithful Councel shall advise and desire as that which will not only be a comfort to themselves but of great advantage to his Majesty by procuring such a confidence between him and his People as may be a Foundation of honour safety and happiness to his Person and Throne And probably had never adventured to fly so high a pitch if some of the Lords and Commons in Parliament had not upon the Scotch petitioning Rebellion and entring into England borrowed 150000 l. upon their several personal securities to pay their quarters whilst they were here which Parliament Manacles of their King would have amounted to more than the aforesaid Sir Edward Cokes figment of a modus tenendi Parliamentum used as he beleived in Edward the Confessors time And in the absence of Parliaments might have the Name and Title of King until they should make an occasion to Print a Remonstrance against him or arraign him And as a Prologue to their intended Remonstrance the next day they seeming not a little to congratulate his safe coming from Scotland did beseech him to give more Life and Power to the faithful Councel of his Parliament and being necessitated to make a Declaration of their grievances and the corruption of some of his Bishops especially such as are in a near trust and employment about him and were divers of them of his Privy Councel and about the Prince his Son and have thereby a dangerous operation in his Councel and Government in this time of a preparation for War betwixt his Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland which was then but procured and fomented by confederacy Insurrection of the Papists and Bloody Affairs in Ireland for prevention whereof they have ingaged themselves and their Estates in the sum of 150000 l. Sterling or thereabouts for the necessary supply of his Majesty in his dangerous Affairs therefore they prayed 1. That he would concur with the desires of his Parliament for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament which was the one half of that grand Fundamental of the Laws and Government of England in the House of Peers in Parliament and abridge their immoderate power usurped over the Clergy to the hazard and prejudice of the Laws Liberty and Religion of his Subjects and the taking away oppression in Church Government and Discipline punishing such Loyal Subjects as join together in Fundamental Truths against the Papists and by the oppressions of unnecessary Ceremonies 2. Remove from his Councel all the promoters thereof and to imploy such persons in his great Affairs and trust as his Parliament may conside in which was to govern him both in times of Parliament and without when he hath at his Coronation taken his Oath to govern according to his Laws not any of the Peoples 3 That he would not alienate any of the forfeited Irish Lands which begot good bargains for some of the ungodly contrivers when they after purchased their Rebel perjured Soldiers arrears for xvj d. per pound Which being fulfilled they his most great and faithful Councel upon these conditions â—â—all by the blessing of God as they would have it cheerfully undergo the expence of the War and apply themselves to such other means and Councels as shall support him and make him glorious both at home and abroad In order whereunto the contrary way they did the 15th day of December 1641. notwithstanding his earnest request unto them print and publish it wherein besides some of their own or their instigators unquiet Spirits ambitious or evil designs to misuse and Govern their Soveraign plainly appearing may be seen and the many greivances of their own making in the oppressing of each other and undertaking to determine of matters and Mysteries of State and the Arcana's and necessities of State of which they could not possibly without necessary Praecognita's be competent Judgâ—s they made a great addition to that prologue to their subsequent Rebellion and abominable consequence of the murder of that excellently pious Prince insomuch is it may be over and over again a wonder to be ranked amongst the greatest in what untrodden or dark inaccessible Caverns of the Earth these unknown and never accustomed Priviledges of the Parliaments of England could lurk or lye hidden when in all the Conservatorships of liberties devised at Running Mede forced upon King John the â—ovisions made at Oxford in the Raign of King Henry the 3d. neither any thing in the Raigns of King Edward the 2d 3. 4. and Richard 2d Henry 4 5 6. Richard the 3d the Usurper Henry the 7th King Henry 8. E. 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and and King James had never such shackles desired or claimed to be put upon any of them unto which those Parliament Remonstrants were the more incouraged by that oppressed Princes having his three Kingdoms
set on fire about his Ears at once that of Ireland incited by his condescensions to that of Scotland and that of England as busy as the worst but gaining more by it when the King had to pacify all given them license by an Act of Parliament to continue in Parliament without adjourning proroguing or dissolving until those great Sums of Money should be satisfied and Ireland quieted which they never intended but hindred and perplexed all they could although he offered to go thither in Person himself which they would not consent unto for fear least he should thereby get Arms and Power into his own hands to frustrate their wicked design which that Republican wicked party durst never offer to Oliver Cromwell the Protector of their supposed Liberties with any the least of those monstrous conditions by them called Priviledges but could tamely suffer him to make his own Instrument of Government alter the Course of Parliament with more or less Members of the House of Commons in Parliament pull out and imprison diverse Members of that House and shut up the Doors constitute a new House of his mechanick and ordinary Commanders instead of a House of Lords after the Republican partty had made such an Act of Parliament as they could that none should have benefit of the Laws who did not take an oath of engagement not to have any more a King or House of Lords And to be disappointed as little as they could possibly in those their intentions made all the hast they could to fire their Beacons of personal Plots and dangers against themselves the great Patriots of the Kingdom and Weal publick as they had done before against Popery and therefore incredible Plots and Conspiracies were discovered by one of their Members who had an especial faculty therein and likewise by others as a Plaister taken from the sore of a man infected therewith and brought by an Incognito in a Letter to Mr. John Pym the Lord Digby seen at Kingston upon Thames with four Horses in a Coach in a warlike manner Horses kept and trained under ground and a dangerous design to blow up the River Thames with Gunpowder whereby to drown the Parliament Houses with many the like ridiculous fopperies to affright the easy to be deluded silly Vulgar and engage them in a Rebellion and were in the mean time to be secured themselves by a guard for which they â—eâ—tioned the King who ordered the Justices of Peace to command the Constables of that division to furnish one but that would not accommodate their purposes nothing would help forward their more than ordinary designs than a guard by the Trained Bands of the City of London by turns which being granted by the King suddenly after the Citizens Wives were so afraid of the danger oâ— the Tower of London as they could not lye dry in their Beds and the Lieutenant of the Tower must be displaced and a more confiding one put in to give them content that never intended to be satisfied Which being done the Pulpits of the Prebyterian Scotized Clergy flaming and the Printing Presses Stationers and Cryers in the Streets as busy in the publishing the Harangues of the House of Commons Members in proclaiming the imaginary grievances and he was a small man at Arms that had made and published no more than one or two such Speeches mean while Protestations were ordered to be made in every Parish of England and Wales to defend the King and the Protestant Religion the King going into London in his Coach hath a Paper thrown into it with a writing thereupon To your Tents O Israel the many Rude â—eople of the adjoyning Hamlets came in droves to the Parliament crying No Bishops and for Justice and as they pass by Whitehall Gate and knock at it desire to speak with the King who sends unto the Students of the Inns of â—ourt with some Captains and Commanders to attend him as a supplemary Guard who came and had a Diet and Table provided for them the Bishops do leave the House of Peers with a protestation patterned with one in 11 R. 2. that they could not sit there in safety for which they were all made Prisoners in the Tower of London but were all afterwards released except Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely who remained there sequestred from his Bishoprick for something more than 13 years without knowing for what cause or crime until his late Majesties happy Restauration Mr. Henry Martin a Member of the House of Commons in Parliament more fearing the Anger of his Mistress than his God or King begins in Parliament to declaim against the King saying that he was not fit to Raign or Govern and moved that all the Regal Ornaments customarily lodged in the Abby of Westminster under the custody of the Dean and Chapter thereof might be seised one Mr. Parker made hast to make himself an Observator of the Rebellious way with dislocated Maximes abused and wrested out of their proper meaning and Interpretations viz. Quod efficit tale est magis tale the King is Major singulis but minor universis salus populi est suprema Lex which although Learnedly answered by the more Loyal Orthodox Party to an ample Conviction that should be could not satisfie or stop the designed Confederacy and Rebellion but the ten Judges of the twelve that gave their Opinions in the case of Mr. Hambden against him concerning the Ship-money for the King were by the Parliaments Order put out of their Offices and Places Justice Berkly one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench taken Prisoner as he was sitting by the Usher of the Black Rod attending the House of Peers after which Mr. Denzal Hollis came to the House of Lords and with greater boldness than assurance claimed the Militia and Power of the Sword to appertain of Right to the People and Mr. Pryn writes and Publishes his Book of the Supremaey of Parliaments seconded by Mr. John Whites Book entituled a Politick Chatechism undertaking to prove by our Laws the Resistibility and Forcing the Power of our Kings to be Vested in the People and the Judges were commanded by the Parliament without the King to declare to the People in their Circuits that the Militia is and ought to be in the Parliament as the Representative of the People which was never before done read seen or heard of in England which all the Judges obeyed but my honoured Friend the worthy Sir Thomas Mallet one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench who not forgetting his very Ancient and Noble discent plainly and resolutely at every place in his next Circuit declared it in all his Charges to be in Law de Jure Coronae suae in the King and for his so exemplary Loyalty was in the last place of that Circuit by Sir Richard Onslow Knight a Member of the Commons House in Parliament with a Troop of Horse as he was sitting upon the Bench at Kingston upon