of Dr Watts his Edition of Matthew Paris to have truths â—nâ—y registred to Posterity have not freed us from the Discrepancy amongst our Ancient Writers as unto matters of Fact as well as of opinion and reasons given thereof and even in that plain dealing Monk of St Albans matters of Consequence have been omitted though he was King Henry the 3. his Historiographer which others have recorded and some things recited that others have omitted and it will ever be impossible to reconcile the every where apparent differences amongst Ancient Authors as to things done when non omnia possumus omnes hath been truly said one man may know all and others but some part one thinks it not necessary to record some things and others the Contrary and quot Homines tot sententiae our English Chronicles written by Hollingshead Grafton Fabian Stow and Sr Richard Baker have not been Written with one and the same Pen memory or Intelligence And it is likely that all or most of them have not given us the true relation of the Cause or misfortune of the firing or burning of the Famous High Steeple of St Pauls Cathedrall in London and a great part of an Hundred Years hath passed whilst the People have entertained a belief that the height of that Steeple and Lightning had been the Cause of it untill a Plummers Boy grown up to a very old man did upon his death-bed Confess that it was his own Carelessness that did it by leaving of Fire amongst the Chipps that helped to melt the Lead whereby the Steeple and Church fell on Fire and that untill then he durst not reveal it And our great Selden may suffer the World to believe that in his most excellent book of mare Clausum to prove the Dominion of the Brittish Seas to appertain unto our Kings of England he hath Discovered more then ever was known or Written of before by any Author and of many other his learned Recherches in all the parts of the most Severe and hidden learning through the Western and Eastern Languages opening and Discovering of many of the Rich mines of Knowledge learning which untill his Industrious labours had Blessed the World with the Knowledge thereof had yet probably lain as it were buried and Concealed And certainly were that Summus ille vir great man of Learning now Living he would Ingeniously Confess that that even in his own times our great Physitian the Learned Doctor Harvey hath Discovered and made it to be Confessed and Believed without any Contradiction of the Learned in the Medicinall Art that the blood in the body of a man doth Circulate unto the Heart which Gallen Hypocrates Avicen Averroes or any the Medici Physitians and Anatomists Pancirello and his learned Commentator Salmuthius that Travailed so much in the search of the Occultia nova reperta of the World from the Creation thereof never met withall or were able to Demonstrate as he hath done and Mr Selden must of necessity permit it to be likewise believed that our English Annalists Historians and records will witness that before the Reign of King Edward the 1. and that grand Parliament or congress of him and the aforesaid Christian Kings mentioned by Fleta our Henry the 2. King of England did not only resume and call back to the Revenues of his Crown divers Manors Lands and Hereditaments which his Royall Predecessors had aliened but King Edward the 1. Henry the 4th 6th and Edward the 4th did the like For Choppinus in his book de antiquo Dominio Regum Francia hath given us the Reason and necessity thereof and our Parliament Rolls can evidence that the Commons of England have complained that our Kings have granted away to their Subjects too many of the Liberties belonging to the Crown of England and it was one of the Articles Exhibited against the Rebelliously deposed King Richard the 2. that he had aliened certain Manors and Lands of the Crown And the Actions and Proceedings of King Edward the 1. after his return into England and that aforesaid Congress and Meeting of so many Christian Kings and Princes must of necessity greatly Corroborate and Confirm Fleta's before-mentioned assertion when the great Actions of that Prince after that he came into England may evidence that he was Diligent and Carefull in the performance of what he undertook and understood rationally to be done in his own Kingdoms and Provinces and might well think that many of the aforesaid other Kings and Princes would have done the like if some other evenements or disturbances as the long continued Wars in France and the Aurea Bulla in the Empire of Germany had not lessened or hindred their resolutions So as our excellently learned Mr Selden may give me and others leave to say That when Fleta recited that Dreadfull Procession Imposed and put upon King Henry the 3. to walk through Westminster Hall to the Abby Church of Westminster Cursing and Condemning to Hell the Violaters of Magna Charta and Charta de Forresta and saith it was done in praesentia assensu Regis Henrici Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Abbatum Priotum Comitum-Baronum magnatum Regni Angliae he doth not mention King Johns Charter being read as Mathew Paris and Samuel Daniel have related or of the Record before specified of the Kings speciall saving of his Regalities and it happened well that none of the Predecessors or Progenitors of the House of Commons in the Parliament of 1641. and their Continuators through all that long and fatall Rebellion the most Ingrate and greatest Infringers of Magna Charta and Charta de Forresta and as great over-turners of Reason Laws Religion and Truth and the English Nation and the sense Construction and true meaning of the words heretofore used or misused therein as ever was or hath been in any Nation Countrey or Kingdom or at the Confusion of Languages at the building of the Tower of Babell or amounting to all the Nonsence that hath ever since been spoken by or amongst mankind in an everlasting Spirit of Contradiction to Reason Truth and the Laws of the Land And Fleta a Contemporary Lawyer under that valiant and prudent Prince hath likewise recommended to After Ages that res sacras Coronae fuere liber Homo paâ— Jurisdictio muri portae Civitatis quae nullo dari debeant And that res quidem Coronae sunt antiqua maneria Regis Homagia libertates hujusmodi quae non alienentur tenentur Rex ea revocare secundum provisionem omnium Regum Christianorum apud montem pessulam mompellier in Languedock Anno Regni Regis Edwardi fil Regis Henrici quarto Et si de Escaetis suis perinde debeant ad valenciam nec valebit deforciantibus longi temporis praescriptio diuturnitas enim temporis tantum in hoc Casu magis Injuriam auget quam minuit cum constare debeat singulis quod hujusmodi libertates de Jure naturali vel gentium ad Coronam tantum
and that long after both by the Feudal and common Laws of this Kingdom the Lords Spiritual and Temporal were in Parliament to Assess a proportionable Escuage upon such of their Tenants who held any Capite Lands and did not go with them in Person to serve their King and Country and were not to be their own Assessors but submit unto what they should in those great Councels subordinate to their King 's determine and as they anciently were used to do when Taxes were laid upon Knights Fees when the Common People that were to pay them were not all present or any for them Or never to intend to introduce such a Party of the Common People into a Co-ordination or Fellowship with them in a Subordination to their Soveraign which might as they did afterwards entice them to encroach and believe that a License of Petitioning for Redress of any Grievances which might happen and a Liberty to give an Approbation and Obedience to what should be there ordained by the King by the Advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the publick Good should be in or unto them or their Successors an Authority or original Power to controul what their Kings by the Counsel of their Lords Spiritual and Temporal should there find necessary to Enact when they could not forget that even in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third they did in his Letters Rescripts Writs and Edicts written and sent about the Kingdom in his Name amounting to no fewer than Sixteen mention that his said Orders Acts and Commands were done by the Counsel and Advice Procerum Magnatum suorum and in some of them his Prelates Barons hautes hommes but nothing at all of the Commons And that Rebellious part of the Baronage might the easier be led into that they never meant when they had some reason to think or assure themselves that such an Election of Members or the parts of the common People would much advance the fixing and setling their Designes when they could not but acknowledge that they owed much of their Liberties and happiness under their Kings and Princes unto them and their Ancestors as in particular unto an Earl of Oxford in procuring of the King Three Hundreds in the County of Essex to be diaforrested and might be glad to entail and perpetuate their Assistances Dependencies Hospitalities Priviledges and Favours upon their Posterity and after Generations and rather return a submissive Compliance unto them well accepted than to endeavour to prejudice or in the least to make themselves equal unto them or Mastors of them but would be content to be ruled by them and not endeavour to govern or domineer over them With which doth accord that well founded Opinion and Answer of that excellent Prince and very Martyr King Charles the First our late gracious and pious Soveraign in his Answer to the haughty and undutiful Nineteen Propositions sent unto Him by the rebellious and misled Parliament the Second Day of June One Thousand Six Hundred Forty Two That the House of Commons was never intended for any share in the Government or the Choosing of them that should Govern and were not likely in those early and troublesome times to get any Root or Foundation for such an unwarrantable Pretence And might have believed that the Prelates and Baronage of England had heretofore Power and Influence sufficient to have kept them in a better Order both towards them and their Sovereign SECT II. Of the great Power Authority Command and Influence which the Prelates Barons and Nobility of England had in or about the Forty-Ninth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Monfort and those Writs of Election of some of the Commons to Parliament were first devised and sâ—nt to Summon them And the great Power and Estates which they afterwards had to create and continue an Influence upon them WHen the then Prelates by the Papal great and exorbitant Power over the Bodies and Souls of the People of England as well high as low rich or poor their Power of certifying Illegitimations Bastardy or Ne unques loyalment accouplis en Matrimony with their Fulminations Excommunications Curses Interdictions Confessions Absolutions Pardons and Dispensations Denial of Christian burial Affrights of Purgatory undenyable Commands over the inferiour Clergy and they over the People together with the great Authority which their Episcopal Function and Dignity inseparably conjoynt with their Temporal Baronies had given unto them in the Parliaments of England the greatest and highest Councels and Assembly of the Nation were in the time of King Henry the Third's Imprisonment so much allured and drawn by some of their factious and naughty Incitements to Symon de Montfort's Party by a kind of Ordinance and Agreement before mentioned of the then over-ruling-Power of the rebellious Victors as there was an undertaking to preserve from Plunder and Spoil all the Lands and Estates of the Holy-Church affirm their Authorities and all that they should have reasonable Order for amends should be performed and full Power granted unto them by the King or Generality of the Earls Barons and great Men of the Land to provide things profitable for the bettering the Estate of the Holy-Church to the Honor of God And with their temporal Baronies unto which many Mannors of a great Extent and yearly Value were annext and some other Barons holding of them and had their many Milites for service of War and Multitudes of Tenants by Tenure Lease and Copy-holding of them And the regular and monastick part of the Clergy of England many of whose Abbots and Priors were admitted to sit amongst the Peers in Parliament were so envied for their great Revenues and Estates as the Commons in a Parliament in the Raign of King Henry the Fourth wherein Lawyers were prohibited to be elected Members and therefore stiled indoctum Parliamentum did petition the King to confiscate and take into his own Revenue all their Lands which they had calculated to be sufficient to maintain One Hundred and Fifty Earls no small Estate in those times being enough to satisfy the honourable Yearly expences of one Earl and his numerous Retinue after the rate of their then living One Thousand Five Hundred Knights Six Thousand Two Hundred Esquires and erect Two Hundred Hospitals for the Relief of maimed Souldiers And in that new Frame of a great Council or Parliament wherein a part of the Commons of England were to be Assembled which can find no other Original than the Fate of that unhappy King in the battle of Lewis as the close Roll of the Forty Eight of that King will tell us there were no fewer of the then well-wishing Clergy to Symon de Mortfort Summoned unto that new modelled Parliament than One Arch-Bishop Fourteen Bishops Thirty-Five Abbots Two Priors their good Friends and Confederates and for Companies sake in such an hopeful and popular
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
Mannors in Kent besides a large proportion of Rumney Marsh Sixteen in Essex Fifty-one in Suffolk and Nineteen in Norfolk a Descendant of whom had in 12. Henry the Second holden of him Ten Knights Fees and a Fourth part de veteri feoffamento and was seized of the Mannor of Wellesborne in com Leic which Peter had in 12 Henry the Third the Mannor of Beldesert in Comitat ' Stafford in Anno 35 Henry the Third was Governor of Horeston Castle in Derbyshire in Forty-One Warden of the Marches of Wales towards Montgomery and also of the Castles of Salop and Bruges was Sheriff of the Counties of Salop and Stafford and so likewise for the next ensuing Year had the Custody of the Castles of Bruges and Ellesmere in Anno 47. Henry the Third was Governor of the Castles of Corff and Shirburne and of the Castle and Mannor of Seggewick and was in Anno 49. Eiusdem Regis made by that King 's Imprisoned Seal Governor of Whittenton Castle in Shropshire Gilbert de Segrave the Son of Hereward held the Mannor of Segrave in Com' Leic ' with the Fourth part of a Knight's Fee had a Grant of the King of the Lands of Stephen de Gaunt in the Counties of Lincolne and Leicester in the 5th of Henry the Third was Sheriff of the Counties of Essex and Hartford and the Two next ensuing Years in the 6th of Lincolnshire for Three parts of the Year and to the 8th in 11th Henry the Third Sheriff of Buckingham and Bedfordshire and continued until the 18th in the 10th of Henry the Third was a Justice itinerant for Nottingham and Derby-shires purchased Mount Sorrel in the County of Leicester in the 16th Henry the Third had the Custody of the Castle of Northampton and of the Counties of Buckingham Bedford Warwick and Leicester for the term of his Life taking the whole Profits of all those Counties for his Support in that Service excepting the ancient Farms which had been usually paid in the Exchequer with the Encrease which in King Henry the Seconds time had been answered for them was Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas in 2d Henry the Third when upon the removal of Hubert de Burgh he was made Cheif Justice of England and had likewise the Mannor of Almonsbury in com' Huntington Hugh Despencer was in the Eighth Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third constituted Sheriff of the Counties of Salop and Stafford Governor of the Castles of Salop and Bridgenorth in the 10th of Henry the Third Sheriff of Berkshire and Governor of Wallingford Castle and in the 17th of Bolsoner Castle in com' Derby in 44th was by the rebellious Barons made Chief Justice of England after the Battle of Lewes Governour of Oxford Castle in Suffolk the Devises in Wiltshire Oxford and Nottingham Castle Bernard in the Bishoprick of Durham and one of the Twenty-Four Conservators for managing the Affairs of the Realm was seized of the Mannor of Ryhal in com' Rotel ' Leghere and Wykes in com' Essex Bernewell in com' Northampton Wycomb in com' Buck ' Soham in com' Cant ' Berewick Winterborne Basset in com' Wilts Speke in com' Berk whose Grand-child Hugh le Despencer in the Raign of King Edward the Second was possessed of no less than Fifty-Nine Lordships in several Counties Twenty-Eight-Thousand Sheep One Thousand Oxen and Steers Twelve Hundred Kine with their Calves Sixty Mares with their Colts Two Years old One Hundred Sixty draught Horses Two Thousand Hogs Three Hundred Bullocks Sixty Tuns of Wine Six Hundred Bacons Eighty Carkases of Martilmas Beef Six Hundred Muttons in the Larder Ten Tuns of Cider with Armes Plate Jewels and ready Money to the value of Ten Thousand Pounds Thirty-Six Sacks of Wool besides a Library of Books Humfrey de Bohun whose Descendant joyned with the Barons against King Henry the Third had in Anno 12. Henry the Second Thirty and a half Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento and Nine and a half de novo was Earl of Hereford and Constable of England by descent from his Mother his Son Henry de Bohun answered Fifty Marks and a Palfreâ— to the King for Twenty Knights Fees belonging to the Honor of Huntington had the Earldom of Essex and a very great Estate of Lands belonging thereunto descended unto him by Maud Countess of Essex his Mother together with a great Estate of Lands which came unto her from Isabel third Daughter and Co-heir of William Earl of Gloucester had likewise Lands in Haresfeild in com' Glouc ' holden by the service of Constable of England the Mannors of Shudham and Wâ—tnorst Kineton in com' Hunt ' and Walden in com' Essex Vescy one of the Barons against King Henry the third was at the time of the Norman Conquest seized of one Mannor in com' Northtamp ' two in Warwickshire seven in the County of Lincoln nine in Leic ' the Castles and Baronies of Alnewick in com' Northumberland and Multon in com' Eboru ' had besides vast Possessions bestowed on him by King Henry the first the Mills of Warner Bodele and Spilsham with eleven Mannors divers Lands and Tenements in the City of York and whatsoever he held of David King of Scotland and Henry his Son the Arch-Bishop of York Bishop of Duresme of the Earl of Richmond Geffry Estcland and Richard fitz Paine Roger de Moubray William Fossard William Paganell the Earl of Albemarle Roger de Clare Gilbert de Gant Roger de Beauchampe Henry de Campaine Ralph the Son of Bogan the Earl of Chester Abbess of Berking William de Sailley and of all the Fee of Thurstane the Son of Robert de Mansfeild had likewise the Mannors of Ellerton and Cansfeild and was Governour of the Castle of Bamburgh in com' Northum ' seized of the Mannors of Brentune Propertime Pecheston and Sornneston Burgh and Knaresburgh in the County of York Barony of Halton and Constabulary of Chester a Descendant whereof had in the Raign of King Henry the Second twenty Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento and many de novo that held of him had in 32d Henry the third in the Right of Agnes his Wife one of the Daughters of William de Ferrers Earl of Derby partition of the Lands in Ireland which did belong to William Marshal Earl of Pembroke Whose Ancestor had in the 2d Henry the Second Lands of a great Yearly value in Westcombe Marleburgh and Criâ—l in com' Wilts ' given unto him by the King with the Office of Earl Marshal and all other Lands holden of him in England or else-where had a Grant of the Mannor of Boseham in com' Suff ' with the Lastage and Hundred the Lordships of Westive and Bodewin with the Hundred of Bodewin all the Lands which the Earl of Eureux held in England except the Mannor of Marlow all the Lands of Hugh de Gournay lying in the Counties of Norfolk and Suff ' Kaule and Castre and all the Lands of Hugh
de Ayer in com' Norf ' the Office of Marshal of Ireland in Fee with the Cantred within which the Town of Kildman was Scituate was Warden of the Marches of Wales Sheriff of Lincolnshire and Governour of the Castles of Oswastre and Shrawardine had the Mannor of Hengham in com' Norf ' with the Advowsons of the Church thereof in Anno 16th of King John executed the Office of Sheriff of Lincolnshire for three parts of that Year and likewise in the 17th in which he was associated with John fitz Robert of the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk as also in the Custody of the Castles of Norwich Oxford and Dorchester was Sheriff of Warwickshire and Governour of the Castle of Worcester in the time of the Barons Wars in the first Year of the Raign of King Henry the third made Sheriff of Hantshire and Governour of the Castle of Devizes in com' Wilts ' had a Grant of all the Lands of William de St. John who in the 49th Year of Henry the third took part with the rebellious Barons William de Percy descended from Manfred a Dane coming out of Denmark with the fierce and famous Rollo into Normandy and thence with William the Conqueror into England and much beloved by him had granted unto him by him vast Possessions in the Realm as appeareth by the General Survey in Dooms-day Book viz. Ambledune in Hanshire divers Lordships in Lincolnshire and in Yorkshire eighty-six whereof Topoline in the North Riding was one and Spofford in the West Riding another Camois a Baron against King Henry the Third was in Anno 26th of his Raign for that half Year Sheriff of the Counties of Surrey and Sussex and from that time until the one half Year of the 30th of his Raign seized of the Mannor of Wodeton in the County of Surrey Ditton in com' Cantabr ' Burwel in com' Oxon ' Torpel in com' Northamp ' and of divers Knights Fees in other Counties D'Eynill was in 41. and 44. Henry the third Justice or Warden of all the Forrests beyond Trent in Anno 47. Governour of the Castle of York and in 48. of the Castle of Scarborough from Michaelmas 48. was Sheriff of Yorkshire until the Battle of Evesham where he was against the King Monchensey was one of the rebellious Barons at the Battle of Lewes had great Possessions in the Counties of Essex Norfolk Glou ' Kent and Northampton The Lord Lovetot one of the rebellious Barons was in the last half Year of 39th Henry the third Sheriff of the Counties of Nottingham and Derby and Governour of Bolsaver Castle Henry Hastings sideing with the Barons was in the 48. Year of the Raign of Henry the third made Governour of the Castle of Scarborough in com' Eborum and of the Castle of Winchester Bobert de Roos had great Possessions amongst others the Castle and Barony of Helmesley or Hamlake in Yorkshire the Castle and Barony of Warke in Northumberland and the Barony of Trusbut being of the part of the rebellious Barons was for some time Governour of Hereford Castle when Prince Edward was there detained Prisoner in 42. Henry the third answered for four Knights Fees and an half and an eighth part in Lincolnshire fifty-two Thirds a twelfth and a twentieth in Yorkshire ten for his Barony of Trusbut four and a fourth and third part of Warter Adam de Novo Mercato descended from Bernard de Newmarch one of the followers of William the Conqueror subdued to himself three Cantreds being the most part if not the whole of the Country of Brecknock in Wales had in 8th Henry the third the Barony of Bayeux and in the 47th and 48th divers Lands in the County of Lincolne and the Mannor of Wilmaresly Campshall Thorne Bentley and Archley in com' Ebor ' Colvile was seized in the Raign of King Henry the third against whom he took Arms of the Castle of Bitham in the County of Lincolne and of his Purparty of fifteen Knights Fees in the said County Roger Bertram had the Castle and Barony of Mitford with thirty-three Mannors belonging unto it in the County of Northumberland and was in rebellion against King Henry the third Robert de Nevil a great Baron and Lord of Raby in the Bishoprick of Durham was Sheriff of Norfolke in 2d Henry the second Captain General of the King's Forces beyond Trent in 47. Henry the third Sheriff of the County of York Governour of the Castle thereof and of the strong Castle of the Devises in the County of Wilts and in 48th Henry the third Warden of all the Forrests beyond Trent and Governour of the Castle of York was against the King at the Battle of Lewes Fitz Alan of Clun from whom the Earles of Arundel descended enjoyed a great Estate and was against the King at the Battle of Lewes Robert de Vipont one of the rebellious Barons of King Henry the third had by the Grant of King John the Castles of Appleby and Burgh in the County of Cumberland together with the Baylewick or Shrievalty of the County of Westmorland to him and the Heirs of his then Wife unto which Barony belonged the said Mannors of Appleby and Burgh under Stanemore Flaxbridge-Park Forrests and Chases of Winefell and Mallerstang Brougham Castle with fifty-seven Mannors more in the County of Cumberland and Westmoreland in the first second and sixth Year of the Raign of King Henry the third was Sheriff of Cumberland and Governour of Caerlisle in the tenth one of the Justices itinerant in the County of York and in the eleventh one of the Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas Henry de Neuburgh in Normandy a younger Son of Roger de Bellomont Earl of Mellent had the Castle and Borough of Warwick bestowed upon him by William the Conqueror with the large Possessions of Turketill de VVarwick who had the Reputation of Earl of VVarwick although he was but in the nature of a Lieutenant to the Earl of Mercia had Wedgenock Park with the Castle of Warwick Mannors of Tamworth Claverdon and Manton Mauduit in com' Warr ' the Mannors of Gretham and Cotes-more in com' Rotel ' with some Lands in the County of Worcester the Mannor of Chadworth in com' Glou ' in 12. or 13. Regis Johannis Henry Earl of Warwick certified one hundred and two Knights Fees with a third part of a Knights Fee and had by the Gift of that King the Seigneury of Gowerland in Wales which an Ancestor of his is long before said to have Conquered was Owner of the Castle Mannor and Priory of Kenilworth in com' Warwick gave to Geoffry de Clinton the Sherivalty of the County of Warwick to him and his Heirs to be holden of him and his Heirs and in Anno 25. Henry the third Earl Thomas gave a Fine of a hundred and eighty Marks to the King over and above his Scutage that he might be discharged from his Attendance upon him in his
Expedition into Gascoigne and that he might levy the like upon his Tenants gave One Hundred Twenty Pounds more And of no less Power and Authority with and over the Common People were the rest of our English Nobility which took up Armes with the King or stood Neutrals or at a Gaze until they saw what would become of him witness that of the Earl of Chester who executed the Office of Sheriff by his Deputies for the Counties of Salop and Stafford in the 2d 3d 4th 5th 7th and part of the 8th of Henry the third for the County of Lancaster in the 3d. 4th 5th 6th and the latter end of the 16th was seized of the whole County and Lands of Chester with Royal Jurisdiction Tenenda per Gladiune it à liberè sicut Rex ipse tenebat Angliam per Coronam at the time of the general Survey of the Conqueror was Count Palatine thereof had nine Mannors in Barkshire in Devonshire two in Yorkshire seven in Wiltsshire six in Dorsetshire ten in Somersetshire four in Suffolk thirty-two in Norfolk twelve in Hantshire one in Oxfordshire five in Buckinghamshire three in Gloucestershire four in Huntingtonshire two in Nottinghamshire four in Warwickshire one in Leicestershire twenty-two fifteen great Men of Estate in Cheshire his Barons holding Lands of him and his Heirs as Willielmus Malbane Gislebertus de Venables Rad Venator c. and was seized of that Mountainous part of Yorkshire and Westmoreland called Stanemore Unto one of whose Descendants or Family King Stephen gave the City and Castle of Lincolne with License to Fortify the Town thereof and to enjoy it until he rendred unto him the Castle of Tickhil in Yorkshire granted likewise unto him the Castle of Belvoir with all the Lands thereunto belonging all the Lands of William de Albini Grantham with all its Soke thereunto belonging Newcastle in Staffordshire with the Soke of Roely in com' Leic ' Corkeley in Lincolnshire the Town of Derby with the appurtenances Mansfield in com' Nott ' Stonely in Warwickshire with their appurtenances the Wapentake of Oswardbeck in com' Nott ' and all the Lands of Roger de Busty with the Honour of Blythe and all the Lands of Roger de Poictou from Northamptom to Scotland excepting that which belonged to Roger de Montbegon in Lincolnshire all the Lands betwixt the Rivers of Ribble and Merse in Lancashire the Lands which he had in Demesne in the Mannor of Grimsby in com' Lincolne and all the Lands which the Earl of Gloucester had in Demesne in that Mannor the Honour of Eye Nottingham Barony and Castle Stafford and the whole County of Stafford except the Fees of the Bishop of Chester Earl Robert Ferrers Hugh de Mortimer Gervase Paganel and the Forrest of Canoc the Fees of Alan de Lincolne Ernise de Burun Hugh de Scoteny Robert de Chalz Rafe Fitz Oates Norman de Verdun and Robert de Staford Odo Bishop of Baieux William the Conquerors half Brother had one hundred eighty-four Mannors given him in Kent thirty-nine in Essex thirty-two in Oxfordshire in Hartfordshire thirty-three in Buckingham thirty in Worcestershire two in Bedfordshire eight Northamptonshire twelve in Nottinghamshire five in Norfolk twenty-two in Warwickshire six in Lincolnshire seventy-six amounting in the whole to Five Hundred Forty-Nine whereof two hundred eighty he gave saith Mr. Selden to his Nephew de Molbraio Earl John afterwards King of England had in the Life time of King Richard the First his Brother the Earldomes of Cornwall Dorset Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with the then large Possessions thereof and had in Marriage with Isabel Daughter and Heir to the Earl of Gloucester that Earldom together with the Castles of Marleburgh Ludgersel Honours of Wallingford Tickhil and Eye John Earl of Surrey and Sussex had in Yorkshire the great Lordship of Connigsburgh in the Soke whereof were near twenty-eight Towns and Hamlets Westtune in Shropshire in Essex twenty-one Lordships in Suffolk eighteen in Oxfordshire Maple Durham and Gaddington in Hantshire Frehinton in Cambridgeshire seven in Buckinghamshire Brotone and Cauretelle in Huntingtonshire Chevevaltone with three other Lordships in Bedfordshire four and in Norfolk one hundred thirty-nine and the Castle of Rigate in Surrey Yale and Bromfeild with their large Extents in Shropshire and was at the Battle of Lewes on the King's part Ralph de Mortimer had given him by the Conqueror in Berkshire five Mannors in Yorkshire eighteen besides divers Hamlets in Wiltshire ten in Hantshire thirteen in Oxfordshire one in Worcestershire four in Warwickshire one in Lincolnshire seven in Leicestershire one in Shropshire fifty in Herefordshire nineteen besides the Castle of Wigmore And Roger de Mortimer Earl of March a Descendant of the same House and Family was in the Raigns of King Edward the First and Second besides their former large Estates in Lands seized of the Town of Droitwick and Chace of Malverne in com' Wigorn ' the Chase of Cors in com' Glou ' the Castle of Trym in Ireland with its large Territory and Appurtenance and in VVales the Castles of Kentlies Dominion of Melenith and Comott of Duder Castle of Radnor with the Territory of VVarthre and Mannors of Prestmede or Presteigne and Kineton Castles of Ruecklas and Pulith Castles and Lordships of Bledleveny and Bulkedinas Castle and Mannor of Nerberth Comots of Amgeid and Pennewick Castles and Dominions of Montgomery and Bulkedinas Mannor and Hundred of Cherbury Castle of Dolvaren and Territory of Redevaugh Town and Territory of Ewyas Castles of Kery and Rodewin Castle of Dynebegh Castle and Cantred of Buelch Comots of Ros Rowenock Konuegh and Diomam and in Somersetshire the Castle of Brugwater with three Mannors Bayliwick of the Forrests of North Pederton Exmore Noreech Chich Mendip and Warren of Somerton three Mannors in Kent one in com' Buck ' and one in Staffordshire and kept in his House a constant Table in imitation of King Arthurs Round Table for one hundred Knights King Henry the Third after the Battle of Evesham gave unto his Son Edmond to hold to him and the Heirs of his Body the Earldom Honour and Lands of Leicester and Stewardship of England the Earldom Honour and Lands with the Castles Mannors and Lands of Robert de Ferrers Earl of Derby and Nicholas de Segrave the Custody of the Castles of Caermarden and Cardigan and Isie of Lundy the Castle of Sherborne in com' Dors ' the Castle of Kenilworth in com' VVarwick with all the Lands thereunto belonging the Honour Earldom Castle and Town of Lancaster and was Count Palatine thereof with their Appurtenances together with the Castle of Tutbury with its great Appurtenances in the County of Stafford the Honour and Castle of Monmouth the Honour Town and Castle of Leicester with all the Lands and Knights Fees which Symon de Montfort had Whose Son and Heir Thomas Earl of Lancaster having as an addition to the great Estates in Lands remaining unto him after his Father divers
other Mannors Lands and vast Possessions in the Right of Alice Daughter and Heir of Lacy Earl of Lincolne appertaining to that Earldom gave costly Liveries of Furrs and Purple to Barons Knights and Esquires attending in his House or place of Residence and paid in the 7th Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Six Hundred Twenty-Three Pounds Sixteen Shillings Six Pence when a little Money went as far as a great deal now to divers Earls Barons Knights and Esquires for Fees and being in great Discord with King Edward the Second his Nephew concerning Gaveston the two Despencers Father and Son his Favourites and some Grievances of the Nation complained of and the Pope having sent two Cardinals into England to endeavour a Pacification betwixt them they with the King Queen Arch-Bishop of Canterbury all the Bishops Cum Comitibus Baronibus Magnatibus Regni went to Leicester to have an Enterview and Treaty with the said Thomas Earl of Lancaster whither the King being come saith the Historian Occurrit ei Thomas Comes Lancaster die ei ex hac parte praefixo apud Sotisbrig stipatus pulcherrimâ multitudine hominum cum equis quod non occurrit quempiam retroactis temporibus vidisse aliquem Comitem duxisse tà m pulchram multitudinem hominum cum equis sic benè arraitorum scilicet 18. mille cùmque Rex Comes obviarent sine magna difficultate osculati sunt facti sunt chari Amici quòad intuitum circùm astantium In Anno 46. Henry the Third the King granted to John Earl of Richmond the Honor and Rape of Hastings in com' Sussex and in Anno 29. the Honor of Eagle and Castle of Pevensey in com' Sussex to whose Ancestors William the Conqueror had before granted all the Northern part of the County of York called Richmond being formerly the Possessions of Earl Edwyn a Saxon. Percy a great Baron in Northumberland and the Northern parts had thirty-two Lordships in Lincolneshire in Yorkshire eighty-six besides Advowsons Knights Fees free Warrens c. and was on the King's part at the Battle of Lewes Richard Earl of Cornewall had in the 11th of Henry the Third a Grant of the whole County of Rutland in Anno 15. of the Castle and Honor of Wallingford with the Appurtenances and the Mannor of Watlington all the Lands in England which Queen Isabell the King's Mother held in Dower the whole County of Cornewall with the Stanneries and Mines the Castle and Honor of Knaresburgh in the County of York the Castle of Lidford and Forrest of Dertmore the Castle of Barkhamsteed with the Appurtenances in the County of Hartford with many Knights Fees Advowsons free Warrens Liberties c. In the Raign of Henry the Third William de Valence afterwards Earl of Pembroke was seized of the Castle of Hartford with the Appurtenances of the Mannors of Morton and Wardon in com' Glouc ' Cherdisle and Policote in com' Buck ' Compton in com' Dors ' Sapworth Colingborow Swindon Jutebeach and Boxford in com' Wilts ' Sutton and Braborne in com' Kanc ' and of divers Mannors and Lands in the Counties of Surrey and Sussex Robert de Todeney Father of William de Albini built the Castle of Belvoir and had seventy-nine Mannors with large Immunities and Priviledges thereunto belonging Beauchamp of Elmeley of whom the Earls of Warwick of that Name were descended had by the Grant of King Henry the First bestowed upon him all the Lands of Roger de Wircester with many Priviledges to those Lands belonging and likewise the Shrievalty of Worcestershire to hold as freely as any of his Ancestors had done had the Castle of Worcester by Inheritance from Emelin de Ubtot the Mannors of Beckford Weston and Luffenham in com' Rutland executed the Shrievalty of Warwickshire in 2d Henry the Second so also in Gloucestershire from the 3d. to the 9th Inclusive for Herefordshire from the 8th to the 16th certified his Knights Fees to be in number Fifteen had by Marriage and his Inheritance the Honor and Castle of Warwick with Wedgenock Park and all those vast Possessions of the Earldom of Warwick enjoyed by Earl Walleran or Mauduit Baron of Hanslap his Heir Bolebeck of the County of Buckingham at the time of William the Conqueror's Survey was seized of Ricote in com' Oxon ' Waltine in com' Hunt ' and of Missedene Elmodesham Cesteham Medeinham Broch Cetedone Wedon Culoreton Linford Herulfmede and Wavendon in com' Buck ' and in 11th Henry the Third one of that Family certified his Knights Fees holden of the King to be eight of the Earl of Buckingham twenty Another of the same Name and Family in the County of Northumberland was enfeoffed of divers Lordships by King Henry the First one of whose Descendants in 12. Henry the Second certified his Knights Fees de veteri feoffamento to be four and a half and three and two Thirds de novo and left Issue by Margaret his Wife one of the Sisters and Coheirs of Richard de Montfichet a great Baron of Essex Hugh de Bolebeck who in 4. Henry the Third was Sheriff of Northumberland and possessed of twenty-seven Mannors in that County with the Grange of Newton and the Moyety of Bywell The Lord Clifford and his Descendants was then and not long after seized of the Borough of Hartlepole in the Bishoprick of Durham three Mannors in Oxfordshire three in Wiltshire Frampton and part of Lece in com' Glouc ' seven in com' Heref ' Corfham Culminton and three other Mannors in com' Salop ' the Castle of Clifford in com' Heref ' Mannor of Temedsbury or Tenbury and five other Mannors in com' VVigorn ' Castle and Mannor of Skipton in Craven Forrest of Berden the Chase of Holesdon the Towns of Sylesdon and Skieldon with the Hamlets of Swarthowe and Bromiac third part of the Mannor and Priory of Bolton in com' Eborum ' Mannors of Elwick Stranton and Brorton in com' Northum ' Castles and Mannor of Apleby Burgh Pendragon and Bureham the Wood of Quintel twenty-four Mannors and the Moiety of the Mannor of Maltby in the County of Cumberland the Mannor of Duston and eighteen other Mannors in the County of VVestmoreland together with the Shrievalty of that County to him and his Heirs descended unto him from the Baron of Vipont VVilliam de Peverell an illegitimate Son of VVilliam the Conqueror had in the 2d Year of his Raign when all places of Trust and Strength were committed to the King 's chiefest Friends and Allies the Castle of Nottingham then newly Built given unto him and with it or soon after divers Lands in several Counties of a large Extent for by the general Survey it appears that he had then forty four Lordships in Northamptonshire two in Essex two in Oxfordshire in Bedfordshire two in Buckinghamshire nine in Nottinghamshire fifty-five with forty-eight Trades-Mens Houses in Nottingham at Thirty-Six Shillings Rent per Annum seven Knights Houses and Bordars of
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
ad loquendum or as King Henry the 3d. in the 36th Year of his Reign did call the Londoners to Westminster about taking upon them the Cross and attending him in those Wars representing in that particular only their own Estates or Qualities When in a Parliament holden by the Queen and her Councell in his absence in France in the 38th year of his Reign though Mathew Paris and Mr Daniel have given us no intimation of a Parliament then holden wherein do not appear to have been any Commons or House of Commons the Lords gave an aid by themselves the Clergy doing the like as is evidenced by the 2 following Records in these words viz. Rex dilecto fideli suo Willielmo de Oddinggeseles salutem Cum Venerabilis pater B. Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus Episcopi provinc Cant. R. Com. Cornub. frater noster R. Com. Glouc. alii Com. Barones in quindena sci Hillarii jam praetoriti apud London coram dilecta Regina nostra Consilio nostro Commorante in Anglia constituti nobis promiserunt liberaliter benigni facere auxilium decens perutile viz. quidam prelati in propriis personis quidam in pecunia Comites vero Barones in propriis personis suis potenter contra Regem Castelliae qui terram nostram Vasconiae in manu forti in quindena Pasche proxime futur hostiliter est ingressurus vos ex toto corde requirimus quod sicut supradicti Commites Barones nobis promiserunt quod erunt London A die Paschae prox futur in tres septimanas parati bene muniti sine ulla dilatione versus Vasconiam ad nos personaliter movere vos ad dictas diem et locum modo consimili veniatis omni occasione dilatione postpositis ad tendendum versus portesmum cum praefatis Magnatibus ad transfretandi cum eisdem ad nos in Vasconiam et hoc in fide qua nobis tenemini vobis firmiter injungimus sicut honorem nostrum indempnitatem corporis nostri diligitis T. per Reginam 5. die Febr. Et mand est per Henr. 3 Regem in An. 38. regni sui Archiepiscopis et Episcopis totius Angliae quatenus cum festinatione omni convocent omnes Abbates et Priores suae Diocesis cujuscunque sint ordinis inducentes modis omnibus quod nobis in praesenti necessitate subveniant manu lar 〈…〉 lua ne per defectum ipsorum vel aliorum corporis incurramus periculum et terrae nostrae jacturam quod absit quia id verteretur in vestrum ipsorum opprobium sempiternum sic igitur vestra vigilet discretio circa praedictum auxilium tam a vobis deferendum quam a subditis vestris per quirendum quod futuris temporibus vobis ipsis simus non immerito obligati Proviso quod praefatum auxilium habeamus apud Westmonasterium in quindenam Pasche proxime futuram sine defectu hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum nec non indempnitatem corporis nostri diligitis non omitatis Dirigitur etiam litera ista Archiepiscopo Cantuar cum hac clausula quod ordinariam jurisdictionem exercetis vacante sede in Episcopatu Linc. vos requirimus affectuose quatenus officiariis vestris et Archiediacono ejusdem Episcopatus scribatis attente quod tempestive convocent omnes Abbates Priores ejusdem Episcopatus cujuscunque sine ordinis ad certos dies locum abducentes eos nudis omnibus quod in hoc necessitate vestrae concilium nobis faciant subventionem And the failing to perform Military services was afterwards by the Statutes of 6. E. 1. ca. 4. 13. E. 1. ca. 21. made so Penall and fixed upon them as after a Cessavit per Biennium in the performing of their service the King or Chief Lord might by writs ordained to be granted out of the Chancery demand and prosecute to recover the same and such Tenants after Judgments had against them were to be for ever barred to demand or enjoy the same and where either the King demands Escuage of his Tenants or the mean Lords demands Escuage of their Tenants it was to be assessed in Parliament and Proved or disproved by Certificate of the Marshall of the Kings Host who is enabled thereunto by his Roll kept for that purpose When in Parliament the members of the house of Commons either holding Lands in Capite or of mesne Lords by Knights Service were not upon denying to grant Subsidies or Aydes to the King to forfeit or lose their lands according to the aforesaid Acts of Parliament or otherwise And such kind of Courts for lands holden in Capite or by Knights service should not by the most ordinary and mean Capacities be understood to be one and the same with the great Court or Councell of Parliament which many times by the Power and Authority of the King in that his Highest Court corrects and rectifies the defaults of the other Our high Courts of Parliament having the Judges of the Land subordinate to their Prince whether they have lands holden in Capite or no land summoned by his writs to give their Councell and advice as to matters of Law and the ancient customs of the Kingdom wherein the King is attended with his great Ministers or Officers of State as the Lord Chancellor Treasurer Privy Seal great Chamberlain of England Lord Steward and Chamberlain of his houshold and Lord Admirall whether of the degree of Barronage or holding of him in Capite or not with other great solemn formalities becoming the honour and State thereof with which that most honourable assembly is accompanied greatly different from those lesser Courts or Councell of summoning and calling together those that were only proper or obliged to actions of war or to know how their services were performed when our Parliaments being summoned to treat and advise of matters concerning peace and the defence of the Church and de quibusdam arduis only and have sometimes no matters of war consulted thereon Those military Councells anciently summoned for service in war and defence being in a very different form from Parliamentary Councells as for further satisfaction may be manifested by the writs aforesaid And was no more then what every Earl and Baron had in their Courts and Jurisdidictions when they summoned the Tenants holding of them by Knights service to their Courts of honour or their honorary Possessions which were in our records frequently stiled as the honors of Eagle Eye Leicester Hedingham Penerel Arundel c. to which purpose they had their Escheators Feodares and Stewards to preside or officiate therein subordinate unto them when they called their Tenants together either to ayd ride or go along with them in the wars and service of their Prince and Country or to pay them their reliefs or ayds pairfile marier which the Law Interpreteth to be only the elder or to make the eldest Son a Knight or to do their
homages or pay for the respite of them and to give the Lord to understand what alienations had been made of the lands holden of him whereby to Entitle him and those that did hold of him to the benefit of the Statute of Quia Emptores terrarum And altogether dissimular to that of the Parliament first begun with those few of the Commons which adventured to come unto it in Anno. 49. H. 3. when he was a Prisoner in the custody of Montfert Earl of Leicester a powerful rebell discontinued and interrupted as rebellious designs ought to be after his release untill King Edw. the 1. found it convenient to make use of that kind of writ of Summons to ballance the then swelling power of some of his over-Unweildy Baronage For in the former or those great Councells or Parliaments that were before the 49th Year of the Reign of King H. 3d. the Lords Spiritual and Temporall took upon them the care charge of the Commons as included in themselves as their Subjects they being by that then first kind of Writ only Elected to consent yield Obedience to such things as the Lords not themselves should ordain for had it been as it never was otherwise it would have been altogether ungatory and ridicule to allow a power to the Commons to ordain when they were impowred only to assent unto and obey and cannot at all be understood to obey and be subservient to that which themselves had Decreed the Lords Spirituall and Temporall untill the King had given unto what was advised by them his Royall sanction and assent being not at all obliged to any Obedience thereunto And untill the statute de Tallagio non concedendo without the Assent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in Parliament Assembled was by King E. 1. assented unto had nothing to do in the granting of ayds and subsidies in Parliament Concurrently with the Lords Spirituall and Temporall in the aforesaid Writ of 18. H. 3. is said to be for to supply their own necessities as well as the Kings But in the Military Courts which were as aforesaid Summoned by King John or any other of our Kings before 49. H. 3. the Knights or those that held in Capite or Knights-Service that should fail to do their Services was to forfeit their Lands so holden and be in the Kings Mercy or pay Escuage which though it were to be assessed by Parliament was not then Understood to be a Parliament Composed of an House of Commons but a Parliament after the Ancient way consisting only of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall the Kings Great Officers of State Judges and Councell Which our Kings and their Councell both generall and speciall were not ignorant of either as to its right use or necessity for publique good or preservation When King John being rightly informed and in fear enough of an Invasion intended by the King of France his profest and known enemy et de omnibus quae in transmarinis partibus agebatur edoctus did not only inbreviare omnes naves universis portubus totius Angliae per brevia sua sed alias literas universis Vicecomitibus regni sui misit et direxit sub hac forma Johannes Dei gratia Rex Angliae c. Summone per bonos Summonitores omnes Barones Milites omnes liberos homines servientes vel quicunque sint vel de quocunque teneant qui arma habere debent vel arma habere possint qui homagium nobis vel ligeantiam fecerunt quod sicut nos seipsos omnia sua diligunt sint apud Doveram ad Instans clausum Paschae bene parati cum equis armis cum toto posse suo ad defendendum caput nostrum capita sua terram Angliae quod nullus remaneat qui arma portare possit sub nomine Culvertagii perpetuae servitatis when both in England and France nihil magis quam opprobrium significavit Et unusquisque sequatur dominum suum qui terram non habent arma habere possint illuc veniant ad capiendum solidatas nostras tu omnem attractum victualium omnia mercata ballivarum tuarum venire facias ut sequantur Exercitum nostrum Ita quod nullum mercatum de ballivis tuis alibi teneatur tuipse tunc sis ibi cum predictis Summonitoribus scias quod scire volumus quomodo venerint de ballivis tuis qui venerint qui non videas quod tu Ita efforciate venias cu 〈…〉 equis armis haec Ita exequatis ut inde ad corpus tuum nos capere debeamus tu inde habeas rotulum tuum ad nos certificandum qui remanserunt Whereupon saith that Historian his ergo literis per Angliam divulgatis convenerunt ad maritima in locis diversis homines diversae conditionis et aetatis sed cum per dies pauces tantae multitudini victus defuisset remiserunt ad propria principes militiae ex inormi vulgo copiosam Multitudinem milites solummodo servientes liberos homines cum Balistariis sagittariis juxta maritima retinentes omnibus igitur congregati ad pugnam aestimati sunt in exercitu apud Barham dâ—nam inter milites electos servientes strenuos bene armatos sexaginta millium virorum fortium quibus si er ga Regem Angliae defensionem patriae cor fuisset anima una non fuisset princeps sub coelo contra quem regnum Angliae se non defenderet And it was no mervail to the people of England who then had not learned to be affraid or make Bug-bears of publique good or kick and winch at every thing that tended that way when King Edward the first in the 24th Year of his Reign Citari fecit omnes qui sibi servitium debebant caeterosque omnes qui viginti libratas terrae amplias tenebant ut parati essent Londoniis in festo sancti Petri ad vincula cum equis armis transfretaturi cum eo Regis stipendiis militaturi And do very much differ from a Writ to Summon the Lords Spirituall and Temporall to Parliament as ad colloquium or consulendum does from coming parati cum equis armis which the Ancient cares and usage of Parliaments since that over-powerfull and unhappy designs of some unruly Barons coming in Arms to the Parliament at Oxford in the 42. Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. and the sad consequences thereof taught our Kings to take heed of it ever after by prohibiting the coming to Parliaments with Arms and differs no less from the purpose tenour or purport of the Writs or Commissions to elect Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses which had their first Originall and Commencement to come to our Parliaments in Anno. 49. of King Henry the 3. when that King was a Prisoner to an Army of Rebells was not
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
by Torch-light into Pisa or Florence and so ever after lived peaceably and quietly in the neighbourhood of the Feudall Laws So as the One became Assistant unto the Other cohabited and would never after depart from each other and even the Late Commonwealth Rebells could not amongst all their new-Fangles and Devices forbear their being much in love with the Tryalls by Juries both in Civill and Criminall Actions which had both their Use and Foundation from the Civill and Feudall Laws And Oliver Cromwell could after he had over-reacht and Mastered them find no better expedient to maintain the Grandeur of his wickedly-gained Protectorship but to borrow and make use of that part of the Feudall Laws which allowed a subservient Peerage and therefore Created some of his Major-Generalls amongst whom were those grand States-men Hewson the Cobler Pride the Drayman and Kelsy the Bodiesmaker c. Members of an House of Peers which he would by another name have called the Other House as Superior to his House of Commons or Rebellion-Voters who having sate and executed as much Power as he could bestow upon them did after death had cropt his Ambition and carried him to his deserved severe accompt attend with their whole House in grevious melancholly and mourning his Funerall and Magnificent Charriott of State to be buried in Westminster-Abby to lye there untill the Hangman afterwards by a better Authority fetched away his Hipocriticall Carcass to a more proper Place with their long-mourning Train Supported by 6 or 8 of his nicknamed Peers And after those pullers down as much as they could of our Excellent Foundations to build up their Abominable Babell of murdering their King Destroying Massacring Plundering Sequestring and decimating of his Loyal Subjects ruining his Royal Posterity should after his Miraculous Restauration think it to be a great piece of service to themselves and the whole Nation to put under the shame and Ignominy of a tenure unto which our Laws never yet afforded any more then the lowest of Titles as Rusticks men holding by the service of the Plough and Villainage to teach the most Ignorant and Incapacious part of the People how to Master equall or abuse their betters or invite the Hogs and Swine into the Gardens and Beds of Spices to root up foul and trample upon the Lillyes of the Vallies and Roses of Sharon hoping thereby to frustrate the glorious actions of that great Generall Monke in the Restoring of the King unto his Just entire regall Rights and to lay a Foundation hereafter of binding him and our Kings in Chains and our Nobles in Fetters of Iron and to make an easy way for all the People of other Kingdoms to order and Govern their Kings as they hoped by transforming their Laws and Regalities into such evil and Ignorant shapes Interpretations and Constructions as the People 〈◊〉 like the Dogs in the Fable of Acteon might when they pleased be the Murderers of their Kings and Princes and of their own Laws and Liberties But that Great and Prudent Prince in the time of his travail and abode after his fathers death in the parts beyond the Seas and other great Actions done by him before he returned into England as Fleta a Lawyer of good accompt and not meanly instructed as well in the Civil as Common Laws or else Mr Selden would neither have Caused his Manuscript so long concealed in Libraries and passing from hand to hand of such as could be made happy by the view thereof to be Printed and Published with his learned Dissertations or Comment thereupon saith that there having been a Congress or Meeting at Montpellier in France upon the 16th day of November 1275 or some short time after in the year 1276 about the 4th year of his Reign between him and many other Christian Kings or their Embassadours Viz. Michael Paleologus Imperator Orientis Rodolphus Primus Occidentis Galliae Philippus Audax Castellae Leonis Alphonsus Decimus summus ille Astronomus Partitarum Author Scociae Alexander tertius Daniae Ericus octavus Poloniae Bodislaus Hungariae Uladislaus quartus Aragoniae Jacobus Boemiae Ottocarus Carolus Siciliae Hugo Hierosolonicorum alii Complures minoris nominis qui Regum Christianorum vocamme fruebantur wherein certain agreements and provisions were severally made touching the resumption of the Lands and Manors appertaining to their Crowns Kingdoms together with their Homage Rights Jurisdictions wherein although Mr Selden that great Diver and Searcher into antiquities seemeth to doubt of the truth thereof for that Scriptores de hoc Anno non Conveniunt and at that time Rodolphus Caesar had granted unto Pope Gregory the 10th Latifundia circumquaque amplissima quae antea Imperii pars insignis And saith that assertion or place in Fleta is locus prodigiosus the rather for that Azo Item Jurisconsulti illius aevi summi vecusti and our Bracton maketh no mention of it in his Chapter de donationibus nor Britton in his Compendium Juris neither is it found in any other Jurisconsults or in Fortescue who lived long after Howsoever Notwithstanding the great reverence and respect which every man of learning or well-wishers thereunto must or ought to bear unto our great Selden that Dictator of learning so universally acknowledged not only in England but in the parts beyond the Seas to be Decus gentis Anglorum I shall be of necessity constrained in this particular to Vâ—ndicate Fleta from what he chargeth upon him concerning the provisions and resolutions made and taken by our King Edward the 〈…〉 and â—â—e aforesaid Christian Kings and Princes who especially Alexander King of Scotland and the Kings of France Castill and Leon near neighbours to England or his French territories together with the Emperor of Germany and the King of Sicily by whom he had been Sumptuously Feasted in his Return from Jerusalem might probably not have been Ignorant of his own and his Fathers and Grandfathers troubles and Ill usage by some of his Rebellious Baronage and a party of the Ecclesiasticall and Common People depending upon them or allured unto their Ill usage of their Kings and Princes but to appeal to his own Vast reading and the Company of his large and Eminently furnished Library with his Collection and recherches of and into all the Records and Choice Manuscripts in England all the Uuiversities thereof and Forreign parts the Roman Vatican not excepted and what could be in that famous Library of Sr Robert Cotton whilst he lived truly believed to be the Esculapius Librorum And it will be undoubtedly certain that there hath never been since the Writings of the books of Sacred Scripture any Infallibility or absolute Certainty that a Gospell of St Thomas hath been assayed to be Imposed upon the Christian World that St Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews though by the Church admitted to be canonicall have met with some Jealousies who was the Author thereof the great Care of the Monks mentioned in the preface
encouraging and rewarding merit and Service for the good of the publick greatly and too much wasted and exhausted ever have been perswaded to have released so much as was done of the Tenures in Capite by a factious part of the people who designed to undermine the Monarchical Estate of the Government Or by some of the more Loyall advisers who either by ignorance or otherwise did not well understand Monarchy and the Government Or the sad and ever to be lamented Consequences and Effects that have already followed and will hereafter fatally ensue the change of the Tenure in Capite and by Knight Service to release and turn those Nerves and Sinews of the Government ligaments and ties of the Crown the Chariots and Horsmen of our Israels Glory Strength and support of it and the Loadstone of the Subjects obedience into free and common Soccage Wherein much more heed was to have been taken then formerly for that the Militia and the Sovereignty and Power of our Kings much whereof were lodged and incorporated therein were founded and built upon the Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service the Basis Foundation Life Blood Animall Spirits Soul Essence and support thereof and had not long before been by an Horrid and Hypocritical Rebellion wrested out of the hands of the late blessed Martyr King Charles the 1st by abuse and misconstruction of the Laws false arguments and the fear and flagging of some of his most Eminent Justices and Lawyers who were too little acquainted with the Feudall Laws and Laws of Nations the Records Annalls and Histories of the Kingdom and the Monarchicall Government thereof Which too much encouraged and assisted the Rebellion against him together with the murder and destruction of him and many Thousands of his Loyall and more Dutifull Subjects that fought for him Notwithstanding all which the aforesaid cares condescensions of that prudent Prince King Edward the 1. hoping for the best and not suspecting the worst In the 25th Year of his Reign requiring Bohun Earl of Hereford and Constable of England and other the Barons to go with him to the Wars in Gascoigny and Bygod Earl Marshall of England likewise refusing unless the King himself would go in Person the King swears ye shall go or Hang and the Earl answered he would neither go nor Hang and so without leave departed the King notwithstanding proceeded in his Voyage to Flanders the two Earls of Hereford and Norfolk assemble many Noblemen and other their friends to the number of 30 Bannerets so as they were 1500 men at Arms and stood upon their Guard and the King being ready to take Ship the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons and Commons sent him a Roll of the Grievances of his Subjects in Taxes Subsidies and other imposicions with his seeking to force their services by unlawfull courses to which the King answered that he could not alter any thing without the advice of his Councell who were not now about him and therefore required them that seeing they would not attend him in his journy which they absolutely refused to do though he went in person unless it were into France and Scotland that they would yet do nothing in his absence prejudiciall to the Crown promising at his return to set all things in good order but being afterwards enforced to send for more Supplies of Mony ordained a Parliament to be held at York and to the End he might not be disappointed of aid condesended to all such Articles as were demanded concerning the great Charter promising from thenceforth never to charge his Subjects otherwise then by their consent in Parliament Seized the moneys in the Popes Bankers hands to relieve his and the publick necessities gave protections from arrest and troubles in their Estates to them that should have paid it otherwise and notwithstanding the Popes Anger and Threats not in those days easily to be adventured upon did not pay and refund it within 2 or 3 Years after Seized also and took at his own price the Wools which the Merchants then had in the Ports ready to be transported and all the Lands and Great Estates of Bohun Earl of Hereford and Clare Earl of Gloucester and upon the Marriage of his Daughter the Lady Elizabeth to the first with a Gift in Tayl to them the reversion in the Crown and the like to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford by Marriage of his Daughter the Lady Joan restored them in tail as aforesaid unto them and made not only the said Humfrey de Bohun Roger Bygod Earl Marshall whom upon second failings he afterward confiscated and all others who had joined with him in refusing to serve him in his warrs according to the tenure of their lands to be glad and well content with his generall pardon In the same year granted to Hugh Kent de Galvy in Ireland and the Heirs Males of his body the liberty of enjoying the benefit of the English laws in terra sua Hyberniae as the writ ensuing wlll evidence viz. Rex omnibus ballivis fidelibus suis in Hybernia ad quos c. Salutem volentes Hugoni Kent de Galvy Hyberniae gratia facere specialem concedimus ei pro nobis haeredibus nostris quod ipse liberi sui de corpore ipsius Hugonis legitime procreati procreandi hanc habeant libertatem quod ipsi posteri eorum de extero in terra nostra Hyberniae tam in morte quam in vita legibus consuetudinibus utantur Auglicanis firmiter inhibentes ne quis eos contra hanc concessionem nostram injuste vexet in aliquo vel perturbet in cujus c. Teste Rege apud Gillingham 25 die Martii per ipsum Regem And by his letters patents constituted Johannem de Breton Custos or Warden of the City of London as followeth viz. Rex omnibus ballivis fidelibus suis ad quod c. sciatis quod dilectum fidelem nostrum Johannem le Breton constituimus custodem civitatis London ad amerciandos Aldermannos alios quoscunque de civitate praedicta qui ad rationabilem praemonitionem Seu Summonitionem custodis ejusdem pro negotiis nos Civitatem illam tangentibus venire contempserent etiam ad Vicecomites Civitatis praedict ipsorum Clericos ac ministros mercedem sui Officii capientes cum super hoc modo debito convicti fuerint juxta quantitatem delictorum suorum castigandos puniendos quantum necesse fuerit quatenus sua discretio de jure viderit faciendum specialem tenore praesentium committimus potestatem quam diu nos placuerit durando in cujus c. Having before in the 13 or 14th Year of his Reign fined Gregory de Rokesly Mayor of London for that he renounced the Mayoralty and delivered the Common Seal of the Mayoralty or City to Stephen de Ashren aliis de Communitate London sine licencia ipsius Regis for which he
instance of the great men of the Realm hath granted provided and ordained that the Feoffees or Alienees shall hold of the chief Lord of whom the Lords were holden Ca. 2. If part of the lands be sold it is to be apportioned and it is to wit that this Statute extendeth but only to lands holden in fee simple and for the time coming and is to take effect at the Feast of St. Andrew next In the Statute of Quo Warranto liberties are holden our Lord the King of his especial grace and for the affection which he beareth unto his Prelates Earls and Barons and other of his Realm hath granted In a 2d Statute of Quo Warranto to the same Effect hath Established In the Statute de modo levandi fines it is to be noted that the order of the Laws will not suffer a finall accord to be leavyed in the Kings Court without a Writ Original In the Statute of Vouchers made in the 20th Year of his Reign Our Lord the King by his Common-Councell hath ordained In another of the same year concerning wast committed by Tenant for life Our Lord the King hath ordained In the Statute de defensione juris Hath ordained and from henceforth commanded In a Statute de non ponendis in Assisis made in the 21st year of his Reign Our Lord the King hath ordained By an Act of Parliament made in the same year de malefactoribus in parcis Our Lord the King hath granted and commanded In the Statute or Act of Parliament de Consultatione made in the 24th Year of his Reign Willeth and commandeth In the Confirmation of the great Charter and the Charter of the Forest in the 25th Year of his Reign Granteth and Willeth In Ca. 2. That Judgements given against them should be void it is said We will The like in Ca. 3 and 4. In Ca. 5. We have granted In Ca. 6. That the King or his Heirs will for no business whatsoever take aids or prizes but by consent of the Realm and for the Common profit thereof saving the Ancient aids and prizes due and accustomed it is said Moreover we have granted In Ca. 7. for a release of Toll taken by the King for Wool without consent as aforesaid saving the custom of Wools Hides and Leather granted by the Commonalty it is said that the King at their request hath clearly released and granted The King hasting into Flanders to aid his Confederate the Earl thereof against the Continued envy malice and designs of the King of France his malignant Neighbour constituted without License of Parliament his Son Edward then being under age the Custos or Guardian of the Kingdom and appointed Richard Bishop of London William Earl of Warwick nec non milites Reginaldum de Gray Johannem Gifford Alanum Plukenet viros emeritae militae providos discretos to be his Assistants and Councellors who in the Kings absence with much ado and with nullam aliam sentire vellent obtained a Peace to be made with the Earl of Hereford and Earl Marshal that the King should confirm the great Charters with the aforesaid Articles added in the 2. 3. 4. and 5. of that Parliament and to the 6. of Nullum Tallagium but by the consent of the Realm and for the Common profit thereof saving ut supra releasing the Tolls of Wool Which being sent unto the King were returned sub sigillo suo tanquam saith the Historian ab eo qui in Arcto positus erat cedendum malitiae temporis censuit upon the confirmation whereof the populus Anglicanus concessit denarium nonum bonorum suorum But the King being returned in the 26th Year of his Reign was pressed in Parliament by the aforesaid Earls the Constable Marshal because the Charters were confirmed in a Forreign Country to do it again for that the Bishop of Durham and the Earls of Surrey Warwick and Gloucester had promised that obtenta victoria against the Scots he should post ejus reditum do it and in the 27th Year of his Reign being again in a Parliament holden in London urged by the said Earls to do it post aliquas dilationes was willing to do it with an addition of Salvo jure Coronae with which the Earls being displeased and leaving the Parliament revocatis ipsis ad quindenam Paschae ad votum eorum absolute omnia sunt concessa Which begot the Statute said in the printed book of Statutes published by Mr Poulton to be incerti temporis E. 1. but it is to be beleived for the Reasons aforesaid to have been made in the 27th year of his Reign in those only words that no Tallage or Aid shall be taken or leavied by us or our heirs in our Realm without the good-will and assent of Arch-Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other Freemen of the Land In the Statute of Wards and Reliefs 28. E. 1. Who shall be in ward and pay relief which seemeth to be a declaration of the King alone being for the most part of matters concerning himself and his undoubted casuall revenue it is to Wit when in the Statute immediately following touching persons appealed it is said the King hath granted ordained and provided In the Statute called Articuli super Chartas ca. 1. in the confirmation of the great Charter and the Charter of the Forest in the later end and close thereof are these words viz. And besides these things granted upon the Articles of the Charters aforesaid the King of his especial grace for redress of the grievances which his people hath sustained by reason of his Wars and for the amendment of their Estate and to the intent that they may be the more ready to do him service and the more willing to assist him in the time of need hath granted certain Articles the which he supposeth shall not only be observed of his Leige People but also shall be as much profitable or more then the Articles heretofore granted That none shall take prices but the Kings Purveiors or their Deputies it is said to be Ordained with a Nevertheless the King and his Councell do not intend by reason of this Estatute to diminish the Kings right for the ancient prizes due and accustomed as of Wines and other goods but that his rights shall be saved unto him whole and in all points Declaring of of what things only the Marshall of the King's House shall hold plea c. It is Ordained And in Another Act Entituled Common Pleas shall not be holden in the Exchequer it is said moreover no Common Pleas shall from henceforth be holden in the Exchequer contrary to the form of the Great Charter That no Writ concerning the Common Law shall be award under any Petit Seal The authority of the Constable of the Castle of Dover touching hold pleas and distresses That the Inhabitants of every County shall make choice of their Sheriff being not of Fee it is said that the King hath granted
unarbitrary in their procedures is so always ready to succour the Complaints of People as it never willingly makes it self to be the cause of it And cannot misrepresent the House of Peers to the King and his People in the Case of Mr. Fitz Harris or any others when that honourable Assembly takes so much care as it doth to repress Arbitrary Power and doth all it can to protect the whole Nation from it and many of the House of Commons Impeachments have been disallowed by the King and his House of Peers in Parliament without any ground or cause of fear of Arbitrary Power which can no where be so mischievously placed as in the giddy multitude whose Impeachments would be worse than the Ostracisme at Athens and so often overturn and tire all the wise men and good men in the Nation as there would be none but such as deserve not to be so stiled to manage the Affairs of the Government subordinate to their King and Soveraign To all which may be added if the former Presidents cited to assert the Kings Power of Pardoning as well after an Impeachment made by the Commons in Parliament as before and after an Impeachment made by the Commons and received by the Lords in Parliament or made both by the Lords and Commons in Parliament be not not sufficient that of Hugh le Despenser Son of Hugh le Despenser the younger a Lord of a great Estate which is thus entred in the Parliament Roll of the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Third ought surely to satisfie that the Laws and reasonable Customs of England will warrant it Anno 5 E. 3. Sir Eubule le Strange and eleven other Mainprisers being to bring forth the Body of Hugh the Son of Hugh le Despenser the younger saith the Record A respondre au prochein Parlement de ester au droit affaire ce de liu en conseil soit ordine mesuerent le Corps le dit Hugh devant nostre Seigneur le Roi Countes Barons autres Grantz en mesme le Parlement monstrent les L'res Patents du Roi de Pardon al dit Hugh forisfacturam vite membrorum sectam pacis homicidia roborias Felonias omnes transgressiones c. Dated 20 Martii anno primo Regni sui Et priant a n're Seigneur le Roi quil le vousist delivrer de las Mainprise faire audit Hugh sa grace n're Seigneur le Roi eiant regard a ses dites L'res voilant uttroier a la Priere le dit Mons'r Eble autres Main pernors avant dit auxint de les Prelatz qui prierent molt especialment pur lui si ad comande de sa grace sa delivrance Et voet que ses Menpernors avant ditz chescun d'eux soient dischargez de leur Mainprise auxint le dit Hugh soit quit delivrers de Prisone de garde yssint si ho'me trove cause devors lui autre nest uncore trove quil estoise au droit And the English Translator or Abridger of the Parliament Records hath observed that the old usage was that when any Person being in the Kings displeasure was thereof acquitted by Tryal or Pardon yet notwithstanding he was to put in twelve of his Peers to be his Sureties for his good Behaviour at the Kings pleasure And may be accompanied by the Case of Richard Earl of Arundel in the 22 year of the Raign of King Richard the Second being Appealed by the Lords Appellant and they requiring the King that such Persons Appealed that were under Arrest might come to their Tryal it was commanded to Ralph Lord Nevil Constable of the Tower of London to bring forth the said Richard Earl of Arundel then in his custody whom the said Constable brought into the Parliament at which time the Lords Appellants came also in their proper Persons To the which Earl the Duke of Lancaster who was then hatching the Treason which afterwards in Storms of State and Blood came to effect against the King by the Kings Coommandment and Assent of the Lords declared the whole circumstances after the reading and declaring whereof the Earl of Arundel who in Anno 11 of that Kings Raign had been one of the Appellants together with Henry Earl of Derby Son of the said Duke of Lancaster and afterwards the usurping King Henry the Fourth against Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland and Earl of Oxford and some other Ministers of State under King Richard the Second alledged that he had one Pardon granted in the Eleventh year of the Raign of King Richard the Second and another Pardon granted but six years before that present time And prays that they might be allowed To which the Duke answered that for as much as they were unlawfully made the present Parliament had revoked them And the said Earl therefore was willed to say further for himself at his peril whereupon Sir Walter Clopton Chief Justice by the Kings Commandment declared to the said Earl that if he said no other thing the Law would adjudge him guilty of all the Actions against him The which Earl notwithstanding would say no other thing but required allowance of his Pardons And thereupon the Lords Appellant in their proper Persons desired that Judgment might be given against the said Earl as Convict of the Treason aforesaid Whereupon the Duke of Lancaster by the Assent of the King Bishops and Lords adjudged the said Earl to be Convict of all the Articles aforesaid and thereby a Traytor to the King and Realm and that he should be hanged drawn and quartered and forfeit all his Lands in Fee or Fee-tail as he had the nineteenth day of September in the tenth year of the Kings Raign together with all his Goods and Chattels But for that the said Earl was come of noble Blood and House the King pardoned the hanging drawing and quartering and granted that he should be beheaded which was done accordingly But Anno 1 Hen. 4. the Commons do pray the reversal of that Judgment given against him and restoration of Thomas the Son and Heir of the said Richard Earl of Arundel Unto which the King answered he hath shewed favour to Thomas now Earl and to others as doth appear The Commons do notwithstanding pray that the Records touching the Inheritance of the said Richard Earl of Arundel late imbezelled may be searched for and restored Unto which was answered the King willeth And their noble Predecessors in that Honourable House of Peers the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament long before that videlicet in the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Third made no scruple or moat point or question in Law whether the power of pardoning was valid and solely in the King after an Impeachment of the Lords in Parliament when in the Case of Edmond Mortimer the Son of Roger Mortimer Earl of March a Peer of great Nobility and Estate the