Bathenia propriae familiae omnem indignationem omnem rancorem quem erga ipsum Henricum pro quibuscunque transgressionibus usque ad diem Dominicam proximam post festum translationis beati Thomae Martyris anno c. tricesimo quinto ita tamen quod pro remissione illa dabit nobis praedictus Henricus duo millia marcarum unde solvet nobis ducentas marcas per annum videlicet in Festo Sancti Michaelis anno eodem cent ' marc ' ad Pasch ' prox ' sequen ' cent ' marc ' sic de anno in annum ad eosdem terminos cent ' marc ' donec praedicta duo millia marc ' nobis fuerint persoluta si forsitan contigerit quod praefat ' Henr ' medio tempore in fata concesserit antequam praedicta pecunia nobis fuerit persoluta haeredes sui eandem solutionem facient ad eosdem terminos sicut praedictum est perdonationis eidem Henr ' amerciamentum in quod incidit per attinctam quam Thomas de Muleton arramavit versus ipsum de ten ' in Holbech Querpilan ' idem etiam Henr ' juri omnibus de eo conqueri volentibus etiam nobis in Curia nostra secundum Legem Consuetudinem Regni nostri in cujus c. Teste Rege apud Wodestock octavo die Julii T. Johanne Mansel Richardo Fil Nicholai In the mean time Lewis King of France warring in the holy-Holy-Land and being taken Prisoner the Pope solicited him to take upon him the Cross to rescue him Alphonsus the King of Castile undertaking to accompany him and the captive King offering to restore Normandy to the King of England for his assistance which the French disdaining and undertaking themselves to procure his Ransom upon the Pope's granting a Tenth to be leavied upon the Clergy and Laity for three years the King undertakes notwithstanding the Cross upon the hopes of getting the money which saith Matthew Paris being collected would have amounted unto 600000 l. as was then believed more than to perform his promise Whereupon shortly after a Parliament was holden about the Tenth granted by the Pope for the recovery of the Holy-Land where the Bishops notwithstanding that he had for the ease of his Subjects severely accused in Parliament Henry de Bathonia one of his Justices for receiving of Bribes were first dealt withal absolutely denied it and the Lords alledging they would do as the Bishops did the City of London was again compelled to the contribution of 2000 l. The Gascoigns likely to revolt if a speedy remedy were not provided general Musters were made and command given that every one that could dispend 13 l. per annum should furnish out an Horseman which together with his extreme wants occasioned another Parliament who finding it to be better for the people to do it in the usual way than force him to those extravagant as they call'd them courses which he took were after fifteen days consultation in the 37th year of his Reign although they could not be then ignorant that he had but lately grievously punished and expelled the Caursini the Pope's Bankers or money-Collectors and Brokers and could not deny his own wants which appeared in the pawning of his Jewels and Ornaments and in the end as Sir Robert Cotton if he were the Author of the short view of that King's Life and Reign hath recorded it had not means to defray the diet of his Court but was constrained to break up House-keeping and as Mat. Paris saith with his Queen cum Abbaâ—ibus Prioribus satis humilitèr hospitia prandia quaerere to satisfie the King's necessities but so as the reformation of the Grievances and ratification of their Laws might be once again solemnly confirmed A Tenth was granted by the Clergy for three years to be distributed by the view of certain Lords and three Marks Scutage for every Knights Fee to be charged upon the Laity for that year insomuch as those often-confirmed Charters were again agreed to be ratified in the most solemn and religious way that Relion and State could ever devise to have it done after this manner viz. the King who in all Excommunications was with the Lords Temporal by the Laws and reasonable Customs of England to give their assent before it could sortiri effectum or have any validity with many of the great Nobility of England all the Bishops and chief Prelates in their Reverend Ornaments with Candles or Tapers in their hands walking in a direful Procession through Westminster hall into the Abbey-Church of Westminster there to hear the terrible Sentence of Excommunication pronounced against the Infringers of the aforesaid Charters granted by him At the lighting of which Candles the King having received one in his hand gave it to a Prelate that stood by him saying It becomes not me being no Priest to hold the Candle my heart shall bear a greater Testimony and withal laid his hand upon his breast the whole time that the Sentence was reading which was pronounced autoritate de omni potentis c. Which done he caused the Charter of King John his Father granted by his free consent to be likewise openly read and the rest of the company throwing away their Candles which lay smoaking on the ground all cried out So let them who incur the Sentence be extinct and stink in Hell The King with a loud voice saying as God me help I will as I am a man a Christian a Knight a King Crowned and Anointed inviolably observe those things which Ceremony ended the Bells rung out and all the people shouted with joy But it is not to be forgotten although Matthew Paris Samuel Daniel and all other Writers but Mr. William Pryn make no mention of it in this astonishing and dreadful Ceremony in the like whereof never were Laws saith Mr. Daniel amongst men except the Decalogue from Mount-Sinai promulgated and pronounced with more Majesty of Ceremony to make them heeded reverenced and respected than were those that wanted Thundring and Lightning from Heaven acompanied with an Earth-quake shaking the very Foundations thereof The King did not desert his own regal Rights and Preheminencies but did at the same time when in that dreadful manner he joyned in the Pronunciation of that Sentence of Excommunication with his own mouth publickly except out of it all the Ancient and Accustomed Liberties of the Realm and the Dignities and Rights of the Crown and the same day caused a Record thereof to be made yet extant in the Tower of London in these words viz. Noverint Universi quòd Dominus Henricus Rex Angliae Illustis R. Comes Norf. Marshallus Angliae H. Comes Horeford Essex J. Comes de Warren Petrus de Sabaudia caeterique Magnates Angliae concesserunt in sententiam Excommunicationis generaliter latam apud Westmonasterium tertio decimo die Maii Anno Regni Regis predicti 37. in hac forma scilicet quòd vinculo
great Barons and Lords Spiritual and Temporal could not imagine would ever be able either to forget the Good which they and their Fore-Fathers had received and they and their after-Generations were like to enjoy under them or get loose from those many great Ties and Obligations of a never-to-be-forgotten Gratitude which they had upon them but thought themselves very secure from any danger that might happen by any of their Incroachments or Usurpations by placing any Power or but a Semblance of Authority for once in the lower Ranks of the People nor could have believed that the common People of England after their solemn Protestations to preserve them and the Government could after the Murder of their King in their last horrid Rebellion have Voted them to be useless and dangerous and being unwilling to leave any of the Divels their Masters business unfinished did solemnly enforce the deluded Seditious People under as many severe Penalties as they could lay upon them not any more to submit to any Government by a King and House of Lords to whom our Kings had given no Power to make their own Choice but lodged and onely entrusted it in the Sheriffs many of which the rebellious Barons had by Usurpation of the King's Authority provided before hand to be at this present of their own Party or were like to be so or under their Awe and Guidance wherein they were perceived by the King some Years before upon their ill-gained Provisions at Oxford to have been very diligent in making Sheriffs of their own Party those great Offices being in those times and many Years before and some few Years after alwayes put into the Hands and Trust of the Baronage or Men of great Estate and Power Whose Number by Tenures and Summons by Writs to our King 's great Councels or Parliaments Creations or Descents accounted in the Raign of King Henry the Third to be no less than Two Hundred and Forty if not many more and like the tall and stately Cedars of our Nation might well deserve the Titles of Proceres and Magnates especially when many or most of them were in their Greatness Goodness and Authority in their several Stations like the Tree which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his Vision high and strong The height whereof reached to the Heaven the leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowles of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof and as ex pede Herculem the Length and Greatness of Hercules's Foot declared the vast Proportion and Magnitude of the residue of his Body it was easy to compute how little were then the Common People how great the Nobility whom the Brittaines ancient Inhabitants of our Isle as the Learned Francis Junius the Son of the no less Learned Francis Junius hath observed justly stiled them Lhafords Lords and their Wives Lhafdies Ladies because they usually gave Bread and Sustenance to those that wanted it gave License of Marriage to the Widdows of their Thanks by Knight Service punished their Tenants so holding their Lands by Writ Cessavit per Biennium and a Forfeiture if not redeemed was Entituled to a Writ of Contra formam Collationis for not performing the Duties and Offices of their Endowments and the large Revenues and Emoluments appropriated thereunto And with the many Accessions and Devolutions of other Mannors Lands Revenues Estates Baronies Titles of Honour and Offices of State by Marriages Descents in Fee or remainders in fee-Fee-tail munificent Guifts and Grants of their Kings and Princes upon Merit and great Services done for them and their Country or by Purchases guarded by the strength of the Statute De donis Conditionalibus made in the 13th Year of the Raign of King Edward the First with the Tye and Obligation of their Tenures and the Restraints of Alienation made them to be such Grantz Magnates as the common People did in their Disseisins Intrusions and Outrages done one unto another which in the elder times were very frequent colour and Shelter those Injuries by or under some Title or Conveyances made unto some of the Nobility or great Men of the Kingdom which caused some of our Kings to grant out Commissions of Ottroy le Baston vulgarly called Trail Baston to find out and punish such Evil doings and by the making of some of our later Laws to restrain the giving of Liveries so as until the Writs of Summons granted by King Edward the First in the 22d Year of his Raign to Elect some Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses to give their Assent in Parliaments to such Laws and Things as by the advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal should advise should by him be ordained there having been an Intermission of those or the like kind of Writs of Summons from the first Contrivance thereof in the time of the Imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign it was and ought to be believed as a matter or thing agreeable to Truth right Reason and the Laws and Records of the Kingdom that the Commons and Freeholders of England were long before and for many Ages past as ancient as the British Empire and Monarchy were to be no part of our Great Councels or Parliaments were never Summoned or Elected to come thither but had their Votes and Estates and well Being as to those great Councels included in the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and as to their assent or dissent good or ill liking represented by them and retaining their well deserved Greatness were so potent and considerable as Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester could after the Battle of Evesham where he had Fought for the King March with a formidable Army composed for the most part of his own Servants Tenants Reteiners and Dependants from the Borders of Wales to London quarrel and capitulate with his King that had been but a little before extraordinary Victorious and with John Warren Earl of Surrey did after the Death of King Henry the Third before the Return of his Son Prince Edward from the Wars in the Holy-Land to take the Crown upon him at the Solemnization of the Funeral of the deceased King in the Abbey-Church of Westminster with the Clergy and People there Assembled without their License and Election go up to the high Altar and swear their Fealty to the absent King Edward the First his Son So beloved feared and followed as the great Earl of Warwick was said in some of our Histories to have been the Puller down and Setter up of Kings could with the Earl of Oxford in the dire Contests betwixt King Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth for the Crown of England rescue and take by force King Henry the Sixth out of the Tower of London where he was kept a Prisoner attend him in a stately and numerous Procession to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul the one carrying up his Train and the other
bearing the Sword before him to the Church where they Crowned him and after a Frown of Fortune did stoutly by the help of the Lancastrian Party give Battle to King Edward the Fourth at Barnet-field where but for a Mistake of Oxford's and Warwick's Soldiers and their Banners and Badges fighting one against the other in a Mist instead of King Edward the Fourth's Men they had in all Probability prevailed against him And the Interest Alliance and Estate of that Earl of Oxford was so great notwithstanding shortly after in the Kingdom as although he had very much adventured suffered and done for King Henry the Seventh led the Vanguard for him at Bosworth field against King Richard the Third and eminently deserved of him as the Numbers and Equipage of his Servants Reteiners Dependants and Followers did so asfright that King and muster up his Fears and Jealousies as being sumptuously Feasted by him at Hedingham Castle in Essex where he beheld the vast Numbers goodly Array and Order of them he could not forbear at his Departure telling him That he thankt him for his good Cheer but could not endure to see his Laws broken in his Sight and would therefore cause his Attorney General to speak with him which was in such a manner as that magnificent and causelesly dreadful Gallantry did afterwards by Fine or Composition cost that Earl Fifteen-Thousand Marks Did notwithstanding their great Hospitalities Magnificent manner of Living founding of Abbies Monasteries and Priories many and large Donations of Lands to Religious Uses and building of strong and stately Castles and Palaces make no small addition to their former Grandeurs which thorough the Barons Wars and long lasting and bloody Controversies betwixt the two Royal Houses of York and Lancaster did in a great Veneration Love and Awe of the Common People their Tenants Reteiners and Dependants continue in those their grand Estates Powers and Authorities until the Raign of King Edward the Fourth when by the Fiction of common Recoveries and the Misapplied use of Fines and more then formerly Riches of many of the common People gathered out after the middle of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth by the spoil of the Abbey and religiously devoted Lands in which many of the Nobility by Guifts and Grants of King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth in Fee or fee-Fee-tail had very great shares brought those great Estates of our famous English Baronage to a lower condition than ever their great Ancestors could believe their Posterities should meet with and made the Common People that were wont to stand in the outward Courts of the Temple of Honour and glad but to look in thereat fondly imagine themselves to have arrived to a greater degree of Equality than they should claim or can tell how to deserve And might amongst very many of their barbarously neglecting Gratitudes remember that in the times in and after the Norman Conquest when Escuage was a principal way or manner of the Peoples Aides especially those that did hold in Capite or of Mesne Lords under them to their Soveraign for publick Affairs or Defence the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being then the only parts of the Parliament under their Soveraign the sole Grand Councel of the Kingdom under him did not only Assess in Parliament and cause to be leavied the Escuage but bear the greatest part of the Burden thereof themselves that which the common People did in after times in certain proportions of their Moveables and other Estates or in the Ninth Sheaf of Wheat and the Ninth Lamb being until the Dissolution of the Abbies and Monasteries in the latter end of the Raign of King Henry the Eighth when they were greatly enriched by it did not bear so great a part of the Burdens Aides or Taxes or much or comparable to that which lay upon the far greater Estates of the Nobility there having been in former Times very great and frequent Wars in France and Scotland no Escuage saith Sir Edward Coke hath been Assessed by Parliament since the 8th Year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Howsoever the Commons and Common People of England for all are not certainly comprehended under that Notion their Ancestors before them and their Posterities and Generations to come after them lying under so great and continued Obligations and bonds of an eternal Gratitude and Acknowledgement to the Baronage and Lords Spiritual and Temporal of England and Wales for such Liberties and Priviledges as have been granted unto them with those also which at their Requests and Pursuits have been Indulged or Permitted unto them by our and their Kings and Princes successively will never be able to find and produce any Earlier or other Original for the Commons of England to have any Knights Citizens or Burgesses admitted into our Kings and Princes great Councels in Parliament until the aforesaid imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 48th and 49th Year of his Raign and the force which was put upon him by Symon Montfort Earl of Leicester and his Party of Rebels SECT XII That the asoresaid Writ of Summons made in that King's Name to Elect a certain Number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses and the Probos homines good and honest Men or Barons of the Cinque Ports to appear for or represent some part of the Commons of England in Parliament being enforced from King Henry the Third in the 48th and 49th Year of his Raign when he was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester and under the Power of him and his Party of rebellious Barons was never before used in any Wittenagemots Mikel-gemots or great Councels of our Kings or Princes of England FOr saith the very learned and industrious Sir William Dugdale Knight Garter King of Armes unto whom that Observation by the dates of those Writs is only and before all other Men to be for the punctual particular express and undeniable Evidence thereof justly ascribed which were not entered in the Rolls as all or most of that sort have since been done but two of them three saith Mr. William Pryn instead of more in Schedules tacked or sowed thereunto For although Mr. Henry Elsing sometimes Clerk to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament in his Book Entituled The ancient and present manner of holding Parliaments in England Printed in the Year 1663. but Written long before his Death when he would declare by what Warrants the Writs for the Election of the Commons assembled in Parliament and the Writ of Summons of the Lords in Parliament were procured saith That King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign when those Writs were made was a Prisoner to Symon de Montfort and could not but acknowledge that it did not appear unto him by the first Record of the Writs of Summons now extant by what Warrant the Lord Chancellor had in the 49th Year of the Raign of that King caused
upon less overt-acts and Praesumptions have been accompted and punished as High Treason § 27. That no Impeachment by all or any of the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament or of the House of Peers in Parliament hath or ever had any Authority to invalidate hinder or take away the power force or effect of any the pardons of our Kings or Princes by their Letters Patents or otherwise for High Treason or Felony Breach of the Peace or any other crime or supposed delinquency whatsoever FOR if Monarchy hath been by God himself and the Experience of above 5000 years and the longest Ages of the World approved as it hath to have been the best and most desirable form of Government And the Kingdom of England as it hath been for more than 1000 years a well tempered Monarchy and the Sword and Power thereof was given to our Kings only by God that ruleth the Hearts of them The means thereunto which should be the Power of Punishment and Reward can no way permit that they should be without the Liberty and Prerogative of Pardoning which was no Stranger in England long before the Conquest in the Raign of King Athelstane who did thereby free the Nation from four-footed Wolves by ordaining Pardons to such Out-Laws as would help to free themselves and others from such villanous Neighbours the Laws of Canutus also making it a great part of their business to enjoyn a moderation in punishments ad divinam clementiam temperata to be observed in Magistracy and never to be wanting in the most Superior none being so proper to acquit the offence as they that by our Laws are to take benefit by the Fines and Forfeitures arising thereby and Edward the Confessors Laws would not have Rex Regni sub cujus protectione pace degunt universi to be without it when amongst his Laws which the People of England held so sacred as they did hide them under his Shrine and afterwards precibus fletibus obtained of the Conqueror that they should be observed and procured the observation of them especially to be inserted in the Coronation-Oaths of our succeeding Kings inviolably to be kept And it is under the Title of misericordia Regis Pardonatio declared That Si quispiam forisfactus which the Margin interpreteth rei Capitalis reus poposcerit Regiam misericordiam pro forisfacto suo timidus mortis vel membrorum per dendorum potest Rex ei lege suae dignitatis condonare si velit etiam mortem promeritam ipse tamen malafactor rectum faciat in quantumcunque poterit quibus forisfecit tradat fidejussores de pace legalitate tenenda si vero fidejussores defecerint exulabitur a Patria For the pardoning of Treason Murder breach of the Peace c. saith King Henry the First in his Laws so much esteemed by the Barons and Contenders for our Magna Charta as they solemnly swore they would live and die in the defence thereof do solely belong unto him super omnes homines in terra sua In the fifth year of the Raign of King Edward the Second Peirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwal being banished by the King in Parliament and all his Lands and Estate seized into the Kings hands the King granted his Pardons remitted the Seizures and caused the Pardon and Discharges to be written and Sealed in his Presence And howsoever he was shortly after upon his return into England taken by the Earl of Warwick and beheaded without Process or Judgment at Law yet he and his Complices thought themselves not to be in any safety until they had by two Acts of Parliament in the seventh year of that Kings Raign obtained a Pardon Ne quis occasionetur pro reditu morte Petri de Gaveston the power of pardoning being always so annexed to the King and his Crown and Dignity And the Acts of Parliament of 2 E. 3. ca. 2. 10 E. 3. ca. 15. 13 R. 2. ca. 1. and 16 R. 2. ca. 6. seeking by the Kings Leave and Licence in some things to qualifie it are in that of 13 R. 2. ca 1. content to allow the Power of Pardoning to belong to the Liberty of the King and a Regality used heretofore by his Progenitors Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent Chief Justiciar of England in the Raign of King Henry the third laden with Envy and as many deep Accusations as any Minister of State could lie under in two several Charges in several Parliaments then without an House of Commons had the happiness notwithstanding all the hate and extremities Put upon him by an incensed Party to receive two several Pardons of his and their King and dye acquitted in the Estate which he had gained Henry de Bathoina a Chief Justice of England being in that Kings Raign accused in Parliament of Extortion and taking of Bribes was by the King pardoned In the fifieth year of the Reign of King Henry the third the Commons in Parliament petitioning the King that no Officer of the Kings or any man high or low that was impeached by them should enjoy his Place or be of the Kings Council The King only answered he would do as he pleased With which they were so well satisfied as the next year after in Parliament upon better consideration they petitioned him that Richard Lyons John Pechie and lice Pierce whom they had largely accused and believed guilty might be pardoned And that King was so unwilling to bereave himself of that one especial Flower in his Crown as in a Grant or Commission made in the same year to James Botiller Earl of Ormond of the Office of Chief Justiciar of Ireland giving him power under the Seal of that Kingdom to pardon all Trespasses Felonies Murders Treasons c he did especially except and reserve to himself the power of pardoning Prelates â—arls and Barons In the first year of the Raign of King Henry the fourth the King in the Case of the Duke of Albemarle and others declared in Parliament that Mercy and Grace belongeth to Him and his Royal Estate and therefore reserved it to himself and would that no man entitle himself thereunto And many have been since granted by our succeeding Kings in Parliament at the request of the Commons the People of England in Worldly and Civil Affairs as well ever since as before not knowing unto whom else to apply themselves for it So as no fraud or indirect dealings being made use of in the obtaining of a Pardon it ought not to be shaken or invalidated whether it were before a Charge or Accusation in Parliament or after or where there is no Charge or Indictment ant cedent The Pardon of the King to Richard Lyons at the request of the Commons in Parliament as the Parliament Rolls do mention although it was not inserted in the Pardon was declared to be after a charge against him by the Commons in Parliament and in the perclose
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-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
great wrong or Male Tolt set upon Wooll be revoked and that this grant turn not into a Custom That the keeping of the Kings Wards Lands may be committed to the next of the kin of the same Ward That Remedy may be found against such as dying past away their Lands to defraud the Lords of their Wardships The Commons made answer that they knew and tendered the Kings Estate and were ready to Aid the same only to this new device they durst not agree without further conference with their Countries and so praying respite until another time they promise to travel to their Countries Sundry of the Lords and Commons being not come the Parliament was continued from day to day until the Thursday following The Archbishop of Canterbury having been in the Kings displeasure humbled himself and desired his favour and having been defamed desired his Tryal by his Peers to which the King answered he would attend unto the Common affairs and after hear others A Proclamation was made for such as would exhibit any Petitions and a day given therefore Anno 25 E. 3. The Commons pray that process of Outlawry shall be in debt Detinue and Replevin To which was answered the like motion was in the last Parliament which had the same Answer and was then reasonably answered Anno 45. E. 3. it was agreed that ever Petition now exhibited may be by some of the Lords considered The Commons pray that the Extracts of Greenwax may mention at whose suit such Amerciaments were lost in what Term and what Plea and between what parties To which was answered let the same be provided the next Parliament which was not summoned until in Anno 47. E. 3. In Anno 47. of his Raign after Subsidies granted the Commons prayed answers to their Petitions which was granted after the Chancellor had in the name of the King given them great thanks he willed that such of the Commons that would wait on their Petitions might so do and the rest that would might depart and so the Parliament ended They pray that Right may be done to every mans Petition To which the King answered let that be observed which toucheth every private person our Kings and Princes having ever taken time to answer the petitions of their Subjects §. 30. That in those affairs peculiar only to so great and venerable an assembly which should not be Trivial or proper to Lower and Lesser Jurisdictions assigned for the determining of Lesser matters for the publick Ease and Benefit Our Kings and Princes have a greater burden and care upon them as Gods Vicegerents besides that of Parliaments to manage and take care of the Kingdom for the benefit and good of themselves and their People FOR our Kings and Supream Magistrates having many other as well necessary as ordinary and Common affairs to look after and have regard unto as the care of Peace at Home and Abroad Defence and Protection of their People Commerce Intelligence and Correspondence with Allies and Neighbour Princes guard of the Seas and reducing of Parliament Councels to speedy Actions could not admit a long consult which in our former and more happy Parliament Assemblies were seldom above forty days and many times with lesser periods of time found to be sufficient to dispatch the great and Important occasions thereof For the care of three great Kingdoms and a multitude of Accidents dayly hourly or oftner happening ordering and disposing Competent Magistrates and Officers therein observation of their well or ill managing their trusts rewarding and encouraging the good and punishment of the bad with the administration of fit Remedies to all that complain of grievances and oppressions committed by or amongst such a multitude of people with the very great difficulties of keeping Peace abroad with Neighbour Princes and preserving their own Subjects from being Injurious to theirs or receiving wrong from others may put a Prince into a necessity of having in his own person more than Argus his Eyes or Briareus hands and give him no or a very small time of rest to ask of God what Solomon did when he took upon him the government of Israel being a great People that could not be numbred or counted for multitude give therefore thy Servant an understanding heart to Judge the people that he may descern betwixt good and evil for who is able to Judge so great a People And with greater reason as being to govern a stubborn and Rebellious people high minded and proud with the riches gained thereby many of whom have perplexed and troubled him and themselves with their needless and destructive Fears and Jealousies without which the burden would not be so heavy as it is And can never seem light if those Fault-finders and Quick-silver Brained State Polititians would but consider how great it is in the dayly exercise of that government have hitherto made kept us happy all which put together might be enough to load an Atlas and would never be so well done or prove so effectual for dayly and publick good if they should tarry either for the coming of Parliaments or for long and perpetual or disagreeing Parliaments And cannot be deemed to be of little moment or concernment if an estimate be taken of the cares charge and troubles to preserve the publick Peace both by Sea and Land Leagues and Alliances Intelligence Correspondence and Amity with Forraign Princes and States the least breach of Peace with whom might disturb our Peace and Commerce abroad and transport Invasions and War upon us at home with sending and receiving of Embassadors giving audiences dispatches to theirs and sending Instructions with ours besides their sitting in Councel with their Privy Councel commonly three times in every Week of extraordinary concernments make not some addition thereunto Sundays scarce excepted and not that day or every day in every Week besides can pass but he is troubled either with petitions for grants or favours protection from oppressions and redresses for greivances either delivered by the petitioners themselves or by one or both of the two Secretaries or the four Magistri Supplicationum Libellorum Masters as they are called of Requests who by their monthly turns of waiting have commonly an audience twice in every moneth of our Kings and Princes who are as the mercy seat upon Earth the Pool of Bethesda the Asculapius Temple the Balm of Gilead Asylum sanctuary or refuge to help all the distresses and calamities of their people And that in all our Parliaments since the beginning of the Raign of King Edward 3. they have inter their quaedam Ardua taken alwaies into their care not only those of England but of Ireland Scotland Gascogney Guernsey Jarsey and the Isles though they have no Burgesses or any other representing for them as England hath had since the 48th year of the Raign of King Henry the third which considered with the many cares of collecting and gathering in his Revenue and well ordering
the horrible Murder and Cruel death of my Lord and Father my Brother Rutland and my Cosen of Salisbury and others And I thank you right heartily and I shall be unto you by the grace of Almighty God as Good and Gracious a Soveraign Lord as ever was any my noble progenitors to their Subjects and Leigement and for the faithful and loving hearts and also the great labour that you have born and sustained towards me in the recovering of my Right and Title which I now possess I thank God with all my heart and if I had any better to reward you withal than my Body you should have it the which shall alwaies be ready for your defence neither sparing nor letting for no Jeopardy praying you also of your hearty assistance and continuance as I shall be unto you very righteous and loving Leige Lord. And the bloody Wars betwixt the two great contending Families of York and Lancaster those Factions tired on both sides and the Attainders and Confiscations on both sides in the Raign of King Edward the fourth with the Marriage of King Henry the seventh with the Daughter and heir of King Edward the fourth his two Sons being Murdered by their Uncle Richard the third who died without Issue and King Henry the eight his quarrelling with the Pope and confiscating the monasteries and Abbies gratifying many of the Nobility with much of their Lands and much obliging them thereby and enriching many of the Tenents and making them and their families to be Gentlemen that durst not own or approach that Title before and the short Raigns of King Edward 6. and Q Mary busied by the one in the setting up of the Protestant Religion and the other in reducing Popery to its former Station gave a long tranquility from State disturbances augmented by Q. Elizabeths 44 years glorious peaceable Raign not only in the propagation defence of it here but in many other parts of Christendom and gave a peaceable entrance to King James her next Heir and Successor who met with two Grand Assaults of Treason the one of Sr. Walter Rawleigh and others who fetching that Lawless Doctrine and Peice of Law some hundreds of years before set up that allegiance is due to the Crown and not to the person of the King long before condemned in Parliament in the example of Hugh le Despencer in the Raign of King Edward the third and the other being the Gunpowder Treason was miraculously discover ed almost in the very instant of executing thereof and although villainously Wicked and Horrid fell much short of our last long Rebellion both as unto the length of time and Hypocrisy shedding of Blood Massacres abuse of God and the Holy Scriptures and the levelling and utter destruction of a most Ancient and Glorious Monarchy King James in the 22th year of his Raign over England departing this life not by taking an ill advised Medicine to expel an Ague as was villainously reported but upon a careful examination could never be proved to have been other than Innocent though recommended by the Earl of Warwick then as it after appeared none of our Monarchy Favorites King Charles the first his Son succeeding shortly after espoused the Lady Henrietta Mary Daughter of Henry the fourth King of France made a League Offensive and Defensive with the States of the United Provinces and besides two well exercised Regiments under English Commanders paid by the Dutch sent unto them four gallant Regiments more under the several Commands of the Earls of Oxford Essex and Southampton and Lord Willoughby of Eresby and a well Rig'd and Furnished Fleet against the King of Spain landed at Cales whence without doing the business designed they returned home The Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Bristol in the mean time accusing in Parliament each other of Treason and Misdemeanors acted whilst the King as Prince was in Spain the one for the promoting the Marriage with the Infanta of Spain the other for hindering of it whereupon followed the imprisonment of the Earl of Bristol in the To wer of London and the King being put to great charges in his sending Embassadors and mediation in the obtaining a considerable part of the last Palatinate to be restored to his Brother in Law and to be made an eighth Elector to be joyned with the former seven and with the yearly payment of giving great pensions to the distressed King and Queen of Bohemia his four Nephews and two Neices under the burden of great Debts and Necessities much augmented by the costly furnishing out a Fleet of Ships and a gallant Army to invade the Isle of Ree in France to divert the King of France from subduing of Rochel the Inhabitants whereof had supplicated him for Aid which produced none other effect but the loss of all his hopes therein by the ill conduct of the Admiral to the loss of some gallant men yet was so unwilling to forsake those oppressed Protestants as he after sent two if not three other Fleets strongly furnished Ships with Men Arms and Ammunition to relieve them under more Skilful Commanders who endeavouring all that men could do were constrained to return home and leave those Protestants to the over-powering forces by Land of the King of France and in the midst of his own pressures and great wants of Money having no more of his own Royal Revenue to support these expences than about 800000 l. sterling per Annum for his Revenue much whereof by the usual Lickings and Cheats of his Trustees Officers and Receivers could never find the way to his Coffers And had been so incessant in his desires to help those oppressed Protestants of France as to procure Money to assist them in that his last attempt he sending to the Citizens of London to lend him 100000 l. They answered they could not for that they had heretofore lent unto his Father King James as much upon Privy Seals which had not been yet repaid although it was but lent by several Citizens to make up that some of Money but if his Majesty would give them a security by some of his own Revenues in Land to pay the first hundred thousand pounds with interest for it they would lend him another hundred thousand pounds and the particular mens names that lent the Moneys to make up the first 100000 pounds were expressed in a Schedule which done as will appear by the said Schedule which I have seen 12000 l. per Annum of old Rents of Assise in Richmondshire or in the County of York were by the King conveyed and granted absolutely unto some Citizens in trust for the City of London for the payment of the said two hundred thousand pounds with the Interest as aforesaid for the said one hundred thousand pounds lent unto King James the Wood and Timber only growing thereupon amounting unto as much as the aforesaid Sums of Money lent with the Interest which over-profitable bargain made by the City of London for
Project Four Abbesses to help them to Cordials in that languishing State of Loyalty they then were in The Earls and Barons were then and long after Great and Noble by Descent Birth Extraction Lands Estate Alliance Command Power and Authority not a few of them by Consanguinity or Affinity deriving their Progeny from the lines of several of their Kings and Princes and much of their Honors and Support from their Bounty and Munificence as they were pleased to dispence them by their influence favors or bounty for great and heroick Actions and Services done for them and the Weal publick and their Authority could not be small either in the Fear or Force of it when at the time of the Norman Conquest all the Lands and Services thereunto belonging of the Kingdom were either the Kings in Demesne or in the Possession of those Great Men and Commanders unto whom he had granted them and that again distributed by them to their Servants Friends or Followers to hold by Knights Service Soccage Copy-hold Leases for Years or Villenage with some Services imposed as going in Person to War to defend them and their Soveraign Castle-guard Carre and Manuopara and the consented unto Reservations or willing Oblations of doing much of their works of Husbandry in the hopes of their Justice in their little Courts or petit Soveraignties Protection and Assistance against the injuries and oppression of wrong Doers and the Comfort of a large and free Hospitality and Charitable uses together with the Foundation and Endowments of many Abbies Priories and religious Houses which obliged both the secular and regular Clergy to love and honour them and the liberi homines or Freeholders were as unto many of them only such as had been manumissed and had from the condition of Servants or Villaines attained unto the degrees of libertini or ingenui or so fortunate as to have some small Parcells of Lands in Fee simple or Tail or for life by Gift Purchase Marriage or Copy-hold granted and given by them most of the Saxon race being so unhappy as to be content to become Tenants to the Conquerours of their own Lands whilst the Nobility and Great Men being more desirous of Service than Money or Rents granted the Service of Men or Tenants that held by Knights Fees or Service or parts thereof one unto another which in those times were in so high Esteem and of such a Value as Ten Knights Fees were reckoned a Satisfaction for a Release of the Claim of that great Office of High Steward of England in Fee by Roger Bygott Earl of Norfolk and his Heirs to Symon de Montfort Earl of Leicester Seven and a half whereof being paid King Henry the Third upon a Reference of the Controversy betwixt the said Earles unto him made his Award That the said Symon should Execute the said Office of High Steward and the said Roger should bring his Action for the other Two Knights Fees and a half and the English Nobility having all the great offices and places of Honour of the Kingdom and about the Persons of their Kings with their Influence Power and Authority in their great Councels or Parliaments and thereby the Opportunities of pleasing and displeasing hurting or helping whom they would were as to many of them and not a few of the common People like the righteous Job in his Prosperity when they came out to the Gates of the City the Eares that heard them blessed them the Eyes that saw them gave Witness unto them they delivered the Poor that cryed and the Fatherless and them that had none to help them the Blessing of those that were ready to perish came upon them they caused the Widdows hearts to sing for joy were Eyes to the blind Feet to the lame and Fathers to the poor brake the Jawes of the Wicked and pluckt the Spoyl out of their Mouths their Root was spread out by the Waters and the Dew lay all night upon their Branches they gave ear unto them waited and kept silence at their Councel And could not be slighted or taken to be Benefits of a small size or esteem but to be very great and worthy the seeking and obtaining when Threescore and Ten Thousand Knights Fees every one of which being then no small Estate either as to the extent of the Lands or the Value thereof as Ordericus Vitalis who lived in the time of the Conqueror hath numbred them or but about Thirty two Thousand as Mr. Selden believeth were given by William the Conqueror to his Nobility Great Men and Followers to be holden of him his Heirs and Successors in Capite and all the other Lands of the Kingdom except those large quantities which were King Edward the Confessor as appertaining to the Crown of England and what else he kept in his own Possession and Demesne and besides what he endowed and founded divers Abbys Monasteries Priories and Nunneries withal to hold of him and his Heirs and Successors in Capite and by Knights Service were again as unto a great part thereof distributed and granted by his Nobility great Men and Followers to their Dependants Servants Tenants and Friends to hold of them by Knight-Service Which drawing to it by the Feudal Laws part of the fundamental Laws of England and incorporated therein Wardships no Slavery Burden or Grievance if rightly used or understood but a Protection Comfort and Benefit as well publick as private Reliefs Education Protection and Marriage of their Heirs in their Minority which was the greatest Concernment of their Families did put and render the Commonalty under the Patronage and Tutelage of the Nobility and great Men Subordinate to the King their Soveraign and common Parent which many other Nations and the greatest Pretenders and Enjoyers of Liberties in the Christian World have not onely deemed but experimented to be an Happiness Insomuch as if it were to be tryed by the Suffrage and Experience of our English Ancestors if they could from the Dead be produced and heard to speak in the Affairs and Case of England and a due Consideration had of the Security had and long enjoyed by the Northern parts thereof by the Tenures by Cornage assisted by that of Knight-Service and Capite and the Residence of the Baronage of those Countryes against the dayly and nightly Incursions and Spoil of their then ill Neighbours the Picts and Scots which amounted unto as much or more than the costly Wall and Fortifications which the Romans built and provided against them together with the Safety and Guard which a great part of England hath been often defended by the Lords Marchers against the Hostilities and Unquietness of the Welch it 's former Owners would bring us in a verdict of O felices bona si sua nôrint Which must needs attract the Love good Will Fear Awe and Obedience of the People who so well understood their own conditions and that of the Nobility as to believe that to quarrel or be
incepit a quarto die Aprilis Anno. Regni dicti patris nostri 48 quando vexillis explicatis exivit cum exercitu suo ab Oxonia versus Northt duravit continue usque Sextum decimum diem Septembris Anno Regni dicti patris nostri xl nono quando apud Wyntouiam pacem suam post bellum de Evesham in presentia Baronum suorum qui ibidem convenerant firmari fecit clamari no Commons or Knights or Burgesses representing for them Provisium fuit etiam ne aliquis amittteret vitam vel membra pro Roberiis aut homicidiis aut aliis commissis sub specie guerrae per illos qui contradictum patrem nostrum erant a quarto die Junii Anno Regni ejusdem patris nostri xlvii quando illi vexillis explicatis primo per terram suam incedentes roberias homicidia incarceraciones tam personis Ecclesiasticis quam secularibus fecerunt usque ad predictum tempus quo ab Oxonia versus Northt cum exercitu suo recessit De aliis autem quae tempore illo sub specie guerrae non fiebant haberetur tempus illus velnd tempus pacis A tempore autem supradicto quo apud Winton pacem suam firmari fecit clamari curreret Lex pro ut tempore pacis currere consuevit Ita tamen quod illi qui fuerint apud Axeholm sive apud Kenill vel Insula Elyens vel apud Cestrefeld vel postmodum apud Suwerk observaretur plene pax sua prout eam habere deberent sive per dictum de Kenileworth sive per privilegia sua de pace sua sibi concessa De illis autem qui cum Com. Gloverniae in ultima turbatione fuerunt observaretur pax facta inter dictum patrem nostrum ipsum Com. Ita quod a tempore quo dicto Comes recessit a Wall versus London usque ad diem quo recessit a Civitate praedict non procederent Justic. contra ipsum vel eos qui erant in parte sua Et hoc de illis tantummodo intelligeretur De depredationibus autem utrobique factis tempore praedicto observaretur hoc quod pace inter dictum patrem nostrum ipsum Comitem facta continetur Et ideo vobis mandamus quod hec omnia in prefato Itinere diligenter observari faciatis T. R. apud Kickleton xix die Marc. 6. E. 1. He commanded the Sheriffs to distrain every man that had 20 l. per Annum in Land or a whole Knights Fee of the liâ—e value and hold of him in Capite milites esse debent ad arma militaria within such a Time a nobis suscipiend which was like a Nursery for military affairs for the continuance of those gallant necessaries for publique Defence in and by the obligations of their Tenures wherein a great part of our Fundamentall Laws Oaths of Allegeance Loyalty and Duties of Subjects do subsist And by an Inquisition taken in the same Year at Launceston in Cornwall by a Commission out of his Court of Exchecquer it was found by a Jury that Dominus ratione Regiae dignitatis Coronae suae habet privilegium quod nullus in Regno suo aliquo qui sit de Regno Angliae alieni homagium sine fidelitatem facere debeat vel aliquis hujusmodi homagium vel fidelitatem ab aliquo recepire debeat nisi facta mentione de fidelitate domino Regi debita eidem Dominus Regi observanda Episcopus Exon adfuit contrarium c. Et in contemptu c. Et le Evesque mis a respond And like a second Justitian did cause John le Breton one of the Justices of the King's-bench Or as others have written Bishop of Hereford to compile in his name a Book of the Laws and Customs of England wherein the King directring the Book to all the People which were under his protection par la Soufrance de Dieu saith for that peace could not be without Laws he had caused those which had been heretofore used in his Realm to be put in Writing which he Willed and Commanded should be Observed in all England and Ireland en toutz pointz Sauve a nous de repealer de eunoiter d' amander a toutz les faitz que nous verron que bon a nous serra par l'assent de nos Countes de nos Barons autres de nostre Conceil Sauve les usages a ceux que prescription de temps oul autrement use en taint que leur usages soyent mys discordants a droiture in which Book and the Droits de Roy there is no mention made of the Election and Summoning of Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses to Parliament By his Edict or Proclamation prohibited the burning of Seacole in London and the Suburbs thereof for avoiding its noysom Smoak and without any Act of Parliament divided Wales into Shires and ordained Sheriffs there as was used in England caused some London Bakers not making their bread as they ought to be drawn upon Hurdles and 3 men for rescuing a prisoner arrested by an Officer to have their right hands cut off by the Wrists Fined without advice or assent of Parliament which might well be so understood to have been so upon the Act of Parliament in Anno 3 of his Reign ordained that such offenders should be ransomed and Punished at the Kings Will and Pleasure Sr Ralph Hengham Chief Justice of his Bench 7000 Marks Sr John Lovetot Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 3000 Marks Sr William Brompton 6000 Marks Sr Solomon Rochester or Roffey 4000 Marks Sr Richard Boyland as much Sr Thomas Sodenton 2000 Marks Sr William Saham 3000 Marks Roobert Littlebury Clark Master of the Rolls 1000 Marks Roger Leicester no less Henry Bray Escheator and Justice of the Jews 1000 Marks Sr Adam Stratton Chief Baron of the Exchequer 34000 Marks and Thomas de Weyland being the greatest delinquent and of the greatest substance could not be so easily excused but was Banished and had all his Goods and Estate Confiscate to the King only John de Metingham Elias de Beckingham two of the itinerant Judges to their eternall honour saith Henry Spelman appearing Guiltless and Righteous in that severe and Kingly examination and Justice purged his Courts of Justice and the Officers and clarks thereof from Bribery and extortion banished the usury of the Jews hanged 297. of them for abusing the Coyn and Money of the Kingdom curbed the pretended Independent power of the Clergy Clipped their Jurisdictions and upon their refusall to pay Tallage towards his Wars Seized many of their Temporallities put them out of the protection of his Laws and Justice and caused them to be excluded out of one of his Parliaments untill their Submission whom he had by wofull experience understood to have had too great an Influence upon some of the unquiet Nobility Made himself the Arbitrator and Umpire betwixt the many great Pretenders to
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