Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	fee_n	lord_n	tenant_n	2,248	5	9.7444	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78243	The case of the Commission of Array stated.		1642 (1642)	Wing C1043; Thomason E123_18; ESTC R2127	3,243	7

THE CASE OF The Commission of Array Stated Octob 20 1642 IT is a true saying that a Case rightly put is halfe adjudged It shall therefore be necessary to set down the true state of that great question which doth so much perplex mens minds about the Commission of Array whereby such as are doubtfull may the better have satisfaction therein First then it shall be necessary to take knowledge of the Originall of imposing of Armes and wherein latter times have varyed from that ancient course Fortescue de legibus Angliae Cap. 13 I conceive that the defence of this Realme doth properly and solely belong unto the King who is to protect the persons and estates of all his Subjects against forraigne enemies Qui ad tutelam corporis bonorum erectus est with which agreeth the Myrror of Justice pa. 8. in the new print Estreint de eux un Roy a regner sur eux governer le peuple de Dieu à maintainer defender les persons les biens en quiet per les rules de droit The King for his assistance herein that he might the better inable himselfe to defend his Subjects granted Lands to men of eminency to be holden of him by Knights service to some by Esenage to others by Castle guard and the like as he thought sit Some of these held their Lands by one Knights see some by two Knights fees others by three some by the fourth some by the hundredth pare of a Knights see according to the value and quantity of such Lands he was pleased to confer upon him He that thus held his Lands by one whole Knights fee was to attend the Prince in his Warres either in person or by an able man forty dayes well and compleatly arrayed for War He that held his Lands by three Knights fees was to do the like service with three men Such as held by that fourth part of one Knights fee was to attend one day furnished as aforesaid And he that held by more fees more and by Jesse lesse time according to the proportion of their Tenures By these Tenants the Princes Army was in time of War surnished with souldiers for the defence of the Realme Fortescue fol. 108. But such as held their Lands in Soccage were not bound to warfare they were only such as held by Knights service By this we now see that the Kings auxiliary helpes for defence of the Realmo say searrered abroad in all parts of the Kingdome and it was a dissicult and intricate businesse to know how many Tenants the King had who were thus bound to assist him and to know every Tenants proportion of Armes which he was to finde and for what time Therefore to facilitate this businesse there was an Officer appointed in every County known by the name of the Feoder who was to keepe Rolles of all such as held their Lands by Knights service and by what quantity of Knights fees they were held and to return his Rolls into the Kings Court that so he might be informed how many fees he had in each County that so upon all emergent occasions he might require their services In former times these Rolles were constantly returned into the Exchequer there to remaine of Record where many of them are yet this day to be seene And in former times this State was so tender in preserving of these Tenures that in case any were alienated whereby they might come into Mortmaine without speciall licence of the King those Lands so aliened were forfeited unto the next superiour Lord of the Fee When the King had occasion to use his Tenants in the Warres hee issued out Commissions to certaine men thereby giving them power to call all such his Tenants before them and to see them Armed and Arrayed according to their severall Tenures by which they held their Lands But you must remember that such as held not their Lands by such services were not to be charged with any Armes as appeareth by the Statutes of 1 Ed. 3. cap. 5.25 Ed. 3. cap. 8. Fortescue de legibus Angliae fol. 108. Now to apply this to the case in hand A Gentleman holds Lands of the King by 20. Knights Fees and hee is bound by his Tenure to maintaine twenty men for the Kings service in his Warres for forty dayes It will be granted that he cannot performe all these services in his owne person for he cannot personally performe the service but of one man and for his owne person also the Law giveth him power to substitute an able man in his roome So then the services of the other nineteene men being defective in him they must be supplyed by others at his charge and they also must be such men as hold not by the like Tenures de suo proprio i. e. in their owne right for if they should then their owne services would be defective for their owne Tenures and the King should be at a losse for want of their owne personall services for that man which doth serve with another mans Arms would save that service of his owne Lands which hee himselfe doth hold by the like Tenure And this may be the reason wherefore the person substituted must be such a one as hath not Lands de suo proprio The Tenures and persons being thus compleated by the Commissioners they had power to try drill and exercise them so as they might bee made fit for service in defence of the Kingdome And this is the true use of the Commission of Array so much talked of And to conceive that those Commissioners had by vertue of their Commission any power to assesse Arms upon any man other then as aforesaid were to give an interpretation directly against the Law Ass 42. Pl. 5.7 Dyer fo 175. Scrogs Case For a Commission to take a man and his goods hath been by all the Judges agreed to be illegall Fortescue de legibus fol. 108. And Fortescue who lived about the time of the making of that Statute which is extended to warrant the Commission of Array now so much stood upon and who was chiefe Justice in the next succeeding Kings raigne saith that Soccage Land is not bound to Armes Et contemporaria expositio est optimus interpres Out of all which premisses it may be concluded that they who stand so much for the Commission of Array do not state the question aright but doe herein as they in the Case of Episcopacy who argue only of the name but not of the thing in question It will be granted that Commissions of Array have been long in use but not in that sense those men would have them to be with a Legislative power in the Commissioners to impose what Armes they think fit upon the persons and estates of men at their pleasure for they are only to see that the King be not deceived in his Armes nor the Common-wealth wronged for want of defence and protection by the withdrawing of any services due It will be difficult to produce any authenticall warrant to prove that the Kings of this Realme have at any time legally exercised any power of imposing of Armes by their Prerogative but what Armes they have imposed have been by vertue of some Act of Parliament Tenures excepted And why by Parliament if the Kings of this Realme had by their Prerogative power to impose cannot be imagined That Armes were imposed by Parliament may be instanced for many hundreds of yeares both before and since the Conquest In Canutus his time a Satrapas was charged with eight horses whereof foure were with Saddles and foure without Saddles foure Helmets foure Jackets eight Lances eight Bucklers foure Swords and two hundred markes in money The Thanus Regius was charged with halfe that proportion but if he were but a common Thane he was only charged with one Horse and Armes and this imposition was by Parliament Lamb. Saxon Lawes fol. 120 135 125. So likewise were the impositions of King Edward the Confessor and William the Conquerour by Parliament For the times since the Conquest it may be instanced in the Statutes of Westminster the first Anno 3. Ed. 11. ca. 7. Stat. of Winchester 13. Ed. 1. Stat. 33. H. 8. cap. 5. And by 4. 5. Phil. Mar. cap. 2. All former Lawes made for imposing of Armes were repealed and another kinde of imposing of Armes viz. According to mens estates either in Lands or Goods ordained and the same yeare viz. 5. Mar. c. 3. A Statute was made whereby they were compellable at Musters to shew these Armes and for the Mustering and Trayning of them but this Statute of 5. Mar. for imposing of Armes being repealed it may and not without some reason be conceived that the Statute of 5. Mar. ca. 3. for Mustering of them is now also repealed being only a shadow that waited upon that body It cannot be denyed but that the King hath had ayde of the Subject towards his Warres as the ninth Lamb and the ninth Fleece for two yeares but this was by grant of the Subject Stat. 14. Ed. 3. cap. 20. not by vertue of any imposition by Commissioners of Array or by Prerogative And being a gift of the Subject it may not be produced for a President to give warrant to Commissioners to impose Armes by vertue of the Kings Prerogative as some doe surmise FINIS