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
they endeavoured to doe but were over-reached by the Military Arts and Stratagems of the Montfortian Party the King having the Castle of Kenilworth surrendred unto him Symon and Guy de Montfort Sons to the Earl of Leicester with the disinherited Barons who escaped from the Battel of Evesham defending the Isle of Ely the King and the Prince going with an Army against them streightly besieged them and tendred them afterwards gentle Conditions wherein the King 's Privy Councel were divided for that Mortimer having the whole Earldom Honor and great Estate of the Earl of Oxford after the battle of Evesham granted unto him and many others who had great Quantities of the disherited Parties Lands given unto them were unwilling to forgo what the King had for their Valour and Fidelity bestowed upon them and therefore would hold what they had but Gloucester and the Twelve Ordained to deal for the Peace of the State and other their Friends which were many stood stifly for a Restoration Which raised new Displeasures so as Gloucester retired from the Court and sent a Messenger to require the King to remove Strangers from his Court and observe the Provisions made at Oxford according to his last Promise made at Evesham otherwise he should not marvel if himself did what he thought fit whereupon in the one and fiftieth year of his Raigne at S t. Edmunds-Bury was a Parliament summoned unto which were cited Comites Barones Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates and all who held by Knights Service were to appear with Horse and Armour for the vanquishing of those disherited Persons who contrary to the Peace of the Kingdom held the Isle of Ely John de Warren Earl of Surrey and William de Valentia were sent to the Earl of Gloucester who had leavied an Army upon the Borders of Wales to come in a fair manner to that Parliament which he refused to do but gave it under his hand that he would never bear Arms against the King or his Son Edward but to defend himself and pursue Roger Mortimer and other his Enemies for which he pretended to have taken Armes The first Demand in that Parliament which was made by the King and the Legat was That the Clergy should grant a Tenth for three Years to come and for the Years past so much as they gave the Barons for defending the Coasts against the Invasion of Strangers Whereto they answred That the War was begun by unjust Desires which yet continued and it was more necessary to treat of the Peace of the Kingdom to make use of the Parliament for the benefit thereof and not to extort Moneys considering the Land had been so much destroy'd by the War as it would never be recovered When it was required That the Clergy might be taxed by Laymen according to the just Value They answer It was neither Reason nor Justice that they should intermeddle in collecting the 10 th which they would never consent unto but would have the Antient Taxation to stand It was desired That they would give the 10 th of their Baronies and Lay-fees according to their utmost values They answered That they were impoverished in attending the King in his Expeditions and their Lands lay untilled by reason of the Wars It was moved That in liev of a 10 th they should give among them 30000 Marks to discharge the King's Debts contracted concerning the Kingdom of Sicily They answered They would give nothing in regard that all those Taxations and Extortions formerly made by the King were never converted to his own Use or the Benefit of the Kingdom Demand being made That all the Clergy-men which held Baronies or other Lay-fees should personally serve in the Wars They answer They were not to sight with the Material Sword but the Spiritual and that their Baronies were given of mere Almes Being required to discharge the 9000â— which the Bishops of Rochester Bath and the Abbot of Westminster stood bound to the Pope's Merchants for the King's Service at their being at the Court of Rome They answered That they never consented to pay such Loan and therefore were not bound to discharge it Then the Legate from the Pope required That without delay Praedication should be made throughout the Kingdom to incite men to take the Cross for the Recovery of the Holy Land Whereunto Answer was made That the greatest part of the People were already consumed by the Sword and that if they should undertake that Action there would be none left to defend the Kingdom and the Legate seemed to desire to extirpate the Nation and introduce Strangers Lastly when it was urged That the Praelates were bound to yield to all the Kings Demands by their Oath at Coventry where they did Swear to aid him by all means possible they could They answered that when they took that Oath they understood no other Aids than Spiritual and wholsome Councell So nothing but Denyals being obteyned in that Parliament the Legat imployed some to Sollicite the disherited Lords that held the Isle of Ely to leave off their Robberies and return to the Peace of the King the Faith and Unity of the Church according to the Form provided by the Dictum de Kenilworth made by a Commission of the King no Dict or Act of Parliament to 12 of the Peers for the Redemption of their Inheritances given away by the King for Five say some other Seven years Profits They who had no Lands were to give their Oaths and to find Sureties for their Peaceable Behaviour and make such Satisfaction and undergo such Penances as the Church should appoint they who were Tenants should lose their right to their Farmes saving the right of their Lords they who did instigate any to Fight against the King should forfeit the Profit of their Lands for two years and if any Person should refuse those Conditions they should be de Exhereditatis and have no power of recovering their Estates in which Composition or Dictum some Persons and particularly Symon de Montfort himself and his Heirs were excluded To which they answered That they hold the Faith received from their Catholick Fathers and their Obedience to the Roman Church as the Head of all Christianity but not to the Avarice and wilful Exactions of those who ought to Govern the same And that their Praedecessors and Ancestors whose Heirs they were having Conquered the Land by the Sword they held themselves to be unjustly disherited and that it was against the Popes Mandate they should be so dealt withal That they had formerly taken their Oaths to defend the Kingdom and Holy Church all the Prelates thundring the Sentence of Excommunication against such as withstood the same and according to that Oath they were prepared to spend their Lives and seeing they Warred for the benefit of the Kingdom and Holy Church they were to sustain their Lives by the Goods of those that detained their Lands which the Legat ought to cause to be
Petition They pray that the Customs of the Merchants cease and they make their own conduct To which was answered le Roys ' avisera and thereupon will answer in convenable manner Anno 13. E. 3. they pray that a Justice of the one Bench or the other may come twice a year into the Counties beyond Trent To which the King answered as touching this point l' Roys ' avisera Which amounted not to a denyal for the Judges went Circuit thither afterwards Anno 37. E. 3. They pray that none be impeached for making Leases for Life in time of Pestilence nor hereafter for Lands holden in Capite without Licence of Alienation To which the King answered This requires a great deliberation and therefore the King will advise therein with his good Councel how this right may be saved and the Grands and Commons of this Land eased Anno 45. E. 3. they Petition for the free passage of Woolls To which was answered Estoit sur avisement Anno 50. E. 3. They pray that a Fine levied by Infants and Feme Coverts may be reversed within three years after they come to years or their Husbands Death To which the King answered le Roys ' avisera tanque al procheine Parliament de changer le loy devant used And it was the observation of Mr. Noy that faithful and learned Attorney of his late Majesty that in the Raign of King E. 3. in whose time the Answers of le Roys ' avisera first began by reason of his being continually in War beyond the Seas the King or his Councel had no leisure or at least no will to answer so in time s' avisera became as bad as a denyal and no other Answers given to such Petitions shewed that the King was not pleased to grant them The Commons alledging that notwithstanding the Statute made concerning Lands seized into the Kings hands by his Escheators the Lands after Enquest taken and before it can be returned into Chancery are granted to Patentees and before the Tenant can be admitted to traverse the Lands are many times wasted do pray that none be outed by reason of such Enquests until they be returned into the Chancery and the Occupiers warned by Scire facias to answer at a day to come when if they do not appear and traverse and find Sureties to answer the profits and commit no wast if it be found for the King and that if any Patent be granted or any thing done to the contrary the Chancellor do presently repeal the same and restore the Complaint to his possession without warning the Patentee or other occupier as well for the time past as the time to come The Answer unto which was The King willeth and Commands upon great pain that the Escheators hereafter do duly return all their Enquests in the Term and upon the pain heretofore ordained by the Statutes And further it is accorded by the Lords of the Realm if it please the King that before such Enquests be returned into the Chancery the King shall not hereafter make any Patent of such Lands in debate unto any c. And that the King of his abundant grace will abstain one month after such return within which time the party may traverse the Office and that the King will not make any Patent of such Lands unto any Stranger and if after any be made it shall be void But touching that which is demanded of Patentees made hereafter le Roys ' avisera It being observed by that worthy Observator that as he conceived the first part was answered by the Kings Councel and by them reported to the Lords who added the rest of the Answer if it please the King And yet the said Answer is vacated upon the Roll being Crossed all over with a Pen and the reason thereof given in the margent with a contrary hand to that of the Roll which sheweth that it was done after the Parliament was ended and after the said Roll was ingrossed viz. Quia dominus noster Rex noluit istam responsionem affirmare sed verius illam negavit pro magna parte dicens soit usez come devant en temps de ses nobles progenitors Roys d Angle terre out ad estre use Et ideo cancellatur damnatur And there can be no question but this answer in the affirmative was allowed at the least not denyed at the time of the Royal assent and that afterwards when the Statute was to be drawn up the King taking advantage of the words si plest au Roy did deny it and so the Roll was vacated And the Councel which ought to be intended the Kings Privy Councel for the Lords were the Kings great Councel and they or any Committee of them assisted by the Judges whilst the Parliament was in being were at the dissolution or proroguing thereof all gone out of their former power or employ and nothing ought to debar a King from advising with his Privy Councel by whose Advice as the Writs of Summons do import his greater Councel was called to assist them as well as himself in the time of Parliament or after it was ended and whether the one or the other had just cause to advise the King not to grant that Petition for it omitted the finding of Sureties to commit no Wast and to answer the Issues to the King which the Commons offered in their Petition and the Lords if the King so pleased that no Patent be made to any stranger of the Lands in debate which the Commons never desired But the Councel were the willinger to let it pass because it was in the Kings Power to deny it afterwards as he did whereas had it been the practice of those times the Councel would rather have kept back the Answer and not suffered it to have been read at the time of giving the Royal Assent In the fame Parliament after the said Petition was granted and the Assent cancelled as aforesaid the Commons delivered openly in Parliament a great Roll or Schedule and another Bill annexed to the said Roll containing about 41 Articles one of which remains Cancelled and Blotted out And in a Petition do pray the King their Leige Lord and the continual Councellors about him which can be no otherwise understood than of his constant privy Councel that of all the said Articles comprised in the said Roll and Schedule or Bill which are in the file of other Bills in this Parliament good Execution and true Justice be done for the profit of the King our Lord and his whole Realm of England Whereupon after it was said by the Chancellor of England on the Kings behalf to the Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses there present that they sue forth their Writs for their Wages the Praelates and Lords arose and took their leaves of the King their Lord and so departed that present Parliament And after the Parliament ended the Commons delivered unto the Lords two great Bills for
proceres optimates Londoniis convenerunt ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni Of King Edgar who about the year 959. favente Dei gratia not of the People stiling himself totius Angliae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imperator frequenti lenatu proposuit leges populo servandas Of K. Ethelred about the year 980. made sapientum consilio Or in the Senatur consultum Agreement or League made between him and the monticuli Walliae or men of the mountainous parts of Wales Angliae sapientibus Walliae consiliariis Of or by the Laws of King Canutus constituted about the year 1018. ex sapientum consilio Of King Edward the Confessor who reigning about the year 1042. and stiling himself Monarcha Vicarius summi Regis collected out of the Mulmucian Mercian Saxon and Danish Laws and other reasonable Customs used until his time ordained Laws concilio Baronum Angliae Leges 68 annis sopitas excitavit excitatas reparvit reparatas decoravit deboratas confirmavit confirmatae verò vocantur Leges Regis Edwardi non quod ipse primo ad invenisse eas sed cum praetermissae fuissent oblivioni penitus deditae à diebus avi sui Edgari qui 17 annis regnavit ipse Edwardus quia justa erant honesta à profunda abysso extraxit eas revocavit ut suas observandas contradidit And were afterwards by William the Conquerour upon the tears and intercession of the English consilio habito praecatu Baronum per universos Angliae consulatus nobiles sapientes suâ lege eruditos upon the Oaths of twelve men in every County granted and confirmed unto them Of the Laws which he made Universo populo Angliae post subactam terram a time when new Laws are usually made or given and giving much of that Conquered Land Commilitonibus suis being for a great part the same Laws which King Edward the Confessor had before caused to be observed Amongst which Laws said to have been the Laws of William the Conquerour there remains one in these words viz. Statuimus sirmiter praecipimus ut omnes liberi homines totius Regni nostri sint fratres conjurati ad Monarchiam nostram ad Regnum nostrum pro viribus suis facultatibus contra inimicos pro posse suo defendendum virilitèr servandum pacem dignitatem Coronae nostrae integrè observandam ad judicium rectum justitiam constantèr omnibus modis pro posse suo sine dolo sine dilatione faciendam Or in or by his Laws and Charters made and granted tam Francigenis quam Anglis communi Consilio Archiepiscoporum Abbatum omnium principum Regni sui for and concerning the separation and dividing the Ecclesiastical Laws and Jurisdictions from the Temporal and Common Or in or by the codex Legum compiled by King Henry I. ex legibus Salicis Ripuariis Danicis aliarum gentium antiquis Or in or by his Charter granted unto the Baronage and People of England so much approved as when Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury had produc'd it unto some of them that were quarrelling with King John for infringing some parts of their Liberties they did swear That they would live and die in the defence and maintenance thereof Or in a Councel holden Anno Domini 1095. in the 8th year of the Reign of King William Rufus at Pedred coram Rege Archiepiscopo Dorobernensi atque Primatibus totius Regni judicantibus ubi terminata fuit controversia inter Thomam Archiepiscopum Eboracensem Ulstanum Episcopum Wigornensem Or the Charter of King Stephen who granted omnibus Baronibus hominibus suis de Anglia omnes libertates bonas leges quas Henricus Rex Angliae avunculus suus eis dedit concessit omnes bonas Leges bonas consuetudines eis concessit quas habuerunt tempore Regis Edwardi Or in the agreement made afterwards between him and Maud the Empress and her Son touching the succession of the Crown of England Or in any of those which King Henry II. granted restored and confirmed Deo sanctae Ecclesiae omnibus Comitibus Baronibus omnibus hominibus suis omnes consuetudines quas Rex Henricus avus suus eis dedit concessit adjecta sanctione ut libere quiete plenario tenerentur Or in the Letter or Epistle which he wrote unto Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury which probably if it were extant would not contradict the Rules and Laws of his Government Or in the great Councel of Clarendon holden by the same King where a recognition of many of the ancient Laws and Customs of the Nation concurrentibus Episcopis Proceribus congregato clero populo tunc praecepit Rex universis Comitibus Baronibus Regni Or when he held a great Councel at Northampton coram Epilcopis Comitibus Baronibus terrae Assisaw fecit eam teneri praecepit scilicet quod Regnum suum divisit in sex partes perquarum singulas tres Justicias constituit Or that of King Richard I. holden at London congregatis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus Regni sui Or by King John's permitting the Speech or Oration which Hubert Walter Archbishop of Canterbury made unto him at his Coronation after the Death of King Richard I. at London in praesentia Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum Baronum aliorum omnium qui ejus Coronationi interesse debuerant ubi stans in medio omnium dixit audite universi noverit discretio vestra quod nullus praeviâ ratione alii succedere habet Regnum nisi ab universitate regni unanimitur invocata spiritus electus secundum morum suorum eminentiam prae-electus ad exemplum similitudinem Saul primi Regis in uncti quem praeposuit Dominus Populo suo non Regis filium nec de Regali stirpe procreatum similiter post eum David Jessae filium hunc quia strenuum aptum dignitati Regiae illum quae sanctum humilem ut sic qui evectus in Regno supereminet strenuitate omnibus praesit in potestate regimine verum si quis ex stirpe Regis defuncti aliis praepolleret pronius promptius in electionem ejus est consentiendum haec idcirco diximus pro inclyto Conite qui praesens est fratre illustrissimi Regis nostri Richardi jam defuncti qui haerede caruit ab eo egrediente qui providus strenuus manifeste Nobilis quem nos invocatâ spiritus sancti gratiâ rationi tam meritorum quam sanguinis Regii ananimiter elegimus universi Whereupon saith Daniel agreeing therein with Matthew Paris the Archbishop being after by some of his Friends questioned for so doing confessed that he fore-saw whatsoever blood and mischief it should cost his Title by Succession in the life of his Nephew Arthur
Canterbury in the behalf of the State of his Oath made and taken by others for him upon the Peace made with Lewis for confirmation of the Liberties of the Kingdom for which the War was begun with his Father without which the whole State would again fall assunder and they would have him to know it betimes to avoid those miserable inconveniencies which might happen William Brewere a Councellor urging it to have been acted by constraint and therefore not to be performed Notwithstanding which it was at that time being the 7th year of his Reign promised by the King to be ratified and a Commission was granted by Writs unto Twelve Knights in every Shire to examine What were the Laws and Liberties which the Kingdom enjoyed under his Grandfather and return the same by a certain day which saith the learned and judicious Sir Henry Spelman were never returned or could not be found In the mean time the Earls of Albemarl Chester and divers of the Nobility assemble together at Leicester with intent to remove from the King Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justiciar and other Officers that hindred their motion but the Archbishop of Canterbury by his Spiritual Power and the rest of the Nobility being careful to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom stood to the King and would not suffer them to proceed therein so as they were constrained to come in and submit themselves And the King in Parliament resumed such alienations as had been made of the Lands appertaining to the Crown by any of his Ancestors to the end he might live of his own and not be chargable to the People The next year after being the 8th year of his Reign another Parliament was holden at Westminster where the King required the Fiftieth part of all the movables both of the Clergy and Laity but Mat. Paris more probably saith the Fifteenth for the recovering of those parts in France which had been held from the Crown being one and the same which is said in Magna Charta to have been granted as a grateful acknowledgment for the grant of their Liberties which though it concerned the Estates of most of the Nobility that had Lands therein would not be yielded unto but upon confirmation of their Liberties atque his in hunc diem prosecutis Archiepiscopus concilio tota Episcoporum Comitum Priorum habita deliberatione Regi dedere responsum quod Regis petitionibus gratunter ad quiescerent si illas diu petitas libertates concedere voluisset annuit itaque Rex cupiditate ductus quod petebant Magnates Chartisque protinus conscriptis Regis sigillo munitis in the next year after for the Charters themselves bear date in the 9th year of his Reign And the several Charters or Copies thereof were sent to the Sheriffs of every County and Twelve Knights were out of every County chosen to divide the Old Forests from the New and lay open all such as had been afforested since the first Coronation of King Henry II. Although at the same time or a little before or after it some of the Nobility who had formerly crowned Lewis of France King and had been the cause of King John's death for which they were banished the Realm endeavouring to return into England and to set up again the French King's Interest and domineer over the King and his faithful Councellors by circumventing Pope Honorius Hubert de Burgh Chief-Justice of England the Earl of Chester and seven other of the King's Councellors sent an Epistle to the Pope desiring him to assist the King and them and prevent those dangerous Plots and Designs And the King having sent also his Proctors to Rome upon the like occasion they returned him an account of a new Confederacy betwixt his discontented Barons and the French King to invade England and dispossess him of the Crown thereof adding thereunto quod Gallici praedicabant omnibus quod majores Angliae obsides offerebant de reddendo siâ—i terram â—um primo venire curaret ad illam adjicientes Si aâ—iquid in curia Romana contra voluntatem Regis Franciae attemptaretur incontmenter Rex transfretaret in Angliam Nor could any such authority accrue to them in or by those Charters called Magna Charta and Charta Forestae granted by King Henry III. his Son which were in very many things but the exmeplaria or patterns of that of King John in the like method and tenour containing very many Liberties and great Priviledges which were by King Henry III. as those Charters do declare of his own free accord granted and confirmed in the 9th year of his Reign to his Subjects and People of England Liberis hominibus Free-men or Free-holders for otherwise it would have comprehended those multitudes of Villains Bondmen and Bond-women which the Nation did then and long after employ and make use of and those very many men accounted by the Laws of England to be as dead men viz. Monks Fryers Priors and Abbots to be holden to Them and their Heirs of Him and his Heirs for ever But in those Charters or his confirmation of them in the 21st and 28th year of his Reign could not procure to be inserted or recorded those clauses which they had by their terrours gained from his Father in these words viz. Nullum scutagium vel auxilium ponam in Regno nostro nisi per commune consilium Regni nostri ad corpis nostrum redimendum ad primogenitum filium nostrum militem faciendum ad primogenitam filiam nostram semel maritandam ad hoc non fiet nisi rationabile auxilium simili modo fiat de auxiliis de Civitate Londinensi quod omnes aliae Civitates Burgi Villae Barones de quinque portubus omnes portus habeant omnes libertates omnes liberas consuetudines suas Et ad habendum commune concilium Regni de auxiliis assidendis aliter quam in tribus casibus praedictis scutagiis assidendis submoneri faciemus Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites majores Barones Regni singillatim per literas nostras Et praetereà faciemus submoneri in generali per Vicecomites Ballivos nostros omnes alios qui in capite tenent de nobis ad certum diem scilicet ad terminum quadraginta dierum ad minus ad certum locum in omnibus literis submonitionis illius causam submonitionis illius exponemus sic facta submonitione negotium procedat ad diem assignatum secundum consilium eorum qui praesentes fuerint quamvis non omnes submoniti Nos non concedimus de caetero alicui quod capiat auxilium de liberis hominibus suis nisi ad corpus suum redimendum ad faciendum primogenitum filium suum militem ad primogenitam filiam suam semel maritandam ad hoc non fiat nisi rationabile auxilium but were constrained to omit altogether and forgo those clauses and provisions which
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-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-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
complaint of the Gascoigns who were under the Government of the Prince that their Wines were taken away by the King's Officers without due satisfaction and the Prince thereupon addressing himself to his Father in their behalf and the Officers in excuse of themselves informing the King that the Prince took upon him to do Justice therein when it belonged not to him the King was put in a great rage and said Behold my Son and my Brother are bent to afflict me as my Grand-father King Henry II. was And being put to his shifts to supply his necessities came himself into his Exchequer and with his own mouth pronounced and made Orders for the better bringing in of his Revenues Farms and Amerciaments under severe penalties that every Sheriff which appeared not yearly there in the Octaves of St. Michael with his money as well of his Farms and Amerciaments as other dues for the first day should be amerced five Marks for the second ten for the third fifteen and for the fourth should be redeemed at the King's pleasure all Cities and Freedoms to be amerced in the same manner and the fourth day making default were to lose their Freedoms the Sheriffs amerced five Marks for not distraining upon every man that having 20 l. Lands per annum came not to be made Knight unless he had before been freed by the King And by examinations of measures of Ale and Wine Bushels and Weights got some small sums of money and about the time of Richard Earl of Cornwal's going to Germany where he was by the privity and approbation of the Councel of State in England elected King of the Romans called a Parliament where bringing his Son Edmond clad in an Apuleian-habit he said Behold my Son Edmond whom God hath called to the dignity of Regal Excellency how fitting and worthy is he of your favour and how inhumane were it in so important a necessity to deny him counsel and aid and shewed them how by the advice and benignity of the Pope and the Church of England he had for the obtaining of the Kingdom of Sicily bound himself under the penalty or covenant of losing the Kingdom of England in the sum of 150000 Marks and had obtained the Tenth of the Clergy of all their Benefices for three years according to the new rates without deduction of expences besides their first-fruits for three years whereupon after many excuses of poverty they promised upon the usual condition of confirmation of Magna Charta to give him 32000 Marks But that not satisfying The next year another Parliament was holden at London where he pressing them again for money to pay his debts the Lords told him plainly They would not yield to give him any thing and if he unadvisedly bought the Kingdom of â—icilly and was deceived in it he was to blame himself therein And repeating their old grievances the breach of his promise contempt of the power of the Church and the Charter which he had solemnly sworn to observe with the insolency of Strangers especially of William de Valence who most reproachfully had given the lye to the Earl of Leicester for which he could not upon complaint to the King have right done him how they abounded in Riches and himself so poor as he could not repress an Insurrection of the Welsh The King thereupon promised by his Oath taken upon the Tomb of St. Edward to reform all his errours But the Lords in regard the business was difficult got the Parliament to be adjourned to Oxford and in the mean time the Earls of Gloucester Hereford the Earl Marshal Bigod Spencer and other great men confederated and provided by strength to effect their desires The King driven into necessities did the better to appease those often-complain'd-of grievances when his own were burthen enough by his Writs or Commissions sent into every County of England appoint quatuor milites qui considerarent quot quantis gravaminibus simpliciores à fortioribus opprimuntur inquirent diligenter de singulis querelis injuriis à quocunque factis vel à quibuscunque illatis à multis retroactis temporibus omnia requisita sub sigillis suis se cùm Baronagio ad tempus sibi per breve praefixum certificent which by any Record or History do not appear saith Sir Henry Spelman to have been ever certified And to obtain money procured the Abbot of Westminster to get his Convent to joyn with him as his surety in a Bond for 300 marks sent Simon Paslieu his trusty Councellor with Letters to other Monasteries to do the like but they refused And the Prince participating in the wants of his Father was for want of money constrained to mortgage the Towns of Stanford Benham and other Lands to William de Valence So that upon the aforesaid adjournment and meeting of the Parliament at Oxford in the 42d year of his Reign brake out those great discontents which had been so long in gathering whither the Lords brought with them great numbers of their Tenants by Knights-Service which were many followers dependants and adhaerents upon a pretence of aiding the King and going against the Welsh where after they had secured the Ports to prevent Foreign aids and the Gates of the City of London with their oaths and hands given to each other not to desist until they had obtain their ends began to expostulate their former Liberties and require the performance according to the Oaths and Orders formerly made the Chief-Iusticiar Chancellor and Treasurer to be ordained by publick choice the twenty four Conservators of the Kingdom to be confirmed twelve by the election of the Lords and twelve by the King with whatsoever else might be advantageous for their own security Whereupon the King seeing their strength and in what manner they required those things did swear again solemnly to the confirmation of them and caused the Prince to take the same Oath Of which Treasonable Contrivances Matthew of Westminster an ancient English Historian of good credit hath recorded his opinion in these words Haec de provisionibus imò de proditionibus Oxon dicta sufficiant And here yet they would not rest the King's Brethren the Poictovins and all other strangers were to be presently removed the Kingdom cleared of them and all the Peers of the Land sworn to see it done The Earl of Cornwal's eldest Son refusing to take the Oath without leave of his Father was plainly told That if his Father would not consent with the Baronage in that Case he should not hold a Furrow of Land in England In the end the King's Brethren and their followers were despoiled of all their fortunes and banished by order under his own hand with a charge not to pass with any Money Arms or Ornaments other than such as the Earls of Hereford and Surrey should allow and appoint with an injunction to the City of Bristol or any other Ports not to permit any strangers or Kinsmen of
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
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
which the Honor of Peverell did consist in Derbyshire fourteen and six in Leicestershire Roger de Montgomery Earl of Shrewsbury had in the Reigns of VVilliam the Conqueror and his Son VVilliam Rufus besides great Possessions in Normandy in VViltshire three Lordships in Surrey four in Hantshire nine in Middlesex eight in Cambridgeshire eleven in Hartfordshire one in Gloucestershire one in Worcestershire two in Warwickshire eleven in Staffordshire thirty in Sussex seventy-seven with the City of Chichester and Castle of Arundell and in Shropshire very many near all that County with the Castle and Town of Shrewsbury Odo Earl of Albermarle and Holderness had shortly after the Conquest given him by William the Conqueror the large Territory of Holderness with fifteen Mannors or Lordships in other Counties that would bear Wheat because he alledged that of Holderness would bear only Oates and had in the Raign of King Henry the Third the Barony of Skipton in Craven with sixteen Knight-Fees a Moyety of the Forrest of Allerdale Caldebec with the Mannor of Cockermouth in the County of Cumberland the Bond Service of the Tenants in Freston a Member of Brustwick in Holderness and in the right of Isabell his Wife the Castle of Carisbrooke and Isle of Wight Robert de Stafford was shortly after the Conquest seized of two Lordships in Suffolk one in Worcestershire one in Northamptonshire twenty in Lincolneshire twenty-six in Warwickshire with eighty-one in Staffordshire Walter de Eureux had shortly after the Conquest two Lordships in Dorsetshire three in Somersetshire one in Surrey one in Middlesex two in Hantshire two in Hartfordshire two in Buckinghamshire and thirty-one besides the Mannors of Saresbury and Ambresbury in Wiltshire and as Sheriff of that County received in Rent one hundred and thirty Hogs thirty-two Bacons two bushels and sixteen gallons of Wheat and as much in Barley bushells and eight gallons of Oates thirty-two gallons of Honey or sixteen Shillings four hundred and forty-eight Hens one thousand and sixty Eggs one hundred Cheeses fifty-two Lambs two hundred Fleeces of Wool having likewise one hundred and sixty-two Acres of arable Lands and amongst the Reves Lands to the value of Forty Pounds per Annum Baldwin de Molis second Son to Gilbert Crispin Earl of Beton Son of Godfrey Earl of Eu natural Son of Richard Duke of Normandy great Grand-Father to William the Conqueror was one of the principal Persons of the Laity that won much Fame at the Conquest and Marrying Aldreda a Neice of the Conqueror had shortly after the Castle of Exeter granted unto him and besides Mola and Sappo had given unto him Werne in Dorsetshire Apely Portlock and Mundeford in Somersetshire one hundred and fifty-nine Lordships in Devonshire and nineteen Houses in Exeter To whose eldest Son Richard was also given the whole Honor and Barony of Okehampton with the Shrievalty of the County of Devon Geffry Mandeville had given him by the Conqueror in Barkshire four Mannors in Sussex twenty-six in Middlesex seven in Surrey one in Oxfordshire three in Cambridgeshire nine in Hertfordshire nineteen in Northamptonshire seven in Warwickshire two in Essex forty with Hurley and the Woods in Barkshire Alan Sirnamed Rufus or Fergaint Son of an Earl of Britany in France had given him by William the Conqueror the Northern part of the County of York called Richmond which with what he had in Yorkshire made one hundred and sixty-six Lordships besides the Castle of Richmond one called the Devises in Wiltshire in Essex eight in Hartfordshire two in Cambridgeshire sixty-three with ten Burgages in Cambridge in Herefordshire twelve Mannors in Northamptonshire one in Nottinghamshire seven in Norfolk eighty-one and in Lincolneshire one hundred and one Together with many others of the Norman Nobility and Adventurers who had great quantities of Lands and Possessions given unto them by that Conquerour of England And some of our English Nobility were so Great Magnanimous and Munificent as at the Coronation of King Edward the First when Alexander King of Scotland his Brother-in-Law came from thence to Westminster to be present and do him Homage Sir Edmond Earl of Kent the King's Brother the Earls of Cornewall Gloucester Pembroke and Earl Warren each of them by themselves Led on their Hands one hundred Knights disguise in their Armes and whame they weren alyght of theyr Horse they let them goo whedyr they wolde and they that cowd them take had them stylle at their own lyking The great Ancestors of whom as well as those that stood with or against King Henry the Third or were but as sad Spectators of those tragick Wars had in their Hospitalities and huge quantities of Lands holden of them as may appear by their Certificates of Knights Fees recorded in one part of the Book called the Red-Book of the Exchequer happily preserved from the Conflagration or great London Fire several Forrests Parks and Chases with multitudes of Castles in some of their Possessions had been the Procurers of many of their own and the common peoples Liberties and Priviledges in the often confirmed Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta with divers great Priviledges Fairs and Markets and had given unto them large Commons of Pasture and Estovers and by their Grants of Markets and Fairs and likewise by their very many Advowsons and Patronages of Churches of a great part of which they had been the Founders Builders and glebe Endowers had to their Spiritual Estates laid upon the Commonalty as great Obligations of Gratitude as they had in the before-recited Temporal Favors and Benefits besides their granting of Leases of part of their demesne Lands at small Rents with reservation of some Service in permitting their Charity and good Will in Copy-hold Lands to Tenants or Servants or their Widdows or Children which at the first was but at the Will of the Lord or for Life or Years to continue and breed into a custom of Inheritance Secundum consuetudinent manerii and enfranchised and made many of them Free-holders permitted many Copy-hold Fines incertain to be made certain where they had been anciently at the Will of the Lord and to be limited by the Chancery or Courts of Justice to the Rent of two Years improved Value and when they do in these later times demise any part of their demesne Lands to a Tenant for twenty-one Years now that the legal Usury or Interest for Money is but six per cent for ten Years purchase do take as many Landlords do now Money before hand at a chargeable Interest and next to the manifold reiterated Blessings of the God of Heaven and Earth together with the favours and benefits of the Elements and superior Regions and astral Influences by and under the divine Providence were as much Blest and Happy under their Kings Princes Bishops and Nobility as any Nation or common People of the World could be or expect to be in their Properties Liberties Protection and Priviledges whom those
of King Edward the Fourth with the allowance of Sir Edward Coke his justly adoring Commentator hath taught us That Tenures in Capite do draw and bring along with them as incidents thereunto Homage which is the most humble and honourable Service and Reverence that a Tenant can do unto his Lord when upon his Knees with his Sword ungirt and his Head uncovered holding his hands between the Hands of his Lord he sweareth and professeth to be his Man of Life and Limb and earthly Worship and to bear him Faith for the Lands and Tenements which he holdeth of him saving the Faith which he holdeth to his Soveraign Lord the King together with Fealty Service in War or instead thereof Escuage Socage Franck Almoigne Homage Auncestrel Grand Serjeanty Petit Serjeanty Tenures in Burgage and Villeinage and then the Lord so sitting Kisseth him And where the Service is not done by the Tenant in Capite or by Knight-Service in Person the Escuage Money or Fine that is to be paid in recompence thereof is to be Assessed by Parliament and if any Controversy do arise whether the Service were done personally or not it shall be tryed saith Littleton by the Certificate of the Marshal of the King in Writing And Tenant saith Sir Edward Coke is derived from the word Tenere and all the Lands in England in the hands of Subjects are holden of the King immediately or mediately for in the Law of England we have not properly any Alodium that is any Subjects Lands that are not Holden unless saith he you will take Allodium for a Tenant in Fee Simple as it is often taken in the Book of Dooms-Day and Tenants in Fee Simple are there called Alodii or Alodiales and he is called a Tenant because he holdeth his Lands of some Superior Lord by some Service and therefore the King in this Sence cannot be said to be a Tenant because he hath no Superior but God Almighty and Praedium domini Regis est directum Dominium cujus nullus est Author nisi Deus And Alodiarius Alode seu Alodium saith Sir Henry Spelman est Praedium liberum nulli Servituti obnoxium but were never so free as to be no Subjects or exempt from Obedience to our Kings in whose Land and Dominion they lived Ideoque Feudo oppositum quod hoc semper alicui subiacet servituti Feuda enim antiquò dicuntur Servitii Fidelitatis gratia proprietate feudi penes dantem remanente usu fructu tantummodo in accipientem transeunte ut ex C. de feud cogn ' collegit Barat ca ' 1. Quamobrem nec vendi olim poterant invito Domino nec ad haeredes Vassalli transiunt nisi de ipsis nominatim dictum esset sed laesa fidelitate adimerentur dicitur à Saxon ' Leod quasi populare dicitur Alodium ab à Privitiva Leed Gallicè Leud pro Vassallo quasi sine Vassallagio sine Onere quod Angli hodie Load appellant Alodium feudo opponitur in antiqua versione LL Canuti ca ' 73. Ubi Sax ' Bocland dicitur quod in Aluredi LL ca ' 36. tota Haereditas vocatur idem esse videtur quod hodiè Fee Simple Dicitur etiam Alodium terra libera quam quis à nemine tenet nec recognoscit licet sit in alieno Districtu Jurisdictione Ita quod solum est sub Domino districtus quoad Protectionem Jurisdictionem And believes the Aloarii mentioned in Dooms-Day Book do signify no more than our Sockmanni or Socage Tenants Cum Germanis Liberos Gallis Nobiles qui militiam ex arbitrio tractantes nullius domini Imperio evocati nulloque sendali gravamine Coerciti sui Juris homines non Feudales seil qui dominium tamen agnoscerent ut locus ille e Domesday citatus plane evincit qui fidelitatem apud nos Jurarent Censum quantulumcunque augebunt siâ—t etiam qui de nomine eos tenâ—isse asserunt ac si Hunnoniorum more adeo sole suum accepissent patrimonium And du Fresue Etymologizing the word Alodiarias saith It is Praedium etiam domino obnoxium possidet tenens Domesday quando moritur Alodiarius Rex inde habet Alleniationem terrae a releife excepta terra sanctae Trinitatis Gulielmus Gemeticensis Lib. 3. Ca. 8. Abbatique locum cum tota villa quam ab Alodiariis auro redemit Thomas Walsinghamus p. 419. Et in definitione Alodialis which he saith is Idem quod Tenens mentioneth Chartam Gulielmi ducis Normanniae p. 1042. In Monasticon Anglicanum Tom. 2. p. 959. Dedi etiam Ecclesiam Radulphi villae umon Allodialem in ipsa villa dedi quoque unum Allodialem in Amundevilla quietam ab omni Consuetudine Bignenius dicit quod significat Haereditatem paternam Terram Et Dominicus de Prorogat ' Allodiorum dictum oppinatur quasi Alo Leuden id est sine Subjectione a voce Leuden quae Germanis paâ—i subire fignificat sicut subjectionem servitium Spelmannus derivat a Leod populare Saxonice Ita ut Aleod sit idem quod Praedium populare oppositum Feudo quod est Praedium dominicale And the Learned du Fresne amongst the various Opinions mustred up by him Concludeth with a Deniquè plerique è doctioribus existimant vocem esse primogeniam Gallicam vel Francicam quae Praedium ac rem proprietario Jure possessum denotat Feudum novum absque domini Concensu alienatum revocari potest a Domino Decis 14. Feudum in dubio praesumitur esse haereditarium non ex pacto providentia Decis 30. n. 22. Feudum antiquum absque concensu domini alienatum ex communi D. l. sententia a filio revocari potest n. 11. And the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-Service were of so high an Esteem and Value amongst the English whereby to do unto their Kings and Country that Honor and Service which was due and might be expected from them in their several Degrees and Stations as the great Lords and other Men of Note did many times purchase or obtain of each other the Homages and Servitia of so many Men or parts of Knights Fees by Deeds or Charters and so much beyond any Money or other kinds of Estate Lands or Offices as Robert Earl of Leicester's Ancestor having at the Coronation of King John agreed to pay unto Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk's Ancestor Ten Knight's Fees for the Purchase of that great Office of High Steward of England of which Seven and an half were paid and a Controversy arising afterwards betwixt the said Earls for the Satisfaction of the Remainder in the 31st Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third the King undertaking to make an Accord betwixt them adjudged Simon Montfort who afterwards ill requited him to have and execute the said Office of High Steward and that Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk who afterwards joyned in the
sed sic eas accepi quemadmodum judicaverunt omnes Optimates Regni Anglorum to wit in a full Parliament which then consisted only of the King and his Nobility Anno Domini 944. King Edmond granted many large liberties and the Mannor of Glastonbury to the Abby thereof cum concilio consensu Optimatum suorum made it seems saith Mr. Pryns in Parliament and a clear evidence that the Nobles of that age were the Kings great Councel and Parliament without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses of which he found no mention in History or Charters Anno 948. there was a Parliament or Councel holden at London under King Edred Cùm universi Magnates Angliae per Regium edictum Summoniti tà m Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates quà m caeteri totius Angliae Proceres Optimates Londini convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni in which Parliament no Knights Citizens or Burgesses are said to have been present Anno 965 or 970. King Edgar with his Mother Clito his Successor the King of Scots both the Archbishops caeterisque Episcopis omnibus Regni proceribus Subscribed his Charter granted to the Abby of Glastonbury communi Episcoporum Abbatum Primorumque concilio generali assensu Pontificum Abbatum Optimatum suorum concilio omnium Primatum suorum without any Commons present assistants and attendants only excepted Anno 975. King Edgar and his Queen Elferus Prince of Mercia Ethelinus Duke of the East-Angles Elfwold his Kinsman Arch-Bishop Dunstan cum caeteris Episcopis Abbatibus Bricknotho Comite cum Nobilitate totius Regni held a Councel at Winchester without any Commons Anno 977. in the Councel of Calne under King Edward omnes Anglorum Optimates were present together with the Bishops and Clergy but no Knights or Burgesses for ought is Recorded Anno Christi 1009. by King Ethelreds Edict Universi Anglorum Optimates at Eanham acciti sunt convenire not the Commons A Parliament was Summoned by King Edward the Confessor concerning Earl Godwyn at Gloucester where Totius Regni Proceres etiam Northumbriae Comites tunc famosissimi Sywardus Leofricus omnisque Anglorum Nobilitas convenêre Et Anno 1052. at London Rex omnes Regni Magnates ad Parliamentum apud London tunc fuerunt Mr. Pryn declaring his Opinion That the former and ancient Parliaments consisted of our Kings and their Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses Summoned to Assist or Advise with them or to Assent unto what they Enacted or Ordained In the 25th Year of his Raign granted Lands and Liberties to Saint Peters Church at Westminster Cum concilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque suorum Optimatum And from the Conquest until that forced something like but not to be accounted a Parliament in the 49th Year of the Raign of King Henry the Third divers Learned good Authors Summae incorruptae fidei no diminishing or additional Record-makers have assured and given Posterity and after Ages such an exact Account of our Parliaments as will leave no ground or foundation of Truth or Reason for any to believe That an Elected part of the Commons were before that Imprisonment of King Henry the Third in the 49th Year of his Raign made or Summoned to be a part of our English great Councels or Parliaments The Charter of William the Conqueror to the Abby of Battel was made Assensu Lanfranci Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis Stigandi Episcopi Cicestrensis Concilio etiam Episcoporum Baronum suorum And that great Conqueror had in the 4th Year of his Raign Concilium Baronum suorum confirmavit Leges Edwardi Confessoris posteaque Decreta sua cum Principibus constituit In the 10th or 11th Year of his Raign Episcopi Comites Barones Regni Regiâ potestate ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis tractandis convocati fuerunt Separated the Courts Temporal from the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Communi concilio concilio Archiepiscoporum suorum caeterorum Episcoporum Abbatum omnium Regni sui and in the Register of Winchelsey Arch-Bishop of Canterbury it is Recorded That Rex Angliae Gulielmus Conquestor in concilio Archiepiscoporum Abbatum omnium Procerum Regni did forbid the Leges Episcopales to be used in any Hundred or other secular Courts And in the 21st Year of the Raign of King Edward the Third Mr. Selden saith There is mention made of a Great Councel holden under the said King William wherein all the Bishops of the Land Earls and Barons made an Ordinance touching the Exemption of the Abby of Bury from the Bishops of Norwich In that great and notable Pleading for three Dayes together at Pynnendon in Kent in the Raign of King William the Conqueror who as Mr. Selden repeats it out of the Leiger Book or Register of the Church of Rochester Anglorum regnum armis conquisivit suis ditionibus subiugavit in the great Controversy betwixt Lanfranc Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Odo Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent the Conquerors half Brother for many great Mannors Lands and Liberties of a great yearly Value which Lanfranc claimed to appertain to his Arch-Bishoprick of which that potent Norman Bishop and Earl had injustly disseized him the King commanded the whole County without any delay to Assemble together as well French as English and more especially such as were well Skilled and Learned in the ancient Laws and Customs of England as Gosfridus Episcopus Constantiensis qui in loco Regis fuit justitiam illam tenuit Elnothus Episcopus de Rovercestria Aegelricus Episcopus de Cicestria Vir antiquissimus legum terrae Sapientissimus qui ex praecepto Regis advectus suit ad ipsas antiquas legum Consuetudines discutiendas edocendas in una Quadrigâ Ricardus de Tonebregge Hugo de Monte Forti Gulielmus de Acres Haymo Vicecomes alij multi Barones Regis ipsius Archiepiscopi aliorum Episcoporum homines multi whose Decisions made by many Witnesses Evidences and Reasons being certified to the King Laudavit laudans cum consensu omnium Principum suorum confirmavit ut deinceps perseveraret firmitèr praecepit Upon a Rebellion of Rafe de Guader a Norman made Earl of Norfolk by the Conqueror Confederating with some discontented English whilst he was absent in Normandy upon Notice thereof given hasted into England where omnes ad Curiam suam Regni Proceres convocavit legitimos Heroes in fide probatos Unto which may be added That in the Agreement betwixt King William Rufus and Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Brother touching his Claim to the Kingdom of England being of great Concern to the People wherein the King assured to the Duke All that he could Claim from his Father except England it is said Pactum juramento confirmârunt duodecim Principes nomine Regis and 12. Barones nomine Ducis In the 2d Year
the King's Court being then the Parliament without Commons Anno 31. Henry the Third Rex cum Magnatibus tractatum habuit diligentem per plures concilium urgens dies Medio Quadragesimae edicto Regio convocata convenit ad Parliamentum generalissimum Anglicani totius nobilitatis Londini videlicet Prelatorum tà m Abbatum Priorum quà m Episcoporum Comitum quoque Baronum ut de Statu Regni jam vacillantis efficacitèr prout exegit urgens necessitas contrectarent Upon further troubles and concernments of the Kingdom Convenêrunt ad Parliamentum memoratum totius regni Magnates no Commons imprimis aggressus est Dominus Rex ore proprio Episcopos per se postea verò Comites Barones deinde Abbates Priores Afterwards in the same Year Habitum est magnum Concilium inter Regem regni Magnates apud Wintoniam super multiplici Regni totius maximè totius Ecclesiae desolatione wherein upon the hopeless Account given by William de Powic and Henry de la Mare two of the Procurators sent to Rome of the Popes obstinacy to continue his Pilling and Polling of the Kingdom It is said Haec autem cùm audisset dominus Rex cum Magnatibus suis not the Commons commotus est vehementèr meritò praecepitque voce Praeconis in omnibus Comitatibus per omnes villas loca congregationes that no Man should pay any of the Popes Exactions And in the 31. Henry the Third Rex cum Magnatibus tractatum habuit diligentem per plures concilium urgens dies protelavit Per idem tempus Dominus Rex comperiens regnum suum enormitèr periclitari jussit omnem totius regni Nobilitatem convocari ut de Statu ipsius manifestè periclitantis Oxoniis diligentèr contrectarent Praelatis autem maximè ad hoc Parliamentum vocavit arctius 32. Henry the Third at the Quindena of St. John Baptist covenit Londinum totâ—â—s Angliae Nobilitas venientibus in unum omnâ—bâ—s regni Primatibus in a great expectation of the King 's redressing of Grievances Anno 33. Henry the Third Rex congregavit omnes regni Nobiles ut â—â—rum consensum flecteret ad auxilium dandum sent his Letters by Symon Pasleu to the Sheriffs of every County to Collect what they could of them Anâ—o 35. Henry the Third 13 Calendarum Martij habitum est Parliamentum magnum Londini sicut fu rat praelocutum praefixum where Henricus de Bathonia Justiciarius Regis being greatly accused by the Commons not any Commons Elected to come in Parliament was afterwards for a Fine or great Sum of Money pardoned by the King when he was hugely incensed against him yet there was enough to manifest that there were none of the Commons Eodem Anno instante Paschali solennitate fecit dominus Rex convocari Londini omnes Magnates Angliae cruce signatos ut infra Quindenam Paschae ibidem convenerent super nâ—gotio Terrae sanctae eujus honor enormiter vacillare videbatur diligentèr contrectarent Adhuc autem non terminato Parliemento where the King was said to be inexorabilis factus omni petenti saltem breves inducias debitoribus suis non concessit graviter Comes Lâ—griae in cuâ—ia Regis accusatus and when the King magnâ irâ had commanded Richard Earl of Cornewall his Brother to deliver up his Patent or Commission of the Covernment of Gascoâ—gne which the Earl refused and charged the Citizens of Bourdeaux to apprehend him which they denyed it is said that Noluit autem Rex hoc praecipere Magnatibus Angliae certus quòd hoc nullatenùs facerent siue maximâ consideratione Rex igitur nè viderentur quidam Magnates qui jam illuc advenerant inanitèr suisse convocati districtè tractatum suscitavit Soli to igitur cum Regis Cleri Magnatum indignatione c. Convocatis denuò dommus Rex Optimatibus suis c. Anno 37. Henry the Third in Quindena Paschae tota edicto Regio convocata Angliae Nobilitas no Commons convenit Londini de arduis regni negotiis simul cum Rege tractaturi extiterunt igitur ibidem cum Comitibus Baronibus quamplurimis Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis Bonifacius Episcopi Angliae fere omnes Where when the King pressing for Aid and Supplies could not upon the Bishops unwillingness forbear to remember them how he had in particular advanced many of them beyond their deserts they had no better answer to return him than Domine Rex non facimus de praeteritis mentionem sed Sermonem extendimus ad sutura after many long Debates a Tenth was granted by the Clergy towards the Wars of the holy-Holy-Land per visum Magnatum not of the Commons cum iter ad Hierusalem arriperet à militibus Scutigeris illo Anno ad scutum tres Marcae was perswaded by Fear or the desire of the Money by no Order or Ordinance of Parliament to which not any of the Commons though greatly concerned therein were Parties to give his Consent and walk with many of the Nobility and Bishops through Westminster-Hall in that direful Procession with burning Torches pronouncing Curses and wishing Damnation and the fiery Torments of Hell upon the Infringers of the Charters of their and the Peoples Liberties 38. Henry the Third Convenissent universi ferè Angliae Magnates viz. Comes Mareschallus R. Bigod Gilbertusque de Segrave speciales domini Regis Nuntij ad Parliamentum venientes ex parte ejus propositum suum praecordiale Universitati Angliae fortè seducti nuntiantes aderant autem illuc Comes Richardus frater Domini Regis Comes Cornubiae Comes Wintoniensis cum domind Regina no Commons omnes Episcopi Angliae exceptis duntaxat Cantuariensis Eboracensis Archiepiscopis Dunelmensi Bathoniensi Episcopis qui cum Rege in Gasconia fuerunt where after the necessities of the King shewed and the danger of Hostilities from the King of Castile respondit Universitas they did not believe there could be any such danger sic igitur solutum fuit Concilium cassum inane Eodem Anno Congregati sunt iterum Angliae Magnates quibus significabat Rex quòd pecunia indigebat viribus amplioribus ad repellendum violentiam magni hostis supervenientis but they alleadging former great Taxes denyed it Anno 39. Henry the Third Edicto Regio convocata convenit Magnatum numerosa multitudo anno vero sub eodem ad sestum sancti Edwardi fuerunt apud Westmonasterium omnes ferè Angliae Magnates ubi Rex petebat auxilium pecuniare Anno 41. Henry the Third veniunt Londini ad dominum Regem qui multos sibi cum Comite Richardo ibi Magnates congregârat quidam de Primatibus Alemanniae concerning the Election of the said Earl Richard to be King of Almaine Eodem Anno in media Quadragesima factum est magnum Parliamentum where the Controversy betwixt the Bishop of Lincoln and
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
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
unto the now Duke of Beaufort and by men leavyed and sent unto him from Wales in his Majesties March as far as Shrowsbury towards him the better to enjoy and be near the great assistance which he promised and performed without which and the Ancient and Legall aid and help of his tenures in Capite and by Knight-service he could not have made any defence for Himself or his Loyal Subjects but might have been taken and Imprisoned by the Sheriffes of every shire or County thorough which he was to pass in his Journey to York with his eldest Son the Prince whom they would likewise have seised upon when he was by the Faction and their Hunters driven and pursued as it were thither for Refuge as a Partridge hunted upon the Mountains from his Parliament when he had no Provision of Arms Men or Money And the Rebell-Party of that Parliament had formed and beforehand made ready a great and powerfull Army without any manner of want of Money and a seduced party of his People to march against him And our Feudall Laws were so little despised unknown or unusuall in this Kingdom as our Magna-Charta and Charta de Foresta more then 30 times confirmed by Acts of Parliament and the Petition so called of Right will appear to have no other source or Fountain as to the most of the many parts thereof then the Feudall Laws And they must be little Conversant in the reading practice and usage thereof demonstrable in and through our Records and Authentique Annalls and Historians that will not confess and believe it when they shall so manifestly almost every where see the vestigia and tracks thereof and our Saxon Laws faithfully translated and rendred unto us by the labours and industry of our learned Lambard and Abraham Whelock Arabick professor in the University of Cambridge and the glossary of our Learned Sr Henry Spelman may aboundantly be found to declare that they had for the most part no other Progenitors And could not be understood to amount unto no less then the greatest and strongest Fortifications that any Kingdom could have though not so guarded by the Sea as our Islands of Great Brittain are and have been when Seventy Thousand Horsmen gravi Armatura or not meanly Armed should as the manner of those Times were without much disturbance to their other affairs be sodainly ready upon any Emergencies of Wars Intestine or Forreign without Pay or Wages under the greatest obligations Divine and Humane to defend their Kings themselves and their Estates which in more valiant and plain dealing Times did in no longer part of time commonly determine the fate or fortune of a Kingdom as to a great part of the Event or success of a War And was so necessary to the Defence of the King and People as our William the Conqueror that did not bring but found the Feudall Laws here in England may be thought to have been very willing to have strengthend his Conquests here when he distributed amongst his great Officers in the Army his Soldiers as much of his Conquered Lands as Ordericus Vitalis hath related it Seventy Thousand Knights Fees who in regard of their service for the defence of the King had a Privilege by the Kings Writ for them and their Tenants to be free ab omni Talagio from all Taxes which priviledge or acquittal saith Sr Edward Coke discontinued Of which our Feudall Laws the Brittains the more ancient Inhabitants of England as well as the Brittains in America in France now known by the name of the Duchy of Brittain cannot be believed to have been Ignorant when the Father of our Victorious Arthur King of Brittain was a Beneficiarius and held his Lands in Cornwall of the King in Capite unto whose Kingdom were appendant the large Dominions of Norway and the Islands ultra Scanriam Islandiam Ireland Curland Dacia Semeland Winland Finland Wareland Currelam Flanders omnes alias terras Insulas Orientalis Oceani usque Russiam Et iu Luppo etiam posuit orientalem metam Regni Brittania multas alias Insulas usque Scotiam usque in Septentrione quae sunt de appendicis Scaniae quae Noricena dicitur and that Kingdom of Brittain had so large an Extent and the King of Brittain such a directum Dominium therein that upon an exact Search and inquiry into the Memorialls Antiquities Annalls and Historians thereof it was evident that in the Times of Ely and Samuel after the Siege and Destruction of Troy Brute came into this Island called it by his name and divided his Kingdom to his 3 Sons Loegria now called England to his Eldest Albania since called Scotland came to the 2 and Cambria or Wales unto his 3 Son Camber after whom was Arthurus Rex Britonium famosissimus Who subdued a great part of France and those his Noble Acts were not unknown unto some of the Roman Poets and Historians and the Laws used here in his Time may with great reason be understood to have been the same which the English or Saxons our later Ancestors Fletibus Precibus with supplications washed in Tears obtained of the Norman Conqueror to be left unto them as King Edward the Confessors Laws for his Justice and Holiness reputed to have been a Saint and together with the Mercenlage or Laws made by Mercia a Queen of Mercia or the Borders or Confines of Wales ought to be esteemed the same aggregate Laws which K. William the Conqueror of the Brittains Saxons and Normans after they had began to Intermarrie and were become as it were Populus unus Gens una were certified by the greatest most universall and most Solemn Jury and verdict that ever was Impannelled or made use of in England and under the strictest and severest Charge not by Judges delegate but by the King himself and a Conquering King that had omnia Jura et terras in manu sua which he did Consilio Baronum suorum in Anno quarto Regni sui cause to be Summoned through all the Shires Counties of England of out of the Nobiles sapientes et in Lege cendites ut eorum Leges et Jura et Consuetudines ab ipsis audiret Whereupon in singulis totius patriae Comitatibus a Jury of 12 men qualified as aforesaid Jure Jurando coram ipso Rege before the King himself no ordinary Judge but the Highest under God quo ad possent recto tramite incidentes neither turning on the Right hand nor the Left legum suarum Consuetudinum suarum patefacerent neither omitting or adding any thing by fraud or praevarication yet the King seeming better to approve of his Norway and Danish Laws which in many things affinitate Saxonum seemed to be the same with the Norway Laws except in some small difference in the heightning of the Fines and Forfeitures which when the King had heard read unto him maxime appreciutus est proecepit ut Obsequerentur per
who had a great desire to unite the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in their Laws and Religion as well as they were in their neighbourhood and to have them to be in Subjection under one and the same King and Sovereign were after long and learned Conferences and disputes constrained to forsake that impossible to be atchieved Enterprize and our great Incendiary Mr John Pym could in the Year 1641. harangue in that unfortunately seditious Parliament that our Laws which he might or should have known as to a great part of them to have been composed and derived unto us from our German and Northern Progenitors Feudall Laws intermingled with the Civill and Cannon Laws with some municipall Laws Consuetudines non Malos in se as Gavel kind and the Rescripts Edicta mandata principum Responsa adjudicata Judicum prudentum not dissonant or contradicting each other the Laws of God an rules of Right Reason were the Peoples Birth-Right and our persecuted untill he was Murthered blessed Martyr King Charles the First did in the 3. Year of his Reign when he signed that which they stiled the Peoples Petition of Right declare unto them that his maxime is that the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liherties and may when all is done if well and truly weighed in the Ballance of Right reason and understanding and what hath hapned and may come to pass hereafter easily discern that in England there never was such a Confusion and overturning of our Laws and Ancient Monarchick Government through all the Successions of our Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman Kings as hath been in England since the beginning of that famously infamous Rebellious Parliament and their Undermining of our Laws and Libeties and turn all into an Anarchy that they might gain a power to enrich themselves by the spoil of 3 Kingdoms and ruining of as many as would not be as Wicked Rebells as they had been And that when his Majesty had Released unto them the arrears of his profits by his Tenures and Court of Wards and Liveries a Million and a half Sterling and in his pourveyances Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds It was hugely praejudiciall to the King and beneficiall unto his Subjects too many of whom had Rebelled against his Royall Father persecuted and Murthered him Hunted and would have extirped his Royall Posterity And that it can be no otherwise accompted to be then a most Barbarously Ingratefull and unworthy Act of the Nation and People of England after many Knights fees and Lands freely given and granted by the Kings Royall Progenitors to their forefather and their Heirs to be holden by Knight-service and in Capite of which if the Sixty Thousand Knights fees and more reckoned by some Authors should be no greater a number then ten thousand and valued but at 20l. per Ann. as they may be conjectured to have been accompted in Anno. 1 Edwardi 2. they would amount unto 200000l per Ann. and if each of them have since increased but unto 300l per Ann which may be thought to be now the least improvement might amount in yearly value unto 3 Millions Sterling and if that should be multiplyed 60 times more as Ordericus Vitalis reckonet it the Yearly value thereof might swell unto one Hundred Eighty and 3 Millions Sterling besides great quantities of other Lands freely granted in the severall Reigns of his Majesties Royal progenitors unto others of them their heirs to be holden of them in Socage besides 200000l per An. or a very great Yeerly sums of Mony necessarily expended upon his Military Guards for the defence of himself his people against Sedition and Rebellion-mongers more then his Royal Father progenitors needed to have done if he had kept entire his said eminent and Legall Rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service to endeavour to extinguish the Right use of them and forget their great and very great obligations to their Prince and Common parent and Royall progenitors and take away from our Kings the means whereby they should protect and defend themselves and their Subjects from damage and Injuries forreign and domestique And those Tax improvers and Advantage Catchers can as if that were not sufficient make it as too many of their Actions and business to cozen and beg all they can from him and instead of never ceasing to give him thanks for breaking the barrs of an Hell of Arbitrary power and slavery wherein their Counterfeit Commonwealth's men by their perjuries and Hypocriticall Rebellion had brought them And their Cheating Man of Sin Oliver Cromwell had by his Instrument of his own making lockt and bolted them fast enough as he hoped with a Domine quid retribuam what shall we render for all his benefits make it the greatest of their care and Imployment not only to take and keep from him all they can even at the same time when they had obteyned of him an unparalleld Act of Indempnity and Oblivion to pardon and forget all their Treasons and offences committed against him and his blessed Father which in a small kind of Calculation may not unprobably be believed to amount unto Sixteen Millions Sterling in arreres of his own Revenue and 2 or 3 Hundred Millions Sterling at the least for the forfeitures which our Laws would have given him with some Mercy and Moderation to boot for so small a Recompence as during his life in the Moyety or one half of the Excise to his Heirs and Successors to be drawn out of the Groans Tears Complaints and sorrows of which the main part of the Common People who never did or are like to hold any Lands of our Kings in Capite or by Knight Service And should not have forgotten how they promised him to be his Tenants in Corde and with what a Princely and Fatherly affection he told their Representatives that he was sorry to see so many of his Good People come to see him at Whitehall and had no Meat to feed or entertain them yet when he had bereaved himself of that grand and continuall part of the strength and support of his Crown Power and Dignity and those entire Rights of his Monarchick Government which our prudent second Fabius ever to be praised and remembred from Generation to Generation the late George Monke Duke of Albemarle for his military wary Conduct thorough almost insuperable Difficulties without hearkning to the Syren songs of those that pretended to be for a Common wealth or being tempted or deluded to restore his Majesty to a Cripled Monnarchy as the men of the Rebellious Rump or no Parliament with their Jugling Covenant or as many Faces as they should have occasion to impress or stamp upon it would have perswaded him to have done and that great Hero denyd to do And that ill advised framer of that Unhappy Act of Parliament to cut or take away the Arteries
Train in the way of his Progress rather then fail to offer hasten to the River and bring as much water as he could in his hands and with a Cheerfull Countenance Wishes and Prayers for his health present it unto him Nor was so altogether appropriate to those Eastern Countries where God speaks first unto his people and the Sun of his righteousness did arise but was long ago practised in England where the custom was as Gervasius Tilburiensis who wrote in the Reign of K. Henry the 2. informs us that in the Reign of King Henry the 1. upon all addresses to the King quaedam in rem quaedam in spem offerre to present the King with some or other presents either upon the granting of any thing or the hopes that he would do it afterwards and so usually as there were Oblata Rolls or Memorialls kept of it in the Reign of King John and some other the succeeding Kings and Queens who seldom escaped the tender of those Gratitudes of Aurum Reginae Mony or Gold presented unto them as well as unto their Kings and was a Custom not infrequent in the Saxon Times as appeareth by our Doomesday Book the most exact and generall survey of all the Kingdom and so little afterwards neglected as it was paid upon every pardon of life or member and so carefully collected as it was long after in the Reign of King Henry the 3d by an Inquisition taken after the Death of Gilbert de Samford who was by Inheritance Chamberlain to the Queens of England found that he had amongst many other Fees and Profits due unto him and his Heirs by reason of his said office Six pence per Diem allowed for a Clark in the Court of Exchequer to Collect and gather that oblation or duty For if there were no Damage to a Prince in his Dignity and Sovereignty as it must needs be of no small concern it can be of no small Importance in matters of profit and other Necessaries appertaining to his Regality and the necessary protection and defence of himself and his people as hath been truly calculated and made demonstrable And when Homage hath been defined by our Learned Lawyers Littleton and Sr Edward Coke to signify no more then Ieo deveigne vostre home Et mutua debet esse dominii homagii fidelitatis Connexio Ita quod quantum homo Domino ex Homagio tenentis tantum illi debet Dominus ex Dominio praeter solam reverentiam and Sr Edward Coke citing a part out of the Red book of the Exchequer saith omnis homo debet esse sub Domino de vita memibris suis terrenio honore observatione consilii sui per honestum utile comprehended in the words Foyall Loyall salva fide deo terrae Principi and servicium is by him defined in Liege Angliae regulariter quod pro tenemento suo debetur ratione feodi sui and the manner of doing homage and fealty declared or appointed to be taken in 17 King Edward the 2 was that he should hold his hands together between the hands of his Lord our Littleton long after writing his book saith he shall be ungirt his head uncovered his Lord shall sit and he shall kneel before him upon both his knees and hold his hands Joyntly together betwixt the hands of his Lord and say I become your man from this day forward of life and limbs and earthly worship and shall owe you my faith for the Lands which I hold of you saving the faith which I owe unto my Lord the King and to mine other Lords Et homo Homagium saith Sr Henry Spelman sunt verba feudaliam in fundamentis Juris illius and after the Osculum or kiss of the Lord received ariseth and taketh the Oath of Fidelity to be faithfull and true unto him and saith Bracton homage becometh to be ex parte Domini protectio defensio Warrantia ex parte Tenentis reverentia Subjectio And our Littleton defining fealty as it is amongst the Feudists a fidelitate saith that it is to be true and faithfull to his Lord for the Lands which he holdeth of him and shall faithfully do unto him the service which he ought to do And Gervasius Tilburiensis cited by Sr Edward Coke might have added to the definition of homage on the King or Lords part something more from the Tenant or Homager then reverence and subjection and not have omitted the greatest Tie and Obligation which was gratitude for the Lands at the first given to his Father and Ancestor for that only Service The Tenant holding his lands services under a forfeiture but the King or Lord not simili modo but reteyning and holding his propriety directum dominium without any limitation the utile dominium appertaineth unto the Tenant untill he forfeits and then the Lord may enter upon the utile and annex it unto his directum and dispose of it as he pleaseth And Sr Henry Spelman saith licet non Juratum est in homagio sed in fidelitate Intelligendum est quod fidelitatis praestatio individue sequitur homagium Et in nostro Jure fidelitas est de Essentia Homagii nam si quis fidelitatem remiserit cassum facit ipsum Homagium And in the language of our Old Records Writs and rescripts of our Kings and Princes Homage and fealty do so often go together as they may be seem to be adjuncts each unto the other and are in effect as to the Subjection and service but Synonimous and Consignificant differing only in the Ceremonies as our Littleton saith in doing the same which in the direction and stile of our Kings mandates unto one that hath actually done his homage the Word Fidelis is many times used without any mention of Homage dilecto fideli suo as comprehending Homage fidelitas autem particularis apud Anglos individue comitatur omnes Tenuras etiam dimissiones ad brevissimum tempus nunc dierum quamvis nunc dierum parcius exigitur relaxari tamen nullo modo potest sine tenurae interitu And Homage and Fealty being such inseparable Concomitants as not to be separated Homage in the Capite and Knight Service conjoyning unto it Fealty which is the reality effect and service thereof and Homage in those Tenures the only Ceremoniall part thereof which would be to little purpose without the faith fidelity and service which can subsist and perform its services without it And was so understood by our Kings and Princes in their Writs of Summons to their Baronage to their Parliaments when making no mention of Homage which is often respited commands them infide qua nobis tenemini to appear and be present For howsoever amongst Kings and Princes those great concerns of them and their Subjects may be allowed to insist upon punctilio's of Honour and very necessary Concernments which might be consequentiall thereunto which caused our great
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
pertineaut And that great King was so more then ordinarily carefull of the rights and Honor of his Crown and Regall authority which had been too much depressed and misused by the Rebellion of Simon Montfort and some Rebellious Barons and his fathers Imprisonment with the Wars and Hardships put upon them did so well provide against any the like troubles and Convulsions of State as in his return through France and abode for some time in Aquitain where he was Sumptuously feasted by the King of France he took an especiall care when he did Homage to him for Aquitain and some other Dominions he held of him in that Kingdom to limit it only unto them and except Normandy where he expended much time in the Setling of his affairs But howsoever Summus ille viz our Mr Selden was of opinion that so remarkable a provision and Monarchical Resolution of our King Edward the first and so many Emperors and Christian Kings and Princes to conserve the rights of their Crowns reported by Fleta was Prodigious and taken too much upon trust and an over facile credulity of our Carceratus Fleta as he termed him because resumptions of the Sacred Patrimonies aliened had been used here in England long before and not used at or about the same Time by Rodulphus primus the Emperor of Germany when he granted to Pope Gregory the 10th Bononia in Italy et latifunda circum quaque amplissima quae ante Imperii Romani pars insignis and permitted to be aliened to the Pope who was not then so easy to be resisted and that Choppinus and those many great and learned Doctors of the Law that had written and argued so much concerning those kind of alienations and our own Historians had been altogether silent therein yet that Decus Anglorum gentis might in his great recherches of our English Records Laws and Annalls have found that our King Edward might have been believed to have taken such Councel either from his former calamities in his his fathers Time or by a generall Consult with some or all of those Christian Princes or their Legates for that he was no sooner arrived in his own Kingdom and Dominions but he began to busy himself as much as his other great Cares and Variety of troubles would Suffer him to do in the allaying the Unquietness of the Disturbances which Humfrey do Bohun Constable of England Rigor Bigod Earl Marshall of England Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glocester and many other the remains of his fathers more then Cammon Distresses and in his Wars with Scotland and annexing the Rights and Superiority of it to his Crown of England in the placing displacing of the Kings and Heirs thereof a Regality Superlative not to be neglected and an effect pertinent enough to that Monarchick Universall consult when in the fourth year of his Reign an Enquiry was made of all the Manors and Lands Tenements Parks Buildings Woods Tenants Commons Pastures Pawnage Honey Herbage and all other profits of Forrests Waters Moors Marshes Heaths Turbury and Wasts and how much it was worth by the year Mills Fishings Common and severall Freeholders and Copyholders by what Service they did hold their Land by Knight Service or in Socage and what reliefs what Customary Tenants and by what works or Service they did hold what rents of Assise what Cotages and Curtilages and what rents they do pay by the Year what pleas and exquisites of the Counties and of the Forrests and what they were worth by the Year what Churches of what Yearly value and who was the Patron with the yearly value of Herriotts Fairs Markets Escheats Customes Services fore Time Works and Customs and w 〈…〉 tâ—e pleas and perquisites of Courts Fines all other Casualties were worth by the Year or may fall by any of those things an Inquisition much resembling that of the Norman villains enquest in the Book of Domesday or that which long before preceded it called the Roll of Winchester and in his elaborate recherches of all the Ancient Records Annalls Historians Manuscripts and Memorialls of the Brittish Saxon Scotish and English Nations for the clear Evidence and manifestation of his Undoubted Right to Jus Superioritatis oftke Kingdom of Scotland And in the same Year what things a Coroner should enquire of purprestures or usurpation upon any of the Kings Lands and that they should be reseised A Statute of the Exchecquer touching the recovery of the Kings Debts made in Anno 10. E. 1. A Cessavit per Biennium to be brought by the Chief Lord with a forfeiture upon him that neglecteth to do his service by the space of 2 Years In Anno 17. Fined 10 of 12 of his Judges accused and indicted of taking Bribes and very great summs of Mony Statute of quia Emptores terrarum that the Feoffs shall hold his lands of the Chief Lord and not of the Feoffer And afterwards caused the Judges at their return out of their Circuits to rectify in rolls of Parchment all Fines and amercements due unto him and ordered them to receive only their then small Wages thereout curbed the Clergy that denied to give him Aids and forbad them to come to his Parliament which was holden untill their Submission with a Clero Excluso and granted his Writs contra Impugnatores Jurium Regis made 2 Statutes of Quo Warranto in 18. E. 1. that every man should shew cause how he claimed or held his Liberties Ordinatio de libertatibus perquirendis 27. E. 1. Statute of Wards and Reliefs Anno. 28. E. 1. Another Statute of Quo Warranto Anno. 30. E. 1. Ordinatio Forrestae Anno. 33. E. 1. So that pace tanti viri with all the honor and reverence that can or ought to be given to Mr Selden that Dictator of Universal Solid Learning it may be said that our Fleta which was by him so well esteemed as to have been published and caused to be printed with his learned dissertations and Comment thereupon might well have escaped his scruples and distrust when in that great Kings travail from Hierusalem or out of Aba homewards he was royally feasted by the King of Sicily one of the aforesaid Confederate Christian Kings the Pope and divers Princes of Italy And when the Pope had afterwards demanded 8 Years arrears of him for an Yearly tribute of 1000. Marks for the Kingdom of England and Ireland enforced from King John did by his letter answer that the Parliament was dissolved before his letter came unto his hands and that sine Praelatis Proceribus no Commons therein mentioned comunicato Concilio sanctitati suae super praemissis non potuit respondere Jurejurando in Coronatio sua prestita fuit astrictus quod Jurat regni sui servabit illibata nec aliquid quod Diadema tangit regni ejusdem no such Oath or Promise being in the Coronation Oath ut nihil abusque illorum requisito Concilio
faceret And that greatly learned man could not but acknowledge that there were afterwards resumptions of Crown-Lands in the Reign of King Henry the 2. the alienation of some of the Crown-Lands severely charged upon King Richard the 2d Anno. 33. H 6. by an Act of Parliament and in the reign of King Edward the 4th at the request and upon the Petition of the Commons and were much more needfull then those that had been before in the Reign of King Henry the 2. made Leoline Prince of Wales to come and do him Homage and Baliel King of Scotland attending in our Pâ—rliament to arise from his State placed by the Kings and Stand at the Bar of the House of Peers whilst a cause was pleaded against him And it might not be improbable that that League betwixt that King and the aforesaid Christian Princes might be entred not amongst the Common Rolls and records of England but of Gascoigne where it was most proper and that some Vestigia of his great Actions might be there found of it as well as that of the 22th Year of his Reign of a Summons of divers English Barons to come to his great Councell or Parliament in England and it could not be unknown to that great man of learning that as Authors and Writers have learned and Writ one out of another so have many Wrote that singly and alone which many of the Contemporaries have either not been Informed of or did not think fit to Mention the dreadfull plagues of Egipt and the most remarkable that ever were in so short a Time inflicted by God upon any Nation of the Earth since the universall Deluge destroying all but the Righteous Noah his Family the several Kinds of Creatures perserved with him the passage of Moses thorough the Red-Sea in his conduct of the People of Israel into the land of Canaan were not to be thrown out of the belief of Christians all others Venerating the Sacred Scriptures because Plato or Pythagoras travailing into Egypt in the inquest of learning have given us no particular accompts thereof and it will ever be as truly said as it hath been that Bernardus non videt omnia the ancient institution rites ceremonies of the most Honourable Garter is not to be suspected because our Law and Statute books have not made such Discoveries Recherches or a worthy and most elaborate Record thereof as the learned and Judicious Mr Elias Ashmole hath lately done or our Glauviles Book de legibus Consuetudinibus Angliae is not to fall under the question whether he was the Lord Chief Justice of England that Wrote it because there hath not been so much heed taken of him as ought to be by our Common-Law Year-Books or Memorialls of Cases adjudged in our Courts of Justice and later Law Books when the learned Pancirollo in his Book de deperditis Ac etiam de novis repertis and the exquisitely learned Salmuthius in his Comment or Annotations thereupon or the learned Pasquier in his Recherches and our ever to be honored Mr Selden in his rescuing from the Injuries of Time those many before hidden truths which he in his history of Tithes Jauus Anglorum Analett Brittanniae Titles of honor de Synedriis Judeorum uâ—or Jus naturae Gentium Historia Ead mei cum multis aliis and those very many discoveries of learning and Truth which the world must ever confess ought to be attributed to his walking in unknown paths nullius ante trita pede have very Justly escaped any such suspicions and that long and Eminent Treaty for Peace at Nimiguen for divers Years last past managed by most of the Monarchs of Europe and their concerns wherein the care and mediation of our King in the charge of his Plenipotentiaries have not wanted gratefull Testimonialls of the many very much concerned Kings and Princes in the putting a stop to the Warrs effusion of Blood and devastation of so great a part of Christendom is not or ought to be placed amongst the non liquets or Doubtings of after Ages because which by some Incuria or neglect of our Recording of it amongst our Archives which the more is to be pittied is not much unlikely to happen it is not to be met with amongst our Records or Historians When the so much Deservedly admired speculations and Experiments of the excelently Learned Sr Francis Bacon Lord Verulam in his Philosophy more then Aristotle and many others had made those Discoveries of des Cartes Depths and Investigations of our Sr Kenelme Digby into the most abstruse parts of Learning and that great addition now every where allowed to be true to that most necessary and usefull Art or Faculty of Physick of the circulation of the Blood in the Bodies of men first Discovered and made apparent by our late Learned Doctor Harvey though the Egiptian Arabian and Grecian Doctors and the greatly Famed Galen and Hypocrates had in all their labors knowledge and Practice not so much as taken notice of it were never the worse but rather much the better that former ages and men in the length of Art and the short Curriculum of their lives often intermitted with Sickness and the Cares and Troubles of the World had no sooner communicated it neither ought the Truth and value of our allways highly to be esteemed Seldens Labours in the vindication of our Kings Sovereignty in our Brittish Seas suffer any abate because no Englishman before had undertaken it or of his learned Observations and Comments upon Sr John Fortescues Book de laudibus Legum Angliae because he did not mention or had Discovered that that over-tossed and turmoiled worthy and learned Chancellor was after the Expulsion of the 3 Henrys 4. 5. 6th of the House of Lancaster under the later of whom he had Faithfully served from the Inheritance of the Crown of England by King Edward the Fourth with his better Title enforced publickly to beg his Pardon and with much ado and by Writing and delivering unto him a Book contradicting the Title of those former Kings and asserting that of his own which appeareth in that Act of Parliament in the 13th Year of that King for the Reversall of his Attainder And those disturbers and misuses of our Fundamental Laws might do well to sit down and consider that our uncontrolled every where in England venerable Littleton can certify us that if a man hold Land of his Lord by Fealty only for all manner of service it behoveth that he ought to do some service to his Lord for if the Tenant ought to do no manner of service to his Lord or his Heirs then by long Continuance of time it would grow out of memory whether the Land were holden of the Lord or his Heirs and thereupon the Lord may loose his Escheat of the Land or some other Forfeiture so it is reason that the Lord and his Heirs have some service done unto them to prove
commandeth that such things be no more done from henceforth And if any Officer of Fee doth it his Office shall be taken into the Kings hands It is provided and agreed that the King of his Office shall from henceforth grant attaints upon Enquest in Plea of Land or Freehold In the several limitations of prescription in severall Writs which might be to many very prejudicial it was in like manner provided that in a Writ of right none should presume to declare of the seisin of his Ancestor further or beyond the time of King Richard the 1st Writs of Partition and Novell Desseisin of the first voyage of King Henry Father of the King into Gascoigne Writs of Mort d' Auncestor of Cosinage Ayel et Nuper obiit of the Coronation of the sâ—id King Henry and not before That one plea shall be decided by the Justices of the King's Bench before another be commenced it is provided also and commanded by the King In an Act touching the Tenants plea in a Writ of Dower and at what time Assizes shall be taken it was declared that forasmuch as the King hath ordained those things unto the honor of God and Holy Church and for the Common-Wealth and remedy of such as be grieved he would not that at any other time it should turn into prejudice of himself or of his Crown but that such right as appertains unto him should be saved in all points and forasmuch as it is great Charity to do right unto all men at all times when need should be it was provided by the assent of the Praelates that Assizes of Novell Disseisin Mortd auncestor and Darrein presentment should be taken in Advent Septuagesima and Lent even as well as Enquests may be taken and that at the Speciall request of the King made unto the Bishops In the 4th Year of his Reign caused an Eatenta Maneriorum or Survey as to his particular Royal Revenue much like unto that of William the Conquerors of his Castles Houses Buildings demesne-Demesne-Lands Copyhold Commons Parks Forests Woods Asserts Tenants Cottages Pleas and Perquisites of the Counties Churches and the values thereof and of Heriots Fairs Markets Escheats Customs Rents Services Fishings Freeholders Woods Rents of Assize Tenures in Soccage or by Knights-Service Forreign Works and Customes Perquisites of Courts Fines and all other Casualties Declared by a Statute de Officio Coronatoris the Duties of a Coroner and enquiries to be made by them In the matter of Bigamy published and declared certain constitutions before him and his Councel and commanded them to be stedfastly Observed in the presence of certain Reverend Fathers Bishops of England and others of the Kings Councel to which the Justices as all the Kings Councel did agree Cap. 1. In what Cases aid shall be granted of the King in what not it is said that it is agreed by the Justices and other Learned men of the Kings Councel of the Realm which heretofore have had the rule and practise of Judgments that where a Feoffment was made by the King with a Deed thereupon if another person by a like Feoffment and Deed be bound to Warranty the Justices could not heretofore have proceeded any further neither yet do proceed without the Kings Command And it seemeth also they could not proceed in other cases wherefore they shall not surcease by occasion of any Grant Confirmation or Surrender but after advertisement made thereof to the King they shall proceed without delay Ca. 4. Concerning purprestures upon the Kings Lands to be reseised If any do complain of such Reseisins he shall be heard as right requireth 6. E. 1. In an Act concerning a man killing another in his own defence or by misfortune it is said the King commanded In Ca. 10. that the husband and wife being impleaded shall not fourch by Essoin that act of Parliament is said to be the Statute of the King In the same year an Exposition and alteration of the Statute of Gloucester in divers articles and points was made by the King and his Justices by the Kings Letters-Patents dated at Gloucester In the foregoing statutes or Articles whereof videlicet ca. 1. it is said to have been provided in ca. 3. Established the like in Ca. 4. in 5. and 6. provided and the like in the 8. and the offenders shall be greivously amerced to the King In the Statute of Gloucester ca. 14. where it is ordained that a Citizen of London shall recover in an Assize damages with the land it is said the King of his speciall grace granteth and the Barons of the Exchequer and Treasuâ—er shall be commanded And in severall statutes and Articles there made did afterwards by the advice of his Justices make in some of them divers expositions alterations and additions in several materiall parts or Points 7. E. 1. by his Writ directed to the Justices of his Bench Signified that it was accorded that at the next Parliament by the councell and assent of the Prelats Earls and Barons provision should be made that none should come to Parliaments Treaties or Assemblies with force and arms and in the next Parliament after the said Treaty the Prelates Earles Barons and the Commonalty of the Realm Comprised in the Votes and suffrages of the Prelats Earls and Barons there assembled to take order of that business have said that to the King it belongeth and on his part it is through his Royall Seigneury Strictly to defend by force of armour and all other force against his peace at all times when it shall please him and to punish those which shall do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of the Realm and hereunto they are bound to aid him as their Sovcreign Lord at all seasons as need should be and commanded the same to be read before him in his Bench and there enrolled In the Statute of Mortmaine made in the same Year that no Lands should be aliened in Mortmaine upon pain of the forfeiture thereof it is mentioned that the King for the profit of his Realm minding to provide a convenient remedy by the advice of his Prelates Earls Barons and others of his Subjects being of his Councel hath provided and ordained c. 10. E. 1. in the Statute of the Exchecquer touching the recovery of the Kings Debts the King by his Writ directed to the Treasurer Barons and Chamberlains of the Exchecquer for the Indempnity of him and his People Willed and Provided Anno. 1â— E. 1. in the Statute of Acton Burnell made for recovery of Debts the King for himself and by his Councel hath Ordained and Established In the Statute of Entails that the Will of the Donor should in all things be performed Ca. 1. which was of a grand Concern to all the Nobility Gentry and Freeholders of England in their Dignities Families Lands and Estates and the transmitting them to Posterity it is said wherefore our Lord the King perceiving how necessary and expedient it should be
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
to his people that they shall have Election of their Sheriff in every Shire where the Shrievalty is not of Fee if they list which would have been very prejudicial both to the King and his people as to the collecting of his revenue and Executing his Justice by his Mandates Writs and Process if the confirmation allowance or disallowance thereof had not been by Law lodged in the King and his Supream authority What persons shall be returned in every Jury the King Willeth and Commandeth For a remedy against Conspirators False Enformers and Embracers of Juries the King hath provided a remedy Against Mainteynors of Suits it is said the King willeth but it may not be understood hereby that any person shall be prohibited to have Councel of Pleaders or of Learned Men in the Law for his Fee or of his Parents or next Friends What distress shall be taken for the Kings debts and how it shall be used the King willeth What sort of Persons the Commons of shires shall chuse for their Sheriffs forasmuch as the King hath granted it is said the King willeth That Baylewicks and Hundreds shall not be let too dear to charge the people with contribution In summons and attachments in plea of land the writ shall contain 15 daies it is in like manner to be understood In like manner against false retornes of writs The King willeth that the Statute of Winchester shall be read 4 times in the year and put in execution The King willeth that Escheators shall commit no wast in Wards lands In an act of Parliament declaring in what cases the owner shall have his lands delivered out of the King's hands with the issues it is said the King willeth In an Act of Parliament that vessels of gold shall be assayed it is said to have been ordained and that notwithstanding all those things before-mentioned or any point of them both the King and his Councell and all that were present at the making of that Ordinance meaning the Judges and Assistants of that Honourable Court will and intend that the right and prerogative of his Crown shall be saved to him in all things In the Statute de Escatoribus 29. E. 1. at the Parliament of our Lord the King at Lincoln in his Councell it was agreed and also commanded by the King Himself and this order shall be held from henceforth in the Chancery notwithstanding a certain ordinance lately made by our Lord the King concerning lands and tenements taken into his hands by his officers and not to be delivered but by the King himself and as it is conteined in a Certain dividenda or indenture made betwixt the King himself and his Chancelor whereof one part remaineth in the Custody of the Chancelor In the new Statute of Quo Warranto made Anno 30. E. 1. it is recited that the King himself in the 6 year of his Reign providing for the wealth of his Realm and the more full administration of Justice as to the Office of a King belongeth the more discreet men of the Realm as well high as of low degree being called thither it is provided and ordained but in the writs framed to enquire by what warrant the Liberties were granted to the people they are said to be in Parliamento nostro per nos concilium nostrum 31. E. 1. In an ordinance for Measures it is said that by the consent of the whole Realm of England the King's measure was made In the Statute of 33. E. 1. Touching protections granted by the King it is said to have been provided In the ordinance or definition of Conspirators made in the aforesaid Year it is declared that this ordinance and final definition of Conspirators was made and aworded by the King and his Councell in Parliament In the Statute of Champerty made in the 33d year of the Reign of the aforesaid King it is recited that whereas in our Statute it was contained and provided by a common accord the writ framed thereupon mentioneth that law to be the Kings Ordinance In the Ordinance for enquests made in Parliament the same year it is said to have been agreed and ordained by the King and all his Councell In the ordinatio Forestae made in the year aforesaid whereas certain people have by great men made request to our Lord the King that they may be acquitted of their charge and the demand of the Foresters our Lord the King answered that when he had granted Pour lieu he was pleased it should stand as it was granted albeit the thing was sued and demanded in an evill point Nevertheless he willeth and intendeth that all his demeasne lands which have been of the Crown or returned unto it by Escheat or otherwise shall have free chase and free warren and in right of them that have lands and tenements disafforested for the said Pourlieus and such as demand to have Common within the bounds of forests the intent and will of our Sovereign Lord the King is c. And if any that were disafforested would rather be in the Forest it pleaseth the King very well and our Lord the King willeth and commandeth the Justices of the Forest c. In Anno 34. of his Reign there being an Ordinance for measuring of Land In the same Year the King by his Letters-Patents with the Teste meipso certifying the Statute de Conjunctim Feoffatis declared that it was no new thing that among divers establishments of Laws which he had ordained in his time upon the great and heinous mischiefs that happen in Writs of Novel disseisin chiefly above others he as if he neither did know or believe any co-ordination or that he was to be tutored by a Conservatorship had devised a more speedy remedy then was before and willeth and granteth that that Statute shall take his effect the morrow after the feast of St Peter ad Vincula next coming In the Statute for Amortising of Lands tempore E. 1. the King commandeth c. In Ca. 4. Which seemeth to be about the 27th Year of that Kings Reign in the confirmation of all our Laws Liberties and Customes it is said that the King willeth and granteth if any Statutes have been made or any customes brought in contrary thereunto that such Statutes and Customes shall be void for evermore And for the more assurance of this thing we will and grant that all Archbishops and Bishops for ever shall twice in the year cause to be openly read in their Cathedralls the said Charters and denounce curses against the willing infringers thereof and the Archbishops Bishops c. have voluntarily Sworn to observe the tenor thereof In the ordinatio pro Statu Hiberniae made by him at Nottingham by the assent of his Councel there being in Ca. 6. in what cases the Justices of Ireland may grant pardon of Felony c. and where not there is an exception so always that there
be no pardon or protection granted of those Felonies which shall be hereafter committed without the Special Commandment of us our selves In the Ordinatio Forestae made in the 34th Year of his Reign the King ordained The like in Ca. 2. That an Officer dying or being absent another shall be put in his place That no Forester should be put in any Assize or Jury the King willeth The like touching the punishment of Officers surcharging the Forest. The like for Grounds disafforested Touching Commons in Forests and that the Justices of the Forest in the presence of the King's Treasurer and by his assent may take fines and amerciaments it is said the King willeth In the Statute de Asportatis Religiosorum it being recited that it came to the knowlege of our Lord the King by the grievous Complaints of the honourable persons Lords and other Noblemen of this Realm that Monasteries and other Religious Houses founded by the King and his Royal Progenitors and by the said Noblemen and their Ancestors and endowed with great portions of Lands that the Abbots and Priors especially certain aliens Priors c. have letten the said lands and laid great impositions and tallages thereupon our Lord the King by the Councell of his Earles Barons great men and other Nobles of his Kingdom no Commons in his Parliament hath ordained and enacted That Religious persons shall send nothing to their Superiors beyond the Seas That no Impositions shall be Taxed by Priors Aliens it is said moreover our aforesaid Lord the King doth inhibit it By whom the Common Seal of the Abbys shall be kept and how used it is said and further our Lord the King hath ordained and established And though the publication and open notice of the ordinances and Statutes aforesaid were in suspence for certain causes since the last Parliament until this present Parliament holden at Caerlisle the Octaves of St Hilary in the 35 Year of the Reign of the said King to the intent they might proceed with greater deliberation and advice our Lord the King after full conference and debate had with the Earls Barons Noblemen and other great men of his Kingdom no Commons touching the premisses by their whole consent and agreement hath ordained and enacted that the ordinances and Statutes aforesaid under the manner form and conditions aforesaid from the 1st day of May next ensuing shall be inviolably observed for ever and the offenders of them shall be punished as is aforesaid And so well did he and the Lawyers of that age understand the Originall Benefit and use of the Feudall Laws the Ancient Honour Glory and Safety of the English Nation their Kings Princes and People as he did as the Learned and Judicious Dr. Brady hath asserted in and by the right of the Feudal Laws and their original grant of the Fees without assent or advice of Parliament give license to their Tenants to Talliate Tax and take Scutage for ayd of performing the Knight or Military Service incident or chargeable upon their Lands and likewise to Tenants otherwise employed by the King in Capite though not in the Army to charge their Tenants with Scutage warranted by the Writ following in the 10th Year of his Reign directed to the Sheriff of Worcester in these words Rex Vicecomiti Wigorn. salutem Quia dilectus fidelis noster Hugo le dispencer per praeceptum nostrum fuit cum dilecto consanguineo fideli nostro Edmundo Com. Cornub. qui moam traxit in Anglia pro conservatione pacis nostrae Anno regni nostri decimo nobis tunc existentibus in Guerra nostra Walliae Tibi praecipimus quod eidem Hugoni facias habere scutagium suum in feodis militum quae de eo tenentur in balliva tua videlicet quadraginta solidos de Scuto pro exercitu nostro praedicto hoc nuâ—latenus omittas T. Edmundo Comite Cornubiae Consanguine Regis apud Westm. 13 die Aprilis Et Consimiles literae diriguntur vicecomitibus Leicest Eborum Lincoln Suff. Wilts South Surr. Buck. Essex North. Oxon Berk. Norff. Staff Rotel Justic. Cestr. And a Writ on the behalf of Henry de Lacy Earl of Lincoln directed the Sheriff of York in the Words Quia delectus fidelis noster Henry de Lacy Comes Lincoln non sine magnis sumptibus expensis ad Communem utilitatem regni nostri in obsequium nostrum per praeceptum nostrum in partibus Franciae pro reformatione patis inter nos Regem Franciae tempore quo Eramus in Guerra nostra Scociae Anno videlicet Segni nostri 31. Quod quidem obsequium loco servitii sui quod tunc nobis fecisse debuerat Acceptamus tibi praecipimus quod eidem Comiti haberi facias scutagium suum de feodis militum quae de eo teneantur in balliva cua videlicet Quadraginta solidos de scuto pro Exercitu nostro praedicto Et hoc nullatenus omittas Teste Rege apud Westm. 6. die Aprilis Consimiles literas habet idem Comes direct Vicecomitibus Warr. Bedford Buck. Somerset Dorset Glouc. Norff. Suff. Hereford Leic. Lenc Notting Derby Northampton Midd. Cantabr Oxon. Berk. Another on the behalf of Henry de Percy in the form ensuing videlicet Rexvicecomiti Eborum salutem Quia dilectus fidelis noster Henricus de Percy fuit nobiscum per praeceptum nostrum in exercitu nostro Scotiae Anno Regni nostri 31. Tibi praecipimus quod eidem Henrico haberi facias Scutagium suum de feodis militum que de eo tenentur in balliva tua videlicet quadraginta solides de Scuto pro Exercitu nostro praedicto hoc nullatenus omitas teste Rege c. Consimiles literas habet idem Henricus Vicecomitibus Lincoln Derb. Notting Cant. Hunt Norff. Suff. Salop. Stafford Consimiles literas habent Executores testamenti Johannis de Watrenna quondam Comitis Surr. defuncti probably the same man that being called to an account Quo Warranto he held many of his Liberties is said over Sturdily to have drawn out or unsheathed an old broad Rusty Sword and shewing unto the Justices Itinerants instead of his Plea answered by this which helped William the Conqueror to Subdue England which so much incensed the King as he afterwards as some of our English Annalists have reported at his return home caused him to be Besieged in his Castle at Rigate untill in a better obedience to his Laws he had put in a more Loyall and Legall Plea Had the like letters de Habend Scutag de feod militum quae de ipso Comite tenebantur die quo obiit in guerra Regis speciale direct Vicecomitibus Surr. Sussex Essex Hereff. Buck. Lincoln Northampton Ebor. by writ of privy seal Consimiles literas habuit prior de Coventry qui finem fecit c. direct Vicecomitibus Warr. Liec Northt Glouc. Wigorn. Abissa Shafton qui fecit finem c. Habet Scutagium suum But
Administration of his Justice for the good of his Subjects as in the 3 year of his Reign he did cause an Act of Parliament to be made to punish frauds and deceits in Serjeants or Pleaders in his Courts of Justice under no less a Penalty and Punishment then a Year and a Days Imprisonment with a Fine and ransome at the Kings pleasure and be never more after suffred to practise in any of the Kings Courts of Justice And if it be an Officer of Fee his Office shall be taken into the Kings hands and whether they be of the one kind of the Offenders or orher shall pay unto the Complainant the treble value of what they have received in like manner And thus that great King by the Testimony Applause of the Age wherein he lived justly merited the Honour to be Inrolled in the Records of Time History and Fame for a most Prudent and valiant Prince in his personal valour much exceeding that of the exttaordinarily Wise Solomon Alexander the great Julius Caesar the politique Hannibal the wary Fabius or his valorous and daring great Uncle Richard the first of that name King of England rendred himself equal to all the great Kings and Captains that lived before or after him And might have thought himself and his Successors to have been in some condition of safety when the Writ or Election of Members in the House of Commons in Parliament were to be only by his own Writs and Authority and the Sheriffs who were not the Parliament Officers but the Kings and by the Law to be sworn unto him not unto both or either of the Houses of Parliament and were strictly to observe and execute his Writs and Mandates SECT XIX That the Sheriffs are by the Tenor and Command of the Writs for the Elections of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses of the Parliament Cities and Burrough-Towns the only Judges under the King Who are fit and unfit to be Members in the House of Commons in Parliament and that the Freeholders and Burgesses more then by a Just and Impartial Assent and Information who were the Fittest were not to be the Electors FOr the Commissions or Mandates of Inferiour Judges Magistrates or Courts or their power and authorities over executed and further then the true Intentions and proper Significations of the words therein not overstrained or racked or not as they ought to be duly executed are in our and the Laws of most of the Nations of the World accounted to be void liable to punishment And it ought not to Escape our or any other mens observations that the County Court of a Sheriff is as Sr Edward Coke saith no Court of Record and is in it self of so Petit a Consideration as it holdeth no Plea of any Debt or Damage to the value of Forty Shilings or above or of any trespass vi armis because a fine is thereby due to the King is Called the Sheriffs County Court and the Stile of it is Curia Vicecomitibus the Writs for the Summoning of the Commons or Barons of the Cinque-Ports who have been since 49. H. 3. and the allowance thereof in 22. E. 1. after a long discontinuance accompted as Burgesses are directed to the Warden or Guardian of the Cinque-ports as they are to the Sheriffs of every County for the Choice and Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses And the Sheriffs authority as to that particular affair is so Comprised in the Writs as they are not to swerve or depart from the tenor or purport thereof which are made by the Chancellor of the King or Keeper of the Great Seal of England sometimes by a Warrant under the King 's own hand as in the fifth year of the Reign of King Eward the 3d in the words following viz. Rex Vicecomiti Eborum Salutem Quia propter quaedam magna ardua negotia nos ducatum nostrum Aquitaniae ac alias terras nostras in partibus trausmarinis pro quibus ad easdem partes nuper Solemnes nuntios nostros destinaverimus Contingentique in ultimo Parliamento nostro a quibus certis Causis terminari non potuerint Parliamentum nostrum apud Westmonasterium die Lunae in Crastino quindeux Paschae proxime futurae teneri cum Praelatis Magnatibus proceribus dicti Regni ordinavimus habere Colloquium tractatum tibi praecipimus firmiter Injungentes quod de dicto Comitatu duos milites de qualibet Civitate Comitatus illius duos Cives de qualibet Burgo duos Burgenses de discretioribus ad Laborandum potentioribus eligi eos ad dictum diem Locum venire faciatis ita quod milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se Communitate Comitatus praedicti dicti Cives Burgenses pro se Communitate Civitatum Burgorum divisim ab ipsis habeant ad faciendum Consentiendum iis quae tunc de Communi Concilio favente Deo ordinari Contigerint super negotiis antedictis ita quod pro defectu hujusmodi potestatis dicta negòtia ineffecta non remaneant quovis modo habeas ibi nominia praedictorum militum Civium Burgensium hoc bre hoc sicut nos honorem nostrum tranquilitatem quietem dicti Regni diligitis nullatenus omittatis c. T. Anno 5. E. 3. 17. Febr. per ipsum Regem Wherein none of the Spirituall and Temporal Barons or their Tenants for the Land anciently belonging unto their Baronies or the Clergy having no Lay Fee Tenants of the King and Ancient demesne though many of those kind of Tenants do take upon them to do it Abbots and Priors Monks or Fryers which latter are to be accompted as dead Persons in Law Copy-holders and Widdows are neither to be Electors or Elected nor Persons attainted of Felony or Treason Outlawed or Prisoners in execution for Debt and the Sheriffs in their returns or Indentures are not to return as they did sometimes or do now that the Freeholders elegerunt but that the Sheriff elegi fecit as was done in 8. E. 2. by a Sheriff of Roteland quod Elegifeci in pleno Comitatu per Communitatem totius Communitatis illius duos milites de discretioribus In a return of a Writ of Summons in 18. E. 3. Drogo de Barentine the Sheriff of Oxford and Berkshire returned that Richardum de Vere militem Johannen de Croxford de Com. Oxon Richardum de Walden Johannem de Vachell de Com Berk de assensu arbitrio hominumeorundum Com. nominatos premuniri feci firmiter injunxi quod sint ad diem Locum c. And a Sheriff of Leicester and Warwickshire mentioning the day when the Writ of Summons was delivered unto him saith it was per manus cujusdam exteanei de Garderoba Domini Regis q 〈…〉 nomen suum sibi nonnominavit nec billam expectavit and that he had thereupon chosen Robert
Year of the Reign of King Henry the 3. and for many ages past and are and should be no more then as Sr Edward Coke saith a Grand Enquest as men that were most Cognisant that best knew the grievances of their Countries with what might be their proper remedies and their abilities or disabilities to aid their Sovereign and assist the publick good being the truest most intelligent and most considerate Judges of their own Interest and the right and only use of their being Elected appeareth by the use and reason thereof to be no other in Parliaments then Informers of grievances and are to be Petitioners for Laws or Remedies When it is Judicis Officium that is to say the Suprema potestas which in England was never yet proved or rightly understood to reside in the People or any other then the King and in valde dubiis opinionibus in quibus non appareat quae sit magis communis rationes quae ex utraque parte efficaces adducuntur Trutinare non est dubitare de iis quae lege vel apertaratione monstrantur Qua propter opinio quaelibet contralegem veram rationem vana est And if any should be so wild or gone out of their reason as to endeavour to make an Assent to be aequivalent or as much as an innate Authority or any Effect of a Superiority or so much as a resemblance thereof they may as well undertake to assert that the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of Engl. had power to create Edward the black-Prince Son and heir apparent of King Edward the 3d Prince of Wales and to give him the Principality thereof because that great and victorious King in the 11th year of his Reign did grant it unto him concilio et concensu Praelatorum Comitum Baronum Communitatum Regni sui non suorum Angliae in generali Parliamento when in the preamble thereof he declared that he did it de serenitate Regalis praeeminencia and the Commons in Parliament in the 50th year of the Reign of that King after that the Archbishop of Canterbury had spoken much in the commendation of Richard de Burdeaux Son and heir of Edward late Prince of Wales Son and heir apparent of the Realm did with one voice pray the Lords so ignorant were they then of their own supposed co-ordination and so over-valuing the power of the Lords that they would make him Prince of Wales as his father was Who answered that it lay not in them but in the King so to do but promised to be Mediators for him So as they who would pretend to such a large representation of the people are to remember that they can give no power but such as they are themselves justly and by law entitled unto as Subjects obeying in their Elections the words intention and true meaning of their Sovereign who did cause them to be Elected to come unto his Parliament with a consenting performing and obeying power only but not an equall coordinate or Superior and that it hath been a ruled and allowed case thorough all the Nations of the World and the Ages thereof that nemo plus juris dare potest quam in se ipso habet And however that prudent Prince King Edward the 1st did for the avoiding of some troubles which a remnant of his and his fathers unquiet Barons would have put upon him and his people whom he was bound to protect condescend to that Act of Parliament that no Tallage or aid should be granted without the consent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and Barons Knights Citizens Burgesses and Freeholders of the land put himself and them under the frailty of the good and kind will and intentions of a part of his subjects yet he could not find either any cause or reason to doubt or suspect that they or any of their posterity should so little follow the conduct or manage of their understanding the care of their self-preservation and the prevention of the ruine of their private in the publick as not to submit to that known and almost every where approved rule or Aphorisme of wisdom that Publica privatis anteponenda sunt and that of the Poet Tunc tuares agitur paries cum proximus ardet Or that any if not an enemy to himself his posterity and his Country as much as a Traytor to his King would in a case of publick necessity when every man was as greatly concerned to defend themselues their King Country and posterities by a giving giving a timely aid and assistance ai if it had been pro Aris focis and Hannibal had been at Porta's have been either forward or backward to gard and relieve themselves their King and Country and not make hast to imitate the Romans who at other times Factious and Seditions enough would not suffer the more prudent Fabious the preserver of his and their Country even in the mioest of their discontents and murmurings that he made no more hast to fight and beat the enemy to want their help either with men or money When as Bornitius saith Quicquid boni homo Civisque habet possidet quod vivit libere vivit quod bene quod Beate omniumque rerum bonorum usu interdum etiam copia ad voluptatem utitur fruitur totum hoc beneficium Reipublicae civilique ordini acceptum est reserendum And that omnis homo res singularum in Republica conservari nequeant nifi conservetur Respub sive communis adeoque singuli sui causa impendere videntur qnicquid conferunt in publicum usum And St Chrysostome was of the same opinion when he said that ab antiquis temporibus communi omnium sententia principes a nobis sustinere debere visum est ob id quod sua ipsorum negligentes communes res curare universumque suum otium adeo impendunt quibus non solum ipsi sed quae nostra sunt salvantur And Zechius saith Regi competunt ratione excellentiae ejus dignitatis quae Regalia dicuntur and that multa adjumenta sunt ei necessaria ut dominium totum externa tueri valeat With whom accordeth Bodin informing us that Sine majestatis contemptu fieri non potest ea res enim peregrinos ad principem aspernandum subditos ad deficiendum excitare consuevit For surely it was never rightly understood that their Membership of the House of Commons in Parliaments did abridge or lessen the Superiority of their Sovereign as may be evidenced by the procedures and affairs of all the Parliaments of England from the beginning of their admission thereunto untill the late unhappy distempers thereof It having been by long experience Tried and found to be in Government a Policy as successfull as prudentiall to gain in the making of Laws the approbation and good-liking as much as may be of those that are to obey and be guided by them to the end that they may the more
quibusdam Magnatibus aliis de Concilio suo super dictis negotiis in brevi specificat eis ibidem plenius exponend tractaturi suumque concilium impensuri ulteriusque facturi quod ibidem de communi concilio assensu contigerit ordinari and that the Sheriff as likewise the Sheriffs of all the other Counties of England were commanded to certify the names of the Merchants sic eligendorum with a severe admonition in the latter end of the said Writ of Summons viz. sciens procerto quod fi dicti Mercatores de discretioribus ditioribus ut praedicitur eligendi ad dictos diem locum non habueris te ab ofsicio tuo amovere teque tanquam expeditionem negotionum nostrorum praedictorum impedieras de impeditione hujusmodi culpabilem invenire absque difficultate aliqua faciemus Teste Edwardo Duce Cornubiae Domino de Cestria filio nostro charissimo Custode Angliae apud Kennington Et Eodem Anno Strangers have been sometimes admitted into the House of Peers after a Summons to be Receivers and Tryers of Petitions but did not sit The Commons at the beginning of every Parliament are sent for out of the House of Commons to come to the Bar of the House of Lords where the Lord Chancellor if he be present or in his absence one of the Lord Chief Justices or an Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and sometimes the Lord Treasurer and in 9. H. 6. Linwood a Doctor of Law in the sickness of a Lord Chancellor declared in the behalf of the King or his Lieutenant the cause at large of the Summons of Parliament commanded them to elect and present their speaker the Writs of Summons making sometimes a short mention thereof and many times none at all In 17th E. 3. the cause of Summons was begun to be declared by the Chancellor but pursued by Sr Bartholomew Burghurst concerning the Kings Actions in France 15. E. 3. The King denied the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to come into the Parliament-House untill he had answered certain Articles objected against him in the Exchequer and then also refused him entrance untill at the last at the intercession of the Lords he was admitted In Anno 16 of his Reign Prince Edward his son Duke of Cornewall and Custos regni with others of the Councell summoned a Parliament in his fathers name to grant him an aid being then in his Wars beyond the Seas The King in the 18th year of his Reign sent his Writs of Summons to a Parliament to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom with these words nobiscum si praesentes fuerimus ibidem seu cum deputandis a nobis si abesse nos contigerit Eodem Anno Writs were issued for the Electing of two Knights for every County without mention of any Citizens Burgesses and in some no manucaptors for the Elected retorned and were to appear at London but before the day appointed come another Writ came to appear at Sarum Eodem Anno The King being offended at the small appearance of the parliament on Monday commanded it to be adjourned untill the next day The Receivers and Tryers being named because the prelates and other grandees were not come on Tuesday the parliament was adjourned untill the Thursday on which day the cause of Summons was declared 20. E. 3. On Fryday the Commons delivered in their petitions which were considered by the Lords upon Saturday Sunday and Monday next following and on that Monday they were Dissolved In the 21st Year of his Reign he declared in his Writs to Summon that parliament that he did call them not to give him Money or Supplies but only to enquire after wrongs done to the people Eodem Anno the Commons having long continued together desire an answer to their Bill leur deliverance Anno 24. E. 3. The King sending his Writs to Elect 2 Knights of every County and 2 Burgesses of every City and Borough caused a Clause to be inserted that none should be placitatores querolarum manutentores aut ex hujusmodi quaestu vincentes In 26. E. 3. the King issued out Writs to the Sheriffs of every County in England to elect one Knight for every County to come to the parliament and sent his Writs to the Mayors and Bailiffs of Burgess Towns not to the Sheriffs as at other time to retorn 1 Citizen for every City and 1 Burgess for every Borough except London whose Sheriffs were commanded to Elect 2 Citizens giving the reason why no more then 1 for other places ut Homines ab ista occupatione Audumpnalo quo nirus possimus retrahomus Anno 27. E. 3. Sent hrs Writs to the Sheriff to Elect de assensu Com. only 1 Knight and to the Sheriffs of London the Mayor and Bayliffs of all other Boroughs that used to send Burgesses to Parliament to Elect and retorn 2 Citizens and Burgesses apiece for the Statute of the Staple made in the same year ca. 3. hath these words viz. Whereas good deliberation had with the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and great men of the Country that is to say of every County one for all the Countys and of the Commons of Cities and Boroughs Anno 28. E. 3. the cause of Summons was first declared before the names of the Receivers and Tryers were published Eodem Anno the King issued his Writs to all the Sheriffs of England to cause 2 Knights of every Shire to come to the Parliament at Lincoln to confirm the perambulation of the Forrests and particularly enjoyned to Summon the Knights Elected the last Parliament but if dead or unable to come to Elect others in their places and the Sheriff for Oxford and Barkshire receiving only a mandate to elect Knights for Oxfordshire did notwithstanding retorn two for Berkshire in this manner Et quia Com. Berks. est in ballia mea licet perambulatio in eodem facta fuit observata pro eo quod in isto brevi continetur quod colloquium in Parliamento tractandum erit Super aliis negotiis praefatum Regem tangentibus Ideo gratis elegerunt duos milites quorum nomina c. Anno 29. E. 3. the Chief Justice declared that the Kings pleasure was that the Cause of Summons should be declared by Mounsieur Walter de Manny and so it was yet the Chief Justice managed the Parliament business in the House of Peers as Speaker for presently after Mounsieur de Manny's discourse he called the Commons to advise thereof and make ready their Petitions In the 34 year of his Reign sent his Writs to all the Sheriffs to cause to appear in Parliament all Collectors of the Tenths and Fifteenths granted to him in Parliament for paying his Forces by Land and Sea for the Kingdoms defence to be restored again to the payers in case no such expences should be made and all Arrayers of Souldiers to give an account of all Moneys received and disbursed
the Commonalty of great Yarmouth the which Bills with the Indorsements thereupon made by the Lords were also on the Filace Divers Bills are there mentioned to be delivered and some mentioned to have been answered as happily all were saith that diligent Observator by the Lords of his Majesties Councel after the Parliament ended And therefore no marvel if all the Answers were not read on the last day of the Parliament when some of them were not made until after the Parliament ended and there is a Petition directed to the thrice redoubted Lord the King in these words following viz. Supplie vos Leiges the Praelates Dukes Earls Barons Commons Citizens Burgesses and Merchants of the Realm of England For Magna Charta to be confirmed unto them and for a general pardon setting down the Articles thereof whereof many were granted and many qualified as the King and his Councel pleased to answer the same And it was not the use and practise of those times to keep back any Answer that was justly displeasing to the King and his Councel much less any other For in Anno 11. H. 4. The Commons petition that none of the Kings Officers may receive any gift c. To which the King answered le Roy le veult In the same year a Petition of the Commons concerning Attorneys was granted by the King and both the Petitions and Answers were ingrossed in the Parliament Roll together with the rest which shews plainly that they were Read on the last day of the Parliament for the Royal Assent Yet notwithstanding the Kings Councel so misliked them that when the Clerk attended with the Roll of that Parliament for the drawing up of that Statute as the manner was those two Petitions and Answers were not thought good to be inserted in the Statute and therefore they did write in the Margent of the said Roll against the same these words Respectuatur per Dominum Principem Concilium which is written with another hand si non antea le Roy le veult answered to a Petition of the Commons without a Statute made there is only an Ordinance The Commons complain of Commissions granted to enquire of divers Articles in Eyre generally which have not been heretofore granted without Assent of Parliament and of the proceedings of the Justices therein contrary to the Law in assessing Fines without regard to the Quality of the Trespass To which was answered The King is pleased that the Commissions be examined in his presence In the 21th year of the Reign of King E. 3. the Commons pray that their Petitions for the Common profit and for amendment to have of mischiefs may be answered and indorsed in Parliament before the Commons so as they may know the Indorsement and thereby have Remedy according to the Ordinance of Parliament In the 37th year of the Raign of King E. 3. the Chancellor demanded of the Commons the last day of the Parliament after the Answers given to the Petitioners were Read if they would have the things so accorded mys par void ' Ordinance ou de Statute qui disoient qui bone est le matere les choses par voydes Ordinances nemy per Statut issint est fait And yet those were no otherwise drawn up into an Ordinance than only by entring the Petitions and Answers in a Parliement Roll. In the 9th year of his Raign the Articles of the Clergy being answered they procured the same Articles and Answers to be exemplified in such sort as they were entred in the Roll of Parliament which is lost without penning the same in any other form and were afterwards published under the great Seal of England with an Observari volumus In the Raign of the same King it was accorded that no Grand of the Land or other of what Estate or degree soever do make prizes or carriages for the houses of the King Queen or their Children and that by Warrant shall make payment thereof and it was ordained by Statute that that Accord be cryed and published in Westminster Hall And our Lord the King and his Councel willeth the same accord be cryed where it behoveth So as where they prayed the publishing thereof at Westminster Hall only the King and his Councel added the publishing thereof in London and elsewhere And the close Rolls of that year do declare that it was published in all the shires of England When an Ordinance had its first motion and being in the House of Lords in Parliament and agreed on and was drawn in the form of an Act of Parliament it was afterwards to receive the Assent of the Commons in Parliament In divers Parliaments when the Commons Petitioned for a Novel Ley which the Lords were willing enough to yield unto and the King to grant yet for that the King intended not to make any Statute that Parliament those Petitions have been deferred to another time and divers others which did not demand a new Law were granted and reputed for good Ordinances or Acts of Parliament As when in 21 E. 3. The Commons prayed that in Writs of Debt or Trespass if the Plaintiff recover damages against the Defendant that he have Execution of the Lands which the Defendant had the day in which the Writ was purchased Unto which the King answered This cannot be done without a Statute whereupon the King will advise with his good Councel and further do that which shall seem best for his people In the same year the Commons do shew that whereas before these times it hath been used that if Lands had been given to a man and his Wife and the Heirs of their Bodies issuing and the one dies no Issue having been had betwixt them the other may commit Wast without being impeached thereof that it may please our Lord the King to ordain thereof Remedy and that in such case a Writ of Wast be ordained To which the King answered Demurge entre les autres Articles dont novel ley est demandez Eodem Anno Shew the Commons that whereas a Writ of Possession doth not lye of Tenements deviseable though they be not devised to the great damage of all the Commons that it would please our Lord the King and his good Councel to ordain by Statute that Writs of Possession my lye and hold place as well of Tenements deviseable in case where they are not devised as of others and that there be saved to the Tenants their Answers in case that they be devised Whereunto the King answered Let it remain amongst the other Articles whereof a New Law is demanded In the 22d year of the Raign of the same King they do pray that for that many are disinherited by non Claim although they have good Right and namely those who are not learned in the Law that non Claim be gone and utterly taken away To which the King answered This would be to make a New Law which thing cannot
recorded but the manner and form of the agreement and by whom in particular is most usually omitted yet necessary to be understood for such was the practice and usage of that age In cases which require no new Law those Acts were seldom entred it was thought sufficient if they were on the file prout Fitz Herberts Abridg. tit Parliament Anno 33. H. 6. n. 17. Neither did those necessarily require the Common Assent of Parliament for the Petitions granted Authoritate Parliamenti do not prove the Common Assent unless they were exhibited by the Commons otherwise they were such only as were delivered to the Receivers of Petitions appointed by the King at the beginning of every Parliament and they were answered by the Tryers then also appointed for the same amongst whom none of the House of Commons were ever appointed and those answers or the matters themselves being heard before the Lords in Parliament as Petitions of great weight and difficulty alwaies were for such alwaies had the additions of Authoritate Parliamenti the first of them beginning tempore Richardi 2. And whether those words be added or omitted yet such Answers ever did and will bind so as they be not contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land There needed no publication of Ordinances touching the Chancery when the Chancellor was present nor concerning the Courts of Justice when the Judges were present in Parliament neither touching the grievances of the Kings Ministers and other Officers for some of them were ever present in Parliament And the Commons were so careful to have their Parliament Rolls engrossed as in 2d Henry 4. n. 26. divers days before the end of the Parliament they did by their Speaker beseech the King that the business done and to be done in this Parliament be enacted and engrossed before the departure of the Justices whilst they have them in their memory Unto which it was answered that the Clerk of the Parliament should do his endeavour to enact and engross the Substance of the Parliament by advice of the Justices and after shew it to the King and Lords in Parliament to have their advice By which it appeareth that the Parliament Roll was not drawn up by the Clerk alone ex officio but with the advice of the Justices and although it was here said that it should be afterwards shewed unto the King and Lords to be approved of by them yet it is not to be thought that the King and Lords did usually examine the same but the Judges advice was usually had therein how else could the Commons require the same to be ingrossed whilst it remained in the Judges memory The Parliament Roll of 11. E. 3. For the creation of his Son Prince Edward Duke of Cornwal and annexing Lands thereunto is lost But in Anno 5. H. 4. The Commons exhibiting their Bill in Parliament in the behalf of the Prince to be made Duke of Cornwal did recite that grant of King E. 3. to have been made by the Kings Letters Patents and pray that the Lands which were annexed might not be aliened and that which had been aliened reseised Annis 7. 8. H. 4. n. 65. The Speaker in the name of the Commons prayed the King and the Lords in Parliament that certain of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whom it pleased them to appoint and a certain number of the Commons whose names he had written in a Schedule or any 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. or 6. of them might be at the Enacting and Ingrossing of the Rolls of Parliament and that his Prayer and Petition might be enacted of Record in the Roll of Parliament which request the King graciously assented unto Anno 1. H. 4. n. 45. The Commons agreed that the King might moderate the Statute against Provisors Anno 2. H. 4. n. 45. They complain to the King that the same was otherwise entred in the Parliament Roll than was agreed on by them and that it might be examined which the King granted but upon Protestation that it should not be drawn into Example Whereupon the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Justices and Councellors of the King being severally examined in full Parliament in the presence of the King and all the Commons testified that the said moderation was duly and justly entred and Enacted in the Parliament Roll in manner as it was spoken and agreed on by the said Lords and Commons the which entring and enacting so made the King remembred to be well and truly done as it was agreed on in the last Parliament So careful were the Commons of the Parliament Rolls the only Treasury of those publick Ordinances and yet never petitioned touching the Roll of Statutes nor to be present when they were made for they knew full well that that did belong meerly to the King and his Councel But only did put his Majesty in mind in Anno 2. H. 5. n. 10. That the Statute ought not to be drawn up contrary to the meaning of the Petitions which were then granted and afterwards to prevent that inconvenience they themselves framed their Bills in form of a Statute which order continueth to this day Anno 12. E. 2. The Petition of Hugh Audly and Margery his Wife concerning the Lands of the Earl of Cornwal exemplified was exhibited in the Parliament at York at Michaelmas and answered in the next Parliament at Easter following Some had Writs out of the Chancery for the setling and confirming of what was granted to them by Parliament prout Anno 16. R. 2. For livery to be made to Awbrey de Vere of the Lands entailed unto him The Act of Parliament of 28 E. 1. being granted and published with a saving to the Right and Praerogative of the Crown was afterwards upon the murmuring of some of the Lords and Commons against that Proviso republished without it Statutes were not Enrolled until the King had allowed thereof and commanded it to be ingrossed sealed and kept Things perpetual were made into a Statute and temporary into an Ordinance or signified by Letters Patents In the Parliament of 15 E. 3. A Statute was in a manner extorted from that glorious King and a special Committee appointed to pen it against which the Kings Councel protested and the King by his Proclamation or Declaration revoked the same for that he assented not but dissimuled which remains upon record to this day to that Kings great dishonor if not rightly understood Which that great Attorney General Mr. Noy undertook to clear in this manner The Commons having granted the year before a very large Subsidy to the King toward the French Wars to be paid in two years under divers conditions and the Statute drawn up by a special Committee of Lords and Commons who took great care that the King should be duly answered the said grant and the Subjects enjoy his Majesties graces in those conditions expressed and the King going into France with full confidence to receive the said money accordingly but
the Reign of King Henry the 3d included in the King and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Tenants and Knights Fees of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual not a few were not represented when with those and their dependancies they so over-powered King H. 3. in a Parliament at Oxford as to inforce him to yield unto those Provisions which afterwards proved to be the fatal Incentives of an ensuing bloody War and the Seminary of many Commotions and Contests betwixt some of our Succeeding Kings and their Subjects in their after Generations those only excepted being Tenants Paravail who held their Lands subordinately of the Tenants that were mean to those that held their Lands of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Majores Barones holding of the King in Capite with multitudes almost innumerable of Copy-holders Lease-holders Tenants at Will or Sufferance Villani or Bordarii le menu peuple et de busse condition were exempted by Order of Parliament as represented by them and no other and always used to be so the almost numberless Herd of Monks Fryers and Religious Persons and their Revenues Servants Tenants and Dependants were not nor could be represented but freed by the Kings Orders in Parliament from payment of the Commoners Wages that came to Parliament by two several necessary sorts of Priviledges and Immunities instead of many more which they claimed the Religious and Monastick People of the Nation with their very large Possessions and Revenues before the dissolution of them in the Reign of King Henry the 8th and King Edward the 6th being rationally to be accounted little less than a full 4th part of the Lands of the Kingdom the Secular Clergy always giving Subsidies apart by themselves being almost 10000 were represented by the Bishops or Convocation of the Clergy the Tenants in Antient demesne or of the great number of the Tenants of the Kings Annaent demesne proper and largely extended Royal Revenue that should be which before they were Granted or Aliened away by our Kings like Indulgent Common Parents to their almost every days craving Subjects and People or in Rewarding and Incouraging publick and great Services done or to be done for the Common-wealth or Publick good which were very large and diffusive through all the parts of the Nation and the Clerks of the Chancery Beneficiate as most of them Antiently were and the Judges Kings Council and Officers attending the Honourable House of Peers in the like condition and should be exempted although by length of Time Custom Indulgence or Permission they have been since the Original of the House of Commons in the 49th year of the Raign of King Henry the 3d. which was then no more than our Embrio and from thence discontinued until the 22d year of the Raign of King Edward the first charged and made contributary to publick Aids and Necessities and the largely Priviledged County Palatine of Lancaster having heretofore comprehended in it the three great Earldoms of Leicester Derby and Lincoln with their largely extended Revenues was not at the first represented but did forbear the sending of Members the remainder whereof is now a great part of the Kings Revenue the whole County Palatine of Chester with Wales and its Provinces had none until the Raign of King Henry the 8th nor the County Palatine of Durham and the Burrough of Newark upon Trent until some few years ago Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Pryors Religious Men and Women and all that have hundreds of their own as very many have by Grant from the Crown are by the Statute of 42 H. 3. exempted from coming to the Sheriffs Torn or County Court and so not intended to be Electors or Elected The Kings very large should be Demesne Lands and Crown Revenue and that of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the many other before mentioned exempted And the Records of the House of Peers in Parliament have often told us that many times when the Commons gave Subsidies they did it by the Assent of the Lords Spitual and Temporal And as a very Learned Divine of the Church of England there being many Pseudo-Protestant Divines that are not of it hath well remarked there is no Subject of the Kingdom of England represented in Parliament by the Commons thereof but as subordinate to the King and to join with him and the Lords in their As-Assent and Approbation not against him or either of them in our Kings and Soveraign Princes making of Laws for the good of the Kingdom For Repraesentare is no more than locum implore autoritate vel vicaria potestate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita iotis est exhibere vi quà dam juris praesentiam ejus qui revera non est Budaeus definit esse repraesentationem per figuram facere imaginario visu rem ipsam repraesentare locum implere loco sistere loco praesentis sistere repraesentatio quaedam imaginaria And being but Commissioners special Attorneys or Procurators of some part of the Lay-Commonalty and Freeholders not of the Copy-holders Lease-holders Villains or Bondmen Servants or Apprentices could not by their Indentures Letters of Attorney or Procurations with any reason truth understanding or propriety of speech be believed to represent for them that never delegated or authorised them or to Act beyond the purpose or design of those that Elected sent or imployed them nor can make it to be any thing more than an aenigma or Riddle with some hidden and inveloped sense or meaning not to be comprehended in the genuine obvious or proper meaning sense or construction of the word Repraesent for who can without a great weakness failing or Error in his Judgment think that they could by any tentering or straining of the word make all the several kinds of people that sent them in obedience to the direction of their Kings Writs or Orders to impower them whilst they sate in the House of Commons in Parliament to Sentence Condemn Fine Arrest Imprison Banish or Sequester any of those that they pretended to represent when the Praedecessors of those that would be Masters of such a Latitude did in Parliament in the 42d year of the Raign of King Edward the third when a Tax or Aid was proposed for the King being the first and only end for which they were elected and sent make it their request to the King to give them leave to go home to their several Countries and places to advise before hand with those that sent them Otherwise the Pledges or Sureties which every Member of the House of Commons being to give their County and place whom they would represent as their Procurators or Attorneys are to be well heeded and cautiously taken for pledges or security well watched in their doings and not left to trick and purchase to themselves by unlawful Encroachments an Arbitrary and Illegal Soveraignty which the Laws of the Land never allowed them and their Masters the Counties and places that sent them
without any wiser Body to regulate or take care of their Actions would deem it to be a brave Sport and Liberty to play with the Fire until they had set the whole House on fire and burnt themselves into the bargain and if after he had by his practice and study of the Common Law which was nothing but our Feudal Laws too much forgotten or unknown unto those that would be called our Common Lawyers and gaining 10000 l. per Annum Lands of Inheritance made his boast that he had destroyed the so fixed and established Deeds of Entail and the Wills and Intent of the Donors as nothing of Collusion Figments or other Devices should prejudice and no Gentleman or Lover of Honour Gentry or Families would ever have had an hand in such a destruction Levelling Clowning Citizening and Ungentlemanning all or too many of the Ancient Families of England And if he could have lived to have seen or felt the tossing plundering and washing in Blood three great and flourishing Kingdoms would have wept bitterly and lamented or with Job have cursed the hour or time of his birth that he should ever have given the occasion or been Instrumental in the promoting or being a Contributor unto those very many dire Confusions and Disasters that after happened for if he had well read and weighed the History and Records both before shortly after the gaining of that Act of Parliament de Tallagio non concedendo without the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled and how much that great and prudent Prince King Edward the first was pressed and pinched when his important affairs caused his sudden transfrecation by the overpowering party of three of his greatest Nobility viz. Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex Constable of England Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and Bigod Earl of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England all whom and their Ancestors had been advanced to those their Grandeurs by him and his Royal Progenitors had so catched an advantage upon him and were so merciless in their demands as they not only would not allow him a saving of his Jure Regis very usual and necessary in many of our Kings and Princes grants as well in the time of Parliaments as without but enforced an Oath upon him which he took so unkindly as he was constrained shortly after to procure the Pope to absolve him of for that it had been by a force put upon him which a Protestant Pope might have had a Warrant from God Almighty so to have done but did after his return into England so remember their ill usage of him as he seized their three grand Estates and made the two former so well to be contented with the regaining of his favour as Bohun married the one of his Daughters and Clare the other without any portions with an Entail of their Lands upon the Heirs of the Bodies of their Wives the Remainder to the Crown laid so great 〈…〉 Fine and Ransom upon Bigod the Earl Marshal as he being never able to pay it afterwards forfeited and lost all his great Estate and be all of them so well satisfied with his doings therein as they were in the 34th year of his Raign glad to obtain his Pardon with a Remissimus omnem Rancorem And they and Sir Edward Coke might have believed that that very prudent Prince might with great reason and truth have believed his Regality safe enough without a Salvo Jure Regis when the Law and Government it self and the Good and Interest of every Man his Estate and Posterity was and would be always especially concerned in the necessity aid and preservation of the King their common Parent appointed by God to be the Protector of them And our singularly learned Bracton hath not informed us amiss when he concluded that Rex facit Legem in the first place Lex facit Regem in the second giveth him Authority and Power to guard that Regality which God hath given him for the protection of the People committed to his charge who are not to govern their King but to be governed by him and should certainly have the means to effect it for how should he have power to do it or procure his People to have a Commerce or Trade with their Neighbour People or Princes if he as their King had not any or a just Superiority over them c. and must not for all that have and enjoy those Duties Rights and Customs which not only all our Kings Royal Progenitors but their Neighbour Princes and even Bastard and self-making Republiques have quietly and peaceably enjoyed without the Aid and Assistance of any the Suffrage of the giddy Rabble and vulgar sort of the People controuling in their unfixt and instable Opinions those of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the wiser and more concerned part of the People of which and the Rights and Customs due and payable to our Kings and Princes Sir John Davies a learned Lawyer in the Raign of our King James the first hath given us a learned full and judicious Account which well understood might adjudge that Petition of Right to deserve no better an entertainment than the Statute of Gloucester made in 15 E. 3. which by the Opinion of the Judges and Lords Spiritual and Temporal was against the Kings Praerogative and contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England and ought not to have the force and strength of a Statute and Sir Edward Coke might have remembred that in the Raign of King Edward the Third the Commons of England did in Parliament complain that Franchises had for time past been so largely granted by the King that almost all the Land was enfranchised to the great arreirisment estenisement of the Common Law which they might have called the Feudal Law and to the great oppression of the People and prayed the King to restrain such Grants hereafter unto which was answered The Lords will take order that such Franchises as shall be granted shall be by good Advice And that if by any Statute made in the 25th year of the Raign of King Edward 3. it was ordained that no man should be compelled to make any Loan to the King against his will because such Laws were against Reason and the Franchise of the Land that Statute when it shall be found will clearly also appear to be against our Ancient Monarchick Government Fundamentally grounded upon our Feudal Laws that our Magna Charta Charta de Foresta are only some Indulgence and Qualification of some hardship or Rigour of them that the Excommunication adjudged to be by the Statute of 25 E. 1. ca. 4. And the aforesaid dire Anathema's and Curse pronounced in that Procession through Westminster-Hall to the Abbey Church of Westminster against the Infringers of those our Grand Charters are justly and truly to be charged upon the Violaters and Abusers of our Feudal Laws and
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
Durham Earls of Northampton Arundel Warwick Oxford Suffolk and Hugh le Despenser Lord of Glamorgan to the whole so misnamed Estate of Parliament when the King could not be one of them not at all being present purporting that whereas the King at his Arrival at Hoges in Normandy had made his Eldest Son the Prince of Wales Knight he ought to have of the Realm forty Shillings for every Knights Fee which they all granted and took Order for the speedy levying thereof 25 E. 3. Sir John Matravers pardon was confirmed by the whole missettled Estates whereof the King could not be accompted any of them for he granted the pardon 28 E. 3. Richard Earl of Arundel by Petition to the King praying to have the Attainder of Edmond Earl of Arundel his Father reversed and himself restored to his Lands and Possessions upon the view of the Record and and the said Richard Earl of Arundels Allegation that his Father was wrongfully put to death and was never heard the whole Estates saith that ill Translator adjudged he was wrongfully put to Death and Restored the said Earl to the benefit of the Law which none could do but the King who was petitioned and having the sole interest in the forfeiture was none of those which were wrongfully called the whole Estates 37 E. 3. Where it is said that at the end of the Parliament the Chancellor in the presence of the King shewed that the King meant to execute the Statute of Apparel and therefore charged every State to further the same the King could not be understood to charge himself After which he demanded of the whole Estates so as before mistaken whether they would have such things as they agreed on to be by way of Ordinance or of Statute they answered by way of Ordinance for that they being to take benefit thereby might amend the same at their pleasure And so the King having given thanks to all the as aforesaid miscloped Estates for their pains taken licensed them to depart which should be enough to demonstrate that the Granter and Grantees were not alone or conjoynt and that the King giving thanks to the Estates did not give it to himself 42 E. 3. The Archbishop of Canterbury on the Kings behalf gave thanks to the whole in the like manner mis-termed Estate for their Aids and Subsidies granted unto the King wherein assuredly the Archbishop of Canterbury did not understand the King to be any part of the whole Estate which the King gave thanks unto The Commons by their Speaker desiring a full declaration of the Kings necessity require him to have consideration of the Commons poor Estate The King declared to the Commons that it was as necessary to provide for the safety of the Kings Estate as for the Common-wealth Anno 6. Regis Richardi 2. after Receivers and Triers of Petitions named Commandment was given that all persons and Estates which imported no more being rightly understood than conditions or sorts of men miscalled as aforesaid should the next day have the cause of summoning the Parliament declared 11 R. 2. The Parliament was said to have been adjourned by the common Assent of the whole Estates the first time of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being called the Estates without or with the Commons joyned with them no such names or words appellations or Titles were either known or in use nor any such words or Titles as Estates being to be found in the Originals or Parliament Rolls before Anno 11 R. 2. for no more appeareth in the Original than in and under these expressions viz. Et mesme le vendredi auxint a cause ce fest solempnite de pasch estoit a progeno ii coveient le Roi les Seigneurs tautx autres entendre a devotion le Parlement coe assent le toutz Estats le Parlement estoit continez del dit vendredi tanque Lindy lendemain de la equinziesme de Pasch adonquez prochem ensuent commandez per le Roy a toutz les Seigneurs Communs du dit Parlement Quils seroient a Westminster le dimengo en la dite quinzieme de pascha a plustaid sur ceo noevelles briefs furent â—aiots a toutz les Seigneurs somons au dit parlement de yestre a la dite quinzieme sur certaine peine a limiter per les Seiguro qui seroient presents en dit Parlement a la quinzieme avant dite le quel Limdy le dit Parlement fust recommence tenat son cours selont la request des Communs grant de nostre Seigur le Roi avant ditz And then but the inconsiderate hasty new created word of the Clerks in a distracted time when the great Ministers of State in two contrary Factions to the ruin of the King and many of themselves as it afterwards sadly happened were quarrelling with each other and all the Bishops so affrighted as they were enforced to make their Protestation against any proceedings to be made in that so disturbed a Parliament In Anno 21. R. 2. The Bishop of Exeter Chancellor of England taking his Theme or Text out of Ezechiel Rex unius omnibus erat proved by many Authors that by any other means than by one sole King no Realm could be well governed For which cause the King had assembled the Estates in Parliament to be informed of the rights of his Crown withheld which Oration afterwards was to the same effect seconded by Sir John Bussey Knight Speaker of the House of Commons King Richard the second being as a Prisoner in the Tower of London made the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Hereford his Procurators to publish his Rem 〈…〉 of the Kingdom to the whole Estates Which whether at at that time distinguished or divided into three doth not appear viz. into Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons could not comprehend the King who was not to be present but gave the direction and authority to his said Procurators and could never have been understood to have been present or one of them himself or to have made such a prosecution against or for himself After the claim made unto the Crown of England in Parliament by Henry Duke of Lancaster and a consultation had amongst the Lords and Estates not expressing that the Commons were a 3d. or any part thereof it being then altogether improbable that King Richard the 2d or any other representing for him was there present and to make one of the said pretended Estates as much out of the reach of probability that King Richard himself was one or a Person then acting against himself the Duke of Lancaster himself then affirming that the Kingdom was vacant And when the Usurping King Henry the 4th openly gave thanks to the whole Estates wherein is plainly evidenced that himself neither was or could be understood to be then or at any other time one of the said Estates The first day of the Parliament the Bishop of London
the Kings Brother and Chancellor of England in the behalf of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of calling the Parliament and taking for his Theme Multitudo Sapientum learnedly resembled the Government of the Realm to the Body of a man the Right-hand to the Church the Left-hand to the Temporalty and the other Members to the Commonalty of all which Members and Estates the King not deeming himself to be one was willing to have Councel The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England by the Kings commandment declaring the cause of the Summoning the Parliament and taking for his Theme Regem honorificate shewed them that on necessity every Member of mans Body would seek comfort of the Head as the Chief and applyed the same to the honouring of the King as the Head And in that his Oration mentioning the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Knights Citizens and Burgesses giveth them no Title of Estates but the Kings Leiges In the presence of John Duke of Bedford Brother of the King Lieutenant and Warden of England and the Lords and Commons the Bishop of Durham by his commandment declared that the King willed that the Church and all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which could not include the King It was ordained that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties without the words Concessimus which could not comprehend the King who granted it to them but not to himself The Chancellor at the first assembling of the Parliament declared that the King willeth that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which must be intended to others that were his Subjects and not to himself that was none of them The Archbishop of York Chancellor of England declaring the cause of Summoning the Parliament said the King willeth that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties in which certainly he well knew that the Person willing or granting was not any of the Persons or Estates to whom he willed and granted that they should enjoy their Liberties The Duke of Gloucester being made Guardian or Keeper of England by the King sitting in the Chair the Archbishop of York being sick William Linwood Doctor of Laws declaring the cause of summoning the Parliaâ—ent said that the King willed that every Estate should enjoy their due Liberties which properly enough might be extensively taken to Military men and Soldiers the Gentry Agricolis opificibus all sorts of Trades Labourers Servants Apprentices Free-holders Copy-holders Lease-holders single Women and Children Tenants at Will and which never were themselves Estates but the several sorts and degrees thereof wherein if any Law Reason or Sense could make the King to be comprehended an inextricable problem or question would everlastingly remain unresolved who it was that so willed or granted The King sitting in his Chair of State John Bishop of Bath and Wells Chancellor of England in the presence of the Bishops Lords and Commons by the Kings Commandment declared the causes of summoning the Parliament taking for his Theme or Text the words sussipiant montes Pacem Colles Justitiam divided it into three parts according to the three Estates by the Hills he understood Bishops and Lords and Magistrates by little Hills Knights Esquires and Merchants by the People Husbandmen Artificers and Labourers By the which third Estates by sundry Authorities and Examples he learnedly proved that a Triple Political vertue ought to be in them viz. In the first Unity Peace and Concord In the second Equity Consideration Upright Justice without maintenance In the third due Obeysance to the King his Laws and Magistrates without grudging and gave them further to understand the King would have them to enjoy all their Liberties Of which third Estates the Chancellor in all probability neither the King or they that heard him did take or believe the King himself to be any part The 15th day of August the Plague beginning to increase the Chancellor by the Kings Commandment in the presence of the 3 Estates the Clerks Translator or Abridger being unwilling to relinquish their Novelty or Errors of which the commonest capacity or sense can never interpret the King to be one Prorogued the Parliament until the Quindena of St. Michael The Bishop of Bath and Wells Chancellor of England in the presence of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of the Summons of Parliament said that the King willed that all Estates should enjoy thâ—â— Liberties which might intitle the King to be the Party willing or granting but not any of the Parties who were to take benefit thereby It was enacted by the whole Estates which may be understood to be the King Lords Spiritual and that the Lords of the Kings Councel none of theirs should take such order for the Petition of the Town of Plymouth as to them should seem best Letters Patents being granted by the King to John Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury of divers Mannors and Lands parcel of the Dutchy of Lancaster under the Seal of the Dutchy were confirmed by the whole Estates for the performance of the last Will and Testament of King H. 5. though it was severed from the Crown and was no part of the concernment thereof nor had any relation to the Publick or any Parliamentory Affairs the King himself that granted the Letters Patents could not be interpreted to be one of those whole Estates which were said to have confirmed them By the whole Estates were confirmed King Henry the 6th Letters Patents of the Erection and Donation of Eton Colledge and also of Kings Colledge in Cambridge with the Lands thereunto belonging which might well conclude the King although he being the Donor could not be believed to be any part of the whole Estates who by their approbation are said to have confirmed his Letters Patents The Chancellor in the name of all the Lords in the presence of the King protested that the Peace which the King had taken with the French King was of his own making and will and not by any of the Lords procurations the which was enacted And it was enacted that a Statute made in the time of King H. 5. that no Peace should be taken with the French King that then was called the Dolphin of France without the assent of the three Estates of both Realms should be utterly revoked and that no Person for giving Counsel to the Peace of France be at any time to come impeached therefore which may demonstrate that neither the Dolphin of France nor the King of England were then accompted to be any part of the several 3. Estates of the said Kingdoms The King by his Chancellor declared that he willed that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties it cannot be with any probability supposed that either he or his Chancellor intended that himself was one of the said Estates The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England in the presence of the King gave thanks in his behalf to the 3. Estates wherein no
Grammar or Construction of Reason or Sense will ever be able to comprehend the King The 17th day of December the Chancellor in the presence of the King and the 3 Estates which is surely to be understood to consist of other Persons separately and distinct from the King Prorogued the Parliament until the 20th day of January then next ensuing at Westminster and upon the 28th day of April was likewise Prorogued to the 5th day of May next following The Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England in the presence of the King Lords and Commons declaring the cause of Summoning the Parliament said that the Kings pleasure was that all Estates should enjoy their Liberties which could not signifie that the King himself was one of those Estates to whom he granted that favour The 25th day of December the Chancellor in the presence of the King and the 3. Estates by the Kings Commandment giving thanks to the 3. Estates the King being then by the Chancellor or any other Master of Reason or Common Sense not understood to be any one of the 3. Estates to whom the thanks were given dissolved the Parliament An Act of Parliament was made wherein was declared that King Edward the 4th was the undoubted King of England from the 4th day of March last before and that all the Estates yielded themselves obeysant Subjects unto him and his Heirs for ever the late never to be maintained Doctrine of the pretended co-ordination of the House of Commons in Parliament as Subjects with their Soveraign in Parliament and the Government being not than that established or ever to be evidenced otherwise then God hath ordained a co-ordination betwixt the King and his Subjects which is that the People as Subjects should obey their King and the King as their Soveraign Protect Rule and Govern them and affirmed the Raign of King Henry the 4th to be an Intrusion and only Usurpation The Chancellor the King sitting in his Royal State in the presence of the Lords and Commons made an Eloquent Oration wherein he declared the 3. Estates to comprehend the Governance of the Land the preheminence whereof was in the Bishops the second to the Lords Temporal which the learned and men of that Age and other Chancellors understood to be no other than two separate and distinct Estates the one Temporal and the other Spiritual and the King to be Superiour The Bishop of London Chancellor of England in the presence of the King and the 3. Estates the King being none of them but Superior over them all Prorogued the Parliament to the 6th of June ensuing For where the Abridger or Mr. Pryn possessing himself to be the Rectifier or Corrector amongst his other faults and mistakings in his Epitomizings made it to be in the Parliament Rolls of 6 Edwardi 3. that many failing to come to the Parliament upon the Summons of the King did put a charge upon the whole Estate by a reassembly he will find neither words or matter for it All that appears of the Title of Estates in the Parliament and Statute Rolls of that year is no more than the Prelats grants gentz du Commune or les Prelats Counts Barons gentz des Countez gentz de la Commune No whole Estate mentioned in the Parliament Roll all that is said n. 42. is no more than a les requests des grantz come de ceuâ— de la Commune de le Clergie That which is translated the Estate of the King is no more in the Parliament Roll n. 5. than les beseignes nostre seigneur le Roy de son Royame Where the Abridger saith the Parliament was to treat and advise touching the Estate de nostre Seigneur le Roy le Governement le salnette de sa terre d' Angleterre de son people relevation de lour Estate there is no other mention of Estates than the Prelatz grantz Commons de son roiame and charged les Chinalers des Countes and Commons to assemble in the Chamber de Pinct A quel Jour vindrent les Chivalers des Counties autres Commons and gave their advice in a Petition in the form ensuant a tres excellent or tres honorable Seigneur les gentz de vostre Commun soy recommandent a vous obeysantment en merciant se avant come leur petitesse powre suffice de tant tendrement pervez a quer maintenir la pees a la quiete de vostre people c. Et en maintenance des autres Leyes as autres Parliaments devant ces heures grantees vostre poure Commons sil vous plaist sa gree semble a la dite Commune totes autres choses poent suffisantement estre rewelez Terminez en Bank le Roy Commune Bank devant Justices as Assises prendre nisi les delayes nient covenable soient aggregez oustez ore a ce Parliament per estatut En. Ro. Parl. 18. E. 3. Where the King desired the names of the absent Lords that he might punish them there is no mention of the Clergy or Commons or of any Estates and the King afterwards desiring their advice touching his Treaty with France charged the Prelats Countz Barons et Communs to give their advice therein Which they all did without naming themselves or being stiled Estates The Kings Letters of Credence sent out of France to his Parliament in England were directed a toutes Erchevesquis evesques Abbes Priours Counts Barons toutz autres foialx le Roy vendront au dit Parlement troter sar les beseignes le Roy whereupon he demanded an Aid of the said Prelats grantz Communs And the Lords without the Title of Estates having granted it the Chivalers des Counties Citizens Burges des Cities Burghs Prioront de avoir avisement entre eux and in Answer thereunto delivered a Petition unto the King for redress of Grievances not by the name of the Estates but a nostre Seigneur le Roy a son conseil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentz de la Communes de sa terre ausi bien des 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Counties Where it was supposed that a Pardon was granted and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Sir John Matrevers of all his Lands by the whole Estates there appeareth no more in the 〈…〉 ment Roâ—â— than that he Petitioned A nostre Seigneur le Roy a son bon conscil wherein he recited that Restitution had been granted de poiar royal nostre Seigneur le Roy par bor accord 〈◊〉 Common assent des Prelatz Co 〈…〉 es Barons de son Roialme par plusieurs causes appearing in the 〈…〉 ings Charter of Pardon and prayed quil p 〈…〉 st a nostre dit Seigneur le Roy a son bon conscil par la boâ—dance de sa Noble Seignorie granter la restitution scisdite pâ—usse estre ore renovelle en cest Parlement quelle Petition lue fut respondue
the Romans those Cordatissimi Mortales as the learned Pettus Cunaeus hath stiled them and most watchful of their Priviledges the wary long lasting Republick of Venice or the later Confederates of the United Provinces ever trouble themselves or any other with such reasonless incredible Whimsies it being impossible that Subject and Soveraignty should constare vel consistere in uno eodenque Subjecto neither when Jeroboam drew away the Ten Tribes of Israel from the Obedience of Rehoboam and made as the Holy Scripture saith all Israel to sin was there any such opinion amongst their Cabalistical Doctrines The Republicks of Venice Holland could not be capable of Leagues and Treaties with Monarch and Forreign Princes as unto War and commerce nor the little Common-wealths of Genoa and Geneva or those many Imperial free Cities or Towns in or near Germany or the Electors of the Empire or the Hanse Towns should they give entertainment unto such Fancies and Fopperies as a Soveraignty in the people neither would the Cantons of of Helvetia or Switzerland think themselves well used to be obliged to such a Parcel of unpracticable folly And if those Egregious Cavillators can find no way of retreat for those their notorious follies but to fly for Succour unto praescription that will if they could as they will never be able to prove it yeild them as little comfort for a Rebellious electing of some few Members into the House of Commons first formed as unto a small number of them during the Imprisonment of King Henry the third by Montforts Army of Rebels that would not mount unto a Prescription quia mala fide and if it could have come up to any thing like a Prescription there would be no reason or need for an Election of Members to be in the House of Commons in Parliament by the Sheriffs by the Mandate or Warrant of the Kings Writs or how could a party drawn out of such a pretended inhaerent Soveraignty in the people rationally subsist when those their untruly supposed Rights or Priviledges cannot upon the most exact enquiry be found or discerned amongst all the Records Charters and Patents of our Kings and Princes or those of any of our Neighbour Nations of Christendom or of any other Nation White Black or Tawncy but do plainly contradict it and declare the quite contrary and will manifest it to be the greatest Cheat and Villany that ever was put upon the Sons and Daughters of mankind either as unto a pretended inhaerent Soveraignty or a third Estate or the figment of a Modus tenendi Parliamentum Or how could any of our Kings Rightly and Justly stile them a third Estate when they could not choose a Speaker without their License nor leavy their Wages without his Writs directed to the Sheriffs for that purpose nor punish any that had arrested any of them or their maenial Servants whilst they attended the King in their Service for him and their own good and at all conferences either in their own House or in the House of Peers were to stand uncovered when the Lords sate covered could not grant Tax or Aid without the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and in King Edward 1. His Raign and some of our after Kings have refused to intermeddle or give advice in matters of Peace and War but desired that the Councel of the Lords as the most able might be taken therein In the 34 and 35. H. 8. the Knights and Burgesses of Chester had no title of Estates but the same King in the Act of Parliament declaring in what Order and Manner the Lords should sit in the House of Peers in Parliament made no appointment for or concerning any of the House of Commons as if they had been no Essential part of Parliament that in the great case of Mr. George Ferrars a Member of the House of Commons as wel as a Servant of that Kings upon a complaint that he had been imprisoned and the Kings Serjeant at Arms attending their Speaker was beaten and abused the House of Commons in Parliament complained to the House of Lords who remitted it to them again and no remedy or punishment could be had until it came to the King himself who without any mention or Title given unto them of a third Estateship was pleased to grant it And in Queen Maries Raign 39. of their Members were Indicted by her for not attending the Parliament yet none either claimed a third Estateship or to be tryed by their Peers Queen Elizabeth imprisoned some and at several times charged them and their Speaker not to intermeddle with matters of Church or State but all the Masters of any Understanding Reason or Common sense ought to understand them to be no other than Petitioners and her Leige-men And it is well known that King James in his Instructions to his Son Prince Henry and his learned answer to Cardinal Peronius does assert the Jus Regium to be the Right of Kings from God immediately without any notice taken of a third Estate But if those Kingly Government or Monarchy Reformers would but give their contemplations and designs some little Respite they might easily perceive the frailty of the Materials out of which they mould would the Members of the House of Commons into a third Estate and might find Evidenee Records Reason and Law enough if they have not forsworn them to desist from such an impossibility And it might better become their own busying themselves in the government of the Kingdom wherein they have no manner of skill or knowledge to consult the consequences and the Events and having no knowledge of the causes Mediume contengencies or treacheries too much or too often attendant in Princes affairs not seldom also miscarrying for the Sins of the people or of some Jonas in the Ship deserving a punishment ought more seriously to weigh and consider how little the people of England will think themselves hereafter beholding or obliged unto them when in a popular and aboundance of Ignorance accompanied with sin and wiekedness they advised King Charles the Second to dissolve by Act of Parliament these Nerves and Sinews of the Crown which the Judges of England in the Raigns of King James the first and King Charles the first upon several consults have declared to be so inseparable to the Crown of England as the most potent and binding Act of Parliament that could be made will never be able to disunite them when they have thereby against their wills converted those Tenures of Honour and safety to their King and Protection peace and plenty to his people and the Releifs and Herriots due and payable to the King into a Chimney-Money granted afterwards by another Act of Parliament and what a profitable bargain they have made by forfeiture of all the Lands which they held by and under their Feudal Laws converted into Socage when by a Law made by King Athelstan ever plow Land in Socage was to find in Service
upon occasion of War binos ornatos atque instructos Equites when by converting all the Tenures in Capite that of the Peers and Grand Serjeants excepted into Socage they have given the King a greater Revenue than they intended far exceeding the Revenue of the tenures in Capite the honour of the King and safety of himself and the people excepted And that in those early times none were imployed in Commissions or Places of trust by our Kings and their Laws but Knights holding by Tenure in Capite immediately or mediately that King Henry the 2d in some of his Laws declared none to be liberi Homines but those that were Military and that if the Socage men or Tenants of all the Possessors of Lands and Tenements now in England and Ireland must be in no better a capacity than as Villani Servi Bordarii Cotarii and Tenants at will under domineering Landlords and be shut out of the blessings of our Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta and left as the people were in the Raign of William the Conqueror William Rufus and Henry the first to the dire punishments cases of Treason and Felony only excepted of plucking out of Eyes and cutting off the Genitals Legs or Noses of the Offenders And it might be a meet question among the Heralds upon what foundation more than 1000 Knights Baronets do now stand seeing that Ireland is turnd into a Socage Tenure when the first original of them was to find in Capite so many men at Arms in the Kings Service And having with the Prophet Jeremy called cried out and advised many of my friends stare super vias antiquds inquirere veritatem I lament and bewail that the Monarchy of England that for more than 1600 years last past hath been so great glorious amongst her Neighbour Nations and hath in this our last Century of years been so unhappy ever since the beginning of the Raign of King John when Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury had in his Oration at the Coronation of that infortunate King declared to the Nobility and people there assembled that he was created King by the Election of the people and being reprehended and blamed for it by some of the Nobility was at that Instant or before that Assembly forced to excuse that inadvised Speech as well as he could by saying he had so done it as knowing his force nature it might induce him to govern the more orderly although he might have known that the Kingdom of England was hereditary and that King Richard the first had by his last Will and Testament devised it unto him with all other his Dominions and caused the Nobility there present to swear fealty unto him Which poyson so thrown into our Body Politick and by degrees creeping into it may well be believed to have so fixed the venom thereof as it hath from age to age been the original Cause and fomenter of the very many mischiefs and discords some Intervals of quiet intervening that have until the late long Parliament Rebellion and the Murder of King Charles the first and ever since unto this very day by those unhappy discords hapned in our Parliaments General Consiliums Colloquiums or conferences betwixt our Kings and Princes and a select number of his Subjects for mutual Aids in a general and reciprocal concernment the best and most happy constitution that ever was or could be practised in any Kingdom if it could have escaped that Series malorum Concatenation of discords that have of late been too often their Concomitants either by some aversions to Loyalty or by the Grand mistakes in the practise thereof and by the Common people making the Parliaments of later times to be as their King and he that is and should be their King little more than an extraordinary fellow Subject A Right observation and accompt whereof may from one unto the other lead us to the late blessed Martyrs fatal Murther and that Pestiferous Doctrine that did over much intice the Vulgus and ignorant part of the people that there is and ought to be an Inhaerent Right of Soveraignty in the people it being not unuseful for after ages to know and understand the same with the beginnings and progress thereof which for ought appears had its first original from Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury who had in the troublesome Raign of King Henry the second and at the time of the making the Assise and Constitutions at Clarendon such a peevish ambition and unwarrantable loftiness of Spirit as after the King had in the presence of the said Archbishop and all the Bishops Earls and Barons of England received their Recognitions and promises to perform and obey them they were sent unto the Pope to have his approbation who returned them to some with an hoc damnavit toleravit as unto others And Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury promoted by the Pope against the will of King John discovering as a singular rarity the Charter of the liberties granted by King Henry the first did so please some discontented Barons as they swore upon the Altar they would live and dye in the obtaining those beneficial Laws and Liberties begot a Spirit of unquietness in them which could not be allayed until the said Avitae consuetudines recognized and all ratified by King Henry the second his his Grandson by the constitions â—at â—arendon which begetting some little quiet broke out again in a worse manner upon his Son King John in the constraint and unkingly force put upon him at Running Mede where those tumultuous Barons w 〈…〉 a great Army in battel Array the better to attain their said Charter of liberties had promised to pay debts but never intended it And were so faithless and unwilling to be his Subjects as what they by force extorted from that oppressed Prince could never truly and properly merit the name or title of a Charter although he himself had been constrained so to call it and the King of France in his Exception to his award made as aforesaid many years after had so stiled it yet those undutiful doings of theirs were disliked by divers of the Bishops that had been the Popes and those Rebellious Barons Favourites who it seems did so little intend what they ought to do and undertook as some of the Bishops could not deny to certify as followeth Omnibus Episc. sidelibus Stephanus De igra Cant. Archiep. Primas Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Card. Henr. Dublin Archieq Will. London Petrus Winton Joscelin Bathon Glaston Hugo Lincoln Walter Wigorn. Will. Coventr Richardus Cicestr Magister pond Domini papae Subdiaconus familiaris Salutem Noverit Universitas vestra quod quando facta fuit pax inter donum Regem Johannem Barones Angliae de discordia inter eas orta lidem Barones nobis presentibus audientibus promiserunt dom Regi quod quamcunque securitatem haberi vellet ab iis pace illa observanda ipsi
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
maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adhaerents to subvert and suppress it whereby his Majesty will be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentory way for his aid and assistance in restoring his Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same cause 18. That his Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parliament to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the 5 Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the consequence of that evil president 19 That his Majesty would be graciously pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the consent of both Houses of Parliament which would have made him such a King as never was or can be found in any Christian or Heathen Kingdom or Nation and themselves such Subjects as until they could agree the matter amongst themselves or they should be couzened by some Republicans and those publick Plunderers by some Cromwel cheat those kind of extraordinary mad Men and Fools of both Sexes must have been all Kings Queens and Princes and that which they would have called their King to be but as a shadow or semblance or none at all which would have restrained the King from all power that other â—ings and Princes had to reward men of merit when as Joseph had the Honour done him by Pharaoh that they should make him ride them second Chariot and cry before him Bow the Knee and as Mordecai who had preserved King Ahashuerus Life was Arrayed with the Royal Apparel and rode upon the Horse on which the King used to ride with the Crown Royal on his Head and the Horse to be led by one oâ— his greatest Princes through the Street of the City who sh 〈…〉 Proclaim before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to Honour All those or which their humble desires being granted by his Majesty they should faithfully apply themselves to regulate his present Revenue in such sort as may be for his best advantage and likewise to settle such an ordinary and constant increase of it as shall be sufficient to support his Royal Dignity in Honour and Plenty beyond the proportion of any former Grants of his Subjects of the Kingdom of his Majesties Royal Predecessors And what he owed to himself his Posterity People Prudence Honour and Dignity as to have granted what they desired they would too easily have obtained their advantages of bereaving him of his Monarchy by such their Propositions not fit to be advised and Petitions neither to be made or granted more than Pepin the Mayor of the Palace at Paris ever had when he perswaded the last King of the Merovignian Line to indulge his ease leave all his Affairs of State to his care manage which brought that Prince within a short time after to be shaved and put into a Monastery and the great Charles or Charlemain Son of Pepin established King of France or the like opportunities which Hugh Capet the Ancestor of the now King of France had by his getting the Rule and Reins of the Government into his own hands which did the like to the Family of that Great Charles and placed himself and his ever since flourishing Lineage in that Throne And would make him as small a King as Arise Evans a Fanatick Taylor in Black Fryers in London had proposed when Sir James Harrington had modelled his Government of Oceana Mr. Henry Nevil his Plato Redivivus and Mr. Charles George Cock his Houshold of God upon Earth and every one would be busy as he could in shooting of his bolt That a King should be Elected out of the Poorest sort of Men and have an 100 l. per Annum for his care and pains to be taken in the Government which would have been much better than the aforesaid 19 careful manackling Propositions when the Parliament must have been the King and the King only executive and as the Subject and the Parliament from time to time impowered to make Laws contrary to those which he and his predecessors had made and governed by and when they please is to execute quite contrary and procure a pardon when he can of God Almighty for it And having by the help of their Seditions and Rebellion gained as they hoped a new Magna Charta for themselves as representatives for the people their next care and industry were employed not only to guard and keep what they had thought themselves possessed of but to add as many more advantages unto them as the pressures and necessities of their King might join unto them and therefore when the Noble General Monke after Duke of Albemarle had by Gods mercy to King Charles the 2d under the mask of a Commonwealth by his wary conduct in almost a miraculous manner reduced the King to his Kingdoms Dominions and Monarchick Rights without as the Parliament Rebels would have perswaded him the taking of the Rebellious Covenant or the abstracting of any of his Regal Rights they did so contrive their matters as in an Act of general pardon larger than ever was granted by any of our Kings of England with some small exceptions prepared by two Serjeants at Law that had Sailed along with the Wind and Tide of that long lasting Rebellion they had bestowed upon it an especial praeamble That whereas divers Rebellions and Insurrections had been by vertue of divers Commissions of the King and of the Parliament as if any could be guilty of High Treason or other Misdemeanors or could forfeit that acted by the Kings Authority the King had pardoned all Treasons Felonies c. And as if they had nothing more to incroach upon the Monarchy did take it to be a breach of they knew not what Priviledge for their murdered King to send for a Printing-press from London to York or Oxford and the Members of the House of Commons in Parliament after that huge pardon granted by King Charles the 2d of the forfeiture of all the Lands in England which were in the Rebels possessions with all their rich Goods and Chattels together with another Act to unbastardize their Children and unadulterate their Fathers and Mothers fastened and entailed upon them by a new Fanatical way of Marriage before Justices of Peace as if they were only to part a fray or keep them from fighting for which they seemed not to be at any rest or quiet with themselves until every County City Burrough Market Town and Corporation or Company of Trade had attended his Majesty with Addresses of huge protestations of Loyalty and Obedience and the expence of their Blood Lives and Fortunes and all that could be dear unto them yet too many of them could after make their counterfeit Loyalty with promises to live and dye with him to
mentioned in King Johns extorted Charter aâ— Runingmede whether then newly gained as the learned Sir Henry Spelman believed or only put in practice by Edward the first a better defender of his Crown-Rights then his Father or Grandfather as others have with good probability conceived may receive the better entertainment amongst all the friends and well-willers of truth and reason when it shall be considered how much it corresponds with that more antient custome amongst the Hebrews in a government ordained by God himself where the Princes of the 12. Tribes of Israell Summo Magistratui assidebant Nobilium ordo pro seminario munerum praecipuorum quia saith Besoldus liberaliter educati sapientiores esse censentur and therefore Comites or Earls being antiently in the Reign of Charlemaine which was in Anno Christi 806. if not long before Perfecti Provinciarum qui Provincias administrabant were with Dukes also and Barons not only in France about those times but in Germany also whereas Bodin saith they did so spirare libertatem as they 〈◊〉 it on Earth to be the utmost of their wishes and d 〈…〉 to obtain as much as they could of it inserted and put in 〈…〉 the Maâ—ricula or Roll of the States of the Empire Et in Comi 〈…〉 us suffragii habuerunt and Arumaeus as well as many other 〈…〉 hentick Authors are of opinion that it was pars libertaâ—is a great part of the peoples liberty and for their good that deliberatio ordinum concilio et authoritate quorum periculores agitur suscipitur Et qui apud principem et jura Comitiorum uâ—a perpetua privativa est mediata subjectio qua qui infectus est nec Comitiorum particeps esse potest it being a Rule or Law in such Assemblies that they that sit there or are to have voice or suffrage therein were to hold immediately of the Empire and the reason of the first institution of the Parliament of France composed of the ancient Nobility by the ancient Kings of France Pepyn was as Pasquier that learned King Advocate of France observeth inpartem solicitudinis to assist their Kings in the better management of their Government who did thereby communicate les affaiâ—es publiques a leurs premier grandes Seigneurs come si avec la Monarchie ils eussent entre mesler l' ordre d' une Aristocratie gouvernement de plusieurs personages d' honneur ne se mettre en haine des grands seigneurs Potentats and not draw upon them the envy of their great and mighty men Et estans les grands Seigneurs ainsi lors uni se composa un corps general de toutes les princes gouverneurs par l' adois desquels se vinderoint non seslement les differeuts qui se presenteroient entre le Roy eux mais entre le Roy ses Subjects And the great Lords being so united composed and made one generall body of all the Princes and Governours of Provinces by whose advice and councell not only the differences which should happen between the King and them but betwixt his Subjects and were to be in extraordinary concernments of the Kingdom determined Et estoit l' usance de antiens Roys telle qu'es lieux ou la necessite les summomot se uvidoient ordinairement les affaires par assemblees generals des Barons and accordingly by the direction of right reason or of that or the more Ancient government of the Greeks in their great Councel of Amphiction or of the Romans in their Empire where in suis constitutionibus prohibitum fuit ne portae dignitatis vilibus personis paterent quas ipsa remana respublica plebeis cum sui destructione aperuit ut in ipsos Senatores imo tandem Consules insurgerent particularia Jura plebiscita pro plebe formarent tandem sibi summam potestatem sub tribintia authoritate arrogarent factionibus in contrarium motis rempublicam perderent and our Saxon Kings could neither think they wronged themselves or their subjects to call to their Assemblies and great Councells for the redressing of Grievances and Enacting of Laws their regni Scientissimos Aldermannos Governours of Provinces so as they which have had any Conversation with Tyraquel Nolden de nobilitate Cassanaei catalogus gloriae mundi L'Oyseau in his books de Seigneuries de droit des offices Du Fresue's glossar our Seldens titles of Honour Sr John Ferues glory of generosity Sr Henry Spelmans glossary may find as L'Oyseau saith that there are simple Nobles hautes grauds moindres seigueurs publicquees et privees And they may loose more credit then they are likely to get in making such a stir to metamorphose Pigmies into Gyants and Gyants into Pigmies procure their Proselites or fellow-Undertakers if they can to believe that all the world hath been since the creation therof greatly mistaken beside themselves Howsoever if that will not accomodate their levelling humors and designs they will make an essay to entice others to invade their Sovereigns Rights and Authority although they themselves should miss of their mark or aim intended by putting the Majores Barones in mind that they have a co-ordinate or compulsive power in their Kings great Councells more then deliberative or subordinately Judiciall when there will be evidence enough against it and the Parliament-Rolls and Records will if well observed afford ensuing plentifull proofs and instances thereof Principes Comites Barones Imperii alique ordines non tantum minora cum provinciis et territoriis sibi in feudum datis sed et ex majoribus illis quae re haud Innania capiunt as our William the Conqueror did in his Grant of the Earldome of Chester teneud ' Ita tibere per gladium ut Rex tenet Angliam per gladium and that Earl and his heirs had diverse Barrons under him of their own Creation And one of the said Earls granted the Earldom of Lincoln to his Sister Hawisa and her heirs the Bishoprick of Durham as a County Palatine aver Justice haute Basse subordinate to the King and in like manner was the Dutchy of Lancaster granted by our King Edward the 3. § 10. Incorporales res apud omnes quoque gentes in feudum dari receptum et Jura appellantur haec res Immobilium Jure censentur arg l. 2. de servis idque plenius planuis Intelligi potest sect proced n 4. 5. Similiter venatio quoque expresse in feudum dari potest as our free-warren tunc licet fuudus in venatione non consistat id est propter eam non habeatur venari potest vasallus quod teperit ipsius erit l. 9. sect 5. l. 62. F. de usufr. Successio etiam alia ex testamento alia ab Intestato liberis deficientibus e latere conjuncti veniunt whence proceeded the power of the Tenant in Capite granted King Henry the
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