most of their servile works without money and paid them besides an annual Rent in corn and other houshold provisions was to quiet the ruined English and by intermarriages of them and the Normans and Forreigners and other establishments to assure what was gained to their posterities the plenty and abundance whereof continuing through the reigns of King Stephen and King Henry the Second who greatly inlarged his Dominions by the Dutchy of Aquitain Earldomes of Aniou Main Poictou Touraine and other Provinces and parts of France the Lands of Henry de Essex his Standard-bearer by inheritance forfeited for the treason of throwing it down and flying and reporting that he was slain the Earldome of Lincoln Earldomes being then and long after not without great Possessions and Revenues belonging to them the Lands of William Peverell Lord of Nottingham Conquest of Ireland and whole Counties and Provinces thereof comming to be the Kings Demeasnes and the forfeitures to Richard the First of many of his Nobility and others who had taken part with his Brother John in his usurpation of the Regall authority All which with the Escheats and Forfeitures of the Terra Normanorum in England upon the losse of Normandy by King John unto the French confiscated Lands of a great part of the English Nobility and Gentry after the misfortune of Henry the Third in the unquietness of many of his Barons and People his better fortune in the battel of Evesham and subduing them in the forty ninth year of his Reign the accession to the Crown of the Earledoms of Derby Leicester Salisbury and the County Palatine of Chester with the vast Territories and Estates which belonged unto them and many other lesser Escheats and Forfeitures the Forfeiture of Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk and his Earldome and great Possessions with divers other Escheats and Forfeitures the Principality of Wales and the Conquest of Scotland in the Reign of King Edward the First confiscating of the lands of inheritance for from the making of the Statute de Donis or Entails in Anno 13. of Edward the first untill Anno 5 6 of Edward the sixth Lands entailed were not forfeited for Treason of Thomas Earl of Lancaster Lincoln and Derby Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex of the Lords Clifford Warrein Lisle Tutchet Cheney Mowbray Teyes Aldenham Badlesmere and Gifford and many other men of great note and eminencie to King Edward the second the lands of Mortimer Earl of March Edmund Earl of Kent and the Escheat of the great Estate and Inheritance of Hastings Earl of Pembroke to King Edward the third with several other confiscations and forfeitures and his Conquest of a great part of France the forfeitures of Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland Michael dela Pooli Earl of Suffolk of the Duke of Gloucester Earles of Arundel and Warwick and divers other great Inheritances to King R. 2. the marriage of John of Grant fourth son to King Ed. 3. to Blanch the sole daughter and heir of Henry Duke of Lancaster Earl of Derby Leicester and Lincoln making that of Lancaster to be as a Principality or little Kingdome which by Henry 4 5 6 and 7th Kings of England coming afterwards to attend the Royal Dignity accompanied by the forfeitures of the Dukes of Exeter and Albemarle Mowbray Earl Marshal Earles of Kent Salisbury Huntington Northumberland Stafford March and Worcester Owen Glendour Lords Hastings Despencer Falconbridge Bardolph and many others to King H. 4. and the lands of the Earldome of Oxford long detained by him confiscation of the lands of the Prior Aliens and all France conquered and in possession and many other great Estates coming to Hen. 5. by the Attainders of Richard Earl of Cambridge Earl of Northumberland Henry Lord Scroop the lands of Widevill Earl Rivers and divers other Barons the Dukedomes of Exeter and Somerset and Earldome of Devonshire and many other Lands and Inheritances forfeited to King Edward the Fourth the Lands and Estate of Henry Duke of Buckingham Earl of Stafford and Northampton and Lord of Brecknock and Holderness Henry Earl of Richmond and Jasper Earl of Penbroke with some other to King Richard the Third accumulated by the great and Princely Inheritance of Richard Duke of York and all the partakers of him and King Edward the fourth his brother with the Lands and great Inheritance of the Countess of Warwick gained by King H. 7. his fortune at Bosworth-field and the marriage and inheritance of the Royal and principall heir of the white Rose the confiscations of the lands of John Duke of Norfolk Earls of Surrey Warwick Lincoln Lords Lovel Welles Audley and divers others like many great rivers running into the Ocean of the Crown revenues made its Lands and Estate to be as vast in Demeasnes and Service as they were Princely and honourable Which being likewise abundantly enlarged by King Hen. 8. by the unprosperous dissolution of the Abbey and religious Lands which the envy of the Laity in the reign of King H. 4. had over and above as they said what would serve for the remaning Clergy computed to be sufficient and enough to maintain fifteen Earles which after the rate of Earls in those dayes and their grand revenues could not be a little fifteen hundred Knights six thousand two hundred Gentlemen and an hundred Hospitals besides twenty thousand pounds per annum to be given to the King which was then more then one hundred thousand pounds per annum is now and were at their dissolution six hundred forty and five Abbeys Priories and Nunneries ninety Colledges one hundred and ten Hospitals and two thousand three hundred seventy and four Chanteries and free Chappels then valued at one hundred-eighty six thousand fifteen pounds eight shillings penny farthing per annum And together with the forfeited Lands and Inheritance of Empson and Dudley George Lord Rochford Edmond de la Poole Duke of Suffolk the Duke of Buckingham Earl of Surrey Lord Dacres and divers others and the confiscation of his two great Favourites Wolsey and Cromwell the former of which left him the stately Palaces of Hampton-Court and Whitehall and the recontinuing of divers liberties withheld from the Crown by the Lords Marchers of Wales made so great an accession and increase as the Court of Exchequer was not thought to be comprehensive enough for the care and governance thereof without the short-lived Courts of the Survay and Augmentation and First-fruits erected by Act of Parliament for the separate management of the Ecclesiasticall Revenues By the dissolution whereof shortly after and not trusting the Exchequer with the better care thereof the regal revenues if Mr. Christopher Vernon a late antient and expert Officer of that Court hath not been mistaken or miscast it were not so little damnified as six hundred thousand pounds sterling or if plenty had not as it most commonly useth introduced profusion and carelesness might otherwise have been saved Which with the Lands and Inheritance of the Duke of
of the Revenues BY reason of the great charges and expences which the Kings of England were at through their severall Generations to protect and defend themselves and their people though some of them as in all other conditions and sorts of men were sound to be less provident then others and more easie to the flatteries of Courtiers or the necessities or importunities of Favourites or Followers as King Edward the second and King Richard the second sixty thousand Knights Fees or maintenance for them given away by William the Conquerour of which the Religious Houses then or in the near succeeding times came to be possessed of 28115. the yearly value of which number of Knights Fees if now they should be estimated but at ten thousand and valued but at the rate of twenty pounds per annum as they seemed to be at the making of the Statute of 1 Ed. 2. would be worth two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least of the improvement Sir Edward Coke reckoning eight hundred and others six hundred and eighty acres to a Knights Fee and others at the least allowing a large proportion would make three millions per annum sterling two hundred and eighty Manors given to Godfry Bishop of Constance which he left to his Nephew Moubray the Isle of Wight Earldome of Devon and Honour of Plimpton given by Henry the first to Richard de Ripariis or Rivers Earldome of Gloucester to Robert Fitz Henry great possessions given away by King Stephen to purchase love and fidelity the great Estates in Land which Maud the Empress was inforced to grant and her Son King Henry the second afterwards to confirme to divers of the great men and Nobility as the Earldom of Oxford to Awbrey de vere Earldome of Arundel to William de Albeney Earldome of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester and of Essex to Jeofrey Magnauile to forsake the usurping King Stephen and the great charge which those twenty years warres expended the wars of King H. 2. in France and with his own Sons there and at home and of seven and forty thousand three hundred thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence expended and given towards the warres of the Holy land great somes of gold and silver sent to the Pope charges of the voyage or expedition which King Richard the first made in person into Asia and the Holy Land and his ransome the Earldomes of Mortaigne Cornwall Dorses Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with all their great possessions being a great part of the Crown Revenues given to his brother John and a great part of the remainder sold The troubles of King John with his boisterous Barons the Stanneries Castles and Honor of Barkhamstead and County of Cornwall granted by King Hen. 3. to his Brother Richard his great warres and turmoils in the Barons warres which drove him to such wants and perplexities as he and his Queen as Matthew Paris tells us were somtimes enforced to seek their daily and necessary sustenance from Monasteries charge of endeavoring at a great rate and price though unsuccesfully to make his Son Edmond King of Sicily and furnishing his Son Edward afterwards King E. 1. with an Army to Jerusalem that of King Ed. 1. in his wars against the Scots and subduing that Kingdom the raising and advancing the unhappy Favorites Gaveston and the two Spencers Father and Son by King Edward the Second and his troubles great expences of Edward the Third in his Conquering of France the Dukedom of Cornwal and Earldoms of Chester and Flint setled upon the Black Prince his Son and the eldest Sons and Heirs of the Kings of England successively preferring of Lionel Duke of Clarence and his many other Sons restoring of Don Pedro to the Kingdom of Castile by the aid of the Black Prince the Earldom of Salisbury Isle of Man Castle and Barony of Denbigh given to Mountacute and one Thousand Marks Lands per annum besides to him and his Heirs for taking Roger Mortimer Prisoner at Nottingham Castle one thousand pounds per annum with the Town and Castle of Cambridge to William Marquess of Juliers and the Heirs of his body Honor of Wallingford and Earldome of Cornwall escheated given to John of Eltham his Brother the penalties and fines of Labourers Artificers and Servants in anno 36. of his reign given to the Commons for three years to be distributed amongst them the maintaining and humoring of severall Factions of the great Nobility by King Richard the second his voyage into Ireland and after misfortunes raising of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset and John Holland his half-Brother to be Earl of Kent and Duke of Exeter dissentions and troubles in the Reign of King Henry the fourth preferring another of the Beauforts to be Earl of Dorset and his establishment as well as he could in his own usurpations Chirk and Chirk Lands in Wales given by King Henry the fifth to Edmond Beaufort second Son of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset the charge of his Conquest of France the seeking to preserve and keep it by Henry the sixth long and bloody Factions and Warres of York and Lancaster Kendal and other great possessions given to John de Foix a Frenchman in marriage with Margaret the Sister to William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk the Earldome of Shrowsbury to the high deserving Talbot the Isles of Guarnsay and Jersey and the Castle of Bristol to Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick the charge of King Edward the fourth in his getting the Crown the Earldome of Pembroke given by him to William Lord Herbert the making of friends and parties by King R. 3. pacifying of Interests by King Hen. 7. his gifts and grants to Stanley Earl of Derby and the dying the white Rose into the Red or uniting of them the voyages and warres of King H. 8. in France preferring of Charles Brandon to be Duke of Suffolk Seymour to be Earl of Hertford Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex Thomas Manors Earl of Rutland Sir Thomas Bolein to be Viscount Rochford and Earl of Wiltshire his contest with the Pope and other great Princes large and great quantities of Religious and Ecclesiasticall Lands given away to divers of his Nobility many of whom had been the former Donors thereof and to divers of the Gentry to corroborate what he had done bring them into a better liking of that action and to be the more unwilling to leave those Lands which he had given them a remission of all debts without schedule or limitation in anno 21. of his Reign endowing six Bishopricks and Cathedrall Churches Pensions for life to many which were turned out of their Cloisters a perpetuall maintenance to the Professors of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues Civill Law Divinity and Physick in both the Universities and to twelve poor Knights at Windsor the warres of King Edward the sixth in Scotland creating of John Dudley Earl of Warwick Duke of
dayes often committed oppression by a tyranny of the rich over the poor and needy and to keep the Wolves from their morning and evening preys and rejoycing in the spoil of the widdows and fatherless the hungry and necessitous which by a cheating and blinding of their consciences they will whether the Laws of God and man will or no suppose to be lawfull because it is their Trade and the misteries of it or because their Fathers or their Masters did it before them every one else doth it and every man must live and make use of their time labour calling or opportunities The people of this Kingdom being so universally endamaged by the evils happening by them and concerned and like to be benefitted by the remedies may as those of Spain Florence and other forreign Countries who in bearing some burdens and Taxes laid upon them are many times rather gainers then losers by the benefit of a Bands or rule of rating Butchers and many other Commodities to be bought or sold so as children cannot be cozened Be very willing that their representatives in Parliament shall consent That upon every Tun of wine French Spanish and Rhenish to be vented in England there be by the first buyer forty shillings per Tunne paid to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and accounted for half yearly in the Court of Exchequer That instead of an Excise upon Ale Beer Perry and Sider every one that shall in a publick Alehouse sell Ale Beer Perry or Sider shall yearly pay to the King his Heirs and Successors forty shillings per annum and every publick Brewer twenty pounds per annum and a further rate proportionable to the quantities of their Brewings And that to restore this antient Monarchy and heretofore famous and flourishing Kingdome to its former honour safety and defence and an ease from the charge of mercenary Armies and Guards and to prevent the great and many dangers and inconveniencies which may happen thereby as also to fatherless Children by Guardianships and breaches of trust his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors may have and enjoy his and their antient rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and all mesne Lords their Heirs their Tenures by Knight Service with all incidents thereunto belonging allowing unto every one holding of the King by those Tenures the liberty of being freed from the marriage of his Heir to be compounded for by yearly paying unto the King into the Exchequer or into the Court of Wards next after his age of one and twenty years and livery sued forth the sum of twenty pounds per annum rent for every Knights Fee which he shall hold or proportionably according to the partes thereof 1. That in the granting of Wardships to the Mother or next friends according to the Instructions of King James with those reasonable cares and considerations of debts and younger children used by the Court of Wards and Liveries the marriages of the Wards and Rents of their Lands during all the time of their minorities computed together be never above one years improved value which will be but the half of that which is now accompted to be a reasonable Fine and is frequently paid by many Copihold Tenants whose Fines are certain 2. That the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Durham who by antient exemptions and priviledge are to have the wardships of Tenants holding of them by Knight service in their minorities though they hold other Lands in Capite and by Knight service of the King may be ordained to doe the like favours 3. That all that hold in Capite and by Knight service be according to their antient liberties and rights granted by the Charter of King Henry the first freed as in reason they ought from all Assessments of their demeasn Lands touching warre 4. That Primer Seisins be taken away of such kind of Tenures and no more paid 5. That the Lands holden in Socage or of any other mesne Lords in case of minority of any in ward to the King by reason of Tenure in Capite or pour cause de gard being taken into consideration only as to the Fine for the marriage may not be put under any Rent or Lease to be made by the Court of Wards but freed as they were frequently and antiently by Writs sent to the Escheators 6. That the King in recompence thereof may have and receive of every Duke or Earl dying seized of any Lands or Hereditaments in Capite and by Knight service two hundred pounds of every Marquess Viscount and Baron two hundred marks and of every one that holdeth by a Knights Fee twenty pounds for a Relief or proportionably according to the quantity of the Fee which he holdeth 7. That incroachments and wast grounds holden in Capite and by Knight Service may be no cause of wardship or paying any other duties incident to that Tenure if it shall upon the first proof and notice be relinquished 8. That only Escuage and Service of warre except in the aforesaid cases of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Durham and all other incidents except Wardships due by their Tenants which hold of them by Knight service be restored to mesne Lords and that the Reliefs of five pounds for a whole Knights Fee or proportionably according to the quantity of Lands of that kind of Fee holden shall be after the death of every such Tenant twenty pounds 9. That to lessen the charges of Escheators and Juries for every single Office or Inquisition to be found or taken after the death of every tenant in Capite and by Knight Service the time of petitioning within a moneth after the death of the Ancestor may be enlarged to three moneths and the Shire Town City or principall place of every County be appointed with certain dayes or times for the finding of Offices to the end that one and the same Meeting and one and the same Jury with one and the same charge or by a contribution of all parties concerned may give a dispatch thereunto 10. That in case of neglecting to petition within three moneths after the death of the Tenant in Capite and by Knight Service or otherwise concealing any Wardships or not suing out of Livery if upon information brought issue joyned and witnesses examined or any time before Hearing or Tryall of the Cause the party offending or concerned shall pay the Prosecutor his double costs and satisfie the King the mesne rates he shall be admitted to compound 11. That the unnecessary Bonds formerly taken in the Court of Wards at two shillings six pence or three shillings charge upon suing out of every Diem clausit extremum or Writ to find an Office obliging the Prosecutor thereunto may be no more taken when as the time limited for petitioning to compound for Wardships and the danger of not doing of it will be engagement sufficient 12. That Grants Leases and Decrees of the Court of Wards may not to the great
charge of the Wards or others concerned therein be unnecessarily as they have been inrolled at length or otherwise with the Auditors of that Court when as the same was recorded before by other Officers of that Court to which the Auditors may have a free access and at any time take extracts out of them 13. That a severe Act of Parliament be made against such as shall misuse or wast any Wards Estate Lands Woods and Timber committed or granted to them or any personal Estate which belongeth unto them or shall not give the Wards fit education or shall disparage them in their Marriages or marry them without any competent Portion or shall not within a moneth after the death of such Ward or coming to his or her age of one and twenty years make a true accompt and payment unto the said Ward or his or her Heirs or Executors of all that shall be by them due and payable to him or them by reason of the said Wardship upon pain to pay to the use of the said Ward his or her Heirs Executors or Administrators besides the said moneys due and payable to the use of the said Ward double costs and damages expended or sustained therein That all Lands hereafter escheated and forfeited to his Majesty in cases where there shall be no restoration to the next in discent or remainder be inseparable and as a Sacrum patrimonium annexed to the Crown never to be aliened leased or charged with any Rent-charge or Annuity further then for life or one and twenty years That all Corporations of Trade may besides Fines and Amerciaments to be imposed and taken to their own use have also power to impose Fines and Amerciaments to the use of his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors and have no power to release or discharge any Penalties and Issues forfeited to the King And that the Town Clerks of Cities and Towns Corporate and Clerks of every Corporation or Company of Trade shall be bound by Oath and Recognizance to the King to certifie and estreat into the Exchequer all Fines Issues and Amerciaments forfeited and lost at two usuall Terms in every year that is to say Easter and Michaelmas That the By-lawes of every Corporation and Company of Trade and every City and Town Corporate which ought to be perused and approved by the Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Chief Justices of either Benches or Justices of Assize or any three of them and are not to be contrary to the Lawes may be according to the Statute of 19 Hen. 7. cap. 7. perused and allowed by them That upon every bloodshed or breach of the peace as by the Civil Law in forreign parts and heretofore was anciently used in England by the Common Law thereof a reasonable mulct or penalty be imposed to be gathered by the Magistrates as the Drossaerts do in many places in Holland and be answered to the King though the parties do agree or release and discharge one another That all Misericordia's which are now the only Vestigia's left of that antient Custome and Prerogative in Cases of Nonsuits and Pleas of Non est factums not verified may be put into certain reasonable penal sums duly collected and answered to the King his Heirs and Successors which besides an annual and casual profit to his Majesty will quiet and lessen contentions and bring a great ease to the people That in cases of Manslaughter there be before any pardon granted a reasonable satisfaction made according as it was heretofore practised in our Lawes of England both before and since the Conquest made to the wives and children of the Deceased or if none to the next of kindred unless the parties concerned shall otherwise agree their recompence or satisfaction and an Estimatio capitis or value of the party offending also paid to the King That upon convictions of Adulteries Fornication as was antiently used there be paid to the King a penalty proportionable to the offence and that in all Tryals for Manslaughter Murder or other crimes that hard and unreasonable custom now and heretofore used in England that witnesses may not be brought heard or examined against the King be abolished and that all good and lawfull testimonies which may tend to the discovery of the fact may be as in other Cases and Tryals heard and received That there be in every Circuit as antiently a Clerk besides the Clerk of the Assize appointed to enter in a Roll the Fines imposed by the Justices and to make Estreats thereof duly into the Exchequer That in all Actions of Trespass or any other Action to be brought in the Court of the Kings Bench at Westminster or by Quo minus in the Office of Pleas in the Court of the Kings Exchequer at Westminster or in the Court of the Marshalsea or Court of the Virge of the Kings Palace at Westminster whereupon any declaration shall be in debt there be upon the first Process or Writ such Fines paid to the King and in such manner as have been antiently and are now paid to the King upon actions of debt retornable in the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster And that upon every such first Writ the Plaintiffs Attorney doe in order thereunto indorse the just sum in debt which he intendeth to declare upon That every Merchant or Trader that shippeth any goods to be exported or unlades any imported shall under his hand attested or if need be upon his oath deliver unto his Majesties Farmers or Customers a true note or Cocquet of all such goods exported and imported and the true contents and value thereof And that whosoever shall wittingly or knowingly deceive his Majesty his Heirs or Successors therein shall for the first offence forfeit five times the value and for the second ten times the value and for the third to be disfranchised and never more permitted to trade And that every conviction of any such offence shall if pleaded be a bar to them in any Action to be brought commenced and prosecuted by them That once in every three years Commissions be issued to carefull and worthy men in every County and City uninterressed to enquire of all charitable uses and the imployments and abuses thereof and if need be to put a better order therein for the future and that the Arrears be also collected and paid the one moity to his Majesty and the other to be imployed to the charitable uses That Commissions be likewise issued now more then formerly necessary by the dissolution of Monasteries and Religious Houses and the great disuse of Hospitalities and Almes deeds to enquire and certifie the number of Poor requiring almes in every Parish in every County and City that all vagabond and wandring Beggars be returned to the several Parishes where they were born and where it cannot may be reduced to some Parishes in every County or City less troubled then others with poor and more able to maintain