filiam cujusdam viri Vlfi quem concupiverat maritali sibi foedere copulare Here it appeareth that the King's Licence or good will was sought but the reason appeareth not The good will of King Solomon was sought that Abishag might be given to Adoniah for his wife but not in respect of Tenure in either case It is an express law of King Canutus Ll. 72. ne nyde man naðer ƿif ne maeden c. That no man should constrain either woman or maid to marry otherwise than where they will nor shall take any mony for them unless by way of thankfulness some do give somewhat If these passages carry any shew of Wardship I must still let you know that Knights Fees were not at this time descendable unto Women by the Feudal law no nor long after when they were become hereditary in the masculine line Ne à Lancea ad fusum haereditas pertransiret as you may see by Cujacius in feud Lib. 1. Tit. 1. The first law that I meet with touching Feudal marriages is in Magna Charta Libertatum Hen. I. yet is there nothing spoken of marrying the heir male of the Kings Tenant within age And touching the female issue it is only provided that the King should be so far acquainted with their marriage as that he might be assur'd they should not marry with his enemies lest the feuds or feifs which were given for service against them should by this occasion be transferr'd to them Hear the words of the Charter Et si quis Baronum meorum vel aliorum hominum meorum siliam suam nuptui tradere voluerit sive sororem suam sive neptem sive cognatam mecum inde loquatur sed nec ego aliquid de suo pro hac licentia accipiam nec defendam ei quin eam det excepto si eam velit jungere meo inimico Et si mortuo Barone vel alio homine meo filia haeres remanserit sine liberis fuerit dotem suam maritationem habebit eam non dabo marito nisi secundum velle suum c. Ordaining that the Wife shall be Guardian of the Childrens lands or some near kinsman qui justus esse debet and that other Lords observe the like courses touching their Wards Thus among the Normans but I don't find in all the Feodal law of these times any thing sounding to this purpose nor any mention of Marriage or Wardship of the body or lands I take them therefore to have risen from the Normans a little before their coming into England but in a diverse manner according to the diversity of the places and the moderate or covetous disposition of the Lords For it seemeth that tho' the profits of the land belong'd wholly to the Lord and were therefore ordinarily so taken by him yet some of the Lords deducting only the charge of Education of the Ward and just allowances restor'd him his lands at full age with the surplusage upon accompt And the Grantee of a Wardship from the King was in Normandy tyed to do it as appeareth by the 215. Artic. of the reformed Customes for otherwise they were not Guardians properly and Tutores rei pupillaris but fructuarii rather and suum promoventes commodum See the Comment to that Article So in point of Feodal marriage it seemeth that the Charter of Henry I. was grounded upon the Norman Custom which tho it required the consent of the Lord in tendring of Marriage to Women for the reason aforesaid yet did it not permit either him or the kindred or friends whom they called the parents to make it venal or to take any thing for the same as you may see by divers passages there and by a case adjudged in the Comment to the 228. Article where the Tutor or Guardian and the Parents and Friends thus offending are all condemn'd to pay costs and damages And note that according to the Norman custom the consent of the Parents viz. the next kindred and friends was as requisite as the consent of the Lord or Tutor which as I conceive gave the occasion of the words Si parentes conquerantur in the Statute of Merton as in respect of the ancient right they had in consenting to the Marriage And insomuch as we don't find that the various usages touching Wardship and Marriage were compos'd into an uniform law till Magna Charta Henr. III. did determine it it may be conceiv'd to have been the reason that Rand. Higden before mention'd and our other Authors did ascribe this part of our Feodal Law to be introduced by Henry III. But it is manifest by Glanvil that it was in use in Henry II's time and by the Charter of Henry I. to have been so likewise under William Rufus yet is there nothing hitherto any way produc'd to bring it from the Saxons or to shew it to have been in use amongst them CHAP. XVI No Livery no Primer Seisin IF the King's Tenant in capite or by Knight-service dieth the King shall have his lands till the heir hath done homage which if he be of full age he may do presently but if he be under age the land must continue in the King's hands till his full age And when either the one or the other sueth to have it out of the King's hands his obtaining it is called Livery and the profits receiv'd in the mean time by the King are call'd his Primer Seisin But neither of these could be among the Saxons for that their hereditary lands were not Feodal but libera ab omni gravedine as before we have shew'd And their temporary lands could not be subject to it for that their Estate extended no farther then to a Franck Tenement And neither the one or the other was then tyed to do Homage as shall appear when we speak of Homage After the coming of the Normans they were presently afoot amongst us even in William Rufus's days but uncertain and irregular which was a certain note of their novelty and that Feuds hereditary were new begun The great Charter of Liberties granted by Henry I. implyeth as much where to moderate them the King saith thus Si quis Baronum meorum seu Comitum sive aliorum qui de me tenent mortuus fuerit haeres suus non redimet terram suam sicut faciebat tempore fratris mei sed legitima justa relevatione relevabit eam Similiter homines Baronum meorum justa legitima relevatione relevabunt terras suas de Dominis suis I take this redeeming of the land out of the King's hands to be a Composition for his Primer Seisin and for the Livery and Relief things uncertain at this time even in their Norman appellations and not likely therefore to be known unto the Saxons CHAP. XVII That Reliefs whereon the Report most relyeth were not in use among the Saxons nor like their Heriots OF all the Feodal profits alledged in the Report to be receiv'd
to the Grant whether it be a part of the Grant and the modus concessionis or whether it be a distinct thing and Aliud from the Grant For so the Printed Case represents their Opinion if the Reservation of the Tenure and the Grant of the Land be aliud aliud two distinct things in the consideration of the whole Grant made and the authority given by the said Commission for the making thereof then the Patent may be void as to the Tenure and yet good for the Grant of the Land But if the Reservation of the Tenure be incident unto the authority and included within it and the Reservation of the Tenure and the Grant of the Land make up but one entire Grant so that the one is a part of the other and the Reservation of the Tenure be Modus concessionis then the granting of the Land reserving a diverse or contrary Tenure to that which their nude authority did warrant them to reserve is a doing of Idem alio modo and so the whole Act is void They who pleaded for the validity of the Letters Patents as to the Lands and their being void only as to the Tenure urg'd among other arguments That Tenures in Capite were brought into England by the Conquest but Grants were by the Common-Law and therefore Grants being more ancient than Tenures the Tenure must of necessity be aliud from the thing granted And to prove that this Tenure came in with the Conqueror they cited Mr. Selden in his Spicileg ad Eadmerum p. 194. where he hath that out of Bracton de Acquir Rerum Dominio b. 2. Forinsecum servitium dicitur Regale servitium quia spectat ad Dominum Regem non ad alium secundum quod in Conquestu fuit adinventum But this Argument and the Authority were both over-ruld and it was affirm'd that Tenures were not brought into England by the Conqueror but were common among the Saxons Their Answer to Mr. Selden's Opinion with the Reasons upon which they grounded their position I will transcribe at large from the Printed Case the Book being very scarce and this the only Point wherein Sir Henry Spelman is concern'd It was answered that Mr. Selden in that place does barely recite the words of Bracton not delivering any Opinion of his own For in that Book cited pag. 170. and in his Titles of Honour the last Edition p. 612. We find that he was of another Opinion and that this Tenure was in use in England in the times of the Saxons What were those Thani Majores or Thani Regis among the Saxons but the Kings immediate Tenants of Lands which they held by personal service as of the Kings person by Grand Serjeanty or Knights-service in Capite The Land so held was in those times called Thain-land as Land holden in Socage was called Reveland so frequently in Dooms-day Haec terra fuit terra Regis Edwardi Thainland sed postea conversa est in Reveland Cokes Instit Sect. 117. After some years that followed the coming of the Normans the title of Thane grew out of use and that of Baron and Barony succeeded for Thane and Thain-land Whereby we may understand the true and original Reason of that which we have in the Lord Cromwels Case 2. Coke 81. That every Barony of ancient time was held by Grand Serjeanty by that Tenure were the Thain-lands held in the time of the Saxons and those Thain-lands were the same that were after called Baronies 'T is true the Possessions of Bishops and Abbots were first made subject to Knights-service in Capite by William the Conquerour in the fourth year of his Reign for their Lands were held in the times of the Saxons in pura perpetua Eleemosyna free ab omni servitio saeculari But he then turned their Possessions into Baronies and so made them Barons of the Kingdom by Tenure so that as to them this Tenure and Service may be said to be in Conquestu adinventum But the Thain-lands were held by that Tenure before As the Kings Thane was a Tenant in Capite so the Thanus mediocris or middle Thane was only a Tenant by Knights-service that either held of a mean Lord and not immediately of the King or at the least of the King as of an Honour or Mannour and not in Capite What was that Trinoda Necessitas which so often occurs in the Grant of the Saxon Kings under this Form Exceptisistis tribus Expeditione Arcis pontis exstructione See it in a Charter of King Etbeldred in the Preface to Cokes 6. Report c. But that which was after expressed by Salvo forinseco Bracton lib. 2. cap. 26. 35. 12. Edw. 1. Gard 152. 26. Ass 66. Selden Analect Anglobrit 78. And therefore it was said that Sir Henry Spelman was mistaken who in his Glossary verbo feudum refers the original of Feuds in England to the Norman Conquest It is most manifest that Capite Tenures Tenures by Knights-service Tenures in Socage Frank-almoigne c. were frequent in the times of the Saxons And if we will believe what is cited out of an old French Customary in a MS. Treatise of the Antiquity of Tenures in England which is in many mens hands all those Tenures were in use long before the Saxons even in the times of the Britains there it is said The first British King divided Britain into four parts And gave one part to the Arch-Flamines to pray for him and his posterity A second part he gave to his Earls and Nobility to do him Knights-service A third he divided among Husbandmen to hold of him in Socage The fourth part he gave to Mechanical persons to hold in Burgage But that Testimony was wav'd there being little certainty or truth in the British Story before the times of Caesar Neither would they make use of that which we are taught by William Roville of Alenzon in his Preface to the Grand Customier of Normandy that all those Customs among which these Tenures are were first brought into Normandy out of England by Edward the Confessor Besides that which hath been said we find Feuds both the name and thing in the Laws of those times among the Laws of Edward the Confessor cap. 35. where it is thus provided Debent enim universi Liberi homines secundum feodum suum secundum tenementa sua Arma habere illa semper prompta conservare ad tuitionem Regni servitium dominorum suorum c. Lambard Archaionom 135. This Law was after confirmed by William the Conqueror vid. Cokes Instit Sect. 103. As these Tenures were common in those times so were all the fruits of them Homage Fealty Escuage Reliefs Wardships For Releifs we have full testimony in the Reliefs of their Earls and Thanes for which see the Laws of King Canutus cap. 66 69. The Laws of Edward the Confessor cap. de Heterochiis And what out of the Book of Dooms-day Coke hath in his Instit Sect.
son Clement Spelman containing many things relating to Impropriations and several instances of the judgements of God upon Sacriledge The greatest part of these instances seems to be taken from his History and Fate of Sacriledge a book still in Manuscript The Gentleman for whose sake it was written dy'd immediately upon the publication of this book but however it did very good service to the Church This Mr. Stephens has made appear in a Preface to some of his Posthumous Works wherein he instances in several Gentlemen who were induc'd by the reading of this book to restore their Impropriations to the Church That part of the Preface is since reprinted before an Edition of this book which came out in the Year 1668. and therefore I shall not repeat the Catalogue of them in this place I will only beg leave to mention a more modern benefaction of this kind as it is set down in the late Edition of Camden's Britannia Scarce two miles from Arksey in the West-riding of York-shire lies Adwick in the street memorable on this account that Mrs. Ann Savill a Virgin benefactor yet living daughter of John Savill of Medly Esq purchased the Rectory thereof for which she gave about 900l. and has settl'd it in the hands of Trustees for the use of the Church for ever and this from a generous and pious principle upon the reading of Sir Henry Spelman's noted Treatise De non temerandis Ecclesiis Some reflections were made upon this Discourse by an unknown Author who could not forgive Sir Henry for paying so much respect to Churches and particularly for applying the word Ecclesia to a material Church urging that this term belongs only to the Assembly or Congregation This Sir Henry takes notice of in his Glossary under the title Ecclesia producing some instances of the use of that word in ancient Authors and afterwards honoured it with a fuller Apology It is publisht by Mr. Stephens at the end of his Larger work of Tithes so call'd with respect to the Smaller Treatise De non temerandis Ecclesiis together with a pious Epistle to Mr. Richard Carew who in a Letter to the Author had express'd his dissatisfaction in some particulars of this Work His next book upon this subject is that which he calls the Larger work of Tithes publisht by Mr. Jerem. Stephens in the Year 1646. with an excellent Preface by the same hand In this Discourse he asserts Tithes to the Clergy from the Laws of Nature and of Nations from the Commands of God in the Old and New Testament and from the particular Constitution of our own Kingdom Another work in vindication of the Rights of the Church is still in Manuscript with this title The History and Fate of Sacriledge discover'd by examples of Scripture of Heathens and of Christians from the beginning of the world continually to this day by Sir Henry Spelman Kt. Anno Domini 1632. The account which the Oxford Antiquary gives us of it is this In the Year 1663. Mr. Stephens began to print the History of Sacriledge design'd and began by Sir Henry Spelman and left to Mr. Stephens to perfect and publish But that work sticking long in the Press both the Copy and sheets printed off perisht in the grand Conflagration of London 1666. I have been told by a Learned Divine since a Prelate of our Church that Mr. Stephens was forbidden to proceed in an Edition of that Work lest the publication of it should give offence to the Nobility and Gentry But whatever was the occasion of its continuing in the Press till the Fire of London it has been taken for granted that the whole book was irrecoverably lost and I was satisfied of the same upon Mr. Wood's relation of the matter till examining some Manuscripts which were given to the Bodleian Library by the late Bishop of Lincoln I met with a transcript of some part of it Upon further enquiry I found other parts in other places so that now the Work seems to be pretty entire He begins with a general definition of Sacriledge then reckons up various kinds of it as to Places Persons and Things after which he enumerates at large the many signal punishments of it among Heathens Jews and Christians describing more particularly the instances of that kind which have formerly happen'd in our Nation Then he proceeds to give an account of the attempt upon the lands of the Clergy in Henry the IV's time and how it was disappointed afterwards he descends to the suppression of Priories-Alien in the Reign of Henry V. and so on to the general Dissolution under Henry VIII Here he shows us the several steps of the Dissolution the King 's express promise to employ the Lands to the advancement of Learning Religion and Relief of the Poor with the remarkable Calamities that ensu'd upon the King his Posterity his principal Agents in that affair the new Owners of the Lands and the Lords who promoted and passed the Dissolution Act Concluding with a Chapter which contains The particulars of divers Monasteries in Norfolk whereof the late Owners since the Dissolution are extinct or decay'd or overthrown by Misfortunes and grievous Accidents This is a short account of a large Work wherein the judicious Author is far from affirming that their being concern'd in this Affair either as promoters of the Alienation or Possessors of the Lands was directly the occasion of the Calamities that ensu'd On the contrary he declares more than once that he will not presume to judge of the secret methods of God's Providence but only relates plain matters of fact and leaves every man to make his own application Tho' it must be granted that many of the instances and those well asserted are so terrible in the Event and in the Circumstances so surprising that no considering Man can well pass them over without a serious reflection This Discourse might have appear'd among his other Posthumous Works but that some persons in the present Age would be apt to interpret the mention of their Predecessors in such a manner and on such an occasion as an unpardonable reflection upon their Families These I think are all the Treatises that he either wrote or publisht about the Rights of the Church The next Work that I shall mention is a History of the Civil affairs of the Kingdom from the Conquest to Magna Charta taken from our best Historians and generally set down in their own words It is a Manuscript in the Bodleian Library and the title which Sir Henry has given it is this Codex Legum Veterum Statutorum regni Angliae quae ab ingressu Gulielmi usque ad annum nonum Henrici tertii edita sunt Hoc est ante primum Statutum omnium Impressorum in libris juridicis quod Magna Charta appellatur ab Edwardo I. confirmata E variis monimentis Authoribus Manuscriptis antiquis paginis concinnatum Opere Studio Henrici Spelman collecta Anno
also more particular Hora nona is here as in all Authors of that time intended for three of the clock in the after-noon being the ninth hour of the artificial day wherein the Saxons as other parts of Europe and our Ancestours of much later time followed the Judaical computation perhaps till the invention and use of Clocks gave a just occasion to alter it for that they could not daily vary for the unequal hours CHAP. X. The Constitution of William the Conquerour THis Constitution of Edward the Confessour was amongst his other Laws confirm'd by William the Coquerour as not only Hoveden and those ancient Authors testifie but by the Decree of the Conquerour himself in these words Hoc quoque praecipio ut omnes habeant teneant Leges Edwardi in omnibus rebus adauctis his quae constituimus ad utilitatem Anglorum And in those Auctions nothing is added alter'd or spoken concerning any part of that Constitution Neither is it like that the Conquerour did much innovate the course of our Terms or Law-days seeing he held them in his own Dutchy of Normandy not far differing from the same manner having received the Customs of that his Country from this of ours by the hand of Edward the Confessour as in the beginning of their old Custumary themselves do acknowledge The words touching their Law-days or Tryals be these under the Title De temporibus quibus leges non debent fieri Notandum autem est quod quaedam sunt tempora in quibus leges non debent fieri nec simplices nec apertae viz. omnia tempora in quibus matrimonia non possunt celebrari Ecclesia autem legibus apparentibus omnes dies Festivos prohibet defendit viz. ab hora nona die Jovis usque ad ortum Solis die Lunae sequenti omnes dies solennes novem lectionum solennium jejuniorum dedicationis Ecclesiae in qua duellum est deducendum This Law doth generally inhibit all Judicial proceedings during the times wherein Marriage is forbidden and particularly all tryals by Battail which the French and our Glanvil call Leges apparentes aliàs apparibiles vulgarly Loix Apparisans during the other times therein mention'd And it is to be noted that the Emperour Frederick the Second in his Neapolitan Constitutions includeth the tryals by Ordeal under Leges paribiles But touching the time wherein Marriage is forbidden it agreed at that day with the Vacations from Law-business prescrib'd by Edward the Confessour the Church not thinking it reason that men abstaining from litigation should give themselves to lust and to feasting and dancing things incident to Marriage In which respect it also required that man and wife as near as they could should at these times forbear the pleasure of their bed and give themselves to devotion and piety For tho' covetous persons have since abused that godly Institution to their profit yet the Fathers that were Authors of it in Ilerdensi Concilio about 500. years after Christ aim'd at nothing but meerly sanctity The times of Marriage prohibited according to the Constitution of the Church were these A prima Dominica Adventus usque ad Octavas Epiphaniae exclusive à Dominica Septuagesimae usque ad primam Dominicam post Pascha inclusive à prima die Rogationum usque ad septimum diem festi Pentecostes inclusive The Law-Vacation according to the prescription of Edward the Confessour is ab Ascensione Domini usque ad octabis Pentecostes But here the Wedding-vacation is three days before it viz. à prima die Rogationum which is according to the Constitution De Feriis ca. Capellanus So that the Term-times and Vacations of the English and Normans were anciently all one and our Ecclesiastical Courts hold it so to this day Of the Dies novem Lectionum before mention'd we shall speak anon CHAP. XI What done by William Rufus Henry I. King Stephen and Henry II. AS for William Rufus we read that he pulled many lands from the Church but not that he abridged the Vacation times assigned to it Henry I. upon view of former Constitutions composed this Law under the Title De observatione temporis Leges faciendi viz. ab Adventu Domini usque ad Octabis Epiphaniae à Septuagesima usque ad 15. dies post Pascham Festis diebus quatuor Temporum diebus Quadragesimalibus aliis legitimis Jejuniis in diebus Veneris vigiliis Sanctorum Apostolorum non est tempus leges faciendi idem vel jusjurandum nisi primo fidelitate domini vel concordia vel bellum vel ferri vel aquae vel leges exactionis tractari sed sit in omnibus vera pax beata charitas ad honorem omnipotentis Dei c. The Copies of these Laws is much corrupted and it appeareth by Florence Wigorn's Continuer that the Londoners refused them and put Maud the Empress to an ignominious flight when she pressed the observation of them But in this particular branch there is nothing not agreeable to some former Constitution The word Bellum here signifieth Combats which among our Saxons are not spoken of and by those of Ferri vel aquae are meant Ordeal King Stephen by his Charter recited at Malmesbury confirmed and established by a Generality Bonas leges antiquas justas consuetudines Henry the II. expresly ratified the Laws of Edward the Confessour and William the Conquerour as Hoveden telleth us saying That he did it by the advice of Ranulph Glanvil then newly made Chief Justice of England which seemeth to be true for that Glanvil doth accordingly make some of his Writs returnable in Octabis or Clauso Paschae where the Laws of Edward the Confessour appoint the end of Lent Vacation And Gervasius Tilburiensis also mentioneth the same return Yet the MSS. Laws of Henry II. which remain in the Red-book of the Exchequer following the Synod of Eanham extendeth Lent Vacation à Septuagesima usque 15. dies post Pascha and layeth out the whole frame of the year in this manner under the Rubrick De observatione temporis leges faciendi viz. Ab Adventu Domini usque ad Octabis Epiphaniae a Septuagesima usque ad quindecim dies post Pascha festis diebus quatuor temporum diebus Quadragesimalibus aliis legitimis jejuniis in diebus Veneris Vigiliis singulorum Apostolorum non est tempus leges faciendi idem vel jusjurandum nisi primo fidelitate Domini vel concordia vel bellum vel ferri vel aquae vel legis examinationis tractari Sed sit in omnibus vera pax beata charitas ad honorem Omnipotentis cujus sapientia conditi sumus nativitate provecti morte redempti consolatione securi qui debitor est persolvat ante vel induciet donec dies isti transeant gaudiis honestis voluptatibus instituti Et si quis maleficium
that make me think that our wealth should continue with us better now than in times past it hath done are for that the Roman-coffers are not now glutted as they have been with English-treasure continually flowing into them For it is a world to consider the huge stocks of mony that those cozening Prelates have heretofore extorted out of her Majesties Kingdoms by their Antichristian and usurpt Supremacie As by Pope Innocent constraining King John to redeem his Crown at his hands and to take it for ever in farm for the yearly rent of 1000. marks to be paid to him and his Successors By causing Henry III. to maintain his wars against Frederick the Emperor and Conrade King of Sicil By drawing from our Kings many contributions and benevolences By laying upon their Subjects as well temporal as spiritual tenths and taxes in most ravenous manner and that very often So that in the time of Henry III. the Realm was by such an extream tax mightily impoverished as our Chronicles witness as also at many other times since and before For when the Pope was disposed to use mony he would tax our people as if they had been his natural Subjects by many Congratulations of the Clergy as 11000. marks at one pull to Pope Innocent IV. by private Remembrances from single Bishops as 9500. marks from the Arch-bishop of York to Pope Clement V. in An. 34. or 35. Edw. I. and from divers of them jointly 6000. marks to the foresaid Innocent By their rich Revenue of the First-fruits and Tenths as well of the Archbishopricks as of all other Spiritual Livings now reannext unto the Crown by the Parliament in the first of her Majesty By Installing Consecrating and Confirming Bishops By dealing Benefices By appellations to the Church of Rome By giving definitive Sentences By distributing heavenly Grace By granting Pardons and Faculties By dispensations of Marriages Oaths and such like By selling their blessed trumpery and many such other things that I cannot reckon whereof that merchandizing Prelate knoweth full well how to make a Commoditie according to the saying of Mantuan Venalia nobis Templa Sacerdotes Altaria sacra Coronae Ignis thura preces coelum est Venale Deusque All this consider'd and that the summs of mony by them receiv'd before the time of Henry VIII were according to the value of our Coin at this day three times as much as before is shewed you must needs confess that the fat of the Land larded the Roman dishes whilst our selves teer'd upon the lean-bones Besides it must not be forgotten that one tenth granted to the Pope impoverisht the Realm more than ten unto the King For what the King had was at length return'd again among the Subjects little thereof going out of the Land much like the life-blood which tho' it shifteth in divers parts yet still continueth it self within the body But whatsoever came into St. Peter's pouch was lockt up with the infernal key Et ab infernis nulla est redemptio England might lick her lips after that it came no more among her people Thus we were made the Bees of Holy-Church suffer'd to work and store our hives as well as we could but when they waxed any thing weighty his Legates were sent to drive them and fetch away the honey Yea if his Holyness were sharp sett indeed he would not stick to use a trick of Husbandry rather burn the Bees than want the honey I may tell you too his Legates and Nuncio's were ever trim fellows at licking of the hive as in our Chronicles you may read abundantly Viand You have made the matter so plain that I must needs grant that our treasure goeth not out of the Land in any comparable measure as it did in times past For as you say tho' these actions of the Low-Countries France Portugal and other places hath somewhat suck'd us yet I consider that we have ever had such a vent even in the several days of our Kings as in the time of Queen Mary King Edw. VI. King Henry VIII c. Selv. Their occasions indeed are best known unto us because many men living were witnesses thereof But I will recite unto you cursorily somewhat of the rest that you may the better be satisfy'd that it is no novelty in England And for to begin with Henry II. what store of treasure think you was by him and his wasteful sons whereof two namely Henry and John were Kings as well as himself daily carry'd into France Flanders Saxony Sicil Castile the holy-Holy-land and other places sometime about their wars and turbulent affairs other some time for Royal expence about meeting feasting and entertaining the French King the Pope foreign Princes and such other occasions the particular whereof were too long to recite But we may well think that England must needs sweat for it in those days to feed the riotous hands of three several Kings spending so much of their time on the other side the Seas as they did The like was done by Richard I. about his ransome and business with the Emperor and Leopold Duke of Austria about his wars in France and the Holy-land where it is said that by estimation he spent more in one month than any of his predecessors ever did in a whole year By Henry III. about the affected Kingdom of Sicil and his wars in Gascoigne and other parts of France and in bounty to strangers He at one time sent into France at the direction of the Poictovins 30. barrels of Starling Coin for payment of foreign Souldiers and at another time these his wasteful expences being cast up the summ amounted to 950000. marks which after the rate of our allay encreaseth to By Edw. I. about his Actions of Guien Gascoigne France Flanders and the Conquest of Scotland and the striking of a League with Adolph the Emperor Guy Earl of Flanders John Duke of Brabant Henry Earl of Bar Albert Duke of Austria and others against the French King and Earl Jo. of Henault his partaker By Edw. III. about his Victories and designs in France and elsewhere which exhausted so much treasure as little or none almost remain'd in the Land as before is shewed By Henry IV. about the stirs of Britain and in supportation of the confederate faction of Orleance By Henry V. about his Royal Conquest of France By Edw. IV. in aiding the Duke of Burgundy and in revenging himself upon the King of France By Henry VII about his wars in France in annoying the Flemings in assisting the Duke of Savoy and Maximilian King of the Romans I need not speak of Henry VIII whose foreign Expences as they were exceeding great so they are sufficiently known to most men Neither have I more than lightly run over the rest who besides these that I have spoken of had many other foreign charges of great burden and much importance and yet not so much as once touch'd by me as Marriage of their Children with foreign Princes Treaties
Earldoms But say they tenue neant moiens en fief a vie c. holden notwithstanding as a fief for life not hereditary nor patrimonial in the beginning as afterward they were This change they assign to have been begun about the end of the first line of their Kings who being at that time weak and simple men the Dukes and Earls took opportunity to make their Estates hereditary But it continued not long for the first Kings of the second line reduced them presently to conformity Yet some there were in the remote Provinces that maintain'd themselves hereditary in despight of the Kings whereupon ensued many wars Thus far both these Authors do concur and then Loyseau addeth further That at the end of the second line Hugh Capet having made himself King of France permitted all to hold their Dukedoms Earldoms and Seigneuries hereditarily and taking homage of them as of hereditary Fiefs each party obliged themselves to support the other and their posterity in those dignities as hereditarily This happened in France a little before the Conquest of England and from this precedent of Hugh Capet's did our William the Conquerour make the Earldoms and Feuds in England first hereditary as we have already shewed in the second Chapter So that I conclude as I assumed in the beginning that the Saxon Earldoms were not hereditary nor otherwise Feodal if we shall so term them than for life whereon neither Wardship nor Marriage c. could depend Yet I confess that the Dukes and Earls of the Saxon times both had and might have great possessions in other lands as patrimonial and hereditary namely their Thaneland and in what condition they possessed them it shall appear anon when we come to speak more at large of Thanes and Thane-lands CHAP. VII Of Ceorls and that they were ordinarily but as Tenants at will or having lands held not by Knight-service THe division before mentioned which the Saxons made of their own degrees leadeth me in this next place tho' not orderly to speak of the Ceorle that is of the Carle or Churle and Husbandman The Ancients called him in Latin Villanus not as we ordinarily take it for a Bondman but for him that dwelling in a Village or Country Town lived by the Country course of Husbandry Mr. Lambard therefore to decline the misconceiving of the word Villanus doth render it in the Saxon laws by Paganus which signifieth the same that Villanus doth according to the French for a Villager but not according to our English for a Bondman Our Saxons otherwhile did term them like the Dutchmen Boors that is such as live by tilth or grasing and by works of husbandry Such were the Ceorls among the Saxons but of two sorts one that hired the Lord's Outland or Tenementary land called also the Folcland like our Farmers the other that tilled and manured his Inland or Demeans yielding operam not censum work and not rent and were thereupon called his Socmen or Ploughmen These no doubt were oftentimes his very Bondmen I therefore shall not meddle with them but will hold me to the first sort who having ordinarily no lands of their own lived upon the Outlands before mentioned of their Lord the Thane as custumary Tenants at his will after the usual manner of that time rendring unto him a certain portion of victuals and things necessary for Hospitality This rent or retribution they called Feorme but the word in the Saxon signifieth meat or victuals and tho' we have ever since Henry II's time chang'd this reservation of victuals into money yet in letting our lands we still retain the name of Fearms and Fearmers unto this day The quantity of the Fearme or rent for every plough-land seemeth in those times to have been certain in every Country according to the nature of the place King Ina in his laws did make it so through all the territory of the West-Saxons as you may see with much more touching this matter in my Glossary verbo Firma But insomuch as the chiefest part of the fruit and profits of the lands thus manured by the Ceorls or Husbandmen redounded to the benefit of their Lords and not of the Ceorls themselves the Romans counted them to be as bondmen and not freemen Caesar therefore speaking of them while they were yet in Germany saith Plebs pene servorum habebatur loco That their common people were in a manner bondmen And Tacitus to the same purpose Caeteris servis meaning these Ceorls or Husbandmen non in nostrum morem descriptis per familiam ministeriis utuntur suam quisque sedem suos penates regit Frumenti modum Dominus aut pecoris aut vestis ut colono injungit Et servus hactenus paret But this service was no bondage For the Ceorl or Husbandman might as well leave this land at his will as the Lord might put him from it at his will and therefore it was provided by the laws of Ina in what manner he should leave the land when he departed from it to another place And the Writ of Waste in Fitz-Herbert seemeth to shew that they might depart if they were not then well used It is apparent also that the Ceorl was of free condition for that his person was valued as a member of the Common-wealth in the laws of Aethelstan and his least valuation is there reckoned to be 200s. whereas the Bondman was not valued at all for that he was not as I said any part of the Common-wealth but of his Master's substance nor was he capable of any publick office But the Ceorl tho' he had no land might rise to be the leader of his Country-men and to use the armour of a Thane or Knight viz. an Helmet an Habergeon and a gilt Sword And if his wealth so increased as that he became owner of five hides of land the valuation of his person which they call'd his Were or Weregild was increased to two thousand thrimsas that is six thousand shillings and being then also adorned with other marks of dignity he was counted for a Thane as you shall see in the next Chapter But for all this a Ceorl or Husbandman tho' he were a Freeman was not by the Feodal law of that and later times capable of a Knights-fee or land holden by military service and therefore what land soever he purchased was to be intended land of no such tenure And it appeareth further by the laws of Aethelstan that the five hides of land before mentioned purchased by the Ceorl were descendable to his posterity which sheweth also that they were not feodal land for that feuds at that time were not here descendable as we have often declared So that I hope I may conclude that the Ceorls or Husbandmen among the Saxons held no land by our tenure of Knight-service CHAP. VIII Of Thanes and their several kinds SEeing then the weight of the question will rest wholly upon the
that succeeded and out of his purse The Heriot whether the son or heir enjoy'd the land or not the Relief by none but him only that obtain'd the land in succession The Heriot whether the land were fallen into the Lord's hands or not the Relief in old time not unless it were fallen and lay destitute of a Tenant whose taking of it up out of the Lord's hands was in that sense called Relevium or Relevatio a taking up of that was fallen according to the French word Reliefe Bracton well observ'd the difference saying Fit quaedam praestatio quae non dicitur Relevium sed quasi sicut Heriotum quasi loco Relevii quod dari debet aliquando ante sacramentum fidelitatis aliquando post Hotoman saith Relevium dicitur honorarium munus quod novus Vassallus Patrono introitus causa largitur quasi morte alterius Vassalli vel alio quo casu feudum ceciderit quod jam à novo sublevetur Nov. Leo. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominat I stand the longer herein for that not only the Report but even Doomsday it self and generally all the ancient Monkish writers have confounded Heriots and Releifs Yet might I have saved all this labour for nothing can make the difference more manifest than that we often see both of them are together issuing out of the same land But when all is done neither is Heriot nor Releif any badge of land holden by Knight's-service or in Capite for both of them are found in lands of ordinary Socage Yet I confess that Bracton saith de soccagio non datur Relevium and a little before de soccagio non competit domino Capitali Custodia nec homagium ubi nulla Custodia nullum Relevium sed è contra But this serveth my turn very well for that they in the Report having fail'd to prove that Releifs were in use in the Saxons time whereof they affirm'd they had full testimony it now inferreth on my behalf that if Releifs and Wardships were not in use among the Saxons that then also Tenure by Knight-service was not with them Besides all this the Heriot was a certain duty and settled by Law the Relief so various and uncertain as the Lords exacted what they listed for it when it fell into their hands constraining the heir of the Tenant as it were to make a new purchase of their Feud whereupon the Feudists called this Releif not only Renovatio and Restauratio feudi in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turning or bringing back of the Feud to the former condition or proper nature of it but also Redemptio a ransoming of it out of the Lord's hands That it thus stood with us in England by and by after the Conquest appears by that we have shewed before out of the Magna Charta of Henry I. CHAP. XIX No Fines for Licence of Alienation TOuching Fines for Licence of Alienation it is not said what kind of Tenants among the Saxons did pay them nor for what kind of land they were paid The Thane-land hereditary is apparently discharg'd thereof by the ordinary words of their Charters before mention'd where 't is said that the owners of lands may give and bequeath them cuicunque voluerint and that freely ab omni munduali obstaculo Doomsday also as we here shewed doth testifie as much and so doth the very word Alodium which the ancient Authors attribute to these lands So that the Thane-lands doubtless were free both from the Fine and Licence But as touching Folcland and land holden at will of the Lord tho' continued in ancient time to their children after the manner of Copy-holds it is no question but that they might both have Licence for aliening such lands and also pay consideration for it as our Copy-holders do at this day I find that one Brictrick in the time of King Etheldred about the year 984. bequeath'd legacies of good value unto his Lord's wife to intreat her Husband that this Brictrick's Will whereby he had devised many lands and goods to Monasteries and divers men might stand And that Thola the widow of Vrke a Thane of Edward the Confessor obtain'd licence from the same King Edward that she might devise both her lands and goods to the Monastery of Abbotsbury But of what nature these Licences were whether to alienate the land or to make a Will or to give the land to Monasteries as in Mortmain I cannot determine If they only intended alienation then I understand them only of Lands holden according to the custom of the time at will of the Lord or Folcland Yet in that Thola's Licence was as well to bequeath her goods expresly as her lands the Licence seemeth to be given therefore to make a Will which no man then could do if not a Thane Quaere But howsoever it be expounded it must not be extended to the Thane-lands or land hereditary for the reasons before alledged And as touching Fines for Licence of Alienation after our manner which the Report suggesteth they could not doubtless be in use among the Saxons for there are not found as I suppose here among us before the time of Edward I. and not established afterwards 'till 1. Edw. III. where the King granteth that from thenceforth lands holden in Chiefe should not be seized as forfeited which formerly they were for Alienation without Licence but that a reasonable Fine should be taken for the same See the Statute CHAP. XX. No Feodal Homage among the Saxons OUr word Man and homo in Latin have for many ages in old time been used by the German and Western Nations for a Servant or Vassal And from thence hominium and vassaticum afterwards homagium was likewise used for hominem agere to do the office or duty of a servant not to signifie Manhood as some expound it and so also Vassalagium But by little and little all these latter words have been restrain'd to note no more than our ceremonial homage belonging properly unto Tenures which I met not with among our Saxons nor any shew thereof in former ages unless we shall fancy that the Devil had it in his eye when he offered to give unto our Saviour all the Kingdoms of the world if he would fall down and worship him For here he maketh himself as Capital Lord our Saviour as the Feodal Tenant the Kingdoms of the world to be the Feud the falling or kneeling down to be the homage and the worshipping of him consisting as the Feodists expound it in six rules of service to be the Fealty Pardon me this idleness but from such missemblances rise many errors Homage as we understand it in our Law is of two sorts one more ancient than the other called homagium ligeum as due unto the King in respect of Soveraignty and so done more Francico to King Pipin by Tassilo Duke of Bavaria about the year 756. The other homagium feodale or praediale belonging to
alii creditum alius subtrahat ac praecipue Clericis quibus opprobrium est si peritos se velint disceptationum esse forensium ostendere But here we see that the Clergy even in those days had set their foot upon the business and I suppose that since that time they never pulled it wholly out again It is like the Eastern Nations adhering to the Empire did observe it But the Western being torn from it by the Northern Nations Saxons Goths and Normans took and left as they thought good Reâ—â—ardus King of the Western Goths about the year 594. tho' he retained the manner of the Civil Law in making Wills yet he ordained that they should be publish d by a Priest as formerly they had been His succâ—ssor Chindavinâ—us about An. 650. making a Law about a Military Will ordained that it should be examined by the Bishop and Earl and ratified by the hand of a Priest and the Earl As the Northern Nations I speak of the Goths the Saxons and Normans were of Neighbour and affinity in their Habitation Language and Original so were they also in their Laws and Manners Therefore as the Goths trusted to their Priests with the passing of Wills so did the Normans their Custom and Law was that Tout testament doit estre passe par devant le Curè ou Vicaire notaire ou tabellion en la presence de daux temotnâ—s idoines dâ— XX. ans accomplis non legataires That all Testaments shall pass before the Curate or Vicar c. where the Commentary noteth that it must be the Curate or Vicar of the same Parish where the Testator dwelleth And that Notary hath been adjudged to be a Notary Apostolick or Ecclesiastical So that the business was then with them wholly in the hands of the Clergy This ancient Norman use liveth to this day in many Towns of England The Parson of Castle Rising in Norfolk hath the Probat of Testaments in that Town And so hath the Parson of Rydon and the Parson of North-Wotton in North-Wotton To go back to our Saxon Ancestors I see they held a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or similitude of Laws with their brethren the Goths and Normans And tho' I find no positive constitution among them in this point yet ab actis judicatis the supporters of the Common Law it self we may perceive what their Custom and Law was Elfâ—re who lived before the year 960. having made his Will did afterward publish the same before Odo the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Elfsy the Priest of Croydon and many other Birtrick and his wife in no long time after declared their Will at Mepham before Elfstane Bishop of Rochester Wine the Priest and divers other See a MS. Law of King Alured the Great who flourished An. 880. De eo quâ— terram testamâ—ntalem habet quam ei parâ—ntes sui dimiserunt ponimus ne illam extra cognationem suam â—â—ttere possit si scriptum intersit testamenti testes quod â—orum prohibitto fuerit qui haâ—c imprimis acquisiverint ipsorum qui dederint ei nâ— hoc possit hoc in Regis Episcopi testimonio recitetur coram parentela sua It is said in the Civil Law that the declaration of a Testament before the Prince omnium Testamentorum solennitatem superat Here the Bishop is joined with the King in cognisance of the Testament by the copulative but Mr. Lambard tho' I confess it agreeth not with the Saxon maketh it in the disjunctive coram Rege aut Episcopo as if it might be before either of them The Saxon is on Cyninges bisceopes geÆ¿itnysse in Râ—gis Episcopi testimonio Be it one or the other it cometh much to a reckning for the presence of the King was then represented in the County by the person of the Earl of the County as it is this day in his Bench by the person of his Judges And the Earl and Bishop sitting together in the Court of the County did as if the King and the Bishop had been there hear jointly not only the causes of Wills spoken of in this Law wherein the Bishop had special interest but other also that came before them And therefore in those days the extent of the Earl's County and the Bishop's Diocess had but one limit To this purpose is the Law of King Edgar Cap. 5. and the like of Canutus Cap. 17. Comitatus bis in anno congregatur nisi plus necesse sit in illo Comitatu sint Episcopus Comes qui ostendant populo justitiam Dei rectitudines seculi The Saxon is ðaere beon ðaere scyre biscop se Ealdorman Let the shire Bishop be there and the Alderman so then they called the Earl Thus both Ecclesiastical and Secular Causes were both decided in the County Court where by the Canons of the Church the Ecclesiastical Causes were first determined and then the Secular And many Laws and Constitutions there be to keep good correspondency between the Bishop and the Earl or Alderman And as both kind of justice were administred in the County Court so were they also in the Hundred Court in which course they continued in both Courts 'till the very time of the Conquest as it seemeth and almost all his time after But about the eighteenth year of his Regn by a Common Council of the Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots and Princes of the Kingdom which we now call a Parliament he ordained as appeareth in a Charter of his then granted to Remigius Bishop of Lincoln Vt nullus Episcopus vel Archidiaconus de legibus Episcopalibus amplius in Hundred placita teneat nec causam quae ad regimen animarum pertinet ad judicium secularium omnium adducant sed quicunque secundum Episcopales leges de quacunque causa vel culpa interpellatus fuerit ad locum quem ad hoc Episcopus ei elegerit nominaverit veniat ibique de causa vel culpa sua respondeat non secundum Hundred sed secundum Canones Episcopales leges rectum Deo Episcopo suo faciat c. What ensued upon this and how the Bishop and Earl divided their Causes and Jurisdiction appeareth not That of Wills belonged either wholly to the Earl as Rector Provinciae by the Constitution of Theodosius or as much to the Earl as to the Bishop by the Laws of King Edgar and Canutus But the subsequent use must inform us what was then done upon it And thereby it seemeth that all went wholly to the Bishop and Clergy and that the Saxon custom was changed and the Norman introduced And that the name of Court Christian or Ecclesiastical sprung not up or was heard of till after this division For now the devising of Lands by Will after the Saxon manner was left and the goods themselves could not be bequeathed but according to the use of Normandy A third part must remain