for a greater observance is certainly to be tendered unto the King even in that particulâ—r of Praeemption which may well be believed by all that are not Quakers whose Tenants all the people of England are mediately or immediately by some or other Tenure Then that which is usually done to Lords of Manors Justices of Peace or Country Gentlemen by their Tenants or poorer sort of Neighbours who if they chance to catch any Woodcocks or Partridges in any of those Gentlemens Lands will bring them to their â—ouses to sell at such cheap and easie rates as they shall please to give for them and if which seldome happens they should carry them to the Markets and not thither are sure enough to be chid for it and crossed and denied in any greater matter which they shall have to doe with them And is but that or a little more curtesie which Butchers Fishmongers and other Tradesmen selling victualls or provisions in great quantities and all the year or often unto their constant Customers will not for their own ends fail to doe or neglect or to sell unto them at easier rates then unto others and find themselves to be many times no loosers by it insomuch as some have lately well afforded to sell to a constant Customer for great quantities at the same rate it was 40 or 60 years before And the Compositions of the Counties for Pourveyance to serve in Beefe Mutton Poultry Corn Malt and other provisions for the Kings Houshold and the maintenance and support of it at a more cheaper rate then the Markets yeild which when they were first set was but the Market rate or a little under long agoe made and agreed upon by the greater Officers of the Kings Houshold and some Justices of Peace in every County and easily and equally taxed and laid upon the whole and not upon any particular man which was poor or of a small Estate not fit to bear it May be with as much and more reason allowed and chearfully submitted unto as those many now called quit rents or Rent services which the most of our Nobility Gentry and others not for some few of them doe yet hold some of their Tenants to their antient and reasonable Customes doe receive and their Tenants easily and willingly pay for their several sorts of â—apola Gavels or Tributes charged upon their Lands before and since the Conquest in Kent a County recounting with much comfort of their many Priviledges and beneficiall Customes and most parts of England as Gavel Erth to Till some part of their Landlords Ground Gavel Rip to come upon summons to help to reap their Corn Gavel Râ—d to make so many perches of hedge Gavel Swine for pawnage or feeding their Swine in the Lords Woods Gavel werk which was either Manuopera by the person of the Tenant or Carropera by his Carts or Cariages Harth-silver Chimney-money or Peter-pence which some Mesne Lords do yet receive Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddels to catch Fish pitched and placed by the Sea coasts Gavel noht or Fother or Rent Foder which did signifie pabulum or alimentum ut Saxones antiqui dixerunt and comprehended all sorts of victuals or provisions as the old Saxons interpreted it for the Lord probably in his progress or passing by them and was in usage and custome in the time of Charlemaigne the Emperor about the year of our Lord 800. when the people of Italy Regi venienti in Italiam solvere tenebantur pro quo saepe etiam aestimata pecunia pendebatur were to provide Foder or provisions for the King when he came into Italy in liew of which money to the value thereof was sometimes paid and was long after taken to be so reasonable as it was by the Princes and Nobility of Italy acknowledged in an Assembly to be inter Regalia as a Prerogative due to the King And after the Conquest for Aver Land or Ouver Land carriage of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestick utensils saith the learned and Judicious Mr. Somner or houshold provisions of the Lord or his Steward when they removed from one place to another sometimes by horse Average sometimes by foot Average one while within the Precinct of the Manor thence called In average and at other times without and then called Out Average whereupon such Tenants were known by the name of Avermanni or Bermanni Smiths Land holden by the service of doing the Smiths work the not performing of which several services so annexed to the said several sorts of Lands and their Tenures made them to be forfeited which though not exchanged and turned into Rents Regis ad exemplum in imitation of the indulgence and favour of King Henry the first to the Tenants of his demeasne Lands either then or shortly after but many of them as appeareth by Mr. Somner continuing in Kent to the Reign of Henry the third others to Edward the first and Edward the third and some in other places to the Reign of King Henry the sixth and in all or many of the Abbies and Religious Houses untill their dissolution in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth notwithstanding that the Lords of Manors and Leets receiving those free or quit Rents as they were called of their Freeholders and Tenants belonging unto their several Manors in lieu and recompence of those services did or ought in their Court Leets twice a year holden cause to be presented and punished any unreasonable prises for provisions or victuals sold in Markets Fairs oâ— otherwise or if they have not Leets are when they are Justices of Peace authorised to doe it and by that untill their Interests perswaded them to let their Tenants use all manner of deceipts in their Marketings and get what unreasonable prises they pleased so as they themselves might rack their Rents farre beyond former ages might have had their provisions untill this time at as low and easie rates as the Kings prouisions and Compositions were at when they were rated and set by the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties and all others of their Neighbourhood might also have enjoyed the benefit of the like rates which the Law intended them And the King may as well or better deserve and expect as many Boons or other services as the Nobility and other great men of the Kingdome doe notwithstanding many Priviledges and Indulgences granted by their more liberall Auncestors and better bestowing their bounties to their Tenants And to be furnished with Carts and Carriages at easie rates as well as the Earl of Rutland is at this day for nothing upon any removall from Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire to Haddon in Darbyshire and elsewhere from one place to another with very many Carts of his Tenants which are there called Boon Carts when as all Lords or Gentlemen of any rank place or quality in the Kingdome doe take it to be no burden or grievance to their
benefits received which highly pleasing the Almighty and being lovely in the eyes of all men which are not only enjoyed but held fast and enforced by all the Nobility Gentry and richer sort of men in England when it happens to be denied as the services and customes of all their Tenants to grind their corn at their Lords Mill or baking their bread at his common Oven in some Borough or Market Town The Reliefs in Tenures by Knight Service or Chivalry fixed and appropriate unto those Fewds and Tenures and paid at the death of every Tenant dying seised being at the first never condescended unto by the Tenants by any paction or stipulation betwixt them and their Lords But although there was antiently and originally betwixt the Lord and the Tenant mutua fides tuendae salutis dignitatis utriusque saith Bodin a mutual obligation betwixt the Tenant and the Lord to defend one anothers Estate and Dignity or as Craig saith pactionibus interpositis de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements to defend one another were lately notwithstanding received and taken by the Nobility and Gentry as a gratitude and in that and no other respect were by the Tenants willingly paid unto them The Reliefs paid by the Heirs of Freeholders in Socage after the death of their Ancestors which being not paid by Tenants for years by a rack Rent do appear to have no other commencement but in signum subjectionis gratitudinis a thankfull acknowledgement for benefits received Or those duties payments which many Lords and Gentry doe enjoy in Cumberland Westmerland and many of the other Northern Counties which were not at the first by any original contract or agreement as to their Tenants particular services for so it could not be a custome but the Tenants at the first upon the only reason of gratitude untill it had by length of time and usage uninterrupted gained the force of a custome and that the succeeding Heirs and Tenants were admitted according to those customes did as willingly observe and acknowledge them The Fines incertain at the will of severall Lords which the Nobility and Gentry of other parts of England do receive and take of their Copihold Tenants under the penalty of a forfeiture if not paid in a reasonable time after they were assessed and the priviledges which they retain of seising their Tenants Copihold Lands as forfeit whether the Fines were certain or incertain if they sued Replevins against them distraining for their Rents or Services and had no other parents or originall untill custome had settled it then the Tenants gratefull acknowledgements of the Lords or his Ancestors former kindess and benefits bestowed upon them or their Progenitors And the Socage Lands and Freeholders might be Tallied or have a Tax laid upon them by their Lords at their will and pleasure as their necessities or occasions required as well before as after the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo made betwixt the years 25 34 Ed. 1. and if it had been an Act of Parliament and not a Charter could bind only the King as to his extraordinary but not to his legall Tallages untill custome by the kindness or favour of time and the curtesie and good will of their Lords did permit them by a desuetude of imposing and a well rellished custome of the Tenants not paying to enjoy their easie and cheap bargains and freedome of their Lands for which they should doe well to remember better then they doe their Benefactors and be more mannerly and gratefull then of late they have been and were before those indulgencies held to be so accustomed and usual as it was not seldome found by Inquisitions and Juries upon oath that such or such land was holden Et Talliari potest c. And might have Taxes or a greater Rent laid upon them by the Lord of the Manor in so much as the Kings demeasne Lands were not free from Tallage which will be evident enough by a presentment of a Jury of Nottinghamshire before the Justices in Eyre in anno 8 E. 1. or King Edward the first when the Kings Letters Patents of a Grant of the Town of Retford to the Burgesses thereof and their Heirs in Fee Farm was found and mentioned in these words viz. Edwardus Dei gratia c. Sciatis nos concessisse c. Burgensibus nostris de Retford quod ipsi eorum haeredes de cetero habeant teneant ad feodi firmam de nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum villam nostram de Retford cum pertnen reddendo inde nobis haeredibus nostris per manus suas proprias decem libras per annum ad Scaccarium nostrum ad festum Sancti Michaelis pro omnibus serviciis c. Salvo inde nobis haeredibus nostris Tallagio nostro cum nos haeredes nostris Dominica nostra per Angliam fecimus Talliari c. reserving to himself and his Heirs a Fee Farme Rent of ten pounds per annum and the power of Tax or Tallage or improving what he had granted unto them when he should have occasion to make a Taxe or Tallage upon all his Demesne Lands in England And untill Rents were racked of which the Kings of England and the Officers of their Revenue in land were seldom or never yet much guilty that Rents were improved as high as the profits of Lands all the Lands of England except the Copihold Customary lands by Fines certain the curtesie of time and their Landlords suffering their good will and charity to be reduced into thankless customs escaped it were liable to be made contributaries to many of the necessities or occasions of the Lords of Manors who formerly did not make Leases and take Fines to lessen the rents as they doe now by a high rate or rule of interest and disadvantages procuring their rents to be advanced as it were in the name of a Fine before hand nor if the Lands were holden in Capite by Knight service untill time and their Princes favours had disused it could make a Lease unto any Tenant of such Lands but by licence and then also for no longer a term then 3. or 7. years And their Lands and Rents except Capite and Knight-service and Copihold land and lands in Frank Almoigne being capable of no higher Rents or improvement cannot now be any more by them Tallied which in effect is but a calling for more rent or raising it which every Landlord may do where his Tenants are at Will or when their Leases are expired when they are now all but those Lands before excepted as to the King and the mesne Lords and the Lands of the Freeholders and Cop holders at the utmost or a very high rent And such Tallage is at this day not laid aside by our Neighbours of France in very many places were les Tailles se paient par ceuz du Tiers estat c'est a dire par les habitans
in many as Canterbury York Durham Lincoln Coventry and Lichfield Exeter Ely Winchester and Norwich much abated when as now by the rise of mony and prises they are greatly different from what they then weâ—e and are of some of those Benefices and Spiritual Promotions but the eighth or tenth and of many but the twentieth part And receives his prae-Fines and post-Fines Licences and Pardons of Alienation upon Common Assurances at less then a tenth and many times less then a twentieth part of the true yearly values of the lands or rates which the Law ordering the compositions to be upon oath intendeth him after the example of his Royal Father who permitted the yearly value of lands in Capite and by Knight-service to be found by Juries and Inquisitions at the tenth part of the now true yearly value when as by oath they were to find and certifie the true yearly values and all the Lands of the Kingdome but his own are raised and improved generally ten to one or very much in very many parts and particulars thereof more then what they were two hundred years last past in or about the Reign of King Henry the sixth when as the errable and pasture lands which are now in Middlesex let at fifteen or sixteen shillings per annum an Acre and Meadow commonly at forty shillings and sometimes at three pounds the Acre were in Anno 1 Ed. 3. at a farre lesser yearly value when two Toftes of Land one Mill fifty acres of Land and two acres of Wood in Kentish Town near London was of no greater yearly value then 20 s. and 3 d. and the courser sort of pasture land in Essex now let for 8 or 9 s. the Acre and Meadow at twenty or thirty shillings the Acre was then in that Countie and in many fertill Counties within sixty miles and farre less of London valued but at eight pence per annum and four or five pence the Acre errable and the like valuations were holden in licences of Mortmain in all his extents or values of lands seised for taken into his hands Received their primer seisins at the like small yearly rate and took for suing out of Liveries which may be resembled to a Copiholders admittance not a fifth part proportionably to what is now paid by Copiholders to their Lords of Manors and respites of homage as they were taxed and set in anno primo Jacobi in a very easie manner Did not in the valuation of Lands and Estates as some Lords of Manors have been known to doe whereby to rack and oppress the Widdows and Fatherless employ some Sycophants or Flatterers of the Manor to over-value them or have some Decoyes in the assessing of Fines to seem willing to pay or give as much when they are sure to have a good part of it privately restored unto them again or cause their poor Tenants to be misled and the more willingly cozen themselves by crediting hard and erroneous Surveyes taking Leases of their Copihold Estates or using some other unwarrantable and oppressive devices worse then the Pharisaicall Committees did in the renting of lands they had no title unto when they did put men to box one another by overbidding themselves at their wickedly improving Boxes But did according to his Father King James his instructions given to his Councel of the Court of Wards in the assessing of Fines for the Marriages of the Wards and renting of their Lands which too many of the Nobility and Gentry and other of his Subjects did never or very seldome order the Stewards of their Manors to doe order that upon considerations which might happen therein either by reason of the broken estate of the deceased want of provision for his wife his great charge of children unprovided for infirmity or tenderness of the Heirs incertainty of the title or greatness of the incumbrances upon the Lands they should have liberty as those or the like considerations should offer themselves to use that good discretion and conscience which should befit in mitigating Fines or Rents to the relief of such necessities Suffers the Fees of his Chancery and Courts of Common-pleas and Kings-Bench for the small Seals to be receved as they were in the Reign of King Ed. 3. and the Tenths reserved upon the Abby and Religious lands at no greater an yearly value then they were in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when they were first granted though now they are of a four times or greater yearly value The Fees of the Seals of Original and Judiciall Writs and Process in Wales as they were in the 34. year of the Reign of King Henry the eighth when the English Courts of Justice were there first erected takes six pence a piece for Capons reserved for Rent in Queen Elizabeths time the issues of lands forfeited unto him upon Writs of distringas at such small rates as six shillings eight pence upon one distringas and 10 s. at another which the Law intendeth to be the profits of the Lands distrained betwixt the Teste and the return of the Writs which would have amounted unto twenty times or a great deal more and receiveth his Fines upon Formedons and othe real Actions granted and issuing out of the Chancery at most gentle and moderate rates his Customes inward and outward at easie rates proportionable to such small values as the Merchants advantage to themselves shall give in or the Officers or Commissioners for the King at the Custome-houses shall at randome and without view think to be a favourable and easie estimate Some single ones of which before recited undervaluations besides the profits of the Tolls of Fairs and Markets if rightly and justly paid according to the true improved values or two of the most of them would make up in a constant Revenue unto him a great deal more then the Compositions for his Pourveyances yearly and lately amounted unto by the difference betwixt his rates or prices and those of the Market A due consideration whereof if there were nothing else to put in the Ballance might induce the Earls Marquesses and Dukes of England who have received their honors and dignities from his Royal Progenitors to permit him as well to enjoy his Pourveyance and reasonable support maintenance of the honor of himself and his Royal Family as they doe take and receive of him their Creation monies being antiently a third part of the fines and profits of the Counties whereof the Earls are denominated since reduced to a certain and yearly sum of money when as also not a few of them have had great and large Revenues given them by his Royal Progenitors to uphold and sustein their Dignities and Honors And the Bishops whose Bishopricks and Baronies and most of the Revenues belonging unto them were of the foundation of the Kings Royal Ancestors and received their Investitures and Temporalties from him may if they shall think the Compsitions for Pourveyances ought not
pay one per cent for provision of Fortresses In the Kingdom of Barnagasso the King hath besides Silks and Cloth of Gold and other precious things for Tribute Horses and payeth himself 150. Horses to Pretious or Prete John Emperor of Ethiopia of whom he holdeth The Kingdom of Oghy besides a Tribute of Gold and Silver sendeth him yearly a thousand Beeves In Ethiopia the Prete or Emperor upon the coming or returning of Embassadors gives order to his Subjects or Vassals to furnish them with provisions for their Journey and not long agoe commanded one to whom he had but a little before given a little Lordship containing not above 80. Houses and two Churches to furnish an Embassador with five hundred Loads of Corn a hundred Oxen and a hundred Sheep The Gozagues do yearly pay to their King besides great quantities of Gold and Silver a thousand Beeves alive The Maldives do yearly pay unto their King the fifth part of the grains which they sowe and give him a Portion of their Coco's and Limmons and besides their Taxes compound also for fruits and honey The Princes and great men in Japan do contend who shall give most to the Caesar and almost impoverish themselves by their Presents All the houses in the City of the Kings Residence are by the King taxed towards the making of Fortresses In Firando in Japan when any forraign Merchants are by the King invited to see Playes and publick Shows they send Presents to him and every forraign Merchant that comes thither may not sell his goods untill he hath carried a Present to the Emperor And when any of the Kings white Elephants are brought unto him the Merchants in the City are commanded to come and see him and bring every one a Present of half a Ducat which altogether amounteth to a great sum of money In Industan when the Mogol goeth abroad or in progress euery one saith Sir Thomas Roe by whose house he passeth is to make him a Present Sir Thomas Roe himself doing it when the King or Mogol rode to the River of Darbadath All the Persian Merchants doe bring their goods first to the Mogol who buyes what he pleaseth and after his Officers have set the rate they may sell to whom they will All men strive to present him with all things rich and rare and no man petitioneth him for any thing empty-handed and thereby come to preferment some giving him one hundred thousand pounds in Jewels at a time The King of Achen commands those of Tecoo to bring thither their Pepper which none may buy but he and puts off his Surat commodities in truck to them at what rates he pleaseth and oftimes sends his commodities to Priaman and Tecoo enforcing them to buy them at his own rates none being suffered to buy or sell before he hath vented his own At Bantam the Governor or Protector so called useth to send in the Kings name to the people to serve him with sacks of Pepper some a hundred some fifty some ten some five at the Kings price which was a Riall less in a Sack then the Merchants paid Divers bring Presents of Rice and Cashes and some bring imbroidered cloth for the Kings wearing Nor were the more civilized part of the Heathen only accustomed to the way of Pourveyance or bringing provisions or presents to their Kings and Princes but the wild and savage part of them were by the Lawes of nature and glimmerings of the light of reason taught to doe it In Mexico in the West-Indies and its large Dominions under the Emperor Montezeuma containing 100 Cities and their Provinces the people did pay a certain yearly Tribute to the King for water brought by pipes into the City Those that hold lands did yearly pay unto him one third part of their fruit and commodities which they had or did reap as gold silver stones dogs hens fouls conies salt wax honey mantels feathers cotton and a certain fruit called Câ—cao which they there used for money also all kinds of grain Garden-herbs and fruits Some Towns paid 400 burdens of white Mantles others great Tropes of wood full of Maiz Friâ—oles c. some four hundred burdens of wood others four hundred planks of Timber some every six moneths brought four hundred burdens of Cotton-wool and others two thousand loads of Salt two hundred pots of Honey twenty Xacaras of Gold in powder and some a Truss of Turkie stones and paid besides the King of Alzopuzalco a Tribute of Firre and Willow-trees towards the building of a City Divers Provinces are bound to provide fire-wood for the Kings house amounting unto two hundred and thirty weight a day which was five hundred mens burdens for the Kings particular Chimnies they brought the Bark of the Oak The Incas or Indian Kings before the coming of their unlucky loving friends the Spaniards had their Tributes yearly brought unto the Court and when any work was to be done or any thing to be furnished for the Incas the Officers knew presently how much every Province Town and Family ought to provide and by their Registers strings and knots knew what every one was to pay even to a hen or burden of wood And as Inea Garzilasco de la Vega a Native of Cozco relates in his book of the antient customes of those Countries did amongst other Tributes make and furnish clothes and Arms to be used in warr In Virginia the Weroances under-Lords or petty Kings did hold their lands habitations and limits to Fish Foul or Hunt of their soveraign King Powhatan to whom they pay Tributes of Skins Beads Copper Pearl Dear Turkies wild Beasts and Corn. And in all Savage Countries the English Merchants and Navigators as Mr. Edward Winslow a man afterwards too well known amongst the plundering and mistaken godly at Haberdashers Hall hath related at his return from thence doe make presents to the Savage Kings In New-England the Sachims or Lords are subject to one Sachim to whom they resort for protection and pay homage neither may any make warre without their privity every Sachim knoweth the bounds and limits of his Country and that is as his proper Inheritance and out of that if any of his men desire Land to set their corn he giveth them as much as they can use and puts them in their bounds Whosoever hunteth or killeth any venison which is there much of their food he bringeth him his Fee which is the fourth part of the same if it be killed on the Land but if in the water then the skin thereof Once a year the people are provoked by the Pinieses Knights or Councellors of the Sachims to bestow much corn on the Sachim who bring him thereupon many Baskets of corn and make a great Stack thereof In Florida where they all goe naked and doe but litle exceed the beasts of the field in understanding and want the wit of most part of the Nations of the world to cover their nakedness they can notwithstanding
the Tenants charges to the Lords Granary Gabulum mellis or Rent-honey 〈◊〉 gavel Rent-oates Wood-lede to carry home his wood Gavel or Rent-timber to repair his house and Gavel dung to carry out his dung often used in Kent where they think that in liberties and priviledges they doe surpass most of the other parts and Provinces of England And could at the same time also lay a greater burden upon the people then his pretended ease amounted unto in that his Law touching his own Demeasnes and enjoyn the Romescot or Peter-pence for every house or chimney which he had given the Pope larga maâ—u penhenniter as Bromton saith and a charge upon the people to a perpetuity as he thought of that which the former Kings had made but some temporary grants of to the See of Rome with great penalties for the non payment thereof And under severe mulcts commâ—nded the yearly payments of the Cirickseaâ— or Oblations for First fruits to the Church which was then as Mr. Somner saith à census sâ—â—e in gallinis sive in aliis rellus pro aedium decima solvendis a Rent or Duty to be paid in Henns or other things for the Tithes of their Houses or as a Symbolum or munus gift or offering And though William the Conqueror had a great affection to establish Leges Noricas Danish or Norway Lawes then used in many Provinces yet was England so happy in its unhappiness as he did not but precibus Anglorum atque Normannorum deprecâ—tus tired with the petitions and importunities as well of his Normans as the English ut per animam Regis Edwardi qui sibi post diem suum concesserat câ—ronam regnum cujus erant Leges nec aliorum extraneorum exaudiendo concederet eis sub legibus perseverare paternis as he respected the soul of King Edward who gave him the Crown and Kingdome and whose Lawes they were and not any strangers that he would not hearken unto them but give them leave to enjoy the Lawes of their Ancestors whereupon consilio habito precatu Baronum by the advice and counsel of the Barons when his conquering Normans as well as the subdued English thought it to be most for their good and safety to be governed by Edward the Confessors Lawes and the good old Customes of England he did after an enquiry of duodeâ—im sapientiorum de quo libet comitatu quibus jurejurando injunctum fuit twelve of the wisest men of every County upon their oaths restore to them patriae leges their own Laws especially the Laws of Edward the Confessor which were first instituted by King Edgar and had long lain asleep but at the same time took a care by a Law made on purpose ne quis domino suo debitas praestationes which did then and antiently signifie services and duties to be done subtrahat propter nullam remissionem quam ei antea feâ—erit that no man upon any release or discharge made thereof should withhold or deny his service or accustomed dues to the Lord which repealing as it were Canutus his Law did not certainly exclude the King or his Successors in their own particulars when as he procured by another Law ut jura regia illaesa servare pro viribus conentur subditi that all his Subjects should endeavour all they could to preserve his Regalities Et ex illo die the Laws of Canutus vanishing probably as those of Cromwell did Leges Sancti Edwardi multa autoritate veneratas per universum regnum corroboratas et observatas and from that time the Lawes of Edward the Confessor were greatly reverenced and through all England observed For we find not that Law of Canutus either repeated or mentioned as the Laws of some of the Saxon Kings were or any thing of that nature enacted or confirmed in or by the Laws of Edward the Confessor William the Conqueror or King Henry the the First but on the contrary the Laws of Edward the Confessor confirmed by William the Conqueror doe expresly ordain that debent enim et leges eâ— libertates jura et justas consuetudines regni et antiquas a bonis predecessoribus which could not well be meant or intended of any of Canutus or any the Denelage or Danish Lawes approbatas inviolabiliter modis omnibus pro posse suo servare every man ought to his utmost to keep and conserve the Lawes Liberties and Rights and the just and antient Customes of the Kingdome The Abbot of Ramsey was by a Charter of William the Conqueror exempt from carriages and Pourveyance And the Book of Doomesday which was made in the sixteenth year of his Reign and remains ever since an unquestionable record of the Kingdome is not without some vestigia or footsteps of Pourveyance in the Reign of that good and to this day ever honored King Edward the Confessor where it is said that tempore regis Edwardi reddebat civitas de Gloucester xxxvi l. numeratas xii sextaria mellis ad mensuram ejusdem Burgi xxxvi Dacras ferri C. virgas ferras ductiles ad claves navium Regis quasdam alias minutas consuetudines in Aula in Camera Regis in the time of King Edward the Confessor the City of Gloucester did pay yearly six and thirty pounds in money twelve measures of honey containing six Gallons a piece according to the measure of the Town six and thirty Dacres a proportion then known by that term of Iron and one hundred Rods of Iron to make nails for the Kings Ships and certain other small Customes for the Hall and Chamber of the King Et in Sciptone Rex tenet de annona xv l. the King had fifteen pounds per annum provision of corn and other victuals The Bordarii often mentioned in Doomesday Book were such as held Lands mensae domini designatas esculenta indicta videlicet ova gallinas aucas porcellos et hujusmodi ezhiberent appropriate to a Pourveyance for the Kings Table furnishing Eggs Hens Geese Pork and the like and for the Huscarles or houshold servants so called concerning whom it is there said Et gilda pro decem hidis scilicet ad opus huscarlum unam marcam argenti and he paid taxes for ten hides that is to say a mark of silver for the use or maintenance of them Tit Northantesceire reddit firmam trium noctium vel edulia ad caenam unam 30. lib. ad pondus made provision for one night of the value of thirty pound tit Oxenefordsc Comitatus Oxeneford reddit firmam trium noctium hoc est 100 lib. furnisheth provision for three nights of the value of 100 pound Et Doomsd. tit Wilts Wilton quando Rex ibat in expeditione vel terra vel mari habebat de hoc manerio xx sol ad pascendos suos Buzcarlos aut unum hominem ducebat secum pro honore quinque hidarâ—m when the King went
as they can they doe with Trumpets Drums and Musick by water in their several Barges adorned with the Banners and Arms of their Companies or Gilds conduct and attend their Lord Maior to be sworn at Westminster although the City of London and every Company in London are abundantly or very well endowed with lands of inheritance of a great yearly value and great stocks of money by Gifts and Legacies And no less reason then the imposing of a penny upon every Broad Cloth brought to sale to Blackwell-hall in London to be paid to the Chamberlain of London to the use of the City for Hallage which the Judges of the Kings Bench in Mich. Terme 32 33 Eliz. in the Chamberlain of Londons Case adjudged to be lawfull because it was as they then declared pro bono publico in regard of the benefits which the Subjects enjoyed thereby and for the maintenance of the weal publick and can not be said to be a charge to the Subject when he reaps benefit thereby and resembled it to Pontage Murage Toll and the like which as appeareth by the book of 13 H. 4.14 being reasonable the Subject will have more benefit by it then the charge amounts unto and that the Inhabitants of a Town or Parish may without any Custome make Ordinances and Bylawes for the reparation of a Church or High-wayes or any thing which is for the weal publick and in such cases the greater part shall bind all the rest And as much to be approved as the wages of the Knights of the Shires and Burgesses coming to Parliaments which are taxed and levied of the Counties Cities and Boroughs some few as those which hold any Lands parcel of an Earldome or Barony only excepted and the charges of the Convocation or Clergy assessed upon the Clergy The Synodals Procurations Proxies and payments made and paid by every Minister to defray the charges of the Arch Deacons in their Visitations every year and the Bishops every three years who are enabled to recover them by the Statute of 34 and 35 of Henry the eighth cap. 19. Oblations Easter and other offerings for the further supply and maintenance of the Ministry Tributes Customes and allowances to Governors of Colonies and Plantations as Virginia New-England Barbados c. or 10 s. or some other rate given by Merchants to the Consuls at Venice Smirna Aleppo Ligorne c. towards their support to assist them in the matter of Trade and procuring Justice from the Superiors of the Territories The Pensions Admissions and Payments in the Universities and the severall Colleges and Halls therein for their support with Taxes also sometimes imposed for publick Entertainments of the King Queen Prince Chancellor of the University or some other Grandees although every Colledge and Hall is endowed with large yearly and perpetuall Revenues in Lands the Admittances yearly Pensions and Payments together with the sale and rent of many Chambers in the Inns of Court Chancery or Colledges or Houses of Law towards the maintenance charges and support of the honour of those Societies and contributions not seldome made and enforced towards publick Treatments and Masques the payments and rates in Parishes for Pews Burialls tolling a passing Bell or ringing him and his companions at Funerals which if not enough to defray the charges of the many Feasts and Meetings of the Church-wardens and Petty States of the Parish repairing of the Church new painting and adorning it buying new Bell-ropes casting one or more Bells building the Steeple something higher or making a sumptuous Diall with a gilded Time and Hour-glass are sure enough to be enlarged by a Parish Rate or Tax more then it comes to Or that which is paid by the poor Tankard or Water-Bearers at the Conduits in London where every one payeth three shillings and six pence at his admittance and a penny a quarter towards the support of that pittifull Society Or those contributions sic magna componere parvis to represent great things by small and the vegetation or manner of the growth of an Oak by that of the lowly Shrubs which are made by a more impoverished sort of people the Prisoners for Debt in Ludgate by Orders and Constitutions so necessary is Government and Order and the support thereof even in misery of their own sorrowfull making in their narrow confinements that the Assistant which is monethly chosen by all the Prisoners to attend in the Watch-hall all day to call down prisoners to strangers which come to speak with them change money for the Cryers at the Grates keep an accompt in writing what money or gifts are every day sent to the Prisoners or given to the Box to charge the Steward with it upon the Accompt day see the Accompts truly cast up the Celler cleared by ten of the clock at night of all Prisoners and the Prisoners to be at their Lodgings quietly and civily hath his share of six pence allowed out of the Charity money every night whereof two pence is to be for the Assistant two pence for the Master of the Box and the other two pence allowed in mony or drink unto him which is the running Assistant or unto the Scavenger for bearing 2 candles before him at nine of the clock at night and rings the bell for Prayers is the Cryer for sale at the Markets for the Charity men of light bread taken by the Lord Maior or Sheriffs chumps of Beefe or any other things sent in by the City Clerk of the Market and unsized Fish by the water Bayliffe with many other small employments for which his Salery is four shillings eight pence per moneth and two pence out of the sixteen pence paid by every Prisoner at his first coming And the Scavenger who is to keep the house clean hath for his standing Salery five shillings eight pence per moneth two pence for every Prisoner at his first coming out of the sixteen pence table-money by him paid and a penny out of every Fine imposed upon offenders for the breach of any orders Every Prisoner paying at his first coming besides many other Fees fourteen pence for entring his name and turning the key five shillings for a Garnish to his Chamber-fellows to be spent in coals and candles for their own use or for a Dinner or Supper and sixteen pence to one of the Stewards of the House for Table-money out of which candles are to be bought for the use of the House every night set up in places necessary c. notwithstanding that it hath above 60 l. per annum belonging unto it charged upon lands in perpetuity and many other considerable and misused Legacies which have been setled and bestowed upon that should be well priviledged Prison And as much and more reasonable as the generall protection and defence is above any particular and the publick benefits do exceed any that are private as those payments and services which being derived from gratitude or retribution for
Roturiers des Villes non Franches Bourgs Villages a proportion des biens du Taillable sans qu ' il ait estè besoin d' asembler les Estats pour ce suiet those kind of Taxes are paid by the third Estate or Commonalty that is to say by the Inhabitants or common people of the Towns and Boroughts not infranchised or freed from it by the King according to the proportion of their goods or moveables without any assembly of the Estates to that purpose except in Languedoc Provence Burgogne Daulphine and Brittaine where when the King and his Councel have resolved what the Tailles shall be les terres immeubles seulement sont Taillables the lands and immoveables only are tailleable and their near friends the Scots did long agoe so well like of gratitude as they enacted and held it to be a good Law that Lands holden in few Ferme pay and ane certain zierly dewty nomine Feudi Firme may be recognosced be the Superior for none payment of the few dewtie and that twa maner of waies the first ex provisione naturae contractus by operation of law and the nature of the contract for the few Fermorer not pay and his few Ferme for his ingratitude and unthankfulnes Tinis and forfaltis his few Ferme be the disposition of the Law quhilk as zit was not in practique and use in Scotland And the English Landlords were so unwilling to part with any priviledges which brought them in any power gain or profit as where they held any of the Kings antient Demesnes in Fee Farme and the King did cause his antient Demesnes to be Tallied the Lord or Fee Farmer under him would sue forth the Kings writ commanding the Sheriff that in case the lands were auntient Demeasne hucusque consueverit Talliari and was untill then accustomed to be Tallied that rationabile Tallagium ei habere faceret de libere Tenentibus suis in manerio praedicto sicut prius fieri consuevit he should cause the Freeholders of the said Manor to pay unto their Lord such reasonable Tallage as was accustomed And with as much or more reason were the Pourveyances or Compositions for them allowed and established as the hitherto never complained of in Parliament or accompted to be grievances Herezelda Herriot services or Herriots which Skene an Author of great authority amonst the Scots defineth to be gratuitae donationes quae ab husbando seu agricola datur domino suo ratione dominij reverentiae the free gifts or remunerations of the Tenants to their Lords in the reverence and respect which they bear unto them Which the Hollanders those grand contesters for Liberties doe call Laudemia and notably increase their small Revenues in lands with them And in England saith the learned Spelman Non nisi post mortem husbandi solvitur is only paid after the death of the Tenant and differs from a Reliefe for that a Reliefe is in case of Inheritance but an Herriot in a lesser Estate as for life c. and being formerly and in the Saxon times of a greater value by the giving or paying to their Lords Shields Swords Spears Helmets Horses furnished and money according to the several qualities and estates of the Tenants have been since by the example and indulgence of our Princes imitated by the Nobility and Gentry reduced to the best horse or beast and if none to the best houshold stuffe but so greedily attached or seldome remitted by the Landlords as the poor mans single Ewe Lamb in the parable of the Prophet Nathan to David or a Cow which should give the lamenting Wife and Children some nourishment and sustenance are seldome able to escape their Bailiffes or such as are sent to fetch them And if it be reason for the people to make such payments and contributions and observe such respects to their Landlords and subordinate Governors or Superiors as much and greater surely ought they to pay unto their Pater Patriae the protector and defender as well of those that receive those duties as of those that pay them and are and should be enough to awaken and rouze up their gratitudes and imprint in their memories the never enough to be requited benefits and blessings received by our Kings and Princes as much as if with a forfeiture upon the not doing or observing those Agreements they had been as strongly annexed and incorporated into our Lands and Estates as that of the Service or Conditions of Lands given to hold by the Tenures of Knight service which as some Civilians hold ipsi sanguini cohaerent are inherent in the very blood of the Tenants which being the most noble gentile rich and better sort of the people were when the Pourveyance was in being the most fit and likeliest to be charged with the Payments or Contributions towards it and were therefore in several Kings Reigns sometimes singly and often charged with publick Ayds or Taxes and very much more then other of the people as twenty shillings for every Knights Fee granted by Parliament to King Richard the first six and twenty shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee to King John and as much at another time to him towards his Warres in Wales twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee towards his Voyage into Normandy and forty shillings at another time and as much twice assessed in the Reigns of King Henry the third towards his Warres in Gascony twenty shillings upon every Knights Fee by Henry the fourth the Warres in Scotland by King Edward the first and Edward the second and of France by King Edward the third and the personal and chargeable services of most of the Nobility and Gentry therein probably procuring them some relaxation of not having their Fees or Lands so charged as formerly And besides other incidents belonging thereunto are by the Fewdists said to be so more then ordinarily tied up unto gratitudes and the more especiall duties and obligations thereof as such a Tenant forfeits his Lands in Fee Si percipiat magnum periculum domino imminere ultrò sine requisitione servicium non offert if he perceived any danger imminent or likely to happen to his Lord and did not of his own accord offer his service to prevent it or if his Lord were a Captive or in prison ought to contribute towards his redemption or if he should happen to fall into distress was to relieve him as farre say some of the Fewdall Laws which by stipulation or paction being not at the first agreed upon or included in the General words of defending the Lord and his Dignity was with many other their gratefull observances afterwards particularized and deduced from such customes as gratitude only had in process of time introduced and as much as amounted unto the Moiety of one years Rent or si dominum in acie periclitantem deseruerit if he left his Lord in the field and was ingratefull And by our Laws of England if
he or his heirs did not unto the Lord or any of his Heirs of whom the Lands were holden his services within two years was upon a Cessavit per Biennium brought by the Lord and no sufficient distress to be found to forfeit the Lands so holden And from no other source or original was derived Escuage for the Tenants by Knight service not attending the King or their Lords in the wars which as Littleton saith was because the Law intendeth and understood it that the lands were at the first for that end freely given them whence also came the Aide to make the eldest Sonne of the King a Knight and to marry the eldest Daughter and the like assistances or duties unto the mesne Lords as gratefull acknowledgements for the Lands holden of them which the Freeholders in Socage are likewise not to deny and were not at the first by any Agreement betwixt the King and his particular Tenants nor likely to be betwixt the mesne Lords and their Tenants when the Lands were given them for that some of the mesne Lords might probably be without Sonne or Daughter or both or any hopes to have any when they gave their Lands and their Grants doe frequently mention pro homagio servicio in consideration only of homage and service to be done And being called auxilia sive adjutoria Aids or Assistances to their Lords who could not be then in any great want of such helps when the portions of Daughters were very much in vertue and little in mony and the charges of making the eldest Son a Knight the King in those dayes bestowing upon all or many of them some costly Furres Robes and the other charges consisting in the no great expences of the furnishing out the young Gentleman to receive the then more martial better used and better esteemed honour of Knighthood were reckoned by Bracton in the later end of the Reign of King Henry the third inter consuetudines quae serviciae non dicuntur nec concomitantia serviciorum sicut sunt rationabilia auxilia amongst those customes which are not understood to be services nor incidents thereof if they be reasonable But were de gratia ut Domini necessitas secundum quod major esset vel minor relevium acciperet and proceeded from the good will of the Tenants to help their Lords as their occasions or necessities should require Et apud exteros saith Sir Henry Spelman non solum ad collocandas sorores in matrimonium sed ad fratres etiam Juniores milites faciendos And with some forreign Nations as the Germans old Sicilians and Neapolitans not only towards the marriage of the Sisters of their Lords but to make also their younger Sons Knights For the good will and gratefull retorns of the Subjects to their Kings and Princes and of the Tenants to their Lords were not only since the Norman Conquest but long before practised and approved by the Britains the elder and most antient Inhabitants of this our Island and other world as is manifest by the Ebidiu or Tributum paid per Nobilium haeredes Capitali provinciae domino the Heirs of the Nobility or great men after the death of their Ancestors to the Lords or chief of the Province like unto as Sir Henry Spelman saith our relief which Hottoman termeth Honorarium a free gift or offering And that learned Knight found upon diligent enquiry amongst the Welch who by the sins of their forefathers and injury of the Saxons are now contented to be called by that name as Strangers in that which was their own Country that that Ebidiu was paid at a great rate non solum è praediis Laicis sed etiam Ecclesiasticis not only by the Laity but the Church-men And being not discontinued amongst the Saxons was besides the payment of Reliefs attended with other gifts and acknowledgements of superiority as well as thanks for Gervasius Tilburiensis in the Reign of King Henry the second when the people of England had not been so blessed and obliged as they were afterwards with the numberless Gifts Grants and Liberties which in the successive Reigns of seventeen Kings and Queens after preceding our now King and Soveraign were heaped upon them found oblata presents gifts or offerings to the King to be a well approved Custome and therefore distinguished them into quaedam in rem quaedam in spem some before hand for hopes of future favours and others for liberties or other things given and granted by the King and the Fine Rolles of King John and Henry the third his Son will shew us very many Oblata's or Free-will Offerings of several kinds which were so greatly valued and heeded as King Henry the third and his Barons in or about the 23 year of his Reign which was thirteen or fourteen years after his confirming of Magna Charta did in the bitter prosecution and charge of Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent and chief Justice of England demand an Accompt de donis xeniis of gifts and presents amongst which Carucagii or carriages were numbred spectantibus ad Coronam appertaining to the Crown And upon that and no other ground were those reasonable Lawes or Customes founded that the King might by the Laws of England grant a Corody which Sir Henry Spelman ex constitut Sicul. lib. 3. Tit. 18. defineth to be quicquid obsonii superiori in subsidium penditur provisions of victuals made for superiors Et ad fundatores Monasteriorum and to the Founders of every Monastry though by the Constitutions of Othobon the Popes Legat in the Reign of King Henry the third the Religious of those houses were forbidden to grant or suffer any to be granted or allowed è communi jure spectabat corrodium in quovis suae fundationis monasterio nisi in libera Eleemosina fundaretur it belonged of common right to grant a Corrody in any Religious houses of their foundation if not founded in Franke Almoigne disposuit item Rex in beneficium famulurom suorum corrodium c. likewise the King might grant to any of his houshold servants a Corrody in any houses of the foundation of the Kings of England and as many were in all by them granted as one hundred and eleaven which that learned Knight conceived to be an argument that so many of the Monasteries were of their foundation Et issint de common droit saith the learned Judge Fitzherbert in his Natura Brevium and also of Common Right the King ought to have a reasonable Pension out of every Bishoprick in England and Wales for his Chaplain untill the Bishop should promote him to a fitting Benefice Which if the compositions for Pourveyances being reduced into contracts and a lawfull custome were or should be no other then gratitudes may be as commendable and necessary as those well approved Examples of thankfulness recorded in holy writ of Abrahams giving King Abimelech Sheep and Oxen
Children to their Parents and the love of Parents to their Children when we find all the Kings and Potentates of Europe Asia Africa and America to have maintained their Honors and Regalities by the state which they used in their Palaces and extraordinary Buildings witness the House or Palace of Julius Caesar who as Plutarch saith had ornatus majestatis causa some Acrosteria or fastigia Turrets or Pinacles for ornament and majesty placed thereupon the Escurial of Spain the Louvre of France the Palaces and Piazza's of the Roman Emperors of those of Greece and the Grand Signieur the Colledges publick and costly buildings of the Kings of Fez and Morocco the stately Palaces of the Sophy or Emperor of Persia the Mogol Emperour or Dairo of China the Caesar of Japan and the quondam Emperour of Mexico in the West-Indies which stood not alone or solitary for the wonder of passengers or habitation only of Jack-daws as too many of 〈◊〉 uses of our Nobility and Gentry doe now foâ—â—ant of hospitality or the owners residence but were ever attended with a numerous and fitting retinue of Servants extracted out of the best and greatest Families of their Kingdoms and the wisest and most virtuous who as the Scripture saith being cloathed in silks and fine rayment had the honor to stand before Princes who had their Crowns of gold rich habiliments and costly utinsils their Jura insignia Majestatis rights and Ceremonies appropriate to Majesty and an Apartment state or fence betwixt them and the common usage or contempt of the people The which was so customary and usual in Davids time aâ— forespeaking the royalty of Solomon which was to succeed him he doth in his Psalms or holy Songs informe us that the Kings glory is great in Gods salvation who hath laid Honour and Majesty upon him all his garments smel of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia out of the Ivory Palace whereby they have made him glad upon his right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir the Kings Daughter is all glorious her clothing is of wrought gold and her raiment of needle work Nor would the outward pomp and shew of Kings and their Palaces Apparrel Ensignes of Honor and Majesty and all those Rites and ornaments which doe belong unto their Grandeur and Majesty be intire or as it should be if there were not a plenty and state also in their feeding daily recruits of nature and life and hospitality All which put together in a comely and most necessary combination and harmony do with the virtue power prudence and goodness of Kings and common Parents constitute and make that honor which doth justly belong unto them and so necessary as God himself commanded it by word of mouth twice wrote it with his own finger and by an early example severely punished Korah Dathan and Abiram for murmuring against Moses And therefore the Apostle Peter instructed by the Holy Ghost commands us as if one could not be without the other to fear God and honour the King And Aristotle who had been much at home as well as abroad and no young beginner or Pupil in Politicks but a Master of that most excellent and useful kind of learning how to govern and obey could even in his ignorance of God and of the Scriptures which he thought not worthy his reading conclude that Qua in civitate non maximus virtuti honos tribuitur in ea optimus civitate status stabilis firmus esse nullo modo potest no Common-wealth can be lasting or happy where the greatest honour is not given to virtue And St. Hierom a better Tutor in Christianity tells us that ubi honor non est ibi contemptus ubi contemptus ibi frequens injuria indignatio ibi quies nulla where there is not honor there is contempt and where there is contempt there are injuries and anger and where anger wrath no manner of quiet which to the Common people when Princes are wronged and enforced to take arms or use the sword is as good as a wind or Brawl amongst glasses And that which my worthy friend the very virtuous and learned Franciscus Junius the Sonne of that pious and learned Franciscus Junius who with Tremelius the Jew translated the Bible or Book of God out of the originall languages hath in his laborious travails and searches into the old Reunick Gothick Danish and Frisick languages and the Etymologies and Antiquities of the old Greek and Celtick Languages and the Saxon with her people derived from them been pleased to communicate unto me is not unworthy observation that the word Lord was antiently amongst the English Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards came to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence per contractum or abbreviaion it came to be called lord Et quotquot se in magnatis alicujus clientelam se commendaverant appellaverunt dominum suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoòd suppeditasset panem i. e. omne alimentum qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebatur And as many as came to be under the protection of any Lord or to hold Lands of them did call their Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signified a giver of bread because he afforded â—hem breâ—d which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Etymologie agreâ—th the Cambro-Britannick or Welch derivation by Mr. John Davies where he deriveth Satrapaâ— nobilem dominum a Noble-man Lord oâ— Governor of a Province ab Hebraea radice significante pavit rexit homines from an Hebrew root or original signifying one that fed as well as governed men which Goropius Becanus alloweth to be the meaning of the Dutch word Hâ—â—t which signifieth prebentem vel offerentem alimenta a giver of victuals and food from which word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Mr. Junius who although he be a Dutchman born yet is very well acquainted with the English language by many years conversation amongst us remaineth amongst us to this day the word loaf or bâ—ead and the word Lady so much esteemed amongst us and misused and altered in the antient and honorable origination of it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bread giver not a converter of their Husbands and his Auncestors Manors Lands Woods and Hospitality into Coaches Lacquies and the â—urnishing out of their over-costly Jewels and Apparrel Paintings and making new faces Black-patches or the Devils Brand-marks forty fifty or a hundred pounds lost in a night or afternoon at Cards and running up and down like so many costly and expensive Cleopatra's and half a dozen or a dozen of Mark Anthonies aâ—ter them make it their business to be lascivious and luxurious to tempt and be tempted and doe the Devil service When their Mothers and Grandams were better imployed in the more honest and honourable imployments of hospitality house-keeping charity and alms-deeds and receiving the love honour and applause of their Tenants and poor Neighbours And their Husbands Ancestors if of any
time or standing and not upstarts made it their honour as well as business to imitate their Progenitors the old not now drinking Germans who as Tacitus mentions in their Customes were to their Princes in pace decus in bello praesidium which may shew us the grand esteem antient and noble use of Tenures by Knight-service an honor in Peace a Guard in war and made it their glory si numero virtute comitatus emineant if they had a great number of Tenants and Retainers following them insomuch as ipsa plerumque fama Belli profligant the fame and fear of them did many times prevent warres and promote peace Et quum ventum in aciem turpe principi virtute vinci turpe comitatui virtutem principis non adaequare infame per omnem vitam at probrosum superstitem principi suo ex acie recessisse illum defendere tueri sua quoque fortia facta gloriae ejus assignare praecipuum sacramentum est Principes pro victoria pugnant Comites pro Principe and when they were in battel the Prince or King took it to be a shame and dishonor to be out-done in valour those who attended him thought it to be as much unworthy not to imitate him a great disgrace all their life after to leave him in the field and come home without any wounds their greatest care being to defend him and to ascâ—ibe and offer all their valiant Acts to his renown and glory their Prince fighting for victory their Attendants for their Prince Magnaque Comitum aemulatio quibus primum apud principum locus exigunt principis liberalitate illum bellatorem equum illam cruentam victricemque frameam nam epulae quanquam contempti largi tamen apparatus pro stipendio cedunt and vied who should be nearest their Princes in all their dangers and believed themselves to be well rewarded if by the bounty of the Prince they had such a charging Horse or such a bloody and conquering Spear bestowed upon them for as to wages they were very well contented with Feasts and a large provision of victuals though homely drest And by such or the like longa series or continuance of duties and obedience to Princes kindness and hospitality of the more great and powerful to the meaner came that strength and honor of our Nation not by screwing or racking their Tenants and the Lands which they let them but by easie and cheap bargains when the Tenant would be well content to make his Rents to his Landlord to be as much in love and retribution as in money and both were no loosers when provisions for house-keeping were so much and excessively reserved or presented for Prisci autem moris saith Sir Henry Spelman profusius hospitalitas annales reditus in eduliis collegisse in the times of great hospitality the manner or custome of Landlords was to reserve provisions for house-keeping for all or some of their Rents And those reservations of provisions grew to be so excessive as before the Conquest lege cautum fuit de quantitate eduliorum reddenda it was by a Law ordained by Ina King of the West Saxons betwixt the years 712. and 727. how much rent in provisions should be taken or reserved for every 10 Hides or Plough lands which Sir Henry Spelman understands to be a prohibition that no man should take or reserve more viz. Mellis dolia Hogsheads or vessels of Honey of which it seems there was then great plenty and much used 10 Panes loaves of bread 300 Amphorae Cervisiae Wallicae duodenae twelve Rundlets of Welch Beer or Ale Amphorae Cervisiae tenuioris Rundlets of small Ale or Beer 30 Oxen 2 Weather Sheep 10 Geese 10 Hens 20 Cheeses 10 Gallons of Butter 9 Salmons 5 Twenty pound weight of Hey or Provender 10 And Eels 100 Which was but a small Rent as Rents are now heightned for ten Yards or plough Lands and the Heirs of those which held such proportions of Lands upon those or the like easie Rents or afterwards paid and doe now pay only as Freeholders certain small Quit-rents in money proportionable to the then small rates of such provisions may thank God that the alteration of times and rates of provisions have made them in such a condition as to be very well enabled to perform their duties to their Prince in an easie contribution for the composition for the Royall Pourveyances And that most necessary duty of the Kings Royal Pourveyance if he had not power to regulate and bring down the excessive prises of provisions and at Markets as well for the ease and benefit of his Subjects as himself might be the more willingly and cheerfully submitted unto and performed when as it is for the good of the head and principall part of the body Politick and when as that which the members do contribute is communicated to all the members and parts of it in the preventing hindring or keeping off greater inconveniencies burdens and troubles which would otherwise fall upon them or serves to support and maintain many of themselves and their Sons and Daughters in the service of the King and his Court which hath raised many Families which now either forget or over-look their beginnings originals and founders or to relieve many poor and others who doe partake of those National Blessings of Peace and plenty which are maintained by the honor well-being and prosperity of the King which procures them And should not be disliked but rather rejoyced in when we shall recount unto our Children and posterity the magnificence and hospitality of our Kings when the great Hall at Westminster capable and large enough to entertain three of the largest Courts of Justice in the Nation besides many Shops of Trade built by the sides thereof and receives the feet of some hundreds of the Natives which four times or Terms in the year do come thither to demand it was heretofore but the Common Hall or dining Room of King William Rufus That Henry the 2. caused corn to be laid up in store in Granaries to be given to the poor in the time of dearth in the parts of Anjou and Main and fed every day out of his Granaries a thousand persons from the beginning of April untill new corn was gotten Henry the third in the 23 year of his Reign did by his Writ command William de Haverhull and Edward Fitz Odo that upon Friday next after the Feast of St. Matthias being the Anniversary of Elianor Queen of Scotland his Sister they should cause to be fed as many poor as might enter into or be entertained in the greater Hall of Westminster And in the same year did by his Writ likewise command the said William de Haverhull to feed fifteen thousand Poor at St. Peters in London on the Feast day of the Conversion of St. Peter And four thousand Poor upon Monday next after the Feast of St. Lucie the Virgin in the great Hall
many of them who having racked their Tenants to the utmost can leave their Ancestors great and stately houses in the Country as if they had been lately infected with the plague or were haunted with some Devils or Hobgoblins and employ their expences which would have been more honourably laid out in hospitality in treatments of two or three hundred pounds at a time some of our prodigal Gentry expending fifty threescore or an hundred pounds in a Suit of Apparrel can give it away after twice or thrice wearing to a Pimp Sicophant or flattering Servant and lose two hundred or five hundred pounds in a night at Dice or Cards give a hundred pounds for a needle work Band and expend two hundred pounds per annum for Periwigs and all the racked Revenue either laid out by themselves or their wives who vie who shall spend most in the wicked and vain pursuits of a detestable luxury and as if they held their Lands not as formerly by Knight service but by Lady service and their Ancestors had taken pains to leave them estates to play the mad-men withall do make sin the only Errand and employments of their lives and conversations and by their prodigal expences and confining themselves to some few dishes of meat dressed at the Common Cooks in London do leave their Foot-boys and Servants so little of it as they are many times constrained to be glad with the bones and scraps which would have been better bestowed upon Beggars and have reason enough to believe that their Masters can doe no miracles nor multiply loaves of bread or fishes But our Nobility and Gentry demeaned themselves in a more honorable noble and Christian way as may be understood by that of Thomas Earl of Lancasters expences in house-keeping in the Reign of King Ed. 2. when money was scarcer than now it is and yet the account from Michaelmas in the 7. year of the Reign of that King unto Michaelmas in the 8. year of his Reign being but for one year was in the Buttery Pantry and Kitchin three thousand four hundred and five pounds And there was paid for 6800 Stock-fishes so called and for dried Fishes as Lings Haberdines c. 41 l. 6 s. 7 d. for one hundred eighty four Tonnes and one Pipe of Clarret wine and one Tonne of white wine 104 l. 17 s. 6 d. gave costly Liveries of Furres and Purple to Barons Knights and Esquires and paid in that year 623 l. 15 s. 5 d. to divers Earles Barons Knights and Esquires for Fees The house-keeping of the Nobility being not then mean or ignoble when in the fourteenth year of that Kings Reign Hugh Spencer the elder was by Inquisition found to have been possessed of at his several Houses or Manors 28000 Sheep 1000 Oxen and Steers 1200 Kine with their Calves 2000 Hogs 300 Bullocks 40 Tons of Wine 600 Bacons 80 Carcases of Martilmas Beef 600 Muttons in the Larder and 10 Tons of Sider Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick in the Reign of King Henry the fifth had in his house oftentimes six Oxen eaten at a Breakfast and every Tavern was full of his meat and he that had any acquaintance in his house might have there so much sodden and roste as he could prick and carry upon a long Dagger Cardinal Woolsey Arch-Bishop of York in the Reign of King Henry the eighth kept no small house when as his Master Cook in the Privy Kitchin went daily in Velvet and Satten with a chain of Gold about his neck had two Clerks of the Kitchin a Surveyor of the Dresser a Clerk of the Spicery four Yeomen of the ordinary Scullery four Yeomen of the silver Scullery two Yeomen of the Pastery and two Pastery men under them in the Scalding house a Yeoman and two Grooms In the Buttery two Yeomen Grooms and two Pages In the Pantery two Yeomen and in the Waferie two Yeomen Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in the year 1532. in the 23 year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth kept continually in his house one hundred Servants giving to the one halfe of them 53 s. 4 d. a piece then an allowance for a Gentleman Servant but now by an unreasonable and illegall rise and exaction of servants wages not the halfe of a Carter or Ploughmans wages and to the other 40 s. a piece and to every one of his Servants four yards of broad Cloth for his Winter Gown and for his Summer Coat three yards and a half and daily gave at his gate besides bread and drink warm meat for two hundred poor people Edward Earl of Derby in the Reigns of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth had 220 men in Checque Roll fed sixty eight aged persons twice every day besides all comers appointed thrice a week for his dealing dayes and every good Friday gave unto two thousand seven hundred poor men meat drink and money The Lord Cromwell in the declyning times of charity as Mr. John Stow well observed served twice every day at his gaâ—â— two hundred poor people with bread meat and drink sufficient all the Gentry making it to be their honor in their lesser orbes to measure their Actions by those as good and honorable patterns And proportionable to their hospitality and the state and dignity of our then Nobility were the numbers of their Servants in their houses at home or in their journies or riding abroad many of the Knights Gentlemens Sons of England making it to be the best of their breeding education and way to preferment to serve or retain unto them insomuch as notwithstanding the Statute made against giving of Liveries or Badges 1 R. 2. cap. 7. and the suspicion which some of our Kings and Princes and King Henry the seventh had of their greatness and popularities the great so called Earl of Warwick in the Reign of King Henry the sixt rode with six hundred men in red Jackets embroidered with ragged staves before and behind Thomas Audley Lord Chancellor of England usually rode with many Gentlemen before him with coats guarded with velvet and chains of gold and his Yeomen following after him in Liveries not guarded William Paulet Marquess of Winchester did ride with a great attendance in Liveries and gave great reliefe at his gate and Edward Duke of Somerset did the like John de vere Earl of Oxford in the Reign of Queen Mary notwithstanding the rigour of the Law against Liveries and Reteiners which King Henry the seventh did so turn against one of his highly deserving Ancecestors as it cost him a fine of ten or fifteen thousand marks was accustomed to ride from his Castle of Hedingham in Essex to his City House at London Stone with eighty Gentlemen in tawny velvet Liveries or Coats and Chains of Gold about their necks before him and one hundred tall Yeomen in the like Livery of Cloth following him with the cognisance of the Blew Bore embroidered on their left shoulder Which being the custome of the good
pence in one intire peice of coyn and a Queen Elizabeths six pence doth now pass in payment for three times the value of a two pence yet our Caesars value or rate put upon it making our now Denarius or penny to be current at the rate or value which the former Denarius or peny was and the King giving at his Mint or Exchange for those or any other coyns of Silver after the rate as the ounce of Silver is now at and the buyers of things or commodities can put it away in payment for a peny and the seller can pass it away for as much as he received it there is no wrong at all done by it when it passeth in England though the intrinsick value will be onely looked upon in Foraign parts for a greater value then it is as in some of the Heathen Countries where Rice and sometimes Cocao Nuts pass for their money or as the Dutch have done when some of their Towns have been streightly besieged in allowing the Townesmen and â—arrison to make use of Tynne Leather or Paper for money and not onely promised but at the raising of the siege rendred them in good money as much as that went or was taken for or as our King James did when he made good Queen Elizabeths promise and paid good money for that Copper or base money which her necessities in the Irish wars had made use of for the present or as our farthing Tokens or brass did no hurt but a great deal of good when they went for more then the intrinsick worth or value And therefore such high rates and prices of victuals and houshold provisions may well be understood to be the product of other causes and not of any plenty of money which could not cause either a scarcity of provisions which is one of the grand causes of high rates and prices or when there is a plenâ—y of provisions enforce any great rates and prices for them But if it should be otherwise and that the valuing of Coyn above their true and real values should have no small influence upon the prices and rates of food and houshold provisions yet they did not always proceed passibus aequis keep even pace one with another when as from the raâ—sing of the ounce of Silver to fourty five pence those peices of Coyn which went before for a penny were as Mr. Malines saith taken in payment in the Raigns of King Henry the eighth Edward the sixth and Queen Mary for two pence and when the ounce of Silver came to be five shillings or sixty pence in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth went for three pence though it waighed but a penny waight the prices or rates of victuals and houshold provâ—sions would not keep company with the intrinsick value of the money but contenâ—ing themselves with the denomination or what it was then or is since onely currâ—nt for are at this day gone excessively beyond the rise of the ounce of Silver so unreasonably as they do exceed all measure and reason those proportions which were formerly holden betwixt the coyn and the Bullion and Master Malines in his book called Lex Mercatoria attributting all or or the most part of the dearness of all sorts of houshold provisions to the raising of the Rents of Lands will hardly be able to reconcile that contradiction with what he seemeth at the same time to be very positive in that according to plenty or scarcity of mony commodities do generally become dear or good cheap and that so it came to pass of late years that every thing is enhaunced in price by the aboundance of Bullion moneys which come from the West Indies into Europe and the money it self being altered by valuation caused the measure to be made lesser whereby the number did increase to make up the tale being augmented by denomination from twenty to forty and in later years from forty five to sixty it being always to be remembred that the rareness or scarcity of every thing doth augment the value and that it is the value which begets an esteem and makes it precious and that Silver being in the infancy of the world very much esteemed and valued and hath to the decrepit and old age of the world more more increased its value and esteem the rising of the price or rate of the ounce of Silver by King Henry the sixth King Henry the eight and Queen Elizabeth might as well proceed from the scarcity of it as from any policy or reason of State to keep our Silver at home and not permit it to be carryed away by Foraign Princes enhances or putting a denomination upon it over and above its real value or to keep the ballance of Trade and Commerce even betwixt us and them and that as it hath been rationally enough said by some that the denomination of coyn passeth by the connivance of the Magistrate insensibly and as much without damage or inconvenience to the people as the permissive monies have done amongst Brokers and Merchants Cashiers and as it is now daily experimented by the Brass or Copper farthing since the causeless suspention of the farthing tokens by the late over turning Reformers because they were established by his late Majesties Letters Patents or upon some other new found Politick pretences which some Tavern keepers and Chandlers do take the boldness to stamp with an inscription of their own names and places of abode And it would be near of kin to a wonder the reason of it lye everlastingly hid undiscovered that any plenty of monys here should so swell our rates and prices and make every thing dear which is to be bought with it and make a plenty of provisions to be as a scarcity when as there have been no such effects or consequences thereof found amongst other Nations For the Hollanders who by the Artifice of their Banks and greatness of their Trade do give laws to all the commerce and money of Christendom and a great part of the Pagan Nations and in their long wars with the King or Spain for above sixty years together have been a means to waste consume all the Gold and money which his Indies or other large and over taxed Dominions could furnish and had it spent upon or amongst them and having little Lands of their own but much of their provisions and victuals from the neighboring Countries and Nations could not in that great plenty of money and Trade wherein they are known to abound live so cheaply as they might if the heavy burden of continual Taxes and Excise which are there the onely or a great part of the cause of their dearness were separate and abstracted from the natural and genuine rates and prices thereof where Fish Fowl Carrets Turneps Apples Pears and many other houshold provisions are notwithstanding the burden of their Excise much cheaper then in England if store or plenty of money could be any efficient cause of high
great Talbots or as the Prior of Canterbury did of his Tenants who in every Manor were bound ex antiqua consuetudine providere Priori ibidem de quodam Palifrido competenti tempore novae creations suoe by ancient custome to present the Prior at his election or first admittance a Palfrey fitting for him Or which the Prior of Rochester did of his Tenants of the Mannor of Haddenham in the County of Buckingham who by ancient custome in the eighteenth yeer of the raign of King Edward the third were to Mow and make the Lords Hey Weed his grain in his demesnes pay certain Rent Corn called Booting Corn and five hundred threescore and three Eggs at Easter which in Anno 18 H. 6. were by an agreement made with the Prior of Rochester released for the sum of three pounds and an increase of Rent from thence forward viz. for every Yard land twelve pence every half yard land six pence every Cotland eight pence and every worthy some Tenants so called four pence which is to this day paid and continued And being besides obliged by their customes to the works and services following viz. That every Tenant holding a yard land and the Tenants of two half yard lands ought to plough the Demeasne lands of the Lord two days in the year viz. in Winter and in Lent for which they were to have their dinner allowed by the Lord every Tenant holding a yard land ought in harvest upon a flesh day as also upon a Fish day to be assigned by the Reeve or Bailiff to find two able persons every holder of a half yard every Cotland or Cottogea and every worthy ought to finde the same day one able and lawful person with Hooks or Sickles to reap the Lords Grain in his Demeasnes for which they were to have their dinner allowed them at the charge of the Lord or his Farmer every yard land ought to carry half a quarter of the Lords grain to Oxford being about twelve miles distant to Wallingford neer as much or to Wickham being about ten miles distant being Market Towns near adjoyning to Haddenham and all the Carriers were to have one penny in common to drink the morrow they ought not to work every yard land ought to carry to Marlow eleven quarter of Grain of antient measure at three tearms of the year to be quit from all things by six weeks after and to carry the Lords grain from his demeasnes into his Barn from the furthest field four loads from Dillicot field six loads and if they carry nearer then all the day if it please the Lord also if the Lord shall buy Wood every Yard land ought to carry two loads of Wood from the place into the Lords Yard so it be ready to carry before the Feast of St. Michael otherwise each Yard land should onely carry a horse load so as they may in one day go and return and all that week they should remain quiet likewise if the Lord should build houses he ought to buy Tymber and the men viz. his Coppyholders ought to bring it home viz. each hide every day one Load untill the whole be carryed so as they may in one day go and return also if it please the Lord to send for fish four hides ought to be summoned and two shall go for fish to Gloucester which is about six and thirty miles from thence and other two shall carry it to Rochester upon their own cost and they should remain quiet until they return all the Cotterels and worthy Tenants ought to wash the Sheep of the Lord and to sheer them and fully to perform all thereunto belonging and have nothing therefore and if a theif should be taken in the liberty of the Lord the Cotterel Tenants should keep him And were so due and of so long a continuance as though the Tenants some few onely excepted which would not pertake of the Composition and are still contented to do their work and carriage services did upon a reference made by King James to Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of his Councel in Anno 1624. to hear and determine the differences betwixt Sir Henry Spiller then Lord of the said Mannor and the Tenants concerning that and other matters within a short time after viz. in the first year of the raign of King Charles the Martyr agree for a Release of the said services not acquitted in Anno 18 H. 6. to pay yeerly unto the Lord of the Mannor and his heirs after the rate of three pence for every Acre and a penny for every Messuage or Cotage which had no land belonging unto it Or as many the like beneficial customes and priviledges at this day enjoyed by the Lords of some thousands or more of Mannors in England which beloned unto the Abbies and Religious houses for which they have quit Rents or other payments not unlike the Compositions for the Royal Pourveyance Or that the Steward of the Kings house should not if the Kings Pourveyance and Prae-emption had not been remitted by Act of Parliament have authority to do as much as the Steward of the Kings house did about the eighteenth year of the Raign of King Edward the second notwithstanding so great priviledges immunities and exemptions granted and confirmed to the City of London command that no Fishmonger upon pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of his goods and chattels should go out of the City to forestall any Sea or fresh fish or send them to any great Lord or Religious house or any person whatsoever nor keep from coming to Town untill the hour appointed for selling be past untill the Kings Achators or Pourveyers should have made their Pourveyance to the use of the King Or that the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Richard the first did not onely give to many Religious houses as to the Priory of Royston in Cambridgeshire divers exemptions and priviledges to be free from Carriages c. but de Regalium domorum aedificatione ac omnimoda operatione of works towards the repair or building of the Kings houses Ac ut silvae eorum ad praedicta opera aut ad aliqua alia nullo modo capiantur that their Woods or Timber should not be cut or taken for that or any other purpose and whose other Royal Progenitors have abundantly furnished diverse Abbies Religious houses with priviledges to be free of Carriage by Carts Summage upon horses de Thesauro ducendo Convoy of the Kings Treasure de operationibus Castellorum Pontium Parcorum Murorum work to be done in the building or repairs of Castles Bridges or Walls de vaccarum solutione quae dari solebant pro Capitibus utlagatorum and the payment of certain Cows or Cattel to redeem the forfeitures of Outlaws and exemptions from payment of Fumage or Chimny money Lestage or licence to carry away from Markets what they had bought or in release or discharge of customes such as at Beleshale in
Warwickshire belonging to some Religious house where they were to Mow three dayes at the charge of the house three dayes to Plow and at the charge of the house to reap one day and to have a Wether Sheep or eight pence or twenty five loaves or peices of bread one of the best Cheeses in the house and a measure of Salt and if any horse Colt were foled upon the lands he was not to be sold without licence nor were any of the Tenants to marry a daughter without licence and by the custome of the Township of Berstanestone in Warwickshire horse Colts foled upon the land were not to be sold without licence for which a penny was to be paid nor any of their daughters to be married without licence c. which in divers old Charters and confirmations of our Kings and Princes do frequently occur may evidence that such or the like were once undeniable duties to their Kings and Benefactors and onely released in favor of those which were the owners and proprietors of the lands and priviledges and being now enjoyed were formerly regalities and rights inherent and vested in the Crown of England should retain no liberties or priviledges for himself And that the Quit Rents as they are now called taken by the owners and proprietors of some of the Abby and Religious Lands for Eleemosinae's or Alms-money given by Founders or other charitable persons many a sum of money formerly paid for Mortuaries Pardons Indulgences Pitances or Pourveyances and Oblations which are at this time kept on foot and received under the name and notion of Quit Rents might put them in mind how necessary it is for them to perform the duty of Pourveyance to the King being the heir and successor of many of those which gave them And how unbeâ—oming the duty of subjects pertaking the benefits thereof it would be that the King whose Royal Ancestors Saint Edward the King gave for ever to the Abby of St. Edmonds Bury the Mannor of Mildenhall in Suffolk to buy wheaten bread for the Monks to prevent their necessities of eating Barly bread which he perceived them to do when he came once to visit them King John gave for ever to the Abby of St. Albans and King Edward the first as many other Kings of England have done to other Monasteries and Religious houses gave and confirmed for ever to the Abby of St. Edmunds Bury divers Mannors Lands Tyths and yeerly Revenues of a very great yeerly Revenue to maintain their Hospitalities Pitances and Liuâ—â—es of servants and for the relief of strangers and poor people coming thither should now have his own Hospitality and the means to support it taken from him And that if all the customes priviledges and Royalties as they are called which are now performed and willingly assented unto by Tenants and enjoyed by the Lords of other Mannors by the power and priviledges derived unto them from the King his Royal Progenitors were truely represented and brought to a publike view together with all the priviledges liberties exemptions and immunities granted unto the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England it might be wondered how they that enjoy so much so many liberties favours from the King his Royal Progenitors by grants or prescribed Indulgences should think there could be any reason to deny him those his most just necessary and ancient rights and liberties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them when at the same time they are so carefull to preserve and keep their own And it would be something more then unfitting that the King whose Royal Ancestors have allowed so many of his subjects those priviledges and liberties should be debarred from a greater right and legal liberty in his own case or when he should make his progress to Chester should be refused that priviledge more ancient then the Conquest of having of every Yard land two hundred Capons or Caponets a fat or stand of Beer and a certain quantity of Butter which as appears by the book of Domesday were by custome or Tenure to be provided for him and not enjoy as much liberty as Hugh Earl of Chester did when he could priviledge Nigell de haulton his Constable and his heirs Quod omnia quae ad praedicti Nigelli opus erant necessaria emant ministri sui ante omnes alios in Civitate Cestriae nisi praenominati Comitis ministri praevenerint sine cujuscunque contradictione that his servants should in the City of Chester without contradiction have a Prae-emption before any but the Earles servants and Officers or as the Abbot of Burgh who had a Pâ—aeâ—emption in all necessaries concerning the Abby a priviledge to pay an half penny cheaper then others in every hundred of Herring or the Abbot of St. Albans who was by the Charter of King John to have a prae-emption for any of his provisions to be bought in London as well as any of the Kings Officers the Abbot of St. Edmonds Bury having a like priviledge for his Fodder Corn. That the King of England whose Royal Ancestor King Aethelstane was able to give to the Church of Beverlye quasdam avenas vulgariter dictas Hestcorn percipiendas de Dominiis Ecclesiis in illis partibus certain Oats commonly called Hestcorne to be taken out of his Demeasnes and the Churches in those parts which by the dissolution of the Religious houses are now probably claimed and enjoyed by Laymen and did in Anno Dom. 936. ex sua Regalitate by his Kingly authority saith the History of that Foundation give towards the Hospitality and relief of the poor coming to the Hospital of St. Peters or St. Leonards in York de qual bet Caruca Arante in Episcopatu Eboraci unam Travam bladi out of every yard land of errable in the Bishoprick of York one Thrave which is four and twenty sheaves of Corn Et ex consensu Incolarum Episcopatus Eboraci Rex habuit saith that Historian Travas praedictas sibi successoribus suis sic quod exterminaret lupos patriam devastantes and was ofterwards granted by the consent of the inhabitants upon condition that he would destroy the Wolves which wasted that Country Erat siquidem in Diocesi Eboracensi tanta adtunc multitudo luporum quod omnes fere villanorum bestias devorarunt for there were in that Diocess such a multitude of Wolves which King Aethelstane thereupon destroyed as they almost devoured all the Beastes and Cattel belonging to the Countrimen should now that the County and Bishoprick of York have in all the after ages and successions of our Kings not onely received of them many and greater benefits but have been by their many good Laws and Governments protected and defended from all manner of Wolves be denyed so small an observance or retribution as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which were charged upon that County or Bishoprick did amount unto and at the same time do either not
by King Francis the first for that they could hinder their passage thorough their Towns or coming into them and after upon the Country to be paid without exemption of persons or allowance of priviledge with an addition of charge added thereunto by an Ordinance of that King for the maintenance of the seven Legions of Foot consisting of six thousand men a peece for the safeguard of the Kingdom the tenths of all the Benefices and Dignities Ecclesiasticks and Commonalties erected into Benefices which have a Revenue in perpetual succession les deniers Communs or monies imposed upon Cities and Towns for the repair fortification or defence of them or of any Castles or Forts to which all are to contribute without exemption the rights and payments due out of very many Bishopricks and Archbishopricks for Quints and Requints Rachapts Censives Lots Ventes Saisines Amandes Justices Greffes Auboines confiscations the Estappes or Annonae militares free quarterings or Provisions for the Armies or souldiers in their March or encampings contributions in times of peace pour le Ban arriere Ban upon Fiefs and Tenures levâ—es de Chevaux Charriotts a leavy upon Carts and Carriages le Traicte Imposition forraigne being a twentieth penny extending to all commodities that are carryed by Land out of the Kingdom into other Kingdoms and Territories as out of France into Catalonia Spain Lorraine Savoy Flanders and Italy makes as much as an Excise upon Corn Wine Oyle Flesh Fish Poultery Herbs Fruits and all sorts of Victuals and Provisions for the Belly and the Back All which before mentioned Taxes and Impositions being become as the Sieur Girard du Haillan saith who wrote in the later end of the Raign of their King Henry the fourth Patrimonial and Hereditary or as Droits du Domaine without any distinction betwixt the times of war or peace and leavied as the ordinary Revenues of the Crown of France have been by the Artifice of Lewis the 11. and other his successors more then doubled or trebled by other Tailles Taxes and Impositions which are laid upon extraordinary occasions by the Kings Ordonnances or Letters Parents quand bon lui sâ—mble at his own will and pleasure and so much as the Sieur de Haillan complains that ilz ne se sont contentez des dites Tailles mais peu a peu ont mis sur le dos du paâ—ure peuple les autres impositions depuis on a mis Taille sur Taille imposition sur imposition dont la France se est esmeüe contre ses Roys ils en ont cuide perdre la France they were not content with those ordinary Taxes but by little and little have put upon the backs of the poor people Tax upon Tax and Imposition upon imposition which caused a sedition and rebellion amongst the people which had almost lost or destroyed all France and in stead of diminishing are more and more increased though their good King St. Lewis who raigned in Anno Domini one thousand two hundred and thirty did upon his death bed in the words of a dying man as Bodin saith inserted into his last Will Testament exhort his son Philip to be legum Morum sui Imperii Custos vindex acerrimus ac ut vectigalibus tributis abstineret nisi summa necessitas ac utilâ—â—atis publicae justissima causa impellat to be a Guardian and severe observer of the Laws and customs of his Kingdom and abstain from Taxes and Impositions unless there should be a great necessity or it should appear to be for the good of the people and that afterwards Philip de Valois did in an Assembly of the three Estates in Anno one thousand three hundred thirty eight Enact and decree ne ullum Tributi aut vectigalis genus nisi consentientibus ordinibus imperaretur that no kinde of Tallage or Tax should be leavyed without the consent of the three Eastes So very many have been day after day added as there is not to be wanted a Tax or Imposition for Piâ—s for the Queen and for Clouts against her time of Child-bed with Daces or Tributes Peages Impositions upon the going out and in of Towns and other places Taxes for passage upon the high ways Emprunts generaux particuliers borrowing of money in general or particular ad nunquam Solvenda never to be paid again vente confirmation des offices sale of Offices and places of Justice and Judicature which their ancient and fundamental Laws and customes do forbid and being cut into small parts and multiplyed do make up a very great Total or number and by a common and publike Merchandise of them have increased those great corruptions delays and intrigues of Justice by appeals and otherwise which our learned Fortescue Chancellor to our King Henry the sixth observed in the time of his Exile was no small grievance of the people and made that litium fertilitas abundance of suits and controversies which their own Learned Bodin doth ingeniously acknowledge to be so very many as vix in omnibus Europae Regionibus imperiis tot lites sint quam in hoc unto Imperio there are not so many suits in Law almost in all the Counties and Kingdoms of Europe put all together as they were in his time in that one Kingdome of France which besides the Ottroys or aydes granted by the three Estates and universal consent of the people upon publike and great emergencies and occasions are with many Arbitrary Taxes and Assessements as the King or the necessities of War or State shall require much the more burdensome to the Pesants Bourgeois and Artizans or a third or lower estate of the people for that all the Clergy so long as they live Clericalement without taking of Farms or dealing in Lay matters which with their Tenants and dependencies have been in the Raign of King Henry the fourth reckoned to be an hideous number are to be exempt from the Tailles or Arbitrary Taxes as likewise all the Nobility and Gentry which are many and very numerous both in the greater and lesser sort of them and that most men of any Estate both of the long Robe or Lawyers or soldiers or other lower ranks do by purchase procure themselves to be of the nobless or Gentry for that they are thereby to be freed from arbitrary Tallages insomuch as some thousands have been at once enfranchised made Gentlemen and inrolled into that condition or quality for such lands as they hold in their hands there being amongst those which are exempted also reckoned the Domesticks of the King and Queens the house and Crown of France and their sons daughters brothers and sisters if they do not Traffick or negotiate further then with the increase of their own Lands and Revenues With such also as are exempt by paâ—ticular Mandates and Ordinances of the King as amongst the souldiers and Life Guards the Captains Lieutenants Cornets Guidons Quartermasters men at Arms Archers Fourriers
exemption by an Assessement to be made for that purpose Or by the West Indians in Guaxara who by order of the high Justice do deliver unto Fryers travailing that way if they have no money Horses to ride on or to carry their carriages or provision without money so that at their departure they write it down in the Town book what they had spent and not abide above four and twenty hours in the Town where by a contribution their expences are defrayed Or by the old Irish one of which being a Tenant of Termonland or Land belonging to the Church and unwilling to change his old customes for new said to the Bishop of Dermot of whom he held his Lands non debet dominus mutare censum antiquum sed si careat rebus necessariis vaccis pinguibus c. debet ad nos miâ—tere Et nos debemus subministrare nam quaecunque nos habemus Domini sunt nos etiam ipsi illius sumus My Lord ought not to change his ancient Customes Rents or services due out of the Land but if he wanteth necessary provisions for his house and family as fat Cows c. we ought to furnish them for whatsoever we have are his and we our selves are the Lords Or by the modern Irish or inhabitants of Ireland who notwithstanding the Pourveyance or Compositions for Pourveyance and Prae-emption allowed to the Kings Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom could since the abolition of that most useful necessary custome in England offer if Fame did not mistake her self an yeerly supply of 3000. Irish Oxen or Cattel towards the support of the King and his Family and have besides in their Act of Parliament lately made for the execution of his Majesties Declaration for the setlement of that kingdom consented That the Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings Bench the Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer and the Master of the Rolles or any other his Majesties Officers of that Kingdom for the time being shall and may have and receive such Port Corn of the Rectories Impropriations or Appropriate Tythes forfeited unto or vested in his Majesty his heirs â—nd successors which have been formerly paid or reserved Or by the Scots a people never as yet exceeding or so much as keeping even pace with their neighbors of England in civilities kindness and gratitudes who when their King Malcolme who raigned in Scotland in Anno Dom. 1004. had given and distributed all the Lands of the Realm of Scotland amongst his men and reserved na thing as the Act of Parliament of 22 Jac. 3. beareth in property to himself but the Royal dignity and the Mute hill in the Town of Scone could give and grant to him the ward and relief of the heir of ilke Baron quhan he sold happen to deceis for the Kings sustentation And did notwithstanding so well esteem and allow of those ancient rights of Pourveyance or Compositions for them as in the Raign of their King James the 4. in the year of our Lord 1489. The Lords spiritual and temporal and uthers his Leiges did declare in Parliament that it was the Kings property for the honorable sustentation of his house according to his Estait and honor quhilk may not be failized without great derogation of his noble Estaite and that his true lieges suld above all singular and particular profit desire to prefer the noble Estaite of his Excellence like as it was done in the time of his maist noble progenitors of gud minde And did therefore think it neidful expedient and reasonable And did statute and ordain that full derogation cassation and annullation be maid of all Gifts Donations Infeftments Fewes life Rents given by his Hieness to quhat sumever person or persons sen the day of his Coronation swa that all Lands Rents Customes Burrow Mailles Fermeâ— Martes Mutton Poultery avarage carriage and uther Dewties that were in the hands of his Progenitors and Father the day of his decease notwithstanding quhat sumeuer assignation or gift be maid thereupon under the Great Seal Privy Seal or uthers be all utterly cassed and annulled so that the haill profits and Rents thereof may cum to the King to the honorable sustentation of his house and noble Estaite Or so much degenerate from the Brittaines our Ancestors and predecessors who were heretofore so glad of any occasions to express their love and honor of their Princes as when they made their progress or had any occasion to visit any of their houses they flung the doors off the Hinges and gave them open hearted and free entertainment Nor deny those respects and duties to our Kings which no other Nations do refuse to their Kings or Princes which may make us to be an hissing and reproach to other Nations and by using our head so ill to be esteemed as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people without an head or the Sciopedes who are reported to have such large feet as they can when they please cover their head with it and never let it be said that when a factious and rebellious part of our people could in the year 1656. suppose it to be their Interest to exchange with Cromwell their Antichrist or Mahomet their Religion Laws and liberties for his Tyrannical and Arbitrary will and pleasure and petition him in their Conventicle or pretended Assembly of Parliament that he would besides the remainder of the Kings Queens and Princes Revenues not disposed of except Forrests and Chaces and the Mannors thereunto belonging and of all the Lands of Delinquents in the Counties of Dublin Kildare Clare and Katerlaugh the forfeited Lands in Scotland which were great and considerable two parts of the Recusants Lands in England not compounded for and all Debts Fines Penalties Issues and casual profits belonging to the Keepers of the liberties of England so miscalled which was by them and their fellow Usurpers setled upon him and was of it self a Revenue too great for all the Brewers of England to accept of ten hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum to be leavyed upon the people with such other supplies as should be needful to be raised from time to time by consent of that which they Nick named a Parliament and three hundred thousand pounds per annum to be raised for the charge of the Administration of Justice and support of Government which he thinking not enough to serve his wicked occasions designes or desires to â—lay or keep in exile the heir of the Kingdoms tells his dutiful Parliament at a conference in April 1657. that the charge of the Government would yearly amount unto ninteen hundred thousand pounds sterling and therefore though the war with Spain should cease desired that the thirteen hundred thousand pounds per annum might have six hundred thousand pounds per annum more added thereunto and that that could be willingly assented unto and all the Loyal party enforced and driven to submit