iâ— regno Quid mihi suaderet vos prodere vel certe necare qui nihil lucri reciperem de vestra morte Nunquid hostes â—estri me ditiorem facerent in terra sua quam effectus sum in terra vestra et in natali solo Aut si regnum affectarem credendu â—ne est post vestram inteâ—fectinnem quod absit Dominos hujus Regni aquâ—nimiter ferre me posse Domini mei et patriae proâ—â—torem Deliâ—ere si placet fidem â—arâ—â—alia â—lerenâ—bus quia paratus sum more militis contra quemcunque mundi mihi in hac causa adversantem pugnare et meam innocentiam defendere et purgare Upon which and other words the King believed the Duke and received his excuses and committed the Frier at his request to the Custodie of the Lord John Holland usque ad diem quo causam diceret horum quae praeposuerat contra eum In ipsa nocte quae processit diem suae responsioniâ— the Frier was strangled and pressed to death by the said John and another Knight and the next day his dead corps was drawn through the street like a Traytor to take away the suspition of his unjust death Ipsi judices ipsi ministri ipsi tortores extiterunt Et hic fructus Parliamenti praesentis praeter hoc quod dominus Willielmus la Zouche quamvis gravissima detineretur aegritudine accersitus erat ad Parliamentum ad standium judicio Regis et Dominorum quia idem â—rater eum velut inventorem inceptorem et incentorem dixerat omnium quae scripserat extitisse Qui cum venisset lectica delatus quia propter guttam equitare non poterat compulsus est discinctus et discooperto capite ad haec omnia sibi objecta more latronum vel proditorum respondere Qui viriliter negavit objecta Sacramento firmans haec nunquam audisse vel hujusmodi cogitasse et ita demum absolutus est et domum redire permissus In this Parliament holden at Salisbury 7 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 11. to 16. John Cavendish a Fishmonger of London made his complaint first to the Commons and after to the Lords against Sir Michael de la Poole Chancellor of England demanding the Peace against him which THE LORDS granted after which he accused him for taking Bribes and delayes and injustice in a sute of his depending before him whereof he cleared himself by his own Oath and the Oaths of other witnesses sworn and examined before THE LORDS Whereupon the Lords being troubled with other weighty matters referred the Chancellors reparation for the Scandal to the ordering of the Judges The same Sir Michael de la Pole Earl of Suffolk and Chancellor of England in the Parliament of 10 R. 2. rot Parliamenti n. 6. to 18. was accused in full Parliament before THE KING BISHOPS LORDS by the Commons who exhibited sundry Articles against him recorded at large by Henry de Knyghton agreeing with the Parliament Roll. The effect of them was this That whiles he was Chancellor against his Oath to procure the profit of the King he had purchased lands and tenements of the King of great value at under rates and exchanged uncertainâ— customs and rents for good lands in deceipt of the King and for spending the Aids granted to the King the last Parliament to guard the Seas in another manner than they were granted whereby the Seas were not guarded and much mischief hapned to the Realm c. The Lords Commons refused to act any thing till the King came in person to Parliament and the Chancellor removed upon these Articles The Chancellor demanded of the LORDS 1. Whether he should answer these Articles without the Kings presence for things done whiles he was Chancellor for that he being Chancellor of England for the time represented the Kings person in Parliament during his absence thence Secondly Whether his Brother in Law Sir Richard Scroope might not answer for him whom he had by advice of his Counsel appointed to do it To which the LORDS answered and resolved It was honest and fit for him to answer for himself Whereupon he making protestation that he might adde to or diminish from his answer and that which might be honourable to him by advice of his Counsel the Lords granting thereunto He thereupon put in an answer and replication to all the Articles to which his Counsel added some things in making his defence The Commons replyed to his answer to w ch he by way of rejoyndâ—r replied and answered to them his defence sâ—eming very solid Yet the Commons upon his replication before judgement pressed the King then being in Parliament and she Lords that he might be committed for the grievous offences charged against him Whereupon he was arrested by the Kings command and committed to the custody of the Constable of England and after let to mainprise Ar last THE LORDS in full Parliament GAVE JUDGEMENT AGAINST HIM That for breach of his Oath all the Manors and lands which he had of the Kings gift contained in the Articles should be seised into the Kings hands to have them to him and his heirs for ever together with their mean profits and issues saving to him the name and Title of a Knight and Earl together with an annuity of 20 l. yearly granted him out of the profits of the County of Suffolk The like judgement was given against him for the lands exchanged by the King for the customs of Hull and the Priory of St. Anthony Walsingham addes That he was deprived likewise of his Chancellorship and adjudged worthy of death yet the Lords would not put him to death but sent him prisoner to Windsore Castle Rex autem non multo post annullavit quicquid in Parliamento statutum fuerat contra ipsum In the Parliament of 11 R. 2. rot Parl. â— 6 7. Thomas Duke of Gloucester kneeling before the King said that he understood the King was informed he went about to depose him and to make himself King Wherefore he offered to put himself upon his tryal in that behalf as the Lords of the Parliament would award Whereupon the King said in open Parliament that he thought the said Duke was nothing faulty and therefore held him excused After which all THE LORDS as well spiritual as temporal being in the Parliament claimed their liberties and franchises namely That all weightâ— matters in the same Parliament which should be after moved touching THE PEERS OF THE LAND ought to be discussed JUDGED AND DETERMINED BY THE M by the course of Parliament and not by the Civil Law nor yet by the Common Law of the Land used in other Couâ—ts of the Realm The which claim and liberties the King most willingly allowed and granted thereto in full Parliament After which Thomas Earl of Glocester Henry Earl of Derby Richard Earl of Arundel Thomas Earl of Warwick and Thomas Earl of Marshal Lords Appellants impeached Alexandâ—r Archbishop of York Robert de Vere
Realm of Englond which therefore hath suffered the charge of intollerable persecution punicion and tribulation whereof the like hath not been seen or heard in any other Christian Realm by any memory or Record Then being on Live the said Edmund Mortymer Earl of March son and heir of the said Roger son and heir of the said Philip daughter and heir of the said Leonel the third Son of the said King Edward the third To the which Edmund after the decease of the said King Richard the right and title of the same Crown and Lordship then by law custom and conscience descended and belonged and of right belongeth at this time unto our said Liege and Soveraign Lord King Edward the fourth as Cousin and heir to the said King Richard in manner and form abovesaid Our said Soveraign and Liege Lord King Edward the fourth according to his right and title of the said Crown and Lordship after the decease of the said right noble and famous Prince Richard Duke of York his fader in the name of Jesu to his pleasure and loving the fourth day of the Month of March last past took upon him to use his right and title to the said Realm of Englond and Lordship and entred into the exercise of the royal estate dignity preheminence and power of the same Crown and to the reign and governance of the said Realm of Englond and Lordship And the same fourth day of March amoved Henry late called King Henry the sixth son to Henry son to the said Hen. late E. of Derby son to the said John of Gaunt from the occupation usurpation intrusion reign and governance of the same Realm of Englond and Lordship to the universal comfort and consolation of all his Subgetts and Liegemen plentevously joyed to be amoeved and departed from the obeysance and governance of the unrightwise usurpour in whose time not plenty Pees Justice good governance pollicy and vertuouse conversatien but unrest inwaâ—d warr and trouble unright wiseness shedding and effusion â—f innocent bloud abuse of the Laws partiality riot extortion murder rape and vitious living have been the guiders and leaders of the noble Realm of Englond in antient time among all Christian realms laudably reputed of great honour worship and nobly drad of all outward Lands then being the lauâ—ier of honour prowess and worthiness of all other Realms in the time of the said usurpation fallen from that renown unto misery wretchedness desolation shamefull and sorrowfull decline And to live under the obeysance governance and tuition of their true right wise and natural Leige and Soveraign Lord. The Commons being in this present Parliament having sufficient and evident knowledge of the said unrightwise usurpation and intrusion by the said Henry late Earl of Derby upon the said Crown of Englond knowing also certainly without doubt or ambiguity the right and title of our said Soveraign Lord thereunto true and that by Gods Law Mans Law and the Law of Nature he and none other is and ought to be their true right wise and natural Liege and Soveraign Lord. And that he was in right from the death of the said Noble and famous Prince his Fader very just King of the said Realm of Englond And the said 4. day of March in lawfull possession of the same Realm with the royal power preheminence estate and dignity belonging to the Crown thereof and of the said Lordship take accept and repute and will for ever take accept and repute the said Edward the fourth their Soveraign and liege Lord and him and his heirs to be Kings of Englond and none other according to his said right and title And beseech the same their said Liege and Soveraign Lord King Edward the fourth that by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being in this present Parlement and by authority of the same his right and title to the said Crown afore specified be declared taken accepted and reputed true and rightwise the same right and title to abide and remain of Record perpetually by the said advice assent and authority And that it be declared and judged by the said advice assent and authority that the said Henry late Earl of Derby for the said rearing of warr against the said King Richard then his Soveraign Lord and the violent taking imprisoning unrightwise usurpation intrusion and horrible cruel murder of him agenst his faith and ligeance wickedly and unjustly offended and hurted the Royal Majesty of his said Soveraign Lord. And that the same Henry unrightwisely agenst Law conscience and custom of the said Realm of Englond usurped upon the said Crown and Lordship And that he and also Henry late called King Henry the fifth his son and the said Henry late called King Henry the sixth the son of the said Henry late called King Henry the fifth occupied the said Realm of Englond and Lordship of Irelond and exercise the governance thereof by unrightwise intrusion and usurpation and in none other wise And that the taking of possession and entry into the exercise of the Royal Estate dignity reign and governance of the said Realm of Englond and Lordship of Irelond of our said Soveraign Liege Lord King Edward the fourth the said fourth day of March and the amotion of the said Henry late called King Henry the sixth from the exercise occupation usurpation intrusion reign and governance of the same Realm and Lordship done by our said Soveraign and Liege Lord King Edward the fourth the said fourth day of March was and is rightwise lawfull and according to the Laws and customs of the said Realm and so ought to be taken holden reputed and accepted And over that that our said Soveraign and Liege Lord King Edward the fourth the said fourth day of March was lawfully seised and possessed of the said Crown of Englond in his said right and title and from thenceforth have to him and his heirs Kings of Englond all such Manors Castles Lordships honours lands tenements rents services fees feefarms rents Knights fees advowsons gifts of Offices to give at his pleasure fairs markets issues fines and amerciaments liberties franchises prerogatives escheats customs reversions remainders and all other hereditaments with her appurtenance whatsoever they be in Englond Wales and Irelond and in Caleys and the Marches thereof as the said King Richard had in the feast of Sr. Matthew the Apostle the 23. year of his reign in the right and title of the said Crown of Englond and Lordship of Irelond and should after his decease have descended to the said Edmund Mortimer Earl of March son of the said Roger Mortimer Earl of March as to the next heir of bloud of the same King Richard after his death if the said usurpation had not been committed or after the decease of the same Edmund to his next heir of blood by the Law and custom of the said Realm of Englond the Manors Castles Honors Lordships lands tenements possessions
and hereditaments with their appurtenances which come to the hands of the said King Richard by forfeiture by force of an Act made in a Parlement holden at Westminster the 21. year of his reign except the said Commons beseeching our said Liege Lord to have and take all only the issues and revenues of all the said Castles Manors Lordships Honors lands tenements rents services and of other the premises aforesaid with their appurtenances except afore except from the said fourth day of the said moneth of March and not afore Saving to every of the liegemen and subjects of our said Soveraign and liege Lord King Edward the fourth such lawfull title and right as he or any other to his use had in any of the premises the said third day of March other than he had either of the grant of the said Henry late Earl of Derby called King Henry the fourth the said Henry his son or the said Henry late called King Henry the sixth or by authority of any pretenced Parlement holden in any of their dayes And that it be ordained declared and stablished by the assent advice and authority aforesaid That all Statutes Acts and Ordinances heretofore made in and for the hurt destruction and avoyding of the said right and title of the said King Richard or of his heirs to ask claim or have the Crown Royal power estate dignity preheminence governance exercise possessions and Lordship abovesaid be voyd and be taken holden â—nd reputed voyd and for nought adnulled repealed revoked and of no force value or effect And furthermore consideration and respect had to the horrible detestable cruel and inhuman tyranny by the said Henry late Earl of Derby against his faith and ligeance done and committed to the said King Richard his rightwise true and natural Liege and Soveraign Lord the unright wise and unlawfull usurpation and intrusion of the same Henry upon the said Crown of Englond and Lordship of Irelond the great intollerable hurt prejudice and derogation that thereby followed to the said Edmund Mortymer Earl of March next heir of blood of the said King Richard time of his death and to the heirs of the said Edmund and the great and excessive damage that by the said usurpations and the continuance thereof hath grown to the said Realm of Englond and to the politique and peaceable governance thereof by inward wars moved and grounded by occasion of the said Vsurpation It be therefore Ordeined declared and stablished by the advice assent and authority aforesaid for the more stablishing of the assured and undoubted inward rest and tranquility of the said Realm of Englond And for the avoyding of the said usurpation and intrusion very cause and ground of the tribulation persecution and adversity thereof that the said Henry late Earl of Derby the heirs of his body coming be from henceforth unabled and taken and holden from henceforth unable and unworthy the premises considered to have joy occupy hold or inherit any estate dignity preheminence enheritaments or possessions within the Realm of Englond Wales or Irelond aforesaid or in Caleys or the Marches thereof And sith that the Crown Royal estate dignity and Lordship above rehearsed of right appertained to the said Noble Prince Richard Duke of York And that the said Usurper late called King Henry the sixth that understanding to the intent that in his opinion he might the more surely stand and continue in his usurpation and intrusion of and in the same Crown Royal estate dignities and Lordship evermore intended and laboured continually by subtile imaginations frauds deceipts and exorbitant means to the extreme and final destruction of the same noble Prince Richard and his issue And for the execution of this malicious and damnable purpose therein in a preâ—ence Parliament by him and his usurped authority holden at Coventree the 38 year of his usurped Reign without cause lawfull or reasonable declared and judged the same noble Prince Richard and the Noble Lords his Sons that is to wit Edward then Earl of March and now the King our Soveraign Lord abovesaid and Edmund Earl of Ruthland to be his Rebels and Enemies them and all their issue dis-inheriting of all name state title and preheminence tenements possessions and enheritaments for evermore cruelly wickedly and unjustly and agenst all humanity right and reason whereby the said noble Prince Richard and his sons above named were compelled by the dread of death to absent them for a time out of this Realm of Englond the natural land of their birth unto their intollerable hurt prejudice heavinesse and discomfort And where after these the said noble Prince Richard Duke of York using the benefice of the Law of Nature and sufficiently accompanied for his defence and recovery of his right to the said Crown of the said Realm came thereunto not then having any Lord therein above him but God And in the time of a Parliament holden by the said Henry late called King Henry the sixth the sixth day of October the 39 year of his said usurped reign intended to use his right and to enter into the exercise of the royal powers dignitees and Lordships abovesaid as it was lawfull and according to Law reason and justice him so to doe and thereupon shewed opened declared and proved his right and title to the said Crown to fore the Lords Spiritual and temporal and Commons being in the same Parlitment by antient matters of sufficient and notable Record undefaisible whereunto it could not be answered or replyed by any matter that of right ought to have deferred him then from the possession thereof yet nevertheless for the tender zeal love and affection that the same Duke bare of Godly and blessed vertues and natural disposition to the restfull governance and pollicy of the same Realm and the Common wele thereof which he loved all his life desired and preferred afore all other things earthly though all the seid Lords spiritual and temporal after long and mature deliberation by them had by good advice upon the said right and title and the authorities and Records proving the same the answers thereunto gives and the replâ—cations to the same made knew the same right and title true by them and the seid Commons so declared accepted and admitted in the same Parliament Iâ— liked him at the grete instance desire and request of the seid Lords solemnply and many times unto him made to assent and grant unto a convention concord and agreement between the seid Henry late called King Henry the sixth on that opâ—party and him on that other upon the seid right and title by the same late called King by the advice and assent of the seid Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons being in the seid Parliament auctorized in the same comprehending among other that the seid Vsurper late called King Henry the sixt understanding certainly the seid title of the said Richard Duke of York just lawfull true and sufficient by the
advis and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commyns in the seid Parliament assembled and by authorite of the same declared approved ratified confirmed and accepted the seid title just good lawfull and true and thereunto gave his assent and agrreement of his free will and liberty And over that by the seid advis and auctorite declared affirmed and reputed the seid Richard Duke of York very true and rightfull heir to the Crowns Royal estate and dignite of the Realms of Englond France and Lordship of Irelond aforeseid And that according to the worship and reverence thereto belonging he should be taken accepted and repuâ—ed in worship and reverence by all the Estates and persons of the seid Realm of Englond The seid Usurper late called King Henry the sixth saving and reserving to himself the seid Crowns Realms royal estate dignite and preheminence of the same and the seid Lordship of Ireland during his life natural And further more by the same advice and authotiâ—e would consented and agreed that after his decease or when it should please him to lay from him the seid Crowns estate dignity and Lordship or thereof ceâ—â—ede the seid Richard Duke of York and his heirs should immediately succeed him in the seid Crowns Royal Estate dignity and Lordship and them then have and enjoy any Act of Parliament Statute Ordinance or any thing to the contrary made or interruption or discontinuance of possession notwithstanding And if any person or persons from thenceforâ—h imagined or compaced the death of the seid Richard Duke of York it be deemed and judged high Treason in manner and form as it is specified in the seid Act And that the seid Noble Prince Richard Duke of York by way and consideration of recompence for his abstaining for a time of the exercise of the seid royal power of the benigne and noble disposition that he bare to the said Common wele and to the rest and tronquillity of the seid Realm should have Castles Mannors lands and tenements to the value of 10 Mil. Marc. whereof the Earldom and City of Chester was parcel assigned to the said Duke by special Act made in the seid Parliament the which Earldom and City the seid Duke gave among other unto our seid Soveraign Lord then being Earl of March as parcel of Manors Lordships lands and tenements of the yearly value of 3 Mil. Marc. which by vertue of the seid convention and concord and the Act thereof made was given unto him for the sustentation of his estate abiding and persevering like a true Christian and honourable Prince in full purpose to keep and observe the seid Convention and concord for his party trusting verily that the seid Usurper Henry late called King Henry the sixth would have truly faithfully justly keped and observed for his party the same convention and concord inviolable as by Law reason Princely honour and duty he was bounden to doe and not have departed and varied from such convention made of so high and so great authority as it was made whereunto neither our seid Soveraign Lord ne the seid noble Prince assented but without prejudice of the seid right and ritle as it is plainly specified in the sâ—id Act made upon the seid convencion and Concord and under protestation and condition that the seid Usurpour shuld kepe and perform without fraude or male ingyne all things therein contained for his seid party declared openly by their mouths in the presens and heryng of the said Lords in the seid Parliament and therein enacted of Record at the grete instaunce and prayer of the same Usurpour late called King Henry the sixth And at the solempne request of all the seid Lords for the tender and special zele love and affection that he bare to the rest of the seid Realm and to the Commyn wele and policy thereof toke his viage of good blessed and vertuous intent and disposition toward the North parties of the said Realm to repress and subdue certain riots rebellions insurrections and commotions there begun And the premises notwithstanding the seid Henry Usurpour late called King Henry the sixth continuing in his old rancour malice using the fraud and malicious disceit and dissimulation agenst trouth and conscience that accord not with the honour of eny cristen Prince to th entent that the said Agrement concord and Act shuld take no due effect And into the frustacion of the same in the matiers and things above reherced that is to say that neither the seid Richard Duke shuld have ne enjoy the same Castells Manoirs lands and tenements name title reverence and worship above reherced neither he ne his sons and heirs succeed in the seid Corones Royal estate dignity lordship after the tenure fourm and effect of the said agreement concord and Act with all subtil imaginacions and disceitful ways and means to him possible intended and covertely laboured excited and procured the final destruction murdre and death of the said Richard Duke and of his Sons that is to sey of our seid new Soveraign Lord King Edward the fourth then Earl of March and of the noble Lord Edmund Earl of Ruthlande And for the execution of his dampnable and malicious purpose by writing and other messages moeved excited and stirred thereunto the Dukes of Excester and Somerset and other Lords being then in the North parties of this Realm whereupon at Wakefeld in the Shire of York the seid Duke of Somerset falsely and traiterously the same Noble Prince Duke of York on Teiusday the 30 day of Decemb. last passed horribly cruelly traiterously murdered And also the worthy and good Lords Edmund Earl of Ruthland Brother of our seid Soveraign Lord and Richard Earl of Salesbury And not therwith content of their insatiable malice after that they were dede made them to beheaded with abhomynable cruelte and horrible despite agenst all humanite and nature of Nobles And after that the same Henry Usurpour gretely and wonderfuly joying the seid dolorous and piteous murder of the same noble Prince and worthy Lords to the Realm an heavy and a lamentable sorrow and lost forthwith and oftentimes after openly declared to divers Lords of the same Realm That he would not in any wise kepe the seid Convencioun and accord ne the act thereof made and to the infraccion and violatiation of the said convention and concord not only sent Letters made under his prive Seal unto certain Knights and Squiers commaunding and charging them by the same to spoil and disseise our seid Soveraign Lord by the name of Earl of March of his possession of the seid Earldom and Citee of Chester whereof he was lawfully possessed and seased by vertue and reason of the seid Convencion and Concord but also of extreme violence utter and final breche of his party of the seid convencions and concord sent out writs under his Seal to the Mayer Aldermen and Commonalte of the Citee of London bering date the 22 day of Feverere last past and other like
Writs to divers Officers Governours and Ministers of divers other Citees and to many Shires and Burroughs of the seid Realm to make fals untrue and injust proclamations against our seid Soveraign and Liege Lord K. Ed. the 4th by the name of Ed. late E. of March to provoke and excite his destruction And also by his Letters signed with his hand directed unto the seid Dukes of Excester and Somerset and other Lords refused and denied to keep and observe the seid accord convention and agreement and by the same writing falsifying his promise departed from the same Convention and accord afore either the same our Soveraign Lord or the seid noble Prince his Fader any thing did or attempted to the contrary of the same convention and concord for their partie Be it declared and juged by the seid advis assent and authorite the premises considered that the seid Usurper Henry late called Henry the sixth agenst good faith troth conscience and his honour brake the seid Convention and concord and departed therefrom of wilfull malice long afore the seid fourth day of March as by the matters afore declared it appeareth sufficiently And that the breche thereof on his partie discharged our seid Soveraign Lord of all things that should or might charge him to the keeping thereof in any Article or point after the seid breche And that he was then at his freedom and liberty to use his said right and title of the seid Crownes and to enter into the exercise thereof and of the Royal power dignite and preheminence longing thereunto as he lawfully did in manere and fourm above specified the seid convention and concord and the Acte thereupon made or any thing therein conteined notwithstanding And over this it be declared and juged by the seid advis assent and authorite that the seid agreement concord and Act in all things which been in any wise repugnant or contrary to the seid right title entree state seasen and possession of our Soveraign Lord King Edward the fourth in and to the Crown Royal estate dignite and Lordship above said be void and of no force ne effect And that it be Ordeyned and stablished by the seid assent advis and authorite that every person having any parcel of the seid Castles Manors Lands Honours tenements rents services possessions or hereditaments aboveseid the which were given in exchange or in recompence of or for any other Manors Castles lands tenements rents advowsons fee-farms reversions or any other possessions or enheritaments given to the seid Henry late Earl of Derby to the seid Henry his son late called King Henry the fifth or to the seid Henry his son late called King Henry the sixth or to any other person or persones to or for their or any of their use at their or any of their desire or to perform execute their or any of their wille mowe entre And that they and their heirs and successors entre into the same Manors Castles Lands tenements rents services possessions advowsons or hereditaments so given And them have hold keep joy occupy and inherit of like estate as the giver or givers thereof had them at the time of the gift thereof made though it be so that in any of the Letters Patents or gifts made of any of the premises no mention be made of any recompence or eschange Qua quidem petitione in Parliamento praedicto lecta audita plenius intellecta de avisamento assensu Dominorum Spiritualium Temporalium in eodem Parliam existen ad requisitionem Communitatis praedictae respondebatur eidem modo forma hic Inferius annotatis The King by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in this present Parliament assembled at the request of the Commyns being in the same agreeth and assenteth to this Petition and it accepteth with certain moderations provisions and exceptions by his Highness thereupon made and in schedules written and in the same Parliament delivered the tenours of which hereunder follow c. Convenit cum Recordo This Judgement censure repeal in full Parliament of the deposition and proceeding against King Richard the 2. upon the Commons own Petition by this Act never yet reversed as most wicked treasonable unrighteous against Gods Laws and Mans crying for vengeance in Gods hearing in heaven and exemplarily punished upon the whole kingdom Nation and Henry the 4. his posterity on earth with the sad intestine warres miseries that attended it are sufficient arguments of its unlawfulness detestableness against all those who deem it just or allege it for a president to justifie their extravagances of a more execrable and transcendent Nature 16ly It is very observable that Roger Mortimer Earl of March who had the chief hand in deposing murthering King Edward the 2. after he was deposed was in the Parliament of 4 E. 3. condemned and executed for it as a Traytor without any legal trial all his lands confiscated and Queen Isabel her self who concurred with him like to be questioned for her life and abridged in her maintenance Moreover King Richard the 2. Granchild and next heir to King Edward the 3. who imprisoned deposed and invaded his Fathers throne though somewhat against his will was imprisoned deposed proceeded against in the self same manner as Edw. the 2. was by his very president and soon after murdered like as Edw. the 2. was by King Henry the 4. After which king Henry the 4. his Granchild Henry the 6. was also in the self same manner imprisoned deposed attainted of high Treason with his Queen and Adherents in the Parliament of 1 Edw. 4. n. 8. to 33. and at last murdered by Edw. the 4. his procurement to secure the Crown to himself and his Posterity Yet no sooner was King Edw. the 4. dead but his own Brother Richard Duke of Gloucester who by his instigation murdered King Henry the 6. with his own hands procuring himselâ— to be Protector of his son King Edw. the 5. then young getting his Brother and him into his custody by treachery perjury and hypocrisie caused them both to be barbarously murdered to set the Crown on his own head which he most ambitiously aspired after yet seemed unwilling to embrace till enforced to accept it by a Petition and Declaration drawn up by his own Instruments presented to him in the name of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of the Realm of England wherein he branded his Brother king Edw. the fourth his marriage as illegal and his issue as illegitimate aspersed his Life and Government as one by whom the Laws of God of Gods Church of the Land and of nature and also the laudable Customs and Liberties of England wherein every English man is inheritor were broken subverted contemned against all reason and justice So that the Land was ruled by self-will and pleasure fear and dread all manner of Equity and Law laid apart and despised so that no man was sure of
Seignour le Roy que ore est tenue a Westminstre lanquinzisme per examinent dez Praelates Contes Barones et tote la commune de Realm fuist notoriement trove que vostre piere vous Hugh fuâ—stez agardez TRAYTOURS enmys del Realm pur quel par assent commandment nostre Seigniour le Roy vostre Piere vous Hugh fuistez exules del Realm sanz james revenir si ceo ne fuist par lassent commmandment nostre Seignious le Roy ceo en playne Parlement duement al ceo summounz And for his returning into England against this Act and his manifold murders oppressions and misdemeanors since there recited at large he was condemned to be hanged drawn bowelled quartered and beheaded which was executed accordingly December 8. and his head fixed on a Poll and set upon London bridge The Repeal of the Spencers exile was not long after repealed and the Act for their exile re-confirmed in the Parliament of 1 E. 3. ch 1 2. in the Statutes at large which recites That they were exiled disinherited and banished out of the Realm by the Commons assent and award of the Peers and Commons of the Realm and by the assent of King Edward as Traytors and Enemies of the King and of his Realm And that he by the Common Counsel of the Prelates Earls Barons and other Great men and of the Commonalty of the Realm in his Parliament holden at Westminster did ordain and establish That the repeal of the said Exile which was made by Duress and force should be adnulled fâ—r evermore and the same exile made by the award of THE PEERS AND COMMONS BY THE KINGS ASSENT as aforesaid shall stand in its strength in all points after the tenour of every Article therein contained But this Act of repeal by the like power and assent was repealed as erronious and the heir of the Spencers restored to blood and Lands by the Parliament of 21 R. 2. Rot. Parl. u. 35. to 57. And that whole Parliament again repealed and nulled by 1 H. 4. c. 3. Cooks 4 Instit p. 25. This was the issue of this very first Attainder wherein the Commons concurred with the Lords being carried by force and power on all hands in those turbulent times In the Parliament of 11 R. 2. ch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. in the Statutes at large Alexander Archbishop of York Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland Michael de la Pale Earl of Suffolk Robert Tresylien chief Justice R. Belknap with sundry other Judges Lawyers Knights Gentlemen Clergymen and other Commons and Prelates were impeached by the Duke of Glocester and other Lords Appellants of High Treason in 36 Articles thereupon attainted condemned judgement of death banishment forfeiture of their lands and estates given against them in Parliament by the Lords without the Commons After which the Lords exhibited a Petition to the King for the confirmation of the said Attainders and forfeiture Whereupon the King considering the matâ—er of the said Petition to be true at the request of the said Commons of the assent of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and all others of this present Parliament granted the request of the said COMMONS in all points after the form of the said Petition And moreover of the assent aforesaid passed sundry Acts touching their Attainders Judgements Exiles and forfeitures which all may peruse at leisure in the Statutes at large In the Parliament of 21 R. 2. upon the Petition of the Commons by the like assent c. 2. to 12. in the Statutes at large these Attainders Judgemens forfeitures and the whole Parliament of 11 R. 2. were repealed as erronious and nulled Yet after by the Parliam of 1 H. 4. c. 3. the Parl. of 21 R. 2. is nulled and that of 11 R. 2. revived and confirmed with all the attainders and Judgements therein given In the Parliament of 9 H. 6. c. 8. Owen Glendor formerly endited and attainted of high Treason for his grand insurrections and rebellions by the assent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and of the Kingâ— at the special request of the Commons was by special Act declared a Traytor and all manner of Indictments Inquisitions Processes Records Judgements Ordinances Statutes made against him authorized established for Law by assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament In the Parliament of 29 H. 6. c. 1. The King by the advice of the Lords spiritual temporal and at the request of his Commons by a special Act attainted John Cade of several High Treasons for traytorously imanâ—ging the Kings death the destruction and subversion of this Realm in gathering and levying great numbers of the Kings people and them exciting to make insurrection against the King his regalty crown and dignity and to make and levy war falsly and trayterously against the King for which they confiscated all his Lands Tenements rents and possessions to the king corrupt and disable his blood for ever and enact him to be called a false Traytor within the Realm for ever And in 31 H. 6. c. 1. with the advise and assent of the Lords and at the request of the Commons it is ordained established that the said John Cade shall be reputed had named and declared a false Traytor to the king and all indictments and proceedings had and made under the power of his Tyranny were clearly repealed and adnulled for ever and to be of no effect but void in Law and put in oblivion and destroyed for ever as purposed against God and Conscience and the Kings royal estate and preheminence and also dishonourable and unreasonable In the Parliament held Anno 38 H. 6. rot Parl. n. 5. to 26. Richard Duke of York with sundry other Lords and Commons were attainted of High Treason by Bill for conspiring and levying war againâ—t the King And in the Parliament of 1 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 12 17. to 37 King Henry the 4 H. the 6 Queen Margaret Edward Prince of Wales Henry Duke of Somerset the Earl of Devonshire with sundry other Knights Esquires and Gentlemen Priests and Yeomen were attainted of High Treason by Bills for levying war against king Edward the 4. In the Parliament of 4 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 2. to 39. the Duke of Somerset Henry Beauford Sir Ralph Piercie with sundry other Knights Esquires and Gentlemen were attainted of High Treason by Bill for levying war against the king most of which attainders in the Parliaments of 12 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 15. to 36.13 E. 4. n. 45.14 E. 4. n 45.27 28 29 31 32.17 E. 4. n. 19 20 21 22. E. 4. n. 23 were repealed by Bills and the parties or their heirs restored to blood and Lands In the Parliaments of 14 E. 4. rot Parl. n. 34 35 36 37. Sir Richard and Sir Robert Wells John Vere Earl of Oxford Sir Thomas Vere with sundry more Knights and Gentlemen were attainted by Bill of High Treason for Levying war against the king and some of
Lords only sit upon the Bench and that covered and in their Parliamentary Robes the badges of Judicature but the Commons stand and that bare at the Bar without any robes at all the Lords only swear examine the witnesses and judge of their testimony the Commons only produce the witnesses presse and manage the evidence and when the buâ—nesse is fully heard the Lords only debate the cause among themselves and give the final Sentence Judgement without the Commons though sometimes in their presence and that both in cases of Commoners and Peers Therefore the Lords and House of Peers are sole Judges in Parliament not the Commons 9ly The Commons themselves in all ages since admitted into our Parliaments have always presented their Petitions in Parliament to the King and Lords alone for redress of all Grievances wrongs misdemeanours abuses whatsoever publike or private criminal or civil ecclesiastical marine or military And the Lords House alone have in all antient Parlaments appointed particular persons of their House to receive al Petitions Triers of them to hear and answer them by their advice and the kings assent when necessary which Triers of Petitions had power given to call the Lord Chancellor Treasurer Chamberlain Judges kings Servants and others to this assistance prescribing where when their Petitions should be presented examined redressed at all our Parliament Rolls aâ—est and Sir Edward Cook himself relates There being few or no Petitions at all presented by any to the Commons before â—â— H. 7. c. 19. 4 H. 7. c. 6. These Petitions then presented to them and all ever since with all in this present Parliament being only to this end that they upon the examination of the truth matters complaints grievances mentioned in them might transmit and represent them in the name of the Commons House to the Lords House for to give full redress relief and judgement on them to the Petitioners not for the Commons themselves to judge finally determine them or give relief upon them without the Lords as all the transmissions of private and publike Petitions by the Commons to the Lords heretofore and in this Parliment in the cases of Dr. Layton Dr. Bastwick Mr. Burton Mr. Walker my self and of Lilburns own Petition against his censure attest Therefore the Judicature of our Parliaments must wholy rest and intirely reside in the Lords House as well in all Criminal as civil cases both of Commoners and Lords 10ly The surest badge and highest evidence of the right and exercise of Juridical and Judicial Authority in Parliament is the examination affirmation control repeal nulling adjudging and finall determining all Errors in Judgements Decrees Proceedings all Misprisions Abuses Corruptions grievances whatsoever of Judges Justices in all other Courts of Justice Civil Ecclesiastical Marine or military Now the Lords-alone in Parliament upon Wtits of Error Appeals Complaints Petitions c examine confirm repeal null redresse and finally determine all Errors misprisions in Judgements Decrees Proceedings and all Abuses Corruptions Grievances whatsoever in all other Courts of Justice whether Civil as the Kings Bench Chancery Exchequer Chamber Common Pleas Exchequer Court of Wards Courts of Requests Stanneries c. or Ecclesiastical as the High Commission Archbishops Consistories the Convocation and the Admiralty Court Marshal Council Table Star-chamber and in former Parliaments as is evident by sundry presidents in former ages and in this present Parliament of King CHARLS in the cases of Dr. Layton Dr. Bastwick Mr. Burton Lilburn himself Mr. Grafton Alderman Chambers Mr. Rolls Sir Rob Howard Alderman Langham and Limry Mr. Johns and le Gay with sundry others But more especially in cases of Writs of Error brought in Parliament by Peers or Commoners upon any Erronious judgements touching their real or personal estates lives limbs liberties persons upon Indictments or Attainders In all which writs the King and Lords only are sole judges without the Commoners and the returns of the proceedings upon such Writs are only before the Lords in the Vpper House secundum legem et consuetudinem Parliaments So Sir Edward Cook himself expresly resolves in direct terms in his 4 Institutes p. 21 22 23. And 22 E. 3.3 Fitz Error 8 Br. 3.1 H. 7.20 21 22. Br. Error 137. Old Book of Entries p. 302.16 E. 3. Fitz. Brev. 651.21 E. 3.46 Br. Error 65.29 E. 3.24.39 Ass 18.42 Ass 22.7 H. 6.28 8 H. 5. Fitz. Error 88.19 H. 6.12.35 H. 6.19.37 H. 6.16.11 H. 4.65.9 E. 4.3.2 R. 3.22.37 H. 8.14 15 25. Dyer f. 62.196 201 315 375. intimate as much This is most clear by the Writs of Error Judgements and Proceedings on them in the Parliament House before and by the Lords alone mentioned in the Parliament Rolls themselves as 14 E. 1. roâ— Parl. 1.4 E. 3. n. 13 14.21 E. 3. n. 65 66.28 E. 3. n. 8. to 14.50 E. 3. n. 38.1 R. 2. n. 28 29 105.2 R. 2. n. 31 32 33 37 38. Parl. 2. and Parl. 1. n. 21. to 27.3 R. 2. n. 19.20 21 22.6 R. 2. n. 17.7 R. 2. n. 20 21.8 R. 2. n. 13 14 15 16.13 R. 2. n. 16 17 15 R. 2. n. 22 23 24.16 R. 2. n. 17 18.17 R. 2. n. 17.19 â—8 R. 2. n. 11 12 13.20 R. 2. n. â—6 21 R. 2. n. 25 55. to 66 71.1 H. 4. n. 91 92.2 H. 4. n. 38 39 40.4 H. 4. n. 26.5 H. 4. n. 40.6 H. 4. n. 31.1 H. 5. n. 19.2 H. 5. n. 13 14.3 H. 5. n. 19. with sundry Writs of Error in succeeding Parliaments and this now sitting adjudged determined by the King and Lords alone without the privity or interposition of the Commons A truth so clear that Lilburn himself in his Argument against the Lords jurisdiction confesseth iâ— If then the Lords House be the soâ—e Judges in all Writs of Error and Appeals from all other Courts of Justice concerning the Lands Tenements Goods Estates Liberties Members Lines Attainders of all English Freeholders and Commoners whatsoever notwithstanding the Statute of Magna Charta ch 29. No Freeman shall be â—aken or imprisoned c. neither will we pass upon him nor condemn him but by the lawfull judgement of his Peers c. the grand and principal objection against the Lords Judicature in Cases of Commoners then by the self same reason they are their lawfull Judges and may regally proceed against them in all other criminal or Civil causes especially in cases of breach of their own Privileges wherein they are the sole and only Judges since no other Court can judge of nor yet punish them as Sir Ed. Cook resolves being properly triable only in Paâ—liament as contempt against all other Courts are punishable and triable by themselves alone the present cases of Lilburne and Overton Now that they are and alwayes have been so de facto unless by way of Bill of Attainder or in such extraordinary cases when their concurrence hath been desired even in criminal cases misdemeanors and offences of Commons as well as Peers I
shall prove by most clear and infallible evidences and presidents as well antient as modern Our Noble King Alfred as he ordained for the good estate of the Realm that the Earls and Noble thereof by a perpetual custom should twice every year or oftner in times of Peace assemble together in Parliament at London to govern the people of England and keep them from sinne as Andr. Horn informs us in his Mirrour of Justices c. 1. p. 10. So the same Author records c. 5. p. 296 297 c. That this royal Justiciary who took a short account each year of all his Judges proceedings in his Parliaments condemned and hanged up in one year about An. 890 as I conjecture no lesse than 44 of his Judges and Justices as Murderers for executing his Subjects and putting them to death against Law without any legal cause or sufficient evidence or tryal by a Jury of their Peers and imprisoned fined punished others of them in the self same kind as they had injuriously imprisoned fined and punished his Subjects against Law and that no doubt by the advise and assent of his Nobles in Parliament upon complaint of their injustice and corruption the proper Court for punishment of such Offenders whose names and causes recorded at large by this Author shew them to be all Commoners and no Peers of the Realm Anno 1096. William de Anco and William de Alderi were hanged for Treason against William Rufus by judgment of the Lords in a Parliament at Salisbury King Henry the 2. Anno 1166. holding a Council at Oxfâ—quidam pravi dogmatis seminatores tracti sunt IN JUDICIUM praesente Rege et Episcopis Regni quos à fide Catholica devios et in examine superatos facies cauteriata notabiles cunctis exposuit qui expulsi sunt à regno These Hereticks thus branded in the face and banished the Realm by the judgement of the King and this Council ae Nubrigensis informs us were above 30. men and women who came out of Germany into England under one Gerard their Captain stiled Publicans who went about the Country to spread their errors but at last being detected they were apprehended and cast into prison and then brought before the King and a Council of his Bishops where being convicted of Heresie they were adjudged by the K. to be publikely whipped branded in the face and then banished the Realm Hujus severitatis pius rigor non peste illa quae jam irrepserat Angliae regnum purgavit verum etiam ne ulterius irreperet incusso haereticis terrore praecavit as Nubrigensis observes In the year 1224. the 8. of King Henry the 3. his reign the King requiring a restitution and resumption of his Castles and Lords detained from him by some Nobles and others who at last for fear of the Bishops excommunication against such as detained them and disturbed the peace of the Realm and also of the Kings power and justice much against their wills reddiderunt singuli Castella et municipia et honores et custodias Regi quae ad coronam spectare videbantur Thereupon Falcatius de Breut a Norman born a Soldier under King John in the Barons wars trusting on the Kings and other great mens favors fortified the Castle of Bedford situated on another mans ground and presuming on his friends and his own military power and wealth gained in the wars he feared not violently and unjustly to take away the Freeholds lands and possessions of divers of his neighbours and more epecially he disseised 52. Freemen in the Manor of Luiton of their Freeholds and Tenements without judgement and appropriated their Common pastures to himself Whereof complaint bing afterwards made to King Henry the 3. Anno 1224. the King assigned Martin de Pateshulle Thomas de Multon Henry de Braibroc and certain other Justices to take the recognition of the parties complaining of these disseisins by an Assise of Novel disseisin and to do them Justice Who having received their recognitions according to custom the said Falcatius was condemned to pay them costs and damages for the spoils done in the said Tenements to which the Plaintifs were judicially restored Which Falcatius taking very impatiently being likewise amerced one hundred pounds to the King for every of the said Tenements for his forcible entry into them he in a great fury commanded his Garison souldiers in the Castle of Bedford to march armed to Dunstaple where the Justices Itinerant sate and gave judgement against him and to take and bind them in chains and carry them to Bedford Castle and there detain them close prisoners in the Dungeon The Justices having notice thereof fled thence with all speed some one way some another but Henry de Braibroc flying was at unwares taken by the Souldiers who used him very inhumanly then carryed him prisoner to Bedford Castle and there kept him prisoner King Henry at that time was at Northampton where he held a Parliamentary Council Cum Archiepiscopis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus et aliis multis de regni negotiis tractaturi voluit erim Rex uti consilio MAGNATUM SUORUM de terris transmarinis quas Rex Francorum paulatim occupaverat but it hapned otherwise than he hoped For the rumor of this act of Falcatius being divulged the wife of the said Henry Braibroc came to the King at Northampton et audiente univerâ—o Concilio de viro suo cum lachrymis querulans deposuit Quod Rex factum minus indigne ferens quaesi vit Consilium a Clero simul et Populo to wit the Spiritual and Temporal Lords Clerus Regni Populus when single being frequently used for the Lords Spiritual and Temporal both in Matthew Paris Hoveden Bromton and others not for the inferiour Clergy and Commons house not then in being as some Antiquaries mistake quid sibi super tanta injuria foret agendum At omnes una voce concilium Regi dederunt quatenus sine mora et omnibus aliis praetermissis negotiis in manâ— valida et armata ad Castrum praedictum procedens tantam temeritatem studeat vindicare Cumque Domino Regi placuisset SENTENTIA ipso jubente omnes ad arma quam citius convolantes ad castellum praedictum de Bedeford tam Clorus quam Populus pervenerunt The whole Parliament marching in person to execute this their Sentence upon these transcendent military Malefactors Hereupon the King sending Messengers to the Commanders of the Castle required entrance to be given to him and commanded Henry Braibroc his Justice to be rendered But William de Brent Brother of Falcatius and the rest within it answered the Messengers that they would not render the Castle nor Justice unless they had a command from their Lord Falcatius and especially for this reason quod Regi de Homagio vel fidelitate non tenebantur astricti With which answer the King being much incensed commanded the Castle to be presently encompassed with military
against Judge Thorp should be brought into the Parliament and there read openly BEFORE THE LORDS to have every of their advice concerning it whether this Iudgement were legal or not et nullo contradicente all the Lords affirmed the judgement to be legal and good considering that he against his Oath received Bribes And therefore it was agreed by all the Lords that if the like case should hereafter happen the King might take to him such Nobles as he should think meet and therein do according to his pleasure Provided this judgement should not be drawn into example against any other Officers who should break their Oaths but only against those qui praedictum Sacramentum fecerunt of Justices et fregerunt et habent leges Regales Angl. ad custod Here the Lords were sole Judges of the Judge who was a Commoner and gave judgement against him without the Commons yea declare the Law in this new case both in and out of Parliament In the Parliament of 21 E. 3. n. 68. The Commons by divers Bills complained to the Lords of divers extortions grievances prejudices done to the King and Commons by John Wattenham and Walter de Cheriton Merchants who desired the King would command them to come before THE COUNCIL LORDS in Parliament to answer what should be objected and clear themselves In the Parliament of 50 E. 3. n. 17 18 19 20. The Commons accused Richard Lyons Merchant of London of divers deceits extortions and misdemeanors whiles he was farmer of the Customs and last subsidy for transporting wools and staple Commodities procuring new Impositions on staple ware for buying debts from the Kings Creditors at under rates and making the King to pay the whole for taking of bribes and defrauding the King To some of which charges he answered and to the rest submitted himself to the King touching Body Lands and Goods Whereupon THE LORDS adjudged him to prison during the Kings will that his lands tenements and goods should be seised to the Kings use that Commissions should issue throughout all England to inquire of his Extortions whiles farmer of the subsidies and that he should be disfranchised Upon this Judgement in the Fine Roll of 50 E. 3. m. 19 21 22. there issued out writs for the arresting and selling the goods of Richard Lyons to the Kings use which were his on the 19 of March certis de causis coram Nobis et Concilio nostro in praesenti Parliamento nostro propositis c. per Concilium in Parliamento The same Parliament 50 E. 3. n. 31 32. William Ellis of great Yarmouth was accused by the Commons of sundry extortions whiles he was Deputy Farmer of the kings subsidie to Richard Lyons To which he seemed sufficiently to answet yet was BY THE LORDS adjudged to prison and to make a fine at the Kings pleasure Ibidem Num. 33. Iohn Peach of London was impeached by the Commons for procuring a license under the Great Seal that he only might sell sweet wines in London by colour whereof he took 4 s. 4 d. of every man for every Tun thereof sold which he justified he lawfully might doe Notwithstanding JUDGEMENT was given against him by THE LORDS that he should be committed during the Kings pleasure and make recompense to all parties grieved Num 37. Adam de Bury was accused of divers deceits and wrongs done by him whiles Mayor of Callice and Captain of Bellingham Being sent for to come to the Parliament he came not nor could he be found Thereupon the Lords agreed that all his goods and chattels should be arrested and so they were All these Commons were first impeached by the Commons and thus judged and censured by THE LORDS in this GOOD PARLIAMENT as Historians and others stile it And in the Commons petitions therein there are divers Petitions of Grievances from sundry Counties Towns persons complaining of wrongs and grievances presented to the King and Lords for redresse of oppressions extortions Monolies c. In the Parliament of 1 R. 2. n. 41 42 43. Dame Alice Pâ—etrees was brought before THE LORDS by Sir Richard Scroop Knight and there charged for pursuing matters at the Court contrary to an Order made in the Parliament of 50 E. 3. n. 35. and procuring King Edward to restore Richard Lyons to his lands and goods c. she denied she pursued any such thing for singular gain against that Ordinance whereupon diverse Officers Counsellers and Secretaries of king Edward 3. were examined against her who proved she made such pursutes and that for private gain in their conceits Whereupon the Lords alone without the Commons gave Iudgement against her that she should be banished according to the order aforesaid and forfeit all her Lands Goods and Tenements to the King The same Parliament 1 R 2. n. 32 33. The Lords committed William Fitz-Hugh Goldfiner and Citizen of London to the Tower for refusing to averr a Petition exhibited by him in the name of the poor Commonalty of that mystery complaining against John Chichester and John Bolcham of the same mystery of divers oppressions done by them to the said Commonalty In this very Parliament of 1 R. 2. n. 38 39 40. The Commons prayed that all those Captains who had rendred or lost Castles or Towns through default might be put to answer it in this Parliament and severely punished according to their deserts BY AWARD or Judgement OF THE LORDS and BARONS to eschew the evil examples they had given to other Governors of Towns and Castles Whereupon Sir Alexander de Buxton Constable of the Tower was commanded to bring BEFORE THE LORDS IN PARLIAMENT William de Weston and Lord of Gomynes both of them Commoners on Friday the 27 of November to answer such Articles as should be surmised against them on the Kings behalf Being brought BEFORE THE LORDS in full Parliament they were severally articled against at the command of THE LORDS by Sir Richard le Scrop Knight Steward of the Kings House and their several Articles and answers to them in writing read before THE LORDS Which done the Constable was commanded to bring them again before THE LORDS on Saturday next ensuing being the 20 of November on which day it was shewed unto them severally by the said Steward by THE LORDS COMMAND That THE LORDS OF THE PARLIAMENT whose names are particularly mentioned in the Roll had met together and considered of their respective answers and that IT SEEMED TO THE LORDS AFORESAID that the said William had delivered up the Castle of Onâ—herwycke to the Kings enemies without any duress or want of victuals contrary to his allegiance and undertaking safely to keep it and therefore the Lords above-named sitting in full Parliament adjudge you to death that you shall be drawn hanged But because our Lord the King is not informed of the manner of the Judgement the execution of it shall be respited till the king be thereof informed After which Judgement given
spiritual Cour◠for a temporal cause belonging to the Crown and Common Law which was adjudged by the Lords upon examination to be untrue To passe by the accusation of Sir Philip Courtney of divers hainous matters oppressions dissensions before the King and Lords in the Parliament of 16 R. 2. n. 6.13 14. of which more anon In the Parliament of 17 R. 2. n. 20 21. John Duke of Lancastre Steward and Thomas Duke of Gloucester Constable of England complained to the King that Sir Thomas Talbot Knight with other his adherents conspired the deaths of the said Dukes in divers parts of Cheshire as the same was confessed and well known and prayed That the Parliament might judge of the fault Whereupon the King and the Lords in Parliament without the Commons adjudged the said fact to be open and High Treason And thereupon they awarded two Writs to the Sherifs of Yorks and of Derby to take the body of the said Sir Thomas retornable in the Kings Bench in the month of Easter next ensuing And open Proclamation was made in Westminster Hall That upon the Sherifs retorn and at the next coming in of the said Sir Thomas he should be convicted of Treason and incurr the loss and pain of the same and that all such who should receive him after the Proclamation should receive the like losse and pain In the Parliament of 20 R. 2. n. 15 16 23. Sir Thomas Haxey Clark was by the King Lords in Parl. adjudged to die as a Traytor and to forfeit all his Lands Goods Chattels Offices and Livings for exhibiting to the House of Commons a scandalous Bill against the King and his Court for moderating the outragious expences of his Court by Bishops and Ladies c. Upon the Bishops intercession the King spared his life and delivered him into the custody of the Archbishop to remain as his Prisoner In the Parliament of 21 R. 2. n. 19 20. Pl. Parl. n. 2. to 15. The Lords Appellants appealed Sir Tho Mortimer Knight of High Treason for raising war against the King accroaching royal power and purposing to surrender his homage and allegiance and depose the King Who flying into the parts of Ireland thereupon the Lords in Parliament assigned him a certain day to come and render himself to the Law or else to be adjudged and proceeded against as a Traytor and Proclamation thereof was made accordingly in England and Ireland to render himself within 3 months And that after that time all his Abettors and Aiders should be reputed for and forfeit as Traytors He not coming at the day The Duke of Lancaster Steward of England by assent of the Lords in Parliament adjudged him a Traytor and that he should forfeit all his Lands in fee and see tayl together with all his Goods and Chattels The like Judgement in like manner was in the same Parliament given against Sir John Cobham Knight for the like Treason Placit Coronaen 16. On the 22 day of March 22 R. 2. n. 27. The King by assent of the Lords adjudged Sir Robert Plesington Knight then dead a Traytor for levying war against him with the Duke of Glocester at Harrengary for which he should lose all his Lands in fee or fee tayl and all his goods And n. 28. Henry Bowht Clerk for being of Counsel with the Duke of Hereford in his device was adjudged by the King and Lords to die and forfeit as a Traytor after which his life was pardoned and he banished In the Parliament of 1 H. 4. n. 79. As the Commons acknowledged that the Iudgements in Parliament had always of right belonged to the King and Lords and not unto the Commons So therein the King and Lords alone without the Commons gave Judgement in sundry cases as Judges in Parliament 1. In Sir Thomas Haxey his case who in his own name presented a Petition in this Parliament a nostre tresedoute seigniour le ROY a LES SEIGNIORS DU PARLIAMENT shewing that in the last Parliament of 21 R. 2. that he delivered a Bill to the Commons of the said Parliament for the honour and profit of the said King and of all the Realm for which Bill at the will of the King he was by the King and Lords adjudged a Traytor and to forfeit all that he had praying that the record of the said Judgement with the dependants thereupon might be vacated and nulled by them in this present Parliament as erronious and that he might be restored to all his degrees farms estate goods chattels ferms pensions lands tenements rents offices advow sons and possessions whatsoever and their appurt and enjoy them to him and his heirs notwithstanding the said Iudgement or any grant made of them by the King The Commons House exhibited a Petition likewise on his behalf to the like effect adding that this judgement given against him for delivering this Bill to the Commons in Parliament was eneontre droit et la course quel avoit estre use devant in Parlement en anientesment des Customs de◠le◠Communes Upon which Petitions Nostre Seignior le ROY de Induis assent des touz les Seigniors esperituelz et temporelz ad ordinez et adjudges que le dit juggement renus vers le dit Thomas in Parlement soit de tout casses revorses repellez et adnullez et tenus pur nul force n'effect et que le dit Thomas soit restitut a ses nom et fame c. nient obstant mesme le juggement 2ly In the case of Judge Rickhill 1 H· 4. n. 92. On the 18 of November the Commons prayed the King that Sir William Rickhill late Just of the Common Bench arrested for a Confession he had taken of the Duke of Gloucester at Calice might be brought to answer for it devant les Seigniors du Parlement whereupon he was brought into Parliament before the Kings presence and all the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament where Sir Walter Clapton Chief Justice of the Kings Bench by the kings command examined the said Sir William how and by what warrant he went to Calice to the said Duke of Glocester and upon what message Who answered that king Richard sent him a special Writ into Kent there recited verbatim commanding him by the faith and allegiance whereby he was obliged to him and under pain of forfeiting all he had to goe unto Caleys And that at Dover he received a Commission from the said king by the hand of the Earl Marshal to confer with the Duke of Glocester and to hear whatsoever he would say or declare unto him and to certifie the king thereof in proper person wherever he should be fully and distinctly under his Seal Whereupon he went thither and took the said Dukes Examination in writing according to the purport of the said Commission a Copy whereof the Duke himself received c Upon the hearing of his answer and defence
House it self without any report at all of their proceedings to the House authorizing Committees to secure imprison close imprison cashire banish condemn execute many persons sequester confiscate sell dispose their Inheritances Offices Lands Tenements Benefices real and personal estates to deprive them of their callings professions to search and break up their houses by Soldiers and others without any legal sworn Officers day and night to seize their Letters Papers Horses Arms Plate Money yea debts in other mens hands at pleasure to indemnifie and stay their legal actions sutes Judgements at Law and null their executions at their pleasures yea to commit them till they released all sutes actions Judgements and paid costs and damages to those they justly sued and recovered against to adde affliction to affliction and cruelty oppression to injustice These are the bitter fruits of Commons usurped judicature whereof there are thousands of most sad presidents which may hereafter be objected to prove the sole Power of Judicature to reside of right not in the K. or House of Lords but in the Commons House alone and every of their Committees especially for Examinations Plundered Ministers Sequestrations Indempnity Haberdashers and Goldsmiths Halls Privileges sales of Delinquents the Kings Queens Princes Lands and Estates Excise the Army Navy and the like yea in their new created High Courts of Justice who have acted as absolute arbitrary unlimited lawlesse Courts of justice in the highest degree to the subversion destruction of the antient Liberties Freeholds Properties Great Charters and fundamental Laws of the Nation in general and of thousands of the highest lowest degree of English Freemen in particular with as much ground of reason Warrant from the many late Presidents of this Nature as these here objected to prove a soâ—e right of â—udicature in the Commons House in cases of undue elections retorns misdemeanors privileges relating to their Members and their seruants Which strang exorbitant Presidents and Proceedings if they should be made Patterns for future Parliaments and Committees I shall desire all sober minded men to consider of the dangerous consequences of them thus notably expressed by the late King in his Answer concerning the Ordinance for imposing and levying the 20th part of mens estutes 29 November 1642. After this Ordinance and Declaration t is not in any sober mans power to believe himself worth any thing or that there is such a thing as Law Liberty Property left in England under the jurisdiction of these men and the same power that robs them now of the twentieth part of their estates hath by that but made a claim and entituled it self to the other nineteen whne it shall be thought fit to hasten the general ruine Sure if the minds of all men be not stubbornly prepared for servitude they will look on this Ordinance as the greatest prodigie of Arbitrary power and tyranny that any age hath brought forth in any Kingdom other grievances and the greatest have been conceived intollerable rather by the logick and consequence than by the pressure it self this at once sweeps away all that the wisdom and justice of Parliaments have provided for them Is their property in their estates so carefully looked to by their ancestors and so amply established by Us against any possibility of Invasion from the Crown which makes the meanest Subject as much a Lord of his own as the greatest Peer to be valued or considered here is a twentieth part of every mans estate or so much more as four men will please to call the twentieth part taken away at once and yet a power left to take a twentieth still of that which remains and this to be levied by such circumstances of severity as no Act of Parliament ever consented too Is their liberty which distinguishes subjects from slaves and in which this freeborn Nation hath the advantage of all Christendom dear to them they shall not only be imprisoned in such places of this kingdom a latitude of judgement no Court can challenge to it self in any cases but for so long time as the Committee of the House of Commons for Examination shall appoint and Order the House of Commons it self having never assumed or in the least degree pretended to a power of Judicature having no more authority to administer an Oath the only way to discover and find out the truth of facts than to cut off the heads of any our Subjects and this Committee being so far from being a part of the Parliament that it is destructive to the whole by usurping to it self all the power of King Lords and Commons All who know any thing of Parliament know that a Committee of either House ought not by Law to publish their own results neither are their conclusions of any force without the confirmation of the House which hath the same power of controling them as if the matter had never been debated but that any Committee should be so contracted as this of examination a stile no Committee ever bore before this Parliament as to exclude the Members of the House who are equally trusted by their Country from being present at the Counsels is so monstrous to the privileges of Parliament that it is no more in the power of any man to give up that freedom than of himself to order that from that time the place for which he serves shall never more send a Knight or Burgesse to the Parliament and in truth is no lesse than to alter the whole frame of government to pull up Parliaments by the roots and to commit the lives liberties and estates of all the people of England to the arbitrary power of a few unqualified persons who shall dispose thereof according to their discretion without account to any rule or authority whatsoever Are their friends their wives and children the greatest blessings of peace and comforts of life pretious to them would their penury and imprisonments be lesse grievous by those cordials they shall be divorced from them banished and shall no longer remain within the Cities of London and Westminster the Suburbs and the Counties adjacent and how far those adjacent Counties shall extend no man knows The 3 sort of Presidents and Objections are such as Lilburn and Overton insist on to prove That the King and Lords have no power at all to judge or censure Commoners in our Parliament The only Record they insist on is the Lords own Protestation in 4 E. 3. n. 2. 6. in the case of Sir Simon Bareford which because I have already fully answered p. 323 324 325. and cleared by sundry subsequent presidents and there being no one president in any Parliament since to contradict it I shall wholly pretermit and proceed to their objections which are only two The first and principall objections whereon they most insist and rely is the Statute of Magna Charta chap. 29. That no Free-man shall be imprisoned outlawed exiled or any other may destroyed Nor we shall not passe
3. Stat. 5. c. 4. because contrary to Magna Charta it self as he now expounds it Let him therefore unriddle assoyl this his own Dilemma or for ever hold his tongue and pen from publishing such absurdities to seduce poor people as he hath done to exasperate them to clamour against the Lords for being more favourable in their censure of him than his transcendent Libels and contempts against them deserved Fifthly This Statute is in the disjunctive by the Lawfull Judgement of his Peers OR BY THE LAW OF THE LAND which this Ignoramus observes not Now by the Law of the Land every inferiour Court of Justice may fine and imprison men for contempts or misdemeanors against them and their authority therefore the Lords in Parliament being the highest Tribunal may much more do it and have ever done it even by this express clause of Magna Charta and the Law and Custom of Parliament as well as they may give judgements in writs of Error against or for Commons without the Commons consent as himself doth grant yea and by the Kings concurrent assent declare what is Treason and what not within the Statute of 25 E. 3. c. 20. in the cases of Commoners as well as Lords without the Commons as they did in the forecited cases of William de Weston and Lord of Gomines 1 R. 2. n. 38 39 40. Of William Thorp 25 E. 3. n. 10. Of Thomas Haxey 20 R. 2. n. 15 16.23 Of Sir Thomas Talbot 13 R. 2. n. 20 21. Of Sir Robert Plesington and Henry Bowhert 22 R. 2. Plac. Coronae in Parliamento n. 27 28. Of John Hall 1 H. 4. Plac. Coronae in Parl. n. 11. to 17. Of Sir Ralph Lumley and others 4 H. 4. n. 15. 19 20 21. Of Sir John Oldcastle 5 H. 5. n. 11. and of Sir John Mortymer 2 H. 6. n. 18. as the Commons and Judges in all those Parliaments agreed without contradiction against the erronious opinion of Sir Edward Cooke to the contrary in his 3. Institutes p. 22. Sixthly It is granted by Lilburn that by this express Law No Freeman of England ought to be judged or censured but only by his Peers and that Commoners are no Peers to Nobles nor Noblemen Peers to Commoners Then by what Law or reason dared he to publish to the world That the House of Commons are the Supreme Power within this Realm and THAT BY RIGHT THEY ARE THE LORDS JUDGES certainly this is a Note beyond Ela a direct contradiction to Magna Charta in this very clause wherein he placeth his strength and subverts his very ground-work against the Lords Jurisdiction in their censure of him For if the House of Commons be by right the Lords Iudges then by Magna Charta c. 29. they are and ought to be their Peers and if the Commons be the Lords Peers then the Lords must be the Commons Peers too and if so then they may lawfully be his Judges even by Magna Charta because here he grants them to be no other than his Peers Lo the head of this great Goliah of the Philistin Levellers cut off with his own sword and Magna Charta for ever vindicated from his ignorant and sottish contradictory Glosses on it Now to convict him of his Errour in affirming the House of Commons to be by right the Lords Judges I might inform him as I have formerly proved at large that Magna Charta it self c. 14. 29. and Sir Edward Cook his chief Author in his commentary on them are express against him that in the Parliament of 15 E. 3. ch 2. in print it was enacted That whereas before this time the Peers of the Land have been arrested and imprisoned and their Temporalties Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels seised into the Kings hands and some put to death without Iudgement of their Péers that no Peer of the Land Officer or other by reason of his office nor of things touching his office nor by other cause shall be brought in judgement to lose his Temporalties Lands Tenements Goods Chattels nor to be arrested or imprisoned outlawed exiled nor forejudged nor put to answer nor to be judged but by award of the said Péers in Parliament which privilege of theirs was both enjoyed and claimed in Parliament 4 E. 3. n. 14 15 E. 3. n. 6 8 44 49 51. 17 E. 3. n. 22. 18 E. 3. n. 7. to 16. 10 R. 2. n. 7 8. 11 R. 2. n. 7 c. and sundry other Parliament Rolls See Cook 4. Instit p. 15. 17 E. 3. 19. Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts f. 4. 12 13. Stamford f. 151 152. This Paradox therefore of his is against all Statutes Law-Books Presidents whatsoever and Magna Charta it self And as false an assertion as that the Subjects are the Judges of their Soveraign the Servants of their Masters the children of their Parents the Wiâ—es of their Husbands the Soldiers of their General and the feet and lower members of the Head The second only Objection more of moment is this If the House of Peers may without the Commons fine and imprison Commoners then if their fine and imprisonment be unjust and illegal they shall be remediless there being no superior Court to appeal unto which will be an intollerable slavery and grievance not to be indured among free-born people I answer first That no injustice shall or ought to be presumed in the highest Court of Justice till it be apparently manifested Secondly If any such censure be given the party as in Chancery upon just grounds shewed may Petition the House of Peers for a review and new hearing of the cause which they in justice neither will nor can deny and if they do then the party grieved may petition the house of Commons to intercede in his behalf to the Peers for a rehearing but for them to discharge free any Commoner judicially censured by the Lords I have hitherto met with no president in former Parliaments nor power in the house of Commons to doe it who cannot reverse Erronious judgements in any inferiour Courts by writ of Error but the Lords alone much less then the judgements of the Higher House of Peers which is paramount them Thirdly I conceive the House of Peers being the Superior Authority and only Judicatory in Parliament may relieve or release any Commoners unjustly imprisoned or censured by the Commons house or any of their Committees and ought in justice to doe it or else there will be the same mischief or a greater in admitting the house of Commons to be Judges of Commoners if there be no appeal from them to the Lords in case their sentences be illegal or unjust Thirdly This mischief is but rare and you may object the same against a sentence given or Law made in Parliament by the King and both Houses because there is no appeal from it but only to the next or some other Parliament that shall be summoned by petition in the nature of a Writ of
LORDS and GREAT MEN as well Ecclesiastical as secular were present inquiry was made whether any were unjustly spoiled and deprived of their rights Whereupon it was shewed that Arch-Bishop Wulfred was unjustly deprived of his just Lordship and Jurisdiction near six years space and forced under pain of confiscation of his goods and banishment to convey three hundred Hydes of Land to him upon condition that he should bee restored to his full Archiepiscopal authority which condition was not performed After the Kings death Abbesse Kenedrytha his daughter and heir was summoned to this Council where the Arch-Bishop complained of the injuries done to himself and Christ-Church in Canterbury by her Father requiring reparations for them from the Abbesse if it were just Whereupon ALL THE COUNCIL held it just and DECREED BY AN UNANIMOUS DECREE that all the Lands and things taken away from the Arch-Bishop by her Father should bee restored together with the profits thereof lost for so long a space as also all the Books and Writings by the Abbesse being heir to the King which was accordingly performed by her King Bertulfus Anno 850. Holding a Great Council with the Prelates and Nobles of the whole Realme of Mercia upon the complaint of Siward and the Monks of Croyland of certain injuries maliciously done unto them by their adversaries in violating the Bounds and Priviledges of their Sanctuary to the great prejudice of their Abby Thereupon the King Prelates and Nobles in this Council for redress of this injury prescribed a Perambulation of their Bounds to be made by the Sheriffe of the County and to certifie the same unto them when made which was accordingly made certified to and confirmed by THE KING PRELATES and NOBLES in the Council held by them at Kingsbury in the year 851. as you may read at large in Ingulphus upon the petition of Abbot Siward After the death of King Edgar Anno 975. there being a great difference between the Nobles of the Realme about electing a new King some of them siding with Ethelred others with Edward his two Sons all the Bishops Abbots and NOBLES assembled in a great Parliamentary Council to debate and determine their rights and titles to the Crown Wherein they elected and crowned Edward the elder Brother King In this Council and two or three more succeeding it at Winchester and Calne the married Priests complained TO THE LORDS that they were unjustly expelled out of their Churches by the Monks and their prevailing party during King Edgars Reign to their dishonour and the great injury of the Nation desiring that the Monks might bee ejected and they restored to their Churches they anciently injoyed about which there were great contests and disputes in sundry Councils the King and LORDS inclining to restore them against Arch-Bishop Dunstans and other Monkish Prelates wills About the year 982. There was a Witenagemâ—t or Parliamentary Council held at London to which the DUKES PRINCES and NOBLES resorting from all parts Adelwold Bishop of Winchester complained that one Leofsi who had purchased Lands of him in the Isle of Ely not only refused to pay for them but also disseised him of three other Mannors The cause being opened and pleaded by the Bishop and the Lawyers flocking thither from all parts They ALL ADJUDGED that the Lands and Mannors should bee restored to the Bishop together with all his dammages and that Leofsi for this his rapine should also pay a fine and ransome to the King Queen Edgen in a civil cause and suit in the County Court between her and Goda appealed from that Court to King Ethelred and a Parliamentary Council at London Congregatis Principibus sapientibus Angliae In the time of St. Edward a suit between the Bishops of Winchester and Durham coram Principibus et Episcopis Regni in praesentia Regis ventilata finita est In the tenth year of King William the Conquerour Episcopi Comites et Barones Regni regia potestate ediversis Provincis ad universalem Synodum pro causis audiendis et tractandis convocati sunt as the Leger Book of Westminster records Hence I suppose it was that what we now call a Parliament was sometimes stiled by our ancient Historians in former ages MAGNUM PLACITUM because of the great Pleas and suits therein decided and judged BY THE KING and LORDS King William the first Anno 1071. held a great Council of his PRELATES and NOBLES at Winchester In hoc Conciliâ— dum caeteri trepidi ut pote Regis aegnâ—scentes animum ne suis honoribus privarentur venerandus Vir Wulstanus Wigorniensis Episcopus quamplures possessiones sui Episcopatus ab Aldredo Archiepiscopo duâ— Ã Wigorniensi Ecclesia ad Eboracensem transferretur sua potentia retentas qui eo tunc defuncto in Regiam potestatem devenerant constanter proclamabat JUSTITIAMQUE INDE FIERI tam AB IPSIS QUI CONCILIO PRAEERANT quam a Rege FLAGITABAT At quia Eboracensis Ecclesia non habens Pastorem qui pro ea loqueretur muta erat JUDICATUM EST ut ipsa querela sic remaneret quousque Archiepiscopo ibi constituto qui Ecclesiam defenderet dum esset qui ejus querelae responderet objectes responsis posset ebidenâ—us et Iustius Iudicium fieri sicque tunc a querela ad tempus remansit But Thomas being soon after consecrated Arch-Bishop of York thereupon reverendi Wulstani Wigorniensis Episcopi mota est iterum querela Archiepiscopo jam consecrato Thoma qui pro Eboracensi loqueretur Ecclesia in Concilio in loco qui vocatur Pedreda celebrato coram Rege ac Doroberniae Aâ—chiepiscopo Lanfranco Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus Primatibus totius Regni Dei gratia adminieulante Terminaâ—um Cunctis siquidem machinationibus non veritate stipatis quâ—bus Thomas ejusque fautores Wigorniensem Ecclesiam deprimere Eboracensi Ecclesiae subjâ—cere aniliamque facere modis omnibus satagebant justo Dei judicio in scriptis evidentissim is detritis penitus annihillatis non solum vir Dei Wulstanus proclamatas expetitas possessiones accepit sed suam Ecclesiam Deo clamante Rege concedente ea libertate liberam suscepit qua primi fundatores ejus sanctus Rex Ethelredus Offa c. ipsam liberaverunt By which History it is apparent that the King and Lords in that age had the sole judicature in civil causes in the Parliaments then held and decided civil Titles and controversies therein between Bishops and spiritual as well as temporal persons In the year-Book of 21 Ed. 3. fol. 60. There is a recital that upon the complaint of the Abbot of St. Edmonds de Bery against the Bishop of Norwich for infringing the liberties of the Abby in the Reign of William the Conquerour in a Parliament held under him most likely in this Council of Pedreda it was ordained per le Râ—y et per Larchebesque de Canterbury et per touts les Auters Ebesques de
Lords gave him remedy by a Writ out of the Chancery Claus 14. E. 2. m. 12. in the Schedula there is a Judgement in Parliament by King Lords and Council touching the Abby of Abingdon and a composition formerly made between the Abbot Prior and monks thereof reversed nulled because inconvenient Claus 14. E. 2. m. 17. dorso there is a case concerning a reprisal brought by appeal out of the Chancery into the Parliament before the King Lords and Council and there heard and decided And Claus 15. E. 2. there are many cases and Writs touching Reprises In the Parliament of 1. E. 3. there were many Judgements given in sundry civil cases upon petitions To the King and his Council by the King Lords and Council extant in the bundle of Petitions and Claus Rolls of that year and those things that were proper for the Courts of Law and Chancery were referred to them to be there ended Claus 1. E. 3. m. 1. Upon the petition of Alice Gill and Robert Carder to the King Council and Parliament that they buying Corne in Abevil in France to transport to London it was arrested by the Baily of St. Valeric to the value of one hundred pounds at the suit of Will de Countepy of Crotye in Picardy and delivered to him against their wills because the Ship of the said Will was taken upon the Sea by the men of Bayon which ship the petitioners finding in the port of London had arrested by writ out of the Chancery directed to the Sheriffes of London until the said hundred pounds was paid them by the Merchant the King and Council ordered upon their petition that the ship might not be discharged till the 100 l. was satisfied that a Writ should be directed out of the Chancery to the Sheriffes of London to do Justice upon the contents in the Petition according to the Law of Merchants The like case of Reprise upon the Petition of Hugh Samson is in 1. E. 3. rot 5. In Claus 1. E. 3. part 1. m. 10. There is a Judgement given by the Lords and Council for the Bishop of Durham touching the Liberties and Royalties of his Bishoprick against the Kings revocation where in sundry Petitions and answers in former Parliament under King Edward the 2d are rehearsed wherein hee could have no right Mem. 12. there is a Judgement given by the Lords and Council in Parliament for the Bishop of York his prisage and preemption of wines next after the King in the Port of Hull and in Claus 1. E. 3. Pâ— 2. m. 11. Claus 4. E. 3. m. 9. remembred in the year Book of 6. E. 3. f. 50. So Claus 2. E. 3. m. 20. in Schedula there is Placitum in Parliamento before the King and his Council of the Dean and Chapter of Litchfield touching their Title to Camock Claus 14. E. 3. part 1. m. 41. Upon the Petition of the Bishop of Carlisle it was resolved by the Lords and Council in that and sundry other Parliaments in the Reign of this King and his Father non esse â—uri consonum that Churches and other things spiritual annexed to Archbishopricks and Bishopricks should belong to the King and Gardians of the temporalties but to the Gardians of the spiritualties and so ordered accordingly yea so was it resolved upon the Petition of the Bishop of Winchester to the King and his Council in the Parliament of Claus 1. E. 3. rot 9. dorso Where coram Rege et Magno Concilio concessum est et concordatum quod custodâ—s temporalium Episcopatus non se intromittant amplius temporibus vacationum hujusmodi fructibus Ecclesiarum de Estanmer Hamoldan annexed to the Bishoprick of Winchester In the Parliament of 14. E. 3. Sir Geoffry Stantens case upon his Petition to the King and Lords in Parliament the Justices of the Common Pleas came with the record of his case which had long depended before them in the Court of Common Pleas which being read and debated in the presence of all the LORDS Justices and others of the Kings Council their assistants in this case of Law they resolved that the Sonne being a stranger might aver that his Father who levyed the fine had nothing in the Lands and that the Wife in this case could not vouch her Husband And thereupon a Writ under the great Seal was sent to the Judges by the Lords order to give judgement accordingly Claus 35. E. 3. m. 40. A villain commits fellony and is attainted after that the Lord had seised his goods whereupon his goods were prized and seised on for the King notwithstanding the Lords seisure upon a Petition in Parliament It was resolved by the Lords and Council that it was just the goods should be restored to the Lord if they were not seised fraudulently to prevent the Kings seisure of them And a Writ of Restitution was thereupon awarded per ipsum Regem et per Petitionem in Parliamento In the 6. year of King Richard the 2d it was agreed between the Duke of Lancaster and the Scots in the Marches that for the benefit of both parties ut â—de caterâ— ipsi nee Anglici vexarenâ—ur per tot labores expensas sed singulis annis certi utriusque gentis destinarentur ad Parliamentum Regni utriusque qui et injurias acceptas proferrent in medium emendas acciparent secundum quantitatem damuâ—rum per Judicium Dominorum here the Lords both in the Parliament of England and Scotland are made sole Judges of injuries and dammages done by Scots or English upon one another in the Marches Quia vero Scoti ad Parliamentum Londoniis Anno 1383. supersederunt venire juxta conductum insuper damna interim plura Borealibus praesumpserunt inferre c. decretum est per Parliamentum ut frangenti fidem fides frangatur eidem Et concessae sunt Borealibus commissiones congregandi virtutem exercitus Scotis resistendi damna pro damnis inferendi quoties contingeret Scotos irrumpere vel hostili mâ—re partes illas intrare In the Parliament of 4. H. 4. n. 9. Upon the complaint of Sir Thomas Pomeroy and his Lady against Sir Philip Courtney and others forcible entry into several Lands and Mannors in the Country of Devon The King and Lords adjudged that the said Sir Thomas should enter into the said Mannors and Lands if his entry were lawful or bring his Assize without all delayes at his election In the Parliament of 5. H. 4. n. 41 42 43 44. in a case concerning Mannors and certain Lands in the County of Cornwal between the Prince and John Cornwal and the Countesse of Huntington his wife the King and Lords gave Iudgement that the Prince should â—e restored to the said Mannors and Lands being parcels of the Dutchey of Cornwal and that the Prince after seisin had should regrant them unto them which was done accordingly in Parliament In 6 H. 4 n. 28. Upon the Petition of
very year-books of 22 E. 3. f. 18. a. where a Juror in the Grand Assise was challenged because he was a Baner or Baron and this Challenge not allowed car sil soit a BANER ne tient pas per BARONI il seruera in l'assise By 48 E. 3. f. 30 b. Brook Challenge 37. where Sir Ralph Everden Knight brought a writ out of Chancery and also a privy Seal to the Justices rehearsing that he was a Baron and commanding them to discharge him from being sworn in Assises because Barons ought not to be sworn in any Enquest or recognisance against their wills Whereupon Judge Belknap examined him Sil tient per Borony sil avera tout ceo temps Venus a Parlement come Baron duist vener who answered That he held by a certain part of a Barony and that he and his Ancestors had alwayes held so After which upon good advice he was discharged The tenure by Barony and comming to Parliaments in Belknaps opinion being that which makes men Barons not the general writ of Summons unless they held by Barony which Opinion is fortified by An. 3 H. 3. Fitzh Prescription 56. M. 4 H. 3. Dower 180. M. 23 H. 3. Partition 18. Tr. 18. 2 E. 2. Fitz. Assise 383. 39 E. 3.35 b. 34 H. 6.50 Trial. 18.35 H. 6.40 a. Sir Edward Cooks 4 Instit p. 47. Gilbert de Vmphrevils case with what Sir Edward himself hath observed in his 4 Instit p. 5. which I thought fit to add for further clearing of this moot-point to what I have herein collected touching this Subject 5ly I have here p. 57. to 132.243 to 258.264 to 267. 192. to 206 c. produced many memorable presidents and Records of our Lords and Barons magnanimous strenuous unanimous oppositions of all Regal and Papal Usurpations Oppressions Exactions Encroachments on the peoples Liberties or properties in former ages in our Parliaments of their care vigilancy industry courage to gain retain confirm and perpetuate to posterity those Grand Charters of our Liberties and Fundamental Laws privileges franchises which we formerly enjoyed by their valour and so long contested for both in Parliaments and the field against the late King with the prodigal expence of much Christian bloud and many Millions of Treasure Which yet now at last are almost totally lost betrayed deserted disowned both by the Nobility Gentry Lawyers Clergy and Commonalty of the Nation through base unworthy unchristian unEnglish ignoble fear and cowardise to their eternal infamy and reproach unless the God of the spirits of all flesh shall infuse new life and English Spirits into their spiritless stupid timorous faint-hearted slavish and almost despairing Souls by the serious contemplation of those heroick presidents of their ancestors here represented to their view especially when publikely assembled in Parliament and pressed to burden the people with new Aydes and Taxes though very rare small and inconsiderable in respect of the manifold heavy incessant Taxes Excises Imposts which we have for many years last past susteined to fight our selves into greater slavery beggary confusion every year than other and hasten the total and final desolation of Church State Religion Laws Liberties Parliaments kingdom if God of his infinite goodness prevent it not by induing the Lords of the Great Council of Parliament and all the Nobility Clergy Lawyers Gentry Commonalty and Soldiery of the Land with Grace wisdom understanding magnanimity unanimity and activity to know and pursue in this their day the things which belong to their peace liberty ease and settlement which shall be my daily Letany for them 6ly I have here published to your view the Articles proceedings â—udgements in Parliament against the two Spencers Roger Mâ—rtimer Earl of March King Edward the 2. and Richard the 2. out of the Records themselves more fully truly than they are related by our vulgar Historians to rectify some mistakes in them and presented you with the memorable petition of the Commons and the Kings answer thereunto in the Parliament of 1 Edw. 4. setting forth his pedegree Title to the Crown at large disproving the Titles of Henry the 4 5 6. branding them as meer Usurpers condemning Henry the 4. his deposition and murder of King Richard the 2. as a most tyrannical wicked bloudy unchristian act Murder execrable both to God and men which drâ—w down exemplary Judgements on the land and occasioned bloudy intestine wars repealing all proceedings Acts Ordinances for the establishment of this Usurper and attainting K. Henry the 6. his Queen Son and all their adherents of High Treason A record never formerly published And I have cleared these presidents from those false inferences to prove the Commons joynt interest in the Judicature of Parliament with the Lords and justifie those exorbitant proceedings which some have erroniously deduced from them 7ly In this plea I have for the most part recited the passages of our antient Parliaments and Records in the same language our old Historians and Records relate them both to avoid all suspitions of any mistranslation and because their own language more elegantly expresseth them and will give greater satisfaction to the learned of all professions for whose benefit and instruction I have chiefly published them not for the illiterate vulgars than any translation whatsoever If there be any lack-Latin Lords or Lawyers of so ignoble education or extraction that they cannot understand them I presume they have some Chaplains Secretaries Steward or Clerk belonging to them or learned friends near them who can interpret those passages in it which will be a shame for any Nobleman or Lawyer to profess in publike he understands nor for if Lawyers understand not Latin or French Records when printed how will they be able to read or make use of them in the Tower or Treasuries the principal Magazines both of that kind of learning and Law which concerns either our Parliamentary or State-affairs which will be wholly lost in few years more if all Students of the Law as many now do turn English Lawyers only and cast off the use both of Latine and Law-French in their publike Mootes the readiest method to make them real Ignoramusses and as void of Law as of these Languages wherein the Records are registred It is our Saviours observation John 3.19 20. That light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be discovered or reproved And St. Paul complains of the foolish Galathians whom some had bewitched that they should not obey the truth that though at first they so respected him that if possible they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him yet soon after reputed him to be their enemy because he told them the truth I doubt the old and new Lights and unknown Parliamentary truths proceedings discovered to the ignorant blind world in this Plea
right duty to be personally present in Parl. and ever have been so as well as the Commons and neither of them to be excluded since they all make up but one Parliament that no Lords Commons ought to depart from it without special leave under pain of amercement and other penalties That no binding Law can be passed without their joynt consents And that the Commons alone are no more a Parliament of themselves without the King and Lords than the Common Councel of London are an intire City or Corporation without the L. Mayor and Aldermen or the Covent without the Abbot the Chapter without the Dean or the legs or belly a perfect man without the head neck and heart Sixthly The antient and constant form of endorsing Bills in Parliament began in the Commons house in all Parliaments since the House of Commons unanswerably demonstrates the Commons of Englands acknowledgement of the Lords right to sit vote assent or dis-assent to Bills in Parliament viz. Soit Bayle a Seigneurs let it be delivered or sent up to the Lords Yea the Commons constant sending up of their own Members with Messages to the Lords their receiving Messages from them and entertaining frequent conferences with them in matters wherein their opinions differ in which conferences the Lords usually adhere to their dissents unlesse the Commons give them satisfaction and convince them and the Lords oft times convince the Commons so far as to consent to their alterations of Bills Ordinances Votes and to lay them quite aside is an unquestionable argument of their Right to sit and vote in Parliament and of their Negative voice too All which would prove but a meer absurdity superfluity if the Commons in all ages and now too were not convinced that the Lords had as good right to sit and vote in Parliament and a Negative dissenting voice as well as they never once questioned nor doubted till within this year or two by some seditious disciples of Lilburns and Overtons tutoring who endeavoured to evade their justice on them Seventhly This just right of the Lords is expresly and notably confirmed by all the Commons of England in the Parliament of 31 H. 8. c. 10. concerning the placing and sitting of the Lords and great Officers of State in the Parliament House made by the Commons consent it being in vain to make such a Law continuing still till this very day both in force and use if they had no lawfull right to sit and vote in Parliament because they are not elective as Knights and Burgesses are And likewise by the Statute of 39 H. 6. c. 1. made at the Commons own Petition to repeal the Parliament held at Coventry the year before and all procedings of it by practice of some seditious persons of purpose to destroy some of the great Nobles faithfull and lawfull Lords and Estates meerly out of malice and greedy and unsatiable covetousness to possesse themselves of their Lands possessions offices and goods whereby many great injuries Enormities and Inconveniences well nigh to the ruine decay and universal subversion of the kingdom ensued The very design of our Lilburnists Sectaries and Levellers now out of particular malice and covetousness to share the Lords and all rich Commoners lands and estates between them being poor indigent covetous people for the most part scarce forty of them worth one groat at least before these times and wars 8ly This apparent Right of theirs is undeniably ratified acknowledged by the very words of the Kings writs in all ages by which the Lords themselves are summoned to the Parliament running in this form Carolus c. Charissimo consaguineo suo Edwardo Com. Oxon. salutem Quia de advisamento consensu consilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis et urgentibus negotiis Nos statum et defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Angli canae concernentibus quoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram Westmonasterium 12 die Novemb. prox futuro tenere ordinavimus et ibidem vobiscum cum Praelatis Magnatibus et Proceribus dicti regni nostri colloquium havere ettractare Vobis sub fide ligeantiis quibus nobis teneamur firmiter injungendo Mandamus quod consideratis dictorum negotiorum arduitate periculis minentibus cessante excusatione quacunque dictis die et loco personaliter inter sitis Nobiscum ac cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus praedictis super dictis negotiis tractaturus vestrumque consilium impensurus sicut Nos et honorem nostrum ac salvationem et defensionem Regni et Ecclesiae praedictorum expeditionem que dictorum negotiorum diligitis nullatenus omittatis Teste c. Which writs firmly require and command their personal presence counsel and advise in all Parliaments without any excuse and that by the faith and allegiance which they owe to the King and as they doe tender the King and his honour the salvation and defence of the Realm and Church of England and the dispatch of the arduous and urgent businesses which concern them Which is likewise seconded expressed in the very words of all the writs for election of Knights and Burgesses the form and substance whereof are antient and can recive no alteration nor addition but by Act of Parliament as Sir Edward Cook resolves By this Writ the Prelates Great men Nobles of the Realm are summoned to the Parliament there to treat and confer with the King of the arduous and urgent affairs and defence of the King Realm and Church of England as the first Clause of the writ Carolus c. quia c. pro quibusdam arduis et urgentibus negotiis Nos Statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernent quoddam Parliamentum nostrum c. teneri ordinavimus ibidem cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostri colloquium haberet tractare Tibi praecipimus And the Commons are summoned to perform and consent to those things which shall there happen to be ordained by this Common Council of the Kindom c. And if they are thus summoned not to treat amongst themselves as an independent intire Parliament but to confirm and consent to what the King Prelates Great men and Peers the Common Council of the Realm shall ordain about such affairs as they must of necessity admit the King Lords and Peers to be altogether as essential yea more principal eminent Members of Parliament though not elective as the Knights and Burgesses who are but summoned to consent to and perform what shall happen there by their common advise to be ordained or at least to consult and advise with them as their inferiours not to over-rule them as their superiours and the only Supream power authority in the Kingdom So if they will totally exclude either King or Lords from the Parliament who are distinct principal and essential Members of it as well as the Commons and have always been so reputed until now
est satisfactum The Pope hereupon taking more boldness than before to trample the English Prelates Clergy under his feet fleece them imperiose solito imperiofius Praelatis Angliae demandavit ut in Anglia omnes beneficiati in suis beneficiis residentiam facientes tertiam partem bonorum suorum Domino Papae conferrent non facientes residentiam dimidiam multis adjectis durissimis conditionibus praedictum mandatum restringentibus per illum verbum et adjectionem detestabilem NON OBSTANTE quae omnem extinguit justitiam praehabitam The Bishops assembling in convocation to exact it the King thereupon by his Nobles advice and instigation sent Sir John de Lexeton a Knight and Lawrence St. Marin his Clark to them strictly commanding them in the kings behalf not to consent by any means to this contribution demanded by the Pope to the desolation of the English kingdom The next year 1247. Vrgente Papali mandato redivivo de importabili contributione Papali praetacta ad quam Episcopi in generali Concilio Clerum infeliciter obligarent fecit Dominus Rex MAGNATES SUOS nec non et Angliae Archidiaconos per scripta sua Regia Londini convocari Quo cum pervenissent die ptaefixo Episcopi omnes sese gratis absentarunt ne viderentur propriis factis eminus adversari Sciebant enim corda omnium usque ad animae amaritudinem sauciri Convenerunt tunc ibidem Archidiaconi Angliae nec non et totius regni Cleri pars non minima CUM IPSIS MAGNATIBUS conquerentes communiter super intolerabilibus frequentibus exactionibus Domini Papae pro quibus Dominus Rex non mediocriter compatiendo tristabatur Res enim publica periclatabatur et commune negotium regni totius agebatur imminebat tam populi quam cleri inanis desolatio et cunctis temporibus inaudita After long consultation the King and Nobles by common advise resolved to send a remonstrance of all their grievances together with Letters in the name of the whole Parliament and kingdom to the Pope and his Cardinals speedily to redress them which Letters they sealed with the Common Seal of the City of London thereby obtained some shew of redress of their grievances which the Nobles further prosecuted and complained of in another Parliament the selfsame year Dominus Rex comperiens regnum suum enormiter undique periclitari by the Popes exactions taxes oppositions jussit OMNEM TOTIUS REGNI NOBILITATEM CONVOCARI ut de statu ipsius tam manifeste periclitantis Oxoniae contrectarent Praelatos autem ad hoc Parliamentum vocavit anxius quia videbat eos tam frequenter per Papulâ—s extortiones depauperari quod frequentia consuetudinem regni ruinam manifeste minabatur Sperabatur igitur communiter aliquod salubre Ecclesiae et universitati ibi statuendum quod tamen omnes fefellit through the Prelates and Clergies cowardise and the kings overmuch compliance with the Pope the Nobles only continuing constant in their oppositions against these papal exactions and enormities being more zealous for the Churches Clergies Prelates liberties against the Popes intolerable exactions oppressions incroachments than they themselves and the only persons who manfully and constantly maintained them when the King Prelates and Clergy through fear cowardise and treachery betrayed and deserted them Anno 1264. Pope Urban being much incensed against the BARONS spoiling the goods of Ecclesiastical persons who were Aliens advanced by his provisions said That he desired to live no longer but till he had subdued the English whereupon he sent a Legate towards England a great Person to wit Sabin a Bishop Cardinal to interdict the Land and excommunicate THE BARONS the oppugners of his Provisions But when he would have entred England he found he could not safely do it by reason of the Barons resistance Whereupon citing some Bishops of the Realm first to Ambayonne and afterwards to Bononia Sententiam excommunicationis et interdictionis super Civitatem Londoniae et 5. Portus necnon quasdam personas illustres ET NOBILES REGNI fulminatum commisit exequendam At illi Sententiam illam contra justitiam illatam attendentes appellarunt ad Papam ad meliora tempora vel ad generale Concilium necnon et supremuÌ„ judiceÌ„ certis de causis et rationibus commendabilibus Quae postea appellatio in Anglia congregato apud Radingum Concilio recitata est et ab Episcopis et Clero approbata et executa Interdictum autem licet inviti suscipientes a Legato praedicti Episcopi secum detulerunt Sed cum applicuissent Doveriae scrutinio ex more in portu facto intâ—â—â—eptum est a Civibus et in minutias dilaneatum jactatur in mare So little did they then regard and so much detest and scorn the Popes unjust Interdict in so just a cause An. 2 E. 1. Rot. Fin. m. 9. in Sched Cook 4 Inst p. 13. Pope Gregory by his Letters demanding the rent of 1000. marks by the year of K. Ed. the 1. reserved for England upon his regranting the Realm to King John the king writ thus to him Se sine PRAELATIS ET PROCERIBUS REGNI NON POSSE RESPONDERE quod jurejurando in coronatione sua fuit astrictus QVOD JURA REGNI SUI SERVARET ILLIBATA nec aliquid quod Diadema tangit Regni ejusdem absque ipsorum requisitus consilio facere And the Parliament being ended he could doe nothing without them who afterwards gallantly opposed his usurpations as will appear by this following president King Edward the 1. in the 29. year of his reign being summoned by the Pope by himself or his Proctors to declare his right to the Realm of Scotland in his Court at Rome where he should receive justice concerning it The King thereupon called a Parliament to consult about it where he refused to return any answer by himself but committed it to the Earls and other Lords of the Land to return the Pope an answer thereunto Who making a large and learned Historical Remonstrance of the subjection of Scotland and her Kings to the Kings of England and of their Homage done to them in all ages as their Soveraign Lords sent it to the Pope with this notable Letter signed as Mat. Westminster and Sir Edward Cook inform us with no less than 100 Seals of Arms of Earls and Barons in the name of the whole Parliament and Kingdom Sancta Romana Ecclesia per cujus ministerium fides Catholica in suis artibus cum ea ut firmiter credimus et teneamus maturitate procedit quod nulli praejudicare sed singulorum jura conservari velit illaesa Sane convocato nuper per Serenissimum Dominum nostrum Edwardum Dei gratia regem Angliae illustrem Parliamento apud Lincolniam generali idem Dominus noster quasdam literas Apostolicas quas super certis negotiis conditionem et statum Regni ex vestra parte receperat in medio exhiberi ac
elect such other persons to represent assent and vote for them in Parliament in whom they most confided Sixthly our Peers in Parliament though they there serve for the good of the whole Kingdom which hath always trusted to them in matters of Counsel Judicature and making Laws yet they represent no persons but themselves only or their families Tenants Friends and Allies which depend upon them and bear their own expences which are so great and chargeable that the Abbot of St. James without Northampton in the Parliament of 12 E. 2. and the Abbot of Leicester in the the 26 of E. 3. being summoned to Parliament petitioned and procured themselves and their successors to be exemped from any future summons to and attendance in the Lords House as Barons of the Realm both because they held no lands of the King by Barony but only in frank almoign and their Predecessors had not formerly or usually been summoned to Parliaments sed vicibus interpolatis only And likewise because it would tend to the great grievance and loss of them and their houses and much impoverish them by reason of the great expence it would bring upon them One Peer and his retinue expending more every Parliament than the wages of 40 or 50 Knights and Burgesses amount to Wherefore there is no shadow of reason why the people should elect them since they doe not represent them nor pay them wages as they doe to their Knights Citizens Burgesses who serve for and represent them Wherefore their Levelling Oppugners may as well argue That our Nobles ought to be elected by the people to their Honors Lands Estates which descend unto them from their Ancestors not from the common people as that they ought to sir in Parliament by the peoples election only to represent themselves in their own right not the people And that the Knights of the Shire ought to be elected to their dignity of Knighthood which the King only confers on them or to their Lands and Freeholds which they enjoy in their own right because they are elected by the Free-holders to sit in Parliament in their right who elected them nor their own alone which Barons doe not 7ly On these grounds the suppressing debasing captivity or slaughter of the Princes Lords and Nobles of a kingdom or Nation is by God himself defined to be an immediate forerunner concomitant cause of the Kingdoms Nations ruine and slavery and a matter of great lamentation Ezech. 19.1.14 c. 17.12 Lam. 1.6 c. 2.2 c. 5.12 Prov. 19.10 c. 30.21.22 Eccl. 10.5 7. Isay 3.4 c. c. 34.11 12 13. c. 40.23 c. 43.28 Jer. 4.9 c. 27.20 c. 29. c. 25.18 19. c. 50.35.41 51 55. c. 52.16 Hos 7.16 Amos 2.15 c. 2.2 3. 2 Kings 24.14 Mich. 3.7 2 Chron. 24.23 Jer. 24.8 9. And the continuing of Kings Princes and Nobles in honour and power in any kingdom and nation are reputed and resolved by God to be the greatest honour happiness defence safety and preservation of that kingdom and people Jer. 17.24 25. c. 22.4 Eccles 10.17 Jer. 30.21 Psal 68.27 28. Prov 8.15 16. Isay 32.1 1. Chron. 23.2 c. c. 28.1 c. c. 29.24 25. Gen. 17.6.16 c. 35.11 2 Sam. 11 12. 1 Chron. 14.2 c. 28.4 5. c. 2 Chron. 2.11 c. 9.8 1 Kings 11.32 36. 2 Chron. 21.6 7. 2 King 8.18 19. 1 Kings 15 45. 2 Chron. 23.3.11.20 21. c. 9.26.27 Numb 24.7 Ezech. 37 22 29. Mich. 2.13 c. 4.8 Therfore they cannot be rejected suppressed by us now without apparent danger ruine and desolation to our kingdom whatever frantick Levellers and others fancy to the contrary who would be more than Kings and Lords themselves over the Nation could they once suppress both King and Lords as they design and endeavour By all which premises it is most apparent That our Lords and Barons sitting voting in Parliament who if you take them poll by poll have in all ages been more able Parliament-men States-men in all respects than the Commons though chosen by the people who alwayes make not choice of the best and wisest men as experience manifests is not only just lawfull in respect of Right and Title but originally instituted upon such grounds of Reason Justice Equity Policy as no rational understanding man can dislike or contradict but must subscribe to as necessary and convenient and so still to be continued supported in this their Right and Honour to moderate the Excesses Encroachments both of King and Commons one upon the other and keep both of them within their just and antient bounds for the kingdoms peace and safety The rather for that the very Act made this Parliament for the preventing of inconveniences happening through the long intermission of Parliaments not only enacts and requires ALL the Lords and Barons of this Realm to meet and sit in every Parliament under a penalty but likewise prescribes an Oath to the Lord Keeper and Commissioners of the Great Seal under severe penalties to send forth Writs of Summons to Parl. TO THEM ALL and in their default enables and enjoyns the Peers of the Realm or any twelve or more of them to issue forth Writs of Summons to Parliament under the Great Seal of England for the electing of Knights Citizens and Burgesses which Act will be meerly void and nugatory if their Votes and Right to sit in Parliament be denyed or the House of Peers reduced to the House of Commons which this very Statute doth distinguish Now whereas our whimsical Lilburnists and Levellers object that the Lords have no right to sit or vote in our Parliaments because they are not elected as Knights and Burgesses by the people under which Notion alone when thus elected they will admit them a place and vote in the Commons house but not otherwise I must inform these Ignoramusses that by the Laws Statutes of our Realm and the custom resolution of our Parliaments the Earls Lords and Barons of the Realm are altogether uncapable of being elected Knights or Burgesses to serve in Parliament and their elections as such meerly void and null in Law to all intents This is most apparent 1. By the very words of the writs of Summons to the Lords whereby they are summoned Nobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus et Proceribus dicti Regni nostri colloquium habere tractare c. vestrumque consilium impensuri c. not to treat conferr and consult with the Knights Citizens and Burgesses 2. By the express words of the Writs for the electing of Knights Citizens and Burgesses which have the same clause and then enjoyn the Sherifs to cause to be elected and returned duos Milites magis idoâ—eos discretos Comitatus praedicti de qualibet Civitate duos Cives de quolibet Burgo duos Burgenses de discretioribus magis sufficientibus c. ad faciendum et consentiendum hiis quae tunc c. Which disables them to elect any Lords or
and otherwise punished for their contempt because bound therto by their voluntary acceptance of such a special Patent and dignity But if they be summoned only by a general Writ against their wills being no Lords of Parl. by special Patent or Writ before this doth neither make the one nor other Barons nor ennâ—ble their heirs males or successors nor oblige them to serne nor subject them to any fine for contempt for then the King by his Writ might summon all the Knights Esquires Gentlemen and any other Commoner Freeman Lawyer Clergy man of the Realm to the Lords House as a Member at his pleasure and fine them for a contempt in not appearing and thereby increase that House in infinitum and make it a mungril House of all sorts of degrees and professions of men instead of aâ— House of Lords to its utter subversion against the fundamental constitution and privilege of that House Therefore such Writs of summons must be void and null in Law as well as the Patent to Abbot Banham as Sir Ed. Cook asserts it for that he was neither Baro nor held per Baroniam Now whereas he asserts That Knights and Esquires who hold not by Barony cannot refuse when summoned by Writ to serve the King in Parliament but yet Abbots and other regular Prelates that hold not by Barony may because they are dead in Law as to secular affairs and therefore not capable to have voice in Parliament unless they hold by Barony and were called by Writ This reason of the difference is most absurd and unreasonable For 1. They are both Subjects to the king alike and so both equally obliged to serve and counsel him in Parliament 2ly If their tenures by Barony could make them capable to have place and voice in Parliament though dead in Law quoad secularia then much more the kings and the kingdoms need of their presence counsel and advice in Parliament touching the weighty affairs concerning himself and the defence and preservation of the Realm and Church of England when specially summoned by his writ to Parliament 3ly Though they were dead in some sence only in respect of their natural capacities to the world yet in their politick capacities they were not so but secular still to sue purchase advise c. as well as Laymen in the right of their Houses 4ly Parliaments being always summoned as well to advise of Ecclesiastical things touching the Church as of temporal things concerning the Realm of England their being dead to the world quoad secularia could no more enable them to refuse to serve in Parliament then Laymen quoad Ecclesiastica negotia therein treated of which concerned the Church and Laymen according to the doctrine in Popish times might as well refuse to serve in Parliament when summoned because they were no Ecclesiastical or religious persons who were properly to consult of the affairs of the Church of England as religious persons be exempted from and refuse to serve therein because dead to the world quoad secularia negotia concerning the King and Realm of England there debated and consulted of 4ly The true and only ground then why such Abbots Priors and all other Clergy men who held not by Barony might refuse to serve in the Lords House of Parliament when summoned by Writ was this that they held not of the King by Barony and upon this ground alone the Abbot of St. James without Northampton summoned to Parliament by Writ Anno 12 Ed. 2. upon his Proctors appearance and Petitions for him in Parliament recorded at large by Mr. Selden out of the Leger-book of the Abby worthy perusal being most full in point was discharged from his attendance his name struck out of the Roll and Register of the Chancery by the Chancellor and his Council as not one of the list of those who ought to be summoned for this very reason because NON TE NET PER BARONIAM nec de Rege in capite sed tantum in puram perpetuam Eleemosynam nec ipse Abbas nec Predecessores sui unquam in Cancellaria irrotulari fuerunt except only in 49 H. 3. m. 10. Schedula voluntarie nec ad Parliamentum citati hucusque VNDE PETIT habuit remedium And upon the self same reason the Abbot of Leicester and his successors were by special Patent in 26 E. 3. de veniendo ad Parliam Consilia nostra et haeredâ—m nostrorum de caetero quieti sint et exempti in perpetuum hough this Abbots predecessors had formerly been summoned to and sate in Parliaments interpolatis vicibus but noâ— continuè because idem Abbas aliquas terras senteâ—ementa de Nobis per Baroniam seis aâ—o modo non tenet per quod ad Parliamenta seu Consilia nostra venire teneatur The King reciting this as the only ground of his exemption and thereupon Nolentes Abbatâ—m indebite sic vexari granted him and his successors this Patent of Exemption upon which his name was cancelled in the Clause Roll of 25 E. 3. part 1. m. 5. dorso and this written in the margin against it Abbas Leicestriae cancellatur quia habet cartam Regis quod non compellatur venire ad Parliamentum And that of Dors Claus 11 E. 3. par 2. m. 11. 13 E. 3. par 2. m. 28. 1. cited by Mr. Selden Sir Edw. Coke in his Margin mentioned in a Bill in Parliament Que toutes les religioses que teignont per Barony sayent tenus de venier au Parlament is also direct iâ— point That those who hold not by Barony are not bound to serve in Parl. be they Religious persons or Lay persons who are not Peers or Lords of Parliament upon general writs of summons such Summons of them being AN UNDUE VEXATION OF THEM as King Edward stiles it in his Patent unless they voluntarily appear upon such a Summons as this Patent informs us those who were summoned in 49 H. 3. all did This reason therefore exempting all Abbots Peers and religious persons from service and attendance in the Lords House in Parliaments though summoned thereto by writ must necessarily exempt all Knights and Laymen from it there being the self same ground justice equity for it in both yea the selfsame unjustice vexation mischief to both and by consequence the selfsame Law And if this be Law as these Presidents Judgements Records expresly resolve it to be beyond contradiction Then it inevitably follows that the General writ of Summons to Parliament alone doth neither create the persons summoned to it nor their heirs or successors Barons Lords or Peers of the Realm unless they hold by Barony no although they sit once or twice in Parliaments by vertue of them or interpolatis vicibus but not continue as the Abbots of Leicester did for then they could not allege or plead their not holding Lands of the King in Barony or any other tenure binding them to sit and serve in Parliament
vote down the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and reverse their Orders and Judgements in their Court upon appeals unto them They being in nature of Grand Jury men and the General Inquisitors of the Realm to inquire of present and impeach transmit delinquents of all sorts in Parliament to the Lords House their only Judges Cooks 4. Instit p. 24. 3ly That the King and House of Lords are now of right and still ought to be the only true and proper Judges of all Parliamentary Causes and Controversies Civil Ecclesiastical or Criminal whether they concern Peers Clergymen or Commoners as they were originally before any Knights Citizens or Burgesses summoned to them To clear this from all Scruples and avoid mistakes I must inform you that there is a twofold way of proceeding and judgeing in Parliaments The 1. extraordinary and extrajudicial by way of Bill Act or Ordinance by the Legislative power alone such Bills Acts Ordinances ratifying only the precedent judgements of the Lords passed against Malefactors being not any proper actual Judgements in their own name This is evident by one of the first cases wherin the Commons after their admission into our Parliaments were made parties to a Judgement by way of Bill In the Parliament of 15 E. 2. there were sundry Articles of High Treason in accroaching royal Power in divers cases c. as likewise of misdemeanour and Breach of the Great Charter exhibited against the 2. Hugh Spencers both privy Counsellors of the realm which upon examination were found true BY THE EARLS BARONS OTHER PEERS OF THE LAND Parquoy NOVS PIERS DE LATERRE COUNTS BARONS en la presence nostre SEIGNOUR LE ROY AGARD que Sir Hugh le Despenser le Fitz Sir Hugh le Despenser le piere soient disheritz a touts jours come disheritours de la corone enemies du roy de son people que ilz soient de tout exiles hors du royalme Dangliterre sans retourner in nul temps si ceo ne soit de assent nostre Seignor le Roy de lassent DES PRELATS COUNTS ET BARONS et ceo en parlement duement somons Et les donons port a Dover nul parte aillours a voyder a passer hors du royalm Dangliterre enter cy la feast de sainct John le Baptist prochein avenir cest jour accompte Et si lesâ— it Sir Hugh Sir Hugh demurgent en le royalme Dangliterre oustre le dit jour que done lour est de voyder de passer come desuis est dist ou que apres le dit jour retournet adonques soit fait de eux come de enemies de roy de roialme This judgement being given against them in Parliament only by the Peers Earls and Barons in the presence of the King as the Close of the Act for their banishment and Clause Roll of that year recite thereupon there was an Act drawn up wherein all the Articles and the judgement given against them are recited for confirmation of this Judgement wherein the Prelates and Commons were made parties though not to the judgement it self beginning thus Al honeur de deiu c. luy monstrent Prelates Counts Barons et les autres Pieres de la terre COMMON de Royalm contre Sir Hugh c. To which Act the King much against his will to prevent a warr consented The History of the Lords proceedings against these Spencers is thus related by Walsingham There falling out a difference between Hugh Spencer the younger and Earl of Hereford about lands which Spencer purchased of William de Brews which the Earl desired to buy and had first contracted for but Spencer by his power at Court bought from him the Earl thereupon being much incensed complained of this injury to Thomas Earl of Lancaster qui allicientes caeteros pene cunctos Comites Barones in partem suam conjurationem fecerunt maximum ad vivendum moriendum pro justitia regni proditores pro viribus destruendis praecipue utrunque Hugonem de Spencer patrem scilicet atque filium quos odio inexorabili perstringebant eo maxime quia regem ducebant pro suae voluntatis arbitrio in tantum quod nec Comes nec Baro nec Episcopus quicquam valuit expedire in Curia sine horum consilio vel favore Omnium ergo livore persequebantur qui omnibus pene dominabantur quo plus crevit eorum gloria eo amplius contra illos crevit invidia quae semper accrescit abundantia aliorum Igitur Barones duce Thoma de Lancastria apud Shirborn in Elmedon convenerunt faederati prout dicitur juramentis astricti ad prosequendum propositum usque ad corporis animae divisionem Sed tamen pene cuncti praeâ—er Thomam de Lancastria Humfridum Comitem de Herefordia paucos alios ante finem negotii retrorsum abierunt prae timore mortis sese Regi dediderunt sed haec inferius plenius videbuntur Cumque Barones ut praefertur apud Shirburnam convenissent quosdam artirulos proscriptionem dictorum Hugonis Hugoniâ— composuerunt sed tamen vias juris et aequitatis in hac parte penitus omiserunt suorum pro tempore exequentes impetus animorum Nam illorum bona qui illis vel amicitia vel affinitate juncti fuerant furibunde invadebant capientes castra per violentiam vastantes praedia per malitiam perimentes famulos reperâ—os iâ— custodiis eorundem dolentes ob hoc tantummodo quod eorum personas capere quos oderunt minime potuerunt praedicta furia de die in diem vires sumente Barones vexillis explicatis ad sanctum Albanum veniunt per viam deripientes ubique victualiâ— pauperes terrae gravantes In hac comitiva fuerant quidam qui propter inveteratum odium monasterium sancti Albani dictique loci Monachos se gravaturos devoverant Sed tamen disponente Deo qui neminem temptari permittit supra vires horum magister autor tantae malitiae in villa de Alysbury priusquam ad sanctum AlbanuÌ„ attingeret morbo percussus irremediabili propriis seipsum descerpit manibus post duos dies miserabiliter expiravit Caeteri tam formidabili tremefacti vindicta casum pro miracuâ—o reputantes ab executione voti illiciti timore magis quam amore destiterunâ— Magnates vero apud sanctum Albanum cum suis armatis exercitibus per triduum perhen inâ—ntes miserunt solennes ad Regem nuncios Londoniis commorantem Londoniensem Sarisburiensem Eliensem Herefordensem Cicistrensem Praesules qui tunc apud sanctum Albanum convenerant pro pace reformanda mandantes ut dominus rex non solum suam vacuaret curiam sed regnum suum de regni Proditoribus Hugone Hugone le Spencer per communitatem terrae in multis condemnatis articulis exiliumque meritum subire permitteret si diligeret regni pacem Petierunâ— Barones insuper
the Attainders repealed by Bill afterwards In the Parliament of 25 H. 8. c. 12. Elizabeth Barkin Richard Master Edward Barkin and sundry others were attainted and condemned of High Treason John Fisher Bishop of Rochester Thomas Gold and others of misprission of High Treason by Act of Parliament In the Parliament of 28 H. 8. c. 7. Queen Anne George Lord Rochford Sir Henry Norris Sir Francis Weston William Breerton Esquire and Mark Sutton were convicted and attainted of High Treason and their lands forfeited by Bill In the Parliament of 32 H. 8. Thomas Lord Cornwell was convicted and attainted of High Treason by Bill against Law and the great Charter without ever being called to answer or any legal hearing for the Treasons therein expressed according â—o his own intentions to have thus proceeded against others without legal tryal In the Parliament of 33 H. 8. c. 21. Queen Katherine Jane Lady Rochford were convicted and attainted of High Treason by Bill to which Act the king was enabled to give his royal assent by Letters Patents signed by him under his hand with his great Seal notified and published in the HIGHER HOUSE to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons there assembled without comming to the House in person to give his royal assent thereto In the Parliament of 2 3. Ed. 6. ch 17. Sir william Sharington Knight being indicted and attainted of High Treason for forging and coyning of mony called Testons his attainder was confirmed by Act of Parliament and his lands forfeited And ch 18 Sir Thomas Seymor Lord Seymor of Sudley and high Admiral of England for his trayterous aspiring to the Crown of this Realm and to be King of the same and for compassing and imagining by open Act to deprive the King of his royal estate and title of his Realms and for compassing and imagining the death of his Noblemen and most trayterously to take away and destroy all things which should have sounded to the let or impediment of this his most trayterous and ambitious enterprise as the Act recites and for other his misdemeanors innumerable untruths falshoods deceiptfull practises outrages against the King oppression manifest extortion upon the Subjects of the Realm was adjudged and attainted of high Treason by Bill and to sustain such pain of death and other forfeitures aes in cases of High Treason have been used being a Member so unnaturul unkind and corrupt and such a heynous offender of his Majesty and his Laws that he cannot nor may not conveniently be suffered to remain in the body of the Commonwealth but to the extreme danger of the Kings Highness being the head and of all the good Members of the same and of too pernicious and dangerous example that such a person so bound to his Majesty by sundry great benefits and so forgetfull of them and so cruelly and urgently continuing in his false and treacherous intents and purposes against his Highness and the whole estate of his Realm should remain among us In the Parliament of 1 Mariae ch 1. the Attainder of Queen Katherine is reversed by Bill and ch 16. the Attainders of John Duke of Northumberland Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury William Marquess of Northampton John Earl of Warwick Sir Ambrose Dudley with other Knights and Gentlemen formerly convicted and attainted of Treason according to the Law of the Realm for their detestable and abominable Treasons in proclaiming and setting up Queen Jane to the peril and great danger of the person of Queen Mary and to the utter loss disherison and destruction of the Realm of England if God in his infinite goodness had not in due time revealed their trayterous intents as the Act recites at the Petition and with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament were confirmed and ratified by a special Act. In the Parliament of 29 Eliz. c. 1. the Attainders of Thomas Lord Paget Sir Francis Englefield and sundry other Knights and Gentlemen who were lawfully indicted convicted and attainted of many unnatural detestable and abominable Treasons to the fearfull peril and danger of the destruction of the Queens Majesties person and of the Realm were confirmed by a special Act and ch 3. there is another Act to avoid fraudulent assurances made in certain cases by Traytors In the Parliament of 3 Jacobi ch 2. Sir Everâ—rd Digby Robert Winter Guy Fawkes Robert Catesâ—y and all the rest of the Gunpowder Traytors who undertook the execution of the most barbarous execrable and abominable Treason that could ever enter into the hearts of most wicked men by blowing up the Lords House of Parliament with the King Queen Prince Lords Spiritual and Temporal Judges Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament therein assembled were attainted of High Treason and their former attainders and convictions confirmed by a special Act And in this very last Parliament the Earl of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland and William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury after judgement of high Treason upon their several impeachments and trials given against them by the Lords in their House were likewise attainted of Treason and their judgements ratified by a special Bill and Ordinance to which the Commons assented as well as the Lords their assents to Attainders by way of Act or Bill being so necessary that if the King in Parliament Wills that such a man shall be attainted of Treason and lose his lands and the Lords assent and nothing is spoken of the Commons in the Bill this is no Act nor good Attainder in Law and the petson shall be restored by the opinion of all the Judges 4 H. 7. f. 18. Broke Parliam 42. Fitz. 3.7 H. 7.14 11 H. 7.27 Broke Parliam 107. Plowden 79.32 H. 6.18 As the Commons in our English Parliaments have assented to all these and some other Bills and Acts of Attainder cited in Sir Edward Cooks 4 Institutes ch 1 2. and Mr. St. Johns Argument at Law concerning the Bill of Attainder of High Treason of Thomas Earl of Strafford printed by Order of the Commons House 1641. So I find that the Commons in Ireland have done the like in the Parliaments held in Ireland as the Printed Statutes of Ireland 28 H. 8. c. 1. for the Attainder of the Earl of Kildare and others of High Treason 11 Eliz. ch 1. for the Attainder of Shan O Neyle and others of High Treason of 13 Eliz ch 6. 7. for the Attainders of Fiâ—zgerald and others of High Treason Of 27 Eliz. ch 1. for the Attainders of Iames Eustace and others of High Treason of 28 Eliz. ch 8. 9. for the Attainders of the Earl of Desmond John Brown and others and of 11 Jacobi ch 4. for the Attainders of the Earl of Tyrone and others of High Treason for their several rebellions insurrections wars against their Soveraigns and other Treasons mentioned in these respective Acts abundantly evidence But yet the Commons assents to all these Bills
ill counsellors about him neglecting hating banishing his own Nobles and natural Subjects as Traytors without any just cause or legal trial and subverting confounding their Lawes Liberties Justice c. 2ly To manifest the proceedings impeachments in these Parliaments against the Earls and Nobles refusing to appear at these Parliaments upon the Kings these successive Writs of Summons his outlawing them of high Treason and spoiling burning seising their houses Lands thereupon being adjudged by the Lords in Parliament to be illegal and afterwards reversed as unjust and against the Law Claus 18. H. 3. m. 19. 3ly To manifest that the Lords in Parliament would not act any thing in the absence of these eminent Lords refusing to appear 4ly To evidence the Sentence and Justice of the King and Lords against these ill Counsellors Aliens and Traytors to the Publique whom they caused to be removed from the King Court Kingdom put from their publike Trusts and Offices called to an account publikely arraigned before the King himself and his Justices by whom they were imprisoned their lands confiscated and better Counsellors of State and Judges put into their places Anno 1240. Accusatus est graviter Comes Cantiae Hubertus de Burgo CORAM REGE ET CURIA TOTA London ubi post multâ—s disceptationes ut iraâ—undia Regis quae immoderate nimis conâ—â—â— ipsum excanduerat quiesceret ADJUDICAâ—UM EST ut quatuor Castra sua Charissima scilicet Blancum Castrum Grosmunt Scenefrithz Haetfeild Domino Regiâ— resignaret ut caetera sibi cum Regis benevolentia in pace remanerent Anno 1258. The Nobles complained in Parliamnnt of the Kings advancing his half Brothers who were aliens swaying all things and impoverishing the Realm and of their intollerable pride insolency and injuries and the Earl of Leicester particularly complained to the Parliament of William de Valentia non tamâ—n Regi sed universitati praecordialiter est conquestus exigens instanter sibi justitiam adhiberi The same year the Great men and Nobles of the Land Videntes Regnum undique desolatum tum exactionibus tallagiis tam Curiae Romanae quam Regis quam etiam alienigenarum praecipue Pictavensium elatione praesumptuosa fivore regio in regno nimium in sublimi provecta tantas in Anglia Dominationes sibi usurpantium magisteria â—ost Pentecosten apud Oxon. COLLOQUIUM GENERALE CELEBRAVERUNT being summoned to this Parliament by the Kings Writ super hiis necnon status regni meliorationâ— efficaciter exquisite tractaturi Quo non sine armis equis electissimis muniti venerunt ut si Rex alienigenae suiâ— provisionibus statutis sponte contemnerent assentire vigore opposito cogerentur aut ipsi alienigeni universaliter sine morae regnum Angliae poenitus evacuarent Quas quidem provisiones Oxon. stat necnon ET MAGNAM CHARTAM TAM DE LIBERTATIBUS ET DE FORESTA tandem Domino Rege ad suorum PROCERUM observantiam statutorum inclinato per queÌ„dam de suis militibus tactis sacrosanctis jurameÌ„tum praestante 24 prudentium virorum Nationis Anglicanae quos ad Regni gubernationem sub eodem duxerint inter se eligendos consilio se commendavit considerationâ— His igitur pâ—ractis fidelitatem Regi regni ET AD CONSIDERATIONEM SUORUM PARIUM STARE omnes quotquot in regno commorare vellent fecerunt jurare The Nobles in this Parliament required that all the Poictovines might surrender up all the Castles they held in England into the Kings hands Whereupon they peremptorily swore by the passion and wounds of Christ that they would never doe it whiles they breathed Whereupon the Earl of Leicester said to William of Vairencia the most insolent of them all That he should either surrender up the Castles he held of the Kings without delay VEL CAPUT AMITTERET on he should lose his head Similiter ALII COMITES ET BARONES DICEBANT etiam constructissime assertione consistentes The Poictovines being very much terrified with these words not knowing what to doe and fearing to fly to any Castle lest they should there be besieged and soon taken or starved by the Lords fled secretly and speedily from the Parliament to Winchester not sparing their horses sides and setting spies upon hills and Towers to observe whether the Barons pursued them who hearing of their flight commanding all their followers to arm themselves and dissolving the Parliament without adjourning it to any certain day pursued them to Winchester where the King and Nobles holding another PARLIAMENT the Poictovines JUDIDIUM EXPECTARE NOLENTES nec ausi exhibitionem JUSTITIAE quae singulis secundum juramentum REGIS PROCERUM debebatur expestare being the sole judges of them in Parliam for their exorbitant offences they presently fled out of the Realm beyond the Sea to avoid their sentence Hereupon Significatum est literatorie ad multos etiam quos praedicti Pictavienses impudentur offenderant ut â—nerelam super hoc reponeâ—res ostenderent Maguatibus Regni daâ—a sibi a dictis Regis fratribus illata eas querelas dilucidantes constanter moras sequerentur ut sibi omnia secundum quod jus dictaret restituerentur Sed quia instabat tempus messium considerantes simultatem et instantes labores forte inutiles sequi renuerunt donec majorem cernerent opportunitatem The Lords in Parliament being willing to award them damages and reparations against the Kings own Brothers in Law upon complaint and clear proof of the injuries and damages they sustained by them Anno 1260. There falling out a great difference between King Henry the 3. and Prince Edward his Son Simon Earl of Leicester and other Nobles thereupon Convocato in praesentia Regis apud sanctum Paulum BARONAGIO habitoque prius tractatâ— de Eadwardo super injuriis Regi ut dicebatur illatis paratus est idem Eadwardus se omnium objectorum probare immunem et ad duorum Regum scil Patris sui et Avunculi provisionem in emendatione facienda se dare tractabilem dicens Omnes alios Barones et Comites sibi de jure non esse Pares nec suas in eum exercere discussiones Unde dâ—cuâ—a hinc inde veritate omniumque relatorum falsitate probata pacificato Regi concordatus est filius multiplicatis de jure inimicorum confusionibus Concordato itaque Eadwardo Regi et Reginae et aliis amicis mox querela subsequitur de Comite Leicestriae Simoâ—e super pluribus injuriis tam citra mare quam ultra contra Regem ut dicebatur perpetratis Praefixo igitur die ad respondendum se de objectis expurgandum idem Comes ad dictum diem licet breviorem paratus est quantotiens petitis satisfacere et ad discutiendam super oppositis veritatem omnium transmarinorum quam cismarinorum arbitrio obtemperare exceptis quinque tantum minutis tam suae quam Eadwardi discordiae seminatoribus Qâ—o audito Comes Gloverniae cum
omnes qui contra Regem cum Comite Simoni ' steterunt exhaeredicabantur quoram terras Rex suis sideli bus tradidit sineâ— mora pensatis meritis singulorum The Execution of this Sentence appears in the Patent Roll of 50 H. 3. m. 10. Schedula Where the Lands and Menors of Simon de Montfort and other Rebels adhering to him against the King are confiscated to the King and granted by him to sundry others there mentioned as the Lands of the Barons adhering to King Lewis against King John their native Soveraign were in like manner forfeited to and granted by him Claus 17 Johan Regis dors 7 10 11. By these two last Parliamentary presidents and proceedings against the Londoners Simon Montfort the Baronâ— and aâ— other his Confederates whether Peers or Commoners in case of Treason and Rebellion against the King to the forfeiting of their antient Customs and Liberties imprisoning and fining of their persons confiscation of their goods disinheriting them of their Lands and Freeholds by judgment and â—entence of the King and Lords it is undeniable that the King and Lords have an antient undoubted right to judge and censure both Peers and Commoners too in Parliament in cases of Treason and other misdemeanours there properly triable In the year 1266. King Henry the 3d. REGIONIS NOBILES assembling together at Westminster at Christmas to treat about setling the Peace of the realm after the accustomed manner there issued out an Edict against Earl Ferrers who was perpetually depriâ—ed of his Earldom according to the form of his Obligation for his Treason and rebellion against the King and Edward the Kings son was put in possession of two Counties or Earldoms to wit Derby and Leicester The same year after divers skirmishes between the disinherited Baroâ—s and persons and the Kings forces to settle a firm peace upon the Legates motion there was another Parliament held at Kenelworth wherein by the accord and consent of the King and Lords the persons disinherited whose Lands the King had confiscated for their Treason and Rebellion in the two former Parliaments were notwithstanding admitted upon their submission to the King for reasonable fines and compositions reduced to a certainty by Bishops and other Lords Commissioners both to their Pardons Liberties Charters and Inheritanceâ— 3. only excâ—pted their fines not exceeding 3. years value nor to be under one without any imprisonment or loss of Memberâ— as you may read at large in the accord between them and the King at Kenelworth printed in the Statutes at large See Par. 50 H. 3. dors 9. the Patent Charter and Claus Roâ—s of 50 51 52 53. of Henry the 3. and Claus 4 E. 1. m. 15. dâ—rso In the Parliament of 21 E. 1. John Archbishop of Yorke was impleaded and complained against for excommunicating the Bishop of Durham being juxta latus Regis per ipsius praecepâ—um against the dignity of the King and for imprisoning William of Willicon and John Rowman two of the Bishops servants in the Castle of Durham being excommunicated by him in his Ecclesiastical Court for the Wardship of certain Lands to which the Archbishop pretendâ—d a Right the Custody of which lands being a Temporal matter belonged not to Ecclesiastical cognisance The Archbishop protesâ—ing that although he ought not to answer for this matter in the Court of our Lord the King yet he was willing to answer And thereupon allegeth that the Bishop of Durham was his Subject and Suffragan and shews the whole matter and manner of the proceedings against him and his Servants in his Court and justifies the same To which Richard de Breelwell who prosecuted for the King answered that the Bishop of Durham was to be considered in a twofold estate one as a Bishop the often as an Earl in respect of his Temporalties and Tenements In which lâ—ter respect he was not subject to his Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction to which the Archbishop replied After much and â—ong debate it was adjudged and resolved by the Lords in Parliament that for this offence the Archbishop should be committed to prison and likewise agreed that in like cases it should ever be so this his Excommunication of them in his Ecclesiastical Court for a temporal matter being an high contempt against the King to the disinherison of his Crown and dignity Moreover he was adjudged to make his submission to the King and to pay a fine of 4000 maerks to the King for this offence The Archbishop hereupon makes his submission aend after much mediation to the King by his friends his imprisonment was remitted but the King would not abate one penny of his sine for the due payment whereof he was enforced presently to enter into a Recognisance and so dismissed The Record is very long worthy perusal but this is the summary of it Anno 1283. after the feast of St. Michael in PARLIAMENTO tento Salopiae David quondam frater Lewlini Principis Walliae per Potentiores Angliae judicatus judicialiter condemnatus ad caudas equorum per municipium Salopiae tractus et suspensus est visceribusque combustis corpus capite truncatum in quatuor partes est divisum quibus in Civitatibus Angliae Nobilioribus suspensis caput Londoniis super palum fixum est ad terrorem consimilium proditorum King Edward the 1. Ann. 1297. the 14. of his reign holding a Parliament at St. Edmonds where there was granted him an 8. part of the goods of Cities and Boroughs and a 12. part of the rest of the people the Clergy by reason of the Constitution of Pope Boniface made that year prohibiting under pain of Excommunication that no Taxes nor exactionâ— should by any means be exacted from the Clergy by secular Princes or payd by them of the goods of the Church denyed the King a Subsidy which he demanded of them to maintain his wars Whereupon the King that they might deliberate of a better answer deferred the business to another Parliament to be held at London the next day after St. Hillary An. 1298. The Parliament then assembling the Clergy therein persisted in their denyal of a Subsidy upon the foresaid ground The King thereupon by his Nobles advice excluded them from his protection and prohibited any Lawyers to plead for them in the Exchequer or before any other Regular Judge as being unworthy of his peace and seised all the goods movables and immovables of Clergy men found in Lay fees and confiscated them To redeem which Protection many of the Clergy by themselves and many by Mediators afterwards gave the King a fift part of their goods The King finding the Archbishop more rigid than the rest seised all his lands and commanded all his debts found in the Rolls of the Exchequer to be speedily levied on his goods For the same Archbishop by the assent of the Clergy had procured from the Pope an Inhibition Ne quis Clericorum Regi respiceret de bonis Ecclesiae The
personâ— that would complain against him but that the Commons would not do but prayed he might answer their charge in general whereupon he answered every of the Charges against him and that very fully in open Parliament before the LORDS Yet notwithstanding the Bishops and Lords gave Iudgement against him in full Parliament that for his ill Counsel and Government against the profit of the King and Realm and namely for divers Chevisances to the Kings loss for procuring grants to the destruction of the Staple and Town of Calice and for divers impositions laid upon wools he should be committed to prison under the custody of the Marshal and make fine and ransom at the Kings pleasure Whereupon the Commons further required That he might lose all his Offices and be no longer of the Kings Council which the King granted After which this Lord found certain Lords and others of quality whose names are mentioned in a Schedule annexed to the Parliament roll to be his Mainpernors for the forth-comming of his body during the Parliament Upon which the Marshal offered him to be at large In the same Parliament 50 E. 3. rot Parl. n. 34. John Lord Nevil was accused that during the time he was of the Kings privy Council he bought certain debts due by the King to the Lady Ravensham and Simon Love a Merchant at under values and for receiving of the King more wages and for a longer time than was due for one hundred Souldiers in Britain Upon which he confessed he received 95 l. of the Lady for the obtaining of her debt only our of her meer good will which was not disproved The Charge touching Love he wholly denied Love thereupon being brought into the Parliament before the Lords wholly excuseth the Lord Nevil But because Love the day before had confessed the contrary unto two of the Knights of the Parliament he was committed to Prison by the LORDS To the receiving of Wages he fully cleared himself Notwithstanding the LORDS GAVE JUDGEMENT of imprisonment and of lâ—sâ— of Lands Goods and Offices against him and that he should make restituâ— of the 95 l. to the Ladies Executors These Judgement◠〈◊〉 the Commons importunity were so unjust that in the very next Parliament of 51 E. 3. rot Parl. n. 75. upon the prayer of certain Bishops Lords and the Commons themselves the Lord Latymer by the Kings grant and royal assent and the Authority of the Lords was restored to his Offices and Privy Counsellorship whereof he was deprived by them this Parliament upon untrue Suggestions Such partiality and injustice is there many times even in Parliaments themselves out of malice faction or affection In the Parliament of 7 R. 2. holden at Westminster the Monday next before the feast of All Saints rot Parl. n. 13.15 to 24. Ralph Nevil the martial Bishop of Norwich was accused in Parliament for not serving the King in his wars in Flanders for so long a time and with so many men and with a sufficient General as he promised whereby the Voyage was lost to the Kings dishonour and damage and for selling the Castle of Gravelin to the French for money which the Chancellor in open Parliament declared against him The Bishop answered thereunto in person albeit in this case he said he might have Counsel with this Protestation that he might at all times avoyd or amend his answer To which answer of his the Chancellor replied In conclusion upon debate THE KING AND LORDS resolved his answer to be no sufficient excuse of what was charged against him Whereupon the Chancellor by ASSENT OF THE LORDS concluded That although the King might pass on the Bishop as a Temporal Lord by reason he took upon him to serve him as a Souldier and had the Sword carried before him contrary to his profession yet for that time in regard he was a Bishop the King would spare to lay hands on or imprison his person as he might doe And therefore they ADJUDGED him to make fine and ransom to the King at his pleasure whereunto he should be compelled by the seisure of his temporalties And it was commanded that from thence the Sword should no more be carried before him In the same Parliament held this year about the feast of St. Martin in quo prout jam a multis consuevit temporibus nihil dignum memoria fuit actum praeter illud quod sedulo actitabatur as now in our age extortio videlicet pecuniae de clero et communi plebe ad sustentationem militibus werrae regalis Nondum Parliamentum finitum fuerat cum nova de partibus borealibus sunt allata de captione Castelli de Berwico per Scotos cujus custodiam Comes Northumbriae domibus Henricus Percey avito jure possedit Scoti namque mediante pecunia de quodam qui secundarie castri custodiam tunc habebat introitus castelli dolosenacti sunt Factum est ergo Duce procurante Johanne ut dicitur ut pro perditione dicti Castelli regalis Comeâ— Iudicium qui aderani Optimatum et regis sententiam daâ—ationis exciperet in eum publice promulgatam Cujus executionis vindicta per regem postea cito relaxâ—ta fuit quamvis id Duci ut dicitur displiceret Acta sunt haec 14 die Decembris in eodem Parliamento non obstante quod idem Comes ad dictum Parliamentum vocatâ—s fuerat per breve regium et ad custodiam suae patriae morari maluisset Haec ideirâ—o causa inter ipsum Ducem er Comitem postea irae et odii â—omitem ministravit At the Parliament held at Salisbury an Irish Frier Carmelite delivered a Schedule to the King conteining divers treacherous plots and Treasons against him by the Duke of Lancaster that he had resolved sodainly to kill oppress the King and seise upon the Kingdom setting down the time place and all other circumstances taking his Oath upon the Sacrament of Christs body that every word contained in that Schedule was true advising the King not to believe the Dukes excuses nor to deferr his judgement lest he should raise forces against him to effect his design or be deceitfully reconciled to him The King hereupon being young NON DOMINOS NON PARES REGNI super tantis negotiis ut disecrâ—erant qui◠〈…〉 coâ—sulait but two Câ—eras of his Chappel his accustomed Counsellors whiles the King and they were privately debating the business the Duke came in unto them whom the King beholding with a stern countenance and not receiving him with that honour as formerly he suspecting the King conceived something in his mind against him withdrew himself But by the Chaplains advice he was called in again and the Schedule delivered him to read Which having read he said with a great sign to the King Heu Domine mi cur fidem datis talibus dela toribus Cur de mea persona talia opinamini Nonne sum aâ—unculus vester Nonne tutor extiti Nonne post vos principalis
Earl of Ireland Mâ—chael de la Poole Earl of Suffolk Robert Tresylam Chief Justice Nicholas Bramber Knight and other of their adherents of High Treason against the King and his Realm The Articles they exhibited against them were 36 in number at large recorded in Henry de Knyghton de Eventibus Angliae l. 5. col 2713. to 2727. with the whole proceedings thereupon for which many were attainted condemned executed BY JUDGEMENT OF THE LORDS notwithstanding the Kings intercession for some of them to the LORDS they are likewise mentioned in the printed Statutes at large of 11 R. 2. c. 1 3 4. in Walsingham Hist Angliae p. 359 to 367. and other vulgar Historians I shall therefore for brevity refer you to them Exactum est juramentum a rege ad standum REGULATIONI PROCERUM et non solum a rege sed a cunctis regni incolis idem juramentum est expetitum In the Parliament of 14 R. 2. n. 14. The King and Lords without the Commons declared That in the 7 year of this King the Earldom of Richmond with the appartenances WERE ADJUDGED BY THE KING AND LORDS to be forfeited to the King by reason of the adherence of John Duke of Britain then Earl of Richmond to the French against his allegiance to the King and his father king Edward the 3. which judgement was not then enrolled in the Rolls of Parliament for certain causes known to the King and LORDS but was now inrolled and the lands granted to the Earl of Westmerland which King Henry the 4th would not revoke upon the Commons Petition to restore them to the Duke 1 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 78. In the Parliament of 17 R. 2. n. 11 Richard Earl of Arundel in the presence of the KING and LORDS accused the Duke of Lancastre of 5 particular misdemeanors In which when the King had justified him it was awarded by the King BY THE ASSENTS OF ALL THE LORDS that the Earl should in full Parliament make a formal submission to the Duke and crave pardon for his false accusation In the Parliament of 21 R. 2. rot Parl. n. 12. to 17. the Commons impeached Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury of high Treason for procuring the Duke of Glocester and others there named to accroach to themselves regal power and execute the Commission of 10 R. 2. when he was Chancellor praying that he might be kept under safe custody with a protestation of making for her accusations during the Parliament against him and others After which they prayed the King to give judgement against the Archbishop according to his desert who submitted himself to the Kings mercy Whereupon the KING LORDS and Sir Thomas Piercy the general Proctor for the Bishops in this case adjudged the fact of the Archbishop to be Treason and himself a Traytor and that thereupon he should be banished his temporalties seised and all his lands in proper possession or use together with his goods forfeited to the King and presenting the day and place of his departure into exile After this in the same Parliament of 21 R. 2. the Lords Appellant therein named accused the Duke of Glocester the Earls of Arundel and Warwick and others of High Treason for procuring the Commission in 10 R. 2. for raising forces and coming to the Kings person armed For accroching to themselves royal power and adjudging some to death and executing them as Traytors in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. For intending to surrender up their Homage and allegeance to the King and then to depose him and saying they had good cause to depose him c. Hereupon the Earl of Arundel being brought in custody to the Parliament before the Lords by the Kings command and assent of the Lords had his charge read and declared before him by the Duke of Lancaster Steward of England to which he pleaded his pardon which plea being disallowed because his pardon was revoked by this Parliament and he relying on it without any other plea the Lords appellants prayed judgement against him as convict of the Treasons aforesaid Whereupon the Duke of Lancaster by assent of the KING Bishops Earles and LORDS adjudged him convict of the Articles aforesaid and thereby a Traytor to the King and Realm and that he should be therefore hanged drawn and quartered and forfeit all his Lands in fee or fee-tayl which he had in the 10. year of this King with all his goods and chattels But for that he was come of Noble bloud the King pardoned his execution of hanging drawing and quartering and granted that he should be beheaded which was accordingly executed the same day on Tower hill by the Marshal of England The 28. of September the Earl of Warwick was brought ao his Trial in the same manner as the Earl of Arundel who confessed all the Articles submitted to the Kings grace and had the same judgement pronounced against him in the same manner as the Earl of Arundel But the King at the Lords Appellants and others requests pardoned his execution granted him his life and banished him into the Isle of Man The Duke of Norfolk by assent and Act of Parliament was tried in a Court Martial by the King Lords and some Knights for words spoken against the King and judgement was there given that he should be banished into Hungary and his lands forfeited to the King Within one year after such is the vicissitude of all worldly honour and power in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. Plac. Coron n. 1. to 11. at the prayer of the Commons the great Lords Appellants Edward Duke of Albemarl Tho. Duke of Surry John Duke of Exeter John Marquess Dorset John Earl of Salisbury and Thomas Earl of Glocester were all questioned and brought to their several answers before the King and Lords for their Acts and proceedings in the Parliament of 21 R. 2. the records whereof being read before them in Parliament they made their several answers and excuses thereunto whereupon the King and Lords after consultation thereupon ADJUDGED that the said Dukes Marques and Earls should lose their several Titles and Dignities of Dukes Marquess and Earls with all the honor thereunto belonging and that they should forfeit all the Lands and goods which they or any of them had given them at the death of the Duke of Glocester or since and that if they or any of them should adhere to the quarrel or person of King Richard lately deposed that then the same should be Treason The which Judgement was pronounced against them by William Thurning Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in Parliament by the Kings command but in the Parliament of 2 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 33. upon the Petition of the Lords and Commons to the King the Earls of Rutland and Somerset were pardoned and restored by the King in Parliament In the Parliament of 2 H. 4. n. 14. the Bishop of Norwich was accused by Sir Thomas Erpingham the Kings
dominum nostrum jam elapso irae tempore haec innotuisse Praeterea si aliquid â—iolentiae ipsi Henrico intuleritis ecce Episcopus Londinonsis qui spiritualem et alii amici ejus militares qui vindictam exercebunt materialem et sic in magna parte cessavit Extunc igitur procurante efficaciter Comite Richardo et Episcopâ— memorato mitius actum est cum eo Dictum enim est domino Regi secretius quod mirum est quod aliquis ei curat servire cum eis post ministerium etiam mortem nititur inferre Promissa igitur quadam pecuniae summa a mortis discrimine recessit liberatus After which he paying to the King 2000 marks for a fine and being reconciled to the King ad Curiam est reversus immemor laqueorum quos evaserat Here we have 1. A corrupt Judge accused of bribery by others and by the King of rebellion and sedition and that before the Lords in Parliament 2ly A Proclamation for all that were grieved to complain against him 3ly A rash unjust sentence given against him by the King himself for any man that would to kill him with impunity 4ly the Lords opposition and contradiction of this sentence and its execution as unjust and dangerous 5ly A remission of his sentence by the Lords mediation and a fine imposed and paid to the King for his offences In the 49 year of King Henry the 3. at the Parliament held at Winchester divers Commoners as well as Lords were attainted and condemned of High Treason for levying war against the King their persons imprisoned their lands and goods confiscated and the liberties of the City of London forfeited by judgement of the Lords Anno â—290 King Edward the 1. held a Parliament at London at which time Rex auditis multorum queremoniâ—â— fere Justiciarios omnes de falsitate deprehensos a suo Officio deposuit puniens eos juxta demerita grâ—vi mâ—a by the advice of his Lords in Parliament It appears by the Clause Roll of 5 E. 2. m. 22. dorso and Rot. Finium 5 E. 2. m. 11. in Schedula that in a Parliament held at Stamford 3 E. 2. the Commons of England exhibited sundry Articles of complaint to the King Amongst others that they were not used as they ought to be by THE GREAT CHARTER in taking Prises and Purveyances without mony c. That the King by his Ministers took ijs of every Tun of wine and ijs a cloth from Merchants aliens and 3 d. pur aver de poys to the damage of his people and hinderance of trade which new Impositions being against Law the King promised to redress for the future and to content himself with the Prises and Customs antiently due They likewise complained of the abuses oppressions and extravagances of Purveyors Constables of Castles and Escheators and abuses of Protections and Pardons granted by the King to Murderers and other Malefactors to their incouragement whereto redress was promised In their 6. Article they complained That the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament came up with divers Petitions for matters not remediable at the Common Law and could not finde to whom to deliver them Whereunto was answered The King willed that in his Parliaments for time to come certain persons should be appointed to receive Petitions and that they should be delivered TO HIS COUNCIL as was used in the time of his Father and examined and answered by him with their advice Whence we find in all our Parliament Rolls ever since in the beginning of every Parliament certain persons nominated by the King and Lords being Members or Assistants of the Lords house to receive the several Petitions of England Ireland Scotland Gascoigne Iersey Gernsey Alderney and other Isles and other persons of the LORDS House appointed to trie examin and answer them in the Kings name and behalf as he by their advice shall think meet and sundry Petitions of Grievances of all kinds presented to them and answered accordingly by the King and Lords in every Parliament as well by the whole house of Commons as by particular Counties Cities Corporations and private Persons a most clear Evidence that the King and Lords are the sole Judges of all criminal and civil causes and Grievances of the Commons in Parliament since they thus constantly petition them for redress and that the Commoners are only Petitioners not Judges as the Parliament roll of 1 H. 4. n. 79. resolves in direct terms Claus 8 E. 2. m. 7. dors The Chaplains of the House of Converts exhibited a Petition in Parliament against Adam de Osgodby the Keeper thereof for putting them out of their lodgings and placing his Clerks therein they being founded by King H. 3. to pray and sing Masses for his and his ancestors Souls and not to lodge the Clerks of the Chancery Upon consideration of the Petition by the Lords and Councel in Parliament it was referred to the Chancellor to examin and determine tanquam principali Custodi omnium Hospitalium et Domorum de eleemosyna Domini Regis fundatorum ut ipfe inde faceret quod de jure esset faciendum He sends a Commission to the House to inquire the truth of the complaint and finds the Complaint unjust and that the Keeper of the House was falsly charged and that especially by William de Okelines being one of the Chaplins Whereupon consideratum est per Cancellarium quod Willielmus idem nihil haberet de contentis in petitione sua praedicta sed quod committeretur ad custodiam suam pro falsâ— querela sua castigandus juxta discretionem dicti custodis Pasch 8 E. 2. Norfolk The Archdeacon of Norfolk was accused for citing the Countess of Warren being the Kings Neece and divorced from her husband to the damage of the King 2000 l. and it was adjudged by the Lords in Parliament against the Archdeacon quod nec citatio nec summonitio fieri debet versus eot qui sunt de sanguine Regis quia illis Major reverentia debita est and therefore he was fined About the year 1316. when the Northumberland Soldiers like some in this age raised against the Scots de tyronâ—bus facti sunt Tyranni de defensoribus destructores de propugnatoribus proditores c. one John Tanner said openly that he was heir of England Therefore at Northampton before the King and Lords he was proved false and hanged and drawn See more of him in Fabians Chronicle part 7. Anno 1314. p. 169. who relates that he reported he was son to King Edward the 1. but was stoln out of his cradle by a false nurse and Edward who was anothers son laid in the cradle for him and that he had a Fiend in form of a Câ—t whom he served 3. years which assured him he should be King of England In the Parliament of 18. E. 1. the Prior of Trinity in London and Bago de Clare were attached brought into the Parliament there
against Sir Michael de la Pool Knight Lord Chancellor of England first before the Commons and afterward before the Lords which was granted Then he accused him BEFORE THE LORDS for bribery and injustice and that he entered into a bond of 10 l. to Iohn Ottard a Clerk to the said Chancellor which he was to give for his good success in the business in part of payment whereof he brought Herring and Sturgeon to Ottard and yet was delayed and could have no justice at the Chancellors hands Upon hearing the cause and examining witnesses upon Oath before THE LORDS the Chancellor was cleared The Chancellor thereupon required reparation for so great a slander the Lords being then troubled with other weighty matters let the Fishmonger to Bail and referred the matter to be ordered by the Judges who upon hearing the whole matter condemned Cavendish in three thousand marks for his slanderous complaint against the said Chancellor and adjudged him to prison till he had paid the same to the Chancellor and made fine and ransom to the King also which the Lords confirmed In the Parliament of 8 R. 2. n. 12. Walter Sybell of London was arrested and brought into the Parliament before the Lords at the sute of Robert de Veer Earl of Oxford for slandering him to the Duke of Lancaster and other Nobles for maintenance Walter denied not but that he said that certain there named recovered against him the said Walter and that by maintenance of the said Earl as he thought The Earl there present protested himself to be innocent and put himself upon the trial Walter thereupon was committed to Prison by the Lords and the next day he submitted himself and desired the Lords to be a mean for him saying he could not accuse him whereupon THE LORDS CONVICTED and FINED HIM FIVE HUNDRED MARKS TO THE SAID EARL for the which and for his fine and ransom to the King he was committed to prison BY THE LORDS A direct case in point By these two last Presidents of the Lords â—ining and imprisoning Cavendish and Syber two Commoners in Parliament for their standers and false accusacions only of two particular Peers and Members of their house it is most apparent the Lords now may most justly not only imprison but likewise fine both Lilburn and Overion for their most scandalous Libels against all the Members just Privileges Judicatory and Authority of the whole House of Peers which they have contemned vilisied oppugned and libelled against in the highest degree and most scurrillously abused reviled in sundry seditious Pamphlets to incite both the Army and whole Commonalty against them In the Parliament of 11 R. 2. the Duke of Glocester and other Lords came to London with great forces to secure themselves and remove the kings ill Counsellors and bring them to judgement whereupon the King for fear securing himself in the Tower of London and refusing to come to them at Westminster contrary to his faithfull promise the day before they sent him this threatning Message nisi venire maturaret juxta condictum quod eligerent alium sibi Regem qui vellet et deberet obtemperare consiliis Dominorum Wherewith being terrified he came unto them the next day Cui dixerunt PROCERES pro honore suo regni commodo oporterâ—â— ut Proditores susurrones adulatores et male fici detractores juratores à suo Palatio et Comitive etiam eliminarentur Whereupon they banished sundry Lords Bishops Clergy-men Knights and Ladies from the Court and imprisoned many other Knights Esquires and Lawyers to answer their offences in Parliament The first man proceeded against in Parliament was the Chief Justice Tresylian whom the Lords presently adjudged to be drawn and hanged The like Iuegement the Lords gave against Sir Nicholas Brambre Knight Sir Iohn Salisbury Sir Iames Burwâ—yes Iohn Beauchamp Iohn Blakes who were all drawn and hanged accordingly as Trayâ—ers one after another and Simon Burly beheaded after them by like judgement notwithstanding the Kings and Earl of Derbies intercessions for him to the Lords After their Execution Robert Belknapâ— John Holâ— Roger Fulthorp and William Burgh Justices were banished by the Lords sentence and their lands and chattels confiscated out of which they allowed them only a small annual pension to sustain their lives After which these Judgments against them were confirmed by Acts of Attainder as you may read in the Statutes at large of 11 R. 2. where their Crimes and Treasons are specified in Cokes 3 Institutes c. 2. p. 22 23. and in Knyghton Holinshed Fabian Speed Trussel with other Historians In the Parliament of 13 R. 2. n. 12. Upon complaint of the Bishop Dean and Chapter of Lincoln against the Mayor and Bayliffs thereof for injustice in keeping them from their rights and rents by reason of the franchises granted them which they abused Writs were sent to the Mayor and Baylifs to appear at a certain day before the Lords and to have full authority from the whole Comonalty to abide their determination therein At which day the Mayor and Bayliffs appearing in proper person for that they brought not full power with them from the said Commonalty they were anâ— goâ— by the Lords to be in contempt and so were the Mayor and Bayliffs of Cambridge for the self same cause this very Parliment n. 14. In the Parliament of 15 R. 2. n. 16. The Prior of Holland in Lancashire complained of a great riot done by Henry Treble John Greenboâ— and sundry others for entring into the Parsonage of Whitwâ—rke in Leicestershire thereupon John de Ellingham Serjeant at Armes by vertue of a Commission to him directed brought the said Treble and Greenbow the principle malefactors into the Parliament before the Lords who upon 〈◊〉 confessed the whole matter and were therefore committed to the Fleaâ— there to remain at the Kings pleasure after which they made a fine in the Chancery agreed with the Prior and found sureties for the Good behaviour whereupon they were dismissed The same Parliament n. 19. Sir Will. Bryan was by the King with the assent of the Lords committed prisoner to the lower during the Kings will and pleasure for purchasing a Bull from Rome to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to excommunicate all such who had broken up his house and taken away divers Letters Privileges and Charters which Bull was adjudged prejudicial to the King his Councâ—l and in derogation of the Law Num. 20. Thomas Harding was committed to the Fleet by the King and Lords assent there to continue during the Kings pleasure for falsly accusing Sir John and Sir Ralph Sutton as well by mouth as writing of a conspiracy whereof upon hearing they were acquitted And n. 21. John Shadwell of Baghsteed in Sussex was likewise committed to the Fleet by THE LORDS there to remain during the Kings pleasure for misinforming of the Parliament that the Archbishop of Canterbury had excommunicated him and his neighbours wrongfully in his
every temporal Lord being in full Parliament examined touching the answer of the said Sir William and the matters and evidences which they had examined said severally that the said William had done his message well and legally and that in the person of the said William there was no fault nor evil touching the said message nor any thing that he did to the person of the said Duke Whereupon Walter Clapton Chief Justice of the Kings Bench by command of the king adjudged and declared that the said William should be fully excused and acquitted for ever in time to come touching this matter 3ly The last day of this Parliament it was agreed by the King and Lords that all the remembrances called Raggemans or Blantâ—es Charters lately sealed in the City of London and divers Counties Cities and Burroughs of England should be sent to the City of London and from every County City and Burrough from whence they came and Writs sent to every of them rehearsing That the king held all the resiants and Inhabitants in them for his good and loyal Subjects and that no confession by them made comprised in the said remembrances are nor shall be in derogation of the estate of any such person and that the same remembrances shall be burnt and destroyed in the most open place of the said Counties Cities and Burroughs and if any thing remain of record in any Court or place the king wills that it shall be cancelled and totally adnulled revoked and repealed and held for no record and of no force nor value for time to come 4ly The 19th of November in the said Parliament Placita Coronae coram Domino Rege in Parliamento suo c. Anno regni Regis Henrici quarti post Conquestum primo n. 17. The Commons prayed she King that rhe pursute arrest and judgements made against Sir William le Scropâ— knight Henry Green knight and John Bassy knight might be affirmed and held good Whereupon Sir Richard Scroop humbly prayed the King that nothing which should be done in this Parliament might turn to his or his Childrens dis-inherison Of which Sir Richard it was demanded whether the said pursute arrest and judgements were good or not who answered that he feared not to say and must confesse that when they were made thâ—y were good and profitable for the King and Realm and that his Son was one of them for which he was very sorrowfull Whereupon the king rehearsed that he claimed the Realm and Crown of England with all their members and appurietenances as heir of the bloud by the right line of king Henry the 3d. and although through the right which God had sent him by the aid of his Parents and friends he recovered the said Realm which was at the point to be undone by default of government and defesance of the Laws and customs of the Realm yet it was not his will that any should think that by way of Conquest he would disinherit any man of his heritage franchise or other right which he ought to have nor out any man of that which he had or should have by the good Laws or Customs of the Realm except these who had been against the good purpose and common profit of the Realm of which only the King held the said Sir William Henry and John for such and guilty of all the evil which had come upon the Realm and therefore he would have and hold all the Lands and Tenements they had within the Realm of England or elsewhere by conquest Whereupon fuist demande de touts les Seigniors temporellez lour advys de les pursuite arreste juggem 〈◊〉 suiâ—diâ—z Les queux Seigniors touz de â—ne accorde disorent que mesmes les pursuite arreste juggement quinâ—que fuist fait come defuist dit uist bons et les affirmente Piur bons et profitables 5ly In the case of John Hall 1 H. 4. Placita Coronae n. 11 to 17. who being in custody of the Marshal of Englana was brought by him before the Lords in Parliament and there charged before them by Walter Clapton Lord Chief Justice by the King command with having a hand in the murther of the Duke of Glocester who was smothered to death with a Featherbed at Calues by king Richard the seconds command the whole transaction whereof he confessed at large and put in writing before James Billingford Clerk of the Crown which was read before the Lords upon reading thereof the King and all the temporal Lords in Parliament resolved that the said John Hall by his own confession deserved to have as hard a death as they could adjudge him to because the Duke of Glocester was so high a Person and thereupon toutes les Seigneiors temporelz per assent du Roy adjuggerent all the temporal Lords by assent of the King ADJVDGED that the said Jo. Hall should be drawn from Tower hill unto the Gallows at Tiburn and there bowelled and his bowels laid before him and after he should be hanged beheaded and quartered and his head sent to Calice where the murther was committed and his quarters sent to other places where the king should please and thereupon command was given to the Marshal of England to make execution accordingly and it was so done the same day Lo here the Lords in Parliament gave judgement against a Commoner in case of a murther done at Calice and so not â—riable in the Kings Bench but in Parliament and passe a Judgement of High Treason on him for murthering of a great Peer only In the Parliament of 2 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 23 24. The Commons shewed to the King that William Bagot had been impeached of many horrible deeds and misprisions the which if they had been true the Commons supposed the the King aad ths Lords would have had good notice thereof for that they had made many examinations thereof whiles the said William was in distress And therefore the said Commons prayed the King that the said Sir William being in Flanders and no offence found in his person upon the slanders in his impeachment aforesaid that he would be pleased to restore him to his lands To which prayer was answered in the Kings behalf that although the said Sir William upon the said impeachment made the last Parliament was put to his answer before the King and the Lords and there pleaded a general Charter of pardon against which Charter it seemed to all the Lords then present that the said Sir William ought not to be impeached nor put to answer by the King on his part for that the said Sir William was not attainted of any impeachment suggested against him and that the King had done him justice in this behalf therefore he would in the same manner doe him justice in the residue at the Commons request A most full proof of the Kings and Lords judicial power in Parliaments even in case of a Commoner The same Parliament 2. H. 4. num 29. William
Sautre being condemned of Heresie in the Convocation by Archbishop Arundel and the Clergy thereupon by order and advice of the Temporal Lords without the Prelates who must not have their hands in blood though they gave the Sentence that he should be burned or the Commons there issued out a Writ to the Sherifs of London for the burning of Sautre as an Heretick accordingly burnt thereon being the first writ of this Nature issued by the Lords alone in the Kings name before the Statute of Heresie was made and passed in this Parliament In the same Parliament of 2 H. 4. n. 30. The Temporal Lords by assent of the King adjudged and declared Sir Ralph Lumly Knight and others Traytors for levying war in sundry parts to destroy the K. his people and that they should forfeit all their lands in fee goods and chattels though they were slain in the field not arraigned nor indicted by reason thereof In the Parliament of 4 H. 4. n. 19 20 21. Sir Philip Courtney being complained against and convicted of a forcible entry into Lands and for a forcible imprisonment of the Abbot of Mâ—nthaem in Devonshire and two of his Monks was upon hearing and examination adjudged by the King and Lords to be bound to his good behaviour and for his contempt committed to the Tower of London prisoner Anno 1403. Henry Percy the younger confederating with Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester to raise forces â—nd rebel against the King sent Letters to the people of every County propositum quod assumpserant non esse contra suam ligeantiam et fidelit tem quam regi fecerant nec ab aliunde exercitum congregasse nisi pro salvatione personarum suarum reipublicae meliori guvernatione Quia census et Tallagia Regi concessa pro salva regni custodia covertebantur ut dixerunt in usus indebitos et inutiliter consumebantur praeterea querebantur quod propter aemulorum dilationes pessimas rex eis insensus fuerat ut non auderent personaliter venire ad ejus praesentiaem donec Praelati regnique Barones regi supplicassent pro eisdem ut coram Rege permitterentur declarare suam innocentiam per Pares suos legaliter justificari Plures igitur visis his literis collaudabant tantum virorum solertiam extollebant fidem quam erga Rempublicam praetendebant Having raised great forces against the King by this means which the kings forces encountred at Shrewsbury in a pitched battel Henry Percy and sundry of his adherents were there slain in the field and the rest routed For which levying of war in the Parliament of of 5 H. 4. n. 15. the said Henry Percy and his Coâ—federaâ—es were declared and adjudged Traytors by the King and Lords in full Parliament and their Lands goods and chaâ—tels confiscated In the same Parliament n. 18. At the Petition of the Commons The Lords â—enâ—ed and ordered that the Kings Confessor the Abbot of Dore Mr Richard Durham and Crosby of the Chamber should be removed out of the Kings house and Court whereupon 3. of them appearing before the King and Lords in Parliament the King though he excused them yet charged them to depart from his house for that they were hated of the people In the Parliament of 13 H. 4. n. 12 13. The Lord Roos complained against Robert Thirwit one of the Justices of the Kings Bench for withholding from him and his Tenants Common of Pasture and Turbâ—ry in Warbie in Lincolnshire and lying in wait with 500 men for the Lord Roos Thirwit before the King and Lords confessed his fault and submitted himself to their Order who appointed 3. Lords to end the difference who made an award between them that Thirwit shouâ—d confess his fault to the Lord Roos crave his pardon and tender him amends In the Parliament of 5 H. 5. n. 11. Sir John Oldcastle knight being outlawed of Treason in the Kings bench and excommunicated before the Archbishop of Canterbury for Heresie was brought before THE LORDS and having heard his conviction made no answer nor excuse thereto Upon which Record and Process THE LORDS ADJUDGED that he should be taken as a Traytor to the King and Realm carried to the Tower of London from thence drawn through the City to the new Gallows in St. Gyles without Temple-barr and there hanged and burned hanging which was accordingly executed Sir Iohn Mortymer knight being committed to the Tower upon supposition of Treason done against King Henry the 5. in the 1. year of H. 6. brake out of the Tower for which breach he was indicted of Treason being afterwards apprehended he was brought into the Parliament of 2 H. 6. n. 18. and upon the same Indictment then confirmed by assent of Parliament JUDGEMENT was given against him BY THE LORDS that he should be carried to the Tower drawn through London to Tiburn there to be hanged drawn and quartered his head to be set on London-bridge and his four quarters on the four Gates of London In the Parliament of 38 H. 6. n. 20 2â— 22. Sir William Oldham knight and Thomas Vaughan Esquire were attainted of Treason by the LORDS and in the Parliaments of 1 E. 4. n. 19. to 31. 4 E. 4. n. 28. to 38. â—4 E. 4. n. 34. to 40. sundry Knights Esquires Citizens and Commoners are attainted of Treason by the Lords for levying warr and holding forts against the King then after by Bill whose names are overtedious to reherse which you may peruse at leisure in the Exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower To omit all other presidents of this Nature in the reigns of King H. 7.8 Ed. 6. Qu. Mary and Qu. Elizabeth of Commoners censured in and by the Lords house in Criminal causes upon impeachments complaints petitions which those who please may find recorded in the Journals of the Lords house I shall recite only some few Presidents more of late and present times In the Parliaments of 18. 21 Iacobi Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Iohn Michel upon complaints and impeachments by the Commons for promoting Monopoliâ—s Corruption and other Misdemeanors were fined imprisoned by Judgement of the Lords House and Sir Giles degraded of his knighthood In the Parliament of 3. Carolâ— the Commons impeached Roger Manwaring Dr. of Divinity for preaching and printing Seditious and dangerous Sermons and sent up this Declaration against him to the Lords June 14. 1628. For the more effectual prevention of the apparent ruine and destruction of this kingdom which must necessarily ensue if the good and fundamental Laws and customs therein established should be brought into contempt and violated and that form of government thereby altered by which it hath been so long maintained in peace and happiness And to the honour of our Soveraign Lord the King and for the preservation of his Crown and Dignity the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do by this their Bill shew and
diu consultati sed inconsulti Equidem meum est posse et velle conferre gratiam cui voluero miserebor Nec propter vos amplius quam pro cane Quis in gratiam meam se submisit repulsam passus est Veruntamen vestrum judicium in scriptura redigatur et pro lege amodo teneatur Proinde dictus miles ad carcerem ducebatur ne impunitas armareâ— audaciam et rigor caeteris timorem incuteret contemnendi Et post paucos dies elaborantibus multis nobilioâ—ibus regni et ostendentibus se 30 suis paribus cinctis gladiis corpus pro corpore et bona pro bonis una in solidum quoquo die Rex eum vocaverit nec adesset liberatus est et per regem cunctis facultatibus suis restitutus So this Historian which compared with the Record infallibly proves that this resolution was given by the Earls Barons Lords and Judges advice who were the only aliorum de Concilio as assistants to the Lords then in all matters of Law as now they are not the Commons of which there is no mention in the records or this Historian that they were parties to it And this is likewise evident by the case of Margery the Wife of Thomas Weyland an abjured Judge in the Parliament of 19 E. 1. Cooks 1. Institutes f. 133. n. Where the Barons of the Exchequer and Justices of the Kings Courts were called to advise and assist the King and his Council of Lords in Parliament in a difficulty of Law therein to be resolved by their advice And therfore it follows that the LORDS ONLY IN THAT AGE were the Judges even of Commoners cases Thirdly Admit the Commons were included yet it proves only a right of advising and delivering their opinions with the Lords when required by the King not of judging or pronouncing sentence Fourthly Sir Edward Cook citing this president to prove That both Houses together have power of judicature must grant that even in 33 E. 1. there were two distinct Houses of Parliament who upon special occasions as now at conferences c. met and advised together and therefore the division of the Houses was before Edward the third his reign and very probable as antient as the summoning of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to the Parliament which some make as antient as King Henry the first or King Henry the 2. others not before King Henry the third in the 49 year his reign Father to King Edward the first So as this president makes quite against the Levellers and Lilburnians designs and opinions The 3 and 4. Presidents are those of Hugh Audley his Wife Claus 12 E. 2. m. 5. of Gaverston and the two Spencers Exiles 15 E. 2. forecited wherein the Commons gave their assents to the attainders and exiles of Gaverston and the Spencers and to the reversal of them But this I have already proved to be only by way of Bills not judicature by the legislative not judicial power of Parliament and that they were judicially condemned only by the Lords therefore these are nothing to the purpose and against the Objectors The 5. and 6. are the depositions of King Ed. the 2. and Richard the 2. for their mis-government wherin the Commons had a joynt vote and concurrence with the Lords which I shall hereafter answer in the supplement p. 429. to 460. The seventh President is that of Eliz. Burgh Widow in the Parliament of 1 E. 3. rot Parl. n. 11. who complained by Petition to the King that in the reign of King Edward the 2. she was by his Writ commanded to come unto him to Yorke and there by Hugh Spencer the younger and Robert Baldock and William Cliff his instruments inforced by duresse to enter into an Obligation to this effect that if she received any who were contrary to the King or maried any man without the Kings consent or if she gave any lands or tenements which she held in fee or in dower to any man living without the Kings license that for any of these she should forfeit all her Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels to the King as appeared by the transcript of the Bond annexed to her Bill whereupon she prayed Grace and remedy against this duresse and acquittance of our Lord the King from this Obligation Hereupon a Writ was sent to the Clerk of the Privy Seal in whose custody the Obligation was to bring it without delay Coram Concilio nostro in Parliamento ad faciendum inde ulteriut quod per idem Concilium nostrum contige it ordinari which being brought and delivered accordingly the 5 of March and deliberately read in full Parliament and agreeing with the transcript annexed to her Petition in all things Pur ceo que avys est as Archievesques Evesques Counts BARONS auires Grandes et a TOVTELA COMMONALTIE de la terre que lo dit escrit est fait contre ley de la terre enconter tout manere de reason si fuist le dit escrit PER AGARD DEL PARLIAMENT dampne illeoques livera ala dit Elizabeth I answer 1. That this judgement was given only in a civil case touching an Obligation made by duress not in a criminal 2ly That this Petition was directed only to the King and his Council not to the Commons in Parliament and the businesse heard before them 3ly That this being a Common case there being then many Petitions and complaints that Parliament of bonds of this nature the Commons joyning with the King and Lords in this judgement of Parliament in her case was only by way of Bill not in an ordinary way of judgement they exhibiting passing a Bill for that purpose as well as a Petition as is clear by the words of the Roll and by the printed Statute of 1 E. 3. c. 3. That fines sales and gifts of land and recognizances of debt made by force and duress to this Sir Hugh Spencer Robert Baldocke c. or to any of them be defeated And Parl. 2. ch 15. Whereas many of the Realm in the time of the Kings Father that now is by means of his false and evil Counsellors have been excited by divers to bind themselves to come to the K. with force and arms whensoever they should be sent for upon pain of life and limb and to forfeit all that ever they might forfeit by vertue of which writings divers of his land have been often destroyed The King considering that such writings were made to the Kings dishonour sithence that every man is bound to doe to the King as to his Liege Lord all that pertaineth to him without any manner of writing will that from henceforth no such writing be made And that such as be made by the sight of the Chancellor and Treasurer shall be shewed to the King and the K. shall cause all such as be made against right reason to be cancelled So that this main president meerly falls to the ground being
rather by the King with the Lords assent in Parliament or by Indictment in the Kings Bench as Sir Edward Cook himself confesses and proves by the Cases of Segrave St. Amand and others Placitae In Parliamento Dom. Regis 33 E. 1. The Bishop of Winchesters Case Pas 3 E. 3. coram Rege Rot. 9. attached for a contempt in departing from the Parliament during its sitting without the Kings license and contrary to the Kings inhibition in contempt of the King who pleaded that this contempt ought to be corrected and amended in Parliament by the Peers and not else where in any inferiour Court. 3 E. 3.19 Fitz Corone 161. Stanford f. 153 3 and 4 Phil. and Mar. B. R. rot 39. is most clear by 31 H. 6. n. 45 46. where special fines are taxed on absent Lords by the Lords assent Therefore the Commons House cannot fine or tax their Members as now they doe since they never did it before this act and therefore are prohibited by it which restrains them to ancient usage before it In 7 R. 2. The Lord Thomas Camoyes a Peer of the Realm being elected Knight of the Shire for Surrey by the Freeholders of the County the King himself discharged him by special Writ and commanded the Sherif to cause another fit person to be elected in his place as I formerly proved p. 139 145. I read in Thomas of Walsingham that King Richard the 3. in the 11 year of his reign intending to call a Parliament summoned all the Sherifs of England to Nottingham Castle inquiring of them What power they could raise for him in every County against the Barons and charging them ut ipsi nullum Militem dâ— Pago vel Schira permitterent eligi nisi quem Rex et ejus Concilium elegissent who it seems gave them a list of the Names of those persons they should elect and return as the Major Generals have newly done Whereunto the Sherifs answered That all the Commons favoured the Lords neither was it in their power to raise any Army or Forces in this cause De Militibus eligendis dixerunt Communes velle tenere consuetudines usitatas quae volunt quod à Communibus Milites eligantur Whereupon they were dismissed Upon this the King soon after issuing out Writs to the Sherifs to elect Knights and Burgesses for the Parliament inserted this unusual Clause into them that they should chuse such Knights as were most fit and discreet and in the modern debates between the king and Lords most indifferent as the Writs themselves attest Rex Vic. Kanc. salutem quia de avisamento Consilii nostri pro quibusdum arduis urgentibus negotiis nos statum et defensionem Regni nostri Angliae ac Ecclesiae Anglicanae contingentibus quoddam Parliamenâ—um nostrum apud Westm in crastino purificationis beatae Maâ—iae prox futur teneri Ordinavimus et ibidem vobiscum ac cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus Regni nostri Angliae colloquium habere tractatum tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod de Comitatu tuo duos Milites gladiis cinctos magis idoneos et discretos Com. praed et in debatis modernis magis indifferentes c. T. R. apud Wyndesore xvii die Dec. Per ipsum Regem But the King being soon after informed by his Council that these Writs were contrary to the antient form of elections and contrary to the Liberty of the Lords and Commons hitherto obtained sent out new writs to all Sherifs of England to revoke and repeal this Innovating Clause before the Elections made Rex Vic. Kanc 〈…〉 licet nuper per breve nostrum inter caetera tibi praecâ—pimus firmiter injungentes quod de Comitatu tuo duos Milites gladiis cinctos magis idoneos et discretâ—s Com. prad et 〈◊〉 debatis â—dernis magis indifferentes eligi 〈…〉 Parliamentum nostrum quod apud Westm in Crist 〈◊〉 purifiecationis bâ—atae Mariae proâ— futur tenâ—re Ordiâ—avimuâ— ad eâ—sdem idem 〈◊〉 veâ—ire facereâ— Nos tamen attendentâ—s dictam clausulam in debatis modernis magis indifferentes contra formam electionis antiquitus usitatae ac contra libertatem Dominorum et Communitatis Regni nostri Angliae hactenus obtentam existere Volenâ—esque proinde praedictos Milites libere eligi modo et forma prout antiquitus fieri consuerit Tibi praecimus firmiter inâ—ungentes quod de Com. tuo praedicto duos milites gladiis cinctos magis idoneos discretos Com. praedicti prout hactenus fieri consuevit eligi eos ad pradictos diem locum venire fac dicta clausula non obstante caeteraque omnia et singula in dicto brevi nostre contenta fac exequaris juxta tenorem ejusdem dictam clausulam penitus omittens Et habeas ibi hoc breve et aliud breve T. R. apud Westm primo die Jan. Per ipsum Regem et Consillum Consimilia brevia diriguntur singulis Vicocomitibus per Angl. Ac carissimo Aqunâ—ulo R. Johanni Regi Castell et-Legionis Duci Lancastr vel ejus Cancellar in eodem Ducatu sub eadem daâ—a A clear evidence that neither the Sherifs nor Commons house had any power to repell this new Clause but the King himself which here he did by his Councilâ— Apples before any complain against it in Parliament In the Parliament of 16 R. 2. n. 6. c. The Wednesday after the Parliament began Sir Philip Courtney returned by the Sherif of Devon for one of the Knights for that County came before the King in full Parliament and said that he understood how certain people had accused and slandered him to the King and Lords as well by Bill as by mouth of heinous matters and therefore prayed to be discharged of the said imployment until the said accusations and complaints were tried and found true or not true and because his said prayer seemed honest to the King and the Lords the King granted him his request and discharged him in full Parliament and the Monday following at the instance and prayer of the Commons the King granted that he should be restored and remitted to his place according to the return of the said Sherif for to counsel and doe that which belonged unto his office and afâ—er because he had been good and treatable with those who had complained upon him and condescended to a good treaty he was restored in full Parliament to his good fame The charge against him is expressed in the same Parliament roll n. 13 14. where two Petitions are preferred against him to THE KING and LORDS IN PARLIAMENT for putting Thomas Pontyngdon forciblyout of possession of the Maâ—or of Bygeloge without just cause and Richard Somestre out of other lands detaining them from them he being so powerfull in the County that no poor man durst to sue him Which Petitions were referred by consent in Parliament to certain Arbitrators to determine In the Parliament of 4 H.
but are enforced to petition the King and Lords for his enlargement 3ly The Lords in the kings name command the Commons to chuse and present another Speaker in his room and that with all speed which they accordingly did and then present him to the King and Lords for their approbation who allowed of their choice In the Parliament of 38 H. 6. n. 35. There were divers Knights of Counties Citizens and Burgesses named returned and accepted some of them without any due or free election some of them without any election at all against the course of the Kings Lawes and the Liberties of the Commons of the Realm by vertue of the Kings Letters without any other election and by the means and labours of divers seditious and evil disposed persons only to destroy certain of the great faithfull Lords and Nobles and other faithfull liege people of the Realm out of hatred malice greedy and unsatiable covetousness to gain their Lands Inheritances Possessions Offices and goods as the Statute of 39 H. 6. c. 1. relates The Commons were so farr from having power to exclude or confirm their elections themselves that they petitioned the King by advise and assent of the Lords That all such Knights Citizens and Burgesses as were thus returned to this Parliament by vertue of the Kings Letters without any other election should be good and that no Sherif for returning them might incurr the pain therefore provided by the Statute of 23 H. 6. c. 15. Which the King and Lords assented to at their request In the Parliament of 39 H. 6. n. 9. Walter Clerk one of the Burgesses of Parliament for Chippenham was arrested and imprisoned in the Fleet for divers debts due to the King and others upon a Capias Vilagatum whereupon the Commons complained thereof to the King and Lords by Petition and desired his release and rendred them an Act of Parliament ready drawn for that purpose to which Petition and Bill of theirs the King by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assented And thereupon he was freed Not by the Commons power order or judgement but by the Kings and Lords advice and assents William Hyde a Burgess of Chippenham in Wiltshire being taken in Execution upon a Capias ad satisfaciendum and imprisoned in the kings Bench during the Parliament contrary to his privilege the Commons thereupon by a Petition praved the King that by advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal he might be delivered for the present by a Writ of privilege out of the Chancery which the King by the advice and assent of the Lords granted saving the right of his Prosecutors to have execution upon him again after the Parliament ended 14 E. 4. n. 55. In the Parliament of 17 E. 4. n. 36. John at-Will a Burgess for Exeter was condemned in the Exchequer upon 8. several Informations during the Parliament at the prosecution of Iohn Taylor of the same Town upon complaint thereof by the Commons to the King and Lords in Parliament by Petition the King by advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal ordered that he should have as many Supersedeas against the said Judgements and Informations as he pleased until his coming home from the Parliament In these last recited cases the Commons had no power at all to deliver or enlarge their own Members when imprisoned as of late years they have practised but always petitioned to the King and Lords for their release and relief who thereupon released and relieved them against the breaches of their privileges when they saw good cause Which cases I have examined by and transcribed out of the Parliament Rolls themselves in the Tower and not taken upon trust or the Abridgements of them which leave out the main ingredients the Commons Petitions to and advice and assent of the King and Lords expressed in the Rolls at large Richard Strode Gentleman one of the Burgesses of Parliament for the Burge of Plympton in Devonshire in the Parliament of 4 H. 8. for agreeing with the Commons house in putting out Bills against certain abuses of the Tinners being a Tinner himself by the malice of John Furse Tinner Under-Steward of the Stannâ—ries and his misinformation that the said Richard Strâ—de at the last Parliament heldâ—n at Westminster would have avoided and utterly destroyed all Liberties Privileges and Franchises concerning the Scanneâ—ies was upon 4. Bills thereof made by the said Furse presented and found guilty of the premises in 4. several Stannery Courts and condemned to forfeit 40 l. on every Bill to the King upon an Act and Ordinance made by the Tinners to which he was never warned nor called to make answer contrary to all Laws right reason and good conscience And one John Aguiâ—â—iam begging 20 l. of the said forfeiture from the King caused the said Richard to be taken and imprisoned in Lidford Castle in a dungeon and deep pit under ground where he was fed only with bread and water to the peril of his life and was to have irons laid upon him Upon which he petitioned the Parliament for remedy and that it might be ordained and enacted by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal that the condemnations against him for the said 160 l. in the Stanneries and every parcel thereof and judgements and executions had or to be had for the premises might be utterly void and of none effect against him which was done for him accordingly And moreover it was enacted That all sutes accusations condemnations executions fines amerciameuts punishments corrections grants charges and impositions put or had or hereafter to be put or had upon the said Richard to every other person or persons that were in this Parliament or that of any Parliament hereafter shall be for any Bill speaking reasoning or declaring of any matter or matters concerning the Parliament to be communed or treated of be utterly void and of none effect And that any person vexed or troubled or otherwise charged for any causes as aforesaid shall have an action of the case against every person or persons so vexing or troubling him contrary to this Ordinance and recover treble damages and costs And that no protection Essoign or wager of Law shall in the said action in any wise be admiâ—red nor received as you may read in the Statutes at large 4 H. 8. ch 8. intituled an act concerning Richard Strode The Commons themselves being unable to releive him in this high breach of privilege but by a petition to the King and Lords and a special Act of Parliament made for him In the Parliament of 34 H. 8. there fell out this famous case thus at large recorded by Holinshed and Crompton out of him In the Lent season whilst the Parliament yet continued one George Ferrers Gentleman servant to the king being elected a Burgess for the Town of Plimmouth in the County of Devon in going to the Parliament House was arrested in
Premises THe Principal scope of the Precedent Plea for the Lords and House of Peers being only to justifie and ratifie their ancient just Right to sit and vote in all English Parliaments and Great Councils or State and their Judicial Authority in them without the Commons especially in Criminal Causes then only controverted contradicted by Lilbourne Overton their Disciples I reputed it both useful and necessary to superadde thereto some memorable Presidents in former ages which no Vulgar writers of our English Parliaments have remembred of the Kings and Lords Proceedings Judicature in Parliament in Civil and Ecclesiastical Causes of publick and private concernment as no way heterogeneal but homogeneal to my Theam to make this Plea more compleat and communicate some more knowledge of Parliamentary Affairs and Proceedings both to the Ignorant and Learned in this declining age wherein learning and learned men of publick spirits in all Professions are so much decayed and little Visible Probability left of any speedy reparations of this inestimable losse for want of publick encouragement I shall proceed herein only in a Chronological Method as I have done for the most part in the premises beginning with the ancientest president I meet with of this kind and so descending to succeeding ages About the year of Christ 536 Our famous Brittish victorious King Arthur by his Letters and Messengers summoned all the Kings Prelates Dukes and Nobles subject to him to meet at the City of Caerleon on the feast of Pentecost then to be new crowned and settle the peace and affairs of his Realmes whereupon there assembled at that time and place thirteen Kings three Archbishops and many Princes Dukes Consuls Earls and LORDS whose names are registred in Geoffry Monmouth whiles they were thus convened there arrived twelve men with letters from Lucius Tiberius procurator of the Roman Republick demanding in high language The Tribute of Brittain which the Senate command King Arthur to pay with the arrears injuriously detained because Julius Caesar had reserved it upon his conquest of Brittain and hee with other Romane Emperours had long received it summoning him likewise to appear at Rome in August the year following to satisfie the Senate for the injuries done them and submit to the sentence their Justice should pronounce or else denouncing war against him This Letter being publickly read before all the Kings Princes Dukes and Nobles present the King consulted with them craving their unanimous advise and sense concerning this business affirming That this Tribute was exacted ex irrationabili causa against all reason for he demanded it to be payd as due because it was paid to Julius Caesar and his successors who invited by the devisions of the old Brittains arrived with an Army in Brittain and By force and violence subjected the Country to their power shaken with domestick commotions Now because they obtained it in this manner vectigal ex eo injuste receperunt therefore they unjustly received tribute out of it Nihil enim quod vi violentia acquiritur juste ab â—llo possidetur qui violentiam intulit irrationabilem ergo causam praeâ—endit qua nos jure sibi tribitarios arbitratur For nothing which is acquired by force and violence is justly possessed by any man who hath offered the violence Therefore hee pretends An irrationable cause whereby hee reputes us to be Tributaries to him c. The whole Council upon debate fully assented to this opinion and promised the King their assistance against the Romans in this cause Whereupâ—n King Arthur returned this answer That he would by no mâ—ans render them tribute neither would he submit himself to their judgement concerning it nor repare to Rome c. An expresse resolution That Conquest by warr force and violence is no good just nor lawful but an unlawful and unjust Title to any Tributes or Possessions which these who now pretend they are Conquerors and us a meer conquered Nation and therefore they may impose what Taxes Excises Tributes Laws Executions they please upon us when as they were only raysed waged commissioned to defend preserve our Laws Liberties King Parliament and Kingdomes not to conquer or enslave them may do well to consider In the year of our Lord 799. King Kenulfus upon the petition and complaint of Athelardus Arch-Bishop of Canterbury consentientibus EPISCOPIS ET PRINCIPIBUS MEIS assembled in a Parliamentary Council restored four parcels of Lands to Christ-Church in Canterbury which King Offa heretofore had taken from this Church and conferred on his Officers Kenulfus King of Mercia calling a Provincial Council held at Cloveshe Anno Dom. 800. wherein all the Bishops Dukes Abbots and Nobles of every order were assembled complaint was made therein that after the death of Arch-Bishop Cuthhert Verheb and Osbert led by a malignant spirit stole away the evidences and writings of the Monastery of Cotham and all the Lands thereunto belonging given by King Athelbald to our Saviours Church in Canterbury and brought them to Kenulfus King of the West-Saxons who thereupon converted the said Monastery and Lands to his own use After which â—regwin and Jambert Arch-Bishops of Canterbury complained of this injurie done to the Church in sundry Councils both to King Kenulfus and Offa King of Mercia who took from Kenulfus the Monastery of Cotham with many other Lands and Towns and subjected them to the Realme of Mercia At last Kenulfus induced by late repentance restored the evidences and writings of the said Monastery together with a great summe of mony to the said Church to prevent the danger of an excommunication but King Offa as hee received the said Monastery without writings so hee retained them during his life and left them to descend to his heirs without any evidence after his death whereupon Athelardus the Arch-Bishop and other wise men of Christ-Church brought these Evidences and Writing touching Gotham into this Council of Clovesho where when they had been publickly read OMNIUM VOCE DECRETUM EST that it was just the Metropoliticall Church should bee restored to the said Monastery of which shee had been unjustly spoiled for so long a time Athelardus receiving also in this Council the dignities and possessions which King Offa had taken from Jamberâ— annuente ipso Rege as Gervasius records In a Council held at Clovesho Anno 813. Upon complaint of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Arch-Bishoprick of Litchfield was dissolved and the Bishopricks annexed to it by King Offa taken from the See of Canterbury restored and reunited thereunto by the consent of King Kenulfus his Bishops Dukes and Nobles who writ a Letter to Pope Leo for that purpose unanimo consilio totius sanctae Synodi And in this Council also other lands were restored to the Bishop of Worcester and other controversies between Bishops concerning their Lands and Limits decided In another Council at Clovesho Anno 821. Wherein King Kenulfus Wulfred Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with the rest of the Bishops Abbots
the Prior of Coventry the King granteth by Assent of the Bishops and Lords that no man do break the head of their Conduit nor cast any filth into their water called Sherbouâ—n on pain of ten pound and treble dammages to the Prior. In the Parliament of 9. H. 5. n. 12. Upon long debates of the Lords and Iustices it was resolved by them that the Abbot of Ramsy should have no prohibition against Walter Cook parson of Somersham who sued for Tithes of a Meadow called Crowland Mead in the hands of the Abbots Tenants In the great case of Precedency between the Earl Marshall and Earle of Warwick in the Parliament of 3. H. 6. n. 10 11. c. The Lords being to bee Iudges of the same suspended both of them from sitting in the house till their case was fully heard and they all voluntarily swore on the Gospel that they would uprightly judge the case leaving all affection In the Parliament of 11. H. 6. n. 32 33 34 35. Upon a Petition the King and Lords in Parliament adjudged the Dignity Seigniory Earledome of Arundel and the Castle and Lands thereunto belonging to John Earle of Arundel who proved his Title thereto by a deed of Entayle against the Title of John Duke of Norfolck who layed claim thereunto And in the Parliament of 39 H. 6. n. 10. to 33. The claime of the Duke of York and his Title to the Crown of England against the Title of King Henry the 6 th was exhibited to the Lords in full Parliament the Lords upon consultation willed it to be read amongst them but not to bee answered without the King The Lords upon long consultation declared this Title to the King who willed them to call his Justices Sergeants and Attorney to answer the same Who being called accordingly utterly refused to answer the same Order thereupon was taken That every Lord might therein freely utter his conceit without any impeachment to him In the end there were five objections made against the Dukes Title who put in an answer to every of them which done the Lords upon debate made this order and agreement between the King and Duke That the King should injoy the Crown of England during his life and the Duke and his heirs to succeed after him That the Duke and his two sons should bee sworne by no means to shorten the dayes or impaire the preheminence of the King during his life That the said Duke from thenceforth shall be reputed and stiled to bee the very Heir apparent to the Crown and shall injoy the same after the death or resignation of the said King That the said Duke shall have hereditaments allotted to him and his sons of the annual value of ten thousand marks That the compassing of the death of the said Duke shall bee Treason That all the Bishops and Lords in full Parliament shall swear to the Duke and to his heirs in forme aforesaid That the said Duke and his two sons shall swear to defend the Lords for this agreement The King by Assent of the Lords without the Commons agreeth to all the Ordinances and accords aforesaid and by the Assent of the Lords utterly repealeth the statute of intayle of the Crown made in 1. H. 4. so alwaies as hereafter there be no better Title proved for the defeating of their Title and this agreement by the King After all which the said Duke and the two Earles his sonnes came into the Parliament Chamber before the King and LORDS and sware to performe the award aforesaid with protestation if the King for his part duly observed the same the which the King promised to do All which was inrolled in the Parliament Rolls Lo here the Lords alone without the Commons judge and make an award between King Henry the 6th and the Duke of York in the highest point of right and title that could come in question before them even the right and title to the Crown of England then controverted and decided the King and Duke both submitting and assenting to their award and promising swearing mutually to perform it which award when made was confirmed by an Act passed that Parliament to which the Commons assented as they did to other Acts and Bills And here I cannot but take special notice of Gods admirable Providence and retaliating Justice in the translation of the Crown of England from one head family of the royal blood to another by blood force war treason and countenance of the Authority of the temporal and spiritual LORDS and COMMONS in Parliament in the two most signal presidents of King Edward and King Richard the 2 d. which some insist on to prove the Commons Copartnership with the Lords in the power of Judicature in our Parliaments the Histories of whose Resignations of their Regal Authority and subsequent depositions by Parliament I shall truly relate Anno 1326. the 19. of Ed. 2d Queen Isabel returning with her Son Prince Edward and some armed forces from beyond the Seas into England most of the Earles and Barons out of hatred to the Spencers and Kingâ— repaired to them and made up a very great army The King thereupon proclaimed that every man should resist oppose kill them except the Queen Prince and Earle of Kent which they should take prisoners if they could and neither hold any correspondency with them nor administer victuals nor any other assistance to them under pain of forfeiting their bodies estates But they prevailing and the King being deserted by most hee fled into Wales for shelter Whereupon Proclamation was made in the Queens army every day that the King should return and receive his Kingdome again if hee would conforme himself to his Leiges Quo non comparente Magnasâ—es Regni Hereâ—ordiae Concilium injeâ—unt in quo filius Regis Edwardus factus est Cusâ—os Angliae communi Decreto cui cuncti tanquam Regni custodi fidelitatem fecerunt per fidei sacramentum Deinde Episcopum Norwicensem fecerunt Cancellarium Episcopum vero Wintoniensem regni Thesaururium statuerunt Soon after the King himself with most of his evil Counsellors were taken prisoners being betrayed by the Welch in whom they most confided Hagh Spencer Simon Reding Baldoik and others of the Kings party being executed at Hereford Anno 1327. the King came to London about the feast of Epiphany where they were received with great joy and presents Then they held a Parliament wherein they all agreed the King was unworthy of the Crown and fit to be deposed for which end there were certain Articles drawn up against him which Adam de Orleton Bishop of Winchester thus relates in his Apology i Ea autem quae de Consilio et assensu omnium Praelatorum Comitum et Baronum et totius Communitatis dicti Regni concordata ordinata fuerunt contra dictum regem ad amotionem suam a regimine regni contenta sunt in instrumentis publicis Reverendo patre domino J. Dei
gratia nunc Cantuariensi electo tunc Wintoniensi Episcopo et Angliae Thesaurario câ—nceptis et dictatis manu magistri Willielmi de Mees Clerici sui Secretarii publici Notari conscriptis et in publâ—cam formam redactis Quam quidem concordiam ad mei excusationem duxi praesent bus inferendam quae talis est Accorde est qe sire Edward fiz aisne du roy ait le government del Roialme et soit rois Coronne par les Causes qe sensiwent 1. Primerment Pur ceo qe la persone ly Roy nest pas suffisaunt de governer Car en touz son temps ad il este mene et governe par autres qe ly ount mavoisement consaillez a deshoneur de ly et destruction de sâ—int Eglise et de tout son people saunz ceo qe il le vousist veer ou conustre le quel il sust bon ou mavoys ou remedie mettre ou faire le vousist quant il fuist râ—quis par les graunts et sages de sâ—n Roialme ou suffrir qe amende fuist faite 2. Item Par tout son temp 〈◊〉 se voloit doner a bon consail no le croire ne a bon governemeâ—t de son Roialm meys se ad done toux jours as ouraignes et occupationes nient covenables entre lessaunt lesploit des bosoignes de son Roialme Item Par defaute de bon governement ad il perdu le Roialme Descoce et autres terres et seignuries en Gascoygne Hytland les quex son pere li lessa en pees amiste ly Roy de Fraunce et detz moults des autres graunts 4. Item Par sa fierte qualte par mavoys consail ad il destruit seint Eglise les persones de seint Eglise tenuz en prisoun les uns Et les alires en destresce et auxint â—lusours graunts et nobles de la terre mys a hountose mâ—nt enprisâ—nez exulâ—tz disheritez 5. Item La ou il est tenuz par son serement a faire droit a toux il ne bad pas volu faire pur son propre profâ—it et convetise de ly de ces mavois conâ—saili es â—e ount este preâ— de ly Ne ad garde les autres pointz del serement qil fist a son corounement si com iâ— feust tenuz 6. Item Il deguerpist son Royalme et fist taunt come en ly fust qe son Roialme son poâ—ple fust perduz qe pys est pur la crualte de ly defaute de sa personne il est trove incorrigible sauntz esperaunce de amendement les quex choses fount si notoires qil ne poount estre desdiâ—z The form and instrument of his deposition is thus recorded by Ranulp Cistrensis and Henry de Knyghton Also that year in the Octaves of Twelfth day was made a Parliament at London There BY ORDINANCE with a solemn message is sent to the King that was in prison 3 Bishops 3 Earls 3 Barons 2 Abbots 2 Justices for to resign to the King that was then in warde the homage that was make to him some time for they would no longer have him for their Lord One of them Sir William Trussel Knight and PKOCURATOR OF ALL THE PARLIAMENT spake to the king in the name of all the other and said I William Trussel in the name of all men of the lond of Englond and of all the Parleament Procurator I resign to thee Edward the homage that was made to thee sometime And from this time forthward now following I defie thee and pryve thee of all ryal power and I shall never be tendant to thee as for King after this time Also this was openly cryed at London The true form of his deprivation is thus recorded in the Chronicle of Leycester and transcribed out of it by Henry de Kryghton in French Jeo William Trussel Procurator dez Prelatez Conrez et Barons et altrez Gentz en ma procuracye nomes Eyantal ceo ployne suffysant poure eâ— Homages et Fealtez au vous Edward Roy Dengleterre come al Roy avant ces â—enres de par lez ditz persones en ma procuracye nomes renk et rebaylle sus a vous Ed. et deliver et face quiâ—ez lez persones avant ditz en la meâ—lâ—our manere que ley et custome donnent E face protestacion en nom de eaux qils ne voillent deformes estre en vostre sâ—alâ—e ne en vostre lyance ne cleyment de vous come â—e Roy â—iens teniâ— Encz vous teignent de â—horse priveye persone sans nule manere de â—eale dignite Cum haec Rex audisset multum de fuis malefactis doluit rugitus et lamenta emittens eo quod per falsos et proditiosos consiliarios sic omni suo tempore ductus fuerat Thomas of Walsingham thus relates the proceeding Convenit etiam illuc tota regni Nobilitas citata per prius ad Parliamentum tenendum ibidem trastino dicti â—esti ubi cuncti centuerunt regem indignum diademate et propteâ— plures articulos deponendum er Edwardum filium ejus primogenitum in regem unanimiter eligendum Quod etiam consequenter factum fuit et electio in aulâ— magna Westmonasterii publice divulgare per quendam ex Magnatibus sapientem Cui electioni consensit populus universus Archiepiscopus vero Cantuariâ—e praesenti consensit electioni ut omnes Praelati Archiepiscopus quidem assumpto themate vox populi vox Dei sermonem feci populo exhortans omnes ut apud regem regum intercederent pro electo Facto sermone discessum esâ— Ut autem notuit Reginae filliâ—ni electio et viri dejectio plena dolore ut foris apparuit sere mente alienata fuit Edwardus quoque filius suus mateâ—no doâ—ori compassus juravit quod invito patre nunquem susciperet coronam regni Idcirco communi decreto ex parte totius regni tres Episcopi duo Comiteâ— et duo Abbates et de quolibet Comitatu regnitre milites ac etiam de Londoniis et aliis civitatibus et magnis villis ut praecipue de portubus de qualibet certus raimerus persoâ—arum missi sunt ad regem apud Kenelworth qui nunciaâ—ent electionem filii sui et requirerent diligenter quod renunciaret dignitati regiae et coronae et permitteret eundem filium suum regnare pro eo alioquin ipsi reddirent sibi homagia et procederent in praetactâ—s Rex autem ut haec audivit â—um stetu et ejâ—latu respondit quod multum doluit de eo quod sic demeruit erga populum sâ—i regni et ab omnibus qui aderant veniam precabatur Sed ex quo aliter elâ—e non potuit gratias egit quod filium suum primogenitum elegissent Nuncii vero ad Parliamentum Londonias rede untes cum regis responâ—o et insigniis plebem laetam fecerunt mox tota regni
his life land or livelihood and many inward discords battels effusion of much Christian bloud and destruction of the Nobles bloud of this land ensued and were committed through all the Realm unto the great sorrow and heaviness of all true Englishmen And then he declared himself undoubted heir and inheritor of the Crown by descent grounded on the Laws of God and Nature and the antient Laws and laudable Customes of this Realm yet for further security superadded another Title of lawfull Election by the three Estates in Parliamen◠then he intayled the Crown upon the issue of his body begotten and declared his son Prince Edward to be his heir apparent to succeed him in the Crown and royal Dignity by Act of Parliament which he ratified with his own royal assent This done he reputed the Crown cock-sure to him and his heirs for all generations Yet notwithstanding all his Machiavilian Policies Power Vigilancy care industry to secure his usurped Royalty by the murther of two Kings and many others some of them most instrumental to advance him to the royal Throne before he had worn the Crown full 3. years Henry Earl of Derby laying Title it and landing in Wales only with 2000 soldiers King Richards own Souldiers Friends and others revolting from him and joyning with the Duke he was slain in Posworth field and lost both his life and Crown together if not his soul for all eternity and by the Statute of 1 H. 7. c. 6. he was declared an Usurper of the Realm So unable are Parliaments themselves to secure Crowns on Usurpers heads or to entayl them for any long continuance on their Posterities as these sad tragical domestick presidents of later times with sundry antienter demonstrate King Henry the seventh having gained actual possession of the Crown as right heir thereunto by the Lancastrian line and espoused the better title of York by marrying the heir female to secure himself and his adherents for the future if any wars should arise about these dubious litigious Titles by Perkin Warbecks or others claims confirmed by several Acts of Parliament and Successions of Kings of both Houses claiming both as next heirs of the antient royal Line not to secure any future Usurpers without just right or title though not of the old bloud Royal if once Kings de facto as Sir Edward Cooke seems to intimate and some ignorant Lawyers assert against the intent and Prologue of the Act it self caused it to be enacted 11 H. 7. c. 1. That from henceforth no person or persons whatsoever that attend upon THE KING and Soveraign Lord of this Land for the time being in his person and do him true and faithfull Service of allegeance in the same or be in other places by his commandment in the warrs within the Land or without shall for the said deed and true duty of allegiance be in no wise convict or attaint of High Treason or other offences for that cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any process of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit life lands goods chattels or any other things but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any vexation trouble or loss And if any Act or Acts or any other process of the Law hereafter thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance that then that Act or Acts or other process of the Law whatsoever they shall be shall stand be utterly void The reason is rendred in the Prologue That it is not reasonable but against all Laws reason and good conscience that the said Subjects going with their Soveraign Lord in wars attending upon his person or being in other places by his commandment within this Land or without any thing should lose or forfeit for doing their true duty and service of Allegiance This Act which some conceive to be only personal and temporary for Henry the 7. alone could not secure the Heads Lives Liberties Lands Offices Goods or Chattels of those Lords Gentlemen and other English Subjects from Executions Imprisonments Banishments Forfeitures Sequestrations who accompanied assisted our late King in his warrs against the Parliament though King de facto and de jure too without any competitor Both Houses declaring them to BE TRAYTORS and sequestring proceeding against them as Traytor yea our Grandees since have executed them as such in their new erected High Courts How then it can totally indemnify any Perkin Warbecke Jack Cade or apparent Usurpers of the Crown without right or Title who shall per fas aut nefas get actual possession of the Royal throne and be Kings de facto or secure all those who faithfully adhere unto them though to dispossess the King de jure or his right heir of their just royalty and right against all Laws of God man all rules of justice and their very Oathes of Allegiance Supremacy Homage Fealty Protestations Leagues Covenants formerly made unto them from all sutes vexations losses forfeitures whatsoever and null all Act or Acts and legal Process made against them as many Grand Lawyers now conceive it doth transcends both my Law and reason too That opinion of Sir Edward Cooke 3. Instit f. 7. 9 E. 4. f. 1. b. whereon this erronious Gloss is grounded That a King regnant in possession of the Crown and kingdom though he be Rex de facto non de jure yet he is Seignior le Roy within the purview of the Statute of 25 E. 3. ch 2. of Treason and the other King that hath right and is out of possession IS NOT WITHIN THIS ACT. Nay if Treason be committed against a King de facto et non de jure and after the King de jure cometh to the Crown he shall punish the Treason done to the King de facto And a pardon granted by a King de jure that is not also de facto is voyd being no doubt a very dangerous and pernicious Error both in Law and policy perverting those Laws which were purposely made for the preservation of the Lives Crowns Rights Titles Persons of lawfull Kings against all attempts Treasons Rebellions against them and for the exemplary punishment of all Traytors Rebels Usurpers who should rebel wage warr or attempt any Treason Conspiracy against their royal Persons Crowns Dignities Titles into a meer Patronage of Traytors Rebels Usurpers and a Seminary of endless Treasons Assassinations Conspiracies against them by indemnifying exempting both them and their Confederates from all legal prosecutions penalties forfeitures whatsoever if they can but once gain actual possessiō of the Crown by any means upon the forcible expulsion deposition assassination or murder of the King de jure Which if once declared for Law I appeal to all Lawyers Polititians Statesmen whatsoever whether it would not presently involve our kingdoms in endless perpetual Rebellions Usurpations War Regicides as it did the Norwegians heretofore where by a kind of Law and Custom as our
House is a stronger argument to prove them no Court at all at least of Judicature than their adjournment or prorogation of themselves to evidence them to be a distinct Court from the House of Lords Should I here subjoyn to the premises all the cases extant in the Lords Iournals and Parliament Records evidencing the Lords real Jurisdiction proceedings and Judicature in civil causes in the reigns of King Ed. the 4. Richard the 3. Henry the 7. and 8. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charles I should be over tedious to the Readers I shall therefore only trouble you with 2 cases more In the Parliament of 18 Elizabeth there arose a question about place and precedency in the case of the Lord de la Ware upon debate thereof in the Lords House ALL THE LORDS except the Lord Windesore ADIUDGED that he should have place next after the Lord Wilâ—oughbie of Erisbe And the Lord Keeper was appointed to acquaint the Queens Majesty with this determination of the Peers and to know her pleasure concerning the same In the last long Parliament Pasch 20 Caroli this cale of Note and Consequence was adjudged by the Lords against the late resolutions of some Judges touching the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court between Fairfax and le Gay and Mr. Johns a London Merchant In Lent Vacation 1638. Mr. Iohns libelled in the Admiralty against one Hooper for 26000 weight of Barbadoes Tobacco sold to him at St. Maloes in France in partibus transmarinis infra jurisdictionem Admiraltatis Angliae by one Bâ—les factor to Hooper for fraight due unto him by Hooper for his Ship called the William and Anne whereof Iohns was owner without alleging that this sale and contract was made super altum mare Fairfax and le Gay became sureties for Hooper in the Admiralty Iohns had a sentence against Hooper in the Admiralty upon this Libel who soon after became a Bankrupt Whereupon Fairfax and le Gay his sureties appealed to the Delegates to avoid the sentence and execution against them and then moved in the Kings Bench for a Prohibition to stay the sute suggesting the contract to be made at St. Maloes upon the land and not super altum Mare and so not within the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty Upon which they procured a rule to stay the Proceeding Whereupon Johns petitioned the House of Lords for relief against this rule and that the Delegates might proceed to give sentence upon the Appeal that so he might have execution against the sureties Hooper being a Bankrupt for above one hundred thousand pounds and all his estate sold so as his debt would be wholly lost if he should be deprived of the benefit of his sentence to which the sureties were liable Upon his Petition this point in Law amongst others whereon the hinge of his case turned was argued at the Lords Bar by Mr. Serjeant Rolls Mr. Maynard for Fairfax and le Gay and by my self for Johns Whether the Admirals Court had any true antient legal Jurisdiction of Contracts made at St. Maloes and other parts beyond the Seas between Merchants and Mariners touching their Merchandise and marine affairs upon the Land as well as on the Sea The Sureties Counsel argued confidently they had not upon the Statutes of 13 R. 2. c. 5.15 R. 2. c. 3. 2 H. 4. c. 14. and the Presidents cited in Sir Ed. Cooks 4 Instit. p. 124. and c. 22. of the Court of Admiralty and in Hubberts Reports â— 331 But I argued to the contrary and clearly proved by the Laws of Oleron Lex 1 2 6 8 9 10 15 16 22 23. made in the reign of King Richard the 1. Anno 1190. ratified under the Seal of that Island by that King confirmed and used by Henry 3. Edw. 1. and practised ever since as the Law of the land in the Court of Admiralty as Sir Edward Cook himself asserts and by the notable Record of 22 E. 1. in Cooks 4 Institutes p. 142 143 144. and Seldens Mare Clausum l. 2. c. 28 f. 275. the Black Book of the Admiralty the Parliament Roll of 4 H. 4. n. 47. for confirmation of the Laws of Oleron 1. That the Admiralty in all ages since King Rich. the 1. â—ill the making of these Statutes and ever since till Hill 2 Jacobi C. B. between Tomlinson Plaintif and Philips Defendant had held Jurisdiction of such contracts between Merchants and Mariners made upon the land in forein parts as well as on the Sea as the Marshal had always used to hold plea of Contracts and deeds of Arms Warr Treasons Murders and Felonies out of the Realm which cannot be determined by the Common Law And that without any Prohibiâ—ion granted to stay the proceedings in all that large tract of time both before and since these Statutes 2ly That these Acts were made only to restrain the Admirals Incroachments of Jurisdiction in Contracts Pleas Quarels other things made or done by Landor Water within the Bodie of the Counties of this Realm or in any Port Harbor Haven or Creek within the Counties the Conusance whereof properly belonged to the Kings Courts or to the Courts of Cities Burroughs and other Lords and to confine them only to such contracts and things within the Realm whereof the Sea is a part being under the Kings Dominion and Lordship as are made or done upon the Sea not upon the Land oâ— Water in any Haven Port River Creek within the precinct of any County but not to debar them in the least degree of their antient undoubted jurisdiction they always had and exercised de Jure without complaint or restraint in contracts of Merchants and Mariners made upon the Land in forein parts beyond the Seas of which the Kings Common Law Courts and the Courts of other Cities Burroughs Ports Lords never had nor could have the least Jurisdiction since out of the Realm and no Jury de Vicineto could be thence awarded or summoned to try the Contract in England which I proved by the Parliament Rolls and Commons Petitions whereon these Statutes were grounded being most express in point as 13 R. 2. Rot. Paerl n. 41.14 R. 2. n. 37.15 R. 2. n. 30.2 H. 4. n. 89.4 H. 4. â— 47.11 H. 4. n. 61. compared with 27 E. 3. c. 13.2 R. 2. c. 4.32 H. 8. c. 14.5 Eliz. c. 5.27 Eliz. c. 27. which so interpret it and by most of the Cases cited by Edward Cook in his Chapter of Admiralty extending only to contracts made within the body of any County within the Realm not in any forein parts on the Land or Sea without or beyond the Realm whereof the Comon Law Courts had never Jurisdiction before Sir Sir Edw. Cooke was Chief Justice and that by a meer fiction and false contradictory surmise contrary to truth reason Justice Law and the Letter of Charterparts and Contracts themselves viz. that they were made at St. Maloes Burdeaux Sevil
action And this Court he stiles CAPITALEM CURIAM DOMINI REGIS l. 6. c. 8. l. 8. c. 11. l. 12. c. 1. to which causes usually were adjourned out of the Hundred Courts and Court Barons for difficulty and there decided as well as in the Kings Bench. Quando aliquis BARO habet aliquam loquelam in Curia sua ita quod Curia ipsa non sufficiat eam determinare tunc potest Dominus ipse Curiam suam ponere in Cur. Dom. Reg. ita quod de dubitatione ipsa Consilium et Assensum habeat Curlae Dom. Reg. quid inde de jure fierl â—ebeat Et hoc debet Dom. Rex de Iure Baronibus suis scilicet ob talem causam possunt sui Barones Curias suas sic in Curiam suam ponere ita quod faciat eis habere in Curia sua de peritis hominibus suis qui eis super hoc consilium prestent Cum autem in Curia Domini Regis super dubitationibus suis fuerint certificati poterunt inde cum loquela sua redire et ipsam in Curia sua deducere et terminare as he resolves l. 8. c. 11. Errataes and Omissions KInd Reader correct these Errors at the Press p. 14. l. 10. powers r. Thrones p. 18. l. 26. r. Burgesses p. 24. l. 22. in the p. 25. l. 24. Charters p. 26. l. 15. fore p. 31. l. 33. statu p. 33. l. 14. reddituum p. 39. l. 12. imminentibus p. 40. l. 7. haberet r. habere et p. 50. l. 23. aliquod p. 53. l. 28. his p. 60. l. 27. Dei p. 67. l. 19. levy keep p. 72. l. 36. vindemiantes p. 80. l. 7. Gentlemen Greatmen l. 19. tyrannicum l. 37. Abbates p. 81. l. 27. convenirent p. 90. l. 20. excom p. 100. l. 35. addictis adjectis p. 103. l. 10. nostri l. 17. E. 1. p. 110. l. 26. petiit p. 11 4. l. 10.15 decedentibus p. 126. l. 25 fulminatam p. 151. l. 12. Peer Prior p 152. l. 24. had held l. 32. Peers Priors p. 155. l. 33. irrotulati p. 160. l. 30. sole old p. 167. l. 32. crederet p. 170. l. 5. consecrate l. 14. decerneretur p. 173. l. 3. 36. adunatis p. 179. l. 36. tractaturi p. 180. l. 9. Normannia p. 182. l. 1. then other l. 1 2. Thaâ— they r. that all Parliaments p. 188. l. 27. name r. nature p. 196. l. 19. p. 196. l. 19. Seigniors l. 27. that their l. 31. juggements p. 192. l. 16 m. 7. p. 196. l. 30. imngining p. 198. l. 7. Cromwell p. 200. l. 12. dele given p. 207. l. 16. et est p. 213. l. 27. r. Rex Anno 1096. p. 216. l. 32. vadia p. 223. l. 5. bull p. 225. l. 11. propriae l. 38. invenerunt p. 238. l. 18. et p. 246. l. 22. hinc huic p. 255. l. 5. Valencia l. 9. constantissima p. 261. l. 36. King and Lords p. 262. l. 22. r. the 24 p. 265. l. 32. audito p. 272. l. 27. eflues p. 275. l. 7. as of p. 280. l. 3. grantier p. 286. l. 26. Comitem p. 287. l. 37. erat p. 292 l. 3. presenting r. prescribed p. 296. l. 16. Lords p. 297. l. 34. yet the p. 298. l. 6. qua Quia p. 299. l. 23. judicature l. 27. r. E. 3. p. â—â—â— l. 22. of â—â—â—â—e I have p. 304. l. 20. of in p. 310. l. 37. Servants Sergeants lin 38. this their p. 311. l. 4.14 H. p. 314. l. 1. short strict p. 315. l. 3. Lords Lands p. 319. l. 31. haberet p. 318. l. 2. dele as p. 328. l. 1. nichil ei p. 340. l. 1. dele of p. 242. l. 29. dele and p. 344. l. 16. pl. r. plac p. 345. l. 38. rendus p. 348. l. 19. pur p. 355. l. 4. he the l. 23. them him p. 359. l. 31. r. as he affirms p. 368. l. 1. dele 6. p. 371. l. 7. sways sweeps p. 378. l. 34. Courts of the King p. 380. l. 7. Apprenticius p. 390. l. 9. Doreward l. 16. Beerly p. 393. l. 37. r. excuse by reason of his age and impotency by his service in the war which he alleged p. 396. l. 36. dele and p. 406. l. 16. dele fore p. 411. l. 34. question p. 415. l. 2â— dele and l. 34. These are p. 417. l. 18. when p. 419. l. 9. Bereford l. 15. Objection l. 18. may way p. 429. l. 13.10 r. 19. p. 432. l. 4. eis In the Margin p. 16. l. 5. r. Hist l. 1. p. 29. l. 1. Chron. p. 31. l. 16. Ecclesiae p. 93. l. 3. Paris r. Westm p. 153. l. 2. H. 8. r. 6. p. 264. l. 2. m. 15. p. 393. l. 3.5 H. 4. c. 5.5 H. 4. rot Parl. n. 71 78. are omitted In the Supplement being under-cast beginning p. 401. and the pages from p. 408. to 428. being misfigured pray correct the pages first then the Errataes in it thus p. 403. l. 2. these r. those p. 407. l. 29. ancillamque p. 413. l. 2. dele in p. 414. l. 27 pertinentiis p. 415. l. 6. the these l. 7. Hab. 1.7 p. 417. l. 27. Sheriff p. 419. l. 26. Parliaments l. 31. part p. 424. l. 38 39. r. King being Prisoner in Kenelworth Castle the Queen and Prince came c. p. 436. l. 1. Statutum p. 446. l. 18. Archiepiscopatum p. 447. l. 5. ferendam l. 6. deponendum p. 445. l. 6. pius r. puis p. 461. l. 17 supra l. 33. Members P. 480. l. 21. to it l. 24. Duke Earl p. 483. l. 11. regem (a) Omnes pari sorte nascimur solâ virtute distinguimur Minutius Felix Octau p. 123. Nobilitas sola est ac unica virtus Iuvenal Satyr 8. (b) Omnes boni semper Nobilitati savemus quia utile est reipub Nobiles Homines esse dignos Majoribus suis quia valet apud nos elarorum Hominum bene de reipub meritorum memoria etiam mortuorum Cicero Orat. pro P. Sext. (c) Lilburn Overton and others (d) Psal 137.7 †Those who usurp supreme Power by these illegal means and Come not in by the Door but climb up some other way into the sheepfold are resolved by Christ himself to be THIEVES ROBBERS who come but for to STEAL-KILL and DESTROY the SHEEP and no lawfull Shepherds Powers Magistrates John 10.1.10 These Christs true sheep will not follow but flee from for they know not their voyce Ver. 5. * Psal 65 7. †Isa 41.25 * As they are now in part In an Exact abridgement of the Records of the Tower of London 1657. published by me * Page 56. to 140. 188. to 194. 210. 242. to 258. 263. to 267. (a) His Protestation against the Lords Regal Tyranny discovered with others here quoted p. 2 3 4. (b) Prov. 24.21 Rom. 13.1 2 3. Tit. 3.1 1 Tim. 2.1 2. 1 Pet. 2.13.14 15. (c) 1 Eliz. c 1.3 8 Eliz. c. 1. 1 Jac. 1 3 Jac. c. 1 4 5. 1 H. 7. c. 1. (d) Dionysius Halicarnas Antiqu. Rom.
fined a 1000 l. to Edmond Earl of Cornwal and 2000 marks to the Abbot of Westminster and committed to the Tower of London by JUDGEMENT of the King Earls Barons and Iustices in full Parliament for citing and attaching the said Earl of Cornwal in Westminster hall to appear before the Archbishop sitting the Parliament whereof he was a Peer against his Privilege and the privilege of Sanctuary granted to the Abbot of Westminst and remained prisoners there till they put in Sureties and paid the 1000 l. fine to the Earl notwithstanding their plea of ignorance of these their Privileges In the Parliament of 4 E. 3. n. 2 3 4 5 6. Sir Simon Bereford knight John Mautravers Boso de Bayons John Deverall Thomas de Gournay and William of Ocle confederates with Roger Mortimer Earl of March in all his Treasons and misdoings for which he was then impeached and condemned and guilty of the murders of King Edward the 2. after his deposition in Berkley Castle and of the Earl of Kent his Brother were attainted and condemned of High Treason by the Lords Barons Péers in Parliament as Iudges of Parliament though they were Commoners and not their Péers whom they were not at all obliged to judge as Péers adjudging them by the Kings assent as Traytors and Enemies of the King and his Realm to be drawn and hanged Whereupon Sir Simon being in Custody was executed by the Marshal and Proclamation made by the Kings writs by the Lords order to apprehend the others with promise of great rewards to those who should apprehend them that they might be executed and if they could not take them alive to bring in their heads for which thty should receive the reward of 500 l. from the King It is true indeed that after these Judgements given the Lords the same Parliament entred this special Protestation in the Parliament Roll n. 6. against being forced to give Judgement in such cases against those who were not their Peers which Sir Edward Cook stiles an Act of Parliament though it be no such thing but a voluntary Protestation of the Lords with the Kings assent It is assented and agreed by our Lord the King and all the Great men in full Parliament that albeit the said Péers as Iudges of Parliament took upon them in the presence of our Lord the King to make and render the said Judgements by assent of the King upon some of those who were not at all their Peers and that by reason of the murder of our Leige Lord and destruction of him who was so near of the bloud royal and son of a King that thereby the PEERS which now are o◠the Péers which shall be in time to come shall not be bound or charged to render Iudgements upon others who are not their Péers nor yet to doe it but upon the Péers of the Land but that they shall from henceforth be for ever acquitted thereof And that the said Iudgements now rendered shall not be drawn into example nor consequence for time to come whereby the said Peers may be charged hereafter to adjudge others than their Peers against the Law of the Land if such another case should happen which God defend From this Protestation of the Lords which Lilburn principally insists on he and some others conclude that the Peers in Parliament have no right at all to imprison fine judge or pass sentence of death against any Commoner for any offence no not for breach of their own Privileges but only the Commons To which Objection I answer First that this is no Act of Parliam as Sir E. Cook mistakes but a bare Protestation of the Lords alone assented to by the King without the Commons assent which no wayes impeacheth the Lords right of judicature Secondly that neither the House of Commons nor the Commoners then attainted of Treason and adjudged to death by the Lords ever demurred or excepted against their Jurisdiction as Lilburn and Overton doe but acknowledged and submitted to it Thirdly That in this very Protestation the Lords profess and justifie their right of BEING JVDGES in Parliament without admitting or acknowledging any Joynt or sole right of Judicature with them in the Commons Fourthly That this Protestation was meerly voluntary not in derogation but preservation of their own Honour Right Peerage and the Parliaments privileges too The substance of it is no more than this That the Lords should not be constrained against their wills by the Kings command and in his presence to give judgement of death in ordinary cases of Treason or Felony in the high Court of Parliament or elsewhere out of it against such who were no Peers who in such cases by the Law might and ought to be tried in the Kings Courts at Westminster or before the Iustices of Oyer and Terminer by a Iury of their equals but only in cases which could not well be tried elsewhere and were proper for their Judgement in Parliament they fearing that by this president in Parliament they might be sworn and impannelled on Juries in cases of Treason committed by Commoners against the Great Charter c. 29. and the Privilege of their Peerage which exempted them being sworn or put into Juries as Fitz. Nat. brev f. 165.48 E. 3. f. 30. Exemption 6.48 Ass 6.27 H. 8. f. 22. b. This is the whole summ and sence of their protestation To argue therefore from hence That they cannot pass sentence or judgement against any Commoners in any case proper for their Judicature in Parliament because they protested only against being COMPELLED to give Iudgement against such as were no Peers in cases triable elsewhere and not proper for their tribunal as the Objectors hence conclude is quite to mistake their meaning end to speak rather non-sence than reason or Law Fifthly This Protestation was made only against the Lords giving sentence in Felony and Treason and that in the Kings own presence in Parliam who usually pronounced the judgment himself or by some other with the Lords assent did not charge the Lords to pronounce it as here not against sentencing fining imprisoning any Commoner for rayling and libelling against their Persons Jurisdiction and procedings or refusing to answer and contemning their Authority to their faces at the barr or appealing from their Judicature in case of breach of Privilege of which themselves alone and no others are or can be Judges the cases of Lilburn and Overton whose commitments are warranted by hundreds of Presidents in this and former Parliaments Therefore for them to apply this Protestation to their cases with which it hath no Analogy is a manifestation of their injudiciousness and folly rather than a justification of their Libellous Invectives against the Lords injustice Sixthly The Lords gave judgement against all these persons by the Kings command in their absence without any Indictment hearing Trial witnesses heard or examined against them face to face or due process or Law against the Great Charter
and Law of the Land And this was the main reason of this their Protestation as the close of it shews to prevent such dangerous presidents for the future Upon which ground the Judgements they then gave against Roger Mortymer John Mautravers were reversed in the Parliament of 21 E. 3. n. 65.28 E. 3. n. 8. to 16. Lastly This Protestation did not foreclose the Lords in this or future Parliaments to give Judgement against Commoners in other cases of Felony and Treason even without the Commons which I shall prove by some other instances In the Parliament of 4 Ed. 3. n. 16. Sir Thomas Berkeley Knight was arraigned and tried by a Jury for Treason as being guilty of the death of King Edward the 2. committed to his custody who pleaded not guilty and was tried in full Parliament before the King by a Jury and by them acquitted Which case being rare and memorable I shall here insert the whole Record Thomas de Berkele Miles venit coram Domino Rege in pleno Parliamento suo praedicto et allocutus hoc Quod eum Dominus Edwardus nuper Rex Angliae pater Domini Regis nunc in custodia ipsius Thomae et cujusdam Johanuis Mautravors nuper extitit collatus ad salvo custodiendum in castro ipsius Thomae apud Berkele in Com. Gloucestriae et in eodem castro in custodia ipsorum Thomae Johannis murdratus extitit et interfectus qualiter se velit de morte ipsius Regis acquietare Dicit quod nunquam fuit consentiens auxilians seu procurans ad mortem suam nec unquam scivit de morte sua usquam in praesenti Parliamento isto et de hoc paratus est acquietare se prout CURIA REGIS consideraverit Et super hoc quaefitus est ab eo ex quo ipse est Dominus castri praedicti et idem Dominus Rex in custodia ipsorum Thomae Johannis extitit liberatus ad salvo custodiend ipsi custodiam ipsius Regis recepeâ—unt et acceptarunt quali er se excusare possit quin de morte ipsius Regis respondere debeat Et praedictus Thomas dicit quod verum est quod ipse est Dominus Castri praedicti et quod ipse simul cum Johanne Mautravers custodiam ipsius Regis recepit ad salvo custodiend ut praedictum est Sed dicit quod eo tempore quo dicitur ipsum Dominum Regem esse murdratum et interfectum fuit ipse taliter tanta infirmitate apud Bradeley extra Castrum praedictum detentus quod ei currebat memoriae Et super hoc dictum est ei quod ex quo cognovit quod ipse simul cum dicto Johanne custodiam ipsius Domini Regis obtinuit ut praedictum est et ipse custodes et ministros sub se posuit ad custodiam de eo faciendam si per aliquam infirmitatem excusari posset quin respondere debuit in hac parte Et praedictus Thomas dicit quod ipse posuit sub se tales custodes et ministros in castro praedicto pro custodia facienda a quibus ipse se confidebat ut de seipso qui custodiam ipsius Regis simul cum praedicto Johanne Mautravers inde habuerunt unde dicit quod ipse de morte ipsius Domini Regis auxilio assensu seu procuratione mortis suae in nullo est inde culpabilis Et de hoc de bono et malo ponit se suâ—er patriam Ideo venerint inde Juratores coram Domino Rege in Parliamento suo apud Westm in Octabis Sancti Hilarii proxime futuri c. Ad quam diem venit praedictus Thomas coram Domino Rege in pleno Parliamento ac similiter Juratores scil Johannes Darci Iohannes de Wisham Willielmus Trussell Rogerus de Swyneuerton Constantius de Morâ—imer Iohannes de sancto Phileberto Richardus de Rivers Petrus Hussey Iohannis de Dynton Richardus de la Rivere Robertus Dabenhate Richardus de Corveyes omnes milites Qui dicunt super Sacramentum suum quod praedictus Thomas de Berkelie in nullo est culpabilis praedicti Domini Edwardi Regis Patris Domini Regis nunc nec de assensu auxilio seu procuratione mortis ejusdem Et dicunt quod tempore mortis ejusdem Domini Edwardi Regis patris Domini Regis nunc fuit ipse tali infirmitate gravatus apud Bradely extra castrum suum praedictum quod de viâ—a ejus desperabatur Ideo idem Thomas inde quietus Juratores quaesiti si idem Thomas unquam substraxit se occasione praedicta dicunt quod non Et quia idem Thomas posuit custodes et ministros sub se scil Thomam de Gourney et Willielmum de Ocle ad custodiam de ipso Domino Rege faciendam per quod idem Dominus Rex extitit murdratus et interfectus datus est ei dies coram Domino Rege nunc in proximo Parliamento suo de audiendo JUDICIO SUO c. Et praedictus Thomas de Berkelei interim committitur Radulpho de Nevill Mareschallo hospitii Domini Regis c. It is observable that though Edward the 2. was murdered after he was deposed by this Parliament yet he is still â—â—lled a King in this Indictment and record and his murder adjudged Treason in those who did it After his acquittal he put in Mainpernors to appear in the next Parliament Where appearing he and his Mainpernors were discharged but yet himself ordered to appear again the ensuing Parliament as appears by the Parliament Roll of 5 E. 3. n. 16. William Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings Bench and one of the Justices of Assize in the County of Lincoln in the 23 year of Ed. the 3. against his Oath took 10 l. of Richard Saltley 20 l. of Hildebrand of Beresward 40 l. of Gilbert Holliland 40 l. and 10 l. of Ro. Daldorby to stay an Exigent upon an Indictment of diverse felonies that should have issued against them Whereupon he was indicted before the Earls of Arundel Warwick and Huntingdon the Lord Gray and Lord Burghers Anno 24 E. 3. to whom the King by Commission referred the examination of the businesse before whom he could not deny but confessed the Bribery Ideo consideratum est per dictos Justiciarios assignatos ad judicandum secundum voluntatem Regis et secundum regale posse suum quod quia praedictus Willielmus Thorpâ— qui sacramentum Domini Regis quod erga populum suum habuit custodiendum fregit malitiose false et rebelliter in quantum in ipso fuit ex causis supradictis ipsum Willielmum expresse cognitis ideo SUSPENDATUR et quod omnia terra et tenementa bona et catalla sua remaneant forisfacta The King by a writ under the privy Seal stayed his execution and sent him Prisoner to the Tower In the Parliament of 25 Ed. 3. nu 10. command was given that the record of this Judgement