have taken it for an addition of Honour and not any lessening to be knighted And had no cause at all to dislike such military Tenures which were not called vassalage as Common People may now mistake the word but from vassus or Cliens qui pro beneficio accepto fidem suam autori benificii obligat or from Gesell a German word which signifieth Socius or Commilito a fellow Souldier the name and profession reason and cause of it being so honourable and worthy Or to deem them to be burthens which were at the first intended and taken to be as gifts and favours which none of the sons of men who are Masters of any sense or reason do use to find fault with but may well allow them to be very far distant from Slavery when as Servitude is properly quum quod acquiritur servo acquiritur Domino when that which is gained or acquired by the servant is justly and properly the Lords and a freeman is contra-distinguished by quod acquirit sibi acquirit in that which he gaineth is his own or hath a property in it and that among the Southern Nations a more gentle and merciful bondage being paternd by that of Abraham and his successors the Patriarchs and allowed by the rules and government of God dura erat servitus Dominorum imperia gravia service or the condition of Servants was hard and the severity of Masters great who had potestatem vitae necis power of life and death over their Servants who having nothing which they could call their own but their misery were put to maintain their Masters out of their labours and enduring vilissima et miserrima ministeria all manner of Slaveries ab omni Militia arcebantur were not suffered to know or have the use of Arms apud Boreales tamen gentes justior suit semper servitus et clementior but amongst the Northern Nations there was a more just and gentle usage of their Servants for that they did devide their Lands Conquests amongst their Souldiers and Servants pactionibus interpositis inter Dominum et servientem de mutua Tutela upon certain agreements betwixt them for mutual defence Which made our English as well as other Nations abundantly contented with it as may appear by the acquiescence of them and the Normans under the Norman and next succeeding Kings and of Edward the Confessors Laws and other English customes retaining them the reckoning of it amongst their liberties fighting for them and adventuring their lives and all that they had at the making of Magna Charta and in the Barons wars wherein those great spirits as Mr. Robert Hill saith so impatient of tyranny did never so much as call in question that great and antient prerogative of their Kings or except against Tenures escuage releifs and other moderate and due incidents thereof The care taken in the Parliament of 52 H. 3. to prevent the deceiving of the Lords of their wardships by fraudulent conveyances or Leases of 18 E. 10. in the making of the statute of Quia emptores terrarum that the Feoffees or Purchasers of Lands holden of mesne Lords should hold by such services and Customes as rhe Feoffor did hold the Registring and Survey of Knights Fees by H. 2. H. 3. E. 1. E. 3. and H. 6. Escuage Aydes and Assessements in Parliament and the Marshals Rolls in time of War and necessity The esteem antiently held of the benefits and liberties accrewed by them insomuch as many have by leave of their Lords changed their Socage Tenures into Knights service and thought themselves enfranchised thereby The value put upon them by the Commons of England in the Parliament of 6. H. 4. when they petitioned the King in that Parliament that all Feoffements of Lands and Tenements holden by Knight service and done by Collusion expressed in the Statute of Marlbridge might upon proof thereof be utterly void The opinion of Chief Justice Fortescue in the raign of H. 6. in his Book de laudibus legum Angliae commending them as most necessary as well for the Common-wealth as for those and their Heirs who held their Land by such Tenures The retaining of it by the Germans who did as most of the Northern Nations saith Bodin libertatem spirare only busie themselves to gain and keep their liberty and from the time of their greatest freedom to rhis present and now also could never tell how to find any fault with them Their Princes Electors of the Empire and the Emperial Cities or Hanse townes who take thrmselves to be as free as their name of freedom or liberty doth import not at this day disdaining or repining at them the Switzers in their greatest thoughts of freedom taking their holding of the Empire in Capite to be no abatement of it The use of them by the antient Earles and Governours of Holland Zealand and West-freezland who having been very successful in their Wars without the use of Tenures in Capite or knights service but finding that ipsa virtus amara alioqui per se atque aspera praemiis excitanda videretur simul uti fisco ac Reipublicae consulerâ—tur saith Neostadius that the hardship of vertue needed to be sweetened with some rewards that the old custom of the Longobards in creating and reserving Tenures in Capite and by knights service would be not only a saving of Charges to their Treasury but a good and benefit to their Provinces or Common-wealth did create and erect such or the like Tenures And to this day by the Scotish Nation in a time and at the instant of their late obtaining if they could be thankful for them of all manner of liberties and freedom do sufficiently evince them to be as far from Slavery as they are always necessary Wherein if the primitive purpose and institution of Tenures in capite knight service and Socage be rightly considered every man may without any violence or Argument used to his reason or Judgment if self-conceitedness and obstinacy doe not choke or disturb his Intâ—lâ—â—ctuals Easily conclude whether if it were now 〈…〉 Choice he would not rather take Land by a Service or Condition only to go to warr with the King or his mesne Lord when Wars shall happen which in a Common course of accidents may happen but once or not at all in his life time then not tarry with him above forty days or less according to his proportion of Fee or Land holden to have escuage of his own Tenants if they shall refuse to go also in person with him and to have his heir if he chanced to die which in times of less Luxury happened not so often but once perhaps in three or four descents to be left in his minority to be better educated than he could have been in his life time married without disparagement and himself as well as his own Childrens estates protected Or accept of a Mannor freely granted him
prove to be of evil consequence if any of our new Socage men should like the Snakes thinking themselves the younger by casting off their Skins fancy in their old or the next factious humour they shall meet with that they are only to pay their rent and doe the services belonging to their Lands but are not bound to pay that principal part of their natural as well as sworn Allegiance to take Armes to defend the King and the Kingdome more especially when they shall hold their Lands in libero et communi Socagio et pro omnibus servitiis per fidelitatem tantum in free and common Socage by fealty for all services which may be more than a litle prejudicial to the Kingdome and the salus populi safety of the people so much fought for as was pretended to exchange the men of Armes and such as are fit for war as the Tenures in Capite doe truly and not feignedly import for those that shall claim exemption from wars and are by all nations understood to be the unfittest for it when those that by Tenure of their Lands and by reason of their Homage and Fealty were alwayes ready and bound to doe it and those that by a fealty not actually or but seldome taken will suppose themselves not to be bound at all unto it but being most disloyal will as some thousands of Phanatiques have lately done imagine themselves to be most faithful and where the Knight Service men were to forfeit their Lands so holden if they did not doe their service within two years or pay Escuage assessed by Parliament if they went not when they were summoned or sent another in their stead the new or old Socage men shall be under no manner of penalty of forfeiture at all Which may seem to be the cause that England and all other Civilized and well constituted Nations Kingdoms did put that value upon Homage of which there is some likeness of Fealty also in that of the Princes mighty men of Israel and all the Sons likewise of King David submitting themselvs at his command unto Solomon giving the hand under Solomon as the margent renders like that Oath of Abrahams Steward as they understood it to be of the Essence of Soveraignty the great Assistant and preserver of it and the Bond of Obedience fixed and radicated in the interest of mens Estates kept in and guarded by their fear of loosing them And made our Kings so highly prize the Homages of their Subjects and conceive them to be the Liaisons or fastenings that kept their Crowns fast upon their heads as King H. 2. when he had unadvisedly made his Son Henry King in his life time caused the English Nobility to do Homage unto him and R. 1. returning out of Captivity had found that his Brother Iohn had almost stollen into his Throne caused himself to be Crowned the second time and took the Homages of his Nobility and our Kings have been heretofore so careful as alwayes at their Coronation to take the Homages of their Nobility and after a vacancy of a Bishoprick not to restore the Temporalties until the succeeding Bishop shall have done his Homage And appears to be no lesse valued by Foreign Princes when as Phillip King of France would and did to his cost refuse to receive the Homage of our King E. 3. by proxie but compelled him to do it in his own person for the Dutchy of Aquitain and an Arch-Duke of Austria was constrained in person to do his Homage to the King of France between the hands of his Chancellor for Flan-Flanders and the now Emperor of Germany hath lately and most industriously travailed through many of his Dominions and Kingdoms to receive the personal Homages of the Princes and Nobility thereof and not omitted to go to Gratz and Carinthia to have it as formally as really done unto him And was such a Jewel in their Crowns as they could sometimes to pacifie the greatest of their troubles by the Seditions and Rebellions of their Subjects find no greater or fitter a pawn or security to assure the performance of their promises and agreements than an absolving their Subjects from their Homage and Obedience which were as Synonimes or of one and the same signification in case of Breach of promises as our King Henry the 3 d. did in his necessities to Richard Marshal Earl of Pembroke that he should be freed from his Homage Si rex pactum suum violaret if the King should break his agreement and as the Antient Earls of Brabant are said to have done in their Reversals or Grants to their Subjects if they should infringe their Liberties or Privileges Which the seditious party that deposed King Richard the 2 d. knew so well to be a grand Obligation or Tye which Kings had upon their Subjects as they put themselves to the trouble of inventing a new trick of Treason solemnly in the name of the three Estates of the Kingdom viz. Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons to renounce their Homages Fealties and Allegiance and all Bonds Charges and Services belonging thereunto which would have been to as little purpose as it was contradictory to all the Rules of Right Reason and Justice if they had not forced the distressed imprisoned King by a publick instrument upon Oath to absolve all his Subjects a Juramento fidelitatis homagiis omnique vinculo ligeanciae from their Oaths of Fealty and Homage and all Bonds of Allegiances and to swear and promise never to revoke it and is so precious inestimable of so high a nature so useful and of so great a value as nothing but the Kingdom it self can be equivalent unto it And our Nobility did so esteem of the Homage and Service of their Tenants and build as is were their Grandeur and Power upon it as they did antiently grant one to another Homagium Servicium of such and such Tenants Maud the Empresse gave to Earl Alberick de vere servicium decem militum the Service of ten Knights An Earl of Leicester gave to Bygod Earl of Norfolk ten Knights Fees which after the manner of those times may with reason enough be conceived to be only the Homage and Service of so many for the purchase of the Office of Lord high Steward of England and John Earl of Oxford in the Reign of H. 7. did at his Castle of Hedingham in Essex actually receive the Homages of many worthy Knights and Gentlemen that held of him May very much prejudice in their Dignities and Honors as well as Estates the antient Earls and Barons of this Kingâ—om by taking away Tenures in capite changeing them and Knight service Tenures into Socage when as the Earls of Arundel do hold the Castle and Rape of Arundel which is the Honor and Earldom it self by the Service of 84. Knights Fees the Earldom of Oxford is holden by the Service of 30 Knights Fees and that by a modus
under them and if any evil happened unto them either endured it with them or willingly ventured their lives with them others attribute it to the Saxons ubi jus antiquissimum feudorum semper viguit et adhuc saith the learned Craig religiose observatur where the feudal Laws were and are yet most religiouâ—ly observed and Cliens and Vasallus in matters of Fâ—wds and Tenures are not seldome in the Civil Law and very good Authors become to be as Synonimes and used one for the other And the later Grecians since the Raign of Constantine Porphyrogenneta in the East and the Roman Emperors in the West before since the Raign of Charlemain or Charles the great were not without those necessary defences of themselves and their people And such a general benefit and ready and certain way of ayd and help upon all emergencies in the like usage of other Nations making it to be as a Law of Nations There hath been in all or most Kingdoms and Monarchies of the World as well Heathen as Christian a dependency of the Subject upon the Prince or Soveraign and some duties to be performed by reason of their Lands and Estates which they held under their Protection and in many of them as amongst the Germans Saxons Franks and Longobards and several other Nations descending from them Tenures in capite and Knight service were esteemed as a foundation and subsistency of the right and power of Soveraignty and Government and being at the first precariae ex domini solius arbitrio upon courtesie at the will only of the Prince or Lord were afterwards Annales from year to year after that feuda ceperunt esse vitalia their Estates or Fees became to be for life and after for Inheritance So as by the Law of England we have nâ—t properly Allodium saith Coke that is any Subjects Land which is not holden of some Superior and that Tenures in capite appear not to be of any new institution in the book of Doomsday or in Edward the Confessors dayes an 1060. in King Athelstans an 903. in King Canutus his Raign in King Keâ—ulphus his Raign an 821. or in King Ina's Raign an 720. In Imitation whereof and the Norman no slavish Laws and usages which as to Tenures by the opinion of William Roville of Alenzon in his Preface to the grand Customier of Normandy were first brought into Normandy out of England by our Edward the Confessor the Customs Policies of other People and Kingdoms prudent Antiquity having in that manner so well provided by reservation of Tenures for the defence of the Realm William the Conquerour sound no better means to continue and support the Frame and Government of this Kingdom then upon many of his gifts and grants of Land the most part of England being then by conquest in his Demeasne to reserve the Tenures and Service of those and their Heirs to whom he gave it in Capite and by Knight Service and if Thomas Sprot and other antient Authors and Traditions mistake not in the number of them for that there were very many is agreed by the Red Book in the Exchequer and divers Authentiques created 60215 Knights Fees which with their Homage incidents and obligations to serve in Wars with the addition of those many other Tenures by Knights service which the Nobility great men and others besides those great quantities of Lands and Tenements which they and many as well as the King and others our succeeding Princes gave Colonis Hominibus inferioris notae to the ordinary and inferior sort of people to hold in Socage Burgage and Petit Serjeantie reserved upon their guifts and grants to their Friends Followers and Tenants who where to attend also their mesne Lords in the service of their Prince could not be otherwise then a safety and constant kind of defence for ever after to this Kingdom And by the Learned Sir Henry Spelman said to be due non solum jure positivo sed gentium quodammodo naturae not only by positive Law but the Law of Nations and in some sorts by the Law of Nature Especially when it was not to arise from any compulsary or incertain way or involuntary contribution or out of any personal or moveable estate but to fix and go along with the Land as an easy and beneficial tye and perpetuity upon it and is so incorporate and inherent with it as it hath upon the matter a co-existence or being with it and Glanvil and Bracton are of opinion that the King must have Arms as well as Laws to Govern by and not depend ex aliorum Arbitrio it being a Rule of Law that quando Lex aliquid concedit id concedit sine quo res ipsa esse non potest when the Law granteth any thing it granteth that also which is necessary and requisite to it And therefore the old oath of Fealty which by Edward the Confessors Laws was to be administred in the Folcmotes or assemblyes of the People once in every year Fide et Sacramento non fracto ad defendendum regnum contra Alienigenas et Inimicos cum Domino suo Rege et terras et honores illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare et quod illi ut Domino suo Regi intra et extra regnum Britanniae fideles esse volunt by faith and oath inviolable to defend the Kingdome against all strangers and the Kings Enemies and the Lands and dignity of the King to preserve and be faithful to him as to their Lord as well within as without the Kingdom of Britain which was not then also held to be enough unlesse also there were a tye and obligation upon the Land and therefore enacted that debeant universi liberi homines secundum feodum suum secundum tenementa sua arma habere illa semper prompta conservare ad tuitionem Regni servicium Dominorum suâ—rum juxta preceptum Domini Regis explendum peragendum every free man according to the proportion of his Fee and Lands should have his Arms in readinesse for the defence of the Kingdom and Service of their Lords as the King should command And it was by William the Conqueror ordained quod omnes liberi homines fide et Sacramento affirment quod intra extra universum Regnum Willielmo Regi Domino suo fideles esse volunt terras honores suos omni fidelitate ubique servare cum eo contra Inimicos Alieniginas defendere that all Free-men should take an Oath that as well within as without the Realm of England they should be faithful to their King and Lord and defend every where him and his Lands Dignity and Estate with all faithfulnesse against his Enemies and Foreiners Et Statuit firmiter precepit ut omnes Comites Barones Milites Servientes Teneant se semper in Armis in Equis ut decet oportet quod
detruncatione vel alijs modis juxtâ— quantitatem delicti puniat To be an Hangman or Executioner of such as were condemned to suffer death or any loss of Members according to the nature of their offences could neither be parted with or taken to be any thing but a benefit And that a claim was made by one thâ—â— held Lands in the Isle of Silly to be the Exeâ—cutioner of Felons which there was then usualy done by letting every one of them down in a Basket from a steâ—p Rock with the provision only of two Loaves of Barly bread and a pot of water to expect as they hung the mercy of the Sea when the Tide should bring it in And that those which held by the easy and no dishonourable Tenures of being Tenants in Capite and Knightâ—service should as Mr. Robert Hill a learned and judicious Antiquary in the beginning of the Reign of King James well observeth rack and lease their Lands to their under Tenants at the highest Rents and Râ—tes and neither they nor their Tenants call that a slavery which though none at all may seem to be a far greater burden than any Tenâ—nt in Capite and by Knight service which holdeth of the King or any Tenant that holdeth by knight service of a mesne Lord endureth when as the one is always more like to have the bag and burden which he must pay for laid upon him in his Bargain then the other who is only to welcom a gift or favour for which he payeth but a grateful acknowledgment Nor is there in that which is now so much complained of and supposed to be a Grievance which whatever it be except that which may as to some particular cases happen to the best and most refined Constitutions and the management thereof hath only been by the fault of some people who to be unfaithful and deceive the King in his Wardships or other Duties have some times cast themselves into the trouble and extremityes which were justly put upon them for concealments of Wardships or making fraudulent conveyances to defeat the just Rights of the King or their superiour Lords or by some exorbitances or multiplications of Fees since the erecting of the Court of Wards and Liveries by an Act of Parliament in 32 H. 8. any malum in se original innate or intrinsecal cause of evil or inconvenience in them Active or Prâ—xime meerly arising from the Nature or Constitution of Tenures in Capite and Knight Service To be found upon the most severe examinations and inquiries which may be made of them nor are they so large in their number as to extend or spread themselves into an universality of grievances nor were or are any publick or extraordinary Grievance CHAP. III. Tenures of Lands in Capite and by Knight service are not so many in number as is supposed nor were or are any publick or general grievance FOr the Number of Knights Fees which were holden in Capite and by Knight service of the King have by tract of time Alienations Purprestures Assarts incroachments deafforrestations and concealments been exceedingly lessened and decreased 28015 which were said to be parcel of the 60215 knights Fees created by William the Conquerour being granted afterwards by him or his successors to Monasteries Abbyes Priories and religious houses or parcelled into Glebes or other endowments belonging to Cathedrals Churches and Chantries or given away in Mortmain and very many quillets and parcels of Land after the dissolution of the Abbyes and religious houses not exceeding the yearly value of forty shillings And now far exceeding that value granted in Socage by King Henry the eighth besides many other great quantities of dissolved Abbyes and religious Lands granted to be holden in Socage Much of the Abbye Lands retained in the Crown or Kings hands as part of the Royal Patrimony and many Mannors and great quantities of Land granted to divers of the Nobility gentry and others with reservations many times of Tenures of but half a knights Fee when that which was granted would after the old rate or proportion of knights Fees have been three or four knights Fees or more and somtimes as much or more then that no rule at all as touching the proportions of Lands or Tenures being then in such an abundance of Land and Revenue as by the dissolution of the Abbyeâ— came into the Kings hands or disposing 〈◊〉 all kept which might have made many knights Fees were not seldom granted with a Tenure only of a twentieth or fortieth and sometimes an hundreth part of a knights Fee whereby the knights Fees which were granted to the Religious houses being almost half of the number which William the Conquerour is said at the first to have created might well decrease into a smaller number and many of those which diverse of the Nobility and great men held of the King as those of Ferrers Earl of Darby and the Earls of Chester those that came by marriage as by one of the Daughters and Heirs of 〈◊〉 Earl of Hereford and Essex by escheat as the Earldome of Clare or by Resumptions Dissolution of Priors Alienâ— Knights of St. John of Hierusalem Attainders Escheats or Forfeitures which in the Barons Wars were very many or holden as of honors c. Merging and devolving into the Royal Revenue did take of very many of the number especially since the making of the Act of Parliament in 1 â— 6. cap. 4. that there should be no Tenure in Capite of the King by reason of Lands coming to the hands of him or any of his Progenitors Heirs or Successors by Attainders of Treason misprision of Treason Premunires dissolution or surrender of Religious Houses And not a few of the Mesne Lords and those which held also of the King did make as great an abatement in their Tenures by releasing and discharging their services before the making of the Statute of Quia emptores terrarum granting Lands in Socage Franck Almoigne or by copy of Court Roll and casting out a great part of their Lands as well as the Kings of England did not Forrests Chases many vast Commons which they laid out in Charity for the good of the poorer sort of people infranchising of a great number of Copyholders selling giving away many and great parcels of their demesne Lands disparking of many of their Parks deviding them into many Tenements to be holden in Socage endowing of Churches Chantries religious houses the like the forrests Chases and Commons of the Kingdom making very near a tenth part in ten of the Lands of the Kingdom and the Socage Lands Burgage Franck Almoigne and Copyholds more than two parts in three of all the remainder of the Lands of the Kingdom So as it is not therefore improbable but that there are now not above ten thousand or at most a fourth part of those 62015. Knights Fees to be found And that in antient and former times either by reason that great quantities of Mannors and
part of the well being of the Nation not at once but at several times in several ages and several Generations support and uphold them by after Laws constitutions as That no Freeman should from thence give nor sell any more of his lands but so that of the residue of the lands the Lord of the fee may have the services due unto him which belongeth to the Fee Lands aliened in mortmaine shall accrew to the Lord of the Fee 9 H. 3. ca. 32. 36. the Ward shall pay to the Lord of the Fee the value of his marriage if he will not marry at the request of his Lord for the marriage of him that is within age say the Statute the makers thereof of meer right pertaineth to the Lord of the Fee 20. H. 3 cap. 7. The Lord shall not pay a Fine for distraining his Tenant for Services and â—ustomes 52. H. 3 cap. 3. A fraudulent conveyance to defeat the Lord of his ward shall be void cap. 6. The King shall have primer seisin neither the heir nor any other shall intrude into their Inheritance before he hath received it out of the Kings hands as the same Inheritance was wont to be taken out of his hands and his Ancestors in times past if the lands be accustomed to be in the Kings hands by Knight service or Serjeanty or right of Patronage 52. H. 3. cap. 16. If an heir marry within age without the consent of his Guardian before he be past the age of fourteen years it shall be done according as is contained in the statute of Merton and of them that marry after that age without the consent of their Guardian the Guardian shall have the double value of their marriage such as have withdrawn their marriage shall pay the full value to the Guardian for the trespass and nevertheless the King shall have like amends And if the wards of malice or by evil council will not be married by their chief Lords where they shall not be disparaged then the Lords may hold their lands and Inheritance until they have accomplished the age of an heir male that is to wit of twenty one years and further until they have taken the value of the marriage 3 E. 1.22 A Tenaent shall have a writ of mesne to acquit him of his services and if the mesne come not he shall loose the service of his Tenant 13 E. 1.9 Priority of Feoffment shall make a title for wardship cap. 16. the chief Lord shall have a Cessavit against the Tenant if he cease for two years to do his service writs of Ravishment degard allowed to the Lord and the Party offending though he restore the ward unmarried or pay for the marriage shall nevertheless be punished by two years Imprisonment 13 E. 1.35 The Feoffee shall hold his lands of the chief Lord and not of the Feoffor 18 E. 1. Quia emptores terrarum A saving to the King of the antient aydes due and accustomed 25. E. 1.6 The King shall have the wardship of his Tenant which holdeth in chief the marriage of the heir primer seisin assignement of dower to the widdow marriage of the women Tenants deviding their lands in Coparcinery holden of him and they which hold of him in Serjeanty shall pay a Fine at the Alienation 17. E. 2. A Free-man shall doe his homage to his Lord 17. E. 2. Knights Fees shall not pass in the Kings grants without special words 17 E. 2.16 he shall be answered the mesne rates of Lands coming to him by his Tenants death 28. E. 3.4 where sundry of the Kings Tenants holding of him immediately as of his Dutchy of Lancaster did by sundry Recoveries Fines and Feoffments in use defeat the King of Wardships of Body and Lands It was Enacted that the King and his Heirs shall have the Wardship and Custody of the Body and Lands of cestui que use and if they be of full age shall have relief notwithstanding any such conveyance and an exact provision made for Writs to be granted upon the imbesiling of any such Heir Rot. Parl. 22 E. 4. N. 16. 17. The Lord of Cestui que use no will being declared c. shall have a Writ of Right of Ward for the Body and Land and the Heir of Cestuique use being of full Age at the Death of his Auncestor shall pay a relief 4 H. 7.17 Avâ—wry may be made by the Lord upon the land holden of him without naming his Tenant 21 H. 8.19 And no grievance was thought be in them at the time of the making of the Act of Parliament of 27 H. 8 2. when as it was expresly provided by that Act that Tenures in Capite should be reserved to the King of all mannors lands and hereditaments belonging to Monasteries religious houses which had lands Tenements and hereditaments not exceeding the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds which he should afterwards grant for an estate of Inheritance nor did the Parliament in the 31 year of the raign of that King retract that good opinion which was formerly had of them when enacting that the King and his heirs and Successors should be put in actual possession of all mannors lands and hereditaments of any yearly value whatsoever belonging to Monasteries they saved to the King his heirs and Successors all rents services and other duties as if that act had never been made Nor in the Act of Parliament of 32 H. 8. cap. 46. For erection of the Court of wards and Liveries wherin it is acknowledged that Tenures in Capite and wardships with their incidents did of right belong to the King in the right of the Imperial Crown of this Realm In the Act of Parliament of 32. H. 8. And an explanation thereof in 34 and 35 H. 8.5 giving power to those that held lands in Capite and by Knights service to devise two parts thereof reserving to the King wardship primer seisin and Fines for alienation of the third part and Fines for alienations of the Freehold or Inheritance of the two parts The Crown being secured of the Tenure of the two parts by the statute of Quia emptores terrarum Nor at the making of the statutes of 35 H. 8.14 37 H. 8.2 Whereby the King might reserve Tenures in Socage or Capite at his will and pleasure upon grants of lands not exceeding the value of forty shillings per annum belonging to religious houses And that the Kings former right shall be saved notwithstanding any Traverse a remedy for the rents of the mesne Lords where the King hath the wardships 2 and 3 E. 6. cap. 8 And those that held by such Tenures besides the care of so many Acts of Parliament were not unhappy also in that provision of the Common Law where it was an Article or inquiry in the Eyre if any Lord novas levavit consuetudines had charged his Tenant with any new Customes if any Escheators or Subescheators had made any
wast in the Wards Lands or seised Lands which ought not to be seised Et omnes illi qui sentiunt se super hiis gravatos inde conqueri voluerint audiantur fiat eis Justitia All that were grieved were to be heard and have Justice done them and the Tenant had his remedy by a writ of ne injuste vexes where his Lord did Indebita exigere servitia And least any thing should but come within the suspition of a Grievance or that the power of the Court of Wards and Liveries and the latitude which the Act of Parliament of 32 H. 8. had given it which was to be as fixed as the trust which was committed to it should in the intervalls of Parliaments or seldomest Cases be any thing like to a burden or Inconvenience the disposing and granting of wardships was by King James his Commission and instructions under the great Seal of England in an 1622. to the end that the people might stand assured that he desired nothing more than that their Children and their Lands which should fall unto him by reason of wardships might after their decease be committed in their neerest and trustiest friends or to such as they by will or otherwise commit the charge unto upon such valuable considerations as are just and reasonable that the Parents and Ancestors may depart in greater peace in hope of his gracious favour their friends may see their children brought up in piety and learning and may take such care as is fit for the preservation of their inheritance if they will seek the same in time Ordered that no direction for the finding of any Office be given for the wardship of the body and lands of any Ward until the end of one moneth next after the death of the Wards Ancestor but to the neerest and trustiest friends of the ward or other person nominated by the Ancestor in the wards behalf who may in the mean time become Suiters for the same among whom choice may be made of the best and fittest No composition agreement or promise of any wardship or lease of Lands be made until the office be found and then such of the friends to have preferment as tendred their Petitions within the moneth they yeilding a reasonable composition The Master Attorney Surveyor and other the Officers of the Court of Wards were to inform them selves as particularly as they might of the truth of the Wards estate as well of his Inheritance as of his Goods and Chattels the estate of the deceased Ancestors and of all other due circumstances considerable to the end the Compositions might be such as might stand with the Kings resonable profit and the Ability of the Heirs estate No Escheatâ—r shall inforce any man to shew his evidence That all Leases of Wards lands except in cases of concealment be made with litle or no Fine and for the best improved yearly rent that shall be offered consideration being had of the cautions aforesaid that no recusant be admitted to compound or be assignee of any wardship That where it shall appear that neither the King nor his progenitors within the space of threescore years last past enjoyed any benefit by Wardship Livery Primer seizin Releif Respect of Homage Fiâ—es or mesne rates of any lands the Master and Councel of the said Court were authorized to remit and release all benefit and profit that might accrew to the King thereby And in all cases where covenants were pâ—â—formed to deliver bonds which were taken concerning the same And that upon consideration of circumstances which may happen in assessing of Fines for the marriages of the Wards and renting of their lands either by reason of the broken estate of the deceased want of provision for his wife his great charge of Children unprovided for infirmity or tendernesse of the heir incertainty of the title or greatnesse of incumbrance upon the lands they shall have liberty as those or any other the like comsiderations shall offer themselves to use that good discretion and Conscience which shall be sit in mitigating or abating Fines or Rents to the releif of such necessities In pursuance whereof and the course and usage of that Court as well before as after the said Instructions Wardships nor any Custody or Lease of the Wards or their Lands were not granted in any surprising or misinforming way but by the care and deliberation of the Master and Councel of the Court of Wards and Liveries upon a full hearing and examination of all parties and pretenders they to whom they were granted Covenanting by Indenture under their Hands and Seals with Bonds of great penalties to perform the same to educate the ward according to his degree and quality preserve his lands and houses from waste fell no Coppice Woods grant no Copy-hold estates for lives nor appoint any Steward to keep the Courts without licence and to permit the feodary of the County where the land lieth yearly to survey and superintend the care thereof and had reasonable times of payment allowed them And could not likely produce any grievances in the rates or assessing of Fines for marriages or for rents reserved during the minority of the wards or for primer seisin or any other Compositions when as the Kings of England since the Raign of the unhappy R. 2. and the intermission of the Eyres and those strict enquiries which were formerly made of the frauds or concealment of the Escheators or their Deputies in the businesse of Tenures and Wardships and their neglect or not improving of them most of those former Officers and those that trucked with them not doing that right which they ought to their Consciences and their Kings and Benefactors Have for some ages past been so willing to ease their people or comply with their desires as they have noâ— regarded aâ— all their own profit or taken such a care as they might to retain â—hose just powers which were incident or necessary to their Royal Government but by leaving their bounty and kindnesse open to all the requests or designs of the people have like tender hearted parents given away much of their own support and sustenance to gratify the blandishments or necessities of their Children and not only enervated but dismembred and quitted many of their Regal powers and just Prerogatives in their grants of Lands and Liberties and thereby too much exhausted and abandoned the care of their own Revenue and Treasure as may easily appear to any that shall take but a view of those many Regalities Franchises and Liberties which being to be as a Sacrum patrimonium unalienable have heretofore either been too liberally granted by the Kings Progenitors of which H. 3. was very sensible in his answer to the Prior or Master of the Hospital of St. Johns at Jerusalem or not well looked after in those Incroachments and Usurpations which have been made upon them Or consider the very great cares and providence as well as prudence of former
ages in the Managing Collecting and Improveing of the Kings Revenue in England whether certain or casual The strict Inquiries Orders and the care of every thing which might make a profit or prevent a damage which made some of the Kings of England to be so litle wanting money as King Canutus as the Abby Book of Ramsey hath recorded it was able out of his Hanaper or travailing Trunk when he lodged at Vassington in Northamptonshire to lend the Bishop Etheruus who sâ—bita pulsus occasione had a great occasion to use it good store of money And that in William the Conquerours time and in the height of his plenty and prosperity no repairs of Castles and Houses were made but upon accompt by Oath Inquiries were made by some of the succeeding Kings and their Officers after windfalen trees a few trees were not given nor Cheverons nor Rafters allowed towards the repairing of a Grange or Farm without the warrant of the great Seal of England Judges commanded to look to the Fines imposed in the Eyreâ— or Circuits and in all the Eyres Circuits a Clark who kept particular Rolles or Duplicates of the Judges Rolles or Records of their Proceedings was for the King especially appointed and attended and as smal a sum as 2 d. accompted for a Deodand Nor was any thing as far as Humane vigilance Industry or Providence might foresee prevent or remedy suffered to be done or continue that might endammage or lessen the Royal Revenue which King Henry the 3 d. could so watch over as the Court of Exchequer hath sometimes seen him there sitting and taking his own accompts Which kinds of wariness and care have been so much disused or neglected by many of his Successors as though by time and the course thereof the alteration of the value of mony Coyne from twenty pence the ounce to five shillings a peny the ounce of Silver the prizes rates of Provision and Commodities to be bought with it almost yearly raised and inhaunced and the more chargeable way of living which followed thereupon might have put them in mind to have given lesse or demanded more for what was justly their own when as in the 14 th year of the Reign of King Edward the 3 d. 40 shillings per diem was thought by the King and his Councel to be a royal and sufficient expence for Edward Baliol King of Scots his train whilst he tarried at London and 6 s. per diem when he travailed And in the reign of King H. 6. Medow-ground in Leicestershire was valued but at eight pence an Acre and that as appears by a Remonstrance made in Parliament in or about the 11 th year of the reign of that King who was King in possession of France as well as of England now not above 227 years agoe he did right worshipfully as the Record saith maintain the charge of his houshold with sixteen thousand pounds Sterling per annum and could not then defray it with less than Twenty four thousand pounds per annum which now cannot well be done under ten times as much when an Annuity or Pension of ten pounds or twenty marks per annum which was then sufficient for the Kings better sort of Servants is now scarce enough for a Foot-man and the most ordinary sort of inferior Servants Did notwithstanding not lessen their bounty or raise the Rents or Rates of their Revenues but permitted their Escheators in matters of Tenures and Wardships to adhere unto their former courses and find the value of the Lands in their Offices or Inquisitions at the old or small yearly values the rule which the Escheators took for the finding of the values of the Lands upon Inquisitions being at the highest but the tenth part of the true yearly value which was the guide also for the rate of the primer seisins where they were to be taken as much lower as the unwarrantable kindness of too many of those which were trusted and should have looked better unto it could perswade them The Feodaries also upon their Surveys seldom raising the yearly value to more than about a third part of such a gentle value as he should be entreated to adde to that which the Jurors and Escheators had friendly found it So as somtimes a Mannor of above one hundred pounds per annum was found but at thirteen shillings four pence per annum and other times if mingled with other lands of a great yearly value at no more than forty shillings per annum And no longer agoe than in the reign of King Chaâ—les the first above one thousand poundâ— per annum hath been found to be but of the yearly vaâ—ue of twenty Marks And an Estate consisting of very few Mannors and as few Coppyholders but most in Fâ—rms and demâ—snes upon an improved and almost racked Rent worth six thousand pounds per annum found at no greater yearly value than one hundred eighty three pounds eleven shillings which is lesse than the thirtieth parâ— â—hough the Escheators with Knights and Gentlemen and sometimes men of greater mark and quality were Commissioners the Jurors made up somtimes of Gentlemen and most commonly of substantial Freeholders and all of them such as might better have understood an Oath who takeing an ill custom to be warrant enough for a bad Conscience did when they were by the Writ to enquire upon their Oaths de vero Annuo valore of the true yearly value of the Lands thâ—nk that they did honestly and well enough to find it at a very small or low yearly value because they were sure it was weâ—l worth so much Neither were the paymâ—nts o◠〈◊〉 of Homage so troublesom as to make a complaint of when as by an Order made in 13 Eliz. by virtue of her privy Seal by the Lord Burghley Lord Treasurer and the Chancellour and Barons of the Exchecquer which the Lords and Commons of England in primo Jacobi did pray and procure to be enacted by Parliament It was after such an easy and old fashioned rate or value of the Lands as it was but in every fifth Term to be paid in the Exchecquer by a rate and apportionment and might have been saved by an actual doing of Homage as was antiently used to be done upon their Livery and first coming to their Lands and their respit of Homage and howsoever may as well be taken to be a favour as they do of their mesne Lords or one to another in paying three shillings four pence per annum as a quit Rent for respit of suit of Court And that it was therein and thereupon also enacted that no processe ad faciendum Homagium or fidelitatem scire facias Capias or distresse should issue out of the Exchequer but upon a good ground And that the Clerks of the Treasurers Remembrancer in the Exchequer shall pay all issues that any shall loose after he hath paid ordinary Fine for respite of Homage
took up much of the Lands of the Kingdom came with their Plow-shares to the Court to shew the King the decay of Husbandry saith the Black Book of the Exchequâ—er when as a little before a measure of Wheat for bread for a hundred men was valued by the Kings Officers but at one shilling the Carcasse of a fat Oxe one shilling of a Sheep four pence and for Provender for twenty Horses but four pence And thought himself to have been on the surer side when he ordered six pence in every pound to be taken overplus or D'avantage least the rate and value of money should diminish is now not the hundreth part of the value of the old kind of Rents and Provisions and reducing also many incertain Customs into a certainty of yearly Rents which being then some thing proportionable unto it is not now the 50 th or 100 th part of what was then the value in the intention and estimation as well of the Kings which were to receive it as of the Tenants who were to pay it And therefore notwâ—thstanding the great Estates and Revenues of some Rebellious Subjects which have sometimes been forfeited came as an accession supplement to the wasting and decâ—ying Crown Lands much of them being either in merâ—y or policy restored afterwards to the Heirs of those which justly forfeited them The languishing Condition of the Royal Revenues were so little remedied as the Royal Expences in defraying the more expencefull Charges of their houshold Family and princely Retinue After the new enhaunced Rates and Prizes whilst they recelved their Rents and other Profits after the old carrying so great a difference and disproportion As there is betwixt one hundred four pounds seventeen shillings and six pence paid by Thomas Earl of Lancaster in the reign of King E. 2. for 184 Tuns of Clarret-Wine and one Tunne of White but litle exceeding eleaven shillings per Tunn and that which is now the price of the like quantity between one hundred forty seven pounds seventeen shillings and eight pence for seven Furres of variable Miniver or powdered Ermin seven hoods of Purple three hundred ninety five Furres of Budge for the Liveries of Barons Knights and Clerks 123 Furrs of Lamb for Esquires bought at Christmas as appears by the accompt of Henry Leicester the said Earls Cofferer Twenty four shillings for a fat stalled Oxe twenty pence for a Mutton two pence half penny for a Goose two pence for a Capon a penny for a Hen and twenty four Eggs for a penny which were the prizes assessed by the Magistrates and then thought to be equal for the Buyer as well as the Seller between the price of Cloath for two Gowns for the Clarks of the Chamber to the Lord Mayor of London now and that which in the raign of H. 6. cost but two shillings per yard and betwixt the price of a Capon in the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth at six pence and the rate of 2 s 6 d. or 3 s. which is now the least will be taken for one And that by reason of the Gentry and all private mens racking and inhauncing the Rents of their Lands letting it too often by the Acre and the strictest measure and the most that will be bid for it and the plenty of pride to an extremity of excesse rather than a plenty of mony in the Nation the rates of Victuals and Provisions and manner of living are increased to almost a third part more than what they were within this 20 years last past There must needs follow that Tabes or Consumption which is so apparent and visible in the Royal Revenue which will be as little for the peoples good who unless they can think it to be either Goodness or Wisdom in the Members to make or suffer the head to be sick and languish are by Subsidies Assessements to support it in its sicknesse or languishing condition as it will be for the King to presse or perswade them to it But least it should be objected that as the well ordering right use and manage of the best things is that only which blesseth and crowneth the Intention and first Institution of them and the ill is that which corrupteth and blasteth all that was hoped for or expected by it and that the Innocency and necessary use of Tenures in Capitâ— and Knight service may amount unro a grievance if the Court of Wards should either by the wickednesse extortion or avarice of the Judges or their ignorance which is as bad as either or their lenity or connivance to the Officers or those which are employed under them intend more their own profit than the Kings and in stead of being a protection to Wards pillage and ruine them and their estates or be like as they were not an Assembly or Congregation of men met together in the formality of a Court where rapine avarice and injustice under the vizard or Hypocrisie of doing justice strives who shall most advance their ends by a propension to what is unjust and an aversion from all that may relieve the oppressed It may be necessary to shew by whom or what manner of persons that Court of wards and Liveries was governed and guided Which was not like that Court of Civil Law upon whose Bench and Tribunal in our late times of delirium and confusion sate as Judges two common Lawyers Hugh Peters a a Traytor to his King and Country sometimes a Prompter at a Play-house and afterwards an extemporary Preacher together with an Atturney at common Law a Tradesman a Country Gentleman who would not at any time think it safe or becomming them in that their never the like practised in any age or time before Antipodes or contrarieties to right reason or the way of understanding or doing Justice to mention any Text or part of the Civil Law though it was daily and learnedly pleaded before them by the Advocates but when any Books or Authorities of the Civil Law were cited and urged which their capacities could not reach some of them like the Woman in Seneca which did not complain of her own want of sight but found fault with the darknesse of the House could to throw by the trouble or any further consideration of what they did not understand find no better a way than causelessely to rail at and reproach the Common Law as well as the Civil and unadvisedly and publickly declare them to be but Inventions to get mony Was not like the Court to remove Obstructions in the Godly as they called it but ungodly Purchasers where all the Kings grants after 1636. or thereabouts were adjudged as null and not to be allowed and all manner of obstructions laid in the way of Loyal and Distressed men to clear and make an open passage for their own Partie and such kind Purchasers Not like that of Haberdashers-Hall where the Just and Innocent were Sequesterd by the tender Conscienced Party as they stiled
the broaching of this project ever adventure to ask or give such demands any room or entertainment in their imaginations and is more then the Athenians and Romans ever aimed at who in all their popular and restlesse turmoils seditions and agitations by the people or their Tribunes concerning the Agrarian Laws and making and changing of many other Laws and several forms of Government did never seek to take away or root out those long lasting monuments of benefits and the acknowledgements and returns of gratitude which ought to be made of them More then the people of France in those hard Conditions which they would have put upon the Daulphine of France afterwards Charles the fifth of France in the troubles and imprisonment of his Father King John in England in the Raign of our King Edward the third and the strange and insolent behaviour of the Citizens of Paris towards him when the Provost or Mayor put his own hood half blew half red upon his head compelling him to wear his Livery did all that day wear the Daulphines being of a brown black embrodered with gold in token of his Dictatorship did ever demand nor did in those great afflictions wants which were upon Charles the seventh when he was reproached by his Subjects and the English had so much of France in their possession in the Raign of our King H. 5. and King H. 6. who by their numerous Armies and the gallantry of their nobility and Tenants in Capite and by Knight Service were Masters of the Field as well as of that Crown as he was in disgrace called the King of Berry being a small Province wherein he made what shift he could to defend himself when his Table failed him so that he eat no more in publick but sparingly in his Chamber attended by his domestical Servants had pawned the County of Gyan for mony ever require to be discharged of their Homages and Tenures and the duties and incidents which belonged to them Neither did the Justices or domineering Officers of State in Arragon in their height and extravagancy of power which for some time until by its own weight their Tyranny or the subtile politique patience of their Kings it came to be dissolved into the Royal proper Rights of that Crown Government they excercised over their Kings ever make that to be any part of it nor did the wants of John King of Arragon when he had pawned the County of Roussilion to Lewis the eleventh King of France nor of Ferdinand the Second Emperor when within these forty years in those devouring and destroying Wars of Germany when the pale horse of death and the red of destruction rid up to the bridles in blood he pawned Lusatia and Silesia to the Duke of Saxony and the upper Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria beget any such motion of the people or Condiscention of their Princes And that unhappy project and design had in all probability no more disquieted our old Albion or Brittain sitting upon a Rock mediis tranquilla in undis in the midst of all our late Storms and Tempests which had broken the bag of Eolus getting loose vied with the raging waves of a distempered Sea who should be most destructive and play the Bedlam Had not a necessity of the Parliament in An. 1645. and their want of mony to maintain their Wars put them again in mind of that way of raising mony all other that could be almost thought upon as far as the mony which should be spared by one meal in every family in a week having been before put in Execution so dangerous and of fatal consequence are sometimes but the attempts or beginning of designs and then as the vote tells us the house of Commons having received the report from the grand Committee which was ordered to consider of raising of monyes for supply of the whole Kingdom after some debate thereupon ordered that the Court of Wards and Liveries with the Primer Seisins Oustres les maines and all other profits arising by the said Court should be fully taken away and be made null and voyd And that the Sum of one hundred thousand pounds per Annum should be raised in this Kingdom instead of the Revenue thereof to be disposed for the good of this Kingdom and that the proceedings of the said Court should continue Statu quo prius untill an Ordinance for taking away the said Court and paying the yearly Sum of 100000 l. be brought in and past both Houses Which might well have been forborn when no general or extraordinary and not otherwise to be prevented evils but only want of mony for ought yet appears did or could perswade them unto it for a Subversion of so grand a Fundamental of the Government Regality and Laws will never be able to avoid the dangerous consequences which will inevitably follow thereupon and though it should be done by Act of Parliament will but produce and usher in many numberlesse mischiefs and inconveniences to the King Kingdom Nobility Gentry and the most substantial and considerable part of the people And will never be recompenced by the benefits hoped for or which may happen by the intended dissolution of that Court and alteration of those Tenures which in the prospect or event will appear if so many to be no more than these Chap. V. The Benefits or Advantages which are expected by the people in the putting down of the Court of Wardes and Liveryes and changeing the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service into free and common Socage BY taking away the Service of Warre without the Kingdom when the King or his Lieutenant goeth to warre for forty dayes bearing the Charge of a man and Horse and the payment of Escuage to be assessed by Parliment if he neither go nor send one in his place Respites of Homage petit Serjeanties Fines for Alienation Wardships and payments of Fines for the marriage of the Heirs in minority a rent for the Lands in the interim Reliefs primer seisins Oustre les maines Mesne Rates Liveries and assignment of Widdow Dower The troublesome and powerfull process of the Exchequer costly and long pleadings of their Evidences to avoid seisures for not sueing out Licences of Alienation thereby enforcing them to procure pardons and to plead them Costly Attendance upon Escheators and Feodaries finding of Offices or Inquisitions post mortem producing and finding if the party hath a mind to it of their Evidences Compositions chargeable passing and obtaining grants of the custody of the body and Lands of Wards Trouble and charge of Writs of diem clausit extremum quae plura melâ—us inquirendum Processe of privy Seals Messengers Informations Bills Demurrers as the Case may happen Answers Traverses Replications Rejoynders Commissions Examinations Depositions of Witnesses Orders Hearings Decrees Injunctions all which are but to help to recover or defend the Wards rights and if not in that Court would be
Tenures in Capite and finding of Offices wherein the Evidences being produduced and many Times found did not only find but declare what Estate the deceased was seised of and if the truth did not then appear which could hardly be hid when as the Jury were commanded by the Writ of Diem clausit extremum to inquirâ— upon their Oaths of what Estate the last Ancestor dyed seised of and that the vigilancy and cares of the Feodaries and Escheators who were also to be present to attend them would cause them to be the more careful and if the fraud of the Heir should be able to make its way or escape thorough them the Estate found in the Office would after prove to be an Evidence against them and either overthrow or perplex the Knavery of such wicked designs The Recompence of 100000 l. per Annum if it could be raised without Injustice or the breach of the Laws of God Nature and Nations and our oftentimes confirmed Magna Charta and the inforcing of 19 men in every 20 to bear burdens which nothing at all appertains to them will not be adaequate to the losse of a great part of the Kings Revenue which did serve for the maintenance of his Crown and Dignity and to exempt and ease the Subjects of extraordinary Taxes and Assessements which the Necessity of Princes for the good and Defence of the Kingdom must otherwise bring upon them Nor to the want of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service the Services Incidents belonging unto them being a certain and never failing Defence of himself and the Kingdom Castle-guard Licence of Alienations giving him notice and continuing him safe in the Change of his Tenants being so necessary to Government as some have been grievously fined for alienating their Lands in Capite without it Mariage Dependancy of the Heirs which hold of him Livery and Reliefs Grand Serjeantyes and a great part of the Honour and Priviledges which all other neighbour Kings ond Princes are neither desired to part with nor can he perswaded so much to lessen themselves and their Regalities For gold and Silver and precious Stones or any thing lesse than the whole Kingdom of England it self is not of value or to be compared to the Honour of a King and the homage and duty of his Subjects the Gratitude Faith and Promises of their Ancestors which should descend to them with the Lands holden by those Tenures whenas Omnes habent Causam a primo et ex tunâ— non ut ex nunc are bounden to the Cause which obliged their first Ancestor and Progenitor and are to consider that it is now as it was then a most ready means and help which did and doth naturally and kindly arise for the Defence of themselves and the Kingdom for as it is not the weight of an inestimable Dyamond or Ruby that makes either of them to be better than a Flint or any other Stone but the lustre vertue and scarcenesse of them and that a greater poise or weight of a man makes not a Solomon an Alexander Sir-named the great or an Aristotle but that all men and things are to be esteemed according to the vertues and Excellencyes which are in them so it will not be the yearly Profit in money which was made of the Wardships primer Seisins Liveryes and Incidents which belong to those Tenures but the Homage Dutie gratitude and necessary Attendance in War not only of those that held immediatly of the King but those that were the mediate Tenants and came also with the immediate the grand and mutual Tye betwixt the King and his people and the Regality Prerogative intrinsical and true worth and value of them when there should be any use of those necessary Defences of the King and his Kingdom in making a diversive War or succouring his Friends and Allies which are not seldom or were in more heroick times justly accounted to be as Outworks Ante Murales or Bulwarks of the Kingdom that the Rate which is now offered for those Tenures are but like a Tender or Offer to give the weight in Gold for an incomparable not to be got again and unvaluable Meddal or for Aarons Brest-Plate Moses rod or the Scepters of Princes if they could have been purchased at all and by weight It will be as unsafe as unusual to take money or Turn into a Rent that which in its first Institution and a happy long and right use which was made of it was only intended for a defence of the Kingdom when the King is not likely to be any â—aver by it and shall not gain 90000 l. per Annum his own Income by Licences of Alienation deducted for the clear Profit of the Court of Wards which the Lord Cottington when he was Master of that Court did but a year before the Troubles make as much by it besides the many great and royal Prerogatives which he shall lose to gain more mischiefs and Inconveniencyes to himself his People then at the present can be instanced or numbred The giving the King a Recompence by an yearly Rate amounting to one hundred thousand pounds per Annum to be charged upon all mens Lands Tenements and Hereditaments holden in Capite or Socage by Copy-hold Leases for Lives or Tenants at Will or for yeares will be against right Reason Justice and Equity as well as unwarranted by any hitherto Law or Custom of England to make 19 parts of 20 for so much if not more will probably be the odds that were not liable to Wardships or any imagined Inconveniences which might happen thereby not only to bear their proportionable part of the general Assessements for War but a share also in the burden of others where it could never be laid upon them and wherein they or the major part of them by more than two in three have no Lands in Fee simple Fee taile or by Leases for 100 years or any longer Term nor are never like to be purchasers of any Lands at all and if they had mony to do it are not likely to buy Inheritances if inheritances not Capite or Knight Service Lands when there is by more than 9 parts in 10 of Socage or Copy-hold Lands to be purchased were not nor are like to be in any danger of Wardships or under any fear or Apprehensions of it and render the Capite Land three or four years purchase dearer than it was wont to be and the Socage Lands three or four years purchase the cheaper only to free the Nobility Gentry and men of greatest Riches and Estates in the Kingdom which are subject to those small Burdens which are only said to be in Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service Or if laid upon the Moyety of the Excise upon Ale Beer Syder and Coffee c. or any other native or Inland Commodity will fall upon those that have no Land as well as those which have as upon Citizens Mechanicks Children
as in the late warrs of Denmark where they were concerned to adventure through many dangers to ayde the Danes against the Swedes found their design more out of order then it would otherwise have been for that the Seamen where they doe not use to impresse would not be perswaded to goe at all without a greater pay then ordinary And whether that discharge of the Emperor Charles the 5 th did absolve them from their Clientelage or holding of the Empire or no it is well known that they keep all or most of the incidents belonging to Tenures in Capite as their Laudemia's or Reliefs Investitures Fines for Alienation and the like and living under those great burthens and otherwise intollerable Taxes Contributions and Excises which are made only tollerable by their hostilities and depraedations exercised upon Spain and its Dominions do notwithstanding almost in every Frontier Town in the winter time make their Inhabitants hold by a kind of Service as to their own defence in the alotment of every house or street to break dayly a proportion of Ice in times of Frost in their Town Ditches The Assessements for horse and foot Arms and charge and pay of Armies and so much as for Ribbons and Trophies as they are now called which in the time of our Military Tenures the people were not at all or so much troubled with will swell and be the greater when so many as were to be contributary in a more especial manner shall be exempted from that and put under the general Assessement which will make the burthen to be the heavier and will be as little for the ease of the people as if all the many Hospitals and Almes-Houses in England which were built and endowed at the great charge of the Founders with large and perpetual Annual Revenues in many Parishes and places in England and the great number of Charities and charitable uses which since the Protestant Religion established in England have by wills and Testaments been given to the poor should be taken away and put to other uses as those loving and tender hearted Statesmen the late committee of Slavery rather than Safety or the Rump Assembly were about to do and put into some Godly Treasury and they that must pay a great deal more in their Rates and Assessements for the poor left to make Affidavits that the remedy was taken away and a Disease put in the place of it The King who is Pater Patriae the great and careful Parent and Father of his people and who by God Almighty is trusted with the Welfare Protection and Defence of them shall only have that part of the Court of Wards and kind of Prerogative left unto him to provide and take care for Lunatiques and Ideots Shall not now enjoy that antient and well performed trust of protecting the Fatherless nor have that power in looking to Orphanes and their Estates in their Minorities as the Dutch and States of Holland have who though the people under the Jurisdiction of that Republique do hold neither by Knight Service of it nor can be well said to hold in Soccage or as Fieâ—â— Roturier where they have so little Land but by Navigation rather and Commerce have their Wees Kamer or Court of Orphanes do not think it fitting to trust them and their Estates to the Mothers although they have thereby a Custom and Pacta antenuptialia a Joyntenancy and power of dispose to their own kindred nor the kindred on either side to make their profit by them and sub amici fallere nomen under a colour of love and kindnesse either ruine them or leave them to ruine themselves by selling them and others good bargains And shall not have so much privilege as the City of London hath who by antient Custome have an absolute Court of Wards in the City though it passe under the name of the Court of Orphanes as may appear by their antient Customs viz. The Mayor and Aldermen that are for the time by custom of the City shall have the Wardships and Mariages of all the Orphans of the said City after the death of their Ancestors although the same Ancestors do hold in the City of any other Lord by what Service soever Ought to inquire of all the Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels within the said City appertaining to such Orphans and safely keep them to the use and profit of such Orphans or otherwise commit the same Orphans together with their Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels to others their Friends by suâ—ficient Surety found of Record in the Chamber of Guild-hall to maintain conveniently the said Orphans during their nonage and their Lands and Tenemâ—nts to repair and their said Goods and Chattels safely to keep and thereof to render a good and loyal accompt before the said Mayor and Aldermen to the profit of the same Infants when they shall come to their age or when they shall be put to a mistery or shall marry by the advice of the said Mayor and Aldermen And that in all Cases except that it be otherwise ordained and disposed for the same Orphans or for their Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels by the expresse words contained in the Testaments of their Ancestors And no such Orphans ought to be married without the assent of the said Mayor and Aldermen and also where Lands or tenements Goods and Chattels within the City are devised to an Infant within Age living with his Father and that such an Infant is no Orphan yet by usage of the said City the said Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels shall be in custody of the Mayor and Aldermen as well as of Orphans to maintain and keep them to the use and profit of the same Infant except that the Father of the Infant or some other of his Friends will find sufficient surety or Record to maintain and keep the said Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels to the use and profit of the said Infant and thereof to render a good and loyal accompt as is aforesaid And may if the Kings Court of Wards shall be dissolved and the Tenures in Capite taken away be indangered or petitioned against which within these last twenty years hath been a notable Engine and peice of Artillery of the factious who made great use of Petitions many a causeless complaint to overturn any antient useful constitution of the Kingdom well approved Rights and Liberties of the people in general or of some men in particular Will renverse and overturn many of the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom throw them with their heels upwards into a Ditch of all manner of evils and confusion which will so increase and fall upon them and us as no after endeavours by any new Bills or Acts of Parliament will be able to rescue them and being once dead or destroyed will not meet with any that either can or will be able to call them like Lazarus out of the grave or
Seisins and Liveries and all other incidents belonging to the Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service be reserved and continued to the King and Mesne Lords and the Mariages of the Wards be put to a just apportionment and rate not to boxing or bidding with every pretender or such as shall be procured on purpose and was thought by the Sons of Rapine to be a parcel of godliness according to two years present value of the Estate and a moderate Rate or Rent for the Lands And if that they do not like to sue or be sued in that Court may do it either in the Exchequer or Chancery and try which of those Courts they shall like the better There being no Reason to be shown why Wardships Rents and Marriage Money should not be paid as quietly or without the Noise or Clamour of Oppressioon by some orderly Course to be taken in the collecting of it as the first Fruits of Arch-bishoppricks Bishoppricks and all the Clergyes Benefices which was at first derived from the Popes Usurpations and afterwards setled in the Crown or as the Tenths of all the Monasteryes and Religious Lands which by Act of Parliament were setled in the Crown for the Support and Maintenance thereof And now all the Lines are come in and meet in one Center we may aske the Days that are past and demand of the Sons of Novelty how it should happen or where the Invisible Cause or Reason lurketh that a People at least too many of them not long agoe covenanting whether his late Majesty would or no to preserve his Honor Rights and Iurisdâ—ctions and calling God to witness that they had no Intention to diminish them should presse or perswade the King to part with the vitals of his Regalitie or let out the blood thereof to take in water instead of it which that learned John Earl of Bristol who in his many Travails and Embassies to forrein Princes had observed the several Strengths Policyes and defects of Governments of all the Kings and Princes of Christendom could think no otherwise of that high and just Prerogative of Kings then that to discharge the Tenures in Capite would be consequently to discharge them of their Service to the Crown When as their can be neither Cause nor Reason to make any such Demands and that all the Lords of Mannors in England who may already find the Inconveniences of making too many small sized Freeholders and I wish the Kingdom may not feel it in the Elections of Parliament men and Knights of the Shire as well as it doth already by the Faction and Ignorance of such as choose Burgesses in Towns and Corporations who many times choose without eyes ears or understanding would not be well content to have the many perplexed and tedious Suits at Law betwixt them and their troublesome Tenants about Customs and Fines incertain which in every year do vex and trouble the Courts in Westminster Hall or that which the late feavorish Fancies of some would call Norman Slaveryes should be either a Cause that they must be forced or over intreated to part with their Copy-hold Estates Herryots Fines for Alienations and all other Incidents thereunto belonging or that it would be a good Bargain to have no Compensation or Recompence at all for them or no more than after the Rate of what might Communibus Annis one year with another be made of them Whenas to have the intended Recompence for the Court of Wards paid as is now proposed by a part of the Excise or Curses of the People or to have the poor bear the burden of the rich or those to bear the Burden of it which are not at all concerned in any such purchase or Alteration and will be an Act which can have no more Justice or Equity in it then that the payment of First-Fruits which is merely Ecclesiastical should be distributed and charged for ever upon the Layety and the other part of the People as well as the Clergy That the Tenths which the Layety and some of the Clergy do now contentedly pay should be communicated and laid upon all the Kingdom in general in a perpetuity That the draining or maintaining the Banks and Sluces and Misfortunes many times of the Fenns in Lincolnshire and other particular Places should be charged upon the Estaâ—es of all the men in England that could not be concerned either in profit losse or Dâ—nger Or that in the enclosing of Commons or in Deafforrestations the Commoners should have their Compensation paid by all men in City Town and Country for that which was not 〈…〉 nor was ever like to be any Gain or Aâ—vaâ—tage to them Or that the losses of Merchants by Shipwâ—acks Pirates or letters of Reprisal should be repaired and born by all the rest of the people that went no partnership or gain with them Or which way the people of England should think it to be for their good or safety that as it was in the dayes of Saul there should not be a Sword or Spear in Israel that the Lords of England whose great Auncestors helped to maintain all our Liberties being in Parliament in the 20 th year of King H. 3. pressed by the Bishops to Enact that Children born before Matrimony when their Parents after married should be legitimate answered Nolumus mutare Leges Angliae we will not change the Lawes of England should not take the overturning so many of the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome to be the ruine or destruction of it to be of a greater concernment And that the King will not think it to be a most Christian as well as an Heroick answer of John King of France when he was a Prisoner in England to our King E. 3. and was denied his Liberty unless he would amongst other things doe Homage for the Realm of France and acknowledge to hold it of England That he must not speak to him of that which he neither ought nor would doe to Alienate a Right Inalienable that he was resolved at what price soever to leave it to his Children as he had received it from his Auncestors that affliction might well ingage his person but not the inviolable right of the Crown where he had the honour to be born over which neither Prison nor Death had any power and especially in him who should hold his life well employed sacrificing it for the Immortal preservation of France And that the people of England should not rather imitate the wisdome as well as goodness of the Elders of Israel when as Benhadad not content with Ahabs Homage had demanded unreasonable things of him Say unto the King hearken not unto him nor consent But remember that it was their fore-Fathers which in a Parliament of King E. 3. holden in the 42 th year of his raign declared that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crown to which they were sworn
Servants and the like and heaviest uâ—on the poorer sort of people and be a burden which the lowly Cobler and reverend Applewomen the Botcher and Stockingmenders in their pittiful subterraneous Tenements and the poor Women which in the Streets do cry Fruits and Fish by a double retail and pay twelve pence a week for the loan of twenty shillings and pawn a Petticoat for security the Chimney Sweepers Brooom-men and Beggars cannot escape Will be no good way of raising mony nor an Honourable Revenue and though it might become the Dutch in their grand necessities of War where they have but few Gentlemen will not be for the honor of England and the Nobility and Gentry of England to have their provisions of War and Defence arise out of so low a businesse as Aâ—e and Beer and make the Brewers and Ale-house-keepers to be as it were the Tenants in Capite and to supply the Knight Service in the exchange of that which is but pretended to be a Greivance for a most certain and undeniable greivance and for one Greivance if it could be proved to be one for a Seminary and complication of Greivances and to take away wardships from the estates of 1 in every 20. of the people when they should happen and make 19 in every 20 to be every day in every yeare in wardship to an Excise upon a considerable part of their dayly Dyer and Sustenance That small Sum of 100000 l. per an may upon any discontent of the people by reason of the payment of that Excise be Petitioned against or taken away by Parliament or by some insurrection or mutiny of the common people which Naples and France this Kingdom can tell us do sometimes happen and the wisdom of Kings and Princes do use to suspect and provide against or if some other unlucky difference which God avert should happen betwixt the King and his people may fall into the Case or Example of the Customs and Poundage and Tonnage in the beginning of the Raign of his late Majesty which being stopped by the Parliament and declared against did put him into unâ—it necessities and made those unhappy controversies and misunderstandings betwixt him and many of the shorter Parliaments which disabled him from aiding his Friends and Allyes and was the beginning of our never enough to be lamented national Calamities and Reproaches and proved to be the ruine and disturbance also of a great part of Christendome Such an imposed or continued excise will by the Arts and Deceipts of the Brewers and Ale men and those that gather and pay it in the first place be as all excises commonly are double charged upon the people who instead of 100000 l. per an laid upon their Beer Ale will by the abuse which will be committed therein as to quantity and quality lay and charge another 100000 l. per an upon the people and the Brewer in every 6 d. or 12 d. Excise to be laid upon every Barrel of six shillings Beer will be sure to make his Beer so as he shall get double if not more than that Excise amounts unto And as it could never have been at first setled without the awe and help of Garrisons Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot in every County and City and the Souldiers assistance to enforce and gather it from those that would not pay it or were not able so in all probability it will be now again never be brought into a constant yearly Revenue without a constant formerly used way of keeping a standing Army at the charge of sixty or ninety thousand pounds per mensem or the month which will be more troublesome and chargeable than 52 Escheators and as many Feodaries who may be men of wisdom Integrity good Estates in their Countries for there will be a great difference between the charge or yearly Revenue of the Court of Wards which is made up of many small parts and favourable and easy Rents Fines and compositions quietly gathered and paid in by the Justice and Order of a Court of Wards honest and responsable Officers and 90000 l. per annum being to be Collected by this Excise at the charge of as much for every month in the year from the ruder and most ignorant part of the people who will not Tributorum causam quaerere sed quaeri sooner murmure and complain of Taxes or Tributes than rationally enquire into the causes of them and by a weeping woful Arithmeticque of the poor and inferior sort of people in every County be reckoned to be no great part or peice of Husbandry to purchase off 90000 l. per annum yearly charges to free those that held in Capite at the rate of 100000 l. or rather 200000 l. per annum which is to be paid out of the Excise and pay 90000 l. per mensem or 60. or 30000 l. per mensem besides for collecting of it besides the free quarterings and other insolencies of the common Souldiers And by making that part of the Excise perpetual give the people to understand that the next occasion given or made may introduce a perpetuity of Excise upon all other things which to have been introduced but upon a temporary and not like to be long lasting necessity would before Olivers Sadle had been put upon the peoples backs have put them into multitudes of Complaints And in the Raign of King James and that of our late blessed Martir King Charles before he was driven from his Throne would have been but only in the advising of it more Capital and offensive than that which was charged upon the late Earl of Strafford and made more in one single fault or crime than all the accumulations of Crimes against him could arrive unto and was so dreadful to this Nation and before hand hated as they were afraid of every thing that tended that way So as in a Parliament in the Raign of King James some of the House of Commons having been informed that the King had imployed a Gentleman into Holland to inquire concerning the manner manage of their Excise which as afterwards appeared upon examination was but for curiosity and learning sake were so troubled at it as the Gentleman hardly escaped a vote whether he should not be most severely punished And whether Excise or not Excise will if those Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service which have hitherto been as the Life and Land-guards of the King and his people should be taken away some other wayes of means are to be found out to supply it for the people being sworn by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to assist and defend the King and all his Rights and Jurisdictions if they would not defend him and take a care of those Oaths will likely be willing enough to defend themselves in defending him Or if they should not their Representatives in Parliament would as they have for this twenty years last past not only assesse them but make them