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
the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by agreement and composition made betwixt the said Earl and Boniface Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the raign of King H. 3. by the service of four Knights Fees and to be high Stewards and high Butlers to the Arch-Bishops of that See at their Consecration taking for their service in the Stewardship seven competent Robes of Scarlet thirty gallons of Wine thirty pound of Wax for his light livery of Hay and Oates for eighty Horse for two nights the Dishes and Salt which should stand before the Arch-Bishop in that Feast and at their departure the dyet of three dayes at the cost of the Arch-Bishop at four of his then next Mannors wheresover they would So that the said Earls repaired thither but with fifty Horse and taking also for the Office of Butlership other seven like Robes twenty gallons of Wine fifty pound of Wax like livery for sixty Horses for two nights the Cup wherewith the Arch-Bishop should be served all the empty Hogsheads of Drink and for six Tun of Wine so many as should be drunk under the Bar all which services were accordingly performed by Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford at the Inâ—hronization of Robert Winchelsey Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and by the same Earl to Arch-Bishop Reignolds by Hugh Audley afterwards Earl of Gloucester to John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by the Earl of Stafford to whom the Lordship of Tunbridge at length came to Simon Sudbury Arch-Bishop of that See and by Edward Duke of Buckingham to William Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and executed the Stewardship in his own person and the Butlership by his Deputy Sr. Thomas Burgher Knight No disparagement to the Knightly family of the Mordants in the County of Essex that they hold the Mannor of Winslowes in Hempsteed in the said County of the Earls of Oxford by the service of a Knights Fee and to be his Champion and to come to the Castle of Hedingbam the day of the Earls mariage riding in compleat harness to Defie or bid Battel to any that should deny him to be Earl of Oxford and to see what order was kept in the Hall there which Robert Mordant Esq performed in his own person the 14 th day of December in the 14 th year of the raign of Queen Eliz. being the day of Edward Earl of Oxford's marriage though it was not there solemnized Or to Sr. Giles Allington the Auncestor of the now Lord Allington to hold his Mannors called Carbonnels and Lymberies in Horsed in the County of Cambridge by the service of a Knights Fee and a half and to attend upon the Earl the day of his marriage and to hold his stirrop when he goeth to horseback which service he performed in person at White-Hall the 14 th day of December in the 14 th year of the raign of Queen Eliz. being the marriage day of the said Edward Earl of Oxford in the presence of the Earls of Bedford Huntington and Leicester the Lord William Howard Lord Chamberlain of the Queens houshold and the Lord Burleigh c. Those Dreams or Fancies of Grievances by Tenures in Capite and Knight Service were never presented in those thousands of Court Leets or Law daies which twice in every year now for almost 600 years since the Conquest and very long before made it a great part of their businesse to enquire upon oath of Grievances Extortions and Oppressions Nor in those yearly grand enquests to the like purpose which have been twice in every year for many hundreds of years past by the oath of the most sufficient Knights Gentlemen and Free-holders of the County of Middlesex It neither was nor is nor can by any reasonable intendment be taken to be a grieveance to do or perform that which by the Laws of God Nature and Nations the Laws reasonable Customs and the fundamental Laws of England hath so often and through all times and ages and the memory of man and Records which are monumenta veritatis vetustatis ever been allowed repeated and confirmed in Parliament without the least of any contradiction or repeal and is but upon necessity and occasion to defend the King themselves their Country Friends and Neighbours and to do that which every Gentleman and such as are e meliori Luto of the more refined Clay and better born bred than the vulgus or common sort of people would be willing to do as that learned French Lawyer Bâ—issonius well observeth Qu' en la necessite de guerre toutes lâ—s gentilz hommes sont tenus de prendre les Aâ—mes pâ—ur la necessite du Roy That in necessity of War every Gentleman is bound to take Arms and go to the Wars for the defence of the King which by our Laws of England is so to be encouraged as it is Treason to kill any man that goeth to aid the King in his Wars and is no more than what the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy doth bind every Englishman unto though they should tarry in the Camp more than forty days or not have Escuage or any allowance of their charges from their own Tenants and is but that duty which Deborah and Baruch believed that every Subject was bound to perform when they cursed Meroz not as some of our Pulpit Incendiaries did when they traiterously inverted the Text to encourage the people to fight against their King in that they came not forth to battel to help the Lord against the mighty and the loyal Uriah would not forget when the King himself could not perswade him to go into his own House to eat and to drink and lye with his Wife when the Ark and Judah and Israel abide in Tents and his Lord Joab and the Servants of his Lord were incamped in the open field and which the good old Barzillai in the rebellion of Absolom against his King and Father David thought was incumbent upon him when he could not bring his loyal mind to think it to be enough to provide the King of sustenance while he lay at Mahanami unlesse when he himself was fourscore years old and could not taste what he eat or drank he also should come down from Rogelim and go as he did with his Son Chimham over Jordan with the King to conduct him and would not accept of the Kings offer or reward to live with him at Jerusalem which those that hold in England their Lands and goodly Revenues by those beneficial Tenures in Capite of a free guift and in perpetuity may be said to do and have more also then was offered Barzillai for the remainder of an old and worn-out life but sayes why should the King recompence it with such a reward And is but the performance of the original contracts made betwixt the kind Donors and the thankful Tenants and the observing of faith and promises which is the ingens vinculum and next unto the Divine Providence the grand support of the world
any Court or Rule of Justice is a reasonable Fine commonly adjudged or estimated at two years value and either certain or uncertain are to be paid at the death or alienation of every Tenant which doe as in Socage happen more often and constantly than that of Escuage and Knight Service and have many Payments Forfeitures Restraints and Dependencyes attending that kind of Estate and Inheritance as in some places the Heir to forfeit his Land if after three Solemn Proclamations in three several Courts he comes not in payes his Fine and prayes to be admitted or shall without any reasonable cause of absence wilfully refuse to appear after summons at his Lords Court Baron or to be sworn of the homage or denie himself to be a Coppy-holder payeth not his Fine when it is assessed or sues a Replevin against his Lord distraining for Rent-service payes not his Rent or permits or commits voluntary wast by plucking down an antient built house and building up a new in the place or cutting Timber without licence may be fined or amerced if he speak unreverently of his Lord or behave himself contemptuously towards him is at his Death to pay his best beast or if he hath none the best peice of his housholdstuffe for a herriot and in some places for it varies according to several customes is to give the Lord a certain sum of mony every month during Wars to bear his charges cannot be sworn of the Homage or bring a plaint in the nature of an Assize untill he be admitted Tenant to his Land the Wife shall not have her Bench or Life in her Husbands Copyhold Estate if she marry without Licence of the Lord and in some places if she will redeem it must come riding into the Court upon a â—lack Ram or as in the manner of South Peveâ—ton in Somersetshire being an anâ—ient Dâ—mesne where a Widdow convicted of Fornication shall as an Escheat to the Lord of the Mannor forfeit all her Lands and Goods and the Tenant is by a peculiar custom in some places before he can inforce his Lord to admit any one to his Coppyhold to make a prosfâ—r thereof to the next of the blood or to his Neighbours ab orientesole inhabiting Eastward of him who giving as much as another is to have it and many more inconveniencies and unpleasing customes not here remembred which they who in the Raign of H. 3. and E. 1. Or when Bracton and Fleta wrote were but Tenants at the will of the Lord and by an accustomed and continued charity fixed and setled upon them and their Heirs are now become to be the owners of a profitable and well to be liked inheritance secundum consuetudinem manerij according to the custome of the Mannor could never by any manner of Reason or Justice require a better usage oâ— find the way to complain of untill our late horrid and irrational Confusions when Injustice accused Iustice Oppression complained of Rightâ— and the wickedest oâ— Gains was called the refined Godlinesse and when they got so much incouragement as in the height of a grand and superlative ingratitude to cry aloud and clamour against their Lords who were nothing else but their good and great Benefactors and would make as many as they could beleive that their Coppyhold Estates which were great Acts of Charity in the time of the Saxons were now nothing lesse than Norman Slaveries Are better also than Estates for lives or years which are not unless in case of a seldome happening minority which is otherwise recompenced so happy in their conditions as Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service but are more clogged and incumbred with Covenants or operation of Law then Knight Service as the Tenant to be punished with treble dammage and a forfeiture of Locum vastatum the place wasted for wast committed or permitted to be done in but cutting down an Apple tree in an Orchard or a few Willows or other Trees that grow about the House or plowing up land that was not arrable cannot Assigne his Term or make a Lease of part of it or cut down Timber of Wood without leave of his Lord is stinted to his fewel or firewood and to have so many Loads only to burn is not to carry any dung of the ground is to forfeit his Lease if he pay not his Rent if demanded at the time appointed and many times strict Nomine Penaes for every day after in which it shall be unpaid must carry so many loads of Wood or Coal every year for his Land-lord pay quarters of Wheat Rent Capons a Boar or Brawn a Mutton or fat Calf and the like renewing thereby again the old kind of Socage by their own Covenants or for their own conveniency agreeing to find so many men furnished with Pikes or Musquets in the service of their Land-lords in the time of Wars which was not long agoe done in Ireland by some Tenants of the late Lord Conway which is no lesse then a Military Tenure Wardships and Marriage only expected And whether for lives or years doe live under as many other harsh and uncomfortable Covenants and Conditions as the warinesse distrust or griping of their Land-lords will put or enforce upon them which he that hath not the property of the Land which he renteth and knows it to be none of his own is to endure the more patiently because if he will not take it or hold it so another will be glad to do it and that Covenants and Obligations which were at first but voluntatis at the Tenants will and pleasure before they were entered into do afterwards as the Civil Law saith become to be necessitatis and cannot be avoyded So as Tenures in Capite and Knight service being more beneficial and most commonly less troublesome and incumbred than either Socage or Copyhold Tenures or Estates for lives or years which are more than two parts of three of the Lands of the Kingdom and are yet well enough endured purchased and daily sought for and when all is said that can be truly and rationally alleadged for any good that is in them that in Capite and by Knight service being the most noble and best of Tenures will weigh heavier in the ballance of any reasonable impartial or knowing mans understanding it cannot be imagined from which of the many points of the compasse or Card of the vulgar and unruly apprehensions the Wind or Heriâ—an of the complaints can come which are made against them unless any should be so bruitish as to think the payments of Rent to their Land-Lords or the performing of their oaths when they make Fealty or their Covenants Promises or Contracts are a grievance And therefore until upon any account of truth or reason a just and more than ordinary care of the King shall be reckoned to be a Curse Favour a Fault Protection a Persecution Benefits shall be taken for Burdens Blessings for Bondage performance of promises a Sin and compelling of them an
and be admitted Turn the Tenures in Capite which are only so called from the duty of Homage and the acknowledgement of Soveraignity and Headship in the King into a Tenure in Socage which is so far from acknowledgeing the King to be chief or to ingage as the other doth their Lands to do him service as it is but a Tenure as it were a latere is no more then what one Neighbour may acknowledge to hold or doe to another for his Rent or money be a Lease for a Life or one or more years or as Tenant at will and levels and makes rather an equality then any respect of persons which if ever or at all reasonable or fit to be done is in a democratical or popular way of Government but will be unexampled and is not at all to be in Monarchy may make many of the people which are not yet recovered out of a gainful Lunacy to beleive they were in the right when they supposed themselves to be the Soveraigns Ireland which in the subverting Olivers time was to have their Swords by the like Tenure turned into Plow-shares though their warres and taxes were never intended to leave them was to pay but 12000 l. per annum to turn their better Tenures Conditions into worse will if they be not come again to their wits expect the like prejudicial bergain Bring many inconveniences and mischiefs to the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland if their Tenures in Capite and Knight service and those which are holden of them as Mesn Lords shall as ours be taken away with their services and dependencies Licences of Alienation benefits of Investitures infeodations and the like it being amongst others as a reason given for Wardships in that Kingdom in the Laws of Scotland in the reign of their Malcombe the 2. which was before the Conquerours entring into England Ne non suppeterent Regiae Majestatis facultates to the end that the King should have where-withall to defend the Kingdom And a letting loose of a fierce and unruly people who are best of all kept in awe order by a natural long well enough liked subjection to their Mesne Lords and Superiours into a liberty which cannot be done without a disjointing and over-turning all the Estates of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom and may like our late English Levellers either endeavour to do it or bring themselves and the whole Nation to ruine by a renversing of the fundamental Laws and that antient order and constitution of that Kingdom wherein the estates and livelyhood of all the Nobility and Gentry and better part of the people are hugely concerned And besides a great damage to the King in his Revenues and profits arising out of such Tenures if not recompenced by some annual payment Will howsoever take away that antient Homage and acknowledgement of Superiority which from that Kingdom to this of England cannot be denyed to be due and to have been actually and antiently done and presidented and not in one but several ages fidem obsequium ut vassallos Angliae Regibus superioribus dominis jurejurando promisisse to have done their Homage and Fealty as vassals to our English Kings and bound themselves by oath thereunto as namely to Alfred Edgar Athelstane William the Conqueror William Rufus Maud the Empresse Henry the second and Edward the first the later of whom with all the Baronage of England in a Letter to the Pope did upon the search of many Evidences and Records stoutly assert it Will be no small damage and disturbance to the Kings other Regalities and Prerogatives and in the Tenures of the Cinque Ports who are to provide fifty ships for the guarding of the Seas and the Town of Maldon in Essex one the Town of Lewis in Sussex as the Book of Doomsday informeth where King Edward the Confessor had 127 Burgesses in dominio eorum consuetudo erat si Rex ad Mare custodiendum sine se suos mittere voluisset de omnibus hominibus cujuscunque terrae fuissent colligebant 20 sâ—lidos hos habebant qui in manibus arma custodieâ—ant had 127 Burgesses in his demeâ—ne of the King and when he sent any of his men to guard the Seas they were to gather 20 s. a man which was to be given to those that manned the Ships in Colchester where the custom then was that upon any expedition of the Kings by Sea or Land every house was to pay six pence ad victum soldariorum Regis towards the quarter or livelyhood of the Kings Souldiers and likewise prejudice him in his grand and Petit Serjeanties and many thousand other reservations of honour and profit by and upon Tenures in Capite and Knight service which revived and called out of their Cells wherein those that are to do and pay them are content they should sleep and take their rest for ever would go near to make and maintain an Army with men and Provisions The King when the Tenures in Capite shall be taken away shall never be able to errect his Standard and to call thereunto all that hold Lands Fees Annuities and Offices of him to come to his assistance according to the duty of their Tenures and the Acts of Parliament of 11 H. 7. chap. 18. And 19. H. 7. chap. 1. of forfeiting the Lands and Offices holden of him under the penalties which was the only means which the late King his Father had to protect as much as he could himself and his Subjects or to manifest the justice of his Cause in that War which was forced upon him and was very useful and necessary heretofore for the defence of the Kings of England and their People and proved to be no otherwise in the Bellum Standardi so called in the reign of King Stephen where some of the Barons of England and some of the English Gentry gathered themselves to the Royal Standard and repelled and beat the King of Scotland and in several Kings reigns afterwards repulsed the Scotch and Welch Hostilities and Invasions and at Floddon Field in King H. 8 ths time when the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey and diverse of the Nobility and Gentry which accompanied them vanquished and slew the King of Scots The benefit whereof the Commons of England had so often experimented as in diverse Parliaments they Petitioned the King and Lords to cause the Lord Marchers and other great men to repair into their Counties and defend the borders and was so necessary in France to assemble together the Bans and Arrierebans which were but as our Tenants in Capite as it helped King Charles the 7 th of France to recover that Kingdom again out of the hands and possession of our two Henries the 5. and 6. Kings of England And if any Rebellion or Conspiracy shall hereafter happen When Cum saepe coorta Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Fury and Rage of
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